by Tom Lloyd
‘Don’t be too eager to get stuck in, Lynx,’ Llaith laughed as he dragged Lynx upright. ‘Wait ’til they’ve cooked the fishies first!’
One of the rowers chuckled as Lynx recovered his balance. ‘Tysarn eat you!’ he said in broken Parthish.
Lynx frowned. ‘Here?’
‘Here. Eat men who fall.’
‘Don’t believe him,’ Teshen said. ‘You don’t often get tysarn in the lagoon, not the big swimmers anyway. See the flags?’
He pointed to a tall flagpole that stood on its own outcrop of rock extending out from the shoreline. Currently it flew a white banner with no decorations visible. Lynx could see more in the distance, all white.
‘I see them.’
‘When a big one’s sighted in the lagoon, you’ll hear a horn sounded and the flag turns to red. Tells people to stay clear of the shore where the water’s deep enough for a tysarn to swim up.’ Teshen laughed. ‘Keep an eye out for the flags and you’re more likely to get eaten on land than in the water.’
‘Eh?’
‘If a pack of smaller tysarn decide you’re too helpless to fight back you’ll get et, but you’d have to be really shit-dribbling drunk. Everything eats everything round here,’ Teshen added expansively, ‘it’s the pirate way!’
Passing between a pair of small islands covered in fruit bushes, Lynx saw a mage gather a glittering stream of water from the lagoon and deftly scatter it like rain over the island. They all watched the young man in fascination, even the mages of the Cards themselves, and he responded by sculpting complex shapes in the air with the water as he went about his work.
Then they were past and the boat nosed into a berth at a small dock. The mercenaries eagerly jumped out, most happy to feel solid ground under their feet again. The other two boats came in right behind, while Lynx started to heave bags to Llaith on the shore.
‘Hey look, a pub!’ Llaith called as he slung his bag on to his back. ‘I’ll race you, Varain.’
‘Hold up, we’re on the clock remember?’ Anatin shouted from the last of the boats.
He nodded towards the three mages still in the boat, surveying the district. Sitain, Lastani and Atieno were all now dressed like respectable citizens of some wealth. Behind them lurked Paranil, Toil’s tame academic who was playing their manservant far more convincingly than he would a mercenary.
With an exaggerated gesture Anatin extended his hand to Sitain to help her off the boat, seemingly delighted by the scowl he received as she accepted it.
‘Right now, ladies and sir, shall we secure you accommodation?’
Lastani inclined her head. ‘Do so,’ she said in a curt voice, in case there were any curious faces watching.
Lynx couldn’t see any, but with a busy street and three crews of rowers, he could only imagine how many people there were happy to pass on any interesting titbit. Anatin gave Teshen a nod and the burly man set off for a street that cut towards the sea-shore.
Lynx was about to follow him before reminding himself that he wasn’t part of Teshen’s suit any more. The mercenaries of Stars slouched along behind Teshen, Kas fairly dancing along with delight at the sights of the city. In comparison to her the rest looked about as surly a collection of mercs as Lynx had ever seen, slowly moving away from the tavern.
‘Pub now?’ Llaith suggested hopefully as he wandered back from begging a coal off a street vendor. ‘Since we’ve got some time to kill?’
A few of the Cards had already started to drift towards a tavern Lynx guessed was called The Three Robbers by the painting beneath the name. Llaith puffed away at a cigarette as he walked, a sigh of contentment escaping his lips.
The Diviner of Tempest was one of the long-standing members of the Cards, a drinking crony of Atieno’s from before Lynx had even fired a mage-gun.
‘Can’t we just enjoy the sunshine?’ Anatin demanded. ‘Bask in the warm air and drink in the sights of a wonderful new vista?’
‘What in the name o’ the deepest black for?’
Anatin laughed. ‘I’m only joking, ya damn fool. Let’s sink a few. Master Atieno, Lady Lastani – can we escort you to a genuine slice of local charm?’
Atieno gave the pub a grave look. It was three storeys tall, with a raucous-sounding common room down on the lower floor but a stair leading up the side to an open terrace at the top.
‘Have some wine brought up to us,’ he said at last. ‘Ladies, shall we?’
‘Toil,’ Anatin called over his shoulder, ‘you’re on duty.’
The red-haired woman gave a snort and gestured for Atieno to lead the way. ‘Lynx, Aben, look after the kit.’
‘Why, what did we do?’
Lynx looked around at the bags piled on the dockside, a handful of thin-limbed urchins surreptitiously watching them. They weren’t the only ones watching either. A pair of teenagers had also stopped to look, but they were armed and seemed more interested in the Cards than their belongings. One set off at a trot as he watched.
‘Looks like our presence has been noted,’ Toil said. ‘Things must be twitchy here if they’re reporting on every merc that docks. To answer your question though …’ She pointed towards the street vendor Llaith had taken a coal off for his cigarette. ‘I don’t know what he’s frying in that cart, but I’m guessing it won’t matter much to either of you. Don’t worry, we’ll send out some beer just as soon as we remember.’
Lynx shrugged. ‘Guess life could be worse,’ he said to Aben, who shared his enthusiasm for any impending meal.
‘That’s what worries me,’ Aben said, kicking the bags into a closer heap. ‘This might be as good as the job gets.’
‘Quick and simple, what’s what she said.’
‘It’s what she always says. Never bloody true though, is it?’
‘Don’t, you’ll spoil my appetite.’
Chapter 6
It started to rain as Lynx and Aben waited on the dock for someone to remember them. The clouds drifting in from across the sea cast a pall over the strange circular city and even a bowl of rice and garlicky tentacles didn’t improve Lynx’s mood much. The traffic around the lagoon was near-constant, while children fished near the dock and the occasional tysarn dived in after anything edible. There were seabirds too, red-eyed gulls watching for any scrap of food and sleek, dark shapes soaring above, but it was the tysarn that seemed to rule the air here.
‘Here you go, boys,’ called a voice behind them.
Llaith and Safir joined them on the dock, each carrying two large clay mugs of beer. Lynx pulled uncomfortably at his britches, the warm weather making them sticky and binding even though he only had moccasins on his feet. For once, the kilt Safir wore looked practical, but Lynx kept the thought to himself in case Llaith started to wear one. Having those puckered white legs on show all day was likely to put him off his food.
‘Turns out this place can brew something pretty decent!’ Safir said, waving a beer towards Lynx.
‘Pull up a pack then,’ he said, gratefully accepting the mug. ‘Hopefully this one ain’t either of yours?’ he added, pointing at the pack he was sitting on.
Safir squinted at it. ‘That’s, ah, Deern’s I think.’
‘All the better. Something went crunch when I sat down.’ Lynx wriggled around to get extra comfy then raised his mug in toast. ‘Here’s to not getting shot.’
‘First rule o’ the Cards,’ Llaith said, grinning and clunking his mug against Lynx’s.
‘There’s a lot of those,’ Aben commented after he’d taken a swig. ‘First rules I mean. Few people getting shot too, I guess. Is it none o’ you lot can count properly, so everything’s a first rule?’
‘Something like that,’ Safir agreed. ‘Some of us had a proper education, but most amaze me that they don’t blow their own heads off.’
Lynx eyed the former nobleman. ‘We’ve all ended up in the same place, though.’
‘Some of us, my tattooed friend, made some bad choices along the way,’ Safir said with a smile and a no
d. ‘Many of us, no doubt.’
‘Others are just bone-deep idiots,’ Llaith chuckled. ‘Look at Darm – man’s got the brains of a flathorn.’
‘But put the company in a pub and all sense goes right out the window, often with one of the locals.’
‘Ah, but that’s honouring a time-honoured tradition,’ Llaith protested. He paused and looked around before speaking again. ‘Still, best we find some real geniuses,’ Llaith said in a more serious voice. ‘Put more than a couple of you next to each other and that light tattoo is all the more obvious. Safir, don’t linger between Kas and Atieno until we get that fixed, yeah?’
‘I would never stand between Kas and any man,’ Safir said with a wink. ‘Layir, of course, may need more of a warning on that front. I believe my young ward is holding something of a candle there, despite screwing Brellis every chance he gets.’
‘Given Kas and Layir might both light up at any given time, let’s keep the sparks dampened down, eh?’
‘At least this must be a good place to find answers,’ Lynx said, always keen to steer conversations away from the affections of their female comrades. ‘I doubt that’s a coincidence.’
‘You really reckon there is a cure?’ Aben brushed the faint outline of willow leaves on the back of his hand – left there by the Duegar stone tree hidden beneath the Labyrinth of Jarrazir. ‘Is it even something that needs curing?’
‘I’ll settle for understanding it,’ Lynx said. ‘Don’t much fancy serving as some sort of power reserve for our mages – glowing when they draw more magic than any human’s supposed to – but we’re all still healthy at least. I’ve rarely felt better than after wading through that weird water around the tree, but something happened beyond fixing every tiny cut and bruise. Best we know what that is.’
‘Ah, now look at them all,’ called a voice from the tavern doorway. ‘Gossiping about girls no doubt.’
Toil sauntered towards them, her concession to the weather being light cotton britches, a tunic embroidered with the Princess of Blood badge and bare feet. Unbidden, the memory of her figure-hugging Jarraziran wrap of green and grey appeared in Lynx’s mind. The image forestalled any clever reply, despite Toil at the time having been brandishing a knife and swearing like a grenadier with the clap.
‘As it happens, Princess,’ Safir declared with a bow, ‘we were – just not about you.’
‘Don’t think you’ll win friends with that attitude, oh noble Knight of Snow. If I’m not occupying all o’ your thoughts, I demand to know why not.’
‘Flash a bit of leg more often and we’ll consider it.’
She laughed. ‘I’ll leave that to you. The ladies of the company consider them among your better attributes. All discussed in genteel and discreet fashion of course.’
‘I’ve met the ladies of the company, remember? But their enthusiasm is gratifying. I try my best.’
‘Really? That’s your best? I better have a quiet word with Estal then, she’s too much of an optimist.’ Toil walked around the group to clap one hand on the shoulder of Aben, her long-time friend and comrade, as she adopted a more serious tone of voice. ‘Now – Teshen should return soon so we’ll be back to business.’
‘Which is?’
‘Getting ourselves settled, getting the lie of the land, then finding the best place to become quite heroically drunk.’
‘Eh?’
She winked at Safir. ‘See all these young toughs watching the dock? Kabat spies no doubt.’
‘So?’
‘So – if I was a kabat in hock to a bank, I’d be watching out for foreign mercs who arrive quietly, trying to avoid too much attention.’
Safir looked at the others. ‘Anyone else follow her?’
‘Time for a little misdirection – the one piece of subtlety this Mercenary Deck is capable of.’
‘You want us to pretend we’re as far from a group of professionals on serious business as it’s possible to be?’ Lynx wondered aloud. ‘Hah, “pretend”.’
‘Exactly! The cover story is that we’re a company who’ve fulfilled our contract. What would we do to blow off some steam before moving on?’
‘Get shitted and start a fight most likely. Oh.’
‘Like I said.’ Llaith grinned. ‘Some things are just a time-honoured tradition.’
Much later that afternoon, in a quiet corner of Auferno district in the south-east of the city, the three mages and Teshen sat on an empty balcony and looked out across the Callais Sea. A steady breeze rolled in off the sea, hauling white curls of water on to the long rocky shoreline that broke the worst of the sea’s strength before it hit the city.
‘Do you want to get started tonight?’ Teshen asked in a quiet voice, eyes never leaving the great expanse of water.
Their view was narrowed by more islands that stretched twenty miles or more down the coast. None were as populous as Caldaire’s districts but they were still important components of the Mage Islands. The chain ran south-east from the city, sheltering the mangrove shore from the worst of the sea’s strength. Away to the east, the high pale face of the Etrel Cliffs overlooked a line of mostly desolate islands for as far as the eye could see.
There was little more to see here, Auferno having no sea-facing ports because this shore bore the brunt of the wind’s constant assault. Two tall-ships made for the lagoon entrance and the dark bulk of a huge, water-bound tysarn lurked close to shore. The breeze whipping over them carried only the sound of the waves, nothing of the city behind.
‘Is there time?’ Lastani asked, nodding towards the descending sun.
‘We can get there before dusk, aye. Won’t be admitted of course, but that’s not ’cos of the hour. Best you can hope for is leaving a respectful message at Shard’s Rest, see if you pique their interest.’
‘The current Shard is a woman if I recall correctly?’ Atieno said.
Teshen nodded and gestured inside. ‘So our friend who runs this fine lodging house tells me. I’d heard the last one had died, but no more than that. Doesn’t matter much, does it?’
‘It is always worth knowing as much as we can before we try to impress anyone.’
‘Well, mage politics ain’t really my thing. I can tell you some about the last one, but this new Shard I never heard of. Ambor Urosesh’s her name, but like in Jarrazir, you call her by her title.’
‘Shard?’ Sitain said, as much wanting to be part of the conversation as anything else. ‘Mistress Shard? Guildmaster Shard?’
She knew so little about her magic and was feeling increasingly out of her depth. Lastani had tried to teach her some basic principles, but all the words in the world couldn’t describe what Sitain felt running through her body.
‘Just Shard, or Shard Urosesh if you really feel the need. She’s a guildmaster too, but there’s a few o’ those. Think of her as the first among guildmasters – she speaks for ’em, but don’t expect a lordly ruler. If she gives an order, most of ’em will pretend not to hear it, or argue, or twist the words to mean something else.’
‘Then what’s the point?’
He gave a bleak smile, the usual sort she saw on the Mage Islander’s face. Teshen was one of those Cards Sitain couldn’t read at all. To her he was like a snake – unnervingly different and remote. The only thing she could be sure of was the bite.
‘Point is, she gives an order and the rest will listen to it. That’s more’n you get from most mages round here. And the kabats listen to her. The Shard maintains the balance in the Mage Islands, just the right side of chaos and well clear of some bastard pronouncing themselves king.’
‘Should I write a letter to be delivered if we’re not getting in anyway?’
‘Nah, they appreciate a little humility. Walking to a man’s door here show’s you give a shit and they should too. Doesn’t mean you’re getting inside, but that’s only prudent. There’s a lot o’ big talk in this city, a lot o’ bluster. It’s only a threat if you’re knocking on the window.’
‘That sou
nds like the voice of experience,’ Atieno said.
‘Me?’ Teshen laughed. ‘As meek and gentle as a lamb I was, in my youth. Anatin’s just a bad influence.’
‘Then why did you leave?’
‘For reasons,’ he said, all traces of humour vanishing. Teshen cocked a head at Lastani. ‘Thought about what you want to say yet?’
‘We offer an exchange of information. Access to their libraries in return for a first-hand account of the Labyrinth.’
‘And that’ll do?’
‘To a leader of mages, it’ll be valuable. She may demand more of course, but that will either be calling on our skills or something Toil can arrange.’
He stood. ‘Come on then, let’s get to it.’
Sitain gave a snort. ‘Never thought I’d say this, but I’ve grown used to having all the Cards around. Especially since what happened, an armed escort seems more important than getting away from that bunch of idiots.’
Teshen patted the pistol at his waist. ‘You’ve got an armed escort – any more than me, people start wondering if you’re rich and important. These are the Mage Islands, remember? Your kind made this place and the Militant Orders aren’t welcome. They’ve long since stopped sending snatch squads round here, the kabats are wise to all that. Come on, we’re taking the scenic route.’
They left the lodging house and found themselves in an overlooked street, where balconies and narrow bridges loomed on either side. Teshen headed for the nearest stairway, a switchback of narrow stone steps that took them up to a wide shelf of rock where doorways opened out on the right-hand side.
‘This is not a city for the lame,’ Atieno huffed as he followed at a steady pace. ‘A few weeks ago this would have been beyond me.’
He still didn’t look steady on his feet by the time they got to the top, though the consequences of his Tempest magic had diminished since Jarrazir. His foot was not back to normal, but the gradual ossification of his bones there had been retarded hugely.
‘We could go at sea level,’ Teshen called back. ‘But if you want to see the city properly, best to climb.’