Cascet of souls n-6

by Lynn Flewelling

  “No. That much is the truth.”

  “I thought-Maker’s Mercy, I even hoped you were just lovers, but it’s worse than that. All the times children began to die when we stayed too long in a town. I tried not to think about it, told myself I was seeing something that wasn’t there, but it’s true, isn’t it? What are you?”

  “There’s no name for it, as far as I know.”

  “You-you eat children’s souls? It’s monstrous!”

  “Maker’s Mercy, keep your voice down!”

  “Why? Will you eat my soul, too?”

  “No, but he will. And the children’s.”

  Her eyes widened in horror. “And you’d let him!”

  “He’s had a hold on me, through you, all these years. But after tonight he’ll be gone. He’ll give me what I need to protect you, but only if I help him leave the city. I’ll be free of him, and we’ll all be safe.”

  She held the knife out in front of her and hissed, “Safe? I never want to see you again! If you ever come near my children, I’ll tell them exactly what their papa does, and I’ll put this knife through your black heart! Get whatever you need and get out!”

  Her voice was rising dangerously again. He dressed and packed quickly and buckled on his sword. Then, heart breaking, he turned to her one last time, but the hatred in her eyes sealed his throat.

  She pointed to the door. “Don’t come back. If he kills us, our blood is on your hands.”

  He knew it was the truth. Shouldering his pack, he went back to Atre.

  As he always did.

  CHAPTER 44. Luck in the Shadows

  ALEC almost missed the shadowy figure slipping around the corner of the house. It wasn’t tall enough to be Brader. He smiled a thin hunter’s smile. Atre; even better.

  As the man ghosted silently away to the backstreet behind the house, Alec could easily have put an arrow in his back, but they needed him alive to lead them to Illia’s soul. There was no time to go for the others or his horse, so he had to chance an owl’s hoot. The figure was nearly out of sight when Seregil and Micum appeared silently beside him.

  “He’s alone,” Alec told them as they set out after Atre.

  “I wouldn’t wager on it,” Seregil murmured, looking around.

  It wasn’t easy tracking. The faint glow of the false dawn and the echoing empty streets made it difficult to stay close enough to keep him in sight. After a few blocks, Atre began to disappear between houses, walking through yards and jumping over low walls.

  “He’s not going toward Basket Street,” Seregil muttered.

  “Could be taking the long way,” said Micum, grunting as he heaved himself over a wall. He was a fit man, but even Sebrahn hadn’t been able to completely heal the scars left on the back of his thigh by the dyrmagnos.

  Seregil glanced up at the sky. “It will be light soon. Why would he chance moving around in daylight? Something’s wrong. Change of plan. Catch him.”

  With that, he took off at a dead run, vaulting the next wall with ease.

  “Go on, I’ll track you and catch up,” said Micum.

  Alec nodded and went after Seregil.

  Abandoning stealth, they soon startled their prey into full flight and gave chase. Atre was fast, but Seregil was faster, and managed to tackle him as he ran through a kitchen garden. The two of them tumbled together across rows of garlic and turnips, Atre struggling like a wildcat. His hood fell back in the scuffle and Alec saw that Seregil had captured Teibo, not Atre.

  “Bilairy’s Balls, I knew it!” Seregil snarled, grabbing the boy by the front of his tunic. “Where is Atre?”

  “I don’t know!” Teibo cried, throwing up his arm as if he expected Seregil to hit him. “I don’t know what they’re up to, but when Brader said ‘run,’ I ran!”

  “Is Atre alone, or is Brader with him?”

  “I don’t know, my lord! They were both at the house when I left.”

  Seregil released him and stood up. “Should have known he’d use a jilt. Come on!”

  Doubling back the way they’d come, they soon found Micum.

  “What now?” he panted.

  “No sense being subtle. We’ve already been tossed.”

  The first hint of true dawn threw the eastern half of the city into black relief against the sky as they pelted south toward Basket Street.

  They were within half a mile of it, running along narrow Goose Lane, when a dark form stepped into the middle of the lane just ahead of them, long sword drawn, effectively blocking their way. There was no mistaking his stance; Brader was ready and perhaps even able to take on the three of them.

  “We don’t have time for this!” Micum growled.

  “Seregil, go!” Alec said, falling back.

  Micum drew his sword and charged Brader head-on while Seregil dodged right along the wall and kept going. Behind him the sound of steel on steel rang out.

  * * *

  “Luck in the shadows, and hurry!” Alec whispered, watching Seregil hurtle through the early-morning crowd.

  There were too many people in the street for Alec to risk his bow. Instead he and Micum drew their swords and rushed Brader together, expecting a quick victory, two against one, but the man surprised them both. He had youth on Micum and height on Alec, but it was more than that: he had Seregil’s skill and speed.

  People screamed and scattered as they fought. Maneuvering was difficult, making it virtually impossible to flank Brader. Instead they pushed each other back and forth, Brader mostly parrying their swings.

  He’s buying time for Atre, thought Alec, making an unsuccessful cut at Brader’s legs. Focused as he was on the battle, he was only dimly aware of the clatter of hooves and the shouts of the approaching bluecoats. Several riders burst from a side street. Brader took advantage of the distraction and dashed away in the direction of the theater. Alec and Micum started to give chase, only to have their way cut off by more bluecoats on foot.

  “Run!” said Micum.

  Alec ran, dodging down the nearest side street, keenly aware of the mounted bluecoats close behind. Knowing he couldn’t outrun them, he dashed into a tavern that was just opening for the day and on out the back door into a small courtyard. A milk cart was there, the milk seller talking with the lady of the house and several servants. The woman screamed as Alec dodged around them, ran out the open side gate and on into a succession of narrow side lanes and over walls as he made his way toward the theater.

  It had been Brader’s idea to send out Teibo, just in case Lord Seregil and whatever companions he might have brought were lying in wait outside. When he was proven right, Brader set off to shadow them, while Atre ducked through a series of backstreets to Basket Street, dressed as a laborer in a coarse tunic, leggings, and a head rag.

  Arriving safely, Atre went in through the alley door in back and hurried down to his workroom in the cellar.

  Once he was inside, he struck a light and began pulling phials from the rack and placing them in his pack. Some would probably break, but there was no help for that. When he had as many as he could carry, he opened the casket under the table and threw handfuls of jewels in with the phials. Well provisioned now, he pulled the loose stone from the wall and took out the iron box containing his mother’s precious bone necklace and the phial containing the Cavish brat’s ring. The box was too heavy to risk with the bottles, so he tossed it aside and hung the necklace around his neck. As he did so, his fingers brushed the silver chain there, the one on which he’d strung Elani’s brooch and ring. That, and the cool caress of the old bones against his neck, stirred the ever-present hunger from a spark to a flame in an instant. Taking one of the newly completed noble potions from the rack without pausing to check the label-what did it matter now?-he spoke the words over it, and inscribed the final symbol with the copper stylus from the tool box. Hands trembling, he opened and downed it, groaning as the golden euphoria hit. This was a strong elixir, and he felt instantly restored and invigorated.

  Invincible. />
  He pocketed the stylus and was reaching for another completed phial, or thought he was. Instead he found himself holding Elani’s jewels in his hand. Hunger flared to compulsion.

  It would only take a moment. It would be his parting shot at Lord Seregil, or at least one, he thought, running a finger over the phial containing the small silver ring.

  He pulled an empty phial from the rack, then opened the box of jeweler’s tools and pried one of the emeralds from the brooch. His mouth was already watering as he dropped the stone into the phial and reached for the waterskin hanging from the corner of the table. As he was about to open it, however, he heard the creak of a floorboard upstairs, then another, slow and stealthy and too light to be Brader. He listened for a moment, senses attenuated by the elixir; there was only one person moving around up there, but they were heading for the hidden door.

  Cursing under his breath, he pocketed the loose emerald and Illia’s phial, hung the chain around his neck again under his tunic, and picked up his pack. Where was Brader when he needed him?

  He left the workroom and hurried across the cellar to the wide staircase leading up to the prop hatch, hoping to outflank his adversary. With the front doors chained shut, there was only one way out.

  By the time Seregil reached the theater, there was light enough to see that the front doors were still chained shut. Dashing around the back, he went down the alley to the back door. It was unlocked.

  Inside, he drew his sword and paused a moment to let his eyes adjust to the deeper dimness. His heart was hammering in his chest, making it hard to breathe as he crept forward toward the corridor leading to the cellar door.

  Before he could reach it, however, he heard what sounded like the creak of hinges from the stage area. He raced back in time to see the scrim ripple, and then the muslin curtains leading into the left wing.

  “You’re not getting out, Atre!”

  There was no answer, and no sound of movement. He stood still, listening, and began to wonder if the noise had just been the old building settling, and the movement of the cloth nothing more than a breeze from the open doorway.

  There was no way to lock the door from the inside; if Atre was in here, Seregil would have to stay between him and the door. Unless there was another way out he didn’t know about. If there was, Atre certainly would.

  “Damnation!” he muttered, quietly advancing down the left wing. Alert for any sound or movement, he looked into each cubicle, using the point of his sword to move the fabric back. Some had an old trunk or abandoned bit of furniture, but most of them were empty. And there wasn’t just a single row of them down each side of the narrow corridor; there were some behind others, making for a labyrinth that was as easily passed through as it was to hide in.

  Suddenly he heard the creak of a floorboard at the far end

  of the corridor and looked up just in time to see a fabric wall settle back into place where someone had passed. Whoever it was, they were trying to flank him. Seregil quietly ducked into a small cubicle on that side only to find that there were two more behind him. While he was searching those, he heard a sudden burst of footsteps from the corridor. Fighting his way through layers of muslin, he dashed back to the door in time to cut off a dark, running figure who disappeared back into the maze once more.

  They played at this game for some time, Seregil wondering all the time where the others had gotten to.

  He was guarding the door and about ready to set fire to the place when he heard the clink of glass from beyond the scrim. If Atre was making a break for the front of the theater, then he’d be trapped in the open. Seregil pushed past the scrim and stepped out onto the stage.

  Enough light came in through the partially open skylight and between the cracks in the shuttered windows for him to see Atre standing at the front of the stage, facing him. He was dressed like a peasant and had a pack at his feet. A crude necklace of long pale beads hung around his neck, unlike anything Seregil had ever seen him wear. As Seregil slowly approached, the actor smiled and held up something that caught the light.

  A glass phial.

  “I wouldn’t come any closer if I were you, Lord Seregil,” he said, giving it a slight shake that made whatever was inside tinkle against the glass. “I’m tired of our game. I think you know what’s in this one.”

  “Yes. And you’re not leaving with it.”

  “Tut, dear Lord Seregil. You’d better mind your manners. This bottle is rather fragile and it’s very risky, freeing an unfixed soul. You never know where it will end up. Some get home to their bodies. Others?” He made a graceful fluttering gesture. “They just float away.”

  Seregil swallowed hard. Thero had warned of this. Perhaps they had just been lucky with Mika.

  “Put down your sword, Lord Seregil.”

  Seregil laid it on the stage beside him and raised his hands

  to show the other man they were empty. He was less than twenty feet away from Atre, but he doubted he could close that distance in time if Atre let the bottle fall. Or threw it.

  And he noticed something else. Atre was not wearing Elani’s ring.

  “Thank you, my lord,” said Atre with mock-deference. “Well, here we are, onstage together at last. No masks or costumes for you this time, though. I knew there was more to you than you let on.”

  “I could say the same of you. You know why I’m here.”

  Atre smiled and gave the bottle another little shake and Seregil caught a glint of silver in the morning light. “I enjoyed dancing with little Illia at your party that night. Delightful child. Such a shame you and your friends got in my way. I might have left her alone if you hadn’t. Will you tell Micum Cavish that it’s his fault, as much as yours, that his daughter died?”

  Seregil took a deep breath and said as calmly as he could, “If you break that bottle, I’ll have no reason not to kill you.”

  “But she’ll still be dead. Now surely we can strike a bargain.”

  “You give me the bottle, and Elani’s jewels, and I let you walk out of here. Their lives for yours.” Where in Bilairy’s name are Micum and Alec?

  “I have your word on that, do I?” Atre asked, and tossed Illia’s bottle from his right hand to his left with a juggler’s flourish.

  “Yes!” It was all Seregil could do not to jump Atre then, but he had to learn if Elani’s soul had been taken, too.

  Atre chuckled as he tossed the bottle up in the air and caught it again. “I give you the ring and the bottle, and you let me go?”

  “And the brooch.”

  Atre laughed. “You are a stubborn one. But I think you are honorable, as well. All right, it’s a bargain. I’d shake on it, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to get within arm’s reach of you.”

  “I thought you said I was honorable?”

  “Honor has its limits for any man. I’m going to set the items down here.”

  Seregil heaved an inward sigh of relief as Atre stood the bottle on the stage in front of him, then pulled a silver chain from his neck; on it were the ring and the emerald brooch.

  “You probably want to make certain they’re the right ones.” Atre tossed the chain to him, but as Seregil reached to catch it, a board creaked behind him and he had the sudden crawling conviction that there was someone behind him. Once again, sharp ears and good instincts saved his life; he ducked and rolled away from Brader’s flashing sword, grabbing the poniard from his boot as he did so. Springing to his feet, he faced down the swordsman. In defending himself, he’d left the path to the back door open. He feinted toward the phial but Brader blocked him and took another swing, staying between him and Atre. The man was dangerously good, and Seregil’s sword was out of reach.

  Atre gave Seregil a sly smile as he walked back toward the bottle.

  “No!” Seregil growled.

  The distraction nearly cost him his life; Brader thrust at him. Seregil tried to dodge but the blade pierced his right shoulder under his collarbone and he dropped the poniard. Pressing
his advantage, Brader wrenched the blade free and caught Seregil around the neck in a chokehold, then brought his blade up to cut Seregil’s throat.

  “Wait! Let him see,” Atre ordered.

  Dragging Seregil nearly off his feet, Brader turned him so he was facing Atre. Grinning, the actor started to raise his foot to crush the fragile phial, then screamed in pain as a red-fletched arrow pierced his boot, pinning it to the boards scant inches from the bottle. Another struck Atre in the side, knocking him off balance. The man went down awkwardly, one foot still held to the floor, clutching the arrow shaft protruding from between his ribs.

  “Atre!” Surprised, Brader loosened his hold on Seregil just enough for him to elbow the man in the ribs and slip free.

  As Atre thrashed in pain, his free foot hit the bottle,

  sending it spinning toward the edge of the stage between two footlights.

  Seregil lunged after it and caught it one-handed just as it tipped over the edge. At the same instant two large hands clapped around his and Seregil found himself fetched up painfully against one of the footlights, looking down at Micum Cavish’s pale face.

  “You take her,” Seregil gasped, releasing the bottle very carefully into his friend’s hands. Micum pressed it to his lips with a gasp of relief. It held Illia’s ring.

  Seregil got to his feet clutching his wounded shoulder and looked back at Brader, expecting an attack. But the man was on his back in a pool of blood, one of Alec’s arrows protruding from his heaving chest. Seregil scanned the theater and Alec waved to him from one of the boxes-the one they’d been sitting in with Kylith a few short months ago-and started down for the front of the theater. The front doors stood open now, explaining how Alec and Micum had gotten in while he and the others had been distracted.

  Grimacing in pain and feeling a little dizzy from blood loss, Seregil picked up his poniard with his left hand and stood over Atre. The man coughed out a spray of bloody spittle; it reminded Seregil of the black poisoned blood running down Thero’s cheek, and he resisted the urge to kick the remaining life out of Atre.