The woman bowed like the nobles did, quickly, as if the act was insulting. She knew him. Or of him. Not usual for a noble female of one of the top ten houses.
‘Lord? Are we on time?’ she inquired.
The man chuckled crudely. ‘Yes. And no. Do I look like a lord?’ He turned around to show his disheveled condition.
She waved her hand around. ‘There are no noble houses here in the shadows. But that does not mean there are no lords in the dark.’
‘You are correct, small one.’ He jumped down from the rotten platform, and the two thugs got up as well. They all approached her, and she did not flinch. ‘So,’ he nodded at her. ‘We are here, you are here, and shall we move forward with our business?’
‘Have you found a way?’ she asked imperiously. ‘We don’t like sharing our business, but we need a way.’
‘Yes, perhaps,’ the man to Valkai’s right stated and grinned, and the prominent leader of the gang thumbed him.
‘He found a man. It cannot take place in the Tower of the Temple. Up there, it is just too hard. Risky.’
She squinted at the thug. ‘But is it possible? And I know it cannot take place in the Temple. I told you this. I also told you where we think it might be possible.’
Valkai nodded slyly. ‘You did. I am not trying to sell you something you already know. There is a way. It will be imaginative. It will be hard. But I think it is possible. Alrik, a rogue of mine, found out something as he stole in for a few hours. He sent me a missive and tried to find out more, but failed. What he got out, is enough. Poor Alrik. Hung today. But I got lucky,’ Valkai’s eyes were burning as he took a long look at the slender female before him, his eyes running across her shapes. ‘But as you know, one does not hand over the goods until one is paid.’
She laughed. It was a clear and high and happy voice and utterly inappropriate in the presence of the rogues. It was a show of bravery. We all fell in love with her at that moment. Again. Except for Valkai. He frowned. She was apparently still chuckling as she addressed him. ‘But I’m unaware of what I’m buying. A high death, to be sure; that was the deal. But what does it involve?’
‘I’m selling you, lady murderess,’ he said softly, and I flinched, for surely she was not capable of murder, ‘a way to kill the bitch. I’m not asking why though one hears things.’
‘One does indeed,’ she smiled, ‘and I hear you have family.’
They all froze.
Finally, Valkai shrugged. ‘Ah, I see. Dangerous games you are playing. Whether I do, or I do not, is no business of yours. But you have ways, I see, to hurt me. Surprising for a noble house of such a low rank. I deny I have family, girl. But I am impressed and shall move this non-existent family of mine, just in case. I see you understand the game, but do you understand how far one goes before one goes too far? We shall see. I stand warned, of course, and this business will not spread beyond this alley.’
‘Ask no more of our reasons, and we won’t delve into your family life,’ she said bluntly. ‘And then we are all happy and safe. As safe as we can be in this business.’
‘As I was saying,’ Valkai growled, ‘I have a way. It involves a doppelganger. Alrik told us this man leaves the house that day, for a while. And I have someone who looks just like him. I know a way to switch them up when he leaves the house for a few hours. Then our man goes in and does his thing.’
‘May I see this person?’ she asked sweetly. ‘I assume you have him or her at hand?’
‘You may,’ he agreed. He whistled, and a man in a red and black royal livery of a king appeared to stand on the tavern’s porch. A red tabard covered his chest and hung to his knees. A dark eagle was imprinted on the chest, house Danegell insignia. A silver belt hung on his hips, and his boots were long and supple. Dark, thick, braided hair hung behind his back. He had thin cheeks and blue eyes. ‘Meet … Asfal. I’ll not call him by the name of the one he is supposed to mimic.’
She strode forward.
Her white hem was dirtied as she carelessly stalked through a puddle of mud. She effortlessly jumped past the men and climbed some rotten stairs up to the tavern. She walked around the man, running a finger across his back. The man jumped. She came to stare down at Valkai. ‘I know who this man is to mimic. The idea is good. But he needs to be trained. In so many ways, they are alike, but then, in the critical ones, not so. But he has … possibilities. He looks nearly exactly like him.’
‘He has been trained,’ Valkai said darkly. ‘Will be trained more. It is not your concern.’
‘He is skittish as a pregnant deer,’ she told him with a sneer. ‘And the real thing can fight like a flesh eating barbarian. Which he used to be, in fact.’
Valkai dismissed the concern with a snort. ‘He will learn. He can fight. Probably won’t need to either. And as you said, he looks just like—’
‘Yes,’ she agreed. ‘He does look like him.’
‘So that is the most important thing. Our actor here owes someone a lot of money and will be paid well, and so he is motivated. And—’
She jumped down and walked to Valkai. ‘How will you do the change?’
‘Our man has vices. A vice. As Valkai told you,’ one of the brutes said while staring at her lecherously.
‘Shut up,’ Valkai told him, and he did, blanching. Valkai turned to look at the girl. ‘We will make it happen. We have our ways and know his. That is why you pay us. Though you have yet to show the gold.’
‘He is a slave,’ she said with suspicion, not giving up. ‘A trusted slave, true, but he never leaves her side. He is bound to her. He has to be, because—’
‘No,’ said Valkai. ‘He is a trusted slave, as you said. And she does not need him all the time. He gets around. And in any case, he is always there when the bitch eats,’ he grinned.
‘Give me something to make this whole deal worth my time,’ she said. ‘Walk me through it. When the bitch leaves the Temple and the Tower?’
Valkai took a heavy, exasperated breath and finally nodded. ‘Fine. The bitch visits her noble house; you told us this. It is where we started from, and you are right. She does so very rarely, very cautiously, very secretly, but she does. We know. We lost another man finding this out. And then, when she does, he comes with her. And he, I tell you, sometimes leaves her side. Even in the Tower of the Temple and that day, she visits her own house. He is … accessible.’
‘But—’
‘Trust us in this.’ Valkai tilted his head. ‘I told you; he will always be there when she eats. You know what he does for a living? And how changing him to this lout here could reap great rewards?’
‘Yes. And I agree this has possibilities. She has to fall.’ The woman was tapping a finger on her lip.
‘I guess we know why she had to die,’ Valkai grinned. ‘To elevate you. Rumors say Morag fills his bed with you. And perhaps you aim to be the queen?’
The queen? I looked at my friend, and Sand’s eyes were huge, and we both regretted entering the alley. She was plotting regicide.
She stared at him coldly, the beauty enhanced by the brief fury in her face. ‘Now you are going too far. But I am indeed after Morag’s heart.’ She made it sound like it had nothing to do with love. Only Morag’s heart.
‘Are they also after the king?’ I whispered to Sand, who shook in terror.
‘We are such damned fools,’ he whispered back. ‘Can we get insensibly drunk and pretend this never took place?’
‘No,’ I said.
Valkai smiled hugely and bowed in a mockery of apology. ‘So, let us agree and move on to the down payment then. Gold. Or ... ’ he said and nodded at her.
‘Favor?’ she said tiredly. ‘Yes, I heard the Jesters give their clients this possibility. Gold or favor. We will not owe you any favors. Gold it is. As agreed.’
‘I’ll give you a discount if you spend the night in my bed?’ Valkai said crudely and smiled nastily. His eyes were judging her as she just stared at him blankly as if someone had offered to sell h
er offal. He was the sort of man who hated the nobles and would hurt her, should he bed her, I decided. ‘Fine,’ he grinned as she said nothing. ‘Cough it up. Have you someone near holding it? Somewhere? Give me six now, twenty later. Or ten when Asfal here has taken his place. Ten when she is dead.’
She shrugged. ‘Six now, twenty when it is all over. I have the gold here,’ she told him quickly and thinly as if loath to pay him anything.
‘Where?’ he frowned.
‘Here,’ she said and patted her side, and I swear I could see her fight to hold her composure. Her hands were frantic for just a moment and then her shoulders relaxed.
Valkai was looking around at his thugs. Then he fixed a feral stare her way. ‘Send a girl to deal with such important issues, and she fails. Did you lose it? Spent it? Or have you not, you self-centered, isolated fool of a noble cow heard of thieves in the harbor?’
‘I seem to have been robbed,’ she agreed coolly. ‘I will fetch the coins.’
‘You will fetch the coins?’ Valkai said slowly. ‘No. We will take the favor then.’
‘No,’ she said quietly.
‘And you will spend the night here, after all,’ Valkai grinned nastily, and I felt rage tug at my guts. One of his brutes stepped forward as Valkai snapped his finger ‘We will send word to your family. You will stay here until this deal is settled and agreed on. Surely, you cannot expect to walk out of here after we explained what we are offering? We have no payment.’
Still she refused. Resolutely. She pulled the fabulous, glittering sword. ‘I said I shall go and fetch the coin. Then I shall be back. And this is how it will be. I am a Blacktower, not some common merchant with a reputation for thievery.’
‘Shit,’ Sand said softly, fingering his knife. ‘What will you do?’
‘Alrik worked for them, no?’ I said chokingly.
‘So he said,’ he agreed.
‘So, we will see how they will like meeting him again,’ I breathed.
In the alley ahead, the thugs had pulled long spears from where they had been hidden under the tavern floorboards and pointed them at the now obviously furious girl who was blocked by the chief of the criminals. Valkai was pulling a long skull pommeled dirk. ‘You know, it would be much easier if you just came along nicely. Might be you won’t go home if you take this attitude.’
‘I’m Shaduril Blacktower and no street wench to be held here ignominiously, against my will! I said I shall fetch the gold,’ she took a step backwards, and then the thugs rushed forward, careful not to hurt her with the spear blades, but they prodded and pushed her, and her glittering short sword swished in the air as she tried to fight them off.
‘You need to be humbled, girl,’ Valkai said darkly. ‘I’m sure that will be fine with your family. This is, after all, quite a delicate matter the king would love to hear. And thank you for warning me in the matter of my family. As I said, I’ll make sure they are safe.’
‘You bastard, I—’
‘I am a bastard, girl. Never knew my parents,’ Valkai said happily and dodged under her blade and pushed her so hard she fell against a rotten wall. ‘Ropes. Take her to my room.’
‘Give me our rope,’ I wheezed to Sand, my face twitched, and I nearly pissed myself from fear. It would have been perfect if I had, for my face flowed painfully, and soon it was Alrik’s, who had pissed his pants indeed when he died. ‘Get ready to run.’
‘This is crazy!’ Sand said and tried to grab me as I walked forward. I took the rope and left it on my shoulder and tied it around my neck. I bit my lip as hard as I could and felt the blood flow freely. I let it, and it trickled to my chin. I hoped my face was as pallid as Alrik’s had been at his death.
I took a deep breath, prayed to the Gloom Hand, and then moaned like the damned soul of children’s stories. A long and desperate wail filled the alley.
They turned to look at me in alarm.
I was still swathed in shadows as I shuffled forward, and I heard Sand curse and then quaff behind me, despite the dangerous situation. I did not feel like laughing, for I was about to die.
‘Who in Hel’s rotten name is it? The tavern’s closed,’ Valkai said gruffly. The girl was staring at me with a frown.
I stepped into the light.
I saw them suck in their breath. I adopted a feral, snarling look and shuffled forward purposefully, if slowly and uncertainly, blood flowing down my chin and the rope around my neck made me gag as I had pulled it too tight. The doppelganger, the man in king’s colors, was blanching, taking steps away, and so were the two brutes. ‘Alrik?’ Valkai asked very softly, surprised, and there was a satisfactory shudder of animal like fear in his voice.
‘Mmmgh,’ I complained, my hands coming up jerkily as if to embrace him.
‘By Odin’s ball hairs,’ one of the brutes whimpered, and then he ran, tripping over chairs and a table, wine, and mutton flying. The other one was taking steps away, shaking his head, and Valkai was struggling with his fear. I was Alrik. I had died. Everyone knew this, I assured myself. The girl was shuffling by the wall, inching her way past the dreaded criminal. I stopped to stare at Valkai with a confused frown. ‘Alrik?’ He breathed again, and then the girl ran. She stared at my face as she did and I, the idiot grinned and winked at her.
Next thing I remember was a stinging pain in my jaw and cheek and the kiss of cold mud on my lips.
‘Freak,’ Valkai said above me. ‘What the Hel are you?’ Then he kicked me, and I went to sleep for a while.
CHAPTER 4
I came to in a dungeon. First, I noticed a sputtering torch on the wall. Then I noticed my rope was hanging right above me from a rusty hook. It looked ominous, to say the least. The ceiling was glistening with moistness, fungus, and rot, and there was a tunnel leading somewhere to my left. I quickly discovered I had iron and leather clamps on my wrists and ankles, and I was stretched on a crude table that reeked of sweat, blood, and shit. All were alarming proof of the discomfort of the previous occupants of the dreadful thing. I also noticed my face was my own, and there was a cat staring at me from a dark shelf. I experimented with my chin and found I could speak.
‘Frigg’s milky tits,’ I cursed and moaned.
A figure chuckled in the dark. I yelped and composed myself as best I could as I tried to see the face, but could not. ‘Stop struggling, you idiot,’ it said, and I could not decide if the voice was that of a man or a woman. ‘Here, some wine? The best down under.’
‘Yes, thank you. Don’t have any coin to pay for it, though,’ I croaked.
‘You are a knight, are you not?’ the figure chuckled. ‘Hero of all the ladies in trouble, eh? They never pay their bills. Knights. Not the ladies either, for that matter.’
‘In that case, I’m a knight indeed,’ I answered, and the figure became known. It was wearing long, tent-like robes of black, and on its face there was a simple, ominously horned mask of silver. It carried a silvery golden goblet and stopped next to me. ‘Raise yourself a bit.’
‘Do I need to be tied down like a pig carcass prepared for a roasting?’ I asked it sweetly.
‘Yes,’ the masked one said, and I decided I had better not give them any more ideas on how to kill me. ‘Here,’ it grunted and poured many mouthfuls of liquid down my throat. I gratefully swallowed all I could though by the taste of it I should have taken the time to enjoy it. It was fruity, exotic, and sweet at the same time and likely very expensive. The figure pushed my face away and let drop the expensive cup. The clang on the moldy floor was gratingly loud, and I winced. Then the figure went to lean on a rotting shelf, and I was afraid it might fall on us. I shut my mouth and refrained from giving the strange figure any advice.
Thus, we stayed for a long time, and as I was finally done swallowing the last of the fine liquid, the ominous looking figure came forward to wipe some residue off my lip. The gloves were silken and dark. ‘Quite a dramatic figure you cut, sir,’ I told it.
‘I’m not a sir. Nor a lady. I’m the Jester.’
‘Ah, Valkai?’ I asked, knowing it was not the brute. Valkai would have been jumping up and down on my ribs already instead of serving me wine. Unless he had a sense of humor under the coarse, brute skin, which I was sure he did not.
‘No,’ it said with a dry chuckle. ‘Valkai is not here, to your comfort. He is conducting our business elsewhere. I must say, it was very impressive what you did to distract my dear captain Valkai. But I’m not impressed by your thieving abilities.’
‘She noticed nothing. Nothing, I tell you,’ I blurted with pride. ‘I whisked past her and took the pouch, and she came here, thinking she was still rich. And you—’
‘Ah, Maskan,’ the figure laughed, and I cursed for I just could not make out the sex of the thing addressing me. Not knowing that much left you curiously out of options. Flirting might help, if it was a woman, but if it were a man, the situation might get very uncomfortable. In many ways. Then again, if it were a woman, she might cut my balls off for such insolence. I told myself to be quiet. The masked one went on, running a finger on my forehead. ‘Of course, you did splendidly with the pouch, yes. But you failed after that, though; despite Valkai’s designs, the girl was in no true danger. Yet, a thief that felt responsible for her? The mark, the victim? Terrible business. Hardly professional. I’m sure you agree.’
‘Yes, I agree. But she had a lovely smile. And ample buttocks,’ I defended myself, cursing for I realized suddenly the creature had known my name.
‘She is fair. Takes after her mother, I am sure,’ the thing allowed, still not giving up its sex by agreeing or disagreeing with my brazen comments, not in any obvious way, and I felt it understood my game. The silver mask was hovering above me. ‘But I have to admit your other skill gives me pleasure. It was something … unexpected. And expected in some way.’
‘I don’t understand. What skill are we talking about? Any why is it both unexpected and expected?’ I said dully, and the finger pressed on my forehead with such strength I winced.
‘The last man who lay on this bench cried. We thought him merely stubborn. So very, very stubborn. Couldn’t understand why he would not speak. People came to see us play with him, and wagers were made widely in the guild on when he would eventually speak up. He was a bastard. He was a stubborn bastard, and one who did not pay his loans, and we hated him for it, for we knew he had hidden his gold and silver. But he wasn’t stubborn, and perhaps not a bastard either, just a mute. He had no tongue. As we broke him here on his very bench, we finally found out the truth as we tried to remove the tongue, which was not there. We had taken the toes and the fingers already, you see? We should have saved his hand so he could have written the whereabouts of the coin, but we lost him and the gold. Our mistake. And you can imagine all the grumbling after they had found the bets were all for naught.’ The thing went quiet, and I shrugged. It poked me once more. ‘The lesson is; while we make mistakes, the suffering is usually done on this bench. We lost gold, he lost everything and went to Hel. Do not play dumb with us.’
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