Moon's Artifice

by Tom Lloyd

  Enchei coughed in surprise. ‘That’s a threat, is it ?’

  ‘A statement of fact. I have no interest in what you are or what you once were ; the law remains the same. This goshe business, demons, plague – you and your friend Narin. You are all subject to the law of the Imperial City and anyone who defies that must know I will come for them. This is the certainty the Lawbringers offer.’

  ‘And that’s why you’ve not called in the troops ?’ Enchei asked. ‘Gods – it’s pride, isn’t it, you want to deal with this yourself. You want the Lawbringers to have a victory of their own. No matter that the goshe have forbidden magics at their disposal, you’re determined to keep House Dragon out of it.’

  ‘We are either the authority in this city, or an irrelevance.’ Rhe stared straight into Enchei’s eyes. ‘I will die before I give up any such authority and the law applies to you as it does anyone else. Know that I will treat you no differently, should you defy that authority.’

  Enchei didn’t speak for a moment, the two men staring each other down, before he snorted and shook his head sadly.

  ‘Pity the fools who follow a fanatic,’ he growled. ‘Aye, I believe you – and I believe you’ll not flinch at the cost. Can we get back to the damn point now ?’

  ‘Narin sends word ? Our information is incomplete, but there is talk of an Investigator being kidnapped in Coldcliffs.’

  ‘He’s safe now, resting up. They gave him a fair beating trying to find out what we know – what Irato told us.’

  ‘So now they are aware of how little that is and can pursue their goals without fear that we’ll be there ahead of them ?’

  ‘If you want to be a little ray of sunshine about it, sure,’ Enchei sniffed. ‘One thing I’ve found over the years though ; careful plans tend to be delicate. Some ignorant bastard wading blindly into the middle of it tends to screw everything up as completely as informed opposition.’

  ‘That is your plan ? To wade in blindly and hope you get in the way ?’

  Enchei cocked his head. ‘Had someone else in mind for the ignorant bastard, but close enough.’

  ‘So you want our assistance ?’

  The older man looked away, east towards the sun as it fought to break through the clouds. ‘Now there’s a question,’ he said.

  ‘What do you mean ?’

  ‘Narin says there are goshe informants within your ranks.’

  Rhe stiffened. ‘Are you saying you cannot trust us with you plans ?’

  ‘Worth considering, don’t you reckon ? Now, they might realise they’re giving themselves away by passing on any more information, but you’ve seen yourself that some are willing to sacrifice themselves for the cause.’ Enchei hawked and spat a ball of phlegm into the water. ‘But they don’t even have to do that ; they could just muddy the waters and hamper any response when the critical time comes.’

  The Lawbringer was quiet a long time, realising the truth in Enchei’s words. ‘We are not an army,’ he said finally. ‘There is no clear chain of command. A few traitor Lawbringers could indeed sow confusion with only modest effort.’

  ‘There anyone on the Vanguard council you can trust completely ?’

  ‘Yes, Law Master Sheven certainly – and of course the Lord Martial.’

  ‘Will they take you at your word ? Evidence is in short supply at the moment.’

  ‘I believe so.’

  ‘Good. It might be Narin can get some help at court too, find out if there’s anyone trying to put pressure on you there.’

  ‘You cannot trust the court – the goshe have already been making moves there.’

  ‘How ?’ Enchei demanded.

  ‘This sickness sweeping the city, I don’t know whether the goshe started it, but they’re keen to get involved. They’re making every effort to be the ones tasked with caring for the sick.’

  ‘What’s happened ?’

  ‘A suggestion has been made to the Emperor, one supported by his doctors. The sick are to be transported to Confessor’s Island to reduce the risk of infection to the rest of the city.’

  ‘Their leper colony ? But what do they gain from that ?’

  Rhe shook his head. ‘I do not know, but it cannot be a coincidence. With what you say, I will ask the Law Master to ensure we’re involved as much as possible. If he is supervising, perhaps he can discern their intentions and frustrate them a little – enough to buy you time to find out their goal.’

  ‘Sound enough,’ Enchei nodded. ‘What about these demons I’ve been hearing about ? They the source of the sickness ?’

  ‘I cannot tell, but they do not seem anything more than monsters. I fail to see how they could carry out instructions and those of us hunting them are not yet sick. The monsters are moving through affected and unaffected areas alike, but the sickness has been kept to clear pockets for the time being.’

  ‘So they’re a distraction, something to keep you busy – you personally, perhaps. They know Narin’s your protégé, just as the whole city knows you’d be the one leading any sort of demon-hunt on these streets.’

  The suggestion startled Rhe. It made sense, yet he hadn’t even considered it as he went about his duty.

  ‘Perhaps I am easier to confound than I had realised.’

  Enchei grinned and nudged him with an elbow. ‘Don’t worry, happens to the best of us ! Right – I’m away. Kesh and Irato will be waiting for news.’

  Rhe watched the man set off towards a boat-station, where a handful of watermen lounged by their craft, waiting for the first fare of the day. For a moment the whole world seemed to recede from view ; Enchei and the buildings behind him blurring into nothingness. All that remained was the flow of the Crescent at his feet and the rush of blood in his ears.

  He felt adrift and unsteady, suddenly frozen with indecision – a rare sensation in his structured, unequivocal life. Then it faded and he found himself staring across the glittering waters of the Crescent. The scent of saltwater and wood smoke drifted over him, prompting Rhe to turn into the wind and look to the eyrie palazzos of Eagle District atop the jutting cliffs on the far shore.

  ‘A distraction ?’ he muttered. ‘Perhaps so. But if I ignore it, how many deaths might be on my head ?’

  Rhe sat down, the lonely cries of seabirds in his ears and the water of the Crescent lapping against his boots. There was a broken piece of stone nearby and he picked it up, turned it over in his fingers for a while. It was nothing remarkable, just a fissured chunk of rock, smooth on one side. Once part of something larger, some constituent piece of the city, now useless.

  He tossed the fragment into the water, watched it be swallowed up by the Crescent and headed back inland towards the Palace of Law.

  *

  Kesh stood at the door as Enchei headed off down the street, his coat flapping in the breeze that rushed off the sea. Once he was out of sight she bolted the door shut and returned to the back room where Irato waited with the owner of the smokehouse.

  Enchei’s friend was a tiny woman of local extraction called Pirish who had apparently run the smokehouse single-handedly for decades. Her face was a mass of wrinkles and her hair perfectly white, but she’d carried long heavy racks of smoked fish with as much ease as Irato.

  ‘So you’re safe then,’ Pirish commented. ‘That’s good news.’

  Kesh frowned and flopped back into the seat she’d been occupying for half of the morning. ‘Not quite safe,’ she said at last, ‘but not hunted at least.’

  ‘So don’t go knockin’ on the nearest Shure gate, easy enough.’ Pirish shrugged. ‘Don’t expect you’ll be spendin’ much time on the streets today anyways. Sounds like it’s gettin’ worse out there.’

  Kesh glanced back at the door she’d just closed and nodded. Caught up in their own troubles, they’d still seen the fear taking hold in the city. Even unaffected districts were tense, with strangers being treated to hostile looks from nobles and peasants alike.

  ‘And this city’s so bloody divided, the goshe are th
e ones the Emperor turns to for help.’

  ‘This ain’t the Emperor’s fault,’ Pirish said sharply, ‘and now ain’t the time for blame.’

  ‘I know,’ Kesh said, raising a hand to acknowledge the old woman’s point. ‘I’m just trying to work out what to do about it all.’

  Pirish turned to Irato. ‘How ’bout you ? Ideas ?’

  The former goshe was sat in the corner, still and silent as usual. He seemed to jerk awake from a trance as Pirish directed the question at him, but when he opened his mouth he had nothing to say.

  ‘Come on, boy,’ she urged. ‘They emptied your memories, not your wits, right ?’

  ‘I …’ He nodded. ‘Sorry. Still finding it hard to think, my head’s filled with fog all the time. I can hear what you’re saying, understand it too, but it doesn’t go further in till you catch me out like that.’

  ‘Well, time to think,’ Pirish concluded, sitting back in her ancient, battered armchair.

  The back room was a tiny space clustered around a tiny black stove ; little more than an alcove from which a narrow stair rose to Pirish’s private rooms above. A packing crate served as a table, around which a handful of mismatched chairs were clustered.

  ‘It, ah – we’re still not safe,’ Irato said slowly. The blunt lines of his head were accentuated as he struggled to form his thoughts, reminding Kesh that he was a fighter still – that she could direct him to act more easily than she could expect decisions from the man. ‘Kesh maybe, I doubt any of them got a good look at her face, but Narin and I need to keep out of sight.’

  ‘None of us are safe if we don’t stop them,’ Kesh asserted angrily. ‘Enchei reckons this sickness is part of the goshe plan and it sounds like they’re keen to transport people to their leper colony – a long way from prying eyes. How about rather than hiding here we go back to the docks, see what gossip’s going round the taverns ?’

  ‘You think you can do it without being seen ? What about me ?’

  Kesh looked Irato up and down. Her feelings towards the man were a strange conflict of hatred and sympathy, but beyond either of those she felt there was a debt between them. Irato had said he wanted to atone for his role in Emari’s death and a burning part of Kesh’s heart wanted to make sure he did exactly that.

  ‘You’re coming with me. You need someone to do your thinking for you, fine. You’re doing what I say and when I say it, understood ?’

  She felt a moment of contempt when he nodded his head immediately, unthinkingly obeying like a trained dog. But then she steeled her heart against it – Irato was a killer, most likely, had been a killer until the night Narin had found him. If he ran risks doing as she ordered, it was no different to the way he’d been living before and that was the penance her grief demanded.

  ‘Goin’ ta disguise him as a woman ?’ Pirish said with a cackle. ‘You’re easy enough to hide among the crowd, this one … not so much.’

  Kesh hesitated. ‘Good point. Got any suggestions ?’

  Pirish stood and looked down at Irato, cocking her head to one side as she thought. ‘Shave his head, trim that excuse for a beard – mebbe we could stain his skin too. I know some leatherworkers and tanners ; they might have something that’ll stain him darker than he is now. Won’t smell good, but like as not folk’ll think it’s some plague-preventative.’

  Kesh also rose and went to where she’d left her few belongings. As soon as they’d reached the smokehouse she’d removed the gauntlets and shirt Enchei had given her, pulling off everything that felt constraining on her body. She reluctantly pulled on the shirt of thin, steel plates, belted the knife sheaths to her waist and covered it all with her jacket. That done she turned to Pirish.

  ‘Do you have a shawl I could borrow ? A scarf for my hair, maybe ?’

  The old woman nodded and headed for the stairs. ‘Aye, easy enough. All gettin’ added to the favour Enchei now owes me anyways.’

  ‘You’re still leaving right now ?’ Irato asked.

  ‘Yes – I can’t go straight to the dockworkers I know, they spend half the day on the wharves in plain view of everyone. So if I’m to find out anything useful, I need to be leaving messages with folk I can trust and that’ll take longer.’

  ‘How will I find you ?’

  ‘There’s a thieves’ den in the Harbour Warrant, tavern called the Black Bat. It’s north off the main road, out towards the furthest tip. You won’t get any trouble there, none you can’t handle so long as you don’t start it. The Lawbringers don’t bother with the place, though, so keep an eye out. I’ll find you there.’

  Once Pirish had fetched a shawl and scarf for her, Kesh headed out through the smokehouse’s workroom and back to the street. As she opened the door the sun broke through the clouds and bathed the street in golden light. Kesh squinted up at the sky as she finished tying the scarf. There was a string of bulky clouds massing in the sky and the wind was bringing forbidding grey bulges in across the mainland.

  This sunshine won’t last long, she thought as she set off, head low and aiming for the familiar streets of home. Might be the dockers’ll beat me to their favourite pubs. I could do with a bit of luck for a change.

  ‘There you are,’ Narin said, dropping his knife on the bed. ‘I was starting to wonder.’

  Enchei stood in the doorway and looked Narin up and down, a bundle of fresh clothes in his hands. ‘Feeling better, then ?’

  Narin looked down at his body. He was half-undressed, wearing nothing more than underclothes and half a dozen bandages. His skin was pale and blotchy with bruising and he hadn’t yet brought himself to investigate what his wounds looked like.

  ‘Better,’ Narin said hesitantly, as though fearing to tempt fate. ‘Better than I should be, that’s for sure.’

  ‘Aye, well, you can thank me later.’ Enchei closed the door behind him before depositing the clothes on a spare chair. He stood in the middle of the room and removed a pair of weapons from his coat pockets before sitting – a short, brass-banded baton and his short-sword. ‘Just remember there’s a price. You’ll crash like an addict in a few days and think your head’s gonna burst.’

  ‘But until then, I won’t feel the pain ?’

  ‘Most o’ the pain,’ Enchei corrected. ‘But you’ll still be tired and weak, still do your body damage if you work the injured parts too much.’

  ‘Is this shaman work or the magic you learned, ah, after ?’

  The tattooist shrugged off his coat and went to sit. ‘There’s a difference ?’

  ‘I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking.’

  ‘Just be glad it works.’

  Narin didn’t speak for a while and merely stared at Enchei. The older man weathered the look blankly until Narin gave up. ‘Fine, keep your secrets ; we’ve got better things to do.’

  ‘Aye, so we do.’

  Enchei launched into a quick description of Rhe’s activities and the news of the sickness flowering in various corners of the city. When he got to the suggestion of the woman from the An-Goshe council, Narin’s face darkened as he guessed the rest.

  ‘What’s the betting,’ he started slowly, ‘that if Lawbringer Rhe organised a search party of that island, he’d be recalled before he could hunt down Father Jehq ? Assuming the man’s even there.’

  ‘Pretty damn good, I’d guess – and the only way we could find out is by forcing the matter. At which point we could be hamstrung at the vital moment.’

  Narin stood up suddenly, wincing as he stretched burned patches of skin. ‘There’s a way !’ he gasped, reaching out to steady himself on the back of a chair.

  ‘What ? How ? Hey, careful there, you’re still weak, remember ?’

  ‘That bastard Imperial !’ Narin continued once he’d caught his breath a little. ‘Remember Prince Sorote of the Office of the Catacombs ? He’s a power-broker and collector of secrets. Before a few days back, membership of the goshe wasn’t something we had a problem with – it probably wasn’t such a closely-guarded secret then an
d even if it was, he might be able to give us an idea of what we’re dealing with. He must have heard the discussion at the Emperor’s court, witnessed what sort of support they might have.’

  Enchei urged Narin back down onto the bed. ‘Aye, you could be onto something there. Puts you even deeper into his pocket, mind.’

  ‘What – more so than knowing a secret that could get me murdered within a few hours ? That’s a risk I’m happy to take.’

  ‘So I see.’ Enchei stood for a moment, frowning down at Narin as he thought. ‘It might give us an idea of what we’re contending with, but let’s hope Kesh can find out some of what’s going on at that island.’

  ‘What do you mean ?’

  ‘Said she’d be working her contacts in the harbour, hunting for clues about what the goshe are up to if this island is the focus of their plans. Anything they’re planning there, they’ll have to ferry all they need over from the city and they’ll need seagoing ships to do it, I expect. That means the Harbour Warrant, unless they’ve got some deal with House Leviathan to use their docks and that’s unlikely.’

  ‘You’ve sent her out to spy ?’ Narin demanded. ‘Since when does she have contacts rather than friends ?’

  Enchei snorted. ‘Sorry, habit there. Aye, she’s got friends in the warrant, folk who’re likely to trust someone they’ve known their whole lives. And no I didn’t send her out to spy. I’m amazed the girl’s patience for hiding out lasted this long, in all honesty. In any case, we need to know more before we can do anything to stop these bastards and she’s as much a part of it as we are. You need to lose some of that chivalry o’ yours or you’ll trip over it before this is through.’

  ‘She’s a civilian,’ Narin protested. ‘She’s not ready to be part of this fight !’

  ‘So’re you in my eyes, remember that. She’s got a good head on her shoulders, does Kesh, and there’s plenty o’ risk to go around. She can take her fair share if she wants, I ain’t askin’ her to kick down the door of the nearest Shure.’