Serpent's Blood

by Brian Stableford

  All the societies naturally claim to be the biggest and most secret of all, but the Uluru's definitely the one to be in around these parts. I always thought of it as a kind of game a game that could 219

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  be turned to my

  advantage. That's how I contrived to involve dark landers in the^bbery, of course. Normally, dark landers live in small family groups which don't co-operate with one another, let alone anyone else, but the societies bind together much larger kin-groups. It's said that the women have one of their own, but I wouldn't know about that.

  "Anyhow, to cut a long story short, the kind of obligation which I exploited to get the dark lander help in Xandria works both ways, and now the society to which I belong is trying to make claims on ^ me.

  The game has somehow become serious. The dark lands are in ;. turmoil, it seems, and the dark landers are trying to form an army I -- an actual army, though nothing could be more foreign to their it. usual way of life to drive out these mysterious invaders. I can't $ tell how bad the problem really is because of the superstitious fears that have become confused with it. The dark landers are muttering about the end of the world and Serpents reclaiming their heritage and all kinds of nonsense- and the Uluru want my help to fight the good and glorious fight. They expect to get that help, in whatever form I can best deliver it.

  "In some way- I don't yet know exactly how- all this must be connected with what the princess told me, and this exploration team that Fraxinus and Phar are putting together. Burdam thinks that I don't owe the darklanUers anything, and ought to let the thing alone, but the men in toe back room disagree, and I have a nasty feeling that the thing might not let me alone-or any of us, come to that- if I try to stay out of it. I need to find out more about what's happening, Andris. I was rather hoping that this might help me." He waved his palm over the ruined map as he said this.

  "I can draw another one," Andris said, 'if I can only get hold of the right equipment. " He was about to add But I don't see what good it will do when his mind's eye conjured up an image of Merel Zabio's face, wearing a despairingly censorious expression. He quickly changed his mind, and said instead: " For a price, of course. " Checuri didn't react to that.

  "It's odd, isn't it," he said ruminatively, 'that your fate and mine have become entangled? All because you happened to be sitting at a particular table in the Wayfaring Tree at an unfortunate hour, listening to that blind file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Brian%20Stableford%20-%20Serpents%20Blood.TXT (223 of 495) [11/1/2004 12:26:21 AM]

  beggar recite his fake lore. Did Phar tell you, by any chance, what he and Fraxinus are really after? "

  "He didn't tell me anything," Andris said.

  "Why? Do you think he's after some specific treasure?"

  "I wish it were as simple as that," Checuti said with a sigh.

  "That would make things so much easier to understand, wouldn't it? Phar and Keshvara might be in it for simple profit, but Fraxinus has higher motives in mind. The dark landers are very big on signs and omens, you know . . .

  one of the things that holds their secret societies together is the notion that they're a chosen people, having sole custody of certain secret commandments passed down from the days of the forefathers. The dark landers think that this business with the drago mites coming out of the hills and into the forest isn't just an inconvenience they think it's a sign of something much more ominous. Burdam, of course, thinks it's all just mumbo-jumbo . . ."

  "Horseshit," Thrid corrected him dourly.

  "Demon women, Serpent magicians and secret commandments ... all horse shit."

  '. . . but it might just be," Checuti continued, as if he had never been interrupted, 'that there are more things in the world than his narrow mind is willing to accommodate. I'm not a superstitious man, Andris, but I am an initiate of a society whose rules require me to... well, to take an interest, at least. Tell me, how do you feel about entering my employ?"

  "In what capacity?" Andris wanted to know, still having Merel's stern face fixed in his mind's eye.

  "Fighting man . . . mapmaker. . . imitation dark lander " What about Mere! "

  "She's already one of my secret legion, by courtesy of bargains struck in Xandria. So are you, in the eyes of the law. While you're on the run anyway

  . . . it's far better to be part of a team, don't you think?"

  Andris hesitated. There was an echo in this situation of the one which he had faced in Belin's jail. Once again, it seemed, he was being offered a choice without being told what he might be letting himself in for. He was opening his mouth to prevaricate when he was rudely interrupted by a sudden raucous clamour coming from the yard beyond the window at which Burdam Thrid was standing. Thrid started, but not as violently as the little monkey 221

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  which began to look wildly about, chattering its teeth.

  Thrid muttered yet another curse as a human voice shouted above the din:

  "Checuti! This is Captain Jacom Cerri of the king's guard. My men have surrounded the house. You're outnumbered and you can't escape. Send Princess Lucrezia out. Provided she's unharmed, I give you my word that no harm will come to you or any of your men."

  "In a pig's eye," Thrid muttered, as the door burst open and the i card-players tumbled into the room, looking urgently to their leader for guidance.

  "It's a trick!" 1; "If it's a trick," said Checuti dubiously, 'it's a peculiar one. If the geese gave them away while they were sneaking up on us, why j didn't they simply charge in? Do they really think the princess is 1j here- and if not, what do they have to gain by playing for time? "

  "There isn't time for this," Thrid said, drawing a huge dagger from his belt.

  "Let's go."

  "No!" said Checuti.

  "There's no knowing what we'd be running into. A little cleverness might get us all out alive and uninjured." The two dark landers were in the doorway now, waiting expectantly--but they seemed perfectly calm and patient. It was to them, not to the card-players; that Checuti looked now.

  "They'll have someone watching the cjack door," he said.

  "Don't let them see you. No matter what youjfind, don't start a right.

  Let's figure out exactly what we're up against before we turn the place into a battlefield OK?" ; The dark landers nodded, and immediately1 turned away.

  It was Thrid who said: "It's not OK." Somebody's turned us in! "

  "I'll handle it, Burdam," Checuti said quietly His face seemed to Andris to reflect the same firm imperturbability that he had seen in the faces of the two dark landers recalling all that he had said earlier about being party to their secrets.

  "Just be patient, will you? If we do have to run, look after Andris he and I still have some talking to do. Take him to the meeting-house; I'll come when I can. Tell me, Andris - are you a gambling man?"

  "Only for money," Andris replied acidly, as an all too familiar sinking feeling asserted its grip once again within his lower abdomen.

  "I don't like to risk my life, if I can possibly help it."

  "Very sensible," said Checuti, reaching out to pat the anxious monkey reassuringly on the head.

  "Neither do I."

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  9 after shouting out his invitation Jacom stepped back ten or fifteen mets.

  The geese didn't stop honking but they became gradually less strident. Jacom could feel the beating of his heart as time leaked away. At least three minutes went by before the door opened and a lone figure appeared, silhouetted by a lantern which had been set on the floor of the corridor behind him. The figure was stout but solid.

  His arms were spread wide and his fingers were splayed, to
make it obvious that he held no weapon. He didn't seem to be wearing a sword belt

  "Captain Cerri?" The man's voice was level, with more curiosity in it than fear.

  "Here!" Jacom said. He stepped forward again, but the other held up his hand.

  "That's near enough. I can see you. " The noise of the geese was so murmurous by now that it wasn't necessary for him to shout. "Send out the princess," Jacom said again.

  "Then tell' your men to lay down their arms and come out quietly." He felt a little more relaxed now that he had actually seen Checuti and heard him speak. The man didn't look so very fearsome, and he sounded perfectly civilised.

  "I don't think that's necessary," Checuti replied.

  "If you'd mustered enough men to storm the house, or even to surround it, I'd surely have been warned of your coming before my feathery friends sounded the alert. Who told you we were here?"

  "My first priority is to make sure the princess is safe," Jacom said, sticking doggedly to his own agenda.

  "I've been commanded by the king to bring her safely back to Xandria at all costs."

  "I'm almost tempted to pretend that she's here," Checuti said calmly, 'but there really isn't much point in our both becoming lost in a maze of bluff and counter-bluff. I'm sorry, but I don't have the 223

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  princess in my

  chaq^. any more. "

  "Is she dead?"

  "No."

  "Can you prove that?"

  The silhouetted figure laughed briefly.

  "Of course I can't prove it, captain- but if she were dead, would you dare to carry the news to Belin? I wouldn't, if I were in your shoes. Wouldn't it be a relief, in a way, if she were dead? Then you could simply stop worrying about your commission and become a soldier of fortune. I hear that Phar is having difficulty hiring men because the dark landers he was relying on have other commitments. As it happens, though, I have no reason to doubt that the princess is alive and well. I handed her over to Hyry Keshvara two days after leaving Xandria. Keshvara agreed to bring her south."

  Jacom carefully considered this surprising news.

  "I don't believe you," he said, after a brief pause.

  "Keshvara should have arrived three days ago, ahead of Fraxinus, to join Aulakh Phar. She hasn't shown up."

  "Of course she hasn't," Checuti said equably.

  "She isn't going to show her face within twenty kirns of the city while she has the princess in tow. She's probably gone into the forest already- she'll link up with Fraxinus there. If you want her, you'll have to go with Fraxinus yourself. Did he help you find us? You must have had help from someone, and he's the only man I know who might have sufficient pull in these parts to turn one of my men around."

  "Why did you give the princess to Keshvara?" jacom asked, ignoring Checuti's questions.

  "Why should' Keshvara take her south instead of returning her to Xandria? It doesn't make sense it has to be a lie."

  Jacom felt less than confident in saying this. Checuti was quite wrong and probably knew it- to suggest that it might come as a relief to Jacom to know that the princess was dead and that his own fate was sealed so far as Xandria was concerned. On the contrary, Jacom wanted desperately to be assured that the princess was alive, that she was safe in the custody of Hyry Keshvara, and that she might well ride into Khalorn tomorrow morning, deeply grateful to be delivered into the protective arms of her would-be rescuer.

  Unfortunately, he couldn't think of any possible way that Checuti could convince him of this.

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  "The princess knew Keshvara," Checuri said blandly.

  "She asked to be delivered into her custody. It suited my friends, too- they were afraid that the princess might be able to tell the king's agents something that would prejudice their safety- so I obliged. When I explained to Keshvara that they might both end up dead if she tried to take the princess back to Xandria, she hadn't much choice but to bring her south. If you can find Keshvara, I expect she'll be only too glad to hand over the princess- your real problem will be persuading the princess to go with you.

  She's seen enough of the Inner Sanctum to last a lifetime, and she seemed distinctly averse to the prospect of being married off to that island princeling Belin had marked out for her. If I were you, captain, I'd hurry back to Khalorn. Catch up with Fraxinus and Phar and stick with them.

  Keshvara will bring the princess to you when she can, and you can negotiate your future prospects with the girl herself. There's nothing for you here but a chance to die. Neither of us wants to take chances like that, do we? "

  Jacom considered this proposition dubiously. It was, he decided, far too easy. If he walked away now, and found out later thar this was all lies, he'd look a perfect fool. Even if it were all true, how could he let a chance to capture Checuri slip through his fingers? On the other hand, Checuri was right about it being a chance to die. How many men, he wondered, did Checuri have in the house? Did the fact that the thief was prepared to come to the door and talk imply that he hadn't enough to come out fighting, or so many that he felt confident of mounting a successful defence if he were attacked? "I need proof," he said, knowing even as he said it that it was a ridiculous thing to say. What proof could Checuri possibly offer? "I think you should go now, captain," the man in the doorway said.

  "You've been very sensible so far. I don't want bloodshed any more than you do, and I've told you what you want to know, so it would suit us both very well if you simply went away."

  Tm afraid I can't do that," Jacom replied reluctantly. He was uneasily aware of the weakness of his position, but he felt that he had no choice.

  "It's a matter of duty. If the princess isn't here, I must ask for your unconditional surrender. If I don't get it, my men will slaughter your entire band of brigands."

  "That's no way for a reasonable man to conduct his affairs, ^5

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  captain,"

  Checuti sd, in a voice that was gently derisive without being openly insulting.

  "It might be brave, and it might even qualify as dutiful, but it's not sensible. People could get killed- including you. How would Belin get his daughter back then? Carus Fraxinus won't turn back once he's in the forest no matter what problems might drop into his lap. Your first priority is to find Lucrezia--isn't that what you said? Go find her, then. Don't waste time with stupid heroics. It isn't worth the risk."

  "It's a matter of duty," Jacom informed him again, wishing that his voice didn't sound quite so doleful.

  "And a matter of personal pride, too. It was my men your dark landers felled, my men you lured away using the amber as a diversion. Did you arrange for him to be captured in the first place? He was working with you all along, wasn't he?"

  "No," the thief master said.

  "He was just an innocent man you arrested, and you didn't let out even when you discovered that he didn't cripple your guardsman. His release was just an extra twist I added to my little plot, for purely aesthetic reasons. You laid the groundwork yourself for the trap which you fell into, captain- you and you alone." , That accusation stung, by vii-rue of its accuracy. Jacom had been the officer in command; he had jailed the amber and then laid an ambush to stop him getting ojut of jail. If he had only been in the courtyard outside the Inner Sanctum and not high on the wall, perhaps the princess would never have been captured. He could have run to intercept her, to save her from a fate worse than . . but this was no time for flights of idle fancy: "If you don't come out peacefully," Jacom said stubbornly, "we have to come in after you." He heard Purkin's words echoing in his mind: Ambush is safer, sir . . . Lie low and wait. . . Always best. Why did the patron ising swin
e always have to be right?

  "The world would be a far better place if all would-be heroes were strangled at birth," the thief master opined with a heavy sigh- but he was quick to add, in a more confidential tone: "If you're playing this scene for the benefit of your men, forget it. They don't want to risk their lives any more than you want to risk yours. I've told you how to find the princess that's reward enough for a night's work."

  The trouble was, Jacom thought, as he examined his options, file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Brian%20Stableford%20-%20Serpents%20Blood.TXT (229 of 495) [11/1/2004 12:26:21 AM]

  that Checuti was

  very probably right. He began to wish- perversely, he knew- that he had not initiated this conversation. Checuti was right to argue that no reasonable man would start a fight in which half his company could end up dead unless he had no choice- but on the other hand, wouldn't it make a mockery of everything he was supposed to stand for as an officer in the king's guard if he simply walked away from the man who'd stolen the contents of the king's treasury on the day before Thanksgiving? In a romance, of course, he would have challenged Checuti to single combat, but he knew full well that if he were to suggest anything along those lines the only response he could sensibly expect would be loud and mocking laughter.

  "I have to take you with me," Jacom said, desperately casting about for a face-saving move.

  "If you come out now, the rest of your men can go free. I promise that you won't be harmed."

  "My men wouldn't like that," Checuti said.

  "They'd lose faith in me if they thought I was the sort of fool who'd hand himself over on the strength of a promise like that. To tell you the truth, captain, they're a lot more enthusiastic to fight than I am. My dark landers are very edgy- trouble at home, you see and the others are prepared to fight to the death rather than lose all the lovely bright coin they worked so hard to earn. What I can do, though as it happens- is give you the big amber.

  You could take him back to Khalorn with you, and hand him over to the governor."

  Jacom was startled by this offer.