The Palace Job

by Patrick Weekes

  "That's a nice bit of maneuvering." Silestin chuckled and shook his head.

  Then raised his head to the sky and shouted, "Bi'ul, we have a deal!"

  "Excellent," came a voice from the trees, and the Glimmering Man stepped out and let his radiance burn through the predawn mist.

  A dozen man-sized figures, their black claws and horns wreathed in flame and their scaly red hide oozing smoke, flared into existence. "Consider this an advance payment in good faith." Bi'ul smiled, and his eyes were like prisms set before a bonfire. "Fetch my price, and the rest shall be yours."

  "Blood-gargoyles!" cried Dairy, who had been watching the last few minutes with varying degrees of anxiety and bewilderment. Ululenia danced back toward the railing and the elven ship, her horn flaring. The Voyants were doing the same thing.

  "Damn it, Loch!" She turned at Pyvic's cry to see Silestin leap into the air and soar out over the garden railing, faint green light sparkling around him as he flew.

  "Farewell, young lady," Silestin called with a cold smile. "For what it's worth, you played it well." Then he dipped down below the rim of the Spire.

  "Souls," Pyvic said. "He's getting the souls of everyone in the Cleaners to pay Bi'ul."

  Loch swore, dove for her sword, and came up between the Voyants and the creatures. "Kail! You ready to make amends?"

  Behind her, there was another cough, and then, weakly, "Do they have mothers?"

  She smiled despite herself. "Get the elf out of his shackles." The Glimmering Man and the blood-gargoyles were moving slowly, confidently.

  Then a cylinder of shimmering amber light sizzled into the air around them, and Loch turned to see Voyant Bertram holding a slender crystal wand. Loch looked at the elf. "I have friends at the Archvoyant's palace. A tinker, a death priestess, and a wizard who specializes in illusion. In exchange for the manuscript, I need them here now, I need a delay on those things coming toward us, and I need a sum of money to be negotiated later. Deal?"

  With a weak grin, Kail unlatched the elf s shackles, and the elf pulled away, massaging the burns on his wrists. The crystals on his face blossomed with sudden light. "Multiple parameter considerations, estimating negotiative assertion probability... equitable."

  The elf ran for his ship, the roots slithering back from the railing even as he approached. He vaulted over with the grace of a leaping gazelle, and the ship's sails crackled with green light and went taut.

  As the ship roared away, Loch turned. "Pyvic?"

  He was by her side, sword raised. The blood-gargoyles had destroyed the light-barrier, but vines had grown from the ground and were now coiling around the creatures. Bi'ul himself simply waited. "One justicar-grade flight charm, ready and waiting," Pyvic said. "But do you trust the elf?"

  "Go." Kail was on his feet, pausing only to pick up a pair of fallen swords. He raised his eyes to Loch. "I'll hold them. Stop the bastard. Don't let him... don't let him do that to anyone else."

  Loch turned to Ululenia and Dairy. "Stay alive. I'll be back as soon as I can."

  We will not fail you, Little One, Ululenia promised.

  "Come on, kid!" Kail shouted, and tossed Dairy a sword. "Time to earn your share."

  The vines coiling around the blood-gargoyles were smoldering from the heat the creatures gave off. Loch gave it another minute, tops.

  "You heard the man." She sheathed her sword, put both arms around Pyvic, and held on tight. "Let's go."

  Then the wind swirled around them, sparkling green as the magic lifted them into the air.

  Kail's whole body ached. Desidora probably would have said it was the pain of his soul returning to his body, but all Kail knew was that he had the worst hangover of his life, combined with a gut-wrenching sadness that made him want to crawl into a bottle and stay there.

  "What do we do, Mister Kail?" the kid called as the blood-gargoyles burned free of the vines that the elf had summoned.

  Beside Kail, one of the Voyants used a wand and blasted Bi'ul with a crimson beam of pure light. As far as Kail could tell, it did absolutely nothing.

  "We stay alive, kid." Kail turned to the blood-gargoyles, who were loping forward with easy grace. "Only a dozen of you?" he shouted. "I was worried for a moment!" And brandishing his sword, he charged.

  They moved like hunting cats, lithe and deadly, baring obsidian fangs as he drew near. Pound for pound, hunting cats were the deadliest creatures a man in the wilderness could encounter, far more dangerous than wolves.

  But wolves worked together. Hunting cats didn't. And all the legends Kail could remember about the blood-gargoyles had them working alone.

  He dove into the middle of the pack, spinning and swinging wildly, and caught one of them on the arm. Flames flared from the wound, and Kail dove to the side and drove another one back with a desperate slash. Fast and deadly, the gargoyles leapt at him—and into each other as he ducked away. One of them went down under a whirlwind of flaming black claws, finally dissolving into sooty embers as its ally sank its fangs into its throat.

  "That all you've got?" Kail slashed, ducked, stabbed, and leaped away, and the gargoyles banged into each other, hissing in fury. "Your mother leaves bigger scratch marks on my back when I— ah!" He dropped to a knee as one of them caught him on the leg.

  For a moment three of them loomed over him, claws raised, and then a golden flash of color slammed into Kail, and he was rolling hard and coming up to a pained crouch a few yards away.

  Icy Fist stood between Kail and the blood-gargoyles, his fists raised. "I do not believe your attacks will succeed," he said as they leaped at him, "due largely to your ineffective tactics..." He ducked, and two of them slammed into each other, snarling. "...and your moral inadequacy." Another one slashed at Icy, who redirected the attack, and the attacker's slash opened up a flaming wound on one of its allies. He snuck a glance at Kail and, with a gentle smile, called, "Disharmonizing influence!"

  "You're my hero, Indomitable Courteous."

  Over near the rim, Dairy and Ululenia were surrounded by half a dozen of the creatures. The kid, now fighting on foot, killed one with a massive two-handed swing that left him completely unguarded, but as another blood-gargoyle lunged at his unprotected back, Ululenia's hooves caught the beast squarely in the chest. "Keep moving!" Kail shouted.

  One of the Voyants was down, smoke rising from his chest. The other was surrounded by a nimbus of golden light, but green tendrils of energy were slowly constricting around it.

  "Not my problem," Kail muttered, and charged into the group around the unicorn and the kid as one of the blood-gargoyles got onto Ululenia's back.

  He slashed one down the back to get its attention, then kicked another one into a third. "Come on, you fiery bastards! Picking on a kid and a horse? Where's the fun in that?"

  He'd betrayed Loch. Not by choice, which should have helped, but didn't. He'd been a tool.

  The second Voyant hit the ground, green tendrils of energy crackling around him.

  Kail slugged a blood-gargoyle in the jaw as it lunged in to bite, then got himself between the creatures and the kid while the kid whacked the one on Ululenia's back. In the other pack, a flash of white light flared for a moment, and when it faded, Icy lay unmoving in the grass, the creatures around him all unharmed.

  "Dodge that," Bi'ul said with a hint of satisfaction.

  It was suicide to even consider it.

  But it was a choice. It was his choice.

  Kail's sword cleaved through the one standing over Icy, and he body-checked another one to the turf, crying out as a third raked claws along his side. He spun and swung, but the blade caught on the bone spur just behind its below, and when it twisted, Kail's cheap blade snapped.

  He shoved the broken blade into its face, snarling in triumph as it dissolved into sooty flame that scorched his arm, and then fangs sank into his shoulder. He got his fingers into the damn thing's eyes as claws raked a line of fire across his chest, and then he was on his knees, and a brilliant pain tore
into his gut as one of them kicked him with taloned feet, and he dropped to one knee, levered to ready a lunge, and then saw the great slash coming at his ribs a moment too late.

  "Besyn larveth'isr

  As his vision blurred and went dark, Kail saw the blood-gargoyle standing over him explode into flames tinged with silver, and with the last of his fading strength, he turned to look at Bi'ul, who stood several yards away with an expression of surprised displeasure.

  "I win," Kail said, and the darkness took him.

  "You'll forgive me if this isn't quite how I'd hoped to hold you again," Pyvic muttered as he and Loch swooped down below the rim and under Heaven's Spire. Overhead, the lapiscaela were dull and quiet, resting in their cradles and waiting for the morning light. Below, the world was lost in a sea of mist just starting to lighten as the sun eased over the mountains.

  "Hoping to hold me?" Loch asked, trying not to look down again and holding onto Pyvic a bit tighter. "I thought I was an unprincipled thief and possible Imperial agent."

  "An unprincipled thief with great legs." Pyvic smiled, then squinted. "I don't see him. He must have landed above."

  "Bring us in, then. If his deal with Bi'ul is what I think it is, he'll be stealing souls from the stones." Seeing a familiar landmark, Loch grinned. "I see they got the Tooth back in."

  "I don't remember Orris being happy with how you returned it, though." Pyvic brought them up slowly to the lower grid, watching for ambushers, then lifted them to the safety of the upper grid and set Loch down.

  "How's Hessler?"

  "Awake and fine. He was trying to free the priestess and the safecracker when I left."

  Loch nodded, testing her balance on the pipes. After a moment's thought, she kicked off her riding boots and socks.

  "You really wanted to fight the Archvoyant barefoot?" Pyvic asked, hovering at her side and watching as Loch's footwear fell away and finally vanished in the mist.

  "I want to reach him. The boots don't have enough grip." She drew her sword. "Ready?"

  He drew his own blade. "Where do you think he is?"

  "Start from the middle." She ran at an easy jog, her bare feet making almost no noise on the iron piping. Beside her, Pyvic floated, watching for an attack. "And Justicar?"

  "Yes, Captain?"

  "I'm really glad you're here."

  The familiar run came to her almost immediately—narrow steps along the pipes, punctuated by sudden shifts at the corners, with her free arm pulling her from handgrip to handgrip. The Cleaners was empty this early in the morning, and the only movement was Pyvic floating gently at her side and Loch's own breath puffing in the cold morning air.

  And then, through the twisting pipes that made up the grid, the white flash of a military jacket caught her eye. "There!" She changed direction, cut the corner of a wide stone with a short leap, and charged.

  Silestin was leaning down over one of the lapiscaela, another crystal wand extended toward the stone, but he caught Loch from the corner of his eye and came upright as she approached. "Come to watch me make history?" he asked with a lazy smile.

  She slowed to a walk, keeping her breathing even and her sword up. "You're done, Silestin."

  "The Glimmering Folk say otherwise," Silestin said with a chuckle. "When they return, the Republic will be the heart of their land. The Empire, the old kingdoms over the sea... they'll be ground down to dust, while we live in luxury. I'll be a hero. A legend."

  "Mister Silestin," Pyvic said formally, landing gently beside Loch, his own sword out and leveled, "as I said before, you are under arrest. You can surrender and get a fair trial, or we can cut you down here and now." He smiled grimly. "I'm really fine either way."

  Silestin raised an eyebrow. "Pyvic, son, that's a powerful argument with one tiny flaw. You see, I'm the only one hovering... and these pipes are solid iron." He brought up his ring.

  Loch dove on instinct before the lightning started crackling. The sizzle of burning air and the crackle of lightning along the pipes hit her ears as she came down hard on one of the lapiscaela. She took it on the side, rolled while keeping her sword-arm outstretched to avoid skewering herself, and looked up.

  Pyvic had jumped out of Silestin's aim, too, but not far enough. He clung to the pipes, arched back in a rictus posture of tortured pain as the lightning played across the pipes—and him. Then it faded, and Pyvic fell. Her breath caught in her throat, but after a few heartbeats, his flight charm kicked in, and he drifted lazily and safely downward.

  Then she looked up at Silestin, who grinned and held up his ring-hand.

  "You have any idea what using your lightning ring could do to the stones?" she asked, and sheathed her sword.

  Silestin frowned. "You're right. It could be dangerous. I suppose—" And then he fired, and fortunately Loch had read it coming and already taken a desperate leap that brought her high enough to catch the piping of the upper grid as lightning crackled across the surface of the lapiscaelum behind her. The stone gave off an angry high-pitched whine behind her.

  She kept the momentum of her swing and flung herself at the next stone, knowing what any soldier with a ranged weapon would do with a target like the one she was presenting. Lightning flared along the pipes behind her, and a moment of tingling numbness thrilled through her body. She hit the stone hard, slid, and missed the catch on the far side. As her body went over, she had one aching moment of time, balanced on the edge, to see Silestin raising the ring again, and she gritted her teeth and kicked off hard.

  The jolt as she hit the lower grid nearly wrenched her arms from their sockets, but she held on, swung desperately for a moment, and then pulled herself up to get the pipe under her armpits. The stone flared a bright red and began to whine like the one before it as the electricity crackled.

  She was out of options. She edged over to the next pipe and pulled herself up slowly, agonizingly slowly, to a crouch. Her ribs ached—bruised, not broken—and her shoulder twinged with the sharp pain of a torn tendon.

  She climbed to the upper grid, waiting for the shot. It didn't come.

  Silestin was making his way to her as she pulled herself up, and his sword was out. She raised an eyebrow. "No more ring?"

  "If you think I need a magic ring to finish off one arrogant Urujar thief," Silestin drawled, "that speaks to your own stupidity."

  "No more ring." Loch grinned cruelly. "How much money did you just spend trying to kill me?"

  "I can always buy another one." Silestin pursed his lips. "So... what's the trick?" At Loch's questioning look he sniffed. "You planning to run off under an illusion? Maybe your unicorn will fly you away? You've had an angle this whole time. I respect that. So... what's it going to be this time, young lady?"

  "The trick," Loch said, drawing her blade, "is that this time, the young lady kicks your ass."

  The first rays of dawn shimmered off their blades as steel met steel.

  They had just reached the palace gardens when the elf arrived in his marvelous living ship. The flight to the garden had taken mere heartbeats. As Desidora leaped off the gangplank and into the garden, Ghylspwr held high, she saw Kail fall to a group of pyrkafir. It seemed that fortune had decreed she arrive at just the right time.

  Or perhaps fortune had nothing to do with it.

  "Besyn larveth'is!" Ghylspwr shouted as she threw him. He tore through one of the pyrkafir, blasting it to ashes, and as the smoke cleared, she saw Ambassador Bi'ul staring at her with an expression of displeased surprise.

  "Who are you?" he called in irritation.

  It coiled inside her, and this time she stretched out her soul and welcomed it.

  "Death," she said, and held out one pearly white hand.

  "Insipid," Bi'ul sniffed. "If you wish to bluster—"

  "Kutesosh gajair'is," Ghylspwr said in a voice as cold as the death priestess's own as he flared into that open hand.

  Behind her, the tinker and the wizard were trying to help the unicorn and the boy. They were irrelevant. She s
tepped forward as the pyrkafir charged. "I am the averted death of the gods." She swatted one aside. "I am the sacrificial death of all who must fall to serve their will." Ghylspwr swung up to blast one into the sky. "And I am your death, Glimmering Man." A blinding slash of silver destroyed two more. "Your time in this world or any other has passed."

  There were no more pyrkafir between the death priestess and the Glimmering Man. Behind her, three mortals and a fey who had once been her friends fought for their lives with magic and steel, bolts and bravery.

  "Pitiful," Bi'ul said absently, and hurled a searing flare of prismatic light.

  She called upon her power and raised her weapon. Though the light drove her to her knees, she remained when it faded. In a ten-foot circle around her, the grass was withered and dead, sacrificed for her.

  "Impressive," Bi'ul murmured, "but how much grass are you willing to kill?"

  She stood. "As much as is necessary."

  "Forget us, Mister Hessler!" came the cry behind her. "You've got to help Desidora!"

  She could feel their auras moving toward her, the two who had been with her on the ship. She said nothing. They could prove useful.

  She struck, a testing blow, and Ghylspwr struck multicolored sparks off the rainbow shield that sprang up on Bi'ul's arm. His right hand had become a ball of living light; he struck, forcing Ghylspwr to parry, and the shock of power drove the death priestess back on her heels. The shield knocked Ghylspwr aside, and the blast of light caught her with a glancing blow. Desidora hit the ground, and the trees at the edge of the garden shivered and shed their leaves in a sudden collapse of brown and red and black.

  Bi'ul stood over her, shining fist raised, and then stumbled back, his radiance dimming as a field of gray washed over him. A bolt ripped through his glowing shield, and he cried out in shock and pain.

  "I had a little time to study," the wizard said, "and it struck me that if you are a creature of illusion..." He raised his hand, and another gray field washed over the Glimmering Man. "...then magic that abjures illusions might cause you some discomfort."