by Dave Gross
Vox thought about the question before answering, I do now.
"Sorry, old chum. I didn't mean to give you the ginchies, but you made me think of something… I've got it!"
Tamlin snatched the vellum page and the Baerent letter from his sleeve. He opened the letter and ran his finger across the words.
"Yes!" He tapped the word "bold," then "hide" a few lines farther down. Together, they appeared a total of eight times in Gorkun's note. Tamlin's excitement began to fade almost as quickly as it had arrived, for despite the unusual frequency of these words from his family motto, they revealed nothing in themselves.
Still, they marked the beginning of some pattern.
Vox touched Tamlin's arm and again signed, What is it?
"So far, it's proof that my father was sending secret messages to the families listed on this page," said Tamlin. "Once I've finished decoding it, I'll know whether this is a list of our friends or a roster of our foes."
CHAPTER 18
KILLING TIME
Radu caught the edge of the fountain before he could fall to the ground.
Chaney looked for a loose stone or an unexpected step in the courtyard, but he saw none on the moon-dappled ground. The only obscuring shadows were those formed by the inky bodies of the other ten ghosts, who shuffled silently in a circle around the fountain. The usually nimble Radu Malveen had merely tripped over his own feet.
"You don't look so good," said Chaney. "Maybe you should go lie down for a while."
In the four days since Radu's cruel demonstration of his ire, Chaney felt his former antagonism returning. He told himself it was because no matter what he said, Radu would do as he pleased. In truth, he just couldn't stop himself.
Radu coughed, harsh and wet.
His expression was unreadable beneath his mask, but his breath steamed above his high collar. When he tugged loose the laces and pulled the collar open, Chaney saw blood on the mask.
"Nasty cold you have there."
Radu sat on the edge of the fountain. Even on that cold Alturiak night, water cascaded gently over the lips of the successively larger basins that rose above the reservoir. The enchantment was limited to the fountain, for the trees in this interior garden were nude with three months of cold Sembian winter. Lady Stellana Toemalar was famously stingy, so Chaney wagered himself that the spells that kept the water flowing were ancient remnants of a previous Toemalar's fancy. Perhaps in its youth the magic had kept the entire garden alive throughout the bitter season.
The entire courtyard was barely wider than an alley. While other families kept entire manor houses in Selgaunt to remain closer to their businesses, the tight-fisted Toemalar saw maintaining an additional household as an extravagance. While their holdings outside of Selgaunt were considerable, they maintained only a large tallhouse within the city. In fact, the edifice consisted of seven smaller, adjacent tallhouses forming a horseshoe around the center courtyard.
Radu unclasped his mask and set it aside. He tugged his glove off with his teeth and wet his bare hand. He flicked cold drops on his shadowed face and carefully wiped the blood from the remains of his upper lip.
"I know what you're thinking," said Chaney. "You're thinking, 'Damn and dark, but I wish I'd taken that wizard up on his offer to spirit me into the house.' "
Radu spotted Chaney's rippling image in the water.
Chaney grinned at him.
"Actually, I don't blame you on that count. Magic hasn't exactly been the boon of the Malveens, now, has it? Imagine how differently your life might have turned out if not for black sorcery."
Radu feigned interest in his toilet. He smoothed back his long, black hair.
"Seriously, imagine it," said Chaney. "Think of what might have been had you got rid of Stannis years earlier."
The remark jolted Radu into looking up where Chaney's face should be. Moonlight reflected off the sharp, bright fragments of the bone blade that still jutted from his cheek and brow.
"You know nothing."
"No?" said Chaney. "Still, there's no harm in speculating. What if you had managed to restore the family wealth? What if you had never invited that mad pack of wolves into your old house? Do you think you would be killing old women for gold now?"
"Be quiet, or else-"
"Ah!" said Chaney. "That's the thing, you see. I've been giving your 'or else' some thought. No matter what I do or say, you're still killing the innocent."
"Not the innocent," said Radu. "Not unless you disobey me."
"Yes, yes. That worked on me before, but not again. I'm already dead. I'm a dark and empty ghost, by Kelemvor! What use is pity to me? Why should I feel any worse when you murder some useless boy than when you kill the grand dame of the Toemalar? Nothing I do will stop you from killing someone."
"Perhaps next time I will choose a target more dear to you. Perhaps a friend."
"I would like to see you try that," said Chaney. "The only friend I care about is the one man we both know can defeat you-just like he did before."
"He did not defeat-"
" 'I've got one hand,' " said Chaney, waving at Radu through the fountain. " 'Not to mention this fashionable mask. I meet clients in the sewers because I enjoy the ambience, and if I dare not let anyone know I'm alive, it's because I enjoy the air of mystery.' "
Radu sat silently. At first, Chaney thought he was seething with anger, then he saw that the man's body was perfectly relaxed. He looked so still that for a moment Chaney thought he might have died, then he saw the faint plumes of breath appear before the ragged holes that were once his nostrils.
"Sorry, my old fellow. My point is not simply to mock you-though that has been a great comfort to me-it's to help you."
Radu stared at Chaney's reflection.
"I know, I know, I'm too kind. Forgiving. Paragon of mercy and all that. Actually, it's more a matter of necessity. You see, I think your injury has affected your ability to reason. Do you think part of that knife got down into your brain, perhaps?"
"What?"
"You must admit, the choices you've made these past months have been questionable to say the least. How do you expect to achieve the things you desire this way?"
"What do you know of my desires?
"Stop me when I go wrong. You want your crazy brother Pietro to stay clear of the Hulorn and all the inter-family plotting among the Old Chauncel. Instead, you would like him to help big brother Laskar with the family business-and preferably not the kind of family business you and the late, unlamented Stannis were conducting. You would much rather they be legitimate, unimpeachable… honorable."
Chaney paused to watch Radu's expression. Unfortunately, he'd lowered his face once more into the shadows.
"You have done some damned wicked things, Malveen. There's little doubt you're bound to crawl through steaming dung in the Barrens of Doom and Despair when you die, but the last thing you want to do is drag the rest of your family down there with you. By the way, I notice you haven't stopped me yet."
Radu didn't reply. His gaze shifted from Chaney's reflection to his own. It was only a black shape, but the ragged edges of his right cheek marred his silhouette.
When he spoke at last, it was in a clear, soft voice.
"What do you know about me?"
"I saw your nasty little dungeon," said Chaney. "I saw those pathetic wretches you murdered for your pleasure."
"They were warriors. Each of them had a chance to defeat me."
"After starving for how long under the care of that wretched eel you called a brother?"
"They were recovering their strength befo-"
Radu coughed again. As the spasm subsided, he lifted his mask, turned away, and spat something red.
"Pretty," observed Chaney.
Radu wiped his shadow-shrouded mouth with his sleeve. He turned back toward Chaney's reflection.
"You think you know something of the city because you slept in the gutters for a few nights," said Radu. "You have never seen its heart."
"Is this where you tell me how cruel Stellana Toemalar once had a girl beaten for bringing her cold tea? Or perhaps that you butchered Thuribal Baerodreemer because he irritated you, but that's all right because he tortures house pets? Bugger all that. It doesn't matter who you kill or what kind of people they are. You kill for sport. You kill for coin. The gods built whole worlds of pain for people like you."
"Have you considered the likelihood that your soul goes where mine does?"
"Indeed I have," said Chaney. "The way I see it, there are two possibilities. One, our souls go their separate ways when you die. That's the one I prefer, naturally. Two, we go screaming down into the Abyss together. That one is not so appealing."
Radu made a harsh little sound. It was like a laugh, only with a little spray of blood.
"So you hope to persuade me of my evil ways and set me on the path to redemption?"
"How callow do you think I am?" Chaney replied. "Great gods, no. You're a black-hearted beggar without the slightest hope of salvation. I have no doubt of that."
"Then what are you trying to accomplish with this insipid talk?"
"Maybe I would like to see Laskar rid of you. He never did me any harm, and I hate to see a decent bloke burdened with the Malveen family curse. That's you, by the way-a curse on all those you love." Chaney watched for some sign that his words had stung Radu, but he saw none. "Or maybe I'm just sick of having no one else to talk to. You're a rotten conversationalist. No doubt you've heard that before."
"Once or twice," said Radu.
Chaney nearly choked in surprise. For an instant he thought Radu had made a joke, then he realized that the long solitude must have affected Radu as well as him, and the man had simply answered out of habit-with no trace of irony.
"It seems to me you should reconsider your present course. Your problem has never been gold. It's reputation. Now that you've scared Pietro into obeying Laskar, the only lingering blot on the family honor is you, my friend. I know it's too much to ask that you fall on your sword, but you should at least leave Selgaunt. If you need a little boost of energy before you go, I don't think many would miss Drakkar, or Mad Andy."
"We made a bargain," said Radu.
"A deal with a couple of murderous maniacs hardly counts. To them, you're nothing more than another monster they conjure for their sick little games. Where's the honor in that?"
"You know nothing of honor."
"Well, I know that you're dying," said Chaney.
"Nonsense."
"Oh? Then have we been sitting here because you so enjoy my company or because you wanted to enjoy the lovely flowers? You're unraveling, old son, and it's getting faster with each killing. You can't tell me you haven't noticed."
Radu put the glove in his teeth and slipped it back on his hand. He replaced the mask with its steel cap and raised the collar of his cloak above his chin.
"If you murder this woman tonight, you'll only hasten your own demise."
Radu rose, weak but steady as he walked away from the fountain.
"Then to the Hells with me," he said. "To the Nine Hells with us both."
*****
Twenty minutes later, Radu paced back and forth before an open window in the bedchamber of the late Stellana Toemalar. Apart from the moonlight, the room was dark.
Chaney stood before a wide vanity mirror. Behind him, almost indistinguishable from the gloom, stood the shadows of Radu's other victims. The beak-nosed Stellana Toemalar had joined them, as had the chambermaid with the unfortunate duty of sleeping at the foot of her mistress's bed that night.
The shades kept their eyes on the floor, but Chaney heard their ghostly voices and knew why they clustered behind him instead of their killer. He felt a cold trickle of guilt running down the hollow interior of his ethereal stomach.
He nearly leaped when a bat suddenly flapped into the room.
The creature alighted on the edge of the bed. As Radu and Chaney watched, it quickly grew tall and shifted shape, transforming into a familiar human form. After a few seconds, Drakkar sat on the edge of Stellana's disheveled bed. He tapped the foot of his staff on the floor, and faint red light began radiating from its head.
He touched the bloodstain on the pillow with the tip of his middle finger, and he wiped his finger on the sheets.
"I hope the old harridan was not too much trouble," he said. "What a fierce one she was, especially to the gutter-kin who played too close to the walls. The children of Selgaunt would thank you, if they only knew."
"Ask him why he wanted her killed," said Chaney.
He tried not to think about the phantoms at his back. Their urgent moaning felt like a pressing need to urinate.
Radu ignored him.
"Don't you want to know the reason why you're killing these people?" Chaney asked.
"No," snapped Radu.
"I beg your pardon?" Drakkar said.
He rose from the bed, holding his thorny staff before his body. He kept his distance from Radu and glanced around the room suspiciously.
"Do you have a partner?"
Radu drew a long breath, and Chaney could practically feel the heat of his ire. It pleased him to think he'd gotten under the man's skin, even as he was flush with power.
"I work alone," said Radu.
Drakkar looked unconvinced.
"Have you found the letters, then?"
"I told you-" began Radu.
"I know, I know," said Drakkar, waving down Radu's words. "You are not our fetch. No, you are far more valuable than that. Part of that value lies in our trusting your discretion."
"He's calling you a liar, you realize," said Chaney.
Radu didn't rise to the bait. Instead, he merely inclined his head.
"Are you sure there is no one else here with us?"
Drakkar withdrew a forked twig from a pocket inside his robe. He plucked a thorn from the head of his staff and held the two objects between his thumb and little finger.
Radu parted his cloak with his stony right hand, exposing the hilt of his blade. He made no move to draw the sword, but Drakkar noted the gesture.
"Have no fear," he said. "I cast no enchantment on you. It is merely a spell to locate that which I seek."
"He's impugning your honor, man! How can you let such an insult pass unanswered?"
Chaney laughed, as much at his futile attempt to bait Radu as at the man's earlier involuntary outburst. Chaney wouldn't trick him again any time soon, but he'd scored a coup-and Radu knew it.
Drakkar set his staff against the bedpost and pulled a folded letter from his robe. He held it with the broken seal facing upward, then he rubbed the thorn and twig together above it while intoning an arcane phrase.
Chaney moved closer to the wizard and looked down at the seal. It was the horse-at-anchor, emblem of the Uskevren.
The twig wriggled between Drakkar's fingers. At first it looked as though the wizard was twisting it. Soon Chaney saw that it had a mind of its own, turning this way and that as it sought some desired object.
Drakkar followed its urging. He took three steps across the room and turned toward the fireplace. He walked closer, turned aside a step, and turned back, frowning at the twig.
"How could she be so careless?" Drakkar asked.
He reached toward an ivory coffer upon the mantle, then thought better of it and withdrew his hand.
Instead, he bit off one of the thorns and crushed it in his teeth. He blew a whispered word and a sparkling red cone of glittering dust out upon the mantle. As the motes gradually vanished from sight, Drakkar smiled as though he saw something the others didn't.
"Not bad," he commented.
He cast a third spell, this time plucking a thorn and casting it at the mantle with a few words of power. Chaney saw a rippling in the air, as if Drakkar's thorn had been a stone thrown into a still pool.
Drakkar casually flipped open the lid of the coffer and peered inside. He turned it over to spill a mass of jewelry onto the floor. He ma
de a satisfied grunt as he set the coffer aside and felt the mantle where the box had been.
His fingers traced simple shapes against the stone, and Chaney knew he was feeling for some secret catch. On a whim, he reached out and touched the stone with his own ethereal hand.
He didn't feel it so much as sense its shape as his fingers passed through the surface of the stone. He pushed them into the solid surface and wiggled them in what he sensed was a hollow chamber beneath.
Drakkar's searching fingers passed through Chaney's forearm. The wizard started, briefly withdrawing his hands, then he looked around and shuddered.
"Hmm."
Chaney saw that Radu had also noticed the wizard's surprise.
Drakkar resumed his search.
"I wonder…" said Chaney.
He poked a finger through Drakkar's shoulder. The trick had had no effect the last time he tried it, but maybe he'd been doing it wrong.
"Take… that… you… unctuous… little… pervert!"
He punctuated each word with a jab to Drakkar's shoulder. He looked back to grin at Radu, who cocked his head in a silent threat.
Chaney kept prodding the wizard's shoulder.
"Ah!" exclaimed Drakkar.
Chaney triumphed for an instant before he realized that Drakkar had found the loose tile in the mantle. It slid aside to reveal a pin. Drakkar pressed the pin, then pushed the tile the rest of the way aside.
In the hollow cavity of the fireplace mantle was a stack of folded vellum. As Drakkar removed the documents, Chaney saw the Uskevren seal on the first folded letter.
"Ah, the late Thamalon Uskevren," mused Drakkar. "What trouble his schemes have wrought."
As the wizard rifled through the rest, Chaney saw that not all of the correspondence was from the Uskevren. He also noticed the bloodbeak insignia of the Talendar, the cockatrice of the Karns, and the three watchful eyes of House Foxmantle.
"Must be quite a party."
Chaney whistled to mask his concern. While he had not been on good terms with his parents since he was a boy, he hoped neither of them would be scheduled to receive a visit from Radu Malveen.