A Dance of Blades s-2

by David Dalglish

  The bones had been placed within a small sealed coffin. As they lowered it into the ground, Alyssa stepped forward to address the crowd. She wore a dress of black and dark blues, and she’d smeared ashes upon her face. Behind her the sun dipped below the walls of the city, and in the twilight she made her decree.

  “It is despicable that such a thing could happen,” she said, loud enough for Zusa to hear. “Worse that I might be expected to deny my son vengeance. So many of you here have made peace with the thieves, and in doing so, stripped away every shred of your pride and dignity. I will not! Those who prey on us, steal from us, kill and poison to claim their power, they die tonight. Go home if you must, or stay here if you fear the streets. But this night, only this night, must you fear them any longer. Veldaren aches for a purge, and I will be the one to deliver it. Cry out at me if you wish, but it will change nothing. The gold is spent, the orders are given. Let the blood flow.”

  She looked to the rooftop, directly at Zusa. She nodded back in return. That was the last command. There was no turning back. Spinning about, her cloak billowing silently behind her, Zusa raced to the front of the mansion and vaulted off the roof. When she landed, it was amid the gathered group of mercenary captains, who had been ordered to wait opposite the funeral.

  “You have your orders,” she told them all. “Bring the Abyss to Veldaren, and throw every cloak into it. Give vengeance to my lady.”

  The captains grinned and smacked one another on the shoulder.

  “About damn time,” said one. “Let’s get to it!”

  Zusa left to the south, still trying to decide her course of action. The mercenaries were scattered all throughout the city, in taverns, camps, and houses of those loyal to the Trifect. They would spill out onto the streets, and no one would be there to stop them. Only King Vaelor could make a reasonable attempt with his soldiers, but he’d have to break a streak of cowardice, which Zusa knew would not happen. Ever since the Bloody Kensgold, he’d given them all freedom to kill one another so long as their threats were never aimed at him. No doubt when the nightmare began, the watch would turn the other way, if they even left the castle at all. She had an inkling they wouldn’t.

  But the bloodshed would accomplish nothing if she couldn’t find Nathaniel’s killer. The Watcher. Where did he hide?

  Those in the shadows were about to be flung into the light. She resolved to scour the city, keeping an eye open for anything unusual. If the Watcher were as skilled as Veliana made him sound, he would hold his own no matter how many mercenaries they flung at him.

  Veliana…

  She might have offered a prayer for her, but she had turned her back against her former god, Karak. She had no one to pray to, so instead she just murmured the thoughts aloud, hoping that she might survive the night. If only she could have relinquished her desire for control of the Ash Guild, she might have made a new life at her side within the Gemcroft mansion.

  “Stay safe, Vel,” she said, crawling up the side of a small house with a flat roof. Once atop, she leapt across, scanning her surroundings for a man cloaked in gray and wielding twin swords. A man skilled enough to maybe even defeat her.

  Half an hour passed, painfully quiet. It seemed the entire city had drawn its collective breath. Then all at once came the exhalation. Two fires erupted in southern Veldaren, both supposed headquarters of various thief guilds. Deciding there was as good a spot as any, she headed that way. She passed several patrols, and one even had the gall to fire a crossbow at her. She ducked lower and continued on, realizing she would be far from the only one to travel by rooftop that night.

  They were torturing a thief in the street when she arrived at the first fire. It was probably supposed to be an interrogation, but that would have involved a chance for answers from the victim. The thief had blood smeared across his face, and the way his jaw hung, it looked like it’d been broken in multiple places. The best he could do was point. The light of the fire bathed them in red, and in it, the thief sobbed for mercy.

  “This is your creation,” Zusa whispered to the distant thief, hardening her heart against the violence. “This is the fate you have earned.”

  Still, it seemed a cruel fate. When the soldier impaled the thief, she was thankful. She turned for the second fire when she caught movement from the corner of her eye. She back-flipped into the air as a blade cut where she had been. Facing her attacker, she fell, grabbed the ledge of the building, and then flung herself at him. He was a giant man, his features shrouded in twilight. She slammed her knees against his chest. It was like trying to knock down an ancient oak. She rolled over his head, jumped away to give her some distance, and then drew her daggers. As her opponent whirled, she used the half-second to examine him.

  He was dark-skinned, darker than she’d ever seen, and wore light clothing with a long gray cloak. He carried two enormous swords, each a length most would need two hands to hold. His muscles looked more appropriate to a woodcutter or blacksmith than a thief. But most of all, her eyes were drawn to the white paint across his face, making his shaved head look like a bleached skull.

  “A woman?” he said. Zusa lunged, hoping to take advantage of his surprise. She parried one of his swords to the side, then thrust her other dagger for the opening. The man seemed prepared for the maneuver. He twisted, slapped aside her thrust, and stepped closer. She tried leaping back to gain more distance, but he followed, trapping her at the edge of the roof. Falling to one knee, she tried to hamstring him, but again his swords were there, batting the far smaller weapons aside. Part of her wondered why, with such advantage in reach, he forced them to remain in close combat.

  Then one of his swords fell, and he felt a hand grab her hair, each finger as thick as a sausage. Her feet lifted off the roof. She held in a scream, all her focus narrowed to a razor edge. Her daggers swung, both aiming for his neck. With only one weapon, he had no chance to block, at least she thought, but he used its flat edge to strike both her wrists as they thrust, pushing them over his head. Before she could bring her arms back down, the sword’s edge pressed against her throat.

  “Stop struggling,” he said. “I’m not here to kill you.”

  His voice was deep, so deep, it reminded her of the rare times she’d heard Karak whisper to her in the night. She forced herself to calm, to look into his brown eyes without flinching. The sword pressed tighter against her throat, as if he expected her to try and break free instead.

  “What do you want?” she asked.

  “Not you,” said the man. “My target is not a woman. I might have said so if you hadn’t leapt at me like a rabid dog.”

  “Who are you?”

  He stared at her, as if deciding something. Decision made, he unceremoniously dropped her. She landed on her feet and crouched before him, ready to leap at the slightest wrong move.

  “I am Ghost. I’ve come to claim the Watcher’s head, and other than the breasts, you fit the description rather closely.”

  Zusa slowly straightened, though her muscles remained tense. Whoever this Ghost was, she had no intention of relaxing in his presence.

  “Who is it that has hired you?” she asked. “One of the thieves?”

  He grinned at her. Something about it worsened her unease.

  “I cannot tell you, as surely you can understand. You seem at home in the night, and you move as I expected the Watcher to move. Do you know of him? Tell me, and I might make it worth your while.”

  “Whatever I know, I cannot say, for I seek him as my own bounty. My master wishes to be the one to claim his life, and I would not dare risk cheating her of it.”

  “Her?” asked Ghost, raising an eyebrow.

  Too much, stop speaking, you always say too much.

  So she smiled, hoping to convince him that it wasn’t a slip of a tongue, instead a purposeful decision to make him wonder if she spoke truth or not. He probably didn’t buy it, but it was still worth the attempt.

  “So be it,” Ghost said. One of his swords shift
ed, she moved to jump, but then he saluted her with the blade. “A game, then. I will let you search unimpeded, but I expect the same courtesy of you. If you somehow find him first…all I asked is that you come to me at the Mug and Feather tavern so I may know your name. Any lady more skilled in tracking than I is a lady I would sorely wish to meet with again. Consider it a repayment of my generosity.”

  “The generosity of a man who nearly stabbed my back before seeing my face to confirm a kill?”

  Ghost laughed. “You are still alive, woman. That alone is proof of my generosity.”

  The way he said it, with no anger or pride, only amusement, chilled Zusa’s blood. This was a man with whom death was a common companion, who believed himself having nothing to prove. If such an agreement kept her safe from his blades…

  “I accept,” she said. “Now forgive me, but I have a man to find.”

  “Good luck,” he said. “Oh, and stay safe. I hear there’s a lot of mercenaries out searching for people like you.”

  She looked to the fire behind her, and the several corpses left there to rot in the street. When she looked back, Ghost was gone. No one that big should be able to move so silently, she thought, but it seemed she was wrong. Cursing herself, she hurried north, following the distant cries of battle. If she were lucky, they might still scare out the Watcher, but now she wondered if she truly had any hope of finding him before Ghost. How great would Alyssa’s anger be if she found out Ghost had captured him first?

  Still, that was better than them finding him at the same time. However that confrontation might end, she knew her blood would be spilled.

  *

  T he city had gone to the Abyss. There was no other way to describe the horrors Haern watched as he hurried along the streets, keeping his head down and his swords hidden. It was too dangerous to remain on the rooftops. Every mercenary with a bow was firing at whatever moved. He’d counted four fires the last time he’d found a quiet enough spot to scale a wall and look over the city. Madness, total madness. Was this what it’d been like when his father first declared war against the Trifect so long ago?

  The mercenaries traveled in squads, some as large as a hundred. They roamed the streets, smashing in doors, dragging out scared owners to ask questions, demand names, and sometimes execute outright. He watched a group of three thieves, Spiders based on their cloaks, chased by twenty men in armor. They died when a second group cut them off, another ten with naked blades and eager eyes. The mercenaries left only pieces of the three. Pieces.

  Because he lacked guild colors and appeared the beggar, he’d managed to avoid much of their ire. He’d been questioned twice. The first time he feigned deafness. The second time he pointed them on their way toward the headquarters of the Serpent Guild. While following them, he watched a couple dragged out of bed, the husband hollering, his wife holding blankets to her chest to hide her nakedness. While their children watched from the doorway, the mercenaries cut their throats and cheered the name of Alyssa Gemcroft as if she were a goddess of blood and murder.

  All the while, the city guards remained nowhere to be found.

  Haern ducked through a side alley, not surprised to find two more there with him. They wore the colors of the Hawks, and they drew daggers as he rushed by. He wished them luck, out of nothing more than professional courtesy. Part of him wondered how many would abandon their cloaks. Doing so was considered punishable by death. Still, it seemed the only way to survive. Of course, he’d seen plenty without cloaks or colors dying in the street. Perhaps all it’d take was a single man whispering your name to find yourself in the arms of sellswords…

  Deciding it worth the risk, he used a window ledge to vault atop a house that overlooked the headquarters of the Serpents. Thirty soldiers surrounded the place, some wielding crossbows, some torches. There was no doubt to their intentions. Those inside could die by blade or by smoke and fire. Hardly a choice he’d desire to make.

  “By order of Lady Gemcroft, all those affiliated with the thief guilds are to be executed,” the mercenary captain shouted. “We know you’re in there, so come out and die with honor!”

  Haern flattened on the rooftop, making sure no one could see him. The last thing he wanted was some crossbowman with a twitchy finger putting a bolt through his eye.

  “This city ain’t hers!” challenged a hidden stranger. Haern’s eyes narrowed as he realized the voice did not come from the surrounded headquarters. “Time you sellswords learned that!”

  There were five buildings with clear views of the headquarters, including the one Haern lay atop of. From every one of their windows appeared green-cloaked men with bows and crossbows. With a loud cry they released. A third of the mercenaries died in the first wave. Some tried fleeing toward the main streets, while others stormed toward the buildings. The arrows gave chase. When the last fell, Haern saw William Ket step out from the headquarters, a gleaming sword in his hand. He found the mercenary captain, chopped off his head with three swings, and lifted it to the air. The rest of his guild cheered.

  Haern’s blood ran cold. The other guilds would certainly be preparing ambushes as well. While it’d be foolish not to expect losses on both sides, and he generally held no love for mercenaries, there were a few mercenaries that he did care for.

  “Damn it, Senke,” he whispered, pulling back so he wouldn’t have to see the executions of those who still cried out in pain. “Tell me you aren’t part of this nonsense. You can’t have been this stupid.”

  But of course he would have. It seemed every free man had been brought into Alyssa’s fury. What had spurred this on? Why now? He so rarely heard news of her, of the Trifect in general. They’d grown quiet, defensive. But this?

  There was nothing quiet about the screams that seemed to come from everywhere as the stars vanished beneath great curtains of smoke. How much of the city would burn? Would any be desperate enough to form bucket brigades while the death squads marched? He didn’t know, and didn’t care. He had to find Senke and Delysia. Losing them once had been hard enough. He couldn’t do it again. The city was large and swarming with men. Finding them would be near impossible, but at least he knew names to search for…assuming neither were using aliases.

  Haern dropped back to the street and began searching for a smaller group of men to ambush. He had to avoid several larger patrols, and at one point, a crossbow bolt. At last he encountered a group of three, deep in combat with five members of the Ash Guild, a sixth bleeding out nearby. The mercenaries were cornered against the city wall, and it was only their superior armor and reach that kept them alive against the greater numbers. Haern descended upon them like a whirlwind, his swords cutting down two before the thieves even knew he was there. He cut the throat of a third, then watched the final two die at the hands of the mercenaries.

  “Thanks,” said one of them, a gruff man with a beard and a wicked cut across his nose that was still bleeding. “Fuckers led us here as a trap, then jumped us from the rooftops.”

  “I have no time,” Haern said, making sure to keep his cloak low so they only partially saw his face. “I’m searching for a small group of mercenaries. One is named Senke, another Delysia Eschaton. They should be together.”

  “Not a clue,” said the man with the bleeding nose.

  “Don’t know about no Delysia,” said the second as he walked over and killed the sixth Ash member, who had been whimpering in pain. “But that name sounds familiar. I know a Tarlak Eschaton, and he runs his tiny group, nothing but small-timers. Guy’s half off his rocker. Might be them you’re looking for.”

  “Perhaps. Do you know where they might be?”

  The man spat. “All them smaller groups got put together and sent to the far south. Alyssa figured it’d be easier to spread out and find the rats when they tried to hide in their slums.”

  Haern fought down his panic. They’d been sent into the very homes of the thieves, as if they would be the ambushers? When the guilds fled to safety there, it would be they doing t
he killing, not the mercenaries. He had to get them out of there, and fast. He bowed to the three men and then turned south.

  “Hey, what’s your name?” asked the man with the bleeding nose.

  “I have none,” he shouted. When he turned, he caught sight of something strange, like a white face peering down from the wall, round and hairless. A glance back revealed only darkness.

  I’m jumping at shadows, he thought. If you’re alive, Senke, I’m going to murder you for accepting such a stupid assignment.

  He wondered where his father was in all this. He wouldn’t hide, not against such blatant disrespect. The Spider Guild’s headquarters were in the southeast. If these Eschaton mercenaries stumbled upon him and his best…

  Haern ran faster.

  Deciding speed was more important than stealth, he cut to one of the main roads and trusted himself to outrun any patrols. He raced south, all the while doing his best to ignore the pain in his stomach. The wound there hadn’t quite healed, though it was hardly more than an angry red scar. Still, the movement was enough to stretch the skin and agitate it. What he’d have given for an extra day or two to heal before all this madness hit.

  “You! Stop!”

  Haern cursed as he saw a group of five up ahead rush toward him, no doubt thinking him a fleeing member of the guilds. The houses were packed tight on either side, so it was either turn back in search of a route around, or go straight through.

  “Move!” he screamed, hoping to startle them with his mad rush. He slide-kicked just before nearing, avoiding an arrow that whistled overhead. His kick took out the legs of one, and he rolled away. Smashed under that much armor, he’d be killed in seconds by the others. A sword swung for his head, but he twisted and fell to one knee. Two others lunged, their swords thrusting. Haern dove to his right, landing hard on his shoulder. He’d made it to the other side.