‘And Krish is an Ashane name; the tribes don’t use it. Not to mention that the Dae are as dead as the Geun, which is to say very dead indeed. I’m telling you, this is the boy we seek. And now, thanks to our hosts’ careful record-keeping, we know where he is.’
When Dae Hyo woke his mouth felt full of earth and his head full of rocks. There was a moment of disorientation when he couldn’t understand why the sky was so dark and the smell so cloyingly sweet. He shifted, sank deeper into the armchair and remembered: the whorehouse.
He looked around, expecting to see his new brother on his back snoring, as the gods had decreed a man must do when he’d had his pleasure. But although the bed was mussed enough and the smell of sex lurked beneath the cheap perfumes, the room was empty.
Where had the boy gone? He was a strange one – Dae Hyo wasn’t so blind that he couldn’t see that – but he knew no one in Smiler’s Fair. As far as Dae Hyo could tell, he knew no one in the whole of the grasslands, which was why he’d stuck to Dae Hyo like moss to a stone since he’d found him.
Could he have run away? Dae Hyo had to admit that Krish hadn’t been too keen on the circumcision. He hadn’t taken it quite as much like a warrior as Dae Hyo would have wanted, but then he was still learning the Dae ways. And Dae Hyo didn’t believe he’d run. It didn’t seem to be in his nature. He was a tryer, Dae Hyo knew that about him. It was one of the things that had drawn him to the boy, despite the weak arms and the annoying cough that woke him up in the night, and those very strange eyes.
So where had Krish gone? Dae Hyo levered himself out of the chair, groaning at the ache in both his back and his head. His foot kicked the spirits bottle on the floor and he realised it was empty. He contemplated going down to the bar to refill it. A few drops would definitely help steady his hand.
No. He had to find Krish first. He stumbled over to the bed, and then had to sit on it until his head stopped spinning. The smell of sex was stronger here, so at least the woman had done what he’d paid her for. But he realised that there was another smell too, coppery and less pleasant, and then he saw the bloodstain. It wasn’t enough to fill a body, thank the gods, but there was a good red splash of it on the pillow and the sheets around. There didn’t seem to be any bone fragments in it, nor any of the spongy grey stuff that filled up a man’s head, but it had clearly been a hard blow.
Dae Hyo felt the first swell of panic. What had happened here? Had the woman robbed Krish and run? But then – he fumbled at his own purse – his money was still all here and he’d been so deeply asleep he hadn’t heard the fight. If she’d robbed Krish, why hadn’t she robbed him too?
Guilt, an emotion he’d grown good at banishing, began to gnaw unpleasantly at him. It never sat quite right with him, to pay a woman for what should only be given freely. A man was meant to woo a woman with his songs and impress her with his exploits and earn the right to ride her share of her mother’s horses. The bile rising in his throat drowned out the lingering aftertaste of the alcohol. This was his fault for forgetting the Dae ways and acting like one of the sit-still people, whose women knew no secrets and whose men therefore thought they knew best.
Well, it didn’t matter whose tent the guilt should live in; he wouldn’t find any answers here. He shouldered open the door, his sword drawn, but there was no assassin waiting outside, only a drunken man lurching down the corridor towards a welcoming smile at the far end.
Downstairs, Dae Hyo pushed his way through to the bar. ‘Who’s in charge here?’ he asked the barman and when he shook his head, not understanding or pretending not to hear, Dae Hyo grabbed him by the throat and asked him again.
‘I’m Madam Aeronwen,’ a voice said behind him, ‘and I’ll thank you to keep your hands off my boys.’
Her wolf-grey hair was cut short and her face was an almost perfect rectangle, the skin over it sagging and pale. There’d be no mistaking Madam Aeronwen for one of her whores.
Dae Hyo released the barman and turned to glare at her. ‘You’ve taken my brother. Where is he?’
‘I’ve taken no one – no one who doesn’t want to be taken. What are you talking about?’
‘He was with one of your girls, now he’s gone and there’s blood on the sheets. I tell you what, I’m not a suspicious man, but that looks bloody suspicious to me.’
She scowled at him. ‘My hospitality’s the best in Smiler’s Fair. Which girl was your brother with?’
Dae Hyo fumbled in his memory. Krish had asked her name, hadn’t he? ‘Kit? Ko?’
‘Kim?’ the barman asked. Dae Hyo felt slightly ashamed to see the red bruising round his throat. ‘She left here near an hour ago. Ran out like the monsters of the forest were after her.’
‘Did she now?’ Madam Aeronwen turned her fierce expression on the barman. ‘And did no one think to stop her?’
The barman flushed and looked away. ‘There wasn’t time, honest. She was out of here like shit off a hot shovel.’
Madam Aeronwen looked back at Dae Hyo, less hostile now and more worried. ‘Did your brother do something to my girl?’
‘Krish? No. He was so shy he could barely pull his cock out of his pants. And he’s Dae; Dae don’t hurt women. Someone hurt him.’
‘Well, maybe they did. If you find out who, you let me know. No one lays a hand on my girls without my say-so.’
And that, Dae Hyo realised in frustration, was as much help as he was going to get. He tried asking others if they’d seen anyone go upstairs after him and Krish, but who’d remember a thing like that? Men went upstairs in a whorehouse all the time. It was the purpose of the place. And the only people who thought they’d seen anything were those deepest in their cups. He slammed the door behind him and wondered where to go next. Smiler’s Fair was falling asleep as the sun rose, but many remained at their revels. The dancers in the square outside the brothel still danced, though some had forgotten the steps. They moved in time to the music but in strange configurations of their own, winding through the formal squares and rings of the others. The scene looked to be teetering on the brink of chaos. Already Dae Hyo could hear angry shouts as toes were trodden on and partnerings disrupted. The eyes that turned to him were smudged with shadows and hot with the dangerous energy that allowed them to push themselves beyond exhaustion.
There was a commotion at one edge of the square. Dae Hyo turned to watch it, expecting a drunken fight and instead seeing a group of soldiers, armed and Ashane, shouldering their way through the crowd. A solitary Jorlith accompanied them, making no attempt to rein them in as they pulled each dancer towards them and held them captive while they looked them over. One of the Ashane had a piece of parchment in his hand and seemed to be comparing the men in the square against it.
That wasn’t right. Smiler’s Fair didn’t allow the soldiers of other nations inside its gates, and it didn’t harass its visitors. It didn’t care who anyone was, as long as they paid for their pleasures.
The Ashane were drawing closer. Dae Hyo was torn between avoiding them and asking them if they’d seen Krish. He’d made up his mind to approach when a hand touched his shoulder.
He turned, startled, and the man put a finger to his lips. ‘I’m here to help,’ he hissed as he drew Dae Hyo away from the square into a dark side alley. Dae Hyo thought of resisting, but the man was too slight to be a threat. His thin face, pale like those of the Moon Forest folk, was tight with tension.
‘Well?’ Dae Hyo said, when they were out of sight of the soldiers. ‘Who the fuck are you and what do you want?’
‘I’m Lucan, a clerk of the fair,’ the man replied. ‘I heard you talking to Madam Aeronwen. You’re looking for your friend and I think I know who took him.’
‘Do you? And why would you help me?’
‘Because I want him stopped and you look like someone who might be able to do it. His name’s Marvan. I saw him go up the stairs of the whorehouse minutes after you and your brother, even though he had no whore with him.’
Dae Hyo sucked his
teeth. His instinct was distrust. ‘And why would this Marvan take my brother? Krish did him no wrong. Well I’ll be honest, I wasn’t with him all day, but Krish wasn’t the sort to make enemies.’
‘Marvan enjoys killing; he’s never needed a reason. He’s like a fox. He craves the taste of blood on his tongue even when his belly’s full.’
Dae Hyo’s own belly roiled with dread. ‘You think he’s killed my brother.’
‘I think he means to. But I can tell you where he lives.’
32
The clerk Lucan led Dae Hyo through the warren of Smiler’s Fair, taking him down narrow alleys filled with filth and across broader roads crammed with the dregs of humanity. Where before Dae Hyo had seen possible brothers, or probable entertainment, now he saw potential enemies in every face and scowled at those who caught his eye. The Ashane soldiers seemed to be everywhere and the mood darkened wherever they went. Dae Hyo felt the threat of violence hanging like a bad smell in the air.
Finally, Lucan led him to a quieter area, where the streets were more crowded with livestock than people. Dae Hyo shoved aside a pig rooting in the mud and kicked his way through a squawking clutch of chickens before they stopped in front of the door of a tall and narrow building. The place leant drunkenly over the street as if it planned to vomit up its occupants on to the muck below.
Lucan looked at Dae Hyo as he bared his blade, but made no move to reach for his own weapon. In fact, he didn’t seem to possess one.
‘So,’ Lucan said. ‘This is where I leave you. Marvan’s put his home on the third floor this pitch, but it may be best to check all of them.’
Dae Hyo let the tip of his sword fall. ‘I thought you were coming with me.’
‘And face Marvan myself? I’m not such a fool.’
‘But you think I am? I’ll tell you what, it’s hard to see that as a compliment.’
Lucan took a step back as Dae Hyo took a step towards him, his sword once more raised and threatening. ‘No,’ the clerk said. ‘I think you’re a match for him, which I’m clearly not. Besides, I can’t be seen to be involved in this. He’s broken no laws of the fair and my colleagues forbade me to pursue him. They won’t listen to me. They don’t see how dangerous he is.’
‘So you’ve loosed this arrow and you’ll leave it to hit the mark on its own.’
Lucan beamed. ‘Exactly.’
Dae Hyo spat and turned his back on him. ‘Go, then. If you’ve led me to my brother and he’s alive, I’ll find you to thank you. And if he’s dead … I’ll find you.’
He heard the other man’s footsteps squelching hurriedly away as he raised his own foot and kicked open the door. It was even darker inside and filled with the scent of Rah spices from a bubbling pot of stew. The cook crouched over his broth, his eyes startled as he stared at Dae Hyo.
‘Marvan?’ Dae Hyo asked
The cook raised a trembling hand and pointed up.
The second floor was filled with cages, rabbits snuffling through their bars. There was no one else present, and Dae Hyo hurried to climb the next flight of rickety stairs.
A figure stood facing away from him in the last room. The room itself was a mess, clothes thrown about and books on every surface. A wooden chest had been opened and the armoury of weapons within scattered over the floor. Dae Hyo raised his sword but stayed his hand. He wasn’t entirely keen on the idea of stabbing a man in the back. Besides, there was no sign of Krish. This Marvan needed to talk before he died.
‘Show me your face,’ Dae Hyo said.
The figure spun, robes whirling and dust motes swirling in the sunlight pouring through the window behind. The first thing Dae Hyo noticed was the symbol of the moon in all its phases sewn in silver across the cloth beneath the curves of an unknown rune. The second was that this was a woman, and an old one at that, with tight-curled silver hair and skin as dark as obsidian. She held a book in one hand and a boot in the other and looked very much as if she’d been caught ransacking the room.
There was a strange, high-pitched chittering, and for a startled second Dae Hyo thought it was the old woman’s speech, until he saw the creature clinging to her shoulder with its tail wrapped round her waist. It looked at Dae Hyo and, without really meaning to, he took a step back. The little scaled monster had exactly the same eyes as the worm men – exactly the same as Krish.
‘You’re not Marvan,’ Dae Hyo said.
‘No.’
‘You’re a mage of Mirror Town.’
‘I am.’
The mage stared at him, seemingly uncaring of the sword pointed at her, until Dae Hyo said, ‘Well, I’m looking for Marvan. Where is he?’
‘The same question I’m trying to answer.’
‘Why?’
She shrugged. ‘Do my reasons matter?’ But when Dae Hyo waggled his sword she continued, ‘I believe he may be in possession of something that I want.’
‘What sort of something?’
‘A living, breathing something,’ the old woman said. ‘A person.’
‘You’re looking for Krish,’ Dae Hyo guessed, his gaze darting to the creature on her shoulder.
His words seemed to freeze the woman in place. ‘You know Krishanjit?’
‘Do you?’
He saw the mage struggle to regain her composure. She stroked her finger against the long, scaled nose of her pet and it chittered appreciatively. ‘I don’t, but I’d very much like to. And why do you want him?’
‘He’s my brother.’
She arched a disbelieving eyebrow, but said only, ‘He’s not here.’
‘But how did you know he was with Marvan? Did you speak to that Lucan?’
‘The clerk? No. That would hardly be wise; the clerks have allied themselves with the Ashane.’
‘The Ashane?’ Dae Hyo’s head ached with fear and the poisonous remnants of last night’s drinking, but light began to penetrate the murk. ‘Those soldiers are looking for Krish.’
‘You didn’t know?’
‘No … Well, there were those manacles round his wrists. I thought he must be a thief, but there are hundreds of Ashane soldiers out there. All for Krish? That doesn’t sound like my brother. What did he do to call down an army on him?’
‘It’s not what he did, but who he is: the son of the King of Ashanesland.’
‘You mean he was telling me the truth about that?’ Dae Hyo studied her as carefully as his bleary eyes would allow, but she definitely didn’t seem to be joking. And, now he came to think of it, Krish wasn’t really the type to make jokes either.
‘You’ve seen his eyes,’ she said. ‘I saw you looking at Adofo’s. It’s him. He was lost and raised a landborn goatherd until one of the King’s justices found him. That’s why he fled here, I suppose. But now the Ashane have tracked him down and they want him dead.’
Dae Hyo’s head ached and he didn’t know how to understand what the mage had told him. But whoever he’d been born, Krish had chosen to become his brother. If people wanted his brother dead, it was Dae Hyo’s job to stop them.
Krish had thought it might be less frightening when his captors took off their masks, but somehow it was worse when they became a man and a woman, ordinary people who meant him harm. The man he recognised: it was Marvan, who’d sat with him in the tavern at the start of the day. The woman was a stranger, an Ashane like him and Marvan but far more beautiful than either of them. They’d stripped Krish of all his clothes before staking him down and Marvan had ripped the amber necklace from his neck and handed it to the woman. Krish realised that that loss bothered him most of all. Dae Hyo had said the necklace would bring him luck.
Why had they brought him here? Had they recognised him? But if they had, weren’t they meant to take him to face his father the King?
‘I don’t know who you think I am,’ he said. His voice only trembled a little. ‘I haven’t done anything wrong.’
‘Everyone’s done something wrong, friend,’ Marvan said. His expression was bland and hard to read: amused, ma
ybe. ‘Only a fool or a liar claims to be innocent.’
‘I’m just a stranger here,’ Krish insisted. ‘Let me go and I won’t look for revenge. All I want is my life.’
The woman had been hanging back but Marvan gestured to her and she moved forward to kneel beside him. For a moment she seemed sad, maybe even scared – and then she looked at Krish’s face.
‘His eyes!’ she said, shocked.
‘I know, I told you. Just like the moon.’
Krish tried to shut them, knowing they would always give him away, but of course it was too late.
‘Like the worm men,’ she said. ‘Marvan, this is … I think this is King Nayan’s son.’
Marvan moved his knife closer to Krish’s throat. He tried to squirm away from it across the muddy floor, but the ropes at his wrists and ankles held him spreadeagled. They’d used the manacles Justice Gurjot had put on him to bind his hands. ‘I’m not who you think,’ he gasped. ‘I’m nobody!’
Marvan nodded. ‘Which is precisely why we chose you. Killing somebodies has drawn unwanted attention to my activities. Nobodies are far more disposable. This can’t be King Nayan’s son, Nethmi. The lad died at birth, everyone knows it. He’s just some landborn boy with peculiar eyes.’
‘No,’ the woman – Nethmi – said. ‘It’s him. He survived. Did you never hear the preacher Jinn talk about him?’
Marvan looked taken aback. He started to make a quick reply, then stopped himself and studied Krish more closely. ‘This is really who he was talking about? Amazing. But King Nayan wanted him killed, as I recall.’
‘Yes,’ Nethmi said. ‘I heard he’d been found when I was in Winter’s Hammer. Half of Ashanesland was chasing after him.’
‘And we have him.’ Marvan laughed with sudden delight and kissed his companion full on the lips. ‘It’s perfect, don’t you see? We’ll be doing our duty by killing him. We’ll take his corpse to the authorities and it will buy your pardon. There’s nothing King Nayan wants more than this boy dead.’
‘I’d be pardoned? I’d be free of – of everything?’ Hope blossomed on her face. Krish realised she’d been doubtful about killing him. That doubt looked banished now.
Smiler's Fair: Book I of The Hollow Gods Page 39
