Last Argument of Kings

by Joe Abercrombie

  An intricate design had been laid out with obsessive care, covering wide floor. Circles within circles, shapes, symbols, figures of frightening complexity, all described in neat lines of white powder. Salt, unless I am much mistaken. Goyle lay on his chest a stride or two from the door, at the edge of the outermost ring, his hands still tied behind him. Dark blood spread out from under him, the point of a flatbow bolt sticking out of his back. Just where his heart should be. I would never have taken that for his weak spot.

  Four of the University's Adepti stood in various stages of amazement. Three of them: Chayle, Denka, and Kandelau, held candles in both hands, their sputtering wicks giving off a choking corpse-stink. Saurizin, the Adeptus Chemical, clutched an empty flatbow. The faces of the old men, lit in bilious yellow from beneath, were pantomime masks of fear.

  At the far side of the room Silber stood behind a lectern, a great book open before him, staring down with intense concentration by the light of a single lamp. His finger hissed across the page, his thin lips moving ceaselessly. Even at this distance, and despite the fact the room was icy cold, Glokta could see fat beads of sweat running down his thin face. Beside him, painfully upright in his pure white coat and glaring blue daggers across the width of the chamber, stood Arch Lector Sult.

  'Glokta, you crippled bastard!' he snarled, 'what the hell are you doing here?'

  'I could well ask you the same question, your Eminence.' He waved his cane at the scene. 'Except the candles, the ancient books, the chanting and the circles of salt rather give the game away, no?' And a rather infantile game it seems, suddenly. All that time, while I was torturing my way through the Mercers, while I was risking my life in Dagoska, while I was blackmailing votes in your name, you were up to… this?

  But Sult seemed to be taking it seriously enough. 'Get out, you fool! This is our last chance!'

  'This? Seriously?' Cosca was already through the door, masked mercenaries following. Silber's eyes were still fixed on the book, lips still moving, more sweat on his face than ever. Glokta frowned. 'Someone shut him up.'

  'No!' shouted Chayle, a look of utter horror on his tiny face. 'You mustn't stop the incantations! It is a profoundly dangerous operation! The consequences could be… could be—'

  'Disastrous!' shrieked Kandelau. One of the mercenaries took a step towards the middle of the room nonetheless.

  'Don't tread near the salt!' screeched Denka, wax dripping from his wobbling candle. 'Whatever you do!'

  'Wait!' snapped Glokta, and the man paused at the edge of the circle, peering at him over his mask. The room was growing colder even as they spoke. Unnaturally cold. Something was happening in the centre of the circles. The air was trembling, like the air above a bonfire, more and more as Silber's harsh voice droned on. Glokta stood frozen, his eyes flicking between the old Adepti. What to do? Stop him, or don't stop him? Stop him, or—

  'Allow me!' Cosca stepped forwards, delving into his black coat with his spare left hand. But you can't be— He whipped his arm out with a careless flourish and his throwing knife came with it. The blade flashed in the candlelight, spun directly through the shimmering air in the centre of the room, and imbedded itself to the hilt in Silber's forehead with a gentle thud.

  'Ha!' Cosca seized Glokta by the shoulder. 'What did I tell you? Have you ever seen a knife thrown better?'

  Blood ran down the side of Silber's face in a red trickle. His eyes rolled upwards, flickered, then he sagged sideways, dragging over his lectern, and crashed to the floor. His book tumbled down on top of him, aged pages flapping, the lamp spilled over and sprayed streaks of burning oil across the floor.

  'No!' shrieked Sult.

  Chayle gasped, his mouth falling open. Kandelau threw his candle aside and sank grovelling to the floor. Denka gave a terrified squeak, one hand over his face, staring out pop-eyed from between his fingers. There was a long pause while everyone except Cosca stared, horrified, towards the corpse of the Adeptus Demonic. Glokta waited, his few teeth bared, his eyes almost squeezed shut. Like that horrible, beautiful moment between stubbing your toe and feeling the hurt. Here it comes. Here it comes.

  Here comes the pain…

  But nothing came. No demonic laughter echoed through the chamber. The floor did not fall in to expose a gate to hell. The shimmering faded, the room began to grow warmer. Glokta raised his brows, almost disappointed. 'It would seem the diabolical arts are decidedly overrated.'

  'No!' snarled Sult again.

  'I am afraid so, your Eminence. And to think I used to respect you.' Glokta grinned at the Adeptus Chemical, still clinging weakly to his empty flatbow. He waved a hand at Goyle's body. 'A good shot. I congratulate you. One less mess for me to tidy up.' He waved a finger at the crowd of mercenaries behind him. 'Now seize that man.'

  'No!' bellowed Saurizin, throwing his flatbow to the floor. 'None of it was my idea! I had no choice! It was him!' He stabbed a thick finger at Silber's lifeless body. 'And… and him!' He pointed to Sult with a trembling arm.

  'You've got the right idea, but it can wait for the interrogation. Would you be kind enough to take his Eminence into custody?'

  'Happily.' Cosca strolled across the floor of the wide room, his boots sending up puffs of white powder, leaving a trail of ruination through the intricate patterns.

  'Glokta, you blundering idiot!' shrieked Sult. 'You have no idea of the danger Bayaz poses! This First of the Magi and his bastard king! Glokta! You have no right! Gah!' He yelped as Cosca dragged his arms behind his back and forced him to his knees, his white hair in disarray. 'You have no idea—'

  'If the Gurkish don't kill the lot of us, you'll get ample time to explain it to me. Of that I assure you.' Glokta leered his toothless smile as Cosca drew the rope tight around Sult's wrists. If you only knew how long I have dreamed of saying these words. 'Arch Lector Sult. I arrest you for high treason against his Majesty the King.'

  Jezal could only stand and stare. One of the twins, the one spattered in blood, lifted her long arms slowly over her head and gave a long, satisfied stretch. The other raised an eyebrow.

  'How would you like to die?' she asked.

  'Your Majesty, get behind me.' Gorst hefted his long steel in his one good hand.

  'No. Not this time.' Jezal pulled the crown from his head, the crown that Bayaz had been so particular in designing, and tossed it clattering away. He was done with being a king. If he was to die, he would die a man, like any other. He had been given so many advantages, he realised now. Far more than most men could ever dream of. So many chances to do good, and he had done nothing besides whine and think of himself. Now it was too late. 'I've lived my life leaning on others. Hiding behind them. Climbing on their shoulders. Not this time.'

  One of the twins raised her hands and started slowly to clap, the regular tap, tap, echoing from the mirrors. The other giggled. Gorst raised his sword. Jezal did the same, one last act of pointless defiance.

  Then High Justice Marovia flashed between them. The old man moved with impossible speed, his dark robe snapping around him. He had something in his hand. A long rod of dark metal with a hook on the end.

  'What—' muttered Jezal.

  The hook blazed suddenly, searingly white, bright as the sun on a summer's day. A hundred hooks burned like stars, reflected back from the mirrors round the walls, and back, and back, into the far distance. Jezal gasped, squeezed his eyes shut, holding one hand over his face, the long trail left by that brilliant point burned fizzing into his vision.

  He blinked, gaped, lowered his arm. The twins stood, the High Justice beside them, just where they had before, still as statues. Tendrils of white steam hissed up from vents in the end of the strange weapon and curled around Marovia's arm. For a moment, nothing moved.

  Then a dozen of the great mirrors at the far end of the hall fell in half across the middle, as though they were sheets of paper slashed suddenly by the world's sharpest knife. A couple of the bottom halves and one of the top toppled slowly forwards into the
room and shattered, scattering bright fragments of glass across the tiled floor.

  'Urgggh,' breathed the twin on the left. Jezal realised that blood was spurting out from under her armour. She lifted one hand towards him and it dropped off the end of her arm and thudded to the tiles, blood squirting from the smoothly severed stump. She toppled to the left. Or her body did, at least. Her legs fell the other way. The bigger part of her crashed to the ground, and her head came off and rolled across the tiles in a widening pool. Her hair, trimmed off cleanly at the neck, fluttered down into the bloody mess in a golden cloud.

  Armour, flesh, bone, all divided into neat sections as perfectly as cheese by a cheese wire. The twin on the right frowned, took a wobbling step towards Marovia. Her knees gave out and she fell in half at the waist. The legs slumped down and lay still, dust sliding out in a brown heap. The top half dragged itself forward by the nails, lifted its head, hissing.

  The air around the High Justice shimmered and the Eater's severed body burst into flames. It thrashed, for a while, making a long squealing sound. Then it was still, a mass of smoking black ash.

  Marovia lifted up the strange weapon, whistling softly as he smiled at the hook on the end, a last few traces of vapour still drifting from it. 'Kanedias. He certainly knew how to make a weapon. The Master Maker indeed, eh, your Majesty?'

  'What?' muttered Jezal, utterly dumbfounded.

  Marovia's face melted slowly away as he crossed the floor towards them. Another began to show itself beneath. Only his eyes remained the same. Different-coloured eyes, happy lines around the corners, grinning at Jezal like an old friend.

  Yoru Sulfur bowed. 'Never any peace, eh, your Majesty? Never the slightest peace.'

  There was a crash as one of the doors burst open. Jezal raised his sword, heart in his mouth. Sulfur whipped round, the Maker's weapon held down by his side. A man stumbled into the room. A big man, his grimacing face covered in scars, his chest heaving, a heavy sword hanging from one hand, the other clutched to his ribs.

  Jezal blinked, hardly able to believe it. 'Logen Ninefingers. How the hell did you get here?'

  The Northman stared for a moment. Then he leaned back against a mirror by the door, let his sword drop to the tiles. He slid down, slowly, until he hit the floor, and sat there with his head leaning back against the glass. 'Long story,' he said.

  'Listen to us…'

  The wind was full of shapes, now. Hundreds of them. They crowded in around the outermost circle, the bright iron turned misty, gleaming with cold wet.

  '… we have things to tell you, Ferro…'

  'Secrets…'

  'What can we give you?'

  'We know… everything.'

  'You need only let us in…'

  So many voices. She heard Aruf among them, her old teacher. She heard Susman the slaver. She heard her mother and her father. She heard Yulwei, and Prince Uthman. A hundred voices. A thousand. Voices she knew and had forgotten. Voices of the dead and of the living. Shouts, mutters, screams. Whispers, in her ear. Closer still. Closer than her own thoughts.

  'You want vengeance?'

  'We can give you vengeance.'

  'Like nothing you have dreamed of.'

  'All you want. All you need.'

  'Only let us in…'

  'That empty space in you?'

  'We are what is missing!'

  The metal rings had turned white with frost. Ferro kneeled at one end of a dizzying tunnel, its walls made from rushing, roaring, furious matter, full of shadows, its end far beyond the dark sky. The laughter of the First of the Magi echoed faintly in her ears. The air hummed with power, twisted, shimmered, blurred.

  'You need do nothing.'

  'Bayaz.'

  'He will do it.'

  'Fool!'

  'Liar!'

  'Let us in…'

  'He cannot understand.'

  'He uses you!'

  'He laughs.'

  'But not for long.'

  'The gates strain.'

  'Let us in…'

  If Bayaz heard the voices he gave no sign. Cracks ran through the quivering paving, branching out from his feet, splinters floating up around him in whirling spirals. The iron rings began to shift, to buckle. With a grinding of tortured metal they twisted out from the crumbling stones, bright edges shining.

  'The seals break.'

  'Eleven wards.'

  'And eleven wards reversed.'

  'The doors open.'

  'Yes,' came the voices, speaking together.

  The shadows crowded in closer. Ferro's breath came short and fast, her teeth rattled, her limbs trembled, the cold was on her very heart. She knelt at a precipice, bottomless, limitless, full of shadows, full of voices.

  'Soon we will be with you.'

  'Very soon.'

  'The time is upon us.'

  'Both sides of the divide, joined.'

  'As they were meant to be.'

  'Before Euz spoke his First Law.'

  'Let us in…'

  She needed only to cling to the Seed a moment longer. Then the voices would give her vengeance. Bayaz was a liar, she had known it from the start. She owed him nothing. Her eyelids flickered, closed, her mouth hung open. The noise of the wind grew fainter yet, until she could hear only the voices.

  Whispering, soothing, righteous.

  'We will take the world and make it right.'

  'Together.'

  'Let us in…'

  'You will help us.'

  'You will free us.'

  'You can trust us.'

  'Trust us…'

  Trust?

  A word that only liars used. Ferro remembered the wreckage of Aulcus. The hollow ruins, the blasted mud. The creatures of the Other Side are made of lies. Better to have an empty space in her, than to fill it with this. She wedged her tongue between her teeth and bit down hard, felt her mouth fill up with salty blood. She sucked in breath, forced her eyes open.

  'Trust us…'

  'Let us in!'

  She saw the Maker's box, a shifting, swimming outline. She bent down over it, digging at it with her numb fingertips while the air lashed at her. She would be no one's slave. Not for Bayaz, not for the Tellers of Secrets. She would find her own path. A dark one, perhaps, but her own.

  The lid swung open.

  'No.' The voices hissed together in her ear.

  'No!'

  Ferro ground her bloody teeth, growled with fury as she forced her fingers to unclench. The world was a melting, screaming, formless mass of darkness. Gradually, gradually, her dead hand came open. Here was her revenge. Against the liars, the users, the thieves. The earth shook, crumbled, tore, as thin and fragile as a sheet of glass, and with an empty void beneath it. She turned her trembling hand and the Seed dropped from her palm.

  All as one, the voices screamed their harsh command. 'No!'

  She blindly seized hold of the lid. 'Fuck yourselves!' she hissed.

  And with her last grain of strength she forced the box closed.

  * * *

  After the Rains

  « ^ »

  Logen leaned on the parapet, high up on a tower at one side of the palace, and frowned into the wind. He'd done the same, it felt an age ago now, from the top of the Tower of Chains. He'd stared out dumbstruck at the endless city, wondering if he could ever have dreamed of a man-made thing so proud, and beautiful, and indestructible as the Agriont.

  By the dead, how times change.

  The green space of the park was scattered with fallen rubbish, trees broken, grass gouged, half the lake leaked away and sunken to a muddy bog. At its western edge a sweep of fine white buildings still stood, even if the windows gaped empty. Further west, and they had no roofs, bare rafters hanging. Further still their walls were torn and scoured, empty shells, choked with rubble.

  Beyond that, there was nothing. The great hall with the golden dome, gone. The square where Logen had watched the sword-game, gone. The Tower of Chains, the mighty wall under it, and a
ll the grand buildings over which Logen had fled with Ferro. All gone.

  A colossal circle of destruction was carved from the western end of the Agriont, and only acres of formless wreckage remained. The city beyond was torn with black scars, smoke still rising from a few last fires, from smouldering hulks still drifting in the bay. The House of the Maker loomed over the scene, a sharp black mass under the brooding clouds, uncaring and untouched.

  Logen stood there, scratching at the scarred side of his face, over and over. His wounds ached. So many of them. Every part of him was battered and bruised, slashed and torn. From the fight with the Eater, from the battle beyond the moat, from the duel with the Feared, from seven days of slaughter in the High Places. From a hundred fights, and skirmishes, and old campaigns. Too many to remember. So tired, and sore, and sick.

  He frowned down at his hands on the parapet in front of him. The bare stone looked back where his middle finger used to be. He was Ninefingers still. The Bloody-Nine. A man made of death, just as Bethod had said. He'd nearly killed the Dogman yesterday, he knew it. His oldest friend. His only friend. He'd raised the sword, and if it wasn't for a trick of fate, he would have done it.

  He remembered standing high up, on the side of the Great Northern library, looking out over the empty valley, the still lake like a great mirror beneath it. He remembered feeling the wind on his fresh-shaved jaw, and wondering whether a man could change.

  Now he knew the answer.

  'Master Ninefingers!'

  Logen turned quickly, hissed through his teeth as the stitches down his side burned. The First of the Magi stepped through the doorway and out into the open air. He was changed, somehow. He looked young. Younger even than when Logen first met him. There was a sharpness to his movements, a gleam in his eye. It even seemed that there were a few dark hairs in the grey beard round his friendly grin. The first smile Logen had seen in a good while.