“I have to try!” Ashrak yelled back, standing with his fists clenched. “I’m not the same foolish boy that Father sent away, Ellian.”
“Well, you could have fooled me!” She snarled. “Who are you going to get to help you, Ashrak? Who? This girl?” She said, waving her hands at Chari. “You’ll be quite a pretty couple wandering around in the desert when a hundred of General Rhendu’s soldiers run you down. Do you think they’ll just give you water and pat you on the head?”
“We’ll figure something out!” Ashrak answered, glaring back at his sister’s fierce countenance.
“I’ll go,” Nilesh said softly, flinching when Ellian turned toward him, taking a step.
“What?!” She said aggressively, her lip curled up as she bared her teeth.
“I said,” Nilesh answered, gaining confidence even despite the almost insane rage that boiled in the woman’s eyes, “I’ll go, and so will you. I know the cities, and you know the desert.” He deliberately turned away from Ellian who’s fingers were flexing and twitching close to her dagger, but she didn’t draw it. “Also, I am very good at assassination. These amateurs don’t have anything on me.”
Ashrak watched Ellian as she struggled with something deep within her. She twitched a few more times, her eyes flashing from anger to something else that he couldn’t recognize. Finally, she spoke calmly rather than the exploding rage that Ashrak expected.
“Why do you think I even care about any of this?” She hissed. She didn’t look at any of them, but the question seemed addressed to the small man. “Why do you think I won’t just take off once we’re away from the city?”
“Because, you do care, Ellian,” Nilesh said, turning back to her. “You forget that my entire job here is to spy, and figure everything out about Brun that I can. Do you think I didn’t know that instead of drinking at local pubs and disappearing into opium alleys for weeks, you were out in the desert raiding fat noblemen and trying to help the people with your group of raiders? But this,” he said, gesturing around them, “is your only real chance to make a difference. If you can get Ashrak on that throne, and with Valeran’s help, keep him alive long enough to break this cycle of horrible destruction, you might finally actually do something worthwhile.”
She stopped, staring at him for a long time before looking at Ashrak and Chari with a lost look in her eyes. Finally, she nodded and slumped back into her chair as if in defeat. “I’ll go,” she finally whispered, not looking at any of them. “Damn your eyes, Nilesh. I’ll go.”
Chapter 9
Nilesh held his hand out toward the beggar, filled with a fat coin purse. The dirty man’s hands twitched before he reached for it, his eyes wide. When his hands darted forward, Nilesh let him take the purse but grabbed his hand, pulling the beggar close and causing the filthy man’s eyes to go wide as he felt the cold steel of the blade held at his throat.
“We are agreed then, that your streets will be blind to our passing? A hundred gold should buy us several hours of peace,” Hissed Nilesh into the man’s ear, ignoring the lice that crawled through his hair. “I swear, Kaler, if I see even a hint of someone’s soldiers looking for us, I will find you and my dagger won’t stop at your skin.”
The man nodded quickly with small movements. The blade was almost cutting his skin as it was. If he moved too much, it would draw blood. “I swear,” Kaler said, almost gibbering, “you won’t see any of my beggars or thieves, either.” He was clearly terrified, but his hand was clenching the purse with desperation. It was far more than he’d ever seen in his life. A hundred gold was a fortune.
“Good,” Nilesh answered. “Make sure you don’t forget, Kaler.” With the final word, Nilesh let the man go, watching as he darted around the corner and disappeared into the crowds. Only then did he let himself smirk.
“You know he’s not going to keep his word,” Ashrak said, his voice muffled by the closely wrapped sand mask. It was not unheard of for people to wear them even when there wasn’t a lot of sand blowing, so it worked well to hide their small party’s features from prying eyes. “We’ll have the Count’s or General’s men on us within the hour.”
Chari stood next to Ashrak, looking at the crowds where the beggar had disappeared with a worried look on her face, but Ellian was glaring daggers at Nilesh. “He’s right,” She snarled. “You are an idiot if you are going to trust him.”
Nilesh did not wear a mask, preferring to keep his face clear though he had other ways to disguise himself. Right now, he appeared as just a lowly laborer with a small, crude basket strapped to his back holding what looked like rags or fabric. He turned his smirk to the three and winked. “Of course I would be an idiot if I trusted him if that were the actual plan, but it is not. I sent out several messages to the surrounding street gangs that dear Kaler was going to come into a fortune today. By the time he gets up enough courage to go tell on us, he and his people should be in for the fight of their lives.”
“Oh, you are sneaky,” Chari said, her eyes twinkling in amusement.
Nilesh grinned at her, nodding. “Yes, I am sneaky. It should also cause quite a huge distraction to any soldiers in the area, no matter who’s they are. With all of the paranoia that the Occulate Raun is likely to cause, they’ll have their hands full of people with knives, I bet.”
Ashrak chuckled, slapping Nilesh on the shoulder. “Ok, so the pathway to the library should be fairly open. Won’t it still be watched? Presuming they are still there, anyone even going near those books will likely be knifed before they open the first page. How are we going to steal them?”
“We aren’t,” Nilesh answered, stepping out from the alley they had met Kaler in and heading down the street. “Keep your voices down and walk normally, and Ellian, please stop glaring at everyone that comes within five meters of us. Just act like you’re traveling somewhere and you’re not planning to kill everyone. For once.”
She hissed in anger at him but did as he asked, or as well as she could.
Nilesh continued, bending forward and acting like his burden was heavier than it was. “We’re going to a bookseller that I know. He specializes in odd and strange lore, so I bet he has a few copies. The problem is, the books will be at a premium and he’s a bit of a strange bird. He may ask for something other than coin.”
Chari and Ellian stiffened. “Like what,” Chari asked guardedly.
“Not what you’re thinking, thank the Gods,” Nilesh said, heading off their line of thinking. “If that were the case, I’d just kill him and take the books, but no, he won’t ask for anything like that. However, we are going into the deep desert, and if my information is correct, he might have a task for us.”
“Why a task,” Ashrak asked, curious. “Wouldn’t it be better if he just took gold?”
Nilesh shook his head, continuing to thread his way through the crowds. He was about to answer when they heard a terrifying, lingering scream come from somewhere behind them that was suddenly cut off. They could all feel the crowd’s mood ratchet up a notch at the sound. “Ah, my distraction has begun. A little early but better for it,” Nilesh commented, grinning. “To answer your question, it’s because if he only wanted gold, he’d just sell us out for it. Just like our friend Kaler would have wanted to do. If we have something he needs us to do, it will keep him from wanting to turn us in.”
“Isn’t it a bit of a risk? What if some of the other lords are already there trying to by the book?” Ashrak asked quietly. “We could be walking into a trap.”
“Well,” Nilesh began, pausing before he continued. He looked back at the other three and had a nervous glint in his eye.
“Out with it, little man,” Ellian growled.
“Most people, especially Lords, stay away from him,” Nilesh finally answered. “He’s a leper.” He paused, feeling the mood behind shift as the other three stiffened.
“You’re mad,” Ellian said, stepping up and grabbing Nilesh’s shoulder. The small man stopped and didn’t look at her; instead, looking a
round at the crowd and some of the eyes that began to drift toward them.
“Enough! We’re being watched,” Nilesh hissed softly, pulling free of Ellian’s hand and pushing onward. “We have to keep moving. Just trust me, he’s not going to try and hug you or anything. I’ve known him for a few years, and he’s careful. It’s the perfect business for him because he only deals in special items.”
Ashrak and Chari followed, and a moment later Ellian did as well. The walk through the crowds went smoothly at first, but as more screams and violent sounding yells began to echo through the city, the crowd grew increasingly more nervous. People began to thin, drifting off to safer places or deciding their errands could best be carried out on another day. It allowed them to make better time though it also allowed them less of a chance to hide from various armed soldiers moving about the streets.
They had just made it to the thoroughfare where Nilesh said the book merchant lived when they saw a group of six armed men walking down the street toward them. They had already turned down it, so suddenly stopping and reversing direction would look suspicious. Worse, the soldiers were pulling the hoods down and looking into everyone’s faces.
“Dammit,” Nilesh hissed. “Maybe Kaler got a message out after all.
“Or they just saw us leave camp,” Ashrak said. “I know you thought we got away unseen, but that’s not a given.” He felt his hand clench, wanting to reach up and grab his sword handle. It was currently wrapped in rags to make it look like a much less elegant weapon and he knew they could probably take the soldiers by surprise if they needed to. Still, he didn’t want to attract attention. They would get some warning off, at the very least, and it would ruin their chances of getting what they were after if they had to flee the city.
They were still about thirty meters from the guards when Nilesh began to walk toward another group of people moving in the same direction they were headed. They were a small group of mid-level merchants with a guard following along with a bored look on his face. Ashrak watched as Nilesh put his hand into his robe and pocketed something white which he began to crush in his grip. When he got close to the group of men, he tripped and seemed to blunder directly into the guardsmen, a cloud of white dust flying into the man’s face as he spun.
“Oh sorry, sir, my apologies,” Nilesh said, his voice suddenly reedy and weak as he bowed and held his hands up.
The guard snarled, half drawing his weapon as he took a step toward Nilesh. “Why, you piece of filth! Watch where you’re going!” He was a brute of a man which Nilesh dodged quickly by faking a stumble backward. The man would have pursued, but the lead merchant called back to him.
“Guard, what are you doing? I don’t pay you to play with the rabble!” The guard stopped and grunted, giving Nilesh one more glare before he turned back. Nilesh just kept his head down and his hands up, not looking back until the guard had resumed his place behind the merchants.
“What did you do that for?” Ashrak whispered when he had caught up to Nilesh who had turned and pulled out a water skin, quickly washing his hands.
“Stay back for a moment,” Nilesh hissed, letting the water quickly dissolve the white substance from his hand and drop into the sand. After he had finished, he quickly kicked dirt over the wet area and then ground his foot into the spot. “Sorry,” He said, still facing away from the direction the soldiers were approaching. “I had to get that stuff off of my hands. I’ve built up an immunity, but it wouldn’t do for you three to be affected.”
“Affected by what?” Chari said, looking curiously at the ground.
“My guess would be from whatever is making the guard act like that,” Ellian said, nodding her head discreetly toward the group of merchants. The heavyset guard had stopped in his tracks, suddenly looking up into the sky. He was beginning to shake and mumble just loud enough for the merchants to begin to notice. The soldiers were also just about to pass him as well and were looking at him with concern. Suddenly, yelling incoherently, he lurched and threw himself at one of the soldiers. Before the man could react, he’d been lifted up above the guard’s head and thrown into the rest of them, knocking them about like a pile of sticks.
“Come on,” Nilesh said, turning and beginning to move down the street though keeping a distance from the suddenly violent confrontation. “He won’t last long against six soldiers.”
The three followed quickly, watching in awe as the gibbering, foaming-at-the-mouth guard descended on one of the fallen men and began trying to eat him. His fingers dug into the soldier’s face, making him scream in agonizing pain which redoubled as the crazed man’s teeth sunk into his cheek. It was horrifying, and only two of the soldiers reacted, leaping up and trying to pull him off. The other three soldiers could only watch in horror.
Nilesh led them quickly by and moved them down the street. The tearing cries of the injured soldier was punctuated by animalistic growls and howling until finally, the soldiers drew their swords. They didn’t turn to look but could hear the meaty thunks and cuts, finally silencing the terrifying howls and screams from the now-dead guard.
“Gods, what did you do to him?” Chari asked once they were past the guard.
Nilesh shrugged, not looking at her. He didn’t seem overly bothered by what had happened behind them. “It comes from a small blue flower that we grow in special gardens back in Riften. Nasty stuff and it took me several years to build up immunity. Still, I am going to have terrible dreams tonight, and if I start barking at the moons, can you have some of the Terek guards tie me up without killing me?”
“Seriously,” Ellian said, her eyes wide.
Nilesh chuckled softly. “No, I’ve already taken the antidote. I should be ok for not barking at the moons except my dreams will still be quite vivid. Ah, here we are.” Nilesh had stopped and was looking at a narrow green door at the bottom of a half basement. It didn’t look overly inviting, or like a storefront at all as Nilesh stepped down and knocked.
When the door opened, a man stood within with dirty gauze wrapping around every part of his body or limbs that they could see. Over all of that were loose robes. They could see his eyes peeking out from the gauze wraps, and some decayed skin around them, but that was all that showed.
“What do you want,” he said rudely in a wet sounding rasp.
“We’re here to do business, Lachlan. Let us in,” Nilesh said, glancing behind them to make sure no one was paying undue attention. He jingled another fat purse as he spoke.
After a long moment, Lachlan stepped aside, gesturing for them to enter.
Chapter 10
The man named Lachlan didn’t turn but instead backed away from the door as he let them in, watching them closely. The room itself was walled in bookshelves, and the smell of old, stale papers and bindings erupted against their senses. It was not an unpleasant smell though it was strong. Within the center of the room was a large, round table with cushions on the floor along one side of it, closest to the door they had come in. On the opposite side was a low, wide chair that the Leper slowly lowered himself into while he gestured for them to seat themselves on the cushions facing him.
Ashrak gave Nilesh a sidelong glance before helping Chari sit on one of the cushions. He sat to her left while Ellian settled on her right. He suspected having them sit on cushions and lower to the floor might have at one time given Lachlan an advantage. It wouldn’t be one used to harm them physically. The wrapped man could barely move, and when he’d settled into the cushion on his chair, it had been with considerable shifting and grunts of pain.
There were several lamps scattered throughout the room sending their warm glows into every shadow. Each flicker reflecting off of the many book bindings, some with rich gilded lettering and others faded so you could not see their titles. Still, it was far smaller than the Brunish main library, and Ashrak hoped they would be able to find what they needed.
After they had gotten settled, the wrapped man blew a breath out as he let his eyes settle on each of them in turn. Finall
y, he looked at Nilesh with a clear frown on his face. “Why have you brought dead people into my home, Nilesh?”
“Because they are not dead yet, Lachlan,” Nilesh responded lightly. “As long as there is life, there is hope. Come now, you above all others should know that. I don’t see you giving up and crawling into one of the corners of your room to die.”
The man looked like he was about to answer but turned, covering his mouth with a rag and coughing wetly into it. It was a harsh, raking sound and ended with him tucking the rag down by his side. Ashrak was sure he spotted red flecks on its ruined surface before it disappeared.
After a few more seconds of looking down at the table and taking deep breaths, Lachlan nodded. “Yes. Yes, I can see that. What do you think I can do for you? Just having you here is dangerous, Nilesh. If they know you were here, they might get over their fear of me and come, asking questions. Most of the time, their methods are not kind. I’ll gladly spit on them for their troubles, but I won’t live to see my revenge.”
The Glimmer Steel Saga, Boxed Set, Books 1 - 4 Page 95
