‘Me?’ asked Touchy behind her.
‘Me?’ asked Brethless.
‘That’s right, you. What’s going on here? Look, there’s soldiers on the jetties, and well-wishers. Why aren’t we heading in? They’re waving.’ Hellian waved back, but it was unlikely they could see that – there were hardly any lights from the fleet at all. ‘Gloom and gloom,’ she muttered, ‘like we was some beaten dog creeping home.’
‘Or like it’s real late,’ Brethless said, ‘and you was never supposed to be with your mother’s friend at all especially when Ma knows and she’s waiting up with that dented skillet but sometimes, you know, older women, they come at you like a fiend and what can you do?’
‘Not like that at all, you idiot,’ Touchy hissed. ‘More like that daughter of that priest and gods below you’re running but there ain’t no escaping curses like those, not ones from a priest, anyway, which means your life is doomed for ever and ever, as if Burn cares a whit she’s sleeping anyway, right?’
Hellian turned round and stared at a space directly between the two men. ‘Listen, Corporal, make up your damned mind, but then again don’t bother. I wasn’t interested. I was asking you a question, and if you can’t answer then don’t say nothing.’
The two men exchanged glances, then Brethless shrugged. ‘We ain’t disembarking, Sergeant,’ he said. ‘Word’s just come.’
‘Are they mad? Of course we’re disembarking – we’ve just sailed a million leagues. Five million, even. We been through fires and storms and green lights in the sky and nights with the shakes and broken jaws and that damned rhizan piss they called wine. That’s Malaz City there, right there, and that’s where I’m going, Corporal Brethy Touchless, and I don’t care how many arms you got, I’m going and that’s that.’ She swung about, walked forward, reached the rail, pitched over and was suddenly gone.
Brethless and Touchy stared at each other again, as a heavy splash sounded.
‘Now what?’ Touchy demanded.
‘She’s done drowned herself, hasn’t she?’
‘We’d better report it to somebody.’
‘We do that and we’re in real trouble. We was standing right here, after all. They’ll say we pushed her.’
‘But we didn’t!’
‘That don’t matter. We’re not even trying to save her, are we?’
‘I can’t swim!’
‘Me neither.’
‘Then we should shout an alarm or something.’
‘You do it.’
‘No, you.’
‘Maybe we should just go below, tell people we went looking for her but we didn’t never find her.’
At that they both paused and looked round. A few figures moving in the gloom, sailors doing sailor things.
‘Nobody saw or heard nothing.’
‘Looks like. Well, that’s good.’
‘Isn’t it. So, we go below now, right? Throw up our hands and say nothing.’
‘Not nothing. We say we couldn’t find her nowhere.’
‘Right, that’s what I mean. Nothing is what I mean, I mean, about her going over the side, that sort of nothing.’
A new voice from behind them: ‘You two, what are you doing on deck?’
Both corporals turned. ‘Nothing,’ they said in unison.
‘Get below, and stay there.’
They hurried off.
‘Three ashore,’ the young, foppishly attired figure said, his eyes fixed on the knuckle dice where they came to a rest on the weathered stone.
His twin stood facing the distant, looming bulk of Mock’s Hold, the night’s wind caressing the gaudy silks about her slim form.
‘You see how it plays out?’ her brother asked, collecting the dice with a sweep of one hand. ‘Tell me truly, have you any idea – any idea at all – of how mightily I struggled to retain our card during that horrendous game? I’m still weak, dizzy. He wanted to drag us out, again and again and again. It was horrifying.’
‘Heroic indeed,’ she murmured without turning.
‘Three ashore,’ he said again. ‘How very… unexpected. Do you think that dreadful descent above Otataral Island was responsible? I mean, for the one that’s even now on its way?’ Straightening, he moved to join his sister.
They were standing on a convenient tower rising from the city of Malaz, south of the river. To most citizens of the city, the tower appeared to be in ruins, but that was an illusion, maintained by the sorceror who occupied its lower chambers, a sorceror who seemed to be sleeping. The twin god and goddess known as Oponn had the platform – and the view – entirely to themselves.
‘Certainly possible,’ she conceded, ‘but is that not the charm of our games, beloved?’ She gestured towards the bay to their right. ‘They have arrived, and even now there is a stirring among those abject mortals in those ships, especially the Silanda. Whilst, in the fell Hold opposite, the nest slithers awake. There will be work for us, this night.’
‘Oh yes. Both you and me. Pull, push, pull, push.’ He rubbed his hands together. ‘I can hardly wait.’
She faced him suddenly. ‘Can we be so sure, brother, that we comprehend all the players? All of them? What if one hides from us? Just one… wild, unexpected, so very terrible… we could end up in trouble. We could end up… dead.’
‘It was that damned soldier,’ her brother snarled. ‘Stealing our power! The arrogance, to usurp us in our very own game! I want his blood!’
She smiled in the darkness. ‘Ah, such fire in your voice. So be it. Cast the knuckles, then, on his fate. Go on. Cast them!’
He stared across at her, then grinned. Whirled about, one hand flinging out and down – knuckles struck, bounced, struck again, then spun and skidded, and finally fell still.
The twins, breathing hard in perfect unison, hurried over and crouched down to study the cast.
And then, had there been anyone present to see them, they would have witnessed on their perfect faces bemused expressions. Frowns deepening, confusion reigning in immortal eyes, and, before this night was done, pure terror.
The nonexistent witness would then shake his or her head. Never, dear gods. Never mess with mortals.
‘Grub and three friends, playing in a cave. A Soletaken with a stolen sword. Togg and Fanderay and damned castaways…’
Trapped since Fiddler’s reading in a small closet-sized cabin on the Froth Wolf, Bottle worked the finishing touches on the doll nestled in his lap. The Adjunct’s commands made no sense – but no, he corrected with a scowl, not the Adjunct’s. This – all of this – belonged to that tawny-eyed beauty, T’amber. Who in Hood’s name is she?’ Oh, never mind. Only the thousandth time I’ve asked myself that question. But it’s that look, you see, in her eyes. That knowing look, like she’s plunged through, right into my heart.
And she doesn’t even like men, does she?
He studied the doll, and his scowl deepened. ‘You,’ he muttered, ‘I’ve never seen you before, you know that? But here you are, with a sliver of iron in your gut – gods but that must hurt, cutting away, always cutting away inside. You, sir, are somewhere in Malaz City, and she wants me to find you, and that’s that. A whole city, mind you, and I’ve got till dawn to track you down.’ Of course, this doll would help, somewhat, once the poor man was close enough for Bottle to stare into his eyes and see the same pain that now marked these uneven chips of oyster shell. That, and the seams of old scars on the forearms – but there were plenty of people with those, weren’t there?
‘I need help,’ he said under his breath.
From above, the voices of sailors as the ship angled in towards the jetty, and some deeper, more distant sound, from the dockfront itself. And that one felt… unpleasant.
We’ve been betrayed. All of us.
The door squealed open behind him.
Bottle closed his eyes.
The Adjunct spoke. ‘We’re close. The High Mage is ready to send you across – you will find him in my cabin. I trust you are ready, soldier.’
‘Aye, Adjunct.’ He turned, studied her face in the gloom of the corridor where she stood. The extremity of emotion within her was revealed only in a tightness around her eyes. Desperate.
‘You must not fail, Bottle.’
‘Adjunct, the odds are against me—’
‘T’amber says you must seek help. She says you know who.’
T’amber, the woman with those damned eyes. Like a lioness. What is it, damn it, about those eyes? ‘Who is she, Adjunct?’
A flicker of something like sympathy in the woman’s gaze. ‘Someone… a lot more than she once was, soldier.’
‘And you trust her?’
‘Trust.’ She smiled slightly. ‘You must know, as young as you are, Bottle, that truth is found in the touch. Always.’
No, he did not know. He did not understand. Not any of it. Sighing, he rose, stuffing the limp doll beneath his jerkin, where it sat nestled alongside the sheathed knife under his left arm. No uniform, no markings whatsoever that would suggest he was a soldier of the Fourteenth – the absence of fetishes made him feel naked, vulnerable. ‘All right,’ he said.
She led him to her cabin, then halted at the doorway. ‘Go on. I must be on deck, now.’
Bottle hesitated, then said, ‘Be careful, Adjunct.’
A faint widening of the eyes, then she turned and walked away.
Kalam stood at the stern, squinting into the darkness beyond where transports were anchoring. He’d thought he’d heard the winching of a longboat, somewhere a few cables distant from shore. Against every damned order the Adjunct’s given this night.
Well, even he wasn’t pleased with those orders. Quick Ben slicing open a sliver of a gate – even that sliver might get detected, and that would be bad news for poor Bottle. He’d step out into a nest of Claw. He wouldn’t stand a chance. And who might come through the other way?
All too risky. All too… extreme.
He rolled his shoulders, lifting then shrugging off the tension. But the tautness came back only moments later. The palms of the assassin’s hands were itching beneath the worn leather of his gloves. Decide, damn you. Just decide.
Something skittered on the planks to his right and he turned to see a shin-high reptilian skeleton, its long snouted head tilting as the empty eye sockets regarded him. The segmented tail flicked.
‘Don’t you smell nice?’ the creature hissed, jaws clacking out of sequence. ‘Doesn’t he smell nice, Curdle?’
‘Oh yes,’ said another thin voice, this time to Kalam’s left, and he glanced over to see a matching skeleton perched on the stern rail, almost within reach. ‘Blood and strength and will and mindfulness, nearly a match to our sweetheart. Imagine the fight between them, Telorast. Wouldn’t that be something to see?’
‘And where is she?’ Kalam asked in a rumble. ‘Where’s Apsalar hiding?’
‘She’s gone,’ Curdle said, head bobbing.
‘What?’
‘Gone,’ chimed in Telorast with another flick of the tail. ‘It’s only me and Curdle who are hiding right now. Not that we have to, of course.’
‘Expedience,’ explained Curdle. ‘It’s scary out there tonight. You have no idea. None.’
‘We know who’s here, you see. All of them.’
Now, from the dark waters, Kalam could hear the creak of oars. Someone had indeed dropped a longboat and was making for shore. Damned fools – that mob will tear them to pieces. He turned about and set off for the mid deck.
The huge jetty appeared to starboard as the ship seemed to curl round, its flank sidling ever closer. The assassin saw the Adjunct arrive from below and he approached her.
‘We’ve got trouble,’ he said without preamble. ‘Someone’s going ashore, in a longboat.’
Tavore nodded. ‘So I have been informed.’
‘Oh. Who, then?’
From nearby T’amber said, ‘There is a certain… symmetry to this. A rather bitter one, alas. In the longboat, Kalam Mekhar, are Fist Tene Baralta and his Red Blades.’
The assassin frowned.
‘Deeming it probable, perhaps,’ T’amber continued, ‘that our escort coming down from Mock’s Hold will prove insufficient against the mob.’ Yet there seemed to be little conviction in the woman’s tone, as if she was aware of a deeper truth, and was inviting Kalam to seek it for himself.
‘The Red Blades,’ said the Adjunct, ‘ever have great need to assert their loyalty.’
… their loyalty…
‘Kalam Mekhar,’ Tavore continued, stepping closer, her eyes now fixed on his own, ‘I expect I will be permitted but a minimal escort of my own choosing. T’amber, of course, and, if you would accede, you.’
‘Not an order, Adjunct?’
‘No,’ she answered quietly, almost tremulously. And then she waited.
Kalam looked away. Dragon’s got Hood by the nose hairs… one of Fid’s observations during one of his games. Years ago, now. Blackdog, was it? Probably. Why had he thought of that statement now? Because I know how Hood must have felt, that’s why.
Wait, I can decide on this without deciding on anything else. Can’t I? Of course I can. ‘Very well, Adjunct. I will be part of your escort. We’ll get you to Mock’s Hold.’
‘To the Hold, yes, that is what I have asked of you here.’
As she turned away, Kalam frowned, then glanced over at T’amber, who was regarding him flatly, as if disappointed. ‘Something wrong?’ he asked the young woman.
‘There are times,’ she said, ‘when the Adjunct’s patience surpasses even mine. And, you may not know this, but that is saying something.’
Froth Wolf edged closer to the jetty.
On the other side of the same stone pier, the longboat scraped up against the slimy foundation boulders. Lines were made fast to the rings set in the mortar, and Lostara Yil watched as one of the more nimble Red Blades hauled himself upward from ring to ring, trailing a knot-ladder. Moments later, he had reached the top of the jetty, where he attached the ladder’s hooks to still more rings.
Tene Baralta was the first to ascend, slowly, awkward, using his one arm and grunting with each upward heave on the rungs.
Feeling sick to her stomach, Lostara followed, ready to catch the man should he falter or slip.
This is a lie. All of it.
She reached the top, clambered upright and paused, adjusting her weapon belt and her cloak.
‘Captain,’ Tene Baralta said, ‘form up to await the Adjunct.’
She glanced to the right and saw a contingent of Imperial Guard pushing through the milling crowd, an officer in their midst.
Tene Baralta noticed them as well. ‘Not enough, as I suspected. If this mob smells blood…’
Turning to the company of Red Blades, Lostara kept her face impassive, even as a sneering thought silently slithered through her mind: Whatever you say, Fist. Just don’t expect me to believe any of this.
At that moment a deeper roaring sound filled the air, and the sky above the bay suddenly blazed bright.
Banaschar squinted through the haze of smoke, scanning the crowd, then he grunted. ‘He’s not here,’ he said. ‘In fact, I haven’t seen him in days… I think. How about you, Master Sergeant?’
Braven Tooth simply shrugged, his only reponse to Mudslinger’s question.
The soldier glanced at Gentur, his silent companion, then said, ‘It’s just this, Master Sergeant. First we lose them, then we hear something about him, and we put it together, you see?’
The hairy old man bared his teeth. ‘Oh yeah, Mudslinger. Now go away before I tie a full cask to your back and send you round the harbourfront at double-time.’
‘He can’t do that, can he?’ Gentur asked his fellow soldier.
But Mudslinger had paled. ‘You never forget, do you, sir?’
‘Explain it to your friend. But not here. Try the alley.’
The two soldiers backed off, exchanging whispers as they made their way back to their table.
‘I always like to
think,’ Banaschar said, ‘that a nasty reputation is usually mostly undeserved. Benefit of the doubt, and maybe I’ve got some glimmer of faith in humanity clawing its way free every now and again. But, with you, Braven Tooth, alas, such optimism is revealed for the delusion it truly is.’
‘Got that right. What about it?’
‘Nothing.’
They heard shouting in the street outside, a clamour of voices that then died away. This had been going on all evening. Roving bands of idiots looking for someone to terrorize. The mood in the city was dark and ugly and getting worse with every bell that chimed, and there seemed to be no reason for it, although, Banaschar reminded himself, that had now changed.
Well, maybe there was still no reason as such. Only, there had arrived… a target.
‘Someone’s poking with a knife,’ Braven Tooth said.
‘It’s the imperial fleet,’ Banaschar said. ‘Bad timing, given all the Wickans in those ships, and the other foreigners with them, too, I imagine.’
‘You ain’t drinking much, Banaschar. You sick or something?’
‘Worse than that,’ he replied. ‘I have reached a decision. Autumn has arrived. You can feel it in the wind. The worms are swarming to shore. It’s D’rek’s season. Tonight, I talk with the Imperial High Mage.’
The Master Sergeant scowled across at him. ‘Thought you said trying that would get you dead quick. Unless, of course, that’s what you want.’
‘I plan on losing my follower in the crowd,’ Banaschar said in a low voice, leaning over the table. ‘I’ll take the waterfront way, at least to the bridge. I hear there’s City Watch there, pushing the brainless dolts back from the jetties – gods, how stupid can people be? That’s an army out on those ships!’
‘Like I said, someone’s poking. Be nice to meet that someone. So’s I can put my fist into his face and watch it come out the back of his head. Messy way to go, but fast, which is more than the bastard deserves.’
‘What are you going on about?’ Banaschar asked.
‘Never mind.’
‘Well,’ the ex-priest said with more bravado in his voice than he in truth felt, ‘it’s now or never. Come tomorrow night I’ll buy you a pitcher of Malaz Dark—’
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