Last Argument of Kings

by Joe Abercrombie

  A sword-cut squealed through the white armour, sending dust flying up as if from a beaten carpet. Jezal stared dumbly as the Eater reeled towards him. Gorst shoved him out of the way, growling as he brought his long steel round to hack deep into the Eater's neck with a meaty thud. It flailed, silently, its head hanging off by a flap of gristle, brown dust pouring from its yawning wounds. It clutched at Gorst with its remaining hand and he staggered, face twisted with pain, sank to his knees as it wrenched his arm around.

  'Here's heaven, bastard!' Jezal's sword chopped through the last bit of neck and the Eaters' head dropped onto the grass. It let go of Gorst and he clutched at his mangled forearm, the shape of the Eater's hand dented into his heavy armour. The headless body slowly toppled over. 'Cursed thing!' Jezal took one step and kicked its head across the garden, watched it bounce and roll into a flower bed leaving a trail of dust through the grass. Three men stood over the body, their heavy breath echoing from inside their helmets, their swords flashing in the sun as they hacked it into pieces. Its fingers were still twitching.

  'They're made of dust,' someone whispered.

  Marovia frowned at the remains. 'Some are. Some bleed. Each one is different. We should get inside the palace!' he shouted as he hurried across the gardens. 'There will be more of them!'

  'More?' Twelve Knights of the Body lay dead. Jezal swallowed as he counted their broken and bloody, dented and battered corpses. The best men the Union had to offer, scattered around the palace gardens like heaps of scrap metal among the brown leaves. 'More? But how do we—?' The gates shuddered. Jezal's head snapped towards them, the blind courage of the fight fading quickly and sick panic rushing in behind it.

  'This way!' roared Marovia, holding open a door and beckoning desperately. It was not as though there were other choices. Jezal rushed towards him, caught one gilded boot with the other three steps in, and went sprawling painfully on his face. There was a cracking, a tearing, a squealing of wood and metal behind. He clawed his way onto his back to see the gates torn apart in a cloud of flying timber. Broken planks spun through the air, bent nails pinged from the pathways, splinters settled gently across the lawns.

  A woman sauntered through the open gateway, the air still shimmering gently around her tall, thin body. A pale woman with long, golden hair. Another walked beside her, just the same except that her left side was spattered from head to toe with red blood. Two women, happy smiles on their beautiful, perfect, identical faces. One of them slapped a Knight Herald across the head as he charged up, tearing his winged helmet from his shattered skull and sending it spinning high into the air. The other turned her black, empty eyes on Jezal. He struggled up and ran, wheezing with fear, slid through the door beside Marovia and into the shadowy hallway, lined with ancient arms and armour.

  Gorst and a few Knights of the Body tumbled through after him. Over their shoulders the one-sided battle in the gardens continued. A man raised a flatbow only to explode in a shower of blood. An armoured corpse crashed into a Knight just as he turned to run, sent him hurtling sideways through a window, sword spinning from his hand. Another ran towards them, arms pumping, tumbled down a few strides away, thrashing on the ground, flames spurting from the joints in his armour.

  'Help me!' someone wailed. 'Help me! Help—' Gorst slammed the heavy doors shut with his one good arm, one of his fellows dropped the thick bar into the brackets. They tore old polearms from the walls, one with a tattered battle-flag attached, and started wedging them in the doorway.

  Jezal was already backing away, cold sweat tickling at his skin under his armour, gripping tight to the hilt of his sword more for reassurance than defence. His drastically denuded entourage stumbled back with him—Gorst, Marovia, and but five others, their gasping, horrified breath echoing in the dim corridor, all staring towards the door.

  'The last gate did not hold them,' Jezal whispered. 'Why should this one?'

  No one answered.

  'Keep your wits about you, gentlemen,' said Glokta. 'The door, please.' The fat mercenary took his axe to the front gate of the University. Splinters flew. It wobbled at the first blow, shuddered at the second, tore open at the third. The one-eyed dwarf slithered through, a knife in either hand, closely followed by Cosca, sword drawn. 'Clear,' came his Styrian drawl from inside, 'if fusty.'

  'Excellent.' Glokta looked at Ardee. 'It might be best if you stayed towards the back.'

  She gave an exhausted nod. 'I was thinking the same.' He limped painfully over the threshold, black-clad mercenaries pouring through the doorway behind him, the last of them dragging Goyle reluctantly by his bandaged wrists. And along the very paths I took the first time I visited this heap of dust, so many months ago. Before the vote. Before Dagoska, even. How lovely to be back…

  Down the dark hallway, past the dirty paintings of forgotten Adepti, tortured floorboards groaning under the boots of the mercenaries. Glokta lurched out into the wide dining hall.

  The freak-show of Practicals was scattered about the dim chamber just as it had been when he last visited. The two identical men from Suljuk, with their curved swords. The tall, thin one, the dark men with their axes, the vast Northman with the ruined face. And so on. A good score of them in all. Have they been sitting here all this time, I wonder, just being menacing to each other?

  Vitari was already up from her chair. 'I thought I told you to keep away from here, cripple.'

  'I tried, indeed I did, but I could not banish the memory of your smile.'

  'Ho, ho, Shylo!' Cosca strolled out from the hallway, twiddling at the waxed ends of his moustache with one hand, sword drawn in the other.

  'Cosca! Don't you ever die?' Vitari let a cross-shaped knife tumble from her hand to clatter across the boards on the end of a long chain. 'Seems a day for men I hoped I'd seen the last of.' Her Practicals spread out around her, swords sliding from sheaths, axes, maces, spears scraping off the table. The mercenaries clomped into the hall, their own weapons at the ready. Glokta cleared his throat. 'I think it would be better for all concerned if we could discuss this like civilised—'

  'You see anyone civilised?' snarled Vitari.

  A fair point. One Practical sprang up on the table making the cutlery jump. The one-handed mercenary waved his hook in the air. The two heavily-armed groups edged towards each other. It looked very much as if Cosca and his hired hands would be earning their pay. A merry bloodbath I daresay it will be, and the outcome of a bloodbath is notoriously hard to predict. All in all, I would rather not take the gamble.

  'A shame about your children! A shame for them, that there's no one civilised around!'

  Vitari's orange eyebrows drew furiously inwards. 'They're far away!'

  'Oh, I'm afraid not. Two girls and a boy? Beautiful, flaming red hair, just like their mother's?' Which gate would they go through? The Gurkish came from the west, so… 'They were stopped at the east gate, and taken into custody.' Glokta stuck out his bottom lip. 'Protective custody. These are dangerous times for children to be wandering the streets, you know.'

  Even with her mask on Glokta could see her horror. 'When?' she hissed.

  When would a loving mother send her children to safety? 'Why, the very day the Gurkish arrived, of course, you know that.' The way her eyes widened told him that he had guessed right. Now to twist the blade. 'Don't worry though, they're tucked up safe. Practical Severard is acting as nurse. But if I don't come back…'

  'You wouldn't hurt them.'

  'What is it with everyone today? Lines I won't cross? People I won't hurt?' Glokta showed his most revolting leer. 'Children? Hope, and prospects, and all that happy life ahead of them? I despise the little bastards!' He shrugged his twisted shoulders. 'But perhaps you know me better. If you're keen to play dice with your children's lives, I suppose we can find out. Or we could reach an understanding, as we did in Dagoska.'

  'Shit on this,' growled one of the Practicals, hefting his axe and taking a step forward. And the atmosphere of violence lurches another dizzy ste
p towards the brink…

  Vitari shoved out her open hand. 'Don't move.'

  'You've got children, so what? Means nothing to me. It'll mean nothing to Sult eeeeeee—' There was a flash of metal, the jingling of a chain, and the Practical staggered forward, blood pouring from his opened throat.

  Vitari's cross-shaped knife slapped back into her palm and her eyes flicked back to Glokta. 'An understanding?'

  'Exactly. You stay here. We go past. You didn't see nothing, as they say in the older parts of town. You know well enough that you can't trust Sult. He left you to the dogs in Dagoska, didn't he? And he's all done, anyway. The Gurkish are knocking at the door. Time we tried something new, don't you think?'

  Vitari's mask shifted as she worked her mouth. Thinking, thinking. The eyes of her killers sparkled, the blades of their weapons glinted. Don't call the bluff, bitch, don't you dare…

  'Alright!' She gestured with her arm and the Practicals edged unhappily back, still glaring at the mercenaries across the room. Vitari nodded her spiky head towards a doorway at the end of the chamber. 'Down that hall, down the stairs at the end, and there's a door. A door with black iron rivets.'

  'Excellent.' A few words can be more effective than a lot of blades, even in such times as these. Glokta began to hobble away, Cosca and his men following.

  Vitari frowned after them, her eyes deadly slits. 'If you so much as touch my—'

  'Yes, yes.' Glokta waved his hand. 'My terror is boundless.'

  There was a moment of stillness, as the remains of the gutted building settled across one side of the Square of Marshals. The Eaters stood, as shocked as Ferro, a circle of amazement. Bayaz appeared to be the only one not horrified by the scale of the destruction. His harsh chuckling echoed out and bounced back from the walls. 'It works!' he shouted.

  'No!' screamed Mamun, and the Hundred Words came rushing forward.

  Closer they came, the polished blades of their beautiful weapons flashing, their hungry mouths hanging open, their white teeth gleaming. Closer yet, streaming inwards with terrible speed, shrieking out a chorus of hate that made even Ferro's blood turn cold.

  But Bayaz only laughed. 'Let the judgement begin!'

  Ferro growled through clenched teeth as the Seed burned cold at her palm. A mighty blast of wind swept out across the square from its centre, sent Eaters tumbling like skittles, rolling and flailing. It shattered every window, ripped open every door, stripped the roofs of every building bare.

  The great inlaid gates of the Lords' Round were sucked open, then torn from their hinges, careering across the square. Tons of wood, spinning over and over like sheets of paper in a gale. They carved a crazy swathe through the helpless Eaters. They ripped white-armoured bodies apart, sending parts of limbs flying, blood and dust going up in sprays and spatters.

  Ferro's hand was shimmering, and half her forearm. She gasped quick breaths as the cold spread through her veins, out to every part of her, burning at her insides. The Seed blurred and trembled as if she looked at it through fast flowing water. The wind whipped at her eyes as white figures were flung through the air like toys, writhing in a storm of shattered glass, shredded wood, splintered stone. No more than a dozen of them kept their feet, reeling, clutching at the ground, shining hair streaming from their heads, straining desperately against the blast.

  One of them reached for Ferro, snarling into the wind. A woman, her glittering chain-mail thrashing, her hands clawing at the screaming air. She edged closer, and closer. A smooth, proud face, stamped with contempt.

  Like the faces of the Eaters who had come for her near Dagoska. Like the faces of the slavers who had stolen her life from her. Like the face of Uthman-ul-Dosht, who had smiled at her anger and her helplessness.

  Ferro's shriek of fury merged with the shrieking of the wind. She had not known that she could swing a sword so hard. The look of shock only just had time to form on the Eater's perfect face before the curved blade sliced through her outstretched arm and took her head from her shoulders. The corpse was plucked flopping away, dust flying from its gaping wounds.

  The air was full of flashing shapes. Ferro stood frozen as debris whirred past her. A beam crashed through a struggling Eater's chest and carried it screaming away, high into the air, spitted like a locust on a skewer. Another burst suddenly apart in a cloud of blood and flesh, the remains sucked spiralling up into the trembling sky.

  The great Eater with the beard struggled forward, lifting his huge club above his head, bellowing words no one could hear. Through the pulsing, twisting air Ferro saw Bayaz raise one eyebrow at him, saw his lips make one word.

  'Burn.'

  For a single moment he blazed as brightly as a star, the image of him stamped white into Ferro's eyes. Then his blackened bones were snatched away into the storm.

  Only Mamun remained. He strained forwards, dragging his feet across the stone, across the iron, inch by desperate inch towards Bayaz.

  One armoured greave tore from his leg and flew back spinning through the maddened air, then a plate from his shoulder followed it. Torn cloth flapped. The skin on his snarling face began to ripple and stretch.

  'No!' One clutching, clawing arm stretched desperately out towards the First of the Magi, fingertips straining.

  'Yes,' said Bayaz, the air around his smiling face trembling like the air above the desert. The nails tore from Mamun's fingers, his outstretched arm bent back, snapped, was ripped from his shoulder. Flawless skin peeled from bone, flapping like sailcloth in a squall, brown dust flying out of his torn body like a sandstorm over the dunes.

  He was dashed suddenly away, crashed through a wall near the top of one of the tall buildings. Blocks were sucked from the edges of the ragged hole he left and tumbled outwards, upwards. They joined the whipping paper, thrashing rock, spinning planks, flailing corpses that reeled through the air around the edge of the square, faster and faster, a circle of destruction that followed the iron circles on the ground. It reached now as high as the tall buildings, and now higher yet. It flayed and scoured at everything it passed, tearing up more stone, glass, wood, metal, flesh, growing darker, faster, louder and more powerful with every moment.

  Over the mindless anger of the wind Ferro could just hear Bayaz' voice.

  'God smiles on results.'

  Dogman got up, and shook his sore head, dirt flying from his hair. There was blood running down his arm, red on white. Seemed as if the world hadn't ended after all.

  Looked like it had come close, though.

  Bridge and gatehouse both had disappeared. Where they'd stood there was nothing but a great heap of broken stone and a yawning chasm carved out of the walls. That and a whole lot of dust. There were still some folk killing, but there were a lot more rolling about, choking and groaning, staggering through the rubbish, the fight all gone out of 'em. Dogman knew how they felt.

  Someone was clambering up onto that mass of junk where the moat used to be, heading towards the breach. Someone with a tangled mess of hair and a long sword in one hand.

  Who else but Logen Ninefingers?

  'Ah, shit,' cursed Dogman. He'd got some damn fool ideas all of a sudden, had Logen, but that wasn't halfway the worst of it. There was someone following him across that bridge of rubble. Shivers, axe in hand, shield on arm, and a frown on his dirty face like a man with some dark work in mind.

  'Ah, shit!'

  Grim shrugged his dusty shoulders. 'Best get after 'em.'

  'Aye.' Dogman jerked his thumb at Red Hat, just getting up from the ground and shaking a pile of grit off his coat. 'Get some lads together, eh?' He pointed off towards the breach with the blade of his sword. 'We're going that way.'

  Damn it but he needed to piss, just like always.

  Jezal backed away down the shadowy hall, hardly daring even to breathe, feeling the sweat prickle at his palms, at his neck, at the small of his back.

  'What are they waiting for?' someone muttered.

  There was a gentle creaking sound above. Jeza
l looked up towards the black rafters. 'Did you hear—'

  A shape burst through the ceiling and hurtled down into the hallway in a white blur, flattening one of the Knights of the Body, her feet leaving two great dents in his breastplate, blood spraying from his visor.

  She smiled up at Jezal. 'Greetings from the Prophet Khalul.'

  'The Union!' roared another Knight, charging forward. One moment his sword whistled towards her. The next she was on the other side of the corridor. The blade clanged harmlessly into the stone floor and the man tottered forward. She seized him under the armpit, bent her knees slightly, and flung him shrieking through the ceiling. Broken plaster rained down as she grabbed another Knight round the neck and smashed his head into the wall with such force that he was left embedded in the shattered stonework, armoured legs dangling. Antique swords tumbled from their brackets and clattered down into the hallway around his limp corpse.

  'This way!' The High Justice dragged Jezal, numb and helpless, towards a pair of gilded double doors. Gorst lifted up one heavy boot, gave them a shivering kick and sent them flying open. They burst through into the Chamber of Mirrors, cleared of the many tables that had stood there on Jezal's wedding night, an empty acre of polished tiles.

  He ran for the far door, his slapping footfalls and his heaving, wheezing, horrified breath echoing out around the huge room. He saw himself running, distorted, in the mirrors far ahead of him, the mirrors to each side. A ludicrous sight. A clown-king, fleeing though his own palace, crown askew, his scarred face beaded with sweat, slack with terror and exhaustion. He skidded to a halt, almost fell over backwards in his haste to stop, Gorst nearly ploughing into his back.

  One of the twins was sitting on the floor beside the far doorway, leaning back against the mirrored wall, reflected in it, as though she were leaning against her sister. She lifted up one languorous hand, daubed crimson with blood, and she waved.