The Bones of the Past (Books of Dust and Bone)

by Craig A. Munro

  They had gone rigid as soon as he mentioned one of their burial sites, but they relaxed again after he finished. “So they have no idea it’s us?”

  “No, they seem to think a cabal of some sort is responsible. Probably because you draw your power from so many souls. One of my contacts with the city watch was there and got conscripted into assisting them. A mage named Lera was at the burial site casting divinations and examining the runes you wove into the place. The flavor of your power is confusing them for now, but you really need to be careful for a while. These are not people you want to get on the wrong side of.”

  Nial nodded as Zuly said, “Thank you. We’ll be careful. And we’ll think of something else to do with the bodies.” Then they went and took their place in the ward circle and looked at him expectantly, ready for their nightly lesson. Skeg sighed and sat down.

  Nial and Zuly were so confident in their abilities that Skeg soon let himself relax about the situation. The Night Guard had visited his shop several times over the past weeks but always to follow a lead that led elsewhere or to ask about totally unrelated matters. Nial had even mentioned that fewer demons were flying about these days. Whether the girls had cut back on their hunting or had actually found some other way of disposing of their victims Skeg didn’t know.

  The next night, an unexpected customer showed up in his shop. This customer didn’t trigger the spells that warned Skeg when someone was approaching his door. He was simply standing in front of the counter in a shop that had been empty a moment earlier, wearing a long gray cloak and a featureless white mask.

  “Good evening, Mister Skeg.”

  Startled by the sudden appearance, Skeg exclaimed, “Shade!”

  “Indeed,” Shade answered in his toneless voice. “I find myself in need of your services.”

  Skeg hesitated for a moment. “You know as well as anyone that I don’t provide any services. I only sell materials. And if you’re here for more blood or bones, you’ll have to look elsewhere. My stock has dried up for the moment.”

  “I am not here for anything like that. And I spoke the truth when I said I was in need of your services. I need you to introduce me to a fascinating young woman whom I believe you are well acquainted with.”

  Skeg’s palms started to sweat. He tracked Nial here? And if Shade has, maybe others are coming. Keeping his voice even and calm, he answered, “Sorry, Shade, I don’t get out that much. I certainly don’t know any young women who’d be interested in meeting you.”

  “Ah, well, I never said she would be. I, however, am most determined to meet her. And I’m afraid I must insist.” He stood there in silence for a few uncomfortable moments. “I’ll trust you to pass on my request, Mister Skeg. I can be patient, but don’t keep me waiting too long.”

  Skeg felt like he had eaten bad fish. His stomach was in knots while he waited for Nial to show up. When she finally arrived, he swallowed hard and blurted: “I have a message from someone who wants to meet you, girls.”

  Nial froze, a faint aura of power enveloping her. “I thought you never told anyone about me, Skeg.”

  Just like that, I’m not even Mister Skeg anymore. “And I haven’t,” he said, backing as far away from her as the closed confines of the shop would allow. “We have both learned from each other, and I have no intention of ruining our arrangement or our friendship. But this person is looking for you. He is being most insistent. Unlike any of the others, he has tracked you to this shop. No, I can’t tell you how. I only know that he will ruin me if I do not arrange a meeting.”

  “Ruin you worse than I will if you betrayed us?” Zuly snapped angrily.

  “I haven’t! I swear it! This man calls himself Shade. He is preeminent among the underground mages of the city. I don’t know his real name, or even what he looks like. He is an expert at masking his presence. So I say again—he knows things about you already. He probably even knows what you’ve been selling me; he did buy a fair portion of what you brought me over the last few months.”

  “And you didn’t think this strange? You didn’t think it worth telling us?!”

  “All kinds of unsavory characters buy that flesh and blood. Some are not mages themselves but servants or even priests of some of the darker gods. Others are traveling merchants who know of a richer market for such things in another city. And some few are mages from this city—almost all unregistered. A couple are even from the Arcanum but conducting illegal research. . . . Or so I imagine. Demand varies from one group to another as a mage works out some new piece of research or has a weird idea he wants to try, but my best customer in recent months has been Shade. He doesn’t announce himself. I’ve never even seen him enter my shop. He is always cloaked and always hides his features behind a mask.”

  “How strong is he?” Zuly’s voice was devoid of emotion.

  Skeg was sweating again. “I’m not sure. I haven’t seen him do a lot. The stories are probably exaggerated. I’d say at the very least Third or Fourth Order. He could very well even be an archmage. Shade seems to be more of a title than anything else. Someone has carried it for centuries. I’ve found references to someone in Bialta calling themselves Shade for a thousand years. I’d be willing to bet, though, that he isn’t all that powerful, just smarter than your average outlaw.”

  “Did he say where he wanted to meet?”

  “No, he only asked that I pass on the request and learn your answer. I’d have to say though, Nial, you’ve learned all I can teach you myself. If this man needs something from you, he may well be someone who can teach you more.”

  “Trust a strange man I’ve never met? One I know to have power?”

  “Did you do any less with me? Besides, like me, he can’t afford to get noticed. He can’t expend too much of his power overtly, and to take you on he’d certainly need to. I’ve always assumed that’s why you felt you could trust me.”

  Their face shifted from anger to sadness. “No, Mister Skeg,” Nial said. “Nothing like that ever occurred to us. We trusted you because you were nice to us. Because you were always fair and never tried to take anything that wasn’t offered. Because we like you.”

  Skeg unexpectedly felt a lump in his throat. “Thank you, Nial, that means more to me than I would have thought possible. But I have to warn you against being so naive ever again. People die around you. That they are not the nicest of people is beside the point. You cannot judge people so quickly and easily. You rarely act on anything you don’t see with your own eyes, but with Shade you must. He is a creature of subtlety. Every action of his has unexpected ramifications. He plays a strange game in this city, and none have yet guessed what he wants. I think he will eventually track you down. If he has tracked you this far . . . then he’s close. This may be your only chance to meet him on your own terms.”

  Zuly and Nial looked at him in silence for a moment before Nial nodded. “All right. We will speak with this Shade. But if he threatens us, we will tear him apart and damn the attention that could bring.”

  “If it comes to that, I will be with you.”

  “Such sentiment, Skeg; I didn’t think you were capable of it,” a strangely flat voice said. Zuly hissed and prepared to lash out with her power. Skeg started and embraced his own meager talent.

  “Now, now, there is no need for violence,” the voice continued. “I will show myself, if and when I am certain you will not attack me.”

  Zuly considered for a moment. The voice was completely lacking in inflection. She could not decide if it was a man or a woman. “Show yourself then. But do not think I will leave myself defenseless.”

  “You have since you entered this shop. You cannot defend yourself against me. I have seen you at work several times in the past weeks,” the flat voice continued. “I must thank you, Mister Skeg. When I said I was patient, I expected you to wait a few days if not weeks before speaking with the young ladies about me. Now . . . I believe introductions are not necessary. I know a lot about you already, of course, Zulaxrak. I know almost e
verything there is to know about you and your kind. I was not lying, though. I do not wish you harm. I have a singular problem, and I need a singular tool to deal with it. I want us to become business partners of a sort, much like you and Mister Skeg here.”

  “What do you want from me?” Zuly demanded. Skeg was not fooled; she was using her anger to mask her fear. Ever since he had met her, Zuly had been obsessed with becoming strong. And now the shield she had built around herself was revealed to be nothing but smoke.

  “I need you to broaden the scope of those you deliver your own special brand of justice to. I need you to allow me to suggest some particular individuals who are in need of punishment.”

  “If I’m so helpless, then why don’t you kill these people yourself?!”

  “I could, of course. There would be little difficulty in the task. But my methods might be recognized. The flavor of my power—of my presence—might be detected in any number of ways I couldn’t foresee. You however, my delightful little hybrid, are a total unknown to those in power who might look into these deaths. You are strong enough to carry out the executions with ease. Your hybrid blood would confuse many of the more common divinations. The removal of their souls contributes significantly to that end as well. In short, you are perfect for the task.”

  “We only hunt those we decide deserve it—we hunt the hunters.”

  “Truly? I thought that only an affectation. Or possibly a strategy to kill only those who would not be missed and thereby even gain the support of the common inhabitants of the Muds. But no, I see now. I see Skeg has learned his sentimentality from someone. Fascinating that a human would learn such tenderhearted ways from a demon out hunting for souls. Now I really don’t mind so much if you do want to dig into these people’s lives a little before you harvest their souls. I have little doubt that you will find them as loathsome as I do and be perfectly willing to take care of them as I suggest.”

  “And just why should I do anything you ask?”

  “Ah, payment, a most mercenary question. I suppose I do need to provide some encouragement. I do need to make these particular souls more valuable to you than your common pedophiles, rapists, and murderers or you would have little reason to range beyond your usual hunting grounds. Very well, I will do as Master Skeg suggested earlier. If you do this thing for me, if you end the lives of these three individuals, I will instruct you in some few things you will find very useful. Agreed?”

  “If you’re so much stronger than me, why do you fear to show yourself?”

  “I did not say any such thing, young Zulaxrak. I suspect your powers are significantly greater than mine, although your friend’s account of my abilities may have fallen a little short of the mark. In any case, though, you possess raw power, and I possess knowledge and experience. In a direct confrontation, we would ruffle the feathers of every witch, mage, and priest for miles and you would no doubt defeat me. But you are thinking too simply. Strength, raw power, is not nearly as important as you seem to think in a magical confrontation. Besides, what would be served in me fighting fair? You are unable to detect my presence. I could simply overwhelm you at a moment of weakness.” The threat hung in the air. Nial and Zuly stiffened further.

  “I will leave some papers with Skeg sometime in the next day or two. The two of you, or should I say the three of you, can peruse them at your leisure and decide who you want to go after first and so on. I would advise, though, that bringing these particular bodies back to Skeg’s shop might not be prudent.” With that, the voice went silent. Nial and Skeg stood looking around for several minutes before deciding that Shade had gone.

  The next evening when the girls walked into Skeg’s shop, he could tell that Zuly was in full control. In control, and still furious over being discovered the night before.

  “Has he left his list yet?” she snapped.

  Skeg put a scroll on his counter. “I found this when I opened my shop an hour ago. None of my wards had been breached as far as I could tell.”

  The first name on Shade’s list was a woman named Banjax. She was the lover and right hand of one of the city’s crime lords, a man who called himself the Prince. Shade had given her a detailed list of the hideouts the pair used. All three were in the slums or in the catacombs that lay under the streets of the city.

  “People live underground?” Nial exclaimed in surprise.

  “Some do,” Skeg answered. “Darien City is ancient. There were old burial catacombs and mines under the city before the sewers were built. A lot of the sewers were just built on to tunnels that were already in convenient places. There’s a lot of space down there. Smell’s not so good, but it gets you out of the rain and snow. Since the Muds have no sewers, the tunnels here are actually a lot cleaner than they are in other parts of the city. It’s a maze down there. Crime lords control the upper parts of it, below that the Crawlers.”

  Nial looked at him in confusion.

  “The people who live under the city?” he prompted with a sigh.

  “Oh! The Rat people!” Nial exclaimed. “You mean they’re real? I always thought they were just a story.”

  Skeg held out his hands toward her trying to slow the flood of speech he had triggered. Nial is a sweet girl, but sometimes I wish Zuly was in control more when we have to talk about important things.

  “‘Rats’ is just a name merchants and nobles use for them. They are people just like everyone else. They call themselves Crawlers. A lot of them never come up to the surface anymore unless they really have to. I think Shade is a Crawler. Don’t ask me how I figured that out. It’s more of a guess than anything solid. But I think the people he wants killed have made life difficult for the Crawlers in some way. They tend to band together down there. Not that they have much choice. Usually the people who make their way down below are the most desperate, wretched things you’ll ever see; it takes a certain amount of fear and desperation to crawl down into a dark hole and think it will be better than where you are. They support one another. They form packs or tribes of sorts and usually survive by stealing. They have to balance on the edge of a blade. Surviving, but not taking so much that the guards take an interest. For the most part, if a real criminal does try to hide down there, they usually kill him and dump the body back up here. Anything to keep the guards out.”

  Nial’s gaze sharpened, and she tilted her head in a way that he’d come to associate with Zuly. “How do you know so much about them?”

  Skeg shrugged. “I supply a couple packs of them with bits and pieces. I know of at least two groups down there that are led by talents. Neither are above Second Order, but they need magical supplies to make life better for their pack mates.”

  “But you said those who end up down there are the dregs of the slums. Even a weak mage can make a living pretty easily up here.”

  “Magic doesn’t make happiness, child. Maybe they lost their families, maybe they had debts or enemies they were running from. . . . Maybe they only discovered their abilities after becoming Crawlers. I’ve wondered about it myself. But no matter how it happened, their packs earned their loyalty and they haven’t abandoned them.”

  “You sound like you envy them.”

  “I guess I do, in a way. I was a street kid myself, after all. I know things are far from happy for those people. But they have a place where they belong and where everyone else has their back.”

  “Are you lonely, Mister Skeg?”

  He smiled again. “How could I possibly be lonely with my lovely students visiting me at all hours?” The game of showing up shortly after Skeg went to sleep had become one of Nial’s favorites. She grinned at him, and for a moment it was as if Shade hadn’t come to interfere with their lives at all. Then the moment passed, and Zuly’s sharp look returned.

  “Anyway, getting at this woman won’t be easy. Taking her soul before getting out of there will be even harder. I wouldn’t start with this one. Let’s take a look at the other two first.” Skeg looked at the next page.

  “Hmmm.
Sorley. He’s a fairly prominent merchant. I’ve heard his name thrown around quite a few times. Deals in spices and furs for the most part, I think. Looks like his house is on the other end of the merchant district. That’ll be a bit of a walk, but it should be an easier target for you. Shade even gave us a list of other merchants Sorley deals with. He must not leave the city very often with a list this long.”

  “Who’s the third?”

  “A nobleman,” Skeg said with a sigh. “This one is going to be trouble too. A lord named Gunnar Danekor. His manor is near the edge of the noble quarter. The papers here also give us a list of some of his other properties in the city. . . . A few brothels in the slums . . . a few more near the docks . . . more in the merchant quarter . . . and a handful of warehouses. Certainly an obvious preference for what kind of business he likes to get involved in.”

  “We’ll start with the merchant.”

  “I still don’t like any of this, girls. Shade’s excuses for not doing these himself don’t make sense for anyone but the noble. The criminal? No one would look into that one too much. But why only the woman and not her lover? He’s a more likely target.” Skeg considered for a moment. “I’ve heard of him too. He’s powerful. He’s only been in the city a few months, and the other crime lords are running scared. He might be a mage, or maybe even a Godchosen. He wouldn’t be the first to make a pact with a god or a demon lord to gain power.”

  Nial looked at him, surprised. Skeg nodded at her. “It’s not as unusual as you might think. Higher powers use people like people use animals, or pieces on a game board. And they like to give their own pieces an edge over everyone else’s. Powers don’t play fair if they can avoid it. That’s why I steer clear of all the temples, legal or otherwise. We’ll ask around a little before you move on this one. Better to get a clear idea what we’re getting into.”

  “We?” Zuly asked, arching an eyebrow.

  “Well, I’m not going to go hunting with you, but I’ll help with the planning in any way I can.”