Old Man's Ghosts

by Tom Lloyd

  ‘Who’s Samaleen?’

  ‘No friend o’ the Lawbringers, that’s fer sure. Think o’ her as a different sort o’ religious caste and yer halfway there. Be respectful, mind, she may look not much ta Imperial eyes but don’t let that fool ya. Of any arcane in this district, there’s none with more respect and she’s mistress o’ the district’s waters. If anyone knows where ya should be looking, it’s Samaleen.’

  ‘And how do we find her?’

  The old woman scowled. ‘She ain’t one fer being found by Lawbringers. Might be I can get a message to her and she’ll decide if she wants ta get involved.’

  ‘Tell us where she is,’ Rhe broke in abruptly. ‘Shadow games and mysticism don’t interest me. There is no one in this city bar the Emperor himself who is above the law, no one who is permitted to insulate themselves from the Lawbringers. We shall remain respectful of all citizens who do not impede our investigations, but be aware how that may turn.’

  ‘So we’re back ta threats, eh?’ she said in a subdued tone.

  Narin’s anger she had taken in her stride – he was low born like her, after all – but Rhe’s aristocratic certainty was far more unfamiliar and chilling. It had taken Narin a year before he heard more than just the high-born dispassionate view; a cold and unyielding tone towards those below him.

  ‘We prefer to act with the cooperation of the citizenry,’ Rhe replied, ‘but there has been murder done and we are guardians of the law. If I must overturn this entire district to secure answers, I shall do so.’

  She ducked her head and turned back towards the rear room, dragging a heavy coat off a nearby chair.

  ‘I’ll take you to her,’ she mumbled, well aware of the effect the full scrutiny of the Lawbringers might have on practitioners who were publicly condemned by the various temples. ‘But don’t think she’s so easily swayed. Yours ain’t the law she answers to.’

  ‘All answer to our law,’ Rhe declared. ‘One way or another, the law remains.’

  CHAPTER 9

  The old woman, whose name Narin belatedly learned was Thanan Draig, led them back across the Underway to an arched tunnel on the other side. It resembled some sort of ancient burial place with huge, rough-hewn stones framing the opening, but smelled like any other alley in the city. Doorways and shuttered windows led off on either side, with one narrow passage outlined by the yellow glow of a lamp.

  The tunnel opened out on a rounded hollow that served as some form of marketplace. More doors and ancient tunnels led off its twenty-foot-high walls, above which loomed rickety-looking buildings that seemed to crowd out the grey sky above. More snow was falling and starting to settle on lintels and awnings, turning the ground underfoot to mud. They attracted more than a few curious and hostile looks, not just from local gang members easily identified by the bone fetishes studding their noses and cheeks. None went further than glares, though; the sight of the pistol holster across Rhe’s belly was enough to ensure unimpeded passage.

  A large doorway built out into the hollow proved to be their destination and at Thanan’s direction Narin hauled the protesting door open and peered inside. The only light was a fire in the centre of the room, burning beneath a brick chimney that doubled as a supporting pillar. The room was some sort of ante-chamber that contained half a dozen benches and a massively fat man whose pale green eyes flashed angrily in the firelight.

  ‘You’re not welcome here,’ he rumbled as he hauled himself to his feet.

  ‘That doesn’t interest me,’ Rhe replied, walking inside. ‘We’re looking for Samaleen.’

  ‘Been shooting yer mouth off, Thanan?’ the fat man snapped. ‘Yer’ll regret that.’

  ‘No she won’t,’ Narin said, walking right up to the fat man and looking him in the eye. They were of a similar height, though Narin had no doubt the other was much stronger than he. ‘You want to know why?’

  ‘No – get out.’

  ‘She won’t,’ Narin persisted, ‘because I’ll be back to check on her. We gave her the choice of bringing us here or having Lawbringers crawl all over the Underways until we found out what we wanted. If I find some ignorant scum has tried to punish her for that, you’ll find out we’re not all such sticklers for protocol as Lawbringer Rhe here.’

  The fat man’s eyes narrowed, as much at Rhe’s name as anything else. ‘Yer still not wanted here.’

  ‘And I don’t give a shit what you want. We’re not here to cause trouble for Samaleen, but we’ve got a murder to investigate and she’s most likely able to tell us what direction we should be looking.’

  ‘She’s killed no one,’ the fat man insisted.

  ‘If we thought she had any part in it, we’d be past you now and arresting her. It’s her knowledge we want, that’s all.’

  If the fat man had anything more to say, Rhe didn’t wait to hear it. The pale Lawbringer crossed the room, heading for the only other doorway, and ushered Thanan with him. The old woman did so with her head bowed, avoiding the fat man’s expression, but Narin saw his threat had hit home anyway. With one final look he turned his back and joined the other two as Rhe opened the door to a stairway leading deeper underground.

  Narin followed Rhe and Thanan down to a lower level where a handful of lamps illuminated an expansive vaulted cellar that he guessed dated back to the Greater Empire. Fat pools of shadow lurked at every corner, enough to hide a multitude of dangers, but Rhe strode on without seeming to even glance around. Narin took a more wary approach, knowing his own reactions weren’t as honed as his battle-trained noble colleague. Faint sounds of movement came from all directions but they reached a squarish opening in the floor without seeing anyone and Thanan led the way down a wooden flight of stairs into a chamber altogether more natural.

  ‘What is this place?’ Narin couldn’t help but ask as the sound of rushing water echoed up towards them. He could smell water too, some sort of underground river most likely, given that there were several running this way and tumbling out of the cliffs beyond.

  ‘A nexus of power,’ Thanan hissed. ‘The ignorant would call it a temple, but it’s no such thing.’

  ‘And Samaleen is the priestess of this not-a-temple?’

  The old woman didn’t answer, merely pressed on to the bottom of the stair and stepped aside for Rhe and Narin to pass her. There were no lamps, just a gloomy mass of shadows that gradually began to fade as Narin’s eyes adjusted. A faint definition began to emerge, putting Narin in mind of Irato’s description of the Starsight Blessing the goshe elite had possessed. He began to make out the lines of a dozen more steps nearby that led down to an uneven floor and the glassy surface of water beyond.

  With a jolt he realised they were in a massive cavern, thirty or forty yards in each direction, with enormous columns and stalactites spread all around. The uneven walls were coated in what must have been some sort of glowing lichen, from what he could tell, casting a light that was barely perceptible but just enough to give a sense of shape and outline to obstacles.

  ‘Samaleen,’ Rhe called out, heading towards the water, a still pool at the heart of the room.

  Sitting at its edge were figures draped in long frayed robes, heads covered by shapeless cloth hoods that hung low over their faces. Narin’s attention was grabbed more by the faint mist that hung over the water – from the stairs he could look down on the surface of it and see that the mist was not spread evenly over the pool but traced distinct paths across it.

  ‘For what reason do you come here?’ intoned a woman’s voice, though from which of the figures Narin couldn’t say.

  ‘We hunt a murderer,’ Rhe replied, ‘a summoner of demons.’

  ‘You will find none here. You are not welcome.’

  Abruptly, one of the figures stood up and uncovered her head; Samaleen, Narin assumed. She was young, no older than Narin, and as pale and proud as any Eagle noblewoman, but with far darker eyes. Unlike most they’d seen in the district, she wore no jewellery of any kind. Her head was bald and bore pale mark
ings Narin couldn’t identify – some sort of arcane script, but whether it was a tattoo, scarring or paint was impossible to make out.

  ‘You disturb the balance of my sanctuary, you must leave it. Thanan – you willingly led them to this place?’

  ‘We gave her no choice,’ Narin said. ‘We’ve already had that conversation with your guard dog up there, but somehow I doubt you’re so stupid as to need me to spell things out.’

  ‘You are a long way from your law,’ Samaleen replied, far from intimidated. ‘Here in the deep there are older laws.’

  Her voice was measured and calm, but a shade slower than normal, which made Narin suspect her meditations were drug-assisted. Whatever state she was in, however, Samaleen would be far from willing to incur the scrutiny of the Lawbringers. Hers was an unpopular sub-culture within the city, that much Narin did know, and any confrontation would go badly for them.

  ‘The law extends wherever the servants of the Emperor walk,’ Rhe declared. ‘If you want us gone from this place quickly, listen to what we have to say. We need your knowledge. Innocents were killed, we believe by a hellhound.’

  On the water the paths of mist seemed to flicker uneasily, but if Samaleen felt any concern she showed none.

  ‘I commune with the spirits of the deep, not the hunters of the other plane. I do not endanger others, I know nothing of this crime.’

  ‘And your spirits have told you nothing of a summoner in this city?’ Narin asked. ‘Surely you know at least of places such people might keep to. It can’t be something so easily achieved – aren’t there rituals required, rituals that might need supplies of some sort?’

  She shook her head slowly. ‘Such people are outcasts wherever they go, they would trust no stranger. But summoning is not a Raven way – our concerns lie with the beings of Shadowrain Forest. We have no need of searching out horrors on the other plane when there are enough on our nation’s borders.’

  ‘Who then? Where should we look?’

  ‘The Houses of the southern continent,’ she said after a long pause. ‘The other plane is one of wilderness and desert – where burning creatures roam and shadows hunt.’

  ‘The Wyverns have desert lands, and others too,’ Narin argued, ‘why not them?’

  ‘The rulers of Dragon and all its lesser houses are faithful to the younger Gods. What few enlightened exist there prefer to commune with the beasts of the wild and guard against the voices of the deserts.’

  As she spoke, Narin repeated her words back in his mind. The price of his promotion had been the understanding that the supernatural would be his purview. The Lawbringers had always been deficient in that respect and the Lord Martial of the Lawbringers was determined they would not again be proved so ignorant as they had been during the Moon’s Artifice incident.

  As a result, Narin had determined to commit any such information to paper, to establish some sort of body of knowledge for himself and his comrades. Enchei had naturally provided a framework for it, but his was an expert level of knowledge. What the common folk believed, what the seers and magicians thought, might actually be more useful to the Lawbringers, given that Astaren almost acted on a separate plane to the rest of the Empire.

  There was no contempt in Samaleen’s voice, Narin noted with a touch of surprise. The Empire’s established cults worshipped only the once-human Ascendant Gods and cursed all dealings with the supernatural realm beyond the Gods. Persecutions were rare, but not unknown. Samaleen harbouring a particular hatred of the more zealous Gods such Lord Ranger and Lady Pilgrim would be easily understood.

  ‘Redearth then, Iron and Wolf. Salamander too? Good, we’ve narrowed things down to just forty-odd nations.’

  ‘All I can tell you is that the spirits of the water have not been disturbed by any hunters of the other plane. The waters of the city are untouched by this summoner. I do not treat with the denizens of the other plane; I have no contact with those who do so unless they stray beyond their usual places. Of those I have crossed paths with in my years, one was a Redearth woman – so powerful I suspect she was Astaren – the other pair a Diresong and Scarab who died as they attempted to enslave spirits of the hidden waters.’

  Those last two are both Wolf subordinate houses, Narin thought to himself. A starting point there?

  ‘The Emperor thanks you,’ Rhe announced, recognising there was nothing more they would learn from her.

  ‘Does he?’ Samaleen asked, an edge to her voice. ‘I hear of his edicts even in this dark place. It is not thanks he offers in those.’

  ‘Nor does he pass laws against you and your kind,’ Rhe said pointedly. ‘The priests bay for your blood, but I have no such charge to bring here.’

  ‘Just as well.’ Samaleen hesitated, lifting her head like a dog catching a scent. ‘What else have you brought here?’ she demanded angrily. ‘The spirits are disturbed – something is here that has no place in the deep dark.’

  Rhe and Narin exchanged looks.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Narin asked hesitantly, hand on his sword.

  Now there was contempt in her face. ‘I mean you have brought something unwelcome here,’ Samaleen snapped. ‘Go – get out. Pollute this place no longer and take whatever tainted thing has come with you.’

  With that she turned her back on them and retook her seat around the edge of the water, shrouding her head and settling herself with one last shake of the head.

  ‘Have we brought anything with us?’ Rhe said, looking fixedly at Narin.

  Behind him Thanan looked panicked at the thought, casting anxious looks at the now-still Samaleen. One of the woman’s companions raised his head to look her in the eye and she shrank under the gaze, but the man only nodded to one side. Thanan’s shoulder’s sank at the gesture, but she obeyed without hesitation and went to sit where he had indicated – doubtlessly awaiting more private words from Samaleen once the Lawbringers were gone.

  ‘Not that I’m …’ He paused. ‘Perhaps Irato? He might be following us, watching our backs, though I saw nothing of him all the way here.’

  ‘Your former goshe friend? Why would you need a proficient killer to watch your back?’

  ‘It’s, ah, it’s a long story. I can’t say why he’d have followed us inside.’

  ‘But it will not be good,’ Rhe concluded, drawing a pistol as he headed back towards the stair. ‘Trouble follows in your wake, Narin. I had hoped you’d left such things behind when you became a Lawbringer.’

  Narin followed him up the stairs. ‘I’d hoped so too,’ he said weakly, not believing his own defence.

  Rhe stopped and turned to face him. ‘The Lord Martial feared as much,’ he said, in a cold tone that was as close to furious as Narin had ever heard from Rhe, ‘but I argued in your favour. Do not make me regret doing so.’

  Narin fought the urge to shrink away, aware that a Lawbringer should stand tall and certain even in the face of a man so recently his superior.

  ‘My life’s not so easy to control,’ he replied stiffly. ‘Some things were set before I was made a Lawbringer.’

  ‘What awaits us?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Seeing Rhe’s pale face tighten, Narin quickly continued. ‘If I had to guess and the Gods were against me, House Wyvern warrior-caste assassins.’

  Rhe grunted, but whether it was from surprise or a lack of it, Narin couldn’t tell, and in the next moment the big Lawbringer resumed walking, but this time he moved more cautiously – like a man ready for violence.

  ‘First we deal with whatever Irato’s found,’ he said softly. ‘The reasons will wait for later.’

  Not seeing anyone on the stairs, the pair cautiously crept up them. The wooden steps were old but solid and made mercifully little noise as they ascended. Despite that, Narin knew they would be painfully exposed as they emerged through the hole in the cellar floor. Exposed on three sides and with the many pillars casting long shadows, there was no real advantage to be had there so Rhe did not stop. Drawing his pistols, he carried one
in each hand and walked calmly up the last stretch, extending the guns in either direction as he went.

  To Narin’s relief no gunshots rang out and he followed the fearless Lawbringer up and into the cellar, both making for the lee of a stone pillar just as a voice rang out.

  ‘Stay where you are.’

  ‘Who are you to give instructions to a Lawbringer?’ Rhe replied. They both searched around the darkened cellar but could make out no one in the gloom. ‘Who are you to hide in the shadows like a coward?’

  ‘This is not your fight,’ said the voice as a dark-skinned man stepped out from behind a pillar ten yards ahead of them. ‘Step back, Lawbringer Rhe, our quarrel is with your colleague – not you, not the Emperor’s law.’

  Narin could see immediately the man was a Wyvern and his accent confirmed it. Tall and lithe, his red collar marked him as warrior caste but the rest of his clothing was remarkably plain. The understated clothing of a man with a mind to kill rather than impress.

  ‘Narin, do you know this man?’

  He shook his head.

  ‘You sound like you’re fresh off the boat,’ Narin ventured as the Wyvern’s fingers twitched, pistol as yet untouched in the holster at his waist though he had no doubt other guns were already trained on them. ‘We’ve never met before.’

  ‘This is a matter of honour,’ the Wyvern said scornfully. ‘I had expected better of a Lawbringer, even one of low caste. Your cowardice disgusts me. Bring out the other one.’

  From behind another pillar, Irato emerged under the none-too-gentle urging of another Wyvern. The man was calm despite the fact a pistol muzzle was pressed to the side of his head and his sheepskin coat hung open, showing he had been stripped of his weapons. A tall woman stood just behind him, one hand gripping his collar as she pushed the gun into his skin. Long blue braids of hair hung down over her shoulders, large white eyes shone out through the gloom.

  ‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you,’ Narin warned.