Knives of Bastion (An Empire Falls Book 2)

by Harry Leighton

  “Why the roof again?” Zedek asked.

  “It’s caused us so much fucking trouble we might as well use it ourselves.”

  Now safely on the roof, Trimas felt something land on his cheek. He put a hand out and realised it was snow.

  “Oh that’s just perfect,” he sighed, and led the three across the rooftops. They were almost flat in this region of the city, and soon three people were sliding across a roof on their bellies and looking down into a courtyard.

  Trimas turned to Elena and raised an eyebrow.

  She nodded in return.

  Below them, people were gathering. Not the cream of the city’s elite, not even the middle class, but a small army of people who looked like they’d find a way to kill you even if you were dead, and would rob you of a lung at a bare minimum.

  No one in the courtyard knew people were above them, and when a heavy wooden door opened and they all marched in, no one thought to climb up and have a look.

  When the door slid shut, whispers began.

  “I assume Hood is inside.”

  “Giving orders. Yes.”

  “What have we found?”

  “A strike back against the bribes. The turning point Kellan was aiming for.”

  “Then we stop it?”

  “No. We can’t stop all of them. We stop Vika.”

  “Beheading. I still feel bad about this.”

  “It doesn’t get easier with time.”

  The door opened, and people marched out ready for action, away from the building and out into the streets.

  “Which one is Hood?” Zedek whispered.

  “I don’t know.”

  “She is supposed to be totally covered, in a hood,” Elena added.

  “So none of them... She’s still inside and her army has walked off.”

  Trimas smiled as he finished, smiled as he stood, and soon the rope was affixed.

  Beneath them the courtyard was nearly empty, with one heavy-set guard stood looking out at the gates. The good thing about ropes is they can be lowered silently, and the good thing about Trimas sliding down at speed and kicking his descending feet into the guard’s head was the victim would still have been in trouble if they’d been wearing a legionary’s helmet.

  They weren’t.

  The guard collapsed like a sack of shit, so Trimas bound him while the other two slid down themselves.

  One secured courtyard, one heavy door, who knew what inside.

  Trimas undid his cloak and allowed a sword to become visible, a blade he now pulled out. Elena meanwhile went to the door and peered through a knot in the wood.

  “Empty…”

  “But someone closed the door…”

  Trimas put a hand out onto the wood, and began to move it, allowing the door to slide open, revealing the forward part of the warehouse. It was filled with crates and boxes, but no people.

  He gestured, and Zedek pulled out daggers, while Elena unhooked a club. Then they walked into the gloom, aiming for the faint glow of a lantern at the far end.

  The glow soon turned into the outline of a door, and the gentle humming of a human almost singing reached them.

  Trimas stood opposite the door, with Zedek to his right and Elena to his left. At some point, you had to stop creeping.

  One boot kicking forward, the door flew open as Trimas smashed it and stepped into the room, sword up.

  All eyes turned to him, but all eyes was one man with a quill sat over a ledger.

  The three moved into the room and secured the door behind them as they realised it was a small office-style room notable for the way the scribe was sat to one side and a large table sat empty with a chair behind it still pulled out.

  “Do you work for Hood?” Trimas asked. The fact his sword point was a finger’s width from the man’s face helped the answer.

  “Yes.”

  “That her finances?”

  “Her?”

  “His. Hood’s. That accounts?”

  “Yes?”

  “Zedek, get that and put it in the backpack. Elena, look for incriminating documents.”

  “Where is she?” Elena replied.

  “That is what I’m going to work on.”

  “She could be back in the warehouse…”

  “Just give me a moment…”

  Elena nodded, and looked at the table. It was clear, but it had drawers on either side, drawers filled with papers listing people and money.

  “God, we’ve found it,” she exclaimed.

  “What?” Zedek asked, coming over.

  “We can’t show anyone your documents without you getting arrested, but we’ve found her versions. We can begin to prove this.”

  “No,” Trimas said, “we can prove Hood did this. Vika isn’t stupid, those documents won’t link to her.”

  “Why do you keep saying she, her, Vika?” the scribe asked.

  “Zedek, tie him up.”

  “And what are you doing?”

  “This,” and he reached into a crate, pulled something they couldn’t see, and a section of shelving swung out. Beneath it was a small hole and a ladder into the ground. “If you’re running two identities, how do you swap between them? Not by walking into the front of this building. You sneak in the back way…”

  Elena laughed. “She had a tunnel dug.”

  “You said she had a detailed map of the city. The most detailed map of the city. Not for battling crime, for sneaking about.”

  Elena clasped Trimas on the arm and peered into the hole. It was neatly edged, and with an arm reached up you could pull or push the shelves on their finely balanced mechanism.

  “Alright, let’s get down there.”

  Zedek turned to the scribe. “How long ago did she leave?”

  “Hmmfufl.”

  “Use your fingers! Okay, not long.”

  Trimas picked up the lantern from the other side of the room and climbed down first, having sheathed the sword and chosen a dagger.

  “This won’t be a long tunnel, just enough to appear somewhere different,” Elena realised, and she was right. The trio moved down the narrow path, then out of a trapdoor into a cellar that was suspiciously clean.

  To one side, on a wooden strongbox, was a hood and cloak.

  “She’s Vika again, so wherever this is…”

  He paused as they all heard a door close above them.

  “Shit, she’s close,” and Trimas went for the door, bounded up the stairs, and found a front door swinging open. He took a step towards it, paused as Elena and Zedek appeared behind him, and turned and looked at the stairs on the other side of the room.

  “What?” Zedek asked.

  Elena nodded at the stairs. “Vika heard us behind her. The door is a distraction, she is still in this building.”

  Trimas began to walk upwards, wishing he’d brought a shield with him. They came to a landing, and the stairs continued up another storey. With the other two behind him he kicked one door open, but felt Elena’s hand on his shoulder.

  “This is still the distraction. Your gut told you we should sneak over on the roof. Vika has been hunting a killer on the roof. Her gut will tell her to flee across them now while we get lost in here.”

  Trimas nodded. “Agreed.”

  A few moments later, and the group came out through a trapdoor into a section of rooftop used in the summer for enjoying the light. Today it had a light covering of snow across it.

  A figure was moving away from them across the tiles with considerable skill but even so slowed by the snow.

  “Just when you need an archer…” Trimas sighed.

  Elena looked at Vika, quickly considered what she knew of the woman, and knew what to do.

  “Thieftaker!” Elena shouted out.

  The figure stopped. Red hair could be seen swinging from her head.

  “Vika! It’s Elena!”

  The figure turned and looked back.

  “I know who you are Vika! I know you’re the Hood! We have all the document
s!”

  When Vika looked down at something, at a bag around her shoulder, Elena knew the evidence they needed would be in that.

  Just as Elena had hoped, Vika was considering her move.

  It was one thing to be accused of impropriety. It was one thing for someone to accuse her of being both Hood and Thieftaker.

  It was another to have the most bloody minded, tenacious and impossibly successful person in the whole guard knowing and proving it.

  Vika had no choice. She had to shut Elena up, and the two people with her, because she knew Elena would expose her if she could still breathe. That was what Elena did. She’d beaten the legions. She could beat a thieftaker.

  Did they have evidence?

  It didn’t matter, did it? Elena had to die, because alive she would find a way once again.

  Vika stepped forward, pulling a blade, and saw the three people arrayed against her do the same. A sword, a pair of daggers and a club.

  A club.

  Elena had come with the weapon Vika could beat, but had the mind she couldn’t.

  “Surrender, be arrested,” Elena ordered.

  Vika smiled. Be arrested. Come and be tortured by the people who hated her for her power. Come and be tried by a jury of her peers who would be glad to see their rival gone.

  She had to kill Elena.

  Who were these two men? One broad, the other…

  Oh God, the other…

  “Surrender Vika, we know everything.”

  Vika saw the broad man’s face, and knew he wasn’t in the mood for surrender.

  Fuck this, Vika thought. She was going to write her own history, just as she’d always done, and she took a step to her left.

  Except there wasn’t any roof to her left, and she let herself fall to the ground.

  They heard the impact, but as they reached the edge of the roof and leaned over, they saw Vika’s body sprawled on the ground and her head at a perfect right angle to her body, neck snapped in two. Snow began to land on her face.

  Trimas would never remember the feeling as they charged down through the building, charged out and round and to her body, which hadn’t moved, hadn’t tricked them and run away. Her body, which lay dead on the ground.

  Elena dropped down and felt for a heartbeat, then used her fingers to close Vika’s eyes.

  “She’s dead.”

  Trimas put a hand on Elena’s shoulder. “You tried. You offered her the peaceful way. She chose to do this.”

  “That doesn’t make me feel better.”

  Zedek picked Vika’s bag up and pulled out a tightly bound volume filled with her notes. A private book, recording everything she needed to remember.

  “Evidence?” Elena asked. “Please, Zedek, tell me it corroborates what you found out.”

  Zedek was moving through at speed, until he stopped.

  Until he read the page again and again.

  “What is it?” Trimas asked, knowing full well his friend had just gone pale.

  “Vika … she knew what the Nightwalker was.”

  “What?”

  “She couldn’t arrest them. She couldn’t stop the Nightwalker openly without causing chaos.”

  “That doesn’t make sense.”

  “Vika discovered the real Nightwalker uses a bronze dagger. She looked into bronze daggers. She worked it all out.”

  “Breathe, Zedek, breathe.”

  “I can’t.” He looked up at his friends, one new, one older. “The Nightwalker is an elf.”

  Part Three

  “What the hell are you doing bringing that back here?” Daeholf exclaimed, sitting up in bed as he saw the body they were manhandling. “Are you insane?”

  “We need time to think,” Trimas said. “Fuck,” he added as he adjusted his grip on the corpse’s shoulders. Elena was struggling with the legs.

  Daeholf looked at Zedek. “You’re shaking. What’s wrong?”

  Zedek shook his head and sat down clumsily in the chair. He put his head in his hands. Daeholf looked quizzically at Trimas.

  “There’s been a bit of a revelation,” Trimas said as he and Elena dragged the body further into the room. “Vika had some evidence on the Nightwalker. It seems she was convinced he is an elf.”

  “Fucking hell,” Daeholf said. He got out of bed clumsily and walked awkwardly over to Zedek, putting a hand on his shoulder.

  “Thanks,” Zedek said, looking up at him.

  “It’s partially to keep me upright too,” Daeholf said.

  “I’m glad to see you can move around a bit then,” Zedek said quietly.

  “A hand here then?” Elena said, looking at them. Zedek stood up and moved to help get the legs into the room, closing the door behind them.

  Daeholf sat back down on the bed. “Can someone tell me what happened and why the bedroom is suddenly a morgue?”

  “She wouldn’t be taken alive,” Trimas said, stepping away from the body and sitting on the end of the bed. “Heavier than she looked,” he muttered before stretching and groaning.

  “I didn’t think we were trying to,” Daeholf said, still looking at the corpse. “And that still doesn’t explain why you brought the body here,”

  “She jumped off a roof,” Elena said, straightening up, leaning on the door and looking tired.

  “Rather than be taken?” Daeholf said, looking at her.

  “She almost looked ready to fight us but thought better of it,” Zedek said quietly from behind him, head bowed slightly again.

  “I’m not sure smashing herself into the ground is better,” Daeholf said, turning and looking at him. “Trust me on this, I know,”

  “Better than risking being taken alive,” Trimas said.

  “I guess so. You’d better start from the beginning,” Daeholf said, sitting back and studying the three of them.

  “Isn’t she going to smell?” Zedek said.

  “It’s cold, we have a while,” Daeholf said.

  “I’m a bit disgusted that you know that,” Elena said, taking position on the chest.

  “This isn’t our first time,” Trimas said. “Soldiers kill people,” he added with a shrug.

  “So what happened?” Daeholf said. “Clearly you found an opportunity.”

  “We watched her send most of her men out on a mission. The time was right,” Elena said.

  “The headquarters was right where Elena expected,” Trimas said. “We approached over the rooftops unobserved as we’d planned.”

  “After the men had been sent out to do who knows what, we launched our attack,” Elena said.

  “You’re making it sound more dramatic than it was,” Trimas said reproachfully.

  “You tell it then,” Elena said, frowning.

  Trimas sighed. “It was easy to disable the guard…”

  “Wait, just the one?” Daeholf interjected.

  “Yes. She’d sent just about everyone out it seemed,” Trimas said.

  “Risky,” Daeholf said, musing. “Something big is going down tonight then, at a guess.”

  “Probably,” Elena said. “They’re not here so we’ll deal with that tomorrow.”

  “It didn’t take us long to find her office,” Trimas said. “She wasn’t there. We questioned what seemed to be some sort of accountant but he wasn’t much use. The documents he was working on were though. They’re going to be invaluable getting us out of this mess.”

  “You’re getting ahead again,” Daeholf said. “Where was the Thieftaker?”

  “She’d left through a secret exit,” Elena said.

  “I suppose if you’ve got a dual identity like that, you’d need one,” Daeholf said.

  “We chased her down and confronted her on a rooftop,” Trimas said. “She’d abandoned her disguise and so was just Vika at this point.”

  “I think I can follow the rest,” Daeholf said. “But why bring her here?”

  “We need to think,” Elena said. “We can’t just drop her off at the watch and say ‘here you go’.”

&n
bsp; “Obviously,” Daeholf said.

  “And left in the street, she just looks like the Thieftaker who fell off a roof. There’s no link to the underworld. And we’d not get listened to if we tried to provide one. Who are we to make that sort of accusation?” Elena said.

  “You have a point,” Daeholf said.

  “We’re missing the bigger problem here,” Zedek said.

  “Bigger problem?” Trimas said. “This is pretty damn big.”

  “There’s an elf in the city,” Zedek said.

  “You don’t really believe that do you?” Elena said. “They’re mythical. Children’s tales.”

  Zedek sagged. Daeholf and Trimas looked at each other. Elena caught the look and her face fell. “I’m not going to like this am I?” she said.

  “There’s something else we’ve not told you,” Daeholf said slowly.

  “Go on,” Elena said.

  “I’m an elf,” Zedek said simply. Elena looked at him. She opened her mouth to scoff but stopped. She studied him more closely. Zedek looked at her sadly and lifted the hair from over his mangled ears to show her. “None of the tales you’ve heard about us are true,” he said quietly.

  “Very few of them anyway,” Trimas said. Zedek flicked him an annoyed glance.

  “That looks like it hurt,” Elena said gently. “Did you eventually catch up with who did it?”

  “I’d rather not talk about it,” Zedek said.

  “I understand,” Elena said. She looked at the other two. “So I suppose now that one of you is an orc or something?”

  “We’re both what we seem,” Trimas said, though Elena thought she saw a quick flash in Daeholf’s eyes.

  She nodded. “It’s not like I can jump ship now is it?” she said. “For better or worse, we’ve got the corpse of the head of the watch on our hands and I’m in this to the end.”

  Daeholf sighed with obvious relief.

  “Though I thought we’d said no more surprises…” Elena added. Daeholf had the grace to look a little guilty which gave her a bit of satisfaction. “Is there anything else I need to know?” she finished.

  “We’re all wanted men. Wanted by the Emperor himself, at that,” Trimas said.

  “It’s okay, I knew about that,” Elena said.

  “We’re getting off track,” Zedek said.