Hollow Empire

by Sam Hawke

  “It is important to you,” I said slowly. “I understand. Beliefs are important.” I gestured to the words on the cover. “You must obey to ascend, yes? Is that why you’re here? Did someone send you to kill all those people? Someone you must obey?”

  “You read this?” He seemed shocked into answering.

  I frowned, and we stared at each other, momentarily joined in mutual confusion. “Yes,” I said. “Look, I can help you. If you say nothing, there’s a Council full of powerful people looking to blame you for a much bigger plot. I know you work for someone. You barely even speak our language, so I know what you’ve been doing isn’t your own plan. You’re taking orders. Tell me about your employer. Who are they? What do they want?”

  He turned away again, apparently losing interest. Frustration made me wave the book again, the only thing that seemed to get a reaction. “Does your god want us dead?” I stepped to the limit of the chalk line, opened the book, searching for the name, and held it up, pointing. “This, this right here. Is this your god?”

  He stared transfixed at my finger for a long moment, as if frozen in place. He took two slow steps forward—Lara moved her blade in a quiet warning—and stopped, looking between me and the book. Then he spat at me, and it was so sudden and unexpected I had no time to move out of the way. It hit me on the face and I flinched involuntarily.

  I wiped it off with my sleeve. “Doesn’t even sting,” I said, and enjoyed the flash of annoyance across his face. Good. Anger seemed to be the trigger, his temper penetrating his desire to stay silent. “Who sent you? What do you want?”

  He twisted his wrists so the ropes looped around them, and leaned toward me, arms taut, ropes digging into the flesh of his forearms. “I want? I want to end you,” he whispered. He shook his arms so suddenly and so aggressively that I took an involuntary step back.

  “Does this tell you to?” I shook the book at him, and again he bared his teeth. The mere sight of me touching the book seemed to be too much for him to ignore. My mouth a little dry, I tried on a smirk and flipped through a few random pages, searching for a phrase I could replicate in Trade. My heart was beating hard—his eyes were wide and demented, and if he were not restrained I had no doubt he would try to tear me apart. “You are afraid of children?” I asked innocently, gesturing at the passages advocating quashing young curiosity. “This sounds like a cowardly religion. Do you really believe this?”

  He was actually shaking. “You are not able to touch this,” he spat. “It is not for you. You are a thief, a traitor, you are not clean, you are … chamutah.” I had no idea what language the last word was in but the meaning seemed clear from the delivery. “You cannot touch.”

  “Of course I can,” I said, and smiled to cover my nerves. “I read this whole thing. Where are you from? Nowhere civilized, based on the contents of this. Some backwater settlement, hiding away from the rest of us, afraid of knowledge, afraid of women, afraid of children…”

  “Thief! Filth! Chamutah i esperol!” He shook his arms so hard the ring clanged dangerously against the wall, roaring with fury so intense I worried he might actually burst his restraints. I backed away, not bothering to hide my alarm, and almost ran straight into Chen, who was approaching swiftly with a bucket in hand.

  “Cool off,” she said, and doused him in the face with the bucket of water. The prisoner, temporarily spluttering and drenched, stopped screaming, and Chen led me and Lara out of the room. “I don’t think you’ll get much more from him in that state,” she said dryly.

  We walked down the hall and into one of the empty rooms. I realized I was shaking. “Are you all right?” Chen asked.

  “Just a bit of a shock. I thought he was going to break that ring for a moment.”

  “You sure pissed him off. Still, that’s more than anyone else has been able to do.” The captain looked me over thoughtfully. “Was like he just couldn’t help himself.”

  I looked down at the book clenched in one of my hands, and forced them to loosen. “He called me a thief and a traitor. Why?”

  “Well, you’ve got his book,” she pointed out reasonably.

  “He already knew I had it. He saw me pick it up and he didn’t react like this then. But those words, why those specific words? Filth, sure. Whatever part of the anatomy he called me with that other stuff, fine. But a thief and a traitor? A traitor to what?”

  She shrugged. “Can’t say, Credola. Could be they’re just the only insults he knows. But I think it’s safe to say this man’s no simple hired assassin. He’s a believer in something, and if he’s working for someone they’ve got more than financial or political motive in your family. It wasn’t just the book. It was your name.”

  For some reason, that did not make me feel better.

  “What about the other one, then?” Chen gave me a lopsided grin and loosened her powerful shoulders. “While you’re on a roll, eh? Since that’s what you’re officially here for. If you can get him reacting like our mate in there, that’d save me some trouble.”

  “Aven’s man?” I swallowed. “I guess we might as well.” Perhaps it was his connection to Aven, or the graphic aftermath of his work I’d seen on Tuhash, but despite the relative scales of their crimes, I was more apprehensive seeing Sukseno than the assassin.

  He was held in an ordinary room, without the additional safeguards that had been needed for the other prisoner. His huge hulking form looked too enormous for the bench, for the room, even. Chen had put a chair in front of the cell and I took it, grateful for the chance to get off my feet. My earlier decision to walk to the hospital seemed a waste of my limited energy now. “Sukseno. We’ve never met. I’m Kalina Oromani, though I think you already know that.” He raised his chin in sullen acknowledgment, which I took as a sign to continue.

  “Our city’s in shambles, and I’m tired, Sukseno. So I’m going to be as quick as possible. The Hands have been running drugs and extortion in the lower city all year, and no doubt worse. We know that. But what happened at the arena … mass murder is a whole new game.”

  I thought I saw a flicker of something. Shame? Amusement? I pressed on.

  “You were caught with a bag of explosives so it’s a safe bet the determination council will find enough evidence that you intended to set our most dangerous prisoner free. And I have to tell you, after how many people you Hands murdered last night, how many innocent children, it’s going to be hard to get a rehabilitation sponsor. Ever. So the only way forward I see for you, Sukseno, is if you help defend the city now, do everything you can to help us stop what’s coming.”

  He blinked, silent, expressionless. Chen had said he was a hard character, displaying no weakness, and there was little incentive for him to help us, if he was the kind of man who could be part of a plan to murder innocent people on the scale he had. But there was one gentle pressure point I could apply. “You were going to break Aven out,” I observed. “Was she expecting you at a particular time? Or is she still going to be sitting there, wondering when you’ll come?”

  The thought of Aven having come so close to breaking free made my heart race and my skin prickle. What would have happened if Dee hadn’t recognized Sukseno at the market? What damage would Aven have done to us, if freed? Prison was supposed to be a time for reflection, for penitence, but in her case that had been a fool’s errand. She’d never felt sorry for her crimes, only for how they had crumpled, and apparently she’d wasted no time on anything so wasteful as self-reflection; instead, she had turned her considerable talents in manipulation to finding another way out, another way to get revenge.

  Well, she could continue to sit in the dark and wonder what had happened with her grand plans and why no one had come to get her. It was enough to give me a small moment of satisfaction, thinking of her triumph and excitement slowly turning to disappointment and fury.

  Sukseno was obviously thinking along the same lines. The big, emotionless face had stiffened, his feet on the ground making a little scraping pattern with the toes,
back and forth, back and forth. He was listening now, and, I hoped, imagining Aven waiting fruitlessly for him. And that made me suddenly sure of the right way to approach the man. “Getting Aven out was the plan, but you were on your own. No backup, no one to help with the device, no one to use it while you distracted the on-duty Guards. No orders from the top on this little side project.”

  There, that was a response. Something passed across his face; it might have been anger. “The orders to blow up the arena didn’t come from Aven, did they?” I breathed, feeling the truth of it even as I saw the reaction play out in his expression. “She’s not in charge of the Hands, is she? Someone else is running this, and they didn’t want to bother about getting Aven out. That’s why it was just you.”

  He turned a baleful glare on me, but it was obvious I’d struck a nerve. This was his point of weakness. Aven might have thought she was running things, but whoever her “friends” were, they hadn’t made her escape a priority. Maybe they’d never intended to free her at all. Excitement rose in me. We were on the edge of something here.

  “Did they cut her loose?” I asked, watching him carefully. “That’s what you’re worried about. That they never cared about her at all. She let them down last time, you know, double-crossed them. Tried to play both sides and come out on top. You know what I think? I think they were using her.”

  His hands had balled into fists. Oh, he was a true believer, all right. She’d done a number on him; this was a loyal, loyal man, and the mere thought of someone betraying his commander was cracking him. Fear and disgust and fury tightened in my stomach, and a surprising flash of pity. Yet again, that utterly unworthy human had effortlessly collected adoration and loyalty from others. What had she ever done to deserve such a thing?

  “Sukseno, I think we both know I’ve got no reason to care about Aven getting her comeuppance, but right now, I don’t think she’s actually the one trying to destroy us. What can you give us to help us stop the ones who are? You might work for the Hands, but you’re loyal to Aven. Give the Wraith up, or better still, tell us who’s funding this, and we’ll see what we can do for you. Who is the Prince?”

  The hands on his lap were so tight now they were almost shaking. “What can you do for her?”

  For her. Even now he was thinking of bargaining for Aven’s conditions, not his own. It made me sick. “We can make her life a lot more comfortable,” I lied immediately. “We can organize work for her that’s more rewarding than mine work. Give her privileges, let her write to her family more often.”

  “Make her the Warrior-Guilder again,” he said abruptly. Chen, who had been silently observing in the background, gave an audible snort of disbelief, and he swung his gaze to her, fury flashing across his face. “Make her the Warrior-Guilder and she’ll clean up this mess.”

  I had no immediate response. The utter gall of it was almost breathtaking. “Make her the Warrior-Guilder,” I repeated. “The woman who murdered a Chancellor and started a civil war. You want us to not just release her but elevate her to a position of power.”

  A muscle worked in his jaw; he gave me the mean, narrow stare of a person who believes they are being mocked and is on the brink of snapping. “Yes.”

  “Sukseno, we aren’t gonna do that,” Chen said. She returned his glare with a flat stare of her own. “You know we aren’t.”

  He shrugged. “You want me to give them up, you’re gonna have to.”

  Chen started to say something else but I cut her off. “You tell me how to find the Wraith, or better still, the Prince she’s taking money and orders from, then we can talk about what we can do for Aven. But if you don’t give us something, and now, we won’t bring this to the Council and ask them for anything for Aven or for you.” I turned back to Chen. “The Hands slit the throat of the last guy to displease them, didn’t they?”

  She followed my lead without hesitation. “Opened his throat and dumped him in a canal,” she said cheerfully.

  Sukseno’s feet, scratching on the floor, stopped still. I yawned—no need to feign tiredness in my state. I’d had more rest than some these past few days, but much less than my body needed. “Well. By fortunate coincidence, we have a few of the Hands in custody, the ones who planted the explosives. It’d be a shame if we let one of them overhear how you folded under our very terrifying threats.” It had been a gamble, trusting he hadn’t heard what had happened to those Hands.

  “The Hands are the tightest criminal gang the Order Guards have ever seen. You reckon they’ll be pleased you’re sharing anything with us? We’ll transfer you to the jail in a nice obvious carriage, and we’ll see who comes out to make a play for you.” I smiled. “What do you think? Give us a chance to pull in someone a bit more senior.”

  I was impressed with Chen’s cool; she cracked her knuckles and nodded. “I’ll give him a day’s head start and make a fuss about taking him back over.”

  A vein pulsed visibly on his temple as he replied with forced ease. “Do what you want. You’ve already said I’m certain to be convicted so what does it matter?” He folded his big hands behind his head.

  I shrugged in false nonchalance. “Your gang’s messing about with bigger stakes than drugs and petty crime. If you’re not going to help us get to those responsible for the arena I’m not fussed about what happens to you in the scheme of things. If our best bet is using you as bait to draw someone else out, I don’t mind the risk.”

  He clenched his fists, the jaw muscle working, his calculation evident. Come on, I thought. Save your own neck. Eventually he spat out, “I’ve got a sister in a chair out in the village, she can’t work, and a little niece who’s doing most of the looking after her, all right? I support them, people know my pay goes there. The Wraith’s vindictive. She’d as soon slit their throats as go after me.” He pointed one shaking finger at me, his face still hard and cold even through the fear. “None of this has shit to do with them. Something happens to them, it’s on you.”

  I frowned as I looked him over. He seemed genuine enough. “Does your sister know what you’re involved in?”

  “She’s got nothing to do with this,” he repeated angrily, his color rising, and for the first time he seemed unable to meet my gaze. I surmised his sister didn’t know the extra work her brother was doing to help support her.

  I shrugged. “I don’t like it, but if you don’t give us something to help stop another attack, we’re not going to have a choice. You helped murder hundreds of people, Sukseno, and you’re aligned with people who want to kill more still. Do you think the Council’s going to lose sleep over a risk to your family?”

  The prisoner ground his feet and stared at his lap, furious and scared, stubborn and indecisive, all at once. He looked, in fact, trapped, and despite myself I felt a glimmer of pity. He hadn’t always been a criminal. A disabled sister in the external village and not in the city meant money and work were likely a barrier to finding safe, affordable accommodation in the city itself. Maybe falling in with criminals was an easy path to go down in tough circumstances. His own life apparently meant less to him than the safety of his family; I was uncomfortably quick to relate. I shook my head, trying to will myself out of caring.

  “Get my sister out,” he said at last. “And I’ll give you the Wraith. And tell you what I know about that foreign bitch she’s taking orders from. She’s what started all this.”

  “A foreign woman?” I asked, cool, as if my heart hadn’t started up a staccato beat of excitement in my chest at his words. “It’s the Prince’s Hands, isn’t it?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know about any Prince. It’s just a name, isn’t it. The Wraith runs things here, and the money and the drugs come from the foreign bitch, like I said.” He folded his arms stubbornly and looked at the wall. “You get my sister out and we’ll talk.”

  “We’ll see what can be done.” I left the corridor, holding everything inside me so I didn’t break out into a run.

  New energy pulsed through me as we clos
ed Chen’s office door behind us and I spun to face her. “You have to get his sister to safety,” I said. “Right away. He knows what we need and he can tell us. You can see it in him. He cares about Aven, not the Wraith, not whoever this ‘foreign bitch’ is. He’ll talk if we give him the right stimulus.” A woman? A foreign woman. But who, and from where? Is the Prince real, or is that a title she uses? And the he the Speaker invoked? Are they all working together, or all the same person, or do we have more than one front to fight this battle on? The questions whirled in my head and I wished I could somehow be delivered straight to Tain and my brother to tell them everything.

  Chen leaned against her desk and took weight off her leg. She scowled down at it, rubbing the join, and I suddenly realized she did not share my excitement.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked. “This is great news. He’ll give up the Wraith and more information about her sponsor. Why do you look like someone’s just given you cold tea?”

  She gave a heavy sigh and looked at me square. “Just … don’t get your hopes up just yet, Kalina.”

  “Did you not hear him?” I gestured back the way we came. “He just gave us confirmation someone outside the country is driving this stuff, and told us he’d give us more information. My hopes are up, Chen! Honor-down, why aren’t yours?”

  Chen held up a conciliatory hand. “Look. I’ve talked to a lot of people in tough situations, is all. They say stuff. You and your brother are public figures, and what you think about a foreign sponsor for the rebellion and all the rest of it is pretty widely known, you know? And this guy, he’s had Aven in his ear, telling him whatever the fuck she’s been telling him. I’m just saying, he’s promising to give you exactly what he knows you want … I’m not so sure it won’t all come out his ass, is all.”

  “He was serious. Chen, he really believes in Aven and he’s sitting there stewing, thinking the Hands used and abandoned her. Maybe the Wraith never wanted the competition from someone who’s used to being in charge. Maybe this foreign sponsor isn’t so keen on the person who screwed up their last attempt to take us down. But either way, he feels alienated and betrayed on her behalf, and that’s the perfect time to get him helping us.”