Sweet Silver Blues gf-1

by Glen Cook

  "A little. More, you'd say I've been trouble. Everybody I talk to turns up dead."

  That got their attention. I gave them an edited and censored account of my adventures. Somehow, I forgot to mention Zeck Zack.

  I was still talking and wondering how to get rid of them, in case the centaur showed, when Morley walked in.

  He never batted an eye. He walked up behind Rose, who had her back to the door, and trailed his fingertips lightly up the side of her neck. "A miracle. I would have sworn the pirates would have—"

  Tinnie cut in. "Garrett already used that line. Only with him it was Venageti sailors."

  "Then add plagiarism to his list of sins." Morley placed a small box on the table before me. "That four-legged wonder of a cook sent you this kelp salad. Since you've already eaten, maybe you should save it for a snack."

  I peeked despite his warning. Kelp salad, all right. "He gave it to you?"

  "To bring over. He knew we had company and didn't want to intrude."

  "I don't have much use for kelp, but since he went to all the trouble... "

  Morley kept stroking Rose's neck and shoulders. He nodded once to Tinnie, ignored Spiney and Saucerhead completely. If, as I suspected, the kelp concealed Zeck Zack's instructions for making the meet, we had a problem. I expect that had Morley's undivided attention.

  "Did you bribe Master Arbanos somehow?" I asked Tinnie.

  "That little water rat? He did exactly what you told him to. He handed us over to Uncle Willard personally."

  "I'm sorry I missed that."

  "You're going to get your chance to take part in a reenactment."

  "How did you manage—"

  Rose said,"Our good Uncle Lester bestowed a small legacy on each of us."

  "I see." Women with their own money do tend to get independent, don't they?

  That box of salad sat there staring at me, begging to be opened, and I hadn't one idea how to get rid of them.

  "Why are you here, Tinnie? Rose I understand. A hundred thousand marks makes for a big greed." Morley was over talking to the grolls, now. I hoped his mind was more fertile than mine.

  "I have a grudge to settle with a certain bastard who had me tied up and shipped like a sack of turnips."

  "After he had the brass-balled gall to get you out of the hands of kidnappers. What can you do with a churl like that?" I countered.

  She had the grace to redden.

  Morley came over and begged Dojango for his seat, which was next to Rose. With bad grace Dojango gave way and joined his brothers.

  I saw it then, and Morley knew when I knew. He gave me the ghost of a smile and went to work charming Rose.

  Dojango ducked through the door to our quarters.

  Five minutes later I developed an irresistible need for the loo. I grabbed my box and promised to be right back. I trickled fingers through Tinnie's hair. She slapped my hand but it was only a pat.

  Dojango was waiting. "Out the window. Night course. Morley says you'd better read your instructions and dump them down the loo first."

  I had that much sense. I didn't figure he needed reminding, though. "Who's next?"

  "Morley. He comes to see why you're taking so long. He's worried. Then Doris goes, then me. Marsha stalls and distracts them by keeping them from getting through the door."

  "Sounds good. If it works."

  36

  I ambled up the lane toward the Orthodox cemetery, where we were to meet at the Kronk family plot. Convenient, that. Zeck Zack or his messenger was supposed to take us to the meet from another plot just two hundred yards away, come midnight.

  I reached the place where the first man to arrive was supposed to lie in the weeds for anybody following the rest. "Morley? I'm clean."

  Dojango came out of the darkness, not Morley. "What took so long?"

  "I had more tails than an uighur. All pros. Took awhile to shake them. Where's Morley?"

  "Pushing sugar."

  "Doris and Marsha?"

  "At the plot. They just got here, too. They almost forgot. They were having fun trotting around town watching the humans huff and puff trying to keep up."

  "The ladies?"

  "You and Morley better forget those two and take up kicking beehives."

  "Mad, huh?"

  "Furious, actually."

  Morley came back from his pandering. "Just in time, Garrett. Let's go check something out." He marched off through the graveyard.

  His destination proved to be a decrepit mausoleum. He examined its door. I couldn't see what he saw. He grunted. "Hunh. Maybe they knew what they were talking about. Marsha. Open it up."

  The groll obliged. There was no sound of seals breaking. There was almost no sound at all. Curious in a door that should have been unmoved for generations.

  Then the stench rolled out.

  I considered a crack about ducking the stampeding buzzards, but desisted. Death is no joke.

  "We need a light, Morley," Dojango said.

  "I figured we would. I borrowed a lucifer stone from my bitty buddy Hornbuckle." He removed it from its protective sack. It was a young one, burning bright.

  I didn't want to go inside, but I did. I stayed only as long as I could hold my breath, which was long enough to get an education. It was pretty bad, but I did recognize what was left of Father Mike, the Sair, and the clerk from the civil city hall. I had no idea who the others were.

  Marsha closed it up. We walked to the Kronk plot in silence. Finally, Morley said,"Somebody's garbage dump."

  "Who put them there?"

  "Soldiers. I quote Hornbuckle: ‘Soldiers without livery.' "

  "I see." I saw a great deal. It had nothing to do with finding Kayean, but a lot to do with a nameless major.

  Morley said,"On no evidence at all I'll bet you fifty marks your major was part of the outfit that liberated the church the day your girlfriend's father died."

  "No bet. Not even at ten to one."

  A man in the major's position wouldn't quietly dispose of the top Venageti agent in his territory. Not when he could bring him in and harvest all sorts of rewards. Not unless that agent could name some very interesting names, like maybe that of an agent even better placed than he.

  "Investigators from TunFaire, you had to say. He thinks we're the King's men and we're looking for him. What other reason for the interest in people named Kronk?"

  "Or the Emperor's men." I shook my head. "My poor sweet, silly Kayean. She had to make the worst choices in fathers and husbands."

  Morley frowned. "Husbands? You don't even know who he is."

  "I don't have to to know he's somebody Zeck Zack and his bosses want to keep us away from. It can't be her. There's no evidence that she's anything but a woman carrying on a profitable correspondence with an old flame."

  Morley grunted. "What about your major?"

  "You know me. I'd rather negotiate, like with the centaur. Or I just let them ride and hope for the best, like with Vasco and his bunch. I've only killed two men since I got out of the Marines, and one of them was by accident. But I think somebody is going to have to chop the head off this snake before it crushes us all."

  We scouted the terrain thoroughly. There was no sign the centaur planned anything cagey, but that wasn't especially reassuring.

  Zeck Zack came for us himself, which said something about his relationship to the shadow folk behind him. "You're early," he accused.

  "So are you."

  "I told them I needed time to scout you for treachery. In truth, I wanted time to talk."

  "You trust us, then?"

  "As much as one dares, given the circumstances. Your claims received independent corroboration from persons who had no wish to further your mission."

  "Who?"

  "I believe they called themselves Quinn and Kurts."

  So. I had to reorganize my notions about who had done what to whom that bloody night.

  "Mr. Garrett, I've gone to a great deal of trouble on your behalf. For myself as well
, I admit, for it could mean my neck if the knowledge of the movement of certain letters reached the wrong persons. But still, on your behalf I have saved your lives by convincing them that the surest way to handle you is to let you get your affidavit. You might also note the removal of two deadly enemies, which improves your odds."

  "You want something."

  "Sir?"

  "Besides me not mentioning any letters—a subject I wouldn't mind chatting about, just to satisfy my curiosity—there must be something else. Call it a hunch."

  "Yes. I might as well be direct. There is so little time."

  "So?"

  "In my youth I was guilty of, shall we say, a mortal indiscretion. A certain gentleman acquired proofs sufficient to place me in extreme jeopardy should they come to the attention of either my employers or the Karentine military. He used the threat to compel me to perform tasks that only worsen my chances of living to old age. The whereabouts of the evidence is known only to him. He does not allow me to get anywhere near him. You, however, could walk right up to him."

  "I get the picture." I had no intention of skragging anybody for him, but I played the game out. I wanted him to stay my buddy. "Who?"

  He wanted to get cagey.

  "Come on. I don't agree to anything till I hear a name."

  He had made up his mind to tell me if I pressed. He did. "A priest named Sair Lojda. At the Orthodox church at—"

  "I know him." Morley and I exchanged glances. So the centaur didn't know that the Sair had gone invisible. Far be it from me to respect a dead villain so much I failed to profit from him. "You've got a deal, buddy. He's dead meat right now. If I see the woman, get what I want, and leave in one piece, I'll show you the body before the sun comes up."

  "Pact?"

  "Pact and sworn."

  "Good. Let's go. They'll be getting impatient."

  37

  Zeck Zack led us down the trail to his house. The peacocks raised twelve kinds of hell. "I'm going to roast the lot someday," the centaur said. "Every damn night they wake me up with that whooping."

  He took us in through the tradesman's entrance Kayean used to sneak out. Then it was through servants' corridors to the front antechamber.

  "Dark as hell in here," Morley complained. "What have you got against light, centaur?"

  If it was bad for him and the triplets, it was worse for Zeck Zack and me. We had no night eyes at all.

  There was a ghost of light in the antechamber. It leaked in from the ballroom. It was just enough to betray the form of a man awaiting us.

  The centaur said, "At this point you must shed all your weapons. Indeed, everything you're carrying that is made of metal. Past this point you may go armed only with the weapons given you by nature."

  I started shucking. I could smell the end of the chase. I would give Zeck Zack the benefit of the doubt.

  "Damn, it's cold in here," Dojango muttered.

  He was right. And here I'd thought my teeth were chattering because I had to go in there armed only with the weapons given me by nature. I announced, "I'm ready."

  Zeck Zack said, "Step up and let the man double-check, Mr. Garrett." He made no apologies.

  I stepped forward. A pasty face the color of grubs appeared before me for a moment. Eyes of no color stared into mine. They were filled with an old hopelessness.

  He patted me down smoothly and efficiently. Professionally. He did only one thing unprofessional.

  He slipped something into my pocket.

  It was done slickly. He touched me just heavily enough to make sure I noticed. Then he went to frisk Morley.

  One lone candle illuminated the ballroom. It sat, with a quill and inkwell, on an otherwise barren table at the chamber's geographical center. The table was four feet wide and eight feet long, long side toward me. Two chairs faced one another across it. I went and stood behind the one on my side, dropped my credentials and all the legal stuff on the table. Shivering, I shoved my hands into my pockets and waited.

  I hadn't imagined anything. I palmed a folded piece of paper.

  I checked the disposition of my troops. Morley was to my left, my weak side, two steps out and one back. Dojango was the same to my right. The grolls were behind me. Morley's nose twitched and pointed three times. Three beings shared the room with us, all in front.

  One came floating out of the darkness.

  She was beautiful. And something else. Ethereal, a poet might have said. Spooky is good enough for me.

  She moved so lightly she seemed to float. Her gown whispered around her. Gauzy and voluminous, it was as white as any white ever was. Her skin was so colorless it almost matched her apparel. Her hair was the blond called platinum. Her eyes were ice blue and without expression, except they narrowed as she neared the light, as though it was too bright. Her lips were a thin wound vaguely purpled by the cold. She wore no makeup.

  "You're Kayean Kronk?" I asked when she halted behind her chair.

  She inclined her head in a barely perceptible nod.

  "Let's sit, then. Let's get it over with."

  She pulled her chair back and drifted into it.

  I glanced at Morley and Dojango as I settled. They were staring into the darkness, as rigid and fierce as trained wolves on point. I didn't know Dojango had it in him.

  I looked across the table. She waited, her hands folded.

  I gave her the whole thing, Denny dying, leaving his bundle, her having to come to TunFaire with me if she wanted to claim the legacy, or having to execute a sworn and sealed affidavit that would renounce and abjure, in perpetuity, all claims upon the estate of Denny Tate.

  While I tried to talk what Morley called dirty-lawyer talk I shuffled and referred to my papers and used that to cover unfolding the thing that had been deposited in my pocket. It was a note of course.

  It said:

  Come take her out. Soon. Please. While there is still a chance for her redemption.

  I shivered and tried to convince myself that it was the cold.

  I read on, and under the guise of jotting notes jotted a note:

  Open the enclosure only in her presence. Do so elsewhere and all hope dies.

  I folded in one of the charms I had obtained from the Old Witch. Hands-at-the-door had not removed those, if he had detected them at all. I got the paper into a pocket and concentrated on concentrating on that spooky woman.

  I tried to sound incredulous. "Are you honestly rejecting one hundred thousand marks? Less fees, of course. In silver!"

  A ghost of a hint of revulsion feather-touched her eyes as she nodded. It was the only emotion she betrayed during the interview.

  "Very well. I won't pretend to understand, but I'll draw up the affidavit." I began scratching slowly on a piece of paper. "One of my associates will witness my signature. One of your companions will have to witness yours."

  Again she nodded.

  I completed the thing, signed. "Morley. I need your chop."

  He came and gave me it. He was still as taut as a drawn bowstring.

  I pushed the paper, ink, and pen across. "Is that satisfactory?"

  She considered the paper just long enough, then nodded, collected everything, floated up, and drifted away into the darkness.

  I put my papers and such together, rose, waited behind my chair. Soon enough the apparition drifted back. She placed the signed affidavit on the table, just beside the candle. Thus there was no possibility of physical contact, as there might be if she offered it to me directly. I gathered it up and tucked it away.

  "I thank you for your time and courtesy, madame. I will trouble you no more." I headed for the anteroom.

  I noted that neither Morley, Dojango, nor the grolls turned around to retreat. There are times when not having night eyes can be a blessing.

  Slipping my counternote to my correspondent was easy. Zeck Zack was so anxious to get us out of his house, and so eager to get himself out, too, that he was blind. In half a minute he was fussing unmercifully, trying to get us mov
ing down the dark halls before we had recovered half of our hardware.

  38

  The peafowl carried on like wild dogs had them surrounded and help would come only if they yelled loud enough to rattle the clouds. I sympathized. Lately I felt the same way. But if I yelled, they would know where I was and start closing in.

  As we approached the witch's house, the air quivered. A cackle fluttered down like gaunt, soggy snow-flakes. Out of everywhere and nowhere, she asked, "Did you enjoy your taste of the prophecy, Mr. Garrett?" More soggy cackle.

  Morley and the boys might not have heard. Zeck Zack glanced at the house, puzzled. I just put my head down and marched, not wanting to think about it.

  The centaur was determined to stick with us. I expected him to press on the matter of Sair Lojda, and he didn't disappoint me. He started in halfway to the graveyard. I told him, "Wait," and refused to listen.

  Morley picked the spot to squat, the one we had used before keeping our date with Zeck Zack. Morley sat down. So did I. Morley said, "We need to talk."

  "Yeah."

  Zeck Zack grumbled, "This is where you tell me how sorry you are, can't keep your half of the bargain?"

  "No," Morley said. "We can deliver on that fast enough to make your head spin. The problem is, you didn't deliver."

  I looked at Morley. He explained, "You gave her the paper upside down. She didn't turn it. She couldn't read. It's reasonable to assume that your Kayean could."

  "She could. You're right. That wasn't her. Didn't begin to resemble her. They just plain didn't know I knew her."

  Zeck Zack looked upset. I didn't bother to ask. I did say, "One question, old horse. When you bought that house, was it your idea, theirs, or the priest's?"

  "The priest's."

  "One cycle of coincidence unmasked. Did he find what he was afraid might be hidden there?"

  "No."

  "Did you? I'm sure you looked."

  He was regaining his balance. He grinned. "I took that place apart. I needed some back leverage."