“You don’t understand, Mr. Thorn—”
“Oh, I think I do. Wool made you rich. You liked being rich. Neither of you really cared what you had to do to stay rich.”
I stepped around her and headed for the Estimable Sunstone’s study. A red mourning cloth had been draped over both the chair and desk. Galena Sunstone didn’t object when I tossed it aside and pushed the chair out of the way. There were ledgers, letters, and other papers on the desk, but the book I was looking for had gone into the desk drawer. I hoped it was still there.
The drawer was locked. I could have opened it with a spell — if Benny had stood back far enough to stop the Ash interfering — and Benny could have picked it almost as quickly. But I wasn’t in the mood. I took a step back and kicked it until the wood splintered.
Yeah, I bruised my heel, but it was satisfying. The contents of the drawer cascaded onto the rug.
The book was exactly how I remembered it: old, faded green leather, worn almost to vellum thinness from repeated handling. If there had ever been words on the cover, they were long gone, but the symbol in the centre was still clear. The gold leaf looked recently reapplied. It was the same symbol that had been engraved in Lowriver’s box: semicircle, diamond, dagger. Or frog’s legs.
I held it up. “What’s this?”
Sunstone took a step back, her tongue involuntarily moistening her lips.
I followed her. Benny, as though reading my mind, slipped behind her, blocking the doorway.
“Tell me.”
I flicked the book open. It was full of tight, faint writing, and I couldn’t make heads nor tails of it. It wasn’t any language I had ever seen. There was a rhythm to the lines, though, like a poem or a religious text.
“That’s Larimar’s.”
It took me a moment to realise she was referring to her husband.
“I guess that’s why it’s in his drawer. What is it?”
She glanced around, as if searching for a way out. She wouldn’t get past Benny.
“I shouldn’t know.”
“I should.” I closed on her again. “You are going to tell me.” I didn’t try to disguise my anger.
Her resistance crumbled, and her head dropped. “Larimar … Larimar didn’t think I knew, but I’m not as oblivious as he thinks … thought. That book is a Sunstone thing. Direct blood, not those of us who married into the family.”
I stared at her patiently, not interrupting. I wanted to shout at her that we didn’t have time, that she needed to tell us right now, but she was starting to break, and if I pushed any harder, she would just clam up again.
“They used to come here every dark of the moon.” Now that she had started telling the story, the hesitancy was gone. She had been keeping this a secret for a long time. I wondered how many times she had rehearsed telling it. “There were four or five of them. Never more than six. Larimar would dismiss the servants, and they would all close themselves in the drawing room. I was never invited.”
“Who were they?”
Sunstone shook her head. “I don’t know. I was supposed to keep out of their way. The first times it happened, soon after we married, I thought they were business meetings, something underhanded or illegal that he didn’t want anyone else to know about.”
It had been a reasonable assumption. Corruption and cheating were as natural to a businessman as eating.
“There was a woman,” I said, describing Lowriver. “About my age, round face, maybe an inch shorter than you, dark skin for an Agatos native, but not as dark as mine. She might have worn a mage’s cloak. Did she ever come?”
Sunstone shrugged uneasily. “Perhaps. That could describe several of Larimar’s friends.”
But it could have been Lowriver. These secret meetings — what better way for them to plan whatever the Depths they had been up to?
“So how does the book come into it?”
“I thought at first it was a secret ledger. You know, in code.”
“But it’s not.”
Her hands twisted. “No. Over the years I heard things they said. And…” She moistened her lips. “And I started listening in from time to time, when I could. They talked about something they called Ah’té or sometimes Nimha’té.”
Now where had I heard those names before? They were familiar, something I had read a long time ago, probably at the university back when I thought they had something useful to teach.
“They were…” She wet her lips again. “I think there was some kind of cult.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be worshippers of Gwillan? I mean, that was why you had the priest, right?”
“We are. Were. But I think the cult was always in Larimar’s family.”
I heard Benny make a disgusted sound. Cults were pretty common in Agatos, but I shared Benny’s feelings about them. They were no different from the dozens of religions that operated openly, and I didn’t trust a single one of them.
“Ah’té is the god?”
Sunstone nodded.
It wasn’t a well-known god, that was for sure, but we were hardly lacking for gods great and small, living and dead in Agatos. I rubbed my forehead. Ah’té. A god.
Yes! Now I remembered. There had been a mention of both Ah’té and Nimha’té in Sinuvar’s Demons and Gods.
“We’ve got what we need,” I said to Benny. “Let’s get back to my sister’s.” I met Galena Sunstone’s eyes. “If you had told me this earlier, your husband might still be alive.”
Then I left her to the gloom and her misery.
The streets and plazas in this part of town were quieter than down by the Penitent’s Ear, although there were still well-dressed groups and couples strolling in the cooling night air, as though some murderous ghost-beast wasn’t ripping people to bits all over the city.
“Mate, you know I’ll back you up,” Benny said, “but what’s this cult got to do with anything?”
“Ah’té is an ancient beast god,” I said. “Back from the first tribes who inhabited the Erastes Valley, way before there was a city or even a village here. The whole valley would have been wooded and wild then, probably terrifying. If you weren’t killed by another wandering band of hunters, then some beast would get you in the night. Or something.” Early pre-history had never been my speciality. “There’s not any description of Ah’té in the records. It’s just down as one of many beast gods. That’s why I didn’t pick up on it. That beast that possesses the ghosts, I think it’s Ah’té.”
“Are you serious? We’re up against a pissing god?”
I shrugged.
“But isn’t Ah’té dead? I mean, I heard all those old gods were dead.”
“Very dead.”
“So what the Depths is it doing running around Agatos killing people?”
That was the question. Dead gods were supposed to be dead, weren’t they? It was kind of in the name. But…
“What’s the difference between a dead god and a living god?” I said.
“If that’s the start of a joke, mate, this ain’t the time.”
“I wish it was,” I said. “The truth is that scholars up at the university have been arguing about this for decades, probably centuries. We talk about dead gods and living gods, but what does dead or alive actually mean when you’re a god?”
“Yeah? So what’s the answer?”
“Don’t ask me. I mean, I don’t even know what a god is, metaphysically speaking.”
“Well, that’s a lot of fucking help, then, isn’t it?”
“One difference appears to be that living gods can sometimes manifest themselves.”
“Except you said Ah’té is dead, and it’s still manifesting itself. We’re going around in bloody circles. Metaphysically speaking.”
“Lowriver is using the ghosts,” I said, as we cut across Hammerfall Plaza, past the sculpture of Menninot’s Ship Foundering on the Rocks, a piece that I thought a little bit too symbolic right now. “Ghosts are a link between the living and the dead, a kind of m
agical energy left on the edge when we die. Somehow, Lowriver is using that as a weak point to raise Ah’té, but Ah’té’s not fully here. Take away the ghost, and Ah’té goes, too.”
I was speculating, but it made sense, up to a point.
Benny looked impressed. “I didn’t know you could raise the ghost of a god.”
“I bloody can’t.”
“Huh.”
“That artefact that Lowriver has must be some kind of relic. It must give her a link to Ah’té.”
You could get your hands on all sorts of holy items if you had enough resources. Relics of dead gods — a finger, a lock of divine hair, a bit of godly dandruff — were the most powerful sources of raw magic available.
“How about this,” I said. “The cult of Ah’té — that’s the Estimable Sunstone and his friends — provides the relic. Lowriver provides the magery. Together they decide to bring back the god, and they turn it on Carnelian Silkstar.”
“So why did they kill his Master Servant? Why not turn this thing on Silkstar himself? Why give him warning and a chance to prepare?”
“Maybe they fucked up,” I said. “Never underestimate the potential for incompetence. They were aiming for Silkstar, but the timing went wrong. They got his Master Servant.”
“All right,” Benny said. “But if Lowriver can use any ghost, what was Ah’té doing in Sunstone’s house? Why was it still hanging about there if it wasn’t being used to kill someone?”
I shrugged again. “Maybe they were experimenting, figuring out how to raise and control the god, and they didn’t get it right. Maybe they left a link that Ah’té could still use.”
Sunstone and Lowriver had raised the ghosts in Sunstone’s cellar to practice calling Ah’té, and they hadn’t shut it down properly. Then the Estimable Sunstone buggered off on business, Galena saw the ghosts, freaked out, and employed me to get rid of them.
No. It had to be more deliberate than that. Benny and I hadn’t fallen into this by accident. The framing had taken thought and planning. Sunstone’s ‘business trip’ had been to give him distance. I had been called in to deal with the ghosts so that Sunstone could monitor me in action — any of his staff, or even his wife, could have been reporting back on my ineffective crouching in the pantry — and check out my potential to play a part in their scheme. They just hadn’t counted on Ah’té being able to keep using that link to the ghosts after they were done.
Benny and I were supposed to die at Thousand Walls. When we didn’t, and the Ash Guard let me go, the Estimable Sunstone had been furious. He had fired me as fast as he could to keep me away, so I couldn’t make the connection. It had all gone wrong for him, and he’d deserved it. The other victims hadn’t.
Benny waited until we were past a group of men chatting outside a taverna, then he said, “Lowriver can’t keep using Ah’té, though. The Ash Guard will figure it out in the end, and they’ll fuck her up, god or no god.”
“Maybe,” I said. There were a lot of maybes. Too many. I knew we were right about this, but I still couldn’t prove it. If we went to the Ash Guard with what we had, we would both end up in cells. But we didn’t need them. “We’ve got the same advantage as the Ash Guard, right now. We’ve got a bag of Ash, so she can’t touch us with her magic or her tame god. We need to find her and take her down before the Ash Guard find us and confiscate the Ash.”
“Damned right!” Benny said. “Which is where your sister comes in, yeah?”
I nodded. “If anyone can find where Lowriver is, it’s Mica.”
“Then let’s get a move on, mate, because I am done with this shit.”
Despite the Ash Benny was carrying, I felt myself growing increasingly nervous as we hurried towards Mica’s mansion. The tightening in my chest and the narrowing of my vision weren’t from exertion. I felt exposed out here, expecting Lowriver or her beast to appear in front of us.
And do what? We’ve got Ash.
It was irrational, but I couldn’t help it. The tension and fear I had suffered fleeing from the risen ghost of Ah’té had drained me. I felt like I’d been pushed to the edge of a cliff, to the edge of the Leap or to the summit of Giuffria’s Spear, and all that was holding me back was a single thread of cotton.
I dug my nails into my palms and smacked my clenched fists into my thighs.
“You all right, mate?”
“Yeah. No, not really.”
“We’re going to be fine, you know that? We’ve got the Ash and your sister can beat this mage if it comes down to it. I tell you, she’s more powerful than you realise.”
Except she had told me she didn’t know if she could beat Lowriver.
She also told you a mage never reveals their true power to anyone else. Did you think you were going to be the exception? She didn’t even tell you she was screwing some guy.
Even if she could overpower Lowriver, that would have to be a last resort. The Ash Guard wouldn’t tolerate two powerful mages getting into it. They would arrest every one of us, if we were lucky.
The belligerent apprentice mage who had met me and Sereh the last time we had called around wasn’t so belligerent this time. When he pulled the door open under my hammering he looked nervous. His hair was dishevelled, and the side of his mage’s cloak was singed. He looked the way I always used to when Mother had forced me through the training regimes my powers hadn’t been able to cope with.
“I need to talk to my sister,” I said. “Now.”
The apprentice mage flinched. “She’s not here.”
I leaned forwards, and he shuffled back. “Where is she?”
“The Countess… She sent a message. Your sister was needed urgently at the Storm Gate. She left hours ago.”
I swore. The Storm Gate was at the far end of the Erastes Valley, a good thirty miles away. Even if I could call her back, she wouldn’t make it here for hours more. It was a bastard of a coincidence.
Benny shouldered me aside. “Where’s Sereh?”
In my job, you see a lot of nervous people, and this guy was running through the signs like an alcoholic just before closing time.
He swallowed repeatedly before stuttering out an answer. “The messengers… They were two of the Countess’s mages. Metta Sinn and Niol Bell. When your sister left” — he looked at me, as though looking for support — “she told the mages to stay and protect Sereh.”
Now that I looked around, the apprentice wasn’t the only thing that had taken a battering. A small table had been smashed, the pieces pushed hurriedly into a corner. A scorch mark blackened part of the wall.
“Where is she?” Benny repeated. He had gone very still and very tense. I had seen him like this before, and I didn’t give the apprentice much of a chance if he didn’t answer the question soon.
“Tell him,” I said. “And tell us what the Depths is going on.”
I thought the man was about to cry. I pushed down any sympathy. The looks on our faces must have convinced him, because he said, “Follow me.”
He led us down a short corridor. There was blood on the floor. Someone had tried to wipe it up, but all they had done was smear it.
“After your sister had gone,” he said, his words coming out in such a hurry they tripped over each other, “an hour and a half later, maybe, the mages turned on us.” He glanced back, as if he thought I was going to hit him. I wouldn’t say I wasn’t tempted. “They must been working with Elho Redmark.”
“Who the fuck is Elho Redmark?” I demanded. Getting anything useful out of this idiot was like chewing rocks. I wanted to grab him by the throat and shake him.
“The mage who’s been keeping an eye on Sereh all day. You know, so she wouldn’t run off again. He turned on us as well. I never liked him, you know, but I never thought—”
“What happened?” Benny spat out.
The apprentice mage didn’t answer. Instead, he threw open a door. Beyond was a well appointed bedroom. A large, comfortable bed sat against one wall. Colourful cloths hung from the walls. A
dressing table with a mirror and a chair stood opposite the bed. Another door opened to a bathroom. And, sprawled on a rug, was the body of a man in a mage’s cloak. A violin bow had been driven deep into his eye. It must have killed him instantly.
“Lady of the Grove,” Benny muttered.
“They took her,” the apprentice said.
I stared down at the body. You stupid bastard. Anyone with an ounce of perception should have seen how dangerous Sereh was.
“I guess she wasn’t lying,” I said. “She really was taking violin lessons.”
When the mages had come for her, she had used the first weapon that had come to hand. And judging from the blood I had seen in the corridor, her knife hadn’t been far behind. But there had been three of them, fully trained mages, and they had taken her by surprise.
“Why didn’t you stop them?” Benny demanded. His eyes looked like an ocean storm, seething and deadly and remorseless.
The apprentice mage’s face had gone white. “I tried. I tried, but they were too powerful. They would have killed me, only…”
“Only what?”
“They wanted me to give you this.”
He passed over a folded note.
“Did you read it?”
He shook his head. “There was a curse on it.”
I checked it over. If there had been a curse, Benny’s Ash had killed it. I unfolded the note.
“It’s from Lowriver,” I said. “She says she has Sereh. She says if we want her back…” I licked my suddenly dry lips. “She says we need to come to Thousand Walls. Alone. She says if she or any of her people detect the slightest hint of Ash, Sereh is dead.”
I swore again. If we couldn’t bring Ash, that took away our only advantage.
Benny’s face was twisted and hard. “So what are we waiting for?”
“You know this is a trap, right?” I said. “Either she’s going to deliver us into Silkstar’s hands or she’s going to fit us up again for the murders and leave us too dead to argue.”
“So?” Benny’s jaw jutted towards me in a challenge.
I eyed his expression. I hadn’t truly expected anything else.
“Just checking.” I turned to the apprentice mage. “Have you contacted my sister?”
Shadow of a Dead God: A Mennik Thorn Novel Page 30