Knives of Bastion (An Empire Falls Book 2)

by Harry Leighton

  It could be worse.

  There could be a siege coming. That would be worse. Although a siege could bring people together, whereas the captain was about to walk out into his guard and drop a particularly nasty shit onto them.

  How many of the guard wanted to hear this news?

  How many would argue and complain and take their eyes off the game?

  God above. They just lost their thieftaker and this is the first thing the Governor does to pull it all back?

  There was a knock on the door.

  “Yes?”

  “All ready sir.”

  “Just a moment.”

  Right, nothing for it, go out there and tell them. So he stood, smartened himself up, and strode through the door.

  All eyes turned on him, and he did his best to look serious. “Ladies and gentlemen, I have an announcement, straight from the government.”

  “The new thieftaker,” a guard said excitedly. It was always him interrupting, and he might be a little touched by God.

  “This news concerns another one of us.”

  “We’ve made an arrest!”

  “No, look, can you quieten down. Right, Elena has been given her job back. She is reinstated and putting the Nightwalker at the top of our priorities.”

  He’d been expecting many replies, but not a deep exhale from everyone in the room and silence.

  “Are there any questions?”

  “Elena?”

  “Yes.”

  “Back?”

  “Yes.”

  “We’ve only just got rid of the bitch!”

  “Presumably some last request of the Thieftaker?” tried the captain.

  “Who sacked her?”

  Yes, there was that. Perhaps time to push some sympathetic words.

  “I understand your frustration that we now have our fourth head of the Nightwalker investigation in a short time.”

  They looked at him with the eyes of people who didn’t give a shit about that bit at all.

  “But … Elena is a proven operator, who will catch this person.” He felt ill saying it. As he scanned the guard, he realised most were looking at him like he was an idiot. That triggered a response.

  “You will support Elena and I will hear no more of it.”

  Do what you want as long as it doesn’t get to me.

  He turned and marched back into his office.

  “Did that just happen?” a guard asked.

  “Reckon it did.”

  “So everyone going to get their job back?”

  “How about Petr and his drinking. Vika sacked him.”

  “They can’t … they can’t overturn all her decisions.”

  “No, she knew what she was doing. She got rid of Elena. She knew her shit alright and this is shitting on her.”

  “Storn?”

  Storn looked up from where he’d been lost in a daze.

  “Yes?”

  “Are you smiling?”

  “Er…” Was he? Yes, because he was happy Elena was back. Now things would get done. He could never admit this. “Just thinking of the girls.”

  “One day you won’t wake up Storn.”

  “True of all of us.”

  “I’ll give you that one.”

  A woman walked over and leant on a desk. “What’s Elena gonna do now? Arrest every soldier in the city and string them up?”

  “They, er, weren’t strung up.”

  “What, Storn?”

  “In Elena’s case, the soldiers weren’t executed.”

  “Oh good, we have a fucking historian.”

  Storn turned and looked at the floor again.

  “So what do we do?” one asked, exasperated.

  “Nowt we can do. She has the authority now. We do what she tells us.”

  “We avoid her so she can’t tell us anything.”

  “Yeah, that.”

  “Lots of that.”

  “Anyone know where she might be?” Storn asked.

  “Good idea, Storn, we need to know where her base is.”

  Not why he’d said it, but a good start.

  A male guard turned to one of his female colleagues. “Why don’t you like her?”

  “Ey?”

  “You’re a woman. Why don’t you like Elena?”

  “Legions come first. Always the legions. They protect us.”

  *****

  “What have you got?” Daeholf asked as Trimas came into his room.

  The newcomer waved something at him while grinning. “Just you wait and see.”

  “It better not be more dubious money or outright illegal weapons.”

  “In a packet this size?”

  “Could be diamonds,” Zedek pointed out from where he was sat in the corner, the chat between him and Daeholf having stopped.

  “No, none of that. I have these!” He opened the packet and dropped something into his hand.

  “A pack of cards?”

  “Yes Dae, yes.”

  “Because we haven’t seen those before.”

  “Ah, but this pack is unique to this area of the north and allows for a game of tactical skill to be played out.”

  “Are you sure that isn’t just a fortune telling deck people are pretending has tactical value? By which I mean soldiers.”

  “Nope, not at all. A genuine game in card form. I thought we could have a go.”

  Daeholf conceded, “Alright, that sounds fair.”

  “Perhaps if we cleared the bed?”

  “The bed is clear Trimas, it just has my legs in it, and we’re not chopping those off for your amusement.”

  “I wonder if Erik has a board we could use…”

  “There is half the bed free,” Zedek pointed out. “How much space does this need?”

  “It needs some.”

  “Hang on,” and Daeholf raised a finger.

  “Yes?”

  “This game, does it have rules written down that we can consult or are we relying on you telling us from last time you played it ages ago?”

  “That’s very suspicious of you.”

  “And the answer is?”

  “I was given a refresher by the woman I bought the cards from.”

  “Then this might not be a total shit show.”

  “Right, Zedek, shuffle, then Daeholf. We all shuffle.”

  Cards were handed over.

  “These are sticky,” Zedek complained. “It’s as if someone just wiped the blood from them but left a bit.”

  “I can neither confirm nor deny their origins, just that they are all there.”

  “Ooh, a dragon.”

  “And Zedek is now interested.”

  Daeholf looked at the cards. “Forget blood, they smell like they came from a midden.”

  “Look, they were cheap, alright?”

  “Alright, but it helps to shuffle if… Zedek?”

  Their friend was staring into the distance before he snapped out of it.

  “Sorry, just thinking about dragons.”

  Daeholf looked at the cards, then up. “Fuck it. We need to have the talk.”

  “We do?” Trimas asked.

  “We have to have it sometime. So now.”

  “What are you talking about?” Zedek asked them both.

  “Elves,” they replied.

  “Oh.”

  “There is an elf in this city. Now, while most people think elves are distorted monsters, we know they can look just like tall, thin humans and blend in, just like you do. Except…”

  Trimas took over. “Except for the ears. Pointy, pointy ears. Yours were hacked off by humans, but the elf in the city… Well how have they done it?”

  Zedek nodded. “I have been pondering.”

  “We know they can travel this city and not be spotted. For God’s sake, they’re a serial killer and no one’s spotted them, so…”

  Zedek had an answer. “I can only conclude that this elf doesn’t have all their ears either. They can’t have survived and done this in just a hood. So,
no ears.”

  “Bit of a coincidence if both the elves we ever met had people carve their heads up.”

  “It would be,” Zedek agreed, “so I am wondering.”

  “What?”

  “Well why is there an elf here? Is it an exile like me? Have they come out for something? A spy? But what sort of spy starts killing people with no political or economic function? What is this elf doing?”

  “We were hoping, Zedek, you could answer that.”

  “If the elf was here officially, sent out, it is possible, not likely, but slightly possible the ears were modified to allow him to blend in.”

  Trimas and Daeholf exchanged looks. “You’d do that?”

  “No.”

  “No?!”

  “I have never heard of such a thing. But there are zealots in my community. Zealots who I suppose would. It’s not as if Elven society has nothing it could learn from you. We were advanced, then we stagnated.”

  “So some lunatic elves send an elf to this city after cutting him up and he turns, or was loony and is now killing people?”

  “That seems more likely than finding another me.”

  “Ah.”

  “So can we catch them?” Daeholf asked.

  “Knowing what we know … it might be a help. But it's not as if I can just point on a map to where they would naturally be.”

  “So, we need a pair of mutilated ears.”

  “No?”

  “No. If this was done on purpose, they would be very careful.”

  “Bollocks, that was a great lead.”

  “Indeed.”

  “Alright, let’s get a few ideas down on this one.”

  Trimas packed the cards away.

  *****

  The Governor looked at the pile of papers on his desk and sighed. It was still a long way short of lunch time and he’d not yet made a visible dent. So many meetings. So much to do.

  Whilst he relished a challenge, there were rather more in play than he’d have liked at the moment, far from the least of which was the city’s watch. The day to day details of law enforcement was not an area he was expert in and what was supposed to be an easy job pointing people in the right direction was turning into something of a nightmare. Whilst part of him thought that hunting for clues and solving murders would be an interesting and probably novel way to spend some spare time if he had any, listening to the children that were his watch captains whine on about the city’s laws and resources to enforce them was tiresome. He doubted Vika had put up with much of it. Maybe in some ways they were just testing the boundaries of the new boss. And the subject of the new boss was what made the watch worse than any of the other groups with their endless prompts about the succession. Clearly everyone was interested in the subject, as many of the watch captains seemed to feel they were the natural replacement and so had a horse in the race. Maybe he should just put Elena in charge of the lot of them. He allowed himself a smile. It might be entertaining in the very short term but the enormous mess it would almost certainly create would not be worth it. That said, in some ways it was a shame that more of them weren’t like her. She didn’t like the position he’d put her in, but understood the situation, was doing as she was told and had the good sense not to complain too much about it, at least publicly.

  He sighed. Grumbling about the situation wasn’t going to get it resolved.

  “Who’s next?” he called to his aide, not really wanting to hear the reply. Hopefully not another watch captain.

  An elderly face peered round the door. “Begging your pardon sir, did you say something?” the man said. The Governor looked at him. Long since time for him to retire really, but with his previous assistant in jail and Darek missing, he was having to make do. The aide situation was something that still didn’t sit comfortably with him. He’d had his suspicions about Darek anyway and his disappearance after the revelation that the ThiefTaker was dead certainly didn’t do anything to allay them. Somewhere on today’s list was finding out what had happened. None of the rest of his staff had been much help. He supposed he could probably task Elena with finding him but she was rather busy at the moment. He frowned, thinking.

  “Sir?”

  The Governor realised he’d been sitting there quietly whilst he mused. He snapped himself out of it. “Yes. Who is next?” he said.

  “Colonel Strope.”

  Ah, good. Someone he did actually want to see, though probably also someone who was going to tout themselves as the next thieftaker. “Send him in.”

  “Very good sir.”

  The Governor watched as Colonel Strope walked in, studying him carefully. The man was dressed in full uniform, buckles polished and leather gleaming. He had his helmet tucked respectfully under his arm. Bloodshot eyes and red nose spoke to the fact that the man was still drinking more than was healthy though. If he had nothing else against the man, that’d be enough of a reason not to put him in overall control of the city’s watch and guard.

  “Governor sir,” Strope said, marching in and standing to attention.

  “At ease,” the Governor said, suppressing a smile.

  “Glad you had time to see me sir, I can imagine you are very busy at the moment.”

  “You’re a key man in the city’s defence. I value your input on the situation.”

  Strope glowed momentarily with pride before adopting a more serious expression. “That’s good of you to say sir. You’ve had a chance to look at my report then?”

  “Indeed. Rotating squads of the guard and watch is an interesting idea. It could give them some valuable extra experience. Though I’m a little curious why you brought this to me now. Did you not bring this to the Thieftaker?”

  “Yes, well. I did but it wasn’t an idea she was particularly keen on.”

  “I see.”

  “She very much had her own way of doing things.”

  “That she did. I’m certainly giving your proposal some thought. When things quiet down a little, we’ll talk more about how you might implement it.”

  “Thank you sir. I have a number of other ideas if you are interested.”

  “I’m pleased to hear it. But I’d like you to focus on something else for the time being.”

  “Sir?”

  “I’m sure you understand that Lady Vika was a key part of the city and her loss is keenly felt.”

  “Very much so sir. Though, might I say you are doing an admirable job in the interim.”

  “Indeed. But the city faces difficult times. Gang violence on the streets, a serial killer striking at will, beyond the ability of anyone to catch him. The Thieftaker was tackling these challenges. I want to make sure that there is no loss of order. I’m sure you understand.”

  Strope puffed up, anticipating what might be coming next.

  “I want your men prepared, Colonel. There are factions outside the city that may be looking to take this as an opportunity. I want the city kept clean.”

  “Of course sir.”

  “I want you to begin patrolling the local area. Nothing fancy but keep an eye out for banditry and criminals that may try to find their way into the city.”

  Strope’s face fell. “Sir,” he said.

  “This is a key responsibility. It needs to be handled sensitively. I’m sure you are aware of the near riot we had in the city when the watch went in heavy recently whilst looking for the Nightwalker.”

  “I am sir,” Strope said, though his expression betrayed the fact that he had no idea of the incident in question.

  “Which is why I’m trusting you with this. A good man who understands how to handle people.”

  “Understood, sir.”

  “And of course, when things in the city settle down we can talk again about the future structure of the watch and guard.”

  Strope straightened up again, nodding. “I see exactly what you mean sir.”

  “In which case, I’d better let you get on with it. I expect regular reports.”

  “Of course sir.”

/>   “That will be all then.”

  Strope saluted and marched back out of the office. The Governor looked momentarily heavenward. Whilst the duties he’d just assigned the man were useful, they also kept him out of the way. He’d also clearly read a lot into the suggestion that there might be a bigger role for him in the future. Hah. Some chance.

  “Who’s next?” he called.

  The old man looked in again. “Councillor Garen,” he said.

  “Ah good. Okay, one more then a break for lunch I think. Send him in.”

  “Very good sir.”

  Councillor Garen walked calmly into the room. “Marek,” he said, nodding convivially.

  “I’d prefer ‘Governor’ whilst we’re on official business Councillor,” the Governor said.

  “Of course,” Garen said, smiling.

  “I assume the preparations for the funeral are coming along,” the Governor said.

  “Of course. This is too big a ball to drop.”

  “I’m assigning you extra funds.”

  “That’s very generous but we don’t need them.”

  “A politician refusing money? Whatever next?”

  “I take exception to that,” Garen said, frowning. “Besides, I’d rather any spare money was spent on something useful. I want to be able to come back and ask for something the city needs in the future.”

  “A statue.”

  “A statue?”

  “Of the Thieftaker.”

  “I think that may be going a bit far.”

  “She was a city icon. She can watch the city in death as she did in life.”

  “She might have been an icon but she wasn’t popular. I’d expect the statue to be defaced very quickly.”

  “Nevertheless, it will be a symbol and something the watch in particular will appreciate. These are difficult times for them at the moment.”

  “Perhaps. Whilst we’re on the subject then…” Garen ventured.

  “No, I’m not going to appoint you Thieftaker.”

  “Funny. No, what I’m asking is are the rumours I’ve heard true?”

  “Which rumours are those?” the Governor said carefully.

  “That her demise coincides with a disruption in the city’s criminal underworld?”

  “What makes you say that?”