by Pedro Urvi
They were halfway up the wide main street when Egil stopped. He looked at both sides of the street, which was lit by small lanterns at several points, and made a move to cross it, but at that moment two Zangrians appeared from a street which crossed further down, and he stopped. He waited for them to disappear round the corner of another street, and they crossed quickly, as if they were in a hurry to get home and enjoy a good dinner.
Egil now took a side street, this time much less brightly-lit. Nilsa noticed that the houses of this city were of good quality. They did not use as much rock as the Norghanians, preferring adobe. The upper parts were wooden and the roofs less slanted than Norghanian ones, which gave them a certain charm. The commonest colors were yellow and black, together with the brown of the treated wood itself. One thing that surprised her was that the houses were considerably lower than their own, and the main doors were obviously for people much shorter than Norghanians.
As they passed one of the houses, Nilsa went to stand in front of the door and realized that she would have to bend over in order to go through, even though among her own people she was not very tall. She stretched her arms and found that she could easily reach the balcony upstairs.
“They look like houses for dwarfs,” she whispered to Egil, who smiled at the comment.
“They’re a lot shorter than we are, and it shows in their houses.”
“I suppose it’d be silly to have a house with high ceilings if you’re short …”
“More than that, it would be impractical.”
She nodded in agreement.
Egil pointed to the right and they went into another street, even darker and narrower. Nilsa had the feeling that they were entering a poorer area of the city. The houses looked shabbier, the street was dirty and smelled unpleasant. There was hardly any light, so that they had to tread carefully to avoid stumbling. Egil turned left into another deserted street, long and narrow, and Nilsa followed his lead.
“Are you sure it’s this way?” she asked Egil, who nodded.
“You’re not lost and just leading me blindly?”
“No, don’t worry. I know where we are.”
“Have you been here before?”
“Nope.”
“Then how can you be so sure? What with all the turns we’ve taken I’m totally lost.”
“I have a very good map I got from your boss, our leader.”
“Gondabar? How come he gave it to you? Won’t he suspect something?”
“I told him I’m doing a study of various Zangrian cities of strategic importance, bearing in mind the possibility that we may be starting a war in the near future.”
“And he believed you?”
“Not only that, but he also lent me several magnificent maps. Everybody at the court is very worried about the Zangrians. Now that the Hosts of the Ice aren’t a risk, the Zangrians are the next on the list of threats to the Kingdom – particularly after what happened with the alliance of the Western League and the Zangrian general who offered them his help.”
“I see … but even with a map, how do you know you’re in the right place if you haven’t looked at it?”
“I’m looking at it constantly.”
Nilsa stopped short. “I haven’t seen you consult it even once.”
“That’s because the map is here,” Egil said. He tapped his temple with his finger.
“In your head?”
“That’s right. I consult it at every corner.”
“You mean you’ve memorized it?” she said incredulously.
“That’s right.”
“But the city’s enormous!” she said in disbelief. “There are hundreds of streets, going in every direction!”
“Shhh!”
“Sorry,” she whispered. “It’s just that you’re amazing.”
“It’s not that difficult, it’s just a question of practicing. I’ve been memorizing things since I was a child. I like it. It relaxes me.”
“You really are weirdly special.”
He smiled. “Special, you mean, or weird?”
“No, weirdly special,” she corrected him with a smile.
He smiled back. “We’re almost there. Two more streets.”
“If they’re like these, I’m going to get nervous. I have the feeling that at any moment we might be attacked by thieves, or worse.”
“That could very well happen. This part of the city is a bad one.”
“And the one we’re headed for?”
“Oh, that’s the worst.”
Nilsa opened her eyes wide and threw her head back. She gave a loud snort. Egil shrugged and made an apologetic gesture.
“Let’s go on,” she said, not sounding very convinced, and reached for the Ranger knife and short axe under her cloak.
Egil led her down several deserted streets, and she realized that he had not been joking. This area of the city was unpleasant, and walking the streets was frightening. When they heard shouts, they stopped at a corner and peered warily around the corner. As Nilsa had suspected, they witnessed an assault. Two men were trying to rob another, who tried to fight back but received a cut in the torso and a blow on the head.
Nilsa glanced enquiringly at Egil in case they were going to interfere, but he shook his head. They waited for the two thieves to leave, then went on. The sound of voices reached them, and they stopped to watch from the shadow of a doorway which looked on the verge of collapse. Several men came out of a house further ahead, and to judge by the way they moved, stumbling and holding each other up so as not to fall over, it was clear that they had drunk several jars too many.
“A tavern,” Nilsa guessed.
“Yes, and further ahead there’s an inn: The One-Eyed Crow.”
“The name suits the area. Are we going there?”
“No, we’re going in the opposite direction.”
They went down the road, hugging the wall as they went, alert to any shadow that might leap on them. They heard shouts again, this time from a street to their right; and saw two groups fighting. There were a dozen or so men with sticks and knives, presumably two rival groups who had either chanced on one another in the street or made an appointment to fight there. The shouts bounced off the walls, and the sound reached them clearly. One of the men fell to the ground badly injured, and cuts and blows flew on every side.
“This looks bad,” Nilsa whispered.
“Rival bands, presumably. Fighting for the control of this slum area.”
“We’d better go on.”
Egil nodded. When they reached a crossroads, he stopped and gestured.
“It’s over there.”
Nilsa squinted in an attempt to see better. “There? All I can make out is a few separate buildings the other side of the crossroads, and then the end of the street.”
“You see the building in the middle? It’s an old storehouse. A big solid building with only one entrance.”
“I can see it. Do we go near?”
“No.” He pointed to the building in front of the storehouse. “Look up.”
“Oh, I can see it now. There’s a man in the upper story, in the window that looks out on the street.”
“Exactly. Now look at the storehouse.”
It took Nilsa a moment to locate the watchmen.
“I can see at least three. Two at the windows and one on the roof. And I guess there’ll be more in the buildings in front.”
“That’s right.”
“How did you spot them? There’s barely any light.”
“Because I was expecting the area to be watched.”
“Oh, I see. What’s that building? Not a storehouse, surely.”
Egil smiled. “That building is the headquarters of the Guild of Assassins we’re looking for.”
Nilsa’s expression turned worried. “I was afraid of that …”
“And inside it is our target.”
Nilsa snorted. “Well, we’ve certainly got a complicated situation in front of us.”
“
Aren’t nearly all the ones we come up against?”
Nilsa clenched her fists nervously. “I have to agree with you on that.”
They stared at the storehouse, looking thoughtful as well as worried.
Chapter 21
Nilsa rubbed her hands together restlessly as she stared up at the building. “So that’s the operations base of the Guild of the Blue Snake … the assassins who’ve put a price on your head.”
Egil glanced quickly at the end of the street without leaving the shadows. “That’s right.”
“Well, I don’t see how we can storm this place. It’s well-protected, and there are sure to be more guild members inside.”
“More than sure.”
“And if it’s a guild of assassins, they’ll be good fighters.”
“That too.”
She clenched her fists and shook them. “Well, that’s really neat. I gather these guilds usually control whole sections of a city.”
“This particular guild isn’t that kind. In general, in any self-respecting city – in terms of size and affluence, I mean – you’ll find gangs, organized groups, syndicates, guilds devoted to everything an honorable person would avoid. They’re made up of thieves, spies, swindlers, thugs, trouble-makers and assassins. Remember what the trader we met on the road told us?”
“Yeah, I remember. He told us to go to the One-Eyed Crow, that the Guild would find us and we’d have to pay.”
“That particular guild is one of thieves. It’s not the one we’re looking for.”
Nilsa scratched her temple. “Oh, really? I was convinced it was.”
Egil shook his head. “The Guild of the Blue Snake doesn’t go in for extortion and robbery. It’s more dangerous, and a lot more secret. They’re never seen, and they only take on murder contracts. They’re the best paid, which means it’s a profitable business if you know how to run it and how to manage a criminal organization.”
“And they’re in that building over there?”
“They have more than one building in the city, but the person we’re looking for is in there.”
“So, what do we do?”
“We follow the plan and wait,” Egil said with complete calm. He leaned back against the wall in the darkness.
“Oh … okay then …” Nilsa muttered. She was a little taken aback by her friend’s response.
They hid as best they could in the darkness and waited. It was not long before Nilsa, who was unable to stay still, started hopping up and down.
“Stay still, this is going to take a while,” Egil said, as though scolding his little sister.
“I can’t stay still in one place without doing anything. I go crazy. Tell me, how did you find out about them?”
“If I tell you, will you stay quiet as a mouse?”
“I promise.”
“Very well then. It wasn’t at all easy. It’s taken me a long time, a lot of effort and a lot of gold. I’ve been after them ever since they attacked me. The attacker confessed to Lasgol and me before he died that the Guild of the Blue Snake had set a price on my head. The Zangrian guild of assassins is famous for its efficiency, and I’d already heard about them. My father and other Western nobles had mentioned them, as well as other guilds of the same kind in Zangria, Rogdon and Erenal, which are the nearest kingdoms. The nobles often use them for their plots, and they need to know about them so that they can avoid falling prey to them.”
“I’m getting to like the sound of the noble life more and more,” Nilsa commented ironically.
“You can have mine whenever you want.”
“No thanks. Go on, please.”
“Then came Gerd’s chance encounter with a couple of members of the guild. Among the clothes one of them was wearing he found a blue wooden snake, which points unmistakably to the guild. He also found a contract on my head for a thousand Zangrian coins. He sent it to me, and I’ve examined it carefully. It was signed C.V. and sealed in wax with a very elaborate seal showing a coat of arms with a bear and a boar.”
“Also, from the Guild of the Blue Snake, right?”
“That’s what I thought at first, but now I’m not so sure.”
“Not so sure? Why would you not be sure whether they belonged to the guild?”
“Well, you see, precisely because of that. If they already belonged to a guild, they had no need of a contract with them. It would be the leader of the Guild who’d have it. And apart from that, that same seal had also appeared in another critical situation.”
“Erika …”
“Exactly. Erika told Lasgol that he had very powerful enemies, and showed him a coin with a very elaborate engraving of a coat of arms showing a bear and a boar.”
“The bear and the boar … that’s right. It’s appeared in both attempts, the one on Lasgol and in the assassins of the Guild who’re searching for you.”
“That’s right.”
“In that case both attempts are related … don’t you think?”
“They might be. Still, we’d better not jump to conclusions. Haste leads to erroneous ones. I decided to concentrate on the attempt on my own life, and on the Guild of the Blue Snake, which was the one I was most certain about. Once I was sure the Zangrian Guild of Assassins was the one trying to kill me, I started to try to find out all the information I could about them. The goal I set for myself, was to find some way of finding out the name of whoever had paid for the contract. It hasn’t been at all easy to find information about the guild. It turns out that they’re pretty good.”
She gave Egil a smile which he could barely make out in the darkness. “Well, that’s not very good news for us, is it?”
“That’s right. It’s taken me a lot of time and gold to get some information about them. They cover their backs well. They’re very well-organized, and their leader’s very intelligent and dangerous. I didn’t give up, though. I kept searching until I finally found someone who was prepared to give me the information I wanted.”
“Who? And how d’you know he didn’t lie to you and just kept your gold?”
“Because the person who gave me the information is one of their victims, Sandro Omerton. He’s a man whose son was murdered by the guild over a gambling debt. He didn’t want to speak with me, not even when I offered him a lot of gold. The guild’s very powerful, and people are deeply afraid. Anyone who speaks about them has a deadly accident.”
“So how did you manage to persuade him?”
“I insisted. I wrote to him weekly. As he didn’t write back, I started to send him private messengers, but that didn’t work either. It’s hard to trust a stranger, but even harder if that stranger’s in another kingdom. Unfortunately, I couldn’t come in person, which was a major handicap.”
Nilsa shook her head. “I wouldn’t have trusted a stranger who was writing from another kingdom either.”
“Yeah, it was something that delayed my enquiries massively. I had to do what I could and be very patient.”
“How did you find this Sandro Omerton?”
“This might surprise you,” Egil said slyly. “I carried out a counter-offensive.”
“What do you mean? Did you go against the Guild of the Blue Snake?”
“Something like that, but subtler. I didn’t want them to know I was coming closer. I hired the Black Daggers, a rival guild, but less dangerous.”
Nilsa looked puzzled. “I don’t get it. Why?”
“So that they’d find me someone who’d be willing to give me information about the Guild of the Blue Snake.”
“They didn’t have it themselves?”
“They had all sorts of information about the guild of assassins in general, but not the details I needed. So, I paid them in gold to find me someone who had that information. That’s how I found Sandro Omerton.”
“You leave me speechless.”
“I remembered a saying and put it into practice: the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
“I can see how clever that was. But what seems even mor
e amazing is that you managed to do all this from the Camp.”
“Ah, that has a lot to do with my contacts and lines of communication. Two very important assets.”
“Did the Western League help you?”
“That’s right. The fact that I’m currently keeping a very low profile so as not to arouse suspicions in the capital doesn’t mean I’ve vanished, or that my allies have stopped helping me.”
“So, the League is still active. I thought with the defeat of the West it would’ve disappeared.”
“The armies as such, yes, but the structure and the leaders no. They’re still active, taking care not to be found out, and they support me. When I asked for their help in this matter, they gave it to me at once. Several agents have been snooping in Zangria and secretly gathering information for me.”
“I can see that you don’t actually have to be somewhere physically to carry out your plans.”
“The main problem with this approach is that everything takes far more time and money – particularly the former. It’s taken me longer than I’d have liked.”
“And the gold? Did you have it?”
“Nope. The civil war left the West broke. My family lost all the gold they had. I had to go to the other nobles of the League for a loan.”
“Weren’t they all broke? They lost the war … Thoran made them pay …”
“Nearly all of them … Counts Malason, Bjorn, Axel and Harald couldn’t help me. I thought Malason had some reserves, but he wrote to me saying that his coffers were empty, that he was sorry but he couldn’t help. Dukes Svensen and Erikson, somehow, were the ones who lent me the gold. I don’t know where they got it from. But I’m grateful to them from the bottom of my heart, because without them we wouldn’t be here today.”
“I see … so you’ve used all kinds of arts, alliances and means … and here I was thinking you were looking after Dolbarar and reading books at the Camp all this time.”
“Well, I’ve been doing that too. Days and nights are very long. There’s time enough for a lot.”
“Sure, you’ve been plotting and moving the puppet-strings like a master-spy. I thought it was odd we had so little news from you.”