by Dave Gross
We started at the bottom of a cliff separating green Varisia from brown Varisia. That is, the grassy lowlands from the rocky plateau, home to the Shoanti, giants, orcs—all kinds of bad company. A thousand feet above, a little strip of wall with a few towers peeking over was all we could see of the city. The Yondabakari River poured past huge stone heads near the top of the cliff. Most of the water turned into mist along the way, raining all around us, but the main stream hit the nearby river with a roar.
Through the carriage window, the boss showed me a hand sign and tossed me a fat purse. Keeping well shy of the horses, I ran to the head of a long line of travelers. Most of them included porters carrying heavy packs or animals pulling wagons full of trade goods. They gave me nasty looks and shouted a few choice words for budging. I shot them the tines and let them see my teeth. They piped down.
At the head of the line I found the Duskwardens, tough characters who guide visitors through tunnels up to the city. They took my bribe as an insult, but they took it. I ran back to let Janneke know she could drive past the cheap folk.
The Duskwardens loaned us charms and led us through a cavern to a road winding in and out of caverns all the way up to the city. The wardens called it the Halflight Path and warned us to be quiet or else tunnel worms and other nasty critters would come eat us. Some of the tunnels were kind of worm-shaped, if they made worms as big as dragons. Maybe the Duskwardens were jerking our chains, but I didn’t want to see one that big.
After a couple hours in the dark, we came out up top. All around us was a shantytown built in a gap in the city wall. The place reminded me of Korvosa’s Shingles. A dozen kids ran up to the Red Carriage, offering to be our city guides. Janneke shooed them away. “Warren rats,” she said. “We don’t need them.”
A few of the rats didn’t give up until Janneke lifted her crossbow and yelled, “Rat skewers!” They scattered, but only to swarm the next group coming out of the Halflight Path.
We passed scaffolds forming like scabs over the ruins, spilling past the original line of the wall. Here and there a wall had been rebuilt, but most of the scaffolds looked as old as the ruins. Maybe somebody was trying to heal the wound to the city, but it was slow going.
We drove into a market district. “Downmarket,” said Janneke, her voice muffled through the helm.
“What?”
“This area,” she shouted. “It’s called Downmarket.”
I cupped my ear and leaned in. Janneke twisted around and socked me on the arm, a little harder than you like. She said she kept her helm on to stay ready for action. I said nobody could hear her through the faceplate. Really, I just liked watching the sun on her red-gold braids. I wasn’t going to win that battle today, so I watched the people we passed in the street.
There were all different colors and kinds. I showed off the languages I’d learned by greeting people in Tian, Varisian, and Elven, except on the last one I spit by accident, and then I ran out of languages. The boss could have gone on all day. I can’t remember a time when he couldn’t greet some foreigner in his native tongue.
It wasn’t just humans in the market. A goblin juggled hedgehogs as people threw coins at his feet. A troll dressed up like people cut itself to read auguries in its own guts, while everybody walked past all nonchalant-like. I spotted gnomes, elves, and even orcs. Not half-breeds but big-as-Shoanti green-skin howlers. One stood beside what looked to be his son on an auction block. A couple of bidders decided to split the lot. The orc’s eyes welled up as he realized he and his boy were going to different masters. I had an idea how he must have felt.
I had a better idea how his kid felt.
As we rode through eastern Downmarket, high towers rose to the south, and I realized I’d seen them from below.
“Highside Stacks,” said Janneke. She pointed north across a small lake to another fancy neighborhood. “Widdershins.”
On our side of the lake, a huge Shoanti totem marked a gathering spot. More city guides called out to visitors, and other folk loitered, maybe waiting to meet somebody. A scar-faced Chelish woman stared at me. I stared back. She wore a long scarlet cloak and leaned against a tall silver-gray shield.
It occurred to me that the woman wasn’t staring at me but at Janneke. “Somebody you know?”
Janneke shook her head. Again I wished I could see her face under that helm.
A shadow crossed over us. A boy hanging onto a giant kite soared overhead, heading toward the lake. The corner of his kite clipped the edge of an amphitheater dome, and he crashed into the water. His friends ran after him, shouting as they pushed through the crowd. He popped up a few seconds later. “I’m all right! I’m all right!” He didn’t notice the water rippling behind him. I wanted to see what happened next, but the totem got between us.
There was plenty of other weird stuff to see. We passed a woman with her mouth sewn shut. A pink-haired gnome chattered nonstop at her side. A tattooed sorcerer rode by on a steel horse, a mechanical drake on his shoulder. Amaranthine chirped, and the little metal dragon puffed smoke from its nostrils.
Past the lake we entered another neighborhood.
“Hospice,” said Janneke. Before I could crack wise about not hearing, she showed me a fist. I rubbed my arm and kept my trap shut.
The boss called out directions to an inn. Janneke nodded like she knew the place. Six or seven streets later, we saw it.
The place was built up around a ring of seven squat towers. There was an ancient rune carved onto the face of each tower. I knew they were Thassilonian, but I couldn’t read what they meant.
“The Seven Sins,” said Janneke.
“Sounds like a brothel. I’m surprised the boss picked it.”
“You’d think so, but it’s just a fancy inn. A wizard built the towers long ago. His heirs sold them off. They changed hands a few times before somebody got the idea of building wings of rooms between the towers and turning the whole place into an inn. Only the rich can afford to stay in the towers.”
Arnisant stayed with the boss and Lady Illyria as the porters lugged the bags up to a tower. As Janneke and I pulled away on the carriage, Amaranthine flew off to perch on the boss’s shoulder. The boss looked surprised, then pleased with himself. He made a bit of cheese appear in his fingers and fed it to the drake. Lady Illyria looked all jealous.
I nudged Janneke. She’d seen the look but didn’t find it so amusing. I said, “You know a good stable?”
“If you don’t mind paying tall stacks.”
“We got them.”
We’d driven the horses hard since the goblin attack. They needed more than a rest. They needed the royal treatment, and I knew the boss wouldn’t mind paying top coin.
On the way to the stables, we passed the fattest wizard I ever saw. She couldn’t even walk. She just floated along like some kid’s escaped balloon. Instead of a nice round shape, her flesh sagged out of rips in a robe that looked more like a torn fishing net. The worst part was the leeches clinging to her flabby arms and legs.
“Bloatmage,” said Janneke. Her voice was spooky inside that helm. I didn’t blame the warren rats from running from her. “They use blood to fuel their magic.”
“You think the boss’s pal was becoming one of them?”
Since he had Lady Illyria to talk magic with, the boss hadn’t been keeping me informed. Usually, he told me all about stuff even if he knew I wouldn’t understand it. Sometimes I surprised him and understood it anyway. Anyway, I’d gotten used to being the one to hear it. I didn’t like feeling left out.
Janneke shrugged. “I don’t listen much to the magic talk.”
“How come?”
“A little knowledge is more dangerous than none.”
I didn’t think that was true. You get a little knowledge, it’s not so hard to get a little more. Still, I understood her point, and I didn’t mind if we stayed out of the wizards’ way for a while. “Say, once we finish with the horses, we’re not really on duty anymore.”
; “I’m on duty until I collect my bounty.”
“That could be a while. The horses aren’t the only ones who deserve a little rest and relaxation.”
“What you’re talking about isn’t rest.”
“A little exercise, then. We’ve been sitting up here all day.”
“I told you, I’m on duty.”
“All right, all right.” She was still mad about my cutting out on her back in Korvosa. I could tell because I’m sensitive that way.
The livery was a huge building with eight stables with separate entrances. I understood why when I saw a stable boy lead an axe-beaked riding bird out of one. In Kaer Maga, even the ponies were strange.
The hostlers named their price for looking after the team and carriage. I paid up front and promised a big tip to pamper the horses and polish the carriage.
As we walked away from the stables, we passed a skinny hellspawn with blood-red skin and a scorpion’s tail. A drunken harlot hung on his arm. When he saw me, he cocked his head and squinted his yellow eyes.
I walked on.
“Do you know that fiend?” said Janneke.
“Never saw him.”
“He seems to know you.”
“Ignore him.” I could think of half a dozen reasons why the hellspawn might recognize me, but none of them made me want to talk with him.
It’d been a long time since my devils spilled through me and into the world. They were free of me, and I was free of them.
Sometimes I wondered what mischief they were perpetrating, but mostly I tried not to think about it. I liked the idea I was a real boy, not just a pony for my devils to ride around the world—and definitely not a gate to Hell and the other place.
“There’s something you aren’t telling me.”
She wasn’t wrong about that. “You’re the one who wants to keep things professional. Hell, you won’t even take off that helmet. Talking to you is like talking to an iron golem.”
She sighed and pulled off the helm. Beads of sweat rolled down her face. She looked left and right, then behind her. It finally hit me. She wasn’t wearing the helm because she expected an ambush. It was her disguise.
“Someone’s looking for you?”
“No.”
I gave her my I-don’t-buy-it face.
“It’s nothing to worry about.”
“That woman at the meeting post. You knew her.”
She sighed again. “Former colleague.”
“She got friends?”
Janneke nodded.
“Friends that look like that?” I pointed.
Walking toward us were two women, a red-headed Varisian and the Chelaxian we’d seen earlier. They wore swords at their hips, and both had the same kind of shield on their arms. Like Janneke, they wore mismatched armor, but I was starting to see that some pieces each of the three wore came from the same set.
Janneke turned around. “Dammit.”
Three more women approached from the other side, long red cloaks flaring behind them. Two wore mismatched armor, but the tall one in the middle had the whole silver-gray suit—including an unpainted version of Janneke’s helm. I bet that was how the Gray Maidens looked before they disbanded.
The tall woman took off her helm. Her short hair was thick and black, with a white streak on either side. She’d broken her nose more than once. She handed her helm and shield to the women at her sides and walked toward us alone.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
Janneke shoved her crossbow and helm into my arms and stepped forward.
The two women circled each other like prize fighters, hands loose at their sides. Janneke had a good four inches on the other woman, but somehow she didn’t seem any bigger.
“Kaid,” said Janneke.
“Some of the girls have been hoping to see you again,” said Kaid. “I told them you weren’t stupid enough to show your face in Kaer Maga.”
“That shows how smart you are.”
“Are you back to turn in your armor?”
“Did you finally hire someone big enough to take it from me?”
“You always were a conceited, insubordinate—” Kaid grabbed Janneke around the waist and lifted her off the ground. I dropped Janneke’s gear and braced for a fight, but Kaid spun her around and set her down again. “—goat-lover! I’m surprised you haven’t traded it in for Hellknight armor.”
“There’s no need to be insulting.” Janneke pounded Kaid on the back. It looked friendly, but the sound echoed off the nearby houses, and those didn’t look like tears of joy in Kaid’s eyes.
The other women relaxed a little, but the one holding Kaid’s helmet gave Janneke the stink-eye.
Kaid nodded at me. “Who’s the shaved dwarf?”
“Hey, now.” If that’s the way Kaid talked to her friends, I could understand why her nose was broke so much.
“This is Radovan. He’s touchy about his height.”
“I’m plenty taller than a dwarf.”
“I’m working for Radovan’s boss. Radovan, this is Faceless Kaid Brandt, my commanding officer during the queen’s reign.”
Kaid spat. “That Dis whore’s daughter.”
Janneke spat to show she agreed with that sentiment. I spat so as not to get left out.
“I see a couple of new faces,” said Janneke.
“You know Cosima, Belle, and Stiletto,” said Kaid. She took her helm back to the Chelaxian, Stiletto. I liked that name. Kaid nodded at the Garundi. “This here’s Danai. She joined us after a raid in the Bottoms.”
The Chelaxians and the Varisian looked as us like we were three-day-old trout. The Garundi bowed and touched a blue dot painted on her forehead. I tipped her a wink, but it didn’t take. She looked right through me.
I picked up Janneke’s stuff and gave it back to her. She scoffed at me for dropping it. Kaid led us a few streets away to a tavern. We sat down to three porter ales while Kaid’s women stood guard. Janneke and Kaid said things like “long time” and “not the same” and other harmless stuff. It was enough to make me relax for a minute.
Kaid raised her mug. “Steel and gold!”
“Steel and gold!” we agreed.
“Tell me you aren’t still hunting Shoanti for five gold a head,” said Janneke.
“Not when something better comes along. We had a good run through the Undercity last winter. You wouldn’t believe the things that live down there.”
“Tunnel worms?” I asked.
“And worse things,” said Kaid. “Much worse things.”
“I prefer hunting two-legged prey,” said Janneke. She looked over at Danai, who stood guard like a seasoned veteran. “And I don’t mean capturing escaped slaves.”
I didn’t like the sound of that, and my expression told Kaid as much. She just shrugged. “We take the work that pays. And you came to Kaer Maga for a reason. You’re on the hunt, aren’t you?”
Janneke nodded. “If you and the girls aren’t busy, maybe we could cut you in for, say, twenty percent.”
“One-fifth? I’ve got more than thirty women in the company.”
“Your cut would be sixteen hundred,” said Janneke. “That’s a lot of Shoanti heads, and all you need to do is locate our target. You find him, we’ll capture him.”
“Her,” I said. “The boss saw through the disguise.”
Janneke rolled her eyes. “All right, ‘her.’”
“What’s to stop me from collecting this bounty myself?” said Kaid.
“Apart from the fact that I haven’t told you who he—she—is, I can think of three reasons. One, it pays in Korvosa.”
“I hate that city.”
“It’s different now. Better, for the most part. Still, I don’t think they’d welcome you except to a dungeon cell.”
“I like it fine right here in Kaer Maga. What’s the second reason?”
“You don’t want to cross the man who’s paying me. He’s a powerful wizard.”
“Sorcerer,” I said.
“Whatever. He’s not the kind of employer you want to disappoint, and he’s got another sorcerer traveling with him.”
“Wizard,” I said. “That one’s a wizard.”
“Drink your drink,” said Janneke.
“What’s the third reason?” said Kaid.
“The bounty pays well only for a live capture. Not exactly your specialty.”
“You make a good point. Tell you what, make our cut one-quarter. You need to check with your employer first?”
“No, the bounty’s mine. He just wants to question him—her—first. One-quarter it is.”
They punched each other over the heart and clasped hands. “Deal.”
“The subject’s name is Zoran, or Zora. She uses disguises to break into the homes of wizards and steal enchanted objects. We think she’s looking for a buyer in Kaer Maga.”
“That’s a good bet,” said Kaid. “But it doesn’t narrow things down too much. I can think of a dozen places in Downmarket and the Promenade where someone might unload that sort of thing—and dozens more throughout the city.”
“I know it won’t be easy. But with more than thirty women in the band, you can cover a lot of territory. Don’t try to take her—and definitely don’t kill her—just let me know when you’ve spotted her.”
“In that case, you’d better take this back.” From her belt pouch she dug out a silver whistle on a chain and passed it over.
Janneke showed it to me. “This is why we want Kaid’s Band for this job.” Without explaining further, she hung it around her neck.
Kaid and Janneke drained their beers and ordered another round while I nursed mine and listened to their conversation. I concentrated on remembering the names of merchants and fences they knew and the places they figured on staking out. Pretty soon it was like I wasn’t even at the table. Kaid and Janneke were talking like partners who’d worked together for years.
The boss and I had moments like that away from home and the nobility. Once another aristocrat showed up, though, it was back outside the tent for me and Arni. The boss called both of us his bodyguards. Mostly I didn’t mind, and I knew he didn’t mean it in a bad way, but it was a reminder that in Chelish society I ranked farther below a count than I did above a dog.
