Beneath the Precinct: Reprise (To Walk the Path 19)

by Paul Smith

the direction of the Senate. “There’s a servant’s cut through up ahead that doubles back towards the Mission.”

  They set off, Raeph pausing long enough to exchange a quick kiss with the burly Torsman before lengthening his stride to catch them up. He met Kel’s gaze guilelessly with a challenging look of his own.

  “He’ll be alright?” Kel asked.

  Raeph relaxed at this explanation of the source of her concern. “Roj is well liked, he’ll be fine.” He gestured over his shoulder. “Rosters are staggered here in the Precinct so you never spend the whole night with the same partner. He can rightly claim they only shared half a jug together in the mess, though if I know Bastien he won’t have needed any encouragement to down the lot. Drug should keep him out until the morning.”

  Kelsaro nodded.

  They caught up with the other two, Raeph pointing ahead to a woven screen that curved out slightly from the right hand wall ahead, opposite a second courtyard. The Senate building was much closer now, the covered avenue they’d walked terminating ahead in an archway that opened out onto the square before its broad façade.

  The screen was covered by a leafy vine, a second mirroring it but curving back into the wall behind.

  “In here,” Raeph said, leading the way between them.

  “Oh!” Kel realised the two hid a narrow switch back entrance that led out into a tight service corridor beyond. It would be just wide enough for two people to pass each other if they stood side on. The floor beneath their feet dropped away initially faster than the slope of the land, widening as it dipped beneath the level of the surrounding gardens. Beds of concealing foliage running the length of the lip presumably meshed with the garden’s overall plan, neatly hiding the thoroughfare from view.

  “Very clever,” Kelsaro muttered, glancing back behind them at the concealed entrance and the twin lines of coral lanterns inset into the walls, lighting their way. The passage sides were of rough hewn stone, packed together like the field dividers on a farm. The floor was tile, each square decorated with the tessellating tear drops – one light, one dark – that had once represented the union of House and Family. The criss-cross of foliage overhead had protected it from the worst of the evening snow, leaving the ground relatively clear.

  Funny, how memories of the past linger out of sight. She wondered who’d decided to leave the tiles in place, whether it had been conscious decision or simply an oversight? Knowing the penny pinching tendencies of government she suspected it was most likely financial consideration that had saved them.

  “This will bring us out onto the main boulevard,” Raeph was explaining up ahead. “From there I’m to walk you past the main entrance to the Mission, where we’ll part company.”

  “You’re not joining us?” Kel asked.

  Raeph flashed her a grin. “Sorry love, I’ve got a date with some tax clerks that I can’t afford to miss. Remy’s been making excuses for me for the last hour, and if I don’t show up I place him and his family at risk as well.”

  “Of course. Who...”

  “Someone will meet you at the side entrance. He’ll handle your needs from there.”

  Kel and the others nodded.

  “Thank you,” Rina offered, as they approached the exit to the passageway. The roadway beyond was surprisingly busy, considering it was Solstice Eve, but then Kel supposed there’d be plenty celebrating the evening right here in the Precinct itself. That and the wheels of government never stopped turning. She caught sight of a pair of scholars hustling past the opening as they approached, a pile of ledgers each in hand.

  Poor buggers.

  Still… Not like any of that’s likely to change, if we get our way tonight. Countries gotta run, one way or another.

  Raeph paused, poking his head out to survey the lay of the land (because that’s not suspicious at all, Kel thought sourly) before gesturing them out into the open once more. They glanced about, Kelsaro eyeing the sky overhead which seemed to have cleared somewhat, though the lingering clouds still looked fit to burst. Here too the snow had been cleared to either side, leaving the thoroughfare free for easy passage. She spotted a team with brooms and shovels ahead, working to remove the last of the night’s flurry into a neat drift.

  “Come on.” Raeph gestured them to follow as he set off towards the low eaves of the Myson’s Mission, where it squatted amidst the soft glow of coral light through cherry blossoms.

  “This is where I leave you,” Raeph announced as they approached the front of the Mission.

  “And we were just getting to know you.” Kelsaro glanced at the man walking next to her. He smiled thinly, betraying the nerves they both felt. Ahead, Tomen and Rina walked with apparent easy camaraderie. It was a skill she had never mastered, as their infiltration of the Incarnate Orphans had demonstrated...

  “Seriously woman, subtlety!” Tomen had rounded on her one evening, as they stood over their second bar full of broken bones. “It’s an art form. Try cultivating some...”

  “We appreciate what you’ve done,” Kel offered, knowing something of the sort was expected from her. “We’ll remember you after the dust settles and all that.”

  Raeph offered her a wry smile. “I don’t need your platitudes.” His expression turned serious. “Just one favour?”

  “Name it.”

  “Remember me to Miss Durz? Tell her she still has friends at the Residence if she needs somewhere to go.”

  Well aren’t you the gent. Kel nodded. “I’ll pass the message on.”

  Ahead, Tomen and Rina had paused. The handsome woman gestured questioningly to the path that ran down the side of the Mission towards the Precinct’s southern wall. Raeph nodded. Clasping wrists briefly with Kelsaro he nodded to Rina and Tomen on his way past as he set off briskly down the side path they were to take.

  “Have fun with the tax clerks!” Kel called. Now there’s something you don’t get to say everyday.

  Raeph raised a hand in farewell.

  “Right then, whose problem are we going to become next?” Kel pondered as they walked slowly down the building’s side.

  “That would be me.”

  They turned as one to regard the young man with the hare lip stood in the open doorway just ahead.

  “Quickly. The loophole the nifl found in its bonds only permits a short window of opportunity.”

  As one they hurried past him into the warm lantern light of the room beyond.

  “Hang on a minute…!” Kel turned as he latched and bolted the door behind them, doing something that made her fires shudder. “Did you just say we’re trusting ourselves to the whims of an ice daemon…?!”

  “Yes. And if you know what’s good for you you’ll take the offer and be grateful.”

  Kelsaro had the distinct impression from the quaver in his voice that he was not used to being quite this forceful. Circumstances bring out unknown skills in all of us, she mused, nodding to indicate she acquiesced. One of Barran’s off hand comments floated to mind, drawing an unexpected smile to her face. There’s a young man in Kharpal you should meet and swap notes with…

  She watched him cross the room. He opened the door on the far side a crack, stepping back after a second to permit a trio of Myson entry. Kelsaro glanced at the others, noting they were no happier with this new development than she was.

  Then the woman in front pulled back her hood.

  “No!”

  “Put your fires away!” the woman warned, her eyes urgent. “We can’t hide you if you start making a scene! The nifl can only do so much.”

  Kel lowered her claws, pulling the energies back within her corpus. Rina and Tomen had moved behind her, and she could tell from the look in their eyes they also recognised this new comer.

  “Why should I trust the Myson Axis?”

  “Because not all of us believe in the supremacy of the old Families,” Desan intoned tiredly.

  Rina was nodding thoughtfully. “Your parents were wharf rats.”

  Desan smiled. “Th
at they were, though my lineage has little to do with this. I like to think I’m more than the blood that pumps through my veins.”

  “Well said.” Rina stepped forward, breaking the moment to clasp wrists with the head of the Myson Circle.

  “Quickly now, before we’re missed,” Desan urged, gesturing her companions forward. “The three of you must take our our bands so the nifl can close the loop again.”

  Understanding blossomed and Kel stepped up, accepting a bracelet from the slightly plump woman who had accompanied Desan. Tomen took the one offered by the harassed young man on her other side. He was glancing at his interface (she presumed), making impatient noises.

  “Yes yes, Ichori, I’m well aware the curtain is about to go up. Come,” she held her hands out to the other two, who each took a proffered palm. “I wish you luck in your endeavours,” she offered, her gaze meeting Kelsaro’s before homing in on the young man who’d seen them in. “Remember, the stroke of midnight, not before. And we still haven’t found the other Drake…!”

  This last came echoing back to them as if down a tunnel as the trio was pulled from the room by the nifl. Kelsaro felt its icy grip recede with a shudder, trying to hold down the nausea brought on by the tunnel-like inversion down which it had flung the three Daiku.

  Pray I never have to do that!

  Then Desan’s words caught up with her. “Hang on: ‘the other Drake?!’ That means you know about one already.”

  The Myson nodded grimly. “In the Oubliette below, smuggled in this morning ready for