Weapon of Pain (Weapon of Flesh Series Book 5)

by Chris A. Jackson

  “Captain, I understand that it’s late, but this man,” she hooked a thumb at Salish, “might be able to tell me where the boy is. If I don’t learn it soon, they may move him. I know Master Keyfur can help me. It shouldn’t take long. You can be present while I question him, if you like.”

  The captain’s stubborn expression wavered.

  “And there’s no need to disturb the emperor,” she assured him. “He promised any help he could provide, but I don’t want to take advantage of his generosity by intruding on his rest…if I don’t have to.”

  The subtle threat seemed to make up the captain’s mind. “Lieutenant, take them to the west waiting room. I’ll get Master Keyfur.”

  Keyfur appeared with the captain at his side not too long after they got Salish settled. Though a bit disheveled at being woken, the wizard still dressed in a rainbow of flowing robes, the characteristic long feather bouncing on its perch behind his ear.

  “Miss Moirin!” His weary countenance brightened, then sobered when he saw the bound and hooded man in the chair. “What can I do for you?”

  “Master Keyfur, thank you for seeing us. This is my assistant, Dee, and this,” she indicated Salish, “is someone who may know the location of our person of interest. I’d like to find that out, but he’s not cooperating. When you…um…cast that spell to see if my vow to the emperor was truthful, you mentioned—”

  “Compelling someone to speak the truth.” Keyfur twisted his mouth in indecision, then nodded. “It’s not something I do often—it’s rather intrusive, you know—but under the circumstances, I think it’s apt.”

  “Thank you!” Mya avoided the anxious look in Dee’s eyes. She’d purposefully neglected to tell him that she’d been ensorcelled during her previous visit.

  As the mage plucked the feather from behind his ear, Mya stepped back, tugging Dee with her. She had no idea how the magic worked, but she didn’t want to get caught up in it. Ithross was suspicious enough of her. If she was compelled to answer his questions…well, she’d already seen enough of the palace dungeons to last her a lifetime.

  Keyfur flourished the feather. Waving it in a slow circle around the prisoner’s hooded head, he muttered a few airy words. Multihued motes of light—matching the rainbow of the wizard’s robes—trailed the feather. Finally, the wizard stepped back, his shimmering feather fading. “The spell is cast. Ask away.”

  Mya approached Salish, wishing she could see his eyes through the hood, but reluctant to reveal his face to the imperial guards. She’d been racking her brains trying to figure out what questions she could ask the Alchemist without giving away the guild. All she really needed were a few pertinent details. She reached under the hood and loosened his gag.

  “Do you know where the kidnapped Tessifus boy is being held?”

  “Y…y…yes.” The word sounded torn from Salish’s mouth through clenched teeth, but was clear and audible.

  “Where?”

  “Someplace secret.”

  Gods damn it! “Someplace secret” was a perfectly truthful answer. This wasn’t going to be as easy as she’d thought.

  “Where precisely is the boy is being kept?”

  “B…b…beneath a brick factory on Dunworthy Street in Midtown, in…in a cellar that used to be a smuggler’s stash.”

  Mya’s heart raced. “Okay. How can I access this cellar?”

  Salish’s voice lost its resistance as he realized he had no choice but to answer. “Through the factory, or through a tunnel from the river.”

  “Are there guards?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are there guards with the boy?” she asked more specifically.

  “Yes.”

  “Are there guards in the factory?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are there guards in the river tunnel?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “It’s been abandoned for years. Some rocks fell in. It’s nearly impassable.”

  Nearly… Mya winked at Dee. This was useful. “Where on the river is the tunnel’s mouth?”

  “In Midtown.”

  Mya sighed. “Where precisely in Midtown?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “All right! I can work with this.” Mya secured his gag and turned to the wizard. “Thank you Master Keyfur, Captain.”

  Ithross stepped forward. “I’ll take custody of the—”

  “No!” Mya cringed at the authoritative tone of her voice. “No, Captain, you can’t do that.”

  “I most certainly can!” Ithross snapped his fingers, and imperial guards closed in around them.

  Dee reached beneath his jacket.

  “Let me rephrase that, Captain.” Mya put a restraining hand on Dee’s arm. “I can’t allow you to take custody of this prisoner. I may need this man in the future, and I can’t waste time coming to visit him in the palace dungeons. I also have to ask you to refrain from doing anything with the information you heard him give me.” Mya had horrific visions of Ithross mobilizing the constabulary and storming the brick factory. “The emperor entrusted me with this mission. So far I have been successful. Two boys returned alive. I have my own team and my own methods. We’ll take care of this.”

  The captain narrowed his eyes, but finally nodded. “Very well, Miss Moirin, but I’ll be telling the emperor every word you’ve told me in the morning.”’

  “I’d expect no less.”

  “The spell will fade if he’s taken from my presence,” Keyfur warned. “You won’t be able to ask any more questions of him and be assured of a truthful answer.”

  “That’s all right. I’ve got everything I need for now. Thank you, Master Keyfur. We’ve got to go. We’ll be in touch as soon as we’ve recovered the boy.” Waving Dee over to Salish, they each grabbed one of the man’s arms and shuffled him toward the door. “Thank you again, Master Keyfur! You’re indispensable!”

  “My pleasure!” The mage waved his feather at her and grinned.

  Not until the carriage exited the outer palace gates and started downhill did Mya finally breathe a sigh of relief. “That was close.” She felt more assured of success than she had in weeks. “And we’re close, Dee. Close to the end of this guild war.”

  “I hope so.” He leaned back and rubbed his weary face. “I can’t take much more of this.”

  Chapter XVIII

  Dear Gods of Light!” Dee gazed in disgust at the filthy water lapping against the quay wall. “I can’t believe you expect us to wade in that!”

  The river flowed dark and sluggish through the heart of Tsing. In the silence of the night, the waterway might have been the black River Oblivion sweeping damned souls down into the Nine Hells.

  “Afraid of the water, Dee?” Mya asked as they strode along Riverway Avenue.

  A sudden roil of motion caught Dee’s eye as something large—probably one of the giant catfish rumored to ply the dark waters—molested a bloated carcass floating by. A vital tributary for commerce, the river was also a reeking repository for the waste of a quarter million people.

  He shuddered. “No, I’m afraid of what’s in the water.”

  They walked on, the silence invaded only by their soft footsteps and the creak and groan of barges tied to the stone riverwall. Unlike the Wharf District, the Midtown waterfront was relatively quiet at night. A pool of darkness loomed just ahead, three consecutive unlit streetlamps courtesy of a lamplighter willing to shirk his duty for a few coins.

  “You sure we can’t go in through the brick factory?” Dee asked again.

  “I’m sure.” Mya sounded amused. “Noncey and Clemson’s people attack the brick factory as a diversion while we sneak in through the tunnel. We’ll be out with the kid before they even know we’re there.”

  “But—”

  “Trust me, Dee; it’s the best way in.” Mya grabbed his arm. “Ready?”

  “No.”

  “Too bad.” After a glance up and down the avenue to check for witnesses, Mya steered them hard to
the left, and they stepped off the quay wall.

  Dee’s stomach lurched, but it was only a short drop to the top of the waiting barge. They hunkered down with the several other figures already concealed there, invisible in the shadows.

  “Welcome to your floating staging area, Grandmaster.”

  Dee could barely see the speaker, but recognized the woman’s voice. Damn, but it was nice to have Embree’s Hunters on their side. With some discreet inquiries and a lot of leg-work, they had located an old woman with knowledge of the smugglers’ tunnel leading to the brick factory. She’d been a smuggler herself until she was caught and lost a hand as punishment. She was more than willing to tell them all she knew for a pint of ale and a few crowns.

  “Good work, Taelish.” Mya released Dee’s arm. “Did you have any trouble getting set up?”

  “No. We rented a barge and bribed our way to this mooring.” She pointed to the riverwall.

  Squinting as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, Dee could just make out a low arch of stonework in the face of the quay wall, one of the many sewer outlets that flushed the city’s waste into the river. The tunnel’s top was barely two feet above the surface of the water.

  Dee cringed at the thought of getting into that dark water. “So much for my best pair of boots…”

  Mya ignored him. “What about reconnaissance?”

  “I’ve been in,” Taelish said. “You’ll have to duck a little, Dee. There’s a ledge inside so you can wade. It shallows quickly, but it’s wet all the way to the blockage. We didn’t touch that, but you can feel air flow, so you should be able to move a few rocks to wiggle through.”

  “Great work, Taelish. Jondy, Folk, you ready?”

  “Yes, Grandmaster.” The two Blades assigned to accompany them shuffled to the ladder rigged over the side of the barge.

  Mya pulled out a pocket watch and looked at the face. “We’ve only got an hour until the diversion starts, so let’s move.”

  Reluctantly, Dee shed his long coat, rolled it carefully around his crossbows, and tied it high on his shoulders to keep it the weapons and bolts dry.

  Mya turned to Taelish. “Keep watch. We’ll come back this way unless something changes or an exit out of the brick factory looks better. If we’re not out in two hours, leave the barge and head home.”

  “Will do.” The Hunter’s pearly teeth flashed in the shadows. “Good luck.”

  “Thanks.” Mya squeezed Dee’s arm. “Let’s go!”

  Dee followed Mya down the ladder. Water as warm as piss filled his boots, rose up his shins, thighs, finally stopping at his waist. With one foot on the bottom rung, he reached out with his other and found the ledge, slick and uneven. It was as black as pitch inside the tunnel.

  “I can’t see you, Mya,” he whispered.

  “Just walk forward. Watch your footing.”

  His boot slipped alarmingly. “No shit.” He ducked and moved inside.

  “Actually, I think there’s quite a lot of shit in here,” she muttered, her voice brimming with revulsion.

  “You don’t like this any better than I do.”

  “No, but I can’t let everyone know that. Morale, you know.”

  “What about my morale?”

  “I’ll work on your morale later.”

  Dee jumped as something grabbed his crotch, visions of hungry catfish lurching through his mind, until he realized it was Mya’s questing hand.

  “Stop it!”

  Mya snickered quietly, then led the way through the darkness, the two Blades sloshing along behind them. Dee bit back a yelp as something brushed past leg. This time it wasn’t Mya, but he really didn’t want to know what it was.

  Thankfully, the level of water fell steadily. Within minutes, it barely reached his boot tops. Moving quietly became harder. They were deep into the tunnel now, and one of the Blades ignited a dim glow crystal. Dee wasn’t sure whether to thank him or curse him. Actually seeing what he was wading through didn’t make it any better. He unwrapped and donned his coat, but didn’t pull his weapons yet. They still had the barrier to get past.

  The rockfall loomed out of the murk ahead, slime-covered boulders and masonry from the collapsed basement of a building above. Long since shored up and reworked overhead, the tunnel seemed otherwise solid. Dee understood why Kittal considered this way blocked; the barrier looked impenetrable.

  Mya clambered up the obstruction and paused. “Taelish was right. I can feel air moving through here. I don’t hear anything, but we’d better be quiet at this.”

  She pulled some of the smaller rocks away from the blockage and passed them back to Dee, who passed them along to the Blades to be deposited carefully behind them. They worked quickly, only the occasional click of a falling pebble, quiet grunts, and whispers punctuating the silence. Then Mya stopped.

  “Problem,” she whispered. “There’s one big rock in the way, and I don’t know if it might be supporting others. I’ve got to lift it, but it might make noise. If it does, we’re going to have to move fast up the rest of the tunnel.”

  They all signified their readiness. Dee checked his crossbows, but didn’t draw them. If Mya needed help lifting, he wanted his hands empty.

  Mya clutched the boulder—fully two feet across—braced her legs, and lifted. Amazingly, it moved. Dee would have sworn that they’d have to use a crowbar and lifting tackle.

  “Holy Father of All,” muttered Folk as Mya pivoted slowly with the rock in her arms.

  Dee gaped and backed away. He knew Mya was strong, but had never realized just how strong. The rock must have weighed four hundred pounds. He could see her straining, but it looked like she was working harder to keep her footing than to keep the rock aloft. She took a step down the rough incline and wobbled, steadied, and took another.

  Free of the rockfall, Mya bent her knees and put the rock down as gently as lowering a babe into a crib. She rose and shrugged her shoulders, wiping her grimy hands on her equally grimy shirt. She noticed the three men’s amazement and made a face.

  “Stop staring. Come on, we can get through now.”

  She clambered up the incline and wiggled through the hole. Dee followed, his mind awhirl as he pictured her in the throes of passion. It’s a wonder she didn’t break me in half.

  Mya paused beyond the rockfall to empty the water from her boots. The floor here was dry, and squishing along in water-filled boots might give them away. The others joined her with only minor noise. So far, they seemed to have made it without discovery.

  Don’t get cocky now, Mya, her conscience warned. She heeded the advice and took point, advancing slowly. That this passage was unguarded didn’t mean it wasn’t trapped. Kittal’s alchemical explosives would make a potent defense if rigged to a trip wire or pressure plate. She scanned the darkness ahead, scrutinizing the ground before she placed every step, her Hunter’s skills and enhanced senses working together to detect the faintest hint of anything wrong.

  On and on she prowled. Nothing… The absence of any defense piqued Mya’s chronic paranoia.

  Suddenly, she froze and raised one hand to stop the others. Jondy doused his light.

  A dim illumination shone far ahead. This far back, she and her companions remained hidden in darkness. The tunnel was straight as an arrow, but the grade flattened ahead.

  “Forward slow,” she whispered over her shoulder. Hand signals would be safer, but it was too dark for her companions to see her clearly. “Quiet as you can.”

  They started forward, the soft squelch of soggy socks in wet boots barely audible above their pounding hearts. Mya’s eyes pierced the gloom, scanning for danger.

  There! Mya froze, and Dee bumped into her, but she dare not even whisper to her companions now.

  Ahead, the tunnel changed from hewn rock to a corridor of worked stone set with intermittent glow crystals. Just before an opening to the right—The stairs up to the brick factory—a faint shimmer near the floor caught her eye. What might have been strands of spider silk—nigh
invisible—stretched from wall to wall. Trip wires, she determined, set at odd angles, intervals, and heights. Nice. Well beyond the stairs, the corridor ended at a door flanked by two guards, crossbows at the ready.

  Well, shit!

  The distance from where they would be lit by the glow crystals to the stairs was a kill zone. Once in the light, they’d be within the crossbowmen’s range. Barreling straight down the corridor almost guaranteed that you’d set off the trip wires, but slowing to maneuver over the wires would allow the guards to get off at least two shots before you reached them.

  Mya analyzed the corridor carefully, then waved her people back and retreated with them until they were well out of sight of the guards.

  “Bad news. Six trip wires just before the stairs, two guards at the far end with crossbows.”

  “How far?” Jondy asked, holding up one the short blowguns the Blades had brought.

  “You’d be able to get a shot from the trip wires, but you’d be a target until you got there. It’s a long way to run while under fire. Suggestions?”

  “Wait for the diversion,” Dee said, looking up as if he could see through solid rock. “The guards might be drawn up the stairs.”

  “Maybe…” Mya considered what orders she would give guards stationed to protect her most valuable asset. “Or they could retreat and seal that door behind them, set off another alarm, or even collapse the entire tunnel.” She bit her lip. “No, we should go just before all Nine Hells break loose upstairs.” She checked her watch. “That’s in six minutes. Any other ideas?”

  “Could be someone on the stairs, too.”

  “Good point. What else?”

  Dee and the Blades shook their heads.

  Mya sighed. Up to me, then.

  “I’ll go first and draw their fire. Dee, stick as close to me as you can and take the first shot you can get, but make sure you stop before the trip wires until the guards are down. Got it?”

  “Sure.” Dee swallowed hard and nodded. “I can do that.”

  “Good. Jondy and Folk, you follow behind Dee as backup, but once you’re past the wires, I want you to stop at the stairwell and cover that. Anyone comes down, you take them out.”