The Taste of Waterfruit and Other Stories (Story Portals)

by Richard Lee Byers

  That wistful voice was not so different from the one that spoke now, save the fluency in Ankoran.

  "Anyway, we are here to talk business," said her client, breaking the lull between them. "As I expressed to your contact, I wish to hire your services and I am prepared to discuss the work, terms, and payment."

  She placed both arms on the table, hands clasped together, plainly ready to deal. "There is a merchant by the name of Preiza who was hired to transport a valuable purchase of mine and see it delivered safely here in Jakarr. However, Preiza has decided to renege on his part of the arrangement and keep the purchase for himself. He has no idea what he holds in his home, but believes that because I was willing to pay so much for it that it must be very valuable and he could do better by selling it to another. I am a small, insignificant shopkeeper with no major backing. I cannot fight him on his terms, so I must come to you."

  Not so small, if she can afford Lady Kat, thought Katya. Aloud, she asked, "Are you asking me to steal it back? While I can do that, it is not my usual work."

  Her client reached into the hood of her cloak, trying to tuck back a lock of wayward hair that had fallen free. "Yes, please steal it back, but that's not all I would like. Kill him as well." She spoke frankly, as though adding a simple errand on top of another. "He was the only one to know the content of my purchase. He could not have been approached by another buyer. I won't stand for his treatment of me or my business."

  The hood fell back from her fidgeting, revealing that same pale face with aquiline features and dark almond eyes Katya remembered from their journey together all those years ago. Black hair fell to her shoulders and curled lightly about her face. She was thinner, her eyes wiser, since the weeks they'd spent sharing their lives on the journey to Ankora, Katya talking about the sights in Kaigon and her companion explaining the eccentricities of Misso.

  "Killing him is certainly possible," said Katya. "Are there any particulars? Some clients wish to specify their target's manner of death, either for their own satisfaction or to pin the blame on another. Particularly complicated or egregious methods will cost more, as will blue work."

  Her client's eyes lit briefly at the notion of killing with magic, but she shook her head. "Nothing complicated is necessary. The purchase he stole from me is a ch'thon egg. It's not that large; little bigger than a chicken's." She held up hands to show the size. "It's spotted purple, to better hide among the wildflowers of the island it's native to. Show the egg to Preiza and let him know that he is dying because he withheld the purchase from me. Beyond that, the methods are yours to choose."

  "What name should I give him?" asked Katya.

  "Sakone."

  It was her.

  * * *

  Katya had heard of the ch'thon before but had never seen one, and had never really believed they existed. It was reported to be some sort of rare tropical lizard with a ferocious gaze that would turn its prey to stone so it could not run away. She'd thought it was just the result of another seafarer's tale in Wenshi, told in hopes of entertaining enough to earn another drink. It was easy to produce mystic and magical creatures while inebriated before a receptive audience. If it was real, such a creature would be horribly dangerous, and indeed it would be unwise for an uninformed merchant to keep it.

  Well into the darkest hour of night, Katya jumped down into the inner courtyard of Preiza's estate. It was paved with cobblestones, and immaculately tended bushes and trees lined the perimeter. A stone garden with two decorative pillars stood to the side of the main walk leading up to the master's personal apartment.

  Hounds whuffled plaintively on the other side of the courtyard wall. They knew they had missed something, but not how or where or what. Katya had cast a spell to void her scent as she passed through the estate, leaving at best the impression that something had once been there.

  She clasped one of her many daggers, ready to call on the magic stored inside, as she reached out to the rest of the courtyard, scanning for the spells of others. There was a trap on the tiled floor immediately outside the double doors leading into Preiza's quarters, and another on the doors themselves. Those were the obvious ones. She found a third spell, a hidden one, tucked into the right door handle, almost completely obscured by the larger spell on the double doors. A lesser intruder would disable the larger spell, miss the handle, and no doubt suffer some unpleasantness for her carelessness.

  Katya could do better than that, and she knew she had the time before the guards' patrol took them through the inner courtyard again.

  She set about unraveling the floor spell first, so she could stand before the door. It was a common combination of alarm and entrapment spell, to hold the intruder in place while calling the guards. This trap would be for the mundane intruders with little aptitude for magic.

  The door trap, however, was intended for those wily enough to avoid standing directly in front of it, perhaps if someone had found a way to negate or subdue the floor or hang from the roof. This one had a paralyzation component worked inside. Even better than trapping an intruder was making sure she could never leave.

  And the handle trap...that was magebane. It wasn't lethal on its own, but afflicated mages would find their concentration breaking and their throats closing when they tried to cast something. The effects would wear off in a few hours, but its presence on the door handle meant that there were other traps on the other side, to catch a magic-wielding intruder who could no longer cast.

  This was a handy setup for a well-to-do merchant capable of dealing in exotic goods, especially something as unusual as a ch'thon egg.

  It did not, however, help Katya understand why Sakone would want one.

  Katya did not make it a habit to concern herself with her clients’ business, at least not beyond what was prudent for her own safety. But she knew Sakone, or at least she thought she had.

  Sakone had been about to enter a promising marriage, perhaps not by choice but at least one in which she would be well cared for. From what she'd told Katya, her parents had gone to great pains to find someone they believed would treat their daughter well, and her husband-to-be would certainly have wanted to keep in good standing with the family in order to reap the benefits of increased trade opportunities with Misso. Her melancholy had come not out of fear for her future so much as she would miss her family.

  Katya wanted to ask what had happened, but Katya her friend and Lady Kat the assassin were two different people. There was no reason for Sakone to see her friend again after so long, or for her friend to know of her recent activity.

  She dispelled the last of the traps and opened the door. Preiza must have been secure in the handle trap, because there was only one more inside, and it was a simple snare. She dispelled this one as well and stepped inside. She closed the door behind her.

  Preiza's personal apartment consisted of three rooms, and if Sakone's information was correct, he kept his most valuable merchandise in his study. There he would keep the illicit goods, the things people would buy that he could not easily move, not without time and effort.

  Quietly, she passed through the sitting room. The door to the right was open, and she could vaguely make out the shape of a desk inside, which meant the closed door to the left was the bedroom. She checked again for signs of magic, but found nothing.

  Very well, the egg first.

  She slunk inside the study, shut the door, and cast a spell to muffle the passage of sound through the walls around her. Now she was free to turn this room upside down if she had to. Short of breaking legs off a chair or pitching the desk or the bookcase beside it to the floor, no one should hear her.

  Her eyes darted over the desk drawers, two of them with locks, and a velvet-coated box beside a stack of parchment. Sakone had not known in what sort of container the egg would have been carried here, but in any case Preiza could have removed it after taking it into his home. Katya crouched beside the desk and peered at the locked drawers, noting the nigh imperceptible pinholes beside the lock
s. Trapped. These were probably to deter the house staff. He wouldn't need such costly spells against them.

  But would he keep an egg in his desk?

  She stood up and looked at the velvet box. It was a little small and fancy to hold an egg, scarcely larger than an egg itself. Frowning, she cast her eyes about the room and her gaze alit on a shabby wicker box two-thirds of the way up the bookshelf. It was large enough to hide a melon.

  On a hunch, Katya lifted the lid and found another box cradled inside; this one of wood, with a musky, exotic scent she did not recognize. She removed the wooden box's lid and nestled inside a bed of wooden shavings was an egg. It was squatter than a chicken's, and splotched in some fashion. She couldn't see it well in the darkness.

  Carefully, she lifted out the egg. It was heavier than it looked, and warm as well. She held it near the crack of moonlight that made its way around the curtained window. Yes, there were spots. Probably purple.

  She closed up the boxes, ended the muffling, and opened the study.

  Now the bedroom.

  When she opened the door she found Preiza was not alone. He lay on the side of the bed closest to the window and a wife, lover, or some other woman was beside him. If it wasn't for the fact she had to tell him who wished for his death, this would have been simple. She could kill him in his sleep without waking the woman slumbering beside him. As it was, she would simply have to incapacitate them both, lest they try something hasty to protect each other.

  Katya pulled the magic stored in her dagger and forced a paralysis about the two sleepers, then an additional spell reinforcing the sleep over the woman. Preiza would undoubtedly wake, but he would not be able to move or scream, and that should be enough to keep from rousing his companion.

  That done, Katya reached out and shook Preiza by the shoulder. At first his eyelids squeezed tighter, as though trying to return to sleep, but then they blinked open as he must have realized the rest of his body was not responding. His eyes darted about and then focused on Katya. She waited until he had wakened enough to realize his predicament and then lifted the egg where he could see it.

  "You withheld delivery of this ch'thon egg from Sakone," she said. "She requested that I eliminate you and sends her regards."

  She saw the flicker of recognition in Preiza's eyes, and that was all she needed to know the message had been sent. Katya used her now depleted dagger to cut his throat. On the other side of his body she could see the woman beside him, still sleeping; oblivious.

  Katya turned away and made to put the egg in her belt pouch when she felt it rock in her hand. Puzzled, she lifted it into the moonlight, but she couldn't see anything wrong with it. Then it shook again. She could feel it, a slight pressure thrusting at one side.

  The egg was hatching.

  Shi'in's grace! Had Sakone known it was this close? Why hadn't she warned her?

  Katya dropped the egg into her pouch, pulled the strings tight, and jogged outside. She had to get out of here.

  Back in the courtyard she wrestled briefly with the need to close the apartment door behind her and the need to escape. She had no desire to deal with a live lizard, particularly one rumored to be as dangerous as a ch'thon. Chickens took some time to hatch, though. They had to work for hours to just to crack the shell. Surely, the ch'thon needed some time as well. There was no need to panic, no need to get sloppy. Speed without caution was useless.

  She shut the door and, with a silent prayer to Shi'in, turned and loped for the wall of the inner courtyard. The egg bucked wildly in her pouch, bumping against her hip, protesting its confinement.

  Katya reached the wall and gathered herself to leap for the lower branches of a tree beside it when she felt a mad wriggling; tiny feet, limbs, and all in a frenzy. Her pouch writhed, bulging, and before she could open it to silence the creature, it burst open at the seams and a serpentine lizard tumbled out. It was a foot long, far too large to have fit inside the egg scarcely larger than a chicken's and it was glowing blue. Magic.

  It hissed, fanning out the frills at its neck, and glared right at Katya.

  She jerked back, turning away and dropping her gaze, but she was a beat too slow. She’d already been caught.

  * * *

  A stranger was pulling her, dragging her from her bed. And when she wouldn't stand, he scooped her up under one arm and carried her like a sack of meal. She screamed and he shouted at her to shut up, threatening her with a dagger that was slick and wet.

  Her screams choked into sobs, but she still struggled. If only her arms and legs weren't so short, she might be able to reach something—a door, a chair, a lamp—anything that would prevent him from taking her away.

  There were bodies on the floor of the hall outside her bedroom. A face, its cheek smashed flat against the stone, stared at the feet of her captor with empty, open eyes.

  Katya reached out with a hand, pleading, and her hand was small and vulnerable; a child's. "Mama!"

  No... this wasn't right...

  The stranger had companions, and he called out that he had the girl. Katya knew he meant her, but something wasn't right. She wasn't a girl anymore.

  And then she was an adult once more, standing alone amidst the broken remains of Shi'in's temple. All the goddess's priestesses, her acolytes, her worshippers... All dead. The statue of the goddess herself lay maimed and broken at Katya's feet. The attack must have been sudden. The kitchen had dishes waiting to be cleaned, and Jerrika, the temple's most studious priestess, had died in the library, her weapons sheathed and still clutching a book to her chest. Everywhere she turned, everyone was dead—again.

  Katya cried out to her goddess and in return heard nothing. Was her goddess dead, too?

  She wanted to lie down and die. Twice in her life she had lost everyone. Her turn would be soon.

  No...that wasn't right...

  She placed her hand against the walls of the library...or was it the main hall? She recogized the bas-relief of the goddess of love and death, but it shouldn't be here. She pushed hard against it, dragging her hands across its surface, trying to feel its shape, its substance, and in a fit of frustration she bashed her head against it.

  Her mind told her that she hurt, she had cut her forehead, but the pain was dull.

  No, Shi'in wasn't gone. There was no proof.

  "Shi'in..."

  Shi'in had not given up on Katya, and Katya would not give up on her. Not without irrefutable proof. She was not alone. She had not lost everyone or everything. She had her goddess and Shi'in help her she was not going to succumb to this insanity!

  Katya's clenched fist struck the relief and her world went black.

  * * *

  Her fist did hurt, and her head felt stuffed with wool, but she was certain the ground she felt beneath her was real. It hurt too much not to be. Eyes closed, she lay still, and listened to the courtyard around her. Something made a wet slapping sound, and then grumbled before producing the sound again.

  The ch'thon!

  Though a part of her wanted to freeze, she forced herself to relax, be limp. She was still in the dream as far as it knew. There was no reason to tell it otherwise.

  She opened her eyes to slits and through them she could see two of Preiza's guards sprawled on the ground in front of her, the ch'thon eagerly burrowing its pointed muzzle into the body of one of them. Blood dribbled down the length of its jaw all the way to the end of its frills.

  And how it'd grown! Still shining blue, the beast was now as big as a bull.

  She shifted her gaze to look at the other guard, the one yet to be chewed, and she couldn't see a single injury on him. Yet there he lay, motionless on the ground, his sword fallen from an open hand. She began to understand how the ch'thon worked. It didn't turn its prey to stone. It locked them in nightmares so they could not escape while it made the kill.

  Beastly creature, for what amounted to a newborn. What could Sakone have been thinking purchasing such a monster?

  Katya didn't know how m
uch time had passed, but the sky was still dark, and because these two guards appeared to be the only other casualties, it couldn't have been long.

  She was in plain sight of the creature. How good were its eyes? Was it like a dog, attuned to motion, or was it more like a person, needing brightness and color? The ch'thon hissed and swished its tail, but the movement was sluggish and it thumped the ground as though the beast couldn't be bothered to manage the weight.

  The size of it couldn't be real. It could only have hatched minutes before. The guards must have encountered it soon after it broke out of her pouch, otherwise it would have been her being eaten instead of the man it now devoured. The size had to be magic.

  Katya carefully pressed her hands against the ground of the courtyard beneath her, rolling her body on to her stomach, so she could push herself up. Slowly. Slowly. If the ch'thon's hunger could be sated by the guards, it might not care if she should quietly slip away.

  Legs bent, boots getting purchase against stone, she rose into a crouch.

  The ch'thon's head came up with a hiss, eyes searching.

  Katya closed her own.

  She heard the slapping of feet on cobblestone, heading right for her, but its gaze couldn't trap her this time. It scrabbled close and she swiftly circled to one side, drawing one of her daggers as she did so.

  The creature belched and shuffled around. Saliva smacked wetly against its lips as it opened and closed its mouth.

  Katya slowly backed away. She could conceivably climb the courtyard wall to escape. She had a good idea where it was, perhaps seven or eight steps from where she stood.

  The ch'thon lunged, jaws snapping, and she hopped back, dancing to one side, but she grazed something with her shoulder, one of the pillars in the courtyard. In her mind's eye she could see roughly where she stood. The other pillar had to be nearby, and judging from where she had started the fight, she guessed it was behind her.