‘Here, Kalayne,’ she said. ‘She’s awfy wee. Ye’ve not brought a bairn, have ye?’
Kalayne snorted. ‘She’s a grown fucking woman, Bertha. What the fuck do you take me for?’
‘Sorry,’ Bertha said. ‘Just checking.’
‘I’m thirty,’ Shella said. ‘That old enough?’
Bertha nodded. ‘Ale?’
‘Ale.’
Shella’s legs wobbled as she made her way back from the latrines. The Kellach ale was strong, and tasted good, but it made her want to pee every ten minutes.
She tottered over to her table and sat.
‘It’s been a while since I’ve had to bare my ass in such a literal shithole,’ she said. ‘You’re probably more used to it, eh Kalayne?’
She looked up. The old man wasn’t sitting at the table, and there was no sign of him in the bar.
‘Hey, Bertha?’ Shella called over to the Kellach serving woman. ‘Where’d he go?’
Bertha shrugged. ‘Pisser, most likely, hen.’
Shella nodded and took a sip of ale. She caught someone stare in her direction and glanced over. A Holdings man was at a nearby table, with a bottle of brandy in front of him.
‘What the fuck you looking at?’ Shella said.
‘Someone who shouldn’t be here.’
‘Speak for yourself. We’re both getting clapped in chains if the wardens turn up.’
He picked up the bottle and two glasses, and walked over to Shella’s table.
‘Don’t concern yourself about the wardens,’ he said, sitting next to her. ‘I heard they’ve already been here tonight. They never hit the same place twice.’
‘I don’t fucking remember inviting you over.’
He poured two measures of brandy.
‘I was intrigued by your voice,’ he said. ‘I thought I recognised it for a moment. I must be mistaken, however, for the person I thought the voice belonged to would never do anything as foolish as come into the Kellach quarter at night to partake in forbidden pleasures.’
She squinted at him.
He took out a small case and opened it. ‘Cigarette, miss?’
He withdrew two and lit them both. She took one from him, and picked up her glass.
She took a sip. ‘Urgh,’ she grimaced. ‘How much you pay for that?’
He pulled a face as he drank from his own glass. ‘Too much.’
‘It’ll do,’ she said. ‘Had worse.’
‘If this is the best we’re going to get from now on,’ he said, ‘the days are dark indeed.’
‘Who are you, then?’
His face fell a little.
‘Am I supposed to know who you are?’ she asked.
‘No, no,’ he said. ‘I was maybe a little well-known. For a while at any rate.’
‘Well?’
‘My name’s Benel.’
Shella thought for a moment.
‘The mage from the war? You were in the victory parade, I think.’
‘That’s me.’
‘I remember now,’ she said. ‘You were the one who broke through the Rahain tunnel. What the fuck’s a war hero doing in a dump like this?’
He smirked. ‘You think I’m a hero?’
‘How the fuck should I know?’ she said, drinking more of the brandy. ‘I wasn’t there. I don’t know what you did. Anyway, if you’re a hero, then why are you still here, in the city? Are there not rebels needing to be crushed in southern Rahain?’
Benel slumped back in his seat, glowering.
‘I’ve been transferred,’ he said.
‘To a position that involves doing fuck all?’ Shella said. ‘You don’t look like you’re in any kind of shape for fighting.’
‘All cavalry mage-scouts are now under the authority of the church,’ he said. ‘The Emperor took them from the army, and gave them to the fucking Lord Vicar.’
‘You mean you work for the church now?’ she whispered.
‘Got my orders yesterday. I have to report to the institute tomorrow morning.’
Shella nodded. ‘What powers do you have?’
‘From battle all the way up to inner.’
‘I thought all Holdings mages with inner-vision already worked for the church.’
Benel grimaced. ‘A small number of us didn’t exhibit inner-vision when they tested us, and escaped having to become priests. I didn’t know I had it until I was eighteen.’
‘Is that what happened to Daphne Holdfast?’
‘I believe so,’ Benel said, ‘though I don’t know much about her. Anyway, there are not many mages like me, and I guess the church have always wanted to get their claws into us.’
‘And now they have.’
Benel frowned. ‘Indeed.’
‘I can see why you’d want to get drunk.’
He lifted his glass. ‘Care to join me?’
By the fifth glass Kalayne had not returned.
‘My old squad loved me, you know,’ Benel said, leaning back on his chair, his feet up on a stool. Shella watched him from the other side of the table, her eyelids heavy, a cigarette dangling from her lips. ‘They would have done anything for me,’ he went on. ‘Loyalty like that lives in you forever.’
‘You’re so full of shit,’ Shella said. ‘No wonder they dumped your ass here in the capital. They were probably sick of hearing your crap.’
‘You should smile more.’
‘Fuck you,’ she said. ‘How do you know I’m not smiling now?’
‘I can hear the scowl in your voice,’ he said. ‘But why don’t you pull back the hood? I knew who you were as soon as you spoke. I’ve seen you in court, back when I was, you know, a war hero. Your words.’
‘If you know who I am,’ she said, ‘you don’t need to see my face.’
‘Yes, but I like looking at beautiful women. As I said, I’ve seen you before.’
‘You’ve no chance, Benel,’ she said. ‘So don’t start trying to flirt.’
‘Miss, I am offended,’ he said, ‘I thought I’d been flirting with you all night.’
‘You just want to say you fucked a princess.’
‘There is that,’ Benel said, taking a draw of his cigarette, ‘but there is also the lure of danger.’
‘The danger that I’ll make your brains bleed out from your nose?’
‘You haven’t heard the new proclamation?’ he said. ‘The Emperor has decreed that any relations between people of the different races of this world is a crime against the Creator.’
‘What?’ she said. ‘Shit. Must have missed that at lunch.’ She shook her head. ‘They can’t do that. They can’t stop people from getting together. It’s fucking outrageous.’
‘I’d like to think that certain valiant souls, like you and I for instance, could take a stand against this ridiculous law.’
She raised an eyebrow. He wasn’t bad looking, she thought, when he kept his mouth shut.
He lifted his glass. ‘People should be allowed to fuck who they like, that’s what I say.’
Shella stubbed out a cigarette. ‘Shit,’ she said. ‘I need to be getting home.’
‘Oh I never go home this late,’ Benel said. ‘Staggering about these streets drunk? No chance.’
She frowned.
‘Benny’s got rooms above here,’ Benel said. ‘Charges a fair bit for them, but it’s far easier to slip out of the Kellach quarter in the morning, sober and carrying not a drop on you. I take a carriage, of course.’
Benel lifted the brandy bottle. ‘Another?’
Shella glanced around the room. Still no Kalayne.
‘Bertha,’ he called over to the bar.
‘Aye, son?’
‘You and Benny got a room for me tonight?’
‘Aye, son. Usual price.’
‘Thanks, Bertha.’ He turned back to Shella. ‘See?’
She wondered what time she could get back to the embassy, if they left at dawn.
‘Okay,’ she said.
He poured her a drink.
‘Here’s to my last night of freedom,’ he said, raising his glass.
‘I’m still not promising anything.’
‘My dear princess,’ he said, clinking her glass, ‘where’s the fun in playing by the rules?’
Chapter 6
Paranoid
Rainsby, Alliance-Occupied Plateau – 14th Day, Last Third Summer 506
The sky to the west was shaded in golden rose. The low sun dazzled off the surface of the Inner Sea, making Daphne’s eyes water as she helped carry their bags to the side of the boat. Sailors were shouting down to the dockers gathering on the jetty, and the sails were being lowered. The boat juddered as it was pulled close against the smooth stone, and the ropes were secured.
‘That’s everything, miss,’ Bedig said, his right arm gripping a trunk. Harnessed to his chest was Karalyn facing outwards, her dark hair flying in the sea breeze. She was kicking her legs out and squirming. Bedig frowned.
‘That’s a great harness you made,’ Daphne said. ‘Thanks again for carrying her.’
‘Aye?’ Bedig said, gazing down at the top of the infant’s head. ‘I’m slightly regretting it now.’
‘She’ll settle soon,’ Daphne said, touching the baby’s cheek. Karalyn looked up and smiled.
My daughter, Daphne thought. I’m a mother. An actual parent.
‘You all right?’ Bedig said.
‘Fine,’ Daphne said. ‘Are you ready for Rainsby?’
‘Let’s just get it over with.’
‘We’ll only be here one night. Two at the most. Just as long as it takes to buy what we need.’
‘It stinks like a piss trough,’ he said, gazing out over the dark wooden rooftops of the town. ‘What a dump.’
‘But it’s Kellach Brigdomin who live here now, instead of Rahain. I thought you’d like it more this time round.’
He shrugged. ‘We’ll see.’
A Rahain sailor approached them.
‘Sir, madam?’ He gestured to the gangplank leading down to the jetty.
Bedig helped Daphne on with her backpack, the strap going round the armour protecting her crippled left arm. She nodded at the sailor, and went down the gangway first, keeping her eyes fixed on the slender plank beneath her feet. She stepped onto the solid stone of the jetty, and a flicker of a smile crossed her lips. She gazed around. Rahain sailors and dockers mixed with Kellach labourers, while Holdings troopers stood around in groups, eyeing the crowds with lazy stares.
Bedig arrived next to her. Karalyn was craning her neck, wide-eyed as she looked around.
‘Let’s find the nearest decent place to stay,’ Daphne said.
She went ahead, squeezing her way through the bustle of people, with Bedig close behind. She pulled on a small thread of battle-vision, just enough to take in the docks, and catch if anyone was looking in their direction, but apart from idle glances, no one was paying them any attention.
‘You settled on names for us?’ Bedig said.
‘I’m Beth of Hold Down,’ she said. ‘You’re my servant, Damon.’
He frowned.
She laughed. ‘Come on, do you think I’d make you a Domm? No, you can be Bryde. Sounds like the kind of name you lot have.’
‘Used to know a Bryde.’
‘Well then,’ she said. ‘Bryde it is.’
They came off the jetty onto a wharf lined with a long row of warehouses. The paved ground was littered with piles of crates, and wagons with both gaien and horses hitched to them. Workers swarmed over the wharf, and Daphne had to push her way through. Beyond the docks and the warehouses stood the town wall, with the road leading up to a harbour-facing entrance.
The gates were wide open, and an even larger crowd was assembled in the courtyard in front of them.
‘We arrived on a holiday or something?’ Bedig asked.
‘What are they all doing?’ Daphne said. ‘Are they watching something?’
‘Or somebody,’ Bedig said. ‘There’s a group over by the town wall up on crates. I think the crowd’s looking at them.’
‘Can we get through?’
‘It’ll be tight, but I think so.’
As they neared the crowd of Kellach, she realised that everyone was watching a group of Holdings. Half a dozen dark-skinned men and women in robes were up on a makeshift platform, with more surrounding them on the ground. They were speaking to the gathered crowd, though they were too far away for her to hear what they were saying.
‘Preachers,’ Bedig muttered.
Daphne reached the edge of the crowd, and began to make her way through. Bedig put a hand out and gripped a handle of her backpack as he followed.
Words started to come through from the platform.
‘You have lost your faith, we understand that,’ a strong voice was telling the crowd. ‘When the Rahain destroyed your holy mountain, you despaired. You believed your beloved god to be dead. But rejoice I say to you, rejoice! Your Fire God Pyre was not destroyed, for he is but one manifestation of the all-loving Creator, and the Creator cannot die. He loves you as he loves all the peoples of this world. Over time, your traditions replaced his name with that of Pyre, but the truth remained, that the Kellach Brigdomin are a people made by the Creator and loved by the Creator.’
The Holdings man paused. A few in the crowd shuffled their feet.
‘Excuse me,’ Daphne said, pushing her way past a grizzled old man.
‘Now you must prove yourselves worthy of the Creator’s love,’ the speaker went on. ‘Turn your backs on the wickedness that has overtaken your hearts. Purify yourselves, for only in a pure state can you ever hope to be blessed. Forsake your drunkenness and your shameful promiscuity, cast away the drugs that are rotting your souls, and open your hearts to the true Creator. Give unto him your passions and your spirit, not to the bottle, or to the weedsmoke, or to the whores, those foul wanton wretches.’
Daphne, Bedig and the baby were close to the gates. Some in the crowd were restless, but most were standing in silence. Karalyn let out a loud wail.
Daphne glanced over to the platform, noticing that the speaker had stopped.
The Holdings seemed to be arguing among themselves, then one of them looked in her direction.
‘Come on Bedig,’ she muttered.
The masses of people thinned, and Daphne emerged in front of the gates. She checked to make sure Bedig and Karalyn were close behind, and entered the town.
‘Did they know we were due to arrive?’ Bedig asked as they walked at a brisk pace down the cobbled street. Traders, beggars and soldiers filled the road, and the crowd watching the preachers was soon out of sight. ‘Do you think they set up in the harbour so they could see us come in?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe they’re always there. It doesn’t matter, I think we got away with it.’
They stood to the side to allow a large wagon piled with crates to pass. Ramshackle wooden buildings lined the road, interspersed with the blackened stumps of stone walls, relics of the town prior to its capture by the Sanang eight thirds before. The population was Kellach in the main, she noticed, apart from the troopers and a few Rahain. And Bedig had been right, the place stank.
‘Woah,’ Bedig said. ‘Did you see the size of that fucking rat?’
‘Hey!’ Daphne said. ‘Not in front of Karalyn, please.’
‘She’s too wee to understand,’ he said, as they stepped back onto the busy road and continued towards the centre of town. ‘And,’ he went on, ‘we’re in a town of clansfolk, and we’re going to see Killop, who’ll be surrounded by more clansfolk. Let’s face it, she’s going to hear some swearing.’
Karalyn wailed again.
‘Don’t worry Kara-bear,’ Daphne said. ‘Teatime soon.’ She looked up at the streets ahead. ‘We need to take a left, head to the merchants’ quarter.’
‘If it still exists,’ Bedig said. ‘I don’t recognise any of this.’
She saw a soldier on the street with a crest on her arm.
‘Sergeant,’ she hail
ed the trooper.
The woman sauntered over, two troopers at her back.
‘How can I help you, ma’am?’
‘We’re a bit lost, I’m afraid,’ she said. ‘The street layout has changed since we were last here. I’m looking for a clean hostelry for the night.’
The sergeant frowned as she stared at them, then froze when she saw the baby harnessed to Bedig’s chest. Her face lit with surprise.
‘Yes, ma’am, of course,’ she said. She turned and whispered something to the troopers behind her.
‘I know where the best establishments are located, ma’am,’ she said, facing Daphne again. ‘We’d be happy to escort you.’
‘Thank you.’
The Holdings sergeant gestured down another street to their left, and they set off, the two troopers following a few paces behind.
‘If you don’t mind me saying, ma’am,’ the sergeant said, ‘I’d have expected you to be travelling with a little more security.’
‘I’ve got him for that,’ Daphne nodded at Bedig. ‘And I’m not bad myself.’
‘Still ma’am, wandering about in public is running a risk, especially as your daughter is with you.’
Daphne sighed. ‘I was hoping to slip through Rainsby without anyone recognising me.’
‘Ma’am,’ the sergeant said, ‘the cavalry garrison here received word from Captain Suthers in Plateau City that you were travelling with a baby and a Kellach companion. She asked us to be of assistance if we ran into you. Did the One True Path see you at the gates?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘Good,’ the sergeant said. ‘Some of them are... I don’t know how to put this…’
‘Fucking crazy?’ Bedig said.
The sergeant shrugged. ‘This town is hard enough to police without those black-robed deacons stirring things up.’
‘Have they had any success?’ Daphne asked. ‘Converts?’
‘Not from the Kellach, but more than a few of the Rahain peasants have taken the faith. Several thousand live in a shanty town south of the walls, and another group of One True Pathers have set up camp down there. Got quite a following, I hear.’
‘You don’t sound too happy about folk joining your religion,’ Bedig said.
The Magelands Box Set Page 99
