“Get out of here,” I ordered Tembol, “and tell Mr. Noble I found no faults with your work tonight. Use those exact words. Now, I mean it, hurry and get out of here.”
The young thug nodded and, without another word, trotted back into the darkness toward the square. A minute later, I heard the clatter of hooves as the coach hurried away.
Pulling the door shut, it was a simple matter to relock it.
Then I yanked the toymaker to his feet and gestured toward the darkness filling the far end of the warehouse. Large crates and bundles rose in stacks around us, with aisles leading off into the shadows in all directions. He stumbled upright and started limping ahead of me at the end of the cord. A few rats squeaked in the darkness around us, irritated at the nocturnal intrusion.
Twice I saw large spiders race across the path in front of us, a bit of a surprise this late in the year. As a matter of fact, it occurred to me that I had been running into a lot of them lately.
“Okay, I get it,” the toymaker gasped. “You must have loved her, or at least thought you did. I can’t do anything about that, what’s done is done. But it wouldn’t have worked, anyway. She was a whore. She just appeared to be whoever you needed her to be. That’s what they do. You’re hurting over a girl that never existed, a persona she created in order to use you.”
I kicked him right in the middle of the back.
I had known Camber since she had been six years old, and if this old rat thought he was “reasoning” with me, he was sorely mistaken.
We reached the other end of the warehouse, where another door, identical to the one we entered, awaited us. I tripped him, and then walked over to the door and started to work on the lock. I wasn’t feeling terribly conversational.
“Look,” he continued, “maybe I was wrong about her. I’m sorry. Maybe she was different than the others. If that’s the case, then I’m truly sorry. I thought I was being careful. I chose the whores because I only wanted to use someone who didn’t matter.”
That caused me to pause my attempts on the lock for a second, and then I renewed my efforts with a clenched jaw. The City Watch and the rest of the city had decided they didn’t matter, either—it wasn’t as if the murderous toymaker had reached that conclusion alone. And now here the bastard sat, trying to convince me how thoughtful he had been about the whole thing. He believed it, too.
I got the door open, and then roughly jerked him to his feet. Setting the lantern against the wall outside, I pulled the toymaker to me by the cord and then kicked him out the door and into the alley. Again, I bent to the task of locking the door behind me.
That’s when the toymaker screamed.
I whirled, my knife at the ready, but he huddled, cowering against the wall, staring wide-eyed down the alley to my right. His face was a mask of raw terror.
For a hopeful second, I thought he looked like he had seen a ghost…then a likelier suspect came to mind.
Holding up the lantern, I peered down the direction he stared. I saw nothing but the empty alley as far as the lanterns light reached.
“There’s a monster down there!” he gabbled. “It was there just a second ago!”
“A monster, huh.”
“There was! I’m telling you the truth!”
“Let me guess. It was a great big hairy spider. A reeeally big one.”
The look on his face told me all I needed to know.
Talanturos.
The savage fury that had propelled me for so long was suddenly diluted by a tiny trickle of doubt, but only for a second. There was something more going on tonight than I was aware of, yet at the moment I was simply too far gone to care.
“Just somebody trying to butt in on my business,” I snarled. “Well, he can wait his own damned turn.”
I yanked the toymaker to his feet and pushed him ahead of me.
“It was there, I tell you!”
“I believe you,” I grunted and pushed again. “I just don’t care.”
“You’re insane!”
“No, I’m just really, really mad. But I’m going to fix that soon, and then I’ll be all better.”
I think that’s when he figured out he had bigger problems than unnaturally large spiders.
“Look,” he panted as he stumbled down the dark alley, “maybe there is something I can offer you.”
I actually laughed.
“What could you possibly have that I want, you miserable little sack of filth.”
“Her.”
“What?” I stopped for a second and stared at him in disbelief.
“You still have the drawings, right?” he asked through gasping breaths. “I could work with those. You wouldn’t be able to tell her from the original. Except for the voice, because there’s no way to go back and harvest that. But you could find another whore with a similar voice, if that’s important to you. And she would be better than the original. Forever young, pretty, and obedient. Totally loyal to you.”
I have never been one for moral outrage. I’ve never had the room to talk, so to speak. I have associated and even partnered with some of the worst examples of humanity mankind has to offer. But right then, I realized if there were any monsters in that alleyway, it was the one talking to me.
I stood there speechless with revulsion. The idea that Camber had died just to serve this old wretch’s fantasies choked me with fury.
Unable to reply, I pushed him ahead of me, further down the alley. Behind me, I heard a distant boom…like somebody had kicked a distant heavy door very, very hard.
Nocce was coming.
We turned the corner of the alley and I pushed him out toward the slightly brighter gloom ahead. He stumbled out into the deserted plaza on Candlewalk Lane—the same one I nearly died in just a week back.
With the street closed, only the occasional large paper lantern up and down the street had been lit, casting almost no light on the deserted street below. Candlewalk Lane was like a vast, empty cave, swallowing up any light brave enough to venture into it. It was eerily still, with no customers, as all the taverns and inns had closed their doors for the evening. The Captain had obviously put a lot of manpower into shutting down the entire lane, in hopes of preventing Maddy from killing tonight.
I intended to disappoint him.
“Maddy!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, “I have somebody here who wants to meet you!”
The toymaker’s eyes widened as he realized my intent.
He tried to struggle to his feet, but with a wooden leg and his hands bound behind him, he was unable to stand without help. He rolled to his back and tried to scoot away from me, but I had a firm grip on the cord to his thumb shackles. He finally settled for a seated position on the cobblestones, looking wildly around the dark plaza.
“Maddy! Camber!” I shouted, louder this time. “I’ve got him! I’ve got the bastard who hurt you! He’s all yours! Just come and get him!”
Nothing answered me but the fading sound of my shout echoing down the black, deserted cavern of a street. Silence fell like a blanket in the darkness.
The silence was shortly broken by the sound of Chappett laughing.
“This was your plan?” he giggled and wheezed. “Drag me across town and hope the ghost of that silly little bint shows up to finish me off?”
He rocked back and forth on the cobblestones, shaking with laughter.
“Oh, I don’t think you’ll find her so silly nowadays,” I growled. But doubt was now truly making its presence felt. I had the growing suspicion I was still missing something important.
“You idiot!” he laughed hysterically. “Why would Maddy be here? I killed her in the alley behind the The Horse’s Collar. The pathetic little wench didn’t even try to fight, either. Just whimpered with tears filling her eyes, like a naughty little brat who knew her punishment was coming. She was the easiest of the five. Why would I fear her?!”
I realized right then that when I killed this piece of dung, I would be doing it for Maddy, too. I knew Camber wo
uld understand.
What I didn’t understand was why the ghost appeared in this plaza the last time I had been here. I guess it didn’t matter.
The phantom apparently didn’t intend to put in an appearance, which meant the toymaker was only slowing me down. The time had come to finish this, and then get out of here before Nocce arrived.
I put my hand on my knife, marshalled my will, and turned to face him.
“Hah!” he spat. “Go ahead and do it, if you got the guts, but there is one last little thing I want you to know. I do recognize this place. This is where I picked up that gutter trash cow you’ve been bawling about all night. Right over there, on that corner.” He nodded at the corner where the ghost had first appeared on the night it nearly killed me.
That’s when I finally got it.
The last piece of the puzzle fit into place, and suddenly it all made sense. I had come to the wrong place. This wasn’t where the ghost would appear…not tonight.
But at the same time I realized the toymaker was wrong, too.
I started wracking my memory, trying to remember the location of where I needed to be, then decided it was easier to ask the guy who had been there.
“Let’s talk,” I said cheerfully as I drew my knife and approached him.
“That’s not necessary, Mr. Cargill,” a familiar voice interrupted from the darkness at the other end of the plaza. “He has said quite enough already. In front of three watchmen, too. Why don’t you just put away that knife now, and let me escort this fellow to the cell that awaits him near Three Gallows Square.”
The three watchmen stepped out into the dim light of the single large paper lantern hanging at the corner of the street and the square.
Oh gods, not now! I didn’t have time for this intrusion.
The Captain must have decided not to personally man the barricades shutting down the street. Instead, he had chosen to stake out the last place the ghost had appeared. I should have realized his curiosity would have gotten the better of him.
Oh well, this could actually save time.
“Heinryk, do you remember where they found Longbow Lia?” I asked.
“Yep,” he said through his teeth while he lit his pipe, “in the alley, behind that little candle shop on Kingshead Square. Why?”
That wasn’t too far, and I would be willing to bet real money he had picked up Lia in Kingshead Square itself.
“Mr. Cargill, I don’t know what you’re thinking of doing,” the Captain barked as I pulled the toymaker to me and put a knife to his throat, “but it’s time for you to release that man to me and go home.”
“Captain,” I replied hurriedly, “I would love to stay and argue, but I’m really busy right now. On the other hand, you need to get out of here. Some very bad things are about to happen to some very bad people, probably including me. There is no point in anybody else getting hurt.”
I started pulling the toymaker up the street toward Kingshead Square, the knife still at his throat.
“It just so happens,” Drayton growled, “that stopping very bad things from happening is part of my job. Now, sheath that knife, and let’s all end this and go home. You got him, and he’ll pay for what he did. That’s what matters here.”
He had no trouble keeping pace with me, unhindered by an unwilling captive. At the same time, Heinryk and Poole began to spread out to each side of him, looking for an opportunity to flank. To their credit, neither of them looked happy about it.
And to be truthful, neither was I. After getting to know them these past months, I found facing them on opposite sides of a brewing fight to be an unsettling experience.
Fortunately, things never had a chance to come to that.
Behind them, a soft white glow became visible in the dark corner of the plaza they had stepped out of. At first the light had the soft quality of moon light, but it rapidly gained in intensity. As it did, the light radiated outwards, illuminating the central statue and the surrounding plaza in a soft pearly luminescence.
“What the hell is that?” I gaped.
The three watchmen spun back toward the brightening plaza and drew their weapons.
“Baaaaa!” said the four-legged figure at the center of the glow.
“It’s my goat!” Poole crowed. “It works!”
Of course…
Just what this night needed.
At the same time, a distant boom and crash issued from the alleyway from which I had entered the plaza in the first place. It sounded remarkably like a reinforced warehouse door being kicked right off its hinges. The goat started to glow steadily brighter.
Time was now running out.
“But where is the ghost?” Poole muttered as the three of them looked around.
I didn’t have time to explain it to them.
“Captain!” I yelled. “We have to run, now! It’s after me, so if you run the other way, it will ignore you. I have to get to Kingshead Square before it catches me!”
I started yanking the toymaker up the dark street as fast as I could.
“What are we running from, Mr. Cargill?” Drayton yelled back. At least the Watchmen were backing their way up the road and away from the square. I guess it came as no surprise that the Captain chose to follow me instead of saving his own hide. All the same, we were still moving too slow, and if something didn’t change then we weren’t going to make it.
“The thing this bastard used to kill those women,” I snarled.
I finally realized that while the toymaker had probably been capable of killing Maddy and maybe Tel, a streetwise fighter like Camber would have left the old madman bleeding on the cobblestones. Hells, Lia would have probably been singing some Bardockian war dirge while beating him to death with his own wooden leg.
No, he had led them to where he had something inhuman waiting to assist him. It could only have worked that way.
And that “something inhuman” was coming.
“Captain,” I panted, “I’ll make you deal. I’ll turn him over to you right now, unharmed, but you have to help us hurry and get to Kingshead Square. Otherwise, I’m going to have to cut his throat right here. I’m sorry, Captain, I really am. But I’m out of choices and time.”
I repositioned the knife against the old bastard’s throat and pulled his head back. He whimpered in fear, his momentary bravado gone.
I hoped Keris had been wrong, and that I could go through with this.
“Cargill, don’t do this. This won’t…”
And that’s when Nocce limped out of the alley, into the plaza, and started heading our way.
Apparently she wasn’t indestructible, since kicking her way through two iron reinforced oaken doors and a nonstop run a quarter of the way through Khrem had taken some toll on her. She still wore her work blouse and skirt, both badly torn, but must have lost the work smock somewhere back on the roads. The goat glowed even brighter as she came to her closest point to it before turning up the street.
“We’re running from her?” the Captain asked in bemusement.
“I bet she ain’t used to guys running away from her,” Poole added as he came to a stop.
“What in all the hells?” Heinryk stared intently at the approaching figure. “It couldn’t be…”
“It’s not,” I replied, throwing the toymaker to the ground and hefting the heavy crossbow slung over my back.
This was a heavy siege crossbow, designed to pierce shields and pin armored fighters to their horses. It was completely illegal to carry in town, a point I’m sure the good Captain would get around to lecturing me about if we lived through this. It had only one shot, and I carried no other bolts for it. There would be no point in it because I had nowhere near the strength to crank the thing to reload it.
“You guys watch Cargill and the prisoner. I’ll talk to the lady,” Poole said and started to head toward her.
“Poole, stay back!” both Heinryk and I yelled at the same time.
“Cargill, no!” the Captain yelled as I took
aim and let the bolt fly.
The recoil of the thing surprised me, driving me back a full step, but the bolt flew true.
It struck Nocce square in the chest and sent her tumbling backwards like a rag doll. She ended up in a tangled heap about eight feet back from where she had been standing.
She didn’t move.
The Captain wheeled on me, eyes wide with shock and outrage.
“By the Gods! What have you done?” he hissed, approaching me.
“I’ve bought us a few seconds,” I replied as I pulled the toymaker up to his feet and yanked him, away from the Captain and further up the street. “I recommend we put them to good use and get moving.”
“You murdered a helpless woman!”
“Trust me, Captain, I’ve done nothing of the sort.”
At least, I hoped I hadn’t.
“Uhhhh, Captainnnn…” Poole called urgently.
“What is it, man?” the Captain replied, turning back to his men. We both looked back down the street.
Nocce had risen to her feet.
She stood there, the bolt sprouting from her chest, apparently sunk in about an inch deep—which was all wrong since it should have gone completely through her and splintered itself on one of the stone walls beyond.
She looked down at it and frowned. Reaching up with one hand, Nocce plucked it from her chest and slapped it down into her other palm. Glaring at us, she twisted the heavy bolt in half, the sound of splintering wood carrying up the street to us.
Then she started limping our way.
“Oh my,” the Captain observed astutely.
“Exactly,” I replied. “I’m taking this garbage up to Kingshead Square now. You three figure out what you’re going to do.”
With that, I jerked the toymaker up the street again. I had done my best for them, and now the time had come to try to get my skin out of this in one piece.
“Captain,” Heinryk said in a hurried but formal tone, “I propose we follow Mr. Cargill’s plan until we have time to assess this situation further and formulate one of our own.”
“Agreed,” Drayton replied. “Poole, let’s go!”
Heinryk caught me and the toymaker in a few swift strides.
The Ways of Khrem Page 22
