Guards of Haven: The Adventures of Hawk and Fisher (Hawk & Fisher)

by Simon R. Green

  Saxon put his back against the bar and looked round the room, sipping at his brandy while he wondered what to do next. He couldn’t stay here, but he didn’t know where else to go. Or even if there was any point in going anywhere. His ex-wife was probably still around somewhere, but there was nothing he wanted to say to her. She was the only woman he’d ever wanted, but it had only taken her a few years of marriage to decide that she didn’t want him. No, he didn’t want to see her. Besides, he owed her twenty-three years of back alimony payments. And then his gaze stumbled across a familiar face, and he straightened up. The years had not been kind to the face, but he recognized it anyway. He strode through the tables, a smile tugging at his lips, and loomed over the figure drinking alone at a table half hidden in the shadows.

  “William Doyle. I represent the city auditor. Taxes division. I want to see all your receipts for the last four years.”

  The man choked on his drink and went bright red. He coughed quickly to get his breath back, and tried on an ingratiating smile. It didn’t suit him. “Listen, I can explain everything....”

  “Relax, Billy,” said Saxon, dropping into the chair opposite him. “You always were easy to get a rise out of. It’s your own fault, for having such a guilty conscience. Well, no words of cheer and greeting for an old friend?”

  Bill Doyle looked at him blankly for a long moment, and then slow recognition crept into his flushed face. “Wulf ... Wulf Saxon. I’ll be damned. I never thought to see you again. How many years has it been?”

  “Too many,” said Saxon.

  “You’re looking good, Wulf. You haven’t changed a bit.”

  “Wish I could say the same for you. The years have not been kind to you, Billy boy.”

  Doyle shrugged, and drank his wine. Saxon looked at him wonderingly. The Billy Doyle he remembered had been a scrawny, intense young man in his early twenties. Not much in the way of muscle, but more than enough energy to keep him going long after most men gave up and dropped out. Billy never gave up. And now here he was, a man in his late forties, weighing twice what he used to and none of it muscle. The thinning hair was still jet-black, but had a flat, shiny look that suggested it was probably helped along with a little dye. The face that had once been so sharp and fierce was now coarse and almost piggy, the familiar features blurred with fat like a cheap caricature. He looked like his own father. Or like his father might have looked after too many good meals and too many nights on booze. His clothes might once have been stylish, but showed signs of having been washed and mended too many times. Without having to be told, Saxon knew that Billy Doyle was no longer one of life’s successes.

  Doyle looked at him, frowning. “You haven’t changed at all, Wulf. It’s uncanny. What happened. You raise enough money for a rejuvenation spell?”

  “In a way. So, what’s been happening in your life, Billy? What are you doing these days?”

  “Oh, this and that. Wheeling and dealing. You know how it is.”

  “I used to,” said Saxon, slumping unhappily in his chair. “But things have changed while I was away. I went to where my old house used to be, and they’d torn it down and replaced it with some mock-Gothic monstrosity. The people who lived there had never even heard of me. I went to the old neighborhood and there was no trace of my family anywhere. Everyone I ever knew is either dead or moved on. You’re the first friendly face I’ve seen all day.”

  Doyle looked at the clock on the wall, and gulped at his drink. “Listen,” he said, trying hard to sound casual, “I’d love to sit and chat about the old days, but I’m waiting for someone. Business; you know how it is.”

  “You’re nervous, Billy,” said Saxon thoughtfully. “Now, what have you got to be nervous about? After all, this is me, your old friend Wulf. We never used to have secrets from each other. Or can it be that this particular piece of business you’re involved in is something you know I wouldn’t approve of?”

  “Listen, Wulf ...”

  “Now, there aren’t many things I don’t approve of. I’ve tried most things once, and twice if I enjoyed it. And I was, after all, a gentleman thief, who robbed from the rich and kept it. But there was one thing I never would look the other way for, and that hasn’t changed. Tell me, Billy boy, have you got yourself involved in childnapping?”

  “Where do you get off, coming on so self-righteous?” said Doyle hotly. “You’ve been away; you don’t know what it’s like here these days. Things have changed. It’s always been hard to make a living here, but these days there’s even less money around than there used to be. You’ve got to fight for every penny and watch your back every minute of the day. If you won’t take on a job, there are a dozen men waiting to take your place. There’s a market for kids—brothels, fighting pits, sorcerers, you name it. And who’s going to miss a few brats from the streets, anyway? Their parents are probably glad they’ve got one less mouth to feed. I can’t afford to be proud anymore. The money’s good, and that’s all I care about.”

  “You used to care,” said Saxon.

  “That was a long time ago. Don’t try and interfere, Wulf. You’ll get hurt.”

  “Are you threatening me, Billy?”

  “If that’s what it takes.”

  “You wouldn’t hurt me, Billy boy. Not after everything we’ve been through together.”

  “That was someone else. Get out of here, Wulf. You don’t belong here anymore. Times have changed, and you haven’t changed with them. You’ve got soft.”

  He looked past Saxon’s shoulder, and rose quickly to his feet. Saxon got up too. and looked around, carefully moving away from the table so that his sword arm wouldn’t be crowded. Two bravos were standing by the table, staring at him suspiciously. One of them was holding a young boy by the arm, as much to hold him up as prevent him escaping. He couldn’t have been more than nine or ten years old, and his blank face and empty eyes showed he’d been drugged. Saxon looked at the bravos thoughtfully. They were nothing special; just off-the-shelf muscle. He looked at Doyle.

  “Can’t let you do this, Billy. Not this.”

  “It’s what I do now, Wulf. Stay out of it.”

  “We used to be friends.”

  “And now you’re just a witness.” Doyle looked at the two bravos and gestured jerkily at Saxon. “Kill him, and dispose of the body. I’ll take care of the merchandise.”

  The bravos grinned, and the one holding the boy let go of his arm. The child stood still, staring at nothing as the bravos advanced on Saxon. They went to draw their swords, and Saxon stepped forward to meet them with empty hands. He smiled once, and then his fist lashed out with supernatural speed. The first bravo’s head whipped round as the force of the blow smashed his jaw and broke his neck, and he crumpled lifelessly to the floor. The other bravo cried out with shock and rage, and Saxon turned to face him.

  The bravo cut at him with his sword, and Saxon’s hand snapped out and closed on the man’s wrist, bringing the sword to a sudden halt. The bravo strained against the hold, but couldn’t move his arm an inch. Saxon twisted his hand, and there was a sickening crunching sound as the man’s wrist bones shattered. All the color went out of his face, and the sword fell from his limp fingers. Saxon let go of him. The bravo snatched a knife from his belt with his other hand, and Saxon slammed a punch into his gut. His hand sank in deeply, and blood burst from the man’s mouth. Saxon pulled back his hand, and the bravo fell to the floor and lay still. Saxon heard a footstep behind him, and turned round to see Billy Doyle backing slowly away, a sword in his hand. Saxon looked at him, and Doyle dropped the sword. His eyes were wide and frightened, and his hands were trembling.

  “You’re not even breathing hard,” he said numbly. “Who are you?”

  “I’m Wulf Saxon, and I’m back. My time away has ... changed me somewhat. I’m faster, stronger. And I don’t have a lot of patience anymore. But some things about me haven’t changed at all. You’re out of the childnapping business, Billy. As of now. I’ll hand the boy over to the Guard. You
’d better start running.”

  Doyle stood where he was, deathly pale. He licked his lips, and shifted his feet uncertainly. “You wouldn’t set the Guard on me, Wulf. You wouldn’t do that to me. We’re old friends, remember? You were never the sort to betray a friend.”

  “That was someone else,” said Saxon. “One question, and then you can go. The correct answer buys you a half-hour start. If you lie to me, I’ll hunt you down and kill you. Where’s my sister, Billy? Where’s Annathea?”

  Doyle smiled. “Yeah, figures you’d have a job tracking her down. She doesn’t use that name anymore. Hasn’t for a long time. Ask for Jenny Grove, down on Cheape Street. Grove used to be her old man. Ran off years ago. He never was worth much.”

  “Where on Cheape Street?”

  “Just ask. They all know Jenny Grove round there. But you aren’t going to like what you’ll find, Wulf. I’m not the only one that’s changed. Your precious sister’s been through a lot since you abandoned her.”

  “Start running, Billy. Your half hour starts now. And pass the word around. Wulf Saxon is back, and he’s in a real bad mood.”

  Billy Doyle took in Saxon’s icy blue eyes and the flat menace in his voice, and nodded stiffly, the smile gone from his mouth as though it had never been there. He was very close to death, and he knew it. He turned and headed for the door at a fast walk that was almost a run. He grabbed a drab-looking cloak from the rack, pulled open the door, and looked back at Saxon. “I’ll see you regret this, Wulf. I have friends, important people, with connections. They aren’t going to like this at all. Haven’s changed since your day. There are people out there now who’ll eat you alive.”

  “Send them,” said Saxon. “Send them all. Twenty-eight minutes left, Billy boy.”

  Doyle turned and left, slamming the door behind him. Saxon looked around him unhurriedly, but no one moved at their tables. The tavern’s patrons watched in silence as Saxon took the drugged boy by the arm and headed for the door. He collected his cloak, slung it round his shoulders, and pulled open the door. It was still raining. He looked back into the tavern, and the patrons met his gaze like so many wild dogs, cowed for the moment but still dangerous. Saxon bowed to them politely.

  “You’ve got five minutes to get out of here by the back door. Then I’m setting fire to the tavern.”

  He handed the boy over to a Guard Constable who came to watch the fire brigade as they tried to put out the blazing tavern. The driving rain kept the fire from spreading, but the Monkey’s Drum was already beyond saving. There were occasional explosions inside as the flames reached new caches of booze. Saxon watched for a while, enjoying the spectacle, and then got directions to Cheape Street from the Constable and set off deeper into the Northside.

  He didn’t know this particular area very well, except by reputation, and undoubtedly that had also changed in the past twenty-three years, along with everything else. Certainly the streets he passed through seemed increasingly dingy and squalid, and he grew thankful for the heavy rain that hid the worst details from him. A slow, sick feeling squirmed in his gut as he wondered what Doyle had meant in his comments about Annathea. And why should she have changed her first name, just because she got married? It didn’t make sense. Anyone would think she was hiding from someone.

  It didn’t occur to him until some time later that she might have been hiding from him.

  Cheape Street turned out to be right on the edge of the Devil’s Hook, a square mile of slums and alleyways bordering the Docks. The Hook was where you ended up when you’d fallen so far there was nowhere else to go but the cemetery. Poverty and suffering were as much a part of the Devil’s Hook as the filthy air and fouled streets. Death and sudden violence were a part of everyday life. Saxon kept his hand conspicuously near his sword, and turned a hard glare on anyone who even looked like they were getting too close. He had no trouble in finding the address he’d been given, and stared in disbelief at the sagging tenements huddled together in the rain. This was the kind of place where absentee landlords crammed whole families into one room, and no one could afford to complain. What the hell was Annathea doing here? He stopped a few people at random, using the Jenny Grove name, and got directions to a second-floor flat right at the end of the tenement building.

  Saxon found the right entrance and strode into the narrow hallway. Four men were sitting on the stairs, blocking his way. They were pretty much what he expected. Young, overmuscled, and out of work, with too much time on their hands and nothing to do but make trouble to relieve the endless boredom. Probably saw this filthy old fleatrap as their territory, and were glad of a chance to manhandle an outsider. Unfortunately for them, Saxon wasn’t in the mood to play along. He strode towards them, smiling calmly, and they moved to block off the stairs completely. The oldest, who couldn’t have been more than twenty, grinned insolently up at Saxon. He wore battered leathers pierced with cheap brass rings in rough patterns, and made a big play out of pretending to clean his filthy nails with the point of a vicious-looking knife.

  “Where do you think you’re going?”

  “I’m visiting my sister,” said Saxon. “Is there a problem?”

  “Yeah. You could say that. You’re not from around here, not with fancy clothes like those. You don’t belong here. This is Serpent territory. We’re the Serpents. You want to walk around where we live, that’s going to cost you. Think of it as an informal community tax.”

  The others laughed at that, a soft dangerous sound, and watched Saxon with dark, unblinking eyes. Saxon just nodded, unmoved.

  “And how much would this tax be?”

  “Everything you’ve got, friend, everything you’ve got.”

  The young tough rose lithely to his feet, holding his knife out before him. Saxon stepped forward, took him by the throat with one hand, and lifted him off his feet. The Serpent’s eyes bulged and his grin vanished. His feet kicked helplessly inches above the floor. He started to lift his knife, and Saxon turned and threw him the length of the hall. He slammed into the end wall by the door, and slid unconscious to the floor. Saxon looked at the Serpents still blocking the stairs, and they scrambled to get out of his way.

  He started up the stairs, and one of them produced a length of steel chain from somewhere and whipped it viciously at Saxon’s face, aiming for the eyes. The other two produced knives and moved forward, their eyes eager for blood. Saxon swayed easily to one side and the chain missed, though he felt the breath of its passing on his face. His attacker stumbled forward, caught off balance, and Saxon took the Serpent’s throat in his hand and crushed it. Blood flew from the man’s mouth, and he fell dying to the floor. Saxon kicked him out of the way. That left two.

  He slapped the knife out of one Serpent’s hand, and kicked the other in the leg. He felt, as well as heard, the bone break beneath his boot. The man fell back, screaming and clutching at his leg. The other was down on one knee, scrabbling frantically for his knife. Saxon kicked him in the face. The Serpent’s neck snapped under the impact, and he flew backwards to lie unmoving on the hall floor. Saxon turned and looked at the last Serpent, who cringed from him, his back pressed against the stairway banisters. Saxon reached down, grabbed a handful of the man’s leathers, and lifted him up effortlessly, so that they were face to face. Sweat ran down the Serpent’s face, and his eyes were wide with shock and fear.

  “Who are you?”

  “I’m Saxon. Wulf Saxon. I’ve been away, but now I’m back. I’m going up to visit my sister now. If anyone feels like coming up after me and disturbing my visit, I’m relying on you to convince them that it’s a bad idea. Because if anyone else annoys me, I’m going to get really unpleasant.”

  He dropped the Serpent, and continued on up the stairs without looking back. The second floor was dark and gloomy. The windows had been boarded up, and there were no lamps. The doors all looked much the same, old and hard-used and covered with an ancient coat of peeling paint. The numbers had been crudely carved into the wood, probably beca
use any attached number would have been pried off and stolen in the hope someone would pay a few pennies for it. In this kind of neighborhood, anything that wasn’t actually nailed down and guarded with a drawn sword was considered fair game.

  He found the right door, raised a hand to knock, and then hesitated. He wondered suddenly if he wanted to meet the person his sister had become. Billy Doyle had been a good sort once; brave, reliable, honourable. Saxon slowly lowered his hand. His sister was Annathea, not this Jenny Grove; whoever she was. Perhaps the best thing would be to just turn around and leave. That way he’d at least have his memories of Annathea. He pushed the temptation aside. He had to know. Whatever she’d done, whoever she’d become, she was still family, and there might be something he could do to help. He knocked briskly at the door. There was a pause, and then he heard the muffled sound of footsteps from inside.

  “Who is it?”

  Something clutched at Saxon’s heart like a fist. The voice had been that of an old woman. He had to cough and clear his throat before he could answer.

  “It’s me, Anna. It’s your long-lost brother, Wulf.”

  There was a long pause, and then he heard the sound of bolts being drawn, and the door opened to reveal a faded, middle-aged woman in a shapeless grey robe. Her thin grey hair had been pulled back into a tight bun, and he didn’t know her face at all. Saxon relaxed a little, and some of the weight lifted from his heart. He had come to the wrong place after all. He’d make his excuses, apologise for disturbing the old lady, and leave. And then she leaned forward, and raised a veined hand to touch his arm, her face full of wonder.

  “Wulf? Is it really you, Wulf?”

  “Annathea?”

  The woman smiled sadly. “No one’s called me that in years. Come in, Wulf. Come in and tell me why you abandoned your family all those years ago.”

  She stepped back while he was still searching for an answer, and gestured for him to enter. He did so, and she shut the door, carefully pushing home the two heavy bolts. Saxon stood uncertainly in his sister’s single room and looked around him, as much to give him an excuse for not speaking as anything else. It was clean, if not particularly tidy, with a few pieces of battered old furniture that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the city dump. Which was probably where they’d come from. A narrow bed was pushed up against the far wall, the bedclothes held together by patches and rough stitching.