A Conversation in Blood

by Paul S. Kemp

  Muttering and grunting, he lurched down the rest of the stairs and lumbered across the grounds. The people cursed and shouted after him and lines of magical energy struck him and did nothing and he fled past the metal men he’d destroyed earlier and out into the park.

  He had little time. The sun would rise soon. He was covered in blood and stink and soon everyone would see him and he didn’t know if he’d made a mistake in daring the city but he’d been desperate and so he had come.

  —

  Nix put a dagger between his teeth and climbed a sturdy metal ladder affixed to the stone wall. At the top he listened for a moment, heard nothing, and pushed open the trapdoor. It creaked open and he poked his head up into an old root cellar lit with a glow bottle. The cellar smelled of onion and stale herbs. Shelves lined the walls, empty but for a few small tins.

  “No large roaring creature,” he whispered down to Egil, and hurriedly climbed the rest of the way into the cellar.

  “Better than the alternative,” Egil said, following after.

  A short stairwell led up out of the cellar to a door. Nix drew his falchion.

  Egil hefted his hammers and softly said, “Could be a wizard up there, though. Would’ve been nice to still have that shroud you burned, yeah?”

  “It would,” Nix agreed. “And I didn’t burn it intentionally. And also, fak you.”

  Egil tried to look innocent. “I’m saying only that you traded that enspelled key to Rusk, then burned up the shroud, and I can’t help but wonder if maybe you’re making things harder on purpose.”

  “Bah,” Nix said, doing his best Egil imitation. “Partnering with you makes it hard enough and that’s truth. And also fak you.”

  “You already said as much.”

  “It warranted repetition.”

  “Fair enough,” Egil said with a grin. “You ready?”

  “Aye.”

  The priest led the way up. He checked the latch, nodded to indicate that the door was not locked. They shared another nod and Egil threw it open and burst through.

  They rushed up into a small dark room, found it empty save for some entirely ordinary-looking furniture—a cabinet, a couple of wooden chairs. The fireplace was dark and cold, though a small pile of wood was stacked near it. Another two small rooms adjoined the central room, both likewise dark. Nix checked them both quickly and found only pallets for sleeping. There was no one there and it looked like there hadn’t been anyone there in a long while.

  “Just a safe house,” he said.

  “Wizard hidey-hole, anyway,” Egil said.

  Nix opened the shutters on one of the small windows. It opened onto a narrow, deserted street that could barely have accommodated a wagon. Nix surmised they were in the cluster of buildings northwest of the Sward. Nix saw no candles or lanterns burning in any of the nearby buildings and all the shutters were closed. Probably the Conclave, through agents, owned most if not all of the buildings around and used them as a buffer for the safe house.

  Nix looked out on the dark, knowing the creature would be after them, knowing Kerfallen’s agents would be after them, too. For the first time, Dur Follin felt very small to Nix.

  “We should go,” he said to Egil.

  “Aye,” Egil said. “Let’s hope Rusk is in a good mood.”

  “Hells, I hope he’s awake.”

  Before they exited the building, Egil took Nix by the shoulder and pulled him to a stop.

  “You going to tell me? What’s in that book? What you meant by ‘worlds’?”

  Nix had, for just a moment, forgotten the plates, the Great Spell, and what it all meant. Egil’s question brought the weight of the knowledge back down on him. He shook his head and did not look his friend in the face. “No.”

  “No?”

  “No.”

  “Why?”

  Nix considered lying, but thought better of it. Egil was his brother. “Because I’m concerned about what it might do to you. Because at this point you don’t need to know.”

  Egil’s eyebrows almost touched as he frowned. “How do you mean?”

  “I mean…” Nix made a gesture of futility with his hand. “Egil, I don’t know how to handle this myself. I’m still working on it. But you, with your penchant for brooding and melancholy…”

  “Fak you,” Egil said. “Tell me right now.”

  Nix could think of no way to tell Egil that everything the priest believed was wrong, was built on a lie, so he delayed.

  “When we get to the Vault, if you still want to know, I’ll tell you. I need to read more, like I said before, to make sure I understand everything, yeah?”

  Skepticism narrowed Egil’s eyes. “Yeah.”

  “Let’s get moving,” Nix said, turning his mind to the immediate matter.

  They exited the building to the street and headed for Mandin’s Way and the guild house. They were going as beggars to Rusk but Nix could think of no other place to go. He needed some time in a secure place.

  Since they had enemies before and behind, they opted for speed over stealth, sprinting along the street while there was still enough darkness to hide them. They kept alert for any sign of Kerfallen’s automatons or the creature.

  With every block they covered, it seemed the burgeoning dawn ate more stars, lifting night’s shroud and exposing them to discovery. Nix imagined the hulking creature somewhere behind them, sniffing the air, lumbering down the streets after them. Distracted, he came around a corner too fast and nearly crashed into a surprised-looking dungsweeper who pulled his donkey to a halt. The sweeper’s eyes went to the blade Nix had in hand.

  “I got no coin,” he said.

  Nix tried to look harmless. “Sorry for the start,” he said, and they hurried on. Nix’s mind was on the creature, a creature seemingly impervious to weapons, and it wanted the plates.

  Why?

  It would use them, he supposed. The same as they’d been used before. But to what end? What would a creature like that want with the most powerful magic in the world?

  Lost in thought, he failed to realize that Egil had stopped and was peering around a corner. The priest stopped him with a raised arm before he went past.

  “What are—”

  “Shh,” Egil said, and nodded down the street.

  Nix glanced around the corner. Two blocks down he saw it—a cloaked figure too tall and too stiff in its movements to be a man. One of Kerfallen’s constructs, and it was coming toward them.

  “Wizard must have divined our general location,” Egil said.

  “Aye,” Nix said. “We keep moving and at least he won’t be able to pin us down. Those things can’t climb. We should go up.”

  “Aye,” Egil said.

  They retreated a bit down the block, ducked down an alley, and started up the wall of a two-story building. Both were skilled climbers and they’d soon gained the roof, a flat, tiled affair. Their presence startled a few terns that nested near one of the building’s chimneys. They cawed but didn’t fly off—stubborn creatures. The night’s wind stirred Nix’s hair.

  Nix dropped to his belly and scooted to the edge of the roof. The automaton stood on the street below, looking about in its deliberate, mechanical fashion. Nix glanced up and down the street, saw a horse-drawn wagon a block down. He looked back toward the Sward and the Conclave, but saw nothing except a jagged skyline of roofs and chimneys. No sign of the creature. He slipped back away from the edge.

  “Automaton’s right down there,” he said to Egil.

  “And where there’s one…” Egil said.

  “Aye. Let’s put another block or two behind us and take another look.”

  Moving quietly and quickly, they traversed the Thieves’ Highway: controlled slides down steeply pitched roofs, leaps across alleys, sprints across flat roofs.

  Twice the gaps between buildings proved too far and they had to descend to street level before climbing again and renewing their trek. Nix did not like how long it was taking to get across town.

 
; They jumped an alley, hit the tiled roof of the building on the other side, and got low. They moved to the edge of the roof and looked down. The sound of someone running carried up from the street, the sound loud in the predawn silence.

  “There,” Egil said, nodding up the street.

  A figure turned the corner and ran down the street at a full sprint. The blade at his belt bounced with each stride.

  “Is that…Jyme?” Nix asked, leaning out a bit and squinting.

  The figure got closer, but it was hard to tell if it was actually Jyme or just some slubber.

  Egil craned his neck. “I think it is.”

  “Came to save us,” Nix said. “On his way to the Conclave, no doubt.”

  “Best hold him up lest he bump into the creature.”

  Nix cupped a hand over his mouth. “Jyme!”

  He showed no sign of having heard so Egil whistled, the sound sharp and piercing in the night’s quiet.

  Jyme skidded to a halt, gasping, and glanced all around, his body tense, his hand on his blade.

  “Up here,” Egil said.

  Jyme looked at the roofs on the other side of the street.

  “Over here, Jyme,” Nix said. “Gods, man. Listen, just turn around and run the other fakkin’ way.”

  Jyme looked up, peering at the roof. He spoke between breaths. “What? No, I was looking for you two. You got my message, yeah? Did you see that creature? Gadd and me hacked it to pieces but off it strolled still. Did it get the plates?”

  “Quiet,” Nix said, looking up and down the street. “Both that creature and Kerfallen’s agents are still after us. Like I said, you turn around and head back. We have somewhere to be. No, wait! You and Gadd fought that thing? Anyone get hurt at the Tunnel? Tesha?”

  Jyme walked toward the base of the building. “Gadd got a beating put on him. But I think he’ll be all right. Tesha sent for a healer. And I ain’t going back.”

  Nix was relieved to know Tesha was all right. He went on: “Jyme, we credit you for coming to help, especially after you faced that creature. But we have a plan—”

  “We do?” Egil said. “Since when?”

  “We do,” Nix continued. “So go back to the Tunnel as fast as you can and just lay low. Keep an eye on things as before.”

  Jyme shook his head and his tone sharpened. “No. I ain’t running and guard duty is past and done. I’m coming with you two, now. We had a deal and I kept my end.”

  “He has a point,” Egil said.

  “No, he doesn’t,” Nix said. “And you’re not thinking sensibly, priest. Nor you, Jyme. Now go back. We don’t have time for this.”

  Jyme pointed his blade up at them. “Fak you, Nix Fall. I already told you I’m coming. I’ll walk along down here if that’s what I have to do. You think you could lose me?”

  “I’m certain of it,” Nix said.

  “Well, you’re wrong,” Jyme answered. “And maybe I’ll bump into that creature or a construct and then what?”

  Nix blew out a frustrated sigh. He thought about the Great Spell. “You don’t know what you’d be getting into here, Jyme.”

  “Neither do you, I’d wager,” Jyme said. “The past bein’ any teacher.”

  “He makes another point,” Egil said.

  Nix glared at the priest. “Will you shut up? You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Because you won’t tell me, is why.”

  “For good reason,” Nix snapped, then said softly, “This will get very serious very soon, Egil. Even more than it is right now. We want Jyme in for that? Can he handle it?”

  “I don’t know,” Egil said, looking Nix in the eyes. “Can we?”

  “And now you make a point. Well enough, then.” He looked down at the street. “Can you fakkin’ climb, Jyme?”

  Jyme sheathed his blade. “Can I climb? Better’n you, likely.”

  Jyme put his hands on the side of the building, felt for purchase, and started to ascend. He used a windowsill, protruding stone, a shutter, and soon reached the roof. Nix allowed he’d climbed with skill.

  Egil said, “Where’d you learn that?”

  Jyme’s thin face was red with the effort of running and climbing. He had a wheeze, too, Nix thought.

  “I had a life before the Watch and before going hiresword,” Jyme said. “I climbed the Shelf once on a drinking dare. You two don’t have the sum of me. You just think you do.”

  “Well, we don’t think that anymore,” Nix said, and thumped him on the shoulder. “Or if we do, we think you sum to more than we once thought. Let’s go. Try to keep up.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “The guild house,” Nix said.

  “As in the Thieves’ guild? Channis’s guild?”

  “Rusk’s guild now,” Egil said.

  “I’m gonna ask why,” Jyme said. “Knowing a clear answer won’t be had.”

  “Safe haven,” Nix said.

  Jyme sniffed, rubbed at his chest as though he were hurt there. “That’s not the first place I think of when I think of safe havens.”

  “Look there, Egil,” Nix said. “Jyme’s still funny.”

  Egil nodded. “And he can climb. Like he said, we don’t have the sum of him.”

  “That’s right,” Jyme said, a hint of defiance in his tone. “You don’t.”

  Half a dozen times as they moved toward the Dock Ward they caught sight of Kerfallen’s automatons on the street below, the creatures moving in silent pairs or threes, their lurching gait easy to spot from afar. The constructs moved along, heads swiveling side to side as they followed whatever instructions Kerfallen had given them for scouring the city. Nix, periodically checking the street below, diverted around the creatures.

  After a few more encounters, they sheltered behind a double chimney atop some merchant’s shop and took stock. They weren’t far from Mandin’s Way.

  Jyme wiped sweat from his brow with the bottom of his shirt. When he did, Nix saw the ugly discoloration on his chest.

  “Those ribs broken, Jyme?” Nix asked. “I’ve got healing elixirs.”

  “What? No,” Jyme said. “Just badly bruised. Creature gave me a blow. I’m fine.” He nodded down at the street. “Wizard got an army of those automatons? How many have we seen now?”

  “Plenty,” Nix said, thinking.

  Egil tapped a finger on the brick of the chimney. “You seeing it?” he said to Nix. “Thinking what I am?”

  Jyme looked puzzled. “Seeing what?”

  Nix nodded. He’d been thinking as much the last few blocks. “I see it. Shite.”

  “Seeing what?” Jyme asked again.

  Nix pointed down at the street with his chin. “We’re supposed to see those automatons. Kerfallen knows they can’t catch us, not unless we’re cornered, which isn’t going to happen. And that’s why they aren’t really looking for us. They’re there to be seen. They’re steering us.”

  Jyme cursed. “Like fakkin’ pigs to slaughter?”

  “Aye,” Egil said, lips pursed. “That’ll be an apt analogy if the wizard has his way.”

  “Apt for you and Jyme, maybe,” Nix said, looking up at the stars and thinking. “I’m too pretty to be likened to a pig.”

  “So you say,” Egil said.

  Nix grinned. “I’m thinking Kerfallen must have figured that we holed up at the guild house the first time. He probably had us by way of a divination, then lost us while we sat in the Vault.”

  “Makes sense he would,” Egil said. “Little fakker is clever. Remember that bit with the Night Blade?”

  Nix nodded. He remembered quite well.

  “He’ll be waiting for us, then,” Egil said.

  “Aye,” Nix agreed.

  Jyme looked from Egil to Nix. “Wait, so the wizard is waiting for us?”

  Nix sighed ruefully, more for effect than out of conviction. “You’ve gotta stop asking so many questions, Jyme. Makes you sound slow. Just nod, like you’re following along, and things will come to you.” />
  “Fak you,” Jyme said, rubbing his whiskers with the back of his hand.

  “That’ll do as well,” Nix said, grinning at him. “I’m jesting anyway. Egil and I have been doing this so long I usually know what he’s thinking and him likewise as to me. You’ll catch on.”

  Egil exhaled and ran his palm over the tattoo of Ebenor on his head. “Well, the creature’s behind us, no doubt hard on the scent of those plates. And the wizard stands between us and the guild house.”

  “Staying awhile next to a chimney is starting to sound good,” Jyme said.

  “Still funny,” Egil said to him. “I like it.”

  Nix said, “No, Kerfallen fakked up. He should have just let us get to the Vault and came at us then. But now we know he knows.”

  “So we deal with him before we hole up,” Jyme said.

  “That’s following along,” Nix said, pointing a finger at Jyme. “We have to. We get in the Vault without handling him first and he’ll come at the guild house while we’re locked up.”

  “And Rusk’s boys can’t stop a wizard,” Egil said.

  “And we’ll be a gift in a box,” Jyme said.

  “No choice, then,” Egil said, putting a hand on the head of one of his hammers.

  “Aye. Only one thing to do,” Nix said. He looked at Jyme expectantly, eyebrows raised.

  Jyme cleared his throat, visibly thinking things through. “We go at the wizard right now?”

  Nix smiled and nodded. “Get rid of that questioning tone, Jyme. Aye. We go at the wizard right now. We clear him, then we hole up from the creature as planned.”

  “Shite,” Jyme said, blowing out a long breath. “Going at a wizard.”

  Egil thumped him hard on the back. “This is when it gets fun, Jyme.”

  “Fun is what you call it?” Jyme said. “You didn’t see that creature back at the Tunnel.”

  “No,” Nix said. “We saw it at the Conclave. And we’ve seen a few other things in our day.”

  Jyme looked sheepish. “Aye, I just…”

  “Forget it,” Nix said with a chuckle. He knew they had little time to spare, not with the creature coming up from behind. “So here’s what we do. Instead of avoiding the automatons and getting steered into an ambush, we instead follow them the rest of the way to Mandin’s Way. That’ll bring us out somewhere other than where Kerfallen wants us to come out.”