by Jon Sprunk
"The people will do whatever their lord governor demands of them."
"And what of the mob gathered outside your gate?"
A grimace broke the hard planes of Ral's face for a moment. She had scored a hit, but then the calm returned as if nothing had happened. "Those who refuse to obey will be dealt with harshly and permanently."
She scoffed. "There aren't enough Sacred Dogs in Othir to subdue the entire city. Even recalling the nearest garrison-"
"I have," he said with a mocking grin, and waved a hand, "other resources at my disposal, my dear."
Josey started as a shadow detached itself from the darkness draping the wall behind the throne. The shadow resolved into the shape of a man, tall and lean, garbed in a monk's robe of purest black. There was something eerie about his movements; the intensity of his gaze was unnerving. Everything about him suggested barely restrained violence, a dangerous animal coiled to spring at the least provocation. An image flashed through Josey's mind, of the ebon serpent uncoiling from the ceiling in Calm's apartment, and she knew what this creature was at once.
Sorcerer. Trafficker of the black arts. Agent of the Dark Ones.
"What have you leagued yourself with?" she whispered.
"A power from beyond this world." Ral nodded to the newcomer. "Enough to rule a nation and rebuild an empire. You should thank me, Princess. I intend to restore your birthright."
Whatever Ral intended to say next was interrupted by a commotion at the entrance. Sacred Brothers ushered a throng of men and women into the hall. She recognized one face in the group: Anastasia's father, Lord Farthington. She started to lift her hand to catch his attention, but hesitated when she got a better look at him. Lord Farthington looked drawn and haggard, his face more deeply lined than she remembered. His mouth quivered as he was herded inside with the others. He's terrified. A tiny shudder fluttered her belly. If such a powerful lord was afraid, what chance did she have?
"My lords and esteemed ladies." Ral lifted his voice. "Forgive this dis turbance of your persons at such a late hour, but there are matters of great importance at hand which require your attention."
Josey chewed on her bottom lip. The words sounded rehearsed. Ral was playing some sort of game, and she wanted nothing to do with it. She cast her gaze about the chamber. The robed man had vanished when the aristocrats arrived, as silently as a phantom, but she got the feeling he was nearby. She sidled over to a side wall, pretending to admire the tapestries while she checked the exits. She didn't know the layout of the palace very well, but if she could get away from the hall she might be able to find a way out. Getting away was all she could think about.
Behind her, Ral climbed the dais as he addressed the nobles. He kicked over one of the wooden boxes on his way up the steps, sending its contents tumbling to the floor. Gasps rose from the crowd.
"Good people, don't be alarmed," he said. "This is a glorious moment. This is the day you shall long remember as the beginning of a new era of prosperity and majesty."
As Ral sat in the center throne, an old nobleman staggered forward as if to admonish him, but a hulking soldier shoved him back into the crowd.
"Nobles of Othir," Ral said. A pair of golden ravens rested atop the throne's tall back, as if perched upon his shoulders. "I proclaim myself your sovereign. As a merciful man, I am granting you the opportunity to be the first to bow to me and swear your allegiance."
He gestured to the wooden boxes. "Or be declared traitors and face immediate execution."
While the gentry sputtered and clamored in indignation, Josey picked up her skirt and tiptoed to a narrow archway tucked between two arrays. She was almost there when a large frame filled the opening. Her silk slippers slid to a halt as Markus loomed before her. His scarred cheeks twitched into a mockery of a smile as he stared at her with cruel intensity.
Ral's voice called from behind her. "Ah, it is time for your most excellent personages to meet my betrothed. Allow me to present Princess Josephine of the House Corrinada. My bride-to-be."
Tears formed in Josey's eyes as she turned to the crowd. They watched her with various degrees of astonishment.
Ral extended a hand from the throne. "Come, my dear. Stand beside me so we can address our subjects together."
As Markus took her arm in a painful grip, Josey moved her feet to keep from being dragged across the tiles. With every step the turmoil of dread grew within her bosom. She cast her gaze about the hall, hands bunched into the folds of her skirt.
Caim, where are you?
Nightfall greeted Caim on his return to Othir. He didn't need to use the Ereptos tomb tunnel; the soldiers had abandoned the gates, and for good reason. The city was destroying itself in a tumult of blood and fire.
He slipped in through the Black Gate and stalked down streets scarred by fighting and mayhem. A smoky miasma hung over the city. The Processional was in shambles, with sodden furniture, broken streetlamps, and heaps of trash, some draped with dead bodies. A team of slaughtered draft horses lay in Dawnbringer Square, still in their traces. Makeshift barriers showed where the city's forces had tried to contain the violence and failed. Above the carnage, Celestial Hill loomed over the rooftops, its pristine walls gleaming like ivory in the moonlight.
"This place is a mess," Kit said as she floated over his head. "Are you sure you're going to be able to find him?"
Caim turned down a narrow lane. "I'm going to try."
A light rain filled the cracks in the street and collected in shallow pools. With knives drawn, Caim watched the dark nooks and doorways on either side of his path. His father's sword hung between his shoulder blades with strange familiarity. He wasn't sure why he had taken it. His knives had served him well enough these many years, but he was running on instinct now, and taking it had felt like the right thing to do. From time to time he found himself reaching up to touch the shagreen-wrapped hilt, and a shiver would run through his arm. After this night was over, he'd be happy to bury the thing again.
As he entered the Gutters, Caim almost ran into the backs of a gang of citizens. They marched down the center of the street, truncheons in hand. With soot and bloodstains on their clothing, they looked like they had already seen some fighting. He waited until they passed. As he crossed the street, his gaze was drawn to the hulking specter of the work house, resolute against the city skyline, walls glistening in the rain, affecting everything in its vicinity like a bloated spider in the center of a tattered web. Calm's fingers tightened around his knives as he went on his way.
He dipped into a crooked side street. It was so dark he had to navigate mostly by feel, following its meandering length for two blocks to the mouth of a constricted intersection. Water dripped down onto him from the eaves above as he stood in the safety of the alley's shadows. By its looks, Ale Street had escaped the worst of the rioting so far. A man's body in the uniform of the night watch was sprawled in the gutter outside the Blue Vine beside an overturned cart. Blood clotted in the reddish hair where half his head had been caved in.
"I'll check around back." Kit darted away.
Caim stared across the street. Slivers of light leaked from gaps around the wineshop's shuttered windows. A soft clack on cobblestones drifted through the rain. A horse, its chestnut coat rain-soaked and soiled with grime, nosed through piles of garbage. The ends of leather reins trailed in the puddles.
Caim opened and closed his fists. What was he waiting for? Josey needed him, and yet he hesitated. He had fought for her, killed for her, sacrificed everything. Was he prepared to die for her, too? He could run. Start over. Kit would be ecstatic. All he had to do was leave Josey to her fate. Just walk away.
Caim caressed the ice-cold amulet that hung from his wrist. He couldn't do it. He couldn't leave her to Ral's tender mercies. And though he was loath to admit it, he had become fond of this tired old tramp of a city. If he ever left, it would be on his terms.
Having decided, he crossed the swampy street and nudged open the door. Faces looked up as
he stepped into the common room. Half a dozen men and one woman sat around the hearth. Several hands stole inside clothing to reach for hidden surprises, but one look from him was enough to stop them cold. Mother stood behind the bar. A heavy mallet rested on the counter beside her, the kind used for breaking open cask bungs. Or caving in the skulls of young soldiers.
Caim scanned the room for a specific face, but didn't find it. "I'm looking for Hubert."
"He ain't here," Mistress Henninger replied in a terser tone than her usual. "Haven't seen him."
"Since when?"
She shrugged, one sleeve of her heavy blouse slipping off the shoulder. She reached up to put it back. "Earlier. Before sunset."
"Any idea where he is now?"
A bearded man stood up clutching a stick of firewood in his fist. "You'll get out of here if you know what's good, young buck."
Caim stared at the speaker. After half a dozen heartbeats, the bearded man settled back in his seat.
Mother came around the bar. "Don't mind him, Caim. You're a welcome sight. Hubert came by a few hours ago when the fighting took a turn for bad, and he grabbed up all the men to go with him." She shot a scornful look at the group huddled around the hearth. "At least, all the real men. Anyways, no telling when he'll be back."
"I'll wait." His voice, though hardly above a whisper, carried across the room. No one objected.
"Drink?" Mother asked.
With a nod, Caim took a seat. He tucked his knives away, but kept them loose in their sheaths. Kit floated down from the ceiling and alighted beside him.
"Nothing out there," she reported. "There's some skirmishing over in the next block, but it seems to be moving away from this part of town. The worst is down by the docks. I think someone set fire to the city granaries."
"That should keep the tinmen busy," he murmured under his breath.
"I don't know. The harbor is out of control. I didn't see any soldiers. Not any live ones, at least."
Mother brought over his drink and set it on the table. "Don't know if you'll want to be finding Hubert just now, Caim. He wasn't in his right mind when he left, if you take my meaning."
"No, I don't. What happened?"
She rubbed a hand over her prominent bosom. "Well, 'tisn't for me to say, but you got a right to know what you're walking into."
The front door banged open. All conversation ceased as three men entered. Caim almost didn't recognize the young man in their midst. Bloodstains marred Hubert's once-fine clothes, and his hat was missing. By the gore slimed on its hilt, the rapier strapped to his hip had seen some use this night. The young nobleman's gaze had a strange cast as it swept through the taproom. When it settled on Caim, a vicious smile twisted Hubert's bruised lips.
"Mother," he said, "we have a hero among us. Set this man up with another drink on me."
Hubert's words were slurred, but there was an unmistakable air of menace behind them as he came over to Calm's table, followed by a pair of thick-shouldered goons.
"I'm not here to drink, Hubert. I came looking for your help."
Hubert plopped down in a chair. His bodyguards, or whatever they were, watched the room.
"My help? I'm a little busy right now, Caim. Tonight is the moment of our grand coup. We've got the Reds on the run, but you already know that, don't you? You paved the way, so to speak."
"What are you talking about, Hubert?"
Hubert laughed, a dry sound devoid of humor. "Playing the innocent, Caim? There's no need, I assure you. You can take full credit for my father. He was, after all, a tyrant at heart."
Caim had a sinking suspicion he knew the answer, but asked anyway. "What about him?"
"He's dead, Caim. Someone entered his rooms at the palace last night and killed him. Then they took his head. A bit macabre of you, but it was a nice touch."
Caim remembered Mathias lying in his bed with his heart cut out. What had Ral said at the Golden Wheel? Something about taking matters into his own hands. Vassili must have been Ral's secret patron. It made sense. With the backing of a Council member, Ral would have felt untouchable. But at some point, he'd decided he didn't need the archpriest. So he'd devised his own plans, which somehow involved Josey. It might already be too late. She could be dead. The thought ricocheted inside Calm's head, dashing all his thoughts to pieces. He took a deep breath. He had to remain in control. That was the only way to save her.
"And you think I had something to with it?"
Hubert leaned forward until their faces were inches apart. The reek of whiskey hit Caim like a punch to the jaw.
"You're Caim the Knife, slayer of the corrupt and powerful. But my father wasn't some goddamned monster. He did this city a lot of good."
"So good his own son was out to unseat him?"
"You don't know anything about it!" Hubert slammed his fists on the tabletop.
The other patrons huddled closer around the hearth while Hubert's bodyguards inched forward.
Kit materialized behind the bravos. "You better do something, Caim. These guys are carrying a lot of hardware."
Caim slouched back in his seat. He had never seen Hubert like this. The young man seemed on the verge of a maniacal rage.
"Listen to me, Hubert. I didn't kill your father, or any of the other Elector Councilors. That was Ral. He's working with someone, a foreigner. They're plotting to take over the government. They killed the archpriest."
Hubert sneered across the table. "A pretty tale, but there's no need to deny it. You've done us all a great service."
"I was out of the city taking Josey somewhere safe, or that I thought was safe."
"Ah, yes. The conspirator's daughter and her faithful knight in shining armor."
Hubert reached for the cup on the table, and Caim caught the young man's wrist in a hard grip. "That's enough."
Hubert's reddened eyes stabbed at Caim. Then his features crumbled into a ruin of misery. "Why did they have to butcher him like that? I know he could be a hard man, even cruel sometimes, but they had no right..
Caim released Hubert. He sympathized, but his insides were ice. "The people responsible are the same ones I'm after. They took Josey and now they're holed up in the palace with a battalion of tinmen."
Hubert wiped his face with a coat sleeve. "What are you going to do?"
"Storm the palace and get her back."
"Really?" Kit blurted. "That's your plan?"
Caim clamped his jaws together to keep from yelling for her to keep quiet. "What about you?" he asked Hubert.
"I've been rousing the people. We already control most of Low Town. We could use your help, but it sounds like you've got enough on your plate."
"We could work together."
Hubert looked more like his old self now. He sat up straighter in the chair and even managed a backhanded brush down each of his coat sleeves.
"How?"
"You might control Low Town, but the Brotherhood still holds everything above the Processional. You'll never take High Town with a rabble of shopkeeps and stevedores, so don't even try Go straight to Celestial Hill."
"What will that accomplish?"
"We'll cut off the head of the beast. With Ral and his lieutenants out of the way, there'll be no one to coordinate their soldiers. Once we control the palace, the city will fall to us by default."
"That's a big risk. My father died taking a chance like that."
Caim drew his knives and set them on the table. The bodyguards shifted, but kept their distance.
"You're not your father, Hubert. Prove it tonight. Help me save Josey and put down this menace for good. She's the heir to the old emperor. We found the documents to prove it. She's royalty"
"Royalty, eh? Well, she certainly acted the part. But why should my people risk their lives just to trade one tyrant for another?"
"Because she's not her father either. She's what this country needs to knit itself back together. You always talk about a return to the old ways. This is your chance to prove it. Thi
s could either be Nimea's last night as a unified realm, or the beginning of a better life for us all."
Hubert eyed the blades, and then nodded. "I'm in. What do you want me to do?"
Caim smiled across the table. "I've got a plan."
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
ain pelted Caim as he crouched in the half-finished bell tower of the new cathedral. The wind howled in his ears. Rain pounded on the stone roof. No stars shined this night, and no moon, only a screen of tumultuous storm clouds stretched across the city.
A good night for killing.
High Town spread below him in a carpet of gray and black. Celestial Hill rose against the sky like a great wave. Lightning flashed, and the bleached shoals of white rooftops appeared before the night washed back over the city. Flames flickered along the Celestial's broad avenues, where a thousand plebeians struggled against the city militias. True to his word, young Vassili had assembled an army: milliners and bakers, porters and servants armed with all manner of weapons, from torches and lengths of raw timber to pikes stolen from slain tinmen.
Their goal was the Luccian Palace, sprawled atop Celestial like a crowning jewel, surrounded by concentric walls with watchtowers and massive barbicans. Hubert's spies reported Ral had withdrawn all of his pet soldiers inside in anticipation of a siege. Exactly what Caim wanted him to do.
"They're almost in position," Kit said. "Hubert says he doesn't expect much resistance."
The rain was freezing cold, but Caim paid it no mind. "They'll fight back. They don't have any choice."
"It's really burning out of control."
Caim turned his head. Billows of ugly black smoke shrouded the boroughs of Low Town. Fire had claimed entire blocks, devouring homes, storefronts, and public buildings in its wrath. The rain was the only thing keeping the blazes contained, but many would die before morning. More would die if his plan didn't succeed.
