by Jackson Lear
I dug out a half mark from my pocket and handed it over. “Now shut the fuck up.”
He did so.
“Did they mention anyone else? Any other names?”
“They talked about ‘the girl’ a bit. And ‘Kasera’s girl.’ I guess something happened to her a while ago because they said a lot of ‘before’ when talking about her. That’s got to be pretty dangerous for them, right? Kidnapping Kasera’s daughter?”
It looked like Qin wasn’t fully aware of what was happening. “That would be dangerous, yes.”
“And you never told me I was protecting the daughter of the captain of the city watch!”
“How long did it take you to figure that out?”
“Pretty much as soon as Myalla took the thing around my face off and said, ‘It’s okay, my father is the captain of the city watch.’ You could’ve warned me!”
“I bet you looked surprised when she said it,” I said. “This other girl they talked about, did they say who she was? Where she was? What they were doing with her?”
“Not much. They weren’t sure if the ghost was going to accept the other girl now that Myalla had been taken.”
“Any ideas where they have her?”
“No. They just said they wouldn’t have long to wait.”
“Did you get anything on her family?” I asked.
He sighed, still annoyed and thoroughly bored but at least the ordeal was close to being over now. “I did, yeah. Her dad is drinking again. It started when all of the emperors began dying. He’s been tired a lot and working late.”
“Working late?”
“That’s what her mom said but her mom is looking quite sad as well. Myalla knows its best to pretend to be asleep when her dad comes home from work because he has a temper. Nothing ew, he just shouts a lot. Whenever that happens her mom buys Myalla and her sisters new clothes and new sandals. That makes her dad angry again and he does a lot more shouting.”
“What else?”
“I don’t know. Myalla likes her new school.”
“Is she in a better school?”
“Yeah. She and her sisters have been there for a year.”
“And the family never run out of money?”
“I asked about that. Her mom has been saying they had a good harvest.”
“You can’t grow money.”
“No shit,” said Qin. “Her mom said the good harvest came when Aracella …” he shook his head, unsure of the word.
“The first of the four emperors to die.”
“Oh. She said when he died her dad started drinking and her mom started buying them new clothes.”
“He drinks a lot?”
“Yes.”
“She buys new clothes a lot?”
“Yes.”
I cracked a smile. “And this began all of a sudden a year ago?”
“Yes.”
No wonder Castor was stressed. Audits were a common practice among new emperors to see who was stealing from the empire and who could be taxed a little harder. Four audits in one year would send anyone into a tailspin of wine and misery. If Castor’s wife was known to be spending large amounts of money that the family shouldn’t have then someone might find that Castor was sitting on a large haul of money that either came from the city’s coffers or is from a heist that was never returned to its rightful owner. The latter was more likely, given that his wife had ready access to the money.
The kid had done well. “You hungry?”
“Starving!”
“Go rummage through everything you can find. Eat what you want. Bring back what you want. You can take their money as well.”
Qin’s eyes lit up at the sound of that. “All of their money?”
“If you can carry it, you can keep it.”
Qin grinned in delight and ran into the next room.
I lowered myself in front of Desten the Leaf. Gagged, bound, and blindfolded. He would’ve looked better with a shaved head than the patch of fur on his crown. Wholly unremarkable were it not for him flinching with every creak of the floorboards. For a man holding two kids hostage it sure didn’t seem like it had been his idea. Even so, he was a man being groomed into power. The problem with that, he knew the theory behind every confrontation but had little of the experience.
I held Lieutenant’s dagger between two fingers, arcing it back and forth in front of Desten’s face, checking for even the slightest reaction. “My friends and I killed eight Vanguard members today when they thought it was a good idea to ambush us by the river. My friends and I killed four more when they ambushed us near the orphanage. My friends and I have overpowered you and killed your associate here.” I grabbed a tuft of his hair and pulled his head back. “Twenty years ago I was Brayen. I lived at the orphanage where both Kiera and Día resided. Kiera was my best friend. You assholes killed her. You lot are trying to do the same to Día.” I pressed my finger tips against his throat, checking his pulse. He was in a full blown panic. “I’ve been waiting a long time to meet you.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
A blast of energy knocked me and Greaser back, like the fist of a god punching us in the chest. Another of Desten’s spells, targeted as best he could while wearing a blindfold.
“Search them,” growled Greaser, as he climbed back to his feet.
Another blast knocked us down. It still packed a solid punch but anything after that would only be as strong as a six year old trying to push us over. Greaser returned to the door. Runaway stayed by the window, peering over the edge into the plaza below.
I started with the dead mercenary. He had an interesting scratch across his face. Two full lines with a third only half as long, side by side, still red with flecks of blood seeping through. Kinda like someone had scratched him three days ago. On him was a kukri behind his back, a dagger to his side, a sword on the ground, a money pouch, a food pouch with what I could only assume was rotting fish, an ivory whistle, and a folded leather wallet.
“Careful with that,” said Greaser. He came over and unfolded the wallet. It was the size of an out-stretched palm. Stitched into it were three divides. Greaser took the guy’s dagger and used it to pry open each of the three sections. Then the look of hell fell across Greaser’s eyes. It was like the dead guy had just tried to kick Greaser in the balls and missed, leaving himself at the mercy of a man who was about to hit twice as hard as your best strike. “I’ve smelled this before.”
“What is it?” I asked.
He pulled out a gnarled piece of dried skin, twisted around like a rusted strip of wire. “This comes from a dead body infused with more toxic magic than you ever want to see.”
Greaser pulled off Desten’s blindfold. “Is this how you summon the Eyeless Ghost?”
Our prisoner stared back at us. Blinking. Elevated pulse.
“Is it?”
I squeezed Desten’s throat. “Yes.”
I released my grip. He leaned back, gasping while reading us as best he could, picking out what we were each capable of, who was in charge, who was the mage, who was the muscle. A professional in a situation he had been trained for but never actually experienced in real life. I’ve intimidated a lot of people in my life. Most who think they’ve done a lot of intimidating themselves when caught by a foe shout a lot of uncertain phrases like, ‘Do you know who I am?’ or ‘If you don’t let me go we’ll kill every last one of you.’ It was refreshing to find a quiet one.
That’s not to say he wasn’t scared. His eyes landed on me. He knew I had a personal vendetta against him and his people. It was time for me to break the ice and get to know the man who was going to take me Día.
“I’m not going to bother lying; you’re going to die. You kidnapped a thirteen year old girl from Red Hill three days ago. Either the Eyeless Ghost has her or your friends have her. Twenty years ago there was another girl kidnapped from the same place by the same people. In fact there seems to be a long history of you people using the Eyeless Ghost to help you kidnap kids so they can be
sacrificed to save someone else. I want to know where Día is, who has her, how many people there are surrounding her, who they’re trying to save by sacrificing her, when this sacrifice will take place, why her, why every other kid who was taken, who’s the grand master of the doctors, how they’re controlling the Eyeless Ghost, is it really the Eyeless Ghost, who’s next, how much they’re being paid, who else have they saved? I want to know every big and little thing you know about them, starting with whatever is the most important. Start talking.”
Desten kept quiet.
Greaser rolled his eyes at me. “I gotta say, I’m not looking forward to the sound of him screaming.”
Me neither. I have to say, I was in unfamiliar territory here. I’ve interrogated thugs and merchants before but never someone this educated or connected. With the thugs there was always a level of mutual respect. They knew who I was, I knew who they were. In this case I didn’t know this asshole, he probably didn’t know much about me. I wasn’t sure of where our boundaries lay. What I did know was that I was running out of time and this guy would be lucky to see dawn.
Greaser dipped the tip of the dagger into the first divide, drew out a smear of brown tar-like goo, and held it close to our prisoner’s face. “What is this? Spider’s venom? Snake bite? Fire ants?”
No answer.
“You guys just happen to carry poison with you wherever you go?” I asked.
Still no answer.
“Strip him,” I said. We got to work cutting off Desten’s clothes, leaving him buck-ass naked on the floor. He curled up, trying to protect himself. I imagine his sphincter puckered so tight he could’ve shat diamonds.
I took the poisoned dagger from Greaser and returned to Desten. “You have a choice. You can either take us to Día and hope to find a way to escape by somehow getting the upper hand or you can writhe about on the ground, not tell us anything of use and have your throat slashed. I urge you to take the first option. It will be laborious for us. We’ll have to keep an eye on you. You’ll know where you are taking us and we’ll have to trust you. You’ll know all the look out signals you have set in place with your friends. We don’t. Right now you’re on the floor, tied up in a small room, surrounded. It’s not impossible to escape but it wouldn’t be easy. Or you could lead us towards Día, towards your friends where the numbers favor you much better than here. You’ll be on your feet and able to run. That’s your choice. Take us to Día or die here.”
Finally he spoke. “You have no idea what’s about to happen to you.”
That much was a given since I had about as much chance of reading the future as anyone else. But given their level of security, lack of clues they’ve left behind, and high profile contacts, I was sure that something bad would find its way to us unless we killed them all.
“Go on.”
“We’re connected to every family in Ispar. Every senator, every general, every lord, lady, and governor. This is a fight you can’t hope to win.”
“You kidnap young boys and girls, hold them hostage, then murder them. These are not the children of a general being held for ransom. These are innocent kids being killed with no repercussions coming your way. Until now. If what you do is ever exposed to the senators, generals, lords, ladies, and governors, how fast do you think you will lose your allies?”
“Not fast enough to save you,” said Desten.
“Taking a girl in broad daylight, that would take someone uniquely cold. Someone sworn to the mission.” I leaned in closer, the poisoned dagger precariously close to his face. “Was it you?”
He glared back at me, choosing to remain silent.
“Were you the one who actually grabbed Día and brought her to your double-door hide out just a few yards away?”
Again: silence.
“You’re in my city now,” I said. “You’ve taken one of my people. You know who has her, where she is, and how to get her back. Whether you think it’s possible or not doesn’t matter. You’re going to tell me everything about her captors and you will take us to her. Silence is not going to be your friend.”
Guess what option he took.
“So be it,” I said. I fashioned a gag out of his old clothes, forced it around his mouth, and wiped the tip of his poisoned dagger across the back of his right hand.
In a split second he cried out in howls, kicked and bucked, thrashed and shouted. I had to clamp a hand around his mouth to help dampen his screams. Whatever the brown balm was, it started to sizzle against his skin.
Greaser kept his eyes on the door. Runaway on the rear window. A final blast knocked us off our feet. He had another spell in him. Impressive. But useless. He thrashed and kicked for a good long while without ever passing out. The sizzling had spread across his hand, carried in new directions as his sweat ran here and there. His skin bulged with red blisters and bubbles.
Greaser had closed his eyes, listening to man crying out in agony. Runaway stole a look my way, unsure of how long I was willing to keep this up. “Raike?” He didn’t need to say any more.
“You’ll have to piss on it,” muttered Greaser.
Desten had relieved himself on the floor. I wiped his hand in it. The cries didn’t stop immediately but they did start to ease. I soaked part of his trousers in his mess and bandaged the back of his hand. Slowly the thrashing came to a stop. I removed the gag from around his mouth.
I guess from the length of his silence he expected me to repeat my questions. “Okay, now for your feet,” I said.
“Wait!”
I pushed him onto his front and grabbed a hold of his ankles.
“No! Wait!”
I dragged the edge of his dagger across the floor, running it closer to his feet. There was another serving of brown goo coming his way.
“The crags!” he shouted. I paused. “She’s in the crags.”
I released my grip. “Whereabouts?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been in the city the whole time.”
“How did they kidnap her?”
He shied away, a look of guilt coming over him.
“Tell me.”
It took a while to piece together the scattered sentences and half answers but it all finally came out. “There were six of us. Latelli met the girl in the street near the tailor’s. The girl came along and smiled at her. Latelli said she had more clothes she could donate and started leading her away. But the girl started getting nervous. I had to grab her while someone else pulled a hood over her head.”
“Latelli?”
“Our boss.”
“How old is she?”
“I don’t know. My grandfather said she was old when he started and that was fifty years ago.”
“So you put a hood over Día. What then?”
“She stopped fighting.”
“The hood was enchanted?”
“Yes.”
“Go on.”
“We kept her in a room until it was dark. Latelli had to double check it was the right girl.”
“How did she do that?”
“With the girl’s blood. Once we knew she was the one the Eyeless Ghost had chosen we put her and Latelli in a litter.”
“Where did you go after that?”
“Me? I had to tell the others that we had her.”
“Where did the litter with Día go?”
“To the crags.”
“What about Kiera?”
“I don’t know any Kiera.”
“She was taken from this city twenty years ago.”
“I’ve only been with them for ten years.”
“You never learned any of the names of the kids you took?”
“No.”
“You were at General Kasera’s compound yesterday. Why?”
“He wanted to know if we had kidnapped the daughter of the city watch captain. We didn’t. But you did, didn’t you?”
“How did you find her?”
Desten glared back at me, the sweat dripping into his eyes. “Her father is smarter than you a
re. He told her if she was ever taken prisoner to pray loudly, constantly, saying the name of some obscure god over and over. No one else in the city was using that name. So we listened out for it. We got to her before her father did and we gagged her.”
“Why not release her?”
“Because you fucked it for us,” he said, casting another look of hatred my way. I admit it started to warm my soul knowing that I had somehow screwed things up for him. “The Eyeless Ghost now has two targets to choose from thanks to you leaving our note on Myalla’s bed. We had to keep her in case the Eyeless Ghost shifted to her.”
“Yeah, about that note. ‘Her death will live on for decades.’ Why write one?”
He wanted a moment to catch his breath. I pushed the poisoned dagger closer to his balls.
“It binds us to her!”
I pulled back.
“We mixed our blood and hers with some ink. Then we leave the note behind and make sure someone sees it.”
“If that’s all there is to it how have I screwed things up for you with Myalla Castor?”
Desten tried to wipe his brow his shoulder. “Because the ghost feeds on emotion. There’s no stronger feeling than someone you care for being in mortal danger.”
“A boy found it. How did you know he’d pick it up?”
“I drew his attention to it. We left a piece of tile behind to connect the two. We wiped it in the girl’s sweat. I enhanced the boy’s sense of smell. He recognized her scent and that she was in a panic when it happened.”
I looked to Greaser. It seemed like he was taking mental notes of what to do in the future. I returned to Desten. “When you were with Kasera, your father said something unexpected had happened.”
He looked over his wounded hand. Blood and blisters had formed all over his skin. “You really don’t know?”
“I know you killed Kiera to save Kasera’s wife and unborn child.”
“That’s half of what we wanted. Lady Kasera refused to have an abortion even though her child was killing her. We couldn’t save her life with that thing inside her and we had never been able to save an unborn child before. So, for the first time, we tried to do two things at once: kill the child and give the mother the strength to survive it. It should’ve been easy.”