by Dave Gross
While the town smelled plenty rotten, I didn't see much in the way of fish in the market. When I got a better look at the river, I saw why. It was just a weed-choked runnel, barely wide enough for two fish to swim side by side. So much for the Silverscale River.
"What's that?" Jelani pointed at a hill that used to be an island in the dead river. On top were the burned-out ruins of an old fortress.
I hadn't had a good look before, but I remembered what they were. "Riversoar Clanhold. They were the family in charge before somebody gutted their chief in the streets."
"Rough town."
"I told you, sweetheart, don't be scared. I'll protect you."
She squinted at me, but out of the corner of my eye I saw her smiling while I pretended to look at a table full of dolls. Along with other carved tools and toys, I spied a little wooden box, a little bigger than a deck of cards. Along each side were carved a hammer, star, key, crown, book, and shield. I knew what that meant.
"Do my eyes deceive me?" A mouse-faced character in a velvet coat jumped up behind the table. He popped up so quick, I nearly popped him one. "Or does a countryman stand before me?"
I saw Ustalav in his face, too, but I knew better than to say so around here.
When the demons came out to play, way back when, lots of Sarkorians tried to cross the border. Afraid they were infected, or maybe just not wanting to share their land, the princess of Ustalav had her armies push them back across the river. These days, when the locals thought of Ustalavs, they spat.
"I'm from Cheliax."
"But you look just like—"
"Yeah, yeah," I said. "I get that a lot."
"Golin Imbrenhol, at your service." He stuck out a hand.
I didn't take it. I didn't like the way he sank his teeth into his esses. Instead, I slid open the top of the box and saw what I'd expected: harrow cards.
"How much for these?" I cut the deck and flipped one card over. Jelani leaned over my shoulder for a look. Her hand was warm on my arm. I could smell her breath.
Looking down at the card, I saw a pair of slaves, one raising his shackled wrists up to the sun as the chains shattered. It was one of my favorite cards: The Big Sky. I thought about that for a second before admitting I didn't know what the hell it meant. Not without a harrower to explain it to me, anyway.
"Ah, you have a discerning eye, my Chelish friend. Those once belonged to Baba Narcisa, matriarch of one of the oldest Sczarni clans. The Sczarni are among the oldest people of Avistan, roaming the northern lands from Varisia—"
"I know about Sczarni." Fortune-tellers, con artists, robbers, thieves. Sometimes werewolves, as it turns out. They weren't just my kind of people. They were my actual people.
"Of course you do. The Sczarni travel far and wide, even in your great southern empire." The way Golin said the words made me feel greasy. I didn't mind he didn't give a damn about Cheliax as long as he didn't mind my not giving a damn about his pitch. That didn't stop him. "Baba Narcisa passed down that very deck to her granddaughter, who also had the gift. She passed it to her daughter, Luminita, who fell afoul of a vengeful witch. Hard on his luck, Luminita's brother sold her deck to a traveling merchant, who later sold it to me."
"How much?" I counted the cards. Fifty-four, none short, no extras. Considering what happened last time I found an extra card in a harrow deck, that was good luck. I kissed my thumb, drew the wings.
"As you can see, the box alone is worth—"
"How damn much?"
"Two hundred—"
"Desna weeps." I snapped the box shut and put it back on the table. "What do I look like, the Prince of Ustalav?"
Sometimes I amuse myself. That's not always smart. Now it was Golin squinting at me.
"Are you sure you don't have family in Ustalav? For a countryman, I could go as low as one hundred and—"
"You know what? Forget it. I'm hungry. Let's go, sweetheart."
I took Jelani by the elbow and moved away, all offended-like. We didn't hustle, but we didn't linger neither. I figured even odds we'd get out of sight before Golin picked up his fancy box and felt it light one harrow deck.
"You really shouldn't call me sweetheart," said Jelani.
"You don't like it?"
"The captain warned us against fraternizing."
"She calls it ‘fraternizing,' huh? It's a wonder she and the boss don't get along any better than they do."
Jelani looked a question at me.
"They both like big words. Anyway, the captains ain't around, not yours, not mine. Maybe we could take a walk, find a nice grassy spot with nobody else around."
"I thought you were hungry," she said. "For supper."
"Oh, we got plenty of time." I reached my arm around her waist. Something pricked me in the back.
Starknife.
Maybe I'm not Sarkorian superstitious, seeing a god in every tree and wolfhound, but you don't ignore a sign like that. Anyway, I couldn't. Maybe it was just on account of we were so close to Ustalav. Maybe it was the harrow deck in my pocket.
Or maybe this close to Ustalav, Azra could see me.
I lost my appetite and let go of Jelani.
I took the starknife off my hip and put it in one of the demon saddlebags. When I closed the flap, I felt less like somebody was watching me.
But only a little.
"Let's fetch the pants and make sure everything's ready at the inn."
Jelani shot me a look. "Sometimes you're very difficult to read."
"It's all the big words I get from the boss."
She had to think about that one for a second, but then she laughed again. It's the kind of joke that'd be funnier if she knew me better. Maybe there'd be time for that later, farther away from the Ustalavic border.
We got back to the Splinter around sunset. Jelani stabled her horse and brushed him down. I let mine turn to mist and blow away. The saddle and bridle went with him, but the saddlebags fell to the ground. I reminded myself to take them off first, next time.
Inside the Splinter, Whalt had already put a tankard upside down on each of the tables he'd set aside for us. That curvy little vixen Shal was helping him. She tensed up when she saw me, just like last time.
That was a new one on me. Seeing how she smiled at the other fellows, I wouldn't have figured her for so shy. Maybe she was intimidated by my masculine charms, not that she'd had a chance to see the best ones.
She relaxed and gave me a smile, which was more like it. The light caught her eye and gleamed off the silver band she wore around her head. I liked to think her smile was more for my winning personality than the gold in my pocket, but I knew better.
I knew better, and I didn't care.
I sidled up all casual. It's one of my many knacks.
"Happy to see me, Shal?"
"You remember my name?" She dimpled. If the girl wasn't a professional, she had a knack of her own. "I was afraid I'd offended you the way I behaved before. It's just you remind me of someone from my past."
"Forget about it," I said, giving her a squeeze.
Now that I was so near to her face, I felt a little weird about her, too. It wasn't that she looked like anybody I knew. I was pretty sure about that. But there was something familiar about her. The smell of her hair really drove it in hard.
I stepped back, trying not to let on that she gave me a gitchy feeling.
She blinked at me. I blinked back.
"Shal," said Whalt. He sounded more puzzled than angry. "Fetch the man a drink."
She looked at me, and I felt confused for a moment. Then I realized what she was waiting for. "Beer," I said. "Make it two."
"Right away." She gave me another dimple, a real naughty one. I watched her hustle behind the bar. She had a lot of bustle in her hustle, let me tell you. Still, there was something wrong.
"Shal's been a real help to me," said Whalt. "I wouldn't want anything to hurt her."
The way he warned me, he sounded more like a concerned uncle than a territorial boyfriend. I was a
ll right with that.
"You don't even got to worry, Whalt." He kept his eye on me, and I realized what he was thinking. "That second beer ain't for her."
Jelani rescued me by coming through the door. When she smiled at me, Whalt relaxed and gave me a nod.
Jelani and I took the seat the boss had last time we were there. The beers came out. Shal looked annoyed as she put one in front of Jelani. They turned their necks to look at each other and smiled knives.
I watched Shal go back to the kitchen. Jelani switched her beer for mine.
"What?"
"I don't fancy barmaid spit."
I hoisted the tankard. I didn't see anything wrong. "She didn't have time."
"I like to be sure."
"Here's mud in your eye." The beer was cellar-cold and honey-sweet. I liked the stuff Zora Gorcha had on her river barge, bitter and black. I didn't used to drink so much beer, but lately I'd gotten fond of a couple pints at the end of the day.
Jelani took a long drink and gave herself a mustache. I enjoyed watching her lick it off, but it was time to stop dancing and start talking.
"Did I give you anything good for your captain?"
She shrugged. "I think she already knows you better than I could after one afternoon."
"I was surprised she didn't sic you on the boss instead. You could talk magic stuff."
"Too obvious," she said. "Besides, I got a whiff of the inside of the carriage the other day."
"Oh, it's better now. He tries to be careful, but sometimes he goes too fast and loses his supper."
"Oparal told me a little about his unorthodox method."
I nodded. "When he puts the spell in his head, it puts butterflies in his stomach. With the riffle scrolls, he's putting down only a little bit of the spell at one time. He's all right if he doesn't go too fast. After he's cast a lot of them, though, sometimes he goes too far. If you watch early in the morning, you can catch him emptying that little silver bucket."
"I've never heard of such a thing. Was he cursed?"
"I don't think so. Not as far as I know, anyway. Until he figured out the secret of the riffle scrolls, he knew all kinds of things about magic but couldn't cast any spells without wrecking himself."
"Fascinating." She sipped her beer and I sipped mine. "Did you get anything useful to tell your boss?"
"He's not too worried about you. Or your captain. He thinks a lot of Oparal." When Jelani raised an eyebrow, I added, "I know! Surprised me, too. He's more curious about your sergeant."
"Aprian?"
"Something about the body language of some of your other guys, like they're scared of him."
"Ah."
"Don't tell me ‘ah.' I bought you a beer."
She smiled. It looked real enough, but it was different from the flirting in the market. We'd both known from the start that the other one was supposed to suss us out, and it wasn't personal. In fact, it was kind of a great first date.
"Two years ago, Aprian was possessed by a demon."
"Poor bastard. How'd that happen?"
"He put on a magical ring without having a sorcerer examine it first."
"Rookie mistake."
"Not the way I hear it. His squad was under attack, and they were looking for any edge against the demons. It was a mistake of desperation, not inexperience."
"Anyway, the important thing is that he got unpossessed." Now there was a thought. "How'd he do that anyway?"
Jelani shrugged. "The fall of Yath freed him."
"Yath? That was some demon stronghold, wasn't it? The boss told me a little."
"Right. But the tower itself was a demon. The magic released when it fell—or died, or was banished, depending on how you look at it—"
We heard the sound of approaching horses at the same time.
Jelani raised her tankard. "Alas, Radovan. It appears the fates have conspired against our tryst."
"Yeah?" I bonked her tankard with mine, and we drained them. Shal hovered at the next table, pretending to wipe it down while we pretended she wasn't eavesdropping. "Not this afternoon, anyway. Some other time?"
"If you play your cards right."
"Another round?" said Shal. She stood beside us, one fist on her hip. And what a hip it was.
"Sure thing, sweetheart." I patted her on the bottom. She flipped her hair in Jelani's direction but still didn't leave.
"So now that one's your sweetheart?"
"You're all my sweethearts. Say, speaking of cards, look what I—"
The door slammed open. Oparal stepped in. Her holy sword was in her hand, lit up bright as a Tian rocket.
"What the hell, Oparal?" I stood up and stepped away from the table. Shal froze in place. I grabbed her wrist and pulled her back to the wall, out of any trouble that was going to break loose.
"Captain?" Jelani did the same as me but in the other direction. One hand went to a pouch at her waist. Maybe she didn't act like the other crusaders, but she was ready for action.
"It's in here somewhere," Oparal shouted. "Evil."
The boss came in close behind her. He also had his sword drawn, a riffle scroll in his other hand. Behind him, I saw the crusaders and our guards all standing around the red carriage, looking like they were ready for an attack at any second.
The boss looked right at me. "Radovan, get away from her."
"What?" I had a bad thought. If someone poisoned my drink, was that the same as venom? Would it let Viridio come out and ride me around? I looked at my hand, but it was the same as ever. "It's all right. I'm fine. How many times I got to tell you I'm not evil? It's just—"
"Down, you fool!" The boss snapped off his riffle scroll. Oparal came charging straight at me.
"Protect me!" Shal breathed into my ear.
That seemed like the right thing to do.
I feinted right but moved left, gathering Shal up in my arms as I rolled us both out of the way. Oparal changed course to follow us. This time I heard the growl coming up inside me.
"Boss! Call her off! There's nothing wrong with— Oh, hell no."
It took a second to realize the growling was coming from Shal, not me. By the time I decided to let her go, she had her hooks in me.
And by hooks I mean claws.
She still looked good, but she sure looked different. Her face wasn't so sweet, and her body wasn't as curvy, but she was the kind of girl who'd never go home hungry from Trick Alley—especially considering what she was wearing, which was not a stitch.
The bad news was the claws, the tail, and the deep red wings opening above her like the canopy of a fancy bed. In a flash, one of the wings was gone, and a rain of hot blood splashed down all over me.
"Dammit, Oparal!"
Shal jumped up to crouch above me, screeching like a possum. She jumped, her remaining wing flailing uselessly without its twin. She crashed against a table with a cry.
Four arcane bolts sizzled past my face to drill black holes between her shoulder blades. I didn't have to look to know they'd come from Jelani.
"No!" Shal cried. "Whalt! Help me!"
Whalt was standing at the bar, his mouth hanging open. He didn't move an inch toward her, but he didn't raise a hand, either.
Five more magic bolts shot into the succubus. She slumped over the table. Her screams dimmed to sobs.
Oparal moved forward, sword raised.
Succubus or not, that didn't seem right. I got in Oparal's way. "Back off, Captain."
With her free hand, she slapped me hard across the face. Braced, I soaked it up. "Snap out of it. You're glamoured. You don't know what she is."
I shoved Oparal. She wasn't braced, so she fell back a step. Oparal reached for me again. I slapped her hand away. I climbed onto the table with Shal and cradled her head.
"I know exactly what she is." I lifted Shal's face to look at mine. She smiled at me, weak and hopeful. I pulled the big knife out of its sheath in my jacket. "She's my problem."
I put it in under her chin, nice and quick, s
traight into the brain. That'll do for demons just what it does for people.
"No!" shouted Whalt. His good hand reached out, but he pulled it back without coming for me. He looked me in the eye, his face trembling between rage, horror, and sorrow. He was going to feel that for a while.
I got up, trailing blood. Oparal went to the bar and threw me a rag. I caught it. She met my gaze and nodded like she was giving me her approval, not that I wanted it.
The boss came over to check me for hickeys. Seeing none, he looked down at the dead demon and frowned.
"Curious," he said. Snapping off a riffle scroll, he peered at the circlet on her head and nodded like he'd confirmed something he'd been suspecting. He took the circlet and slipped it into his pocket.
I looked around to see whether anybody minded, but nobody said boo.
Jelani put her hand on my arm. "Are you—?"
"I'm fine," I said. For a second I wondered where all the light had gone, then realized we'd stayed long enough for nightfall. "What do we do now? Sit down and eat? Or get the hell out of here?"
"You aren't going anywhere," said a big voice by the back door. I recognized him from our visit to Martolls' lodge. He was one of Martolls Clefthorn's sons or nephews.
"Has your father considered my request at last?" said the boss.
Before the words were out of his mouth, another Clefthorn man shut the front door and dropped the bar. A third dropped down from the shattered upper floor. A couple more skittered down the wall like spiders. It wasn't light from the fireplace I saw dancing red in their eyes.
The head guy grinned, showing off his fangs. "Prince Kasiya sends his regards."
Chapter Nine
The Changing Land
Varian
Despite the improvements the Kyonin druids had made to the suspension of the Red Carriage, the jolting ride from Gundrun made inscribing new scrolls impossible.
The drivers were not to blame. The men had done an admirable job directing the team across the scrub plain, avoiding herds and predators when necessary.
The trouble was the inconstant terrain.
A century earlier, the land between the Shudderwood and the Forest of Soldiers was known as the Sarkorian Plain. The chronicles Kala sang for us at night described an idyllic land of plentiful game and breathtaking vistas. Many of the most enduring Sarkorian songs had been composed by hunters inspired by the landscape alone.