The Queen's Assassin

by William King

  “We’re not the only cargo. I reckon the captain intends to make a profit on trading as well as carrying us.”

  “Can’t say as I blame him. If I had thought of it, I would have done the same myself.” Rik would have been surprised if Weasel had not put some stuff aboard on his own account already but decided it would not be diplomatic to mention this.

  “How long you reckon this is going to take?” he asked.

  “Most of the folk I talked to reckon we’ll get there in a week. Providing we don’t have no accidents. Or we don’t run into any river pirates, or the odd rogue wyrm.”

  “It would be a damn stupid bunch of bandits that attacked a ship carrying a squad of Foragers and Lady Asea.”

  “Would be a damn stupid bunch of highwaymen that attacked a Terrarch noblewoman and her footmen. It still happened.”

  Rik could see what Weasel was getting at. “You reckon we might have an accident.”

  “I reckon there’s some might be out for a bit of revenge, and we’ll be moving through no-man’s land for a good deal of this trip.”

  “Not strictly speaking true. The lands along the river are mostly held by Terrarch Aristals. Some have declared for one side or another but none of them will risk an attack on a boat flying the diplomatic flag in the winter season.”

  “Bet Lady Tamara thought the same.”

  “There’s something about her that has you spooked, isn’t there?”

  “You’re right there, Halfbreed. Never thought a chit of a girl could have come so close to taking out the three of us. Three of us, Halfbreed, and we’re all of us hard, hard men.

  “I’ve never seen a better man with a blade than the Barbarian, but he’s still got a scarf wrapped round that bull neck of his to hide the stab wound. A girl in a ball gown almost killed him with a knitting needle, and him with those butcher knives in his hands.”

  Rik looked over his shoulder to make sure there was no one close enough to overhear what they were saying. He saw only a few more carts being drawn up. Dockers were loading a huge riverine bridgeback from them, but they were more than twenty yards away.

  “There’s something else, isn’t there?” Rik said.

  “You bet. There’s that shadow thing we saw. That was a product of black sorcery and no mistake.”

  “It scared you?”

  Weasel gave him a lop-sided grin that revealed sharp yellowish teeth. “Let’s just say it got me to thinking.”

  “About what?”

  “She knew who you were.”

  “So?”

  “Maybe she knows who me and the Barbarian are too.”

  Rik shook his head. “I doubt it. She’d met me before.”

  “I hope you’re right. She’s a witch that one and I would not want her putting the evil eye on me.”

  “Uran Ultar did not manage that. Ilmarec of the Serpent Tower did not either. I think you’re safe.”

  Weasel glanced up at the nearby spire of the dockside temple and made and Elder Sign of Warding over his heart. “You think she had anything to do with that Nerghul thing that attacked us back in Morven?”

  “Most likely - either her or Jaderac.”

  “Thought as much. I would watch my back if I were you, Rik. She’s poison that one.”

  “I’ll watch your back if you watch mine.”

  Weasel spat on his hand and offered it to shake. Rik did the same. It had not escaped his notice that the former poacher had used his real name which was a mark of how seriously he took the situation. “I’ll take you up on that.”

  They wiped their hands. “What do you know of Harven?” Weasel asked, obviously wanting to change the subject.

  “Big city,” said Rik. “Nearly as big as this one. Built on a chain of islands in the estuary of the river. Huge seaport, massive trading power. A free state, ruled by its own council, who put trade before anything.”

  “And what about the Quan? You know anything about the Sea Devils?”

  “They say they are the only Elder World demons still really active in the world. Lady Asea says they are not demons but some star-lost race who fell from the sky long ago. They have cities beneath the sea. Some of the beasts are large enough to pull down ships bigger than this one.”

  “They are allies of the Harvenites, aren’t they?”

  “They have some sort of pact. It’s why Harven is still a free city. Some say it’s why she is Queen of the Northern Seas. No nation with a fleet wants to have the Shipbreakers fighting against them.”

  “Thought they were supposed to be neutral in all conflicts, trade with every side. A free port, a safe meeting ground, that sort of thing.”

  “Times are changing. This war may shift the balance of power on the continent for ever.”

  More wagons rolled up. Karim sat on one.

  “Here comes her Ladyship’s stuff.”

  The dockers started manhandling massive chests and hampers down from the back of the wagons. They were all marked with the symbol of Asea’s house, a red tower, and men moved them carefully.

  “She surely is taking a lot of stuff with her,” said Weasel. “What’s in those?”

  “Thinking of trying to steal some of it?”

  “That’s more your line than mine, Halfbreed. Least it used to be. No - I’m just curious.”

  “You know as much as I do. Clothing, money, sorcerous adjuncts. Her tent and her wargear. You’ve travelled with her before. You know how much she carries.”

  “Never thought I would hear myself say this, but I am glad she does. These are strange times, Halfbreed, strange times.”

  Rik nodded.

  “Of course, we would not be going if we was not escorting her, would we?” Weasel added.

  “I’m sure the army would find something stupid for us to do.”

  “You’re not in the army any more, old son, but I know what you mean.”

  Sardec felt the boards beneath his feet. The barge rocked slightly. And it smelled of damp and wet and the slightly fishy tang of river wyrm. A docker with a hook wandered past, and Sardec found himself inspecting his own. There was a strange resemblance. A human saw him doing it. When Sardec’s gaze rested upon him, he bowed.

  “I’m Mathias, the captain, your Lordship,” he said. He was a big burly man with a long black beard, plaited and oiled. He wore a jacket and britches of heavy broadcloth and a very wide tricorne hat. His hands were very large and gnarly. His voice was hoarse and rasping. “I’d like to welcome you aboard the River Dragon if I may.”

  Sardec smiled. He did not bow back. It was not the place of a Terrarch to bow to a human. “Thank you, captain. On this trip I am on the Queen’s Commission so best you call me Lieutenant.”

  “As you wish, Lieutenant.”

  “When will we be under way?”

  “Soon as her Ladyship is aboard we will hitch the wyrms. Should be quick enough trip, Lieutenant, we’re going down river.”

  In the distance, Sardec could see a bunch of handlers bringing a huge river bridgeback upstream. It was a massive beast, larger even than its land-going cousin, so large it could walk along the bottom even of this river.

  “I would not have thought it would make much difference, captain. The beast does not swim, so surely its speed would be the same no matter in which direction it walked.”

  “You almost have it right, sir. See the beast gets less tired when it’s not pulling against the current. More tractable, can go further in a day.”

  “It’s your business, captain, so I expect you are right.”

  “I most definitely am, sir. Ah here’s her Ladyship now, sir. With your permission I will go and greet her.”

  “By all means, captain.”

  Sardec glanced down at the companionway. Sergeant Hef and Corporal Toby were counting men aboard. A fair number of them were drunk. There had been a time when that would have infuriated Sardec but now he understood. These men were going away, parting from loved ones they might never see again. They did not need to march.
As long as there was no misbehaviour he would turn a blind eye to the drinking, at least today. Once they were under way and in dangerous waters it would be a different thing.

  Rik took Asea’s hand and helped her up the gangplank. There was little chance of her falling in, but it was best to take no chances. A broad, bearded man garbed in black greeted them. He was the captain, and he wanted to show Asea to her cabin, personally. Rik had spent enough time around the docks in Sorrow to know this was not normal behaviour, so he eyed the man suspiciously, until it became obvious he was only trying to ingratiate himself with one of the high nobility. He probably did not get a lot of chances to do that.

  The cabins seemed small and spare but Asea pronounced herself perfectly satisfied, and the captain bid them farewell, and headed upstairs to supervise the push off. Asea wanted to do the same. Rik joined her.

  They cast off. Sailors pulled ropes aboard. Dockers pushed the ship out into the river. Smaller wyrms pulled them out into midstream where an absolute monster half as big as the barge itself waited for them, a creature so large that it needed the water to support its own weight. It would have collapsed on land after taking only a hundred steps.

  Rik watched the massive reptile nervously. A thing so huge could smash the barge to flinders if it went amok. It seemed docile enough but you never knew. Ropes were fastened to hooks on its harness and a heavy wooden yoke lade down from the bow of the barge. Its’ padded cross-piece lay on the river wyrm’s shoulders and was fastened into place by its mahouts. After the operation was complete, the captain raised his hand, a horn was blown, and they set off down the river.

  Brown water bubbled along the barge’s sides. Soldiers waved to their sweethearts on the banks. Sailors blew kisses to girls. A thrill passed through him. He loved departures. Leaving places appealed to him.

  He paid careful attention as they moved through the city, passing the vast swarms of small bumboats that did business on the river, going by the craft of vendors trying to sell the sailors stuff even as they departed. He watched palaces and temples and towers, massive warehouses and large taverns go by on the banks.

  The river wyrm ducked its head as they passed under the arches of bridges. The structures themselves were more like streets. They had shops and houses built on them. Men sat at the base of the pillars, fishing with rods and nets, trying to catch something for supper. Once he thought he saw a corpse bobbing in the river. He doubted that anyone would want to swim on a day like today. The sky was clear and blue but the wind was cold and air and water both held a winter chill.

  He felt as if someone was watching him, and turned to see that Asea’s eye was upon him. “Yes?” he said.

  “You look happy,” she said. “You don’t look happy often.”

  He smiled. “I have just discovered that I like leaving places.”

  “I have never felt much that way myself,” she said. “Not since the Exile, not since we left Al’Terra.”

  “What was it like?” he asked. “Did you have cities like this?”

  At first he thought she was not going to answer. Her gaze was fixed on a point in the distance, as if she was looking at something far off in time, as well as distance.

  “Bigger,” she said. “With taller towers, lit by magic, and strengthened by spells and steel so that they were tall enough to touch the clouds. Air chariots and flying ships moved between them, common as the little boats on this river.”

  He could almost picture it in his eye. “Did dragons draw them?”

  “No, they were powered by magic. Folk rode dragons for sport mostly, and for war.”

  “Was it cold like today?” She shook her head.

  “The climate was kinder on Al’ Terra, Rik. At least where I lived. It never got really cold, although near the world’s waist it could get very warm. Magic kept our palaces cool in the summer and warm in the winter. We had so much power and we did not even know it. We took it all for granted.”

  “What happened? Did the Princes of Shadow steal your magic?”

  “No. It was fading before ever they appeared. Afterwards some said that the failure of the great spells was a portent of their coming. I am not so sure. I sometimes think it was a coincidence. If there was a connection I think it was subtler.”

  “In what way?”

  “This is not the time or the place to discuss such matters, Rik.” She smiled, lovely as a girl and for a moment he forgot that she was the most powerful and terrifying sorceress he was ever likely to meet. “Ask me of something happier?”

  He tried, but being put on the spot like this, his mind went blank. “Were you happy there?” he asked.

  “Happier than I have ever been since we came to this world - that is a certainty. Magic was easier to work there. Even at its worst, when magic was failing, there was more power there than here.”

  “I was thinking more of friends, and family.” These things had been rare in his life before he had joined the army. They were a treasure he thought he could understand, made all the more precious by their rarity.

  She laughed. “I am a sorcerer, Rik. Magic is my art, my addiction, my passion. The quest for knowledge and the ability to shape tau, those were the things that drove me then, and still drive me now, even after all these centuries.”

  He heard the truth of that in her voice. He envied her it as well.

  “But there was all the other things as well; friends, lovers, laughter, light, joy. Children?”

  A shadow passed across her face, and he thought he had perhaps been too impertinent. The smile vanished. “There were.”

  There was something in the tone of her voice that told him that it would not be a good idea to ask what had happened to them. Very, very few Terrarchs indeed had made the passage to Gaeia. Only ten thousand according to scripture. Asea has been describing a city bigger than Halim, and he had read that there had been many hundreds of cities on Al’Terra.

  “The Princes of Shadow took from us far more than you can know, Rik.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You have the talent. Here using it is so difficult. You must sometimes draw on the life force of your own body to work spells. It kills you slowly unless you are very careful. On Al’Terra, magical energy flowed freely through the very air. You could reach out and shape it and sculpt it into wonderful things. You could heal the sick, summon creatures from other planes, build ships that flew and not worry that you might kill yourself by overdrawing on your power.”

  “It sounds wonderful,” he said, and meant it. What would it be like for him to live in such a world? He resigned himself to the fact that he would never know. And it dawned on him, that given his heritage, he had lost something, a thing that he had never even known he had lost until she had told him. So much of his life seemed like that, and he resented it.

  “It was wonderful.”

  “Do you think you will ever go back?”

  She shook her head. “I fear though that it has followed us here.”

  “The Princes of Shadow?”

  “Or their agents at least.” He glanced around just to be certain that no one had come within earshot since they had started their conversation.

  “Lord Malkior?” he said.

  “I would be very surprised if he were not one of them.”

  He shivered. If she was right and Malkior was his father he had a direct lineal connection to the very lords of evil. “But there is the possibility you are wrong.”

  “There is always that possibility, Rik. Only a fool thinks otherwise.”

  She fell silent, studying the city as it fell away behind them. He leaned against the boat's wooden railings and did the same, content for the moment to let the world just drift by. It grew dark and Asea went below.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The night air was clear as crystal. Overhead the stars burned coldly. The chill wind bit like a blade. Rik heard footsteps behind him. Turning he saw the tall, spare figure of Lieutenant Sardec emerge. Not so long ago Sardec had o
rdered him whipped for infractions of regimental discipline. Now Rik’s position as Asea’s protégé and rescuer of Queen Kathea, made him safe from that at least. He still carried hatred and resentment for Sardec and he was sure the Lieutenant felt the same about him, but under the circumstances there was not anything either of them could do about it. Given the dangerous nature of their mission, it might be best for them to come to terms with each other, but Rik was damned if he was going to make the first move. The business with Rena still rankled, all the more because he was certain that the officer did not even know what she had once meant to him.

  Sardec noticed his glance. “Good evening,” he said politely. “I had thought I was going to be alone up here, given the cold and the hour. Everyone save the watch is asleep.”

  “I like to look at the stars,” said Rik.

  “Is it part of your apprenticeship?”

  “Apprenticeship?”

  “Some people think you are Lady Asea’s new apprentice. They mean it as a joke, but I am starting to wonder if it is something more.”

  “Why?”

  “I have seen you making signs. I have noticed the amulets you wear.”

  Sardec was quicker than he looked. “You object?”

  Sardec paused for a moment, then shook his head. “What Lady Asea chooses to do is her business. And after what you did at the Serpent Tower, I think she might be right to do it.”

  There was no hostility in Sardec’s voice, and not the least hint of condescension. He talked to Rik as if they were equals. Sometime, somewhere, the Lieutenant’s attitude to him had changed.

  “She asked for you specifically to command her guards,” Rik said, because he could think of nothing better to say.

  “I know. This will be the third time I have done so. I pray that it is more auspicious than the first.” He raised his hook meaningfully.

  “You do not think that she - we - are in any danger?”

  “I think she is. There is a strangeness to this war that I like not at all. It is different from the ones my father told me about.”