The Beast of the North
Page 9
‘But to kill—’
‘Is hard, boy, very hard,’ he smirked. ‘Sometimes you stab and hack at someone, and they are still alive, where Gullinburst the Boar would have died. And then you have to finish it. Sometimes you stab someone so very briefly, and they die for it immediately. They fall lifeless like a log. But even that is hard. It changes you. Not gonna lie to you, boy. I never liked that, killing. I prefer other methods, but I have done it. Many times. Here.’ He handed me a long, sheathed dirk. It was plain and simple and looked superbly deadly. I took it to my hands and eyed it with some hostility. It felt powerful. Somehow, strangely familiar.
‘Honey?’ Mir said above, coming down to us.
‘Love?’ the Bear asked sheepishly as if surprised. ‘Look, he needs to be armed.’
‘I know,’ she told her man as she slid down to us and put a hand across my shoulders. She was gazing down at me, her thin face clearly worried, and then she wiped my lip gently. ‘Leave us alone,’ she told him, and he nodded. He eyed me uncertainly.
‘You can do this,’ he breathed, and I nodded. He scowled, got up and walked back up the path to the Green Hall.
Mir stretched and walked down to the water’s edge. She picked up a pebble, threw it into the water and seemed absorbed by the ripples. Perhaps she was reading signs in the river, and then she finally nodded as if she had decided something. She turned to me and went to her knees before me. ‘Love. You have grown so much.’
‘You look as young as you always did,’ I told her, and it was true. She grinned appreciatively at my words and tapped my hand.
‘I had half hoped we would live our lives happily to the end. At least fairly happily. As happily as one can in the Bad Man’s Hold, Maskan. We would grow rich, buy a better house outside the city, and we were actually close to that goal. Selling off stolen items, Maskan, it’s a filthy job, love, but we have been doing well. Now, if this mint thing succeeds, we will get money to do anything we like.’ She stopped at that, looking distraught. ‘But what we are doing? This plan? It puts you in danger. I know you and Sand run in the harbor, and I know you steal. A cutpurse that’s what you are. I blame myself. I can hardly tell you to straighten up your act, can I? I’m a thief as well. But that was not always the case. I wanted better for you, love. Your father—’
I looked at her and saw she was so morose. I grabbed her cold hand, and she squeezed mine forcefully. ‘Tell me about Father,’ I told her.
She faltered and let go of my hand. ‘He …’ she began and let go a huge, haggard breath. ‘It is a summer for changes. I am afraid. This plan of Ann’s?’
‘Bear’s, surely,’ I said.
She chuckled. ‘Ann. Our serious, humorless girl is the thinker. Bear is wily, but she is the guiding light in their business. She almost controls him. A whisper, and he blinks. Be that as it may. This plan? It takes us perilously close to the king. I feel there is going to be a great struggle, and we are all in danger. I have a hunch we will be very involved with the king and his lords soon, Maskan. Be careful, love, if you meet him. He killed your father. You know this.’
‘Why?’ I asked bluntly though it had been a decade since I had done so before.
‘Why?’ she laughed dryly. Because the king desired me,’ she whispered. ‘He always has favorites with the noble women of the court. Some get hurt, especially if they have a virtuous streak in their souls. The queen hates him. Always did, but she is a vicious bitch in her right. She gets people killed as quickly as he does, and if she ruled the land? It would be even worse. But the king? He is a goat.’
‘And he—’
‘And he tried to have me,’ she said. ‘He tried to rape me. I had told him “no” so many times, and he was drunk. He was drunk all the time then. It was not long after the Cataclysm and his son had died. But to try to rape a noble woman? I will never forget it.’
‘Rape?’ I breathed. ‘He—’
‘Your father was looking for me, and then he found me and stopped him. He gave his life for us. We escaped and hid. They looked for us, Maskan. They did. But we hid, and the Bear helped us. He had just lost his wife and saw a cause in us. I was grateful to him. I had little choice, but he was kind and never forced me into anything I did not want. He was patient. And eventually, the king forgot about us. I loved your father. He was an artist, a warrior, and a good man. The Bear is my man now, but not a night goes by I don’t think about your father, who was named Tal Talin. You are Maskan Talin, love. Of the Seventh House. I was a commoner before Tal found me, but you will never be one. Not truly.’
Seventh House.
‘Mother … do I have relatives?’ I asked her, mystified by her confessions.
‘On my side? Distant,’ she said with a smile. ‘I come from the north, my love. From Ygrin, in fact.’
‘Where in Ygrin?’ I asked her though I was anxious to hear about father.
She waved her hand. ‘A shitty hamlet in the mountains. Far past the border. But you have family still, living in the Second Ring. Your father’s family supports the king even this very day. He had a brother, Gal Talin. He is the Merchant Lord of Red Midgard. Lord of the Harbor. Yea, the one who mocked the crowds at the hanging.’
‘What?’ I asked her, disbelieving her words. ‘He is one rotten piece of bone. He is a snake and—’
‘He is,’ she agreed. ‘I never met him. We lived in the Tower, not with the family. Your father married … beneath him and his mother and brother never approved. Never even met them. Then your father died. Gal filled Tal’s place after the king tried to … ’ She went quiet and shook her head. ‘But he is family, nonetheless. You are a noble boy, love. I am sorry all I could give you was Bad Man’s,’ she said. ‘The gods made it so.’
‘There are no gods, Mother, who approve of the king murdering his lord for defending his wife,’ I said stiffly, enraged at the reason Father had died. My fists were tight as I thought about the Lord of Red Midgard with his hands around my mother. ‘The Beast of the North,’ I spat. ‘But only a northern beast, really.’
‘That title is old as time.’ She smiled. ‘I think it was meant to celebrate his family’s prowess in battle, but he is a true beast under that skin of a man. He did not rape me,’ she said softly. ‘I was saved that ignominy. I cannot remember much of the night. I only remember grabbing you and running and Bear hiding me at the Lamb. And now, you will be involved with him again. In a very personal way, hurting him. Taking his coin will certainly draw eyes on—’
‘Valkai,’ I said resolutely. ‘In Valkai the Heavy. And this Horns.’
‘Let us hope so,’ she told me seriously. ‘But you are magical. I don’t understand this skill you have. You can change your face, Maskan.’ She frowned. ‘I wonder if it comes from your father’s family. Gal might know.’
‘It is something I can do,’ I said uncomfortably. ‘It’s not … magical. I don’t know. It feels natural though it is very hard. I don’t want to share the secret with anyone but family,’ I stammered. ‘This family.’
‘I agree,’ she said. ‘They might know about it, though. This skill or magic. But we have other business now, and let us think about that later. It is very much your power, love, and a magical one at that, and you decide. But your skill is not the only skill in Midgard that is magical.’ She hesitated and opened her hand. ‘I said I believe in magic. Here is why. This is what the king dropped the day your father saved me. He kept it close. Always. It is precious to him. He summoned it as your father attacked him but lost it in the battle. I grabbed it.’ She opened her hand, and in it there was a piece of dark wood the size of a toothpick. ‘This was his rod of office. His scepter.’
‘Mother?’ I asked her. ‘The king. Did all of this happen while he was having dinner? And this toothpick a scepter—’
‘No, Maskan,’ she told me with a soothing, patient voice. ‘Or perhaps it did. I do not know. I don’t remember a lot of that night; I told you. But I remember the king wielded this, and there was a fight.’
She chuckled. ‘Wait. He lost it as your father attacked him, and I grabbed it. He called it … Larkgrin.’ She said the strange name with a whisper, and in her fist, there suddenly was a dark staff, taller than she was. It was full of strange runes burning with soft, white golden light, and a carving of a black singing bird was on top of it. She showed it to me, got up, and walked to a nearby oak. She grinned at me and whirled it around and hit the tree’s trunk.
‘Mother!’ I screamed, for the oak shuddered, cracked, and the tree began to topple.
Towards us.
I rushed as fast as lightning and pushed her away from the tangle of branches, and we rolled downhill amidst falling boughs and rolling boulders. The trunk crashed very near, bouncing madly. We ended sitting in a pool of mud, covered in light green moss, and she was laughing like a madwoman, holding her face. Then, tears were falling on her cheeks as she showed the strange artifact to me. ‘Mother!’ I chided her gently, for she looked totally miserable.
‘Sorry, Maskan. I don’t know why I am crying. I remember your father and I used to sail with their ships, and there was this storm, and the ship was demasted. We just barely got out of the way as it fell, and he saved us both. But this weapon … the thing also reminds me how your father died in the hands of a mad, evil king. They are all evil. High kings and small kings, all nothing but turds. I miss him. Don’t tell that to Bear, though.’
‘Mother!’ I said once more, and she sobered and sat up. ‘Larkgrin,’ she whispered to me, very softly, apparently so the weapon would not hear it. ‘A weapon of the old world. God crafted? Dverg made? And don’t you dare to say they are not real, Maskan, the short smiths.’ She hesitated and handed it to me. ‘Call for it, and it will come and go, as you please. But look out. The king will want it back. Very much. You don’t need the dirk. Just be careful with this weapon.’
‘It is—’
She nodded. ‘It is magical. The gods are real. So are the legends. And if, as I suspect you must, Maskan, you will fight the king, you have to be very careful. He has … I don’t know what. Skills? He is not called the Beast of the North because he is ugly. He is powerful and strange. He has magic. So do his knights. I think it is the time I let you live out a more dangerous life I hoped for you. Perhaps you will do well.’
I was very uncomfortable as I gazed at Larkgrin. ‘I’ll try to avoid the king, Mother. I only want to get back to what was,’ I told her earnestly and hesitated. She smiled knowingly and knew she had told me too much. I wanted to kill the king, I thought. And I wanted to see his suffering before he died.
‘You are right. But this business with the Grim Jesters has to be dealt with first,’ she said and smiled and got up.
‘Mother, thank you,’ I told her.
She shrugged, gave me a kiss on my forehead and began to walk up to the cabin. She stopped. ‘Ann wanted to have a word with you.’
‘Oh!’ I said. ‘I don’t—’
She laughed teasingly. ‘You hold a veritable miracle in your hand, and a mention of a silent, beautiful girl makes you forget all about the thing. Don’t worry. I know you are not interested in her, not that way. You feel you should be, but I think you love another.’
‘I saw this girl …’ I complained, and realized I felt nothing for Ann, indeed. After Shaduril, everything else tasted … common. I shook my head at myself. I was a right bastard.
She grinned. ‘I know you are in love,’ she chided me and laughed. ‘Still. Ann. See her. She has some practical advice for you.’ She walked up, and I heard she was laughing with the Bear, who had apparently waited for her.
I stared at the staff and shook my head in wonder. ‘Come out, Sand. What did you hear?’
‘I came down after the tree fell. What in Hel’s name is that thing?’ he breathed from some bushes, not far.
‘A magical weapon,’ I told him. I held it, and it felt warm, but not uncomfortable. The strange runes glowed gently on the surface, but they felt just like the wood, smooth. They seemed strange, and I thought the thing would have been much fairer with only the wooden, supremely smooth shaft, and the bird figure on top. They felt … wrong. I snorted. I had a magic staff in my hand, a real thing, and I found reasons to be unhappy about it. Sand inched to the sight. I shifted the magnificently balanced staff in my hands and touched the surprisingly lifelike bird tentatively with the finger of my other hand. Nothing. ‘Can I?’ Sand asked and reached out for it. I snatched it away and felt very protective of the thing. ‘I …’ I began and licked my lips.
‘Oh! It’s your toy, is it?’ Sand said with humor though there was a bit of envy there as well. ‘Keep it. Just wanted to split some wood for the fireplace.’
‘I don’t know anything about it,’ I told him apologetically, admiring the strange, dark wood with the weird etchings and runes. ‘It might be dangerous. And it feels strangely familiar. As if it were mine already. That I should take … care of it.’
‘Fine,’ he laughed harshly. ‘You are the expert in ancient, magical weapons, after all.’
I touched it and twirled it in the air. It was supremely light; it trembled slightly as I moved it, and the symbols were strange. ‘I’m no expert. But I don’t want to give it up.’
Sand grunted. ‘I’d love to have that in my pocket. Best give me the dirk then.’ I did. He was happily eyeing its sturdy pommel as I admired the weapon of the king. ‘Maskan?’
‘Yes,’ I told him, and he snapped his fingers under my nose.
He went on. ‘We’ll be there tomorrow,’ he said and leaned forward. ‘And be bloody careful, you damned nuisance. I’m not saying this is all your fault, but you sure did not help.’
‘Sorry,’ I told him irascibly. ‘And if I had stayed with the Horns, they would have grabbed you to keep me in line, and I doubt they would have let us go, anyway, no matter how well I did. Now we have a chance.’
‘You should have let the girl …’ Sand began and then rubbed his face. ‘Forget it. I was there. I didn’t tie you up. I even suggested we rob her.’
‘Right,’ I said while bowing my head. ‘Let’s share the blame. I should have forgotten the pouch and her. I could not.’
‘Cursed idiots. Both of us,’ he said darkly. ‘I agreed to return it to her. That I did. I am not sure why, but I thought it was important.’
‘It is strange,’ I agreed. ‘But she was special.’
‘She is,’ he agreed. ‘Strangely unique. It’s not like there are no other beautiful, petite girls out there. She did strike me as … different? Yes. Enough to put our heads in the noose.’
‘She changed everything,’ I told him, and then Lith filtered through my mind. I frowned at the thought, and Sand misunderstood me.
‘Ann,’ he said. ‘Don’t break her heart. I know you don’t care for her, you blind idiot, but at least think of her feelings. Act like you care. Or cared. Whatever. Make it up. She is smart as a goddess, but she is also wretched. Rarely smiles. Spare her heart. Or I’ll break yours.’
‘I don’t know why,’ I said. ‘But I don’t think you can, anymore.’
‘Maybe,’ he growled, eyeing the staff. ‘Should something happen, Maskan, tomorrow? We finish it together. We have been friends this far. Be careful in that mint. I’ll … create a distraction up the street.’
‘Oh? I didn’t know about that.’
He chuckled. ‘Ann’s idea. Father didn’t want you to, in case you get caught and spill your guts, and I am not talking about disembowelment. I’ll set up a fire in a warehouse,’ he grimaced. ‘Terrible crime, that is. I’ll roast if they catch me doing it. But I will be careful. You will have to be as well.’
‘I will try,’ I agreed.
Later we ate. It was a slow, tired affair, for it was late, and we didn’t have an appetite. I rar
ely saw Mother eating at all, and Ann was always picky about her food. Bear often finished their plates. The next morning we would be up and about very early, and there was precious little anyone wanted to say. I sat at the end of the long table, staring at the fires. I ate a few bits of steaming venison, some frost-bitten potatoes, and bitter tomatoes, but did not have an appetite. The women only sipped their ale and stared at the fires.
Damned terrifying, I thought, wondering if we would survive the coming day. The next day, men might die. At least the Master of Coin, Naram would. That much was likely. It was hard to imagine Kallir and Molun failing at that. The man was small and refined. So would the soldiers, maybe. They might have families. I frowned at that. If we succeeded, the Jesters would be at a war they could not win. The king would send thousands of soldiers down to the Old City, and there would be no mercy. If we failed, we might hang instead. With luck. Probably my skull would be strung up next to Father’s, hanging in the Singing Gardens, ringing with bells. I rubbed my face. It did not matter. There was no backing off now. We would rob the king’s gold, and I would carry it in plain sight of all the people of the Third Ring, and I’d be wearing Valkai’s face. I chuckled at that, and the others froze for a moment as if I had committed a crime. The Bear snapped his fingers. I lifted my face to him. ‘Know the plan now?’
‘I’ll be with this Lith tomorrow morning,’ I told him.
He snorted. ‘Lithiana. You’ll go in and behave. And then this friend of ours will enter, he’ll be very shocked by your presence, and my boys will do their thing, and that is when you step up and become the damned main actor in this tragedy. You’ll dress up like this dandy, adopt … face, his face that is. You’ll do your thing outside the door. Not inside, got it? Lith … Lithiana surely can be bought to be silent, but I don’t want to pay her more than we will already.’
‘OK,’ I agreed. ‘Then I’ll go to the door, this gate—’