“Did you just make a knob joke?” Daeholf said, eyebrows raised. Elena just grinned at him. “Perhaps you’ve been spending a bit too long around us and are picking up bad habits,” he finished.
“It’s entirely possible. So do I need to come back later?”
“No. You’re fine,” Daeholf said, smiling. “You could give me a hand with something though.”
“You’re taking this too far now,” Elena said.
“I’d be entirely within my rights to say you started it, but that’s not what I had in mind.”
“Okay then, what do you need?”
“I need to stretch.”
“Be my guest.”
“I need some help with it.”
“Help how?”
“I need someone to help provide some resistance and support me a little as I do some exercises. I’m still pretty weak.”
“What about your friends?”
“They said they felt weird about man-touching. Their words. Which is why I’m pleased to see you.”
“And you thought I’d be more comfortable with it?”
“I’m hoping. And I promise not to get up to any mischief.”
“That’s not the point.”
“If it makes you feel any better, you can keep your cosh in one hand whilst helping me with the other.”
Elena laughed. “You’re being ridiculous.”
“Will you help me then?”
“I’m not sure about that.”
“You’ve got a cosh....”
“You really want me to hit you with it?”
“If I get out of line, sure, knock yourself out.”
“I think the point of a cosh is that I knock you out.”
“You’re right, that is a silly expression.”
“What do you need?”
“I’m trying to get some mobility and strength back. I was hoping to start with some leg stretches and then move onto arms and back.”
Elena studied him for a moment. “I can do that,” she said.
“You’re my hero.”
“Steady now. I take it you’ve washed recently? I’m not going to have to do this whilst holding my nose? That’s going to make holding the cosh awkward.”
“I’ve not exactly been dunked in lavender water but I’ve had a go with a damp cloth and a bit of soap. I shouldn’t be too bad.”
“Shouldn’t I be the judge of that?”
Daeholf lifted off the covers, sat up and lifted up his arm. “Be my guest,” he said, indicating his armpit.
“That won’t be necessary.” She studied him. “This really wasn’t the way I expected to be spending this morning.”
“I like to keep people on their toes.”
“So before I start pressing and twisting, you’d better tell me where it hurts.”
“Everywhere. And I’d rather you didn’t twist anything.”
“Everywhere?”
“I did fall off a roof.”
“With an arrow in your chest. I know.”
“Sorry if I keep going on about it,” Daeholf said, smiling.
“So if you hurt everywhere, what am I supposed to be doing?”
“It doesn’t hurt as much as it did.”
“Good to know.”
“And some bits hurt less than others.”
“Is this the point I should be making excuses and leaving.”
“No funny business. And you’ve got a cosh remember.”
“Okay, okay. So what are we doing?”
“I’ve been in bed for ages now. I’d like to go for a walk but I think that might be a bit ambitious.”
“Probably.”
“So I think some leg stretches would be a good start.”
“Okay… I’m not sure what I’m doing though.”
“I do. Sort of, anyway.”
“Sort of?”
“It’ll be fine.”
“If you say so. So what do you want me to do?”
“I want to do a couple of little strength exercises first. I’m going to lay down and extend my feet, one at a time. I want you to resist the motion gently.”
“That seems easy enough. You are wearing socks?”
“Yep,” Daeholf said, laying back down. Elena took hold of his left foot and provided a bit of resistance as he tried to extend it.
“Like this?” she said.
“That’s it,” Daeholf said. “Now the other way.”
“This feels weird.”
“Let’s talk about something different whilst we’re doing this then. Other foot.”
“That sounds like a good idea. So that story you told me about the siege. That all true?”
“I left a couple of the more grisly details out. It was a celebration after all. Some leg raises now. Same idea, gentle resistance as I try to raise my leg.”
“That seems easy enough. So does that make it my turn to tell a story?”
“You can if you want to. Perhaps a case that you solved?”
“Are you sure none of this is hurting you? You’re pushing quite firmly against me.”
“Not really, and that’s a good sign. Other leg.”
“Fair enough. So a story then.” She studied him for a moment. “Okay, I’ve got one.”
“Glad to hear it. Leg stretches now, gently push my leg upright until I say stop.”
“Okay.” Elena lifted his leg.
“Okay, that’ll do. If you could hold it there for a few moments that’d be good.”
“You’re pulling a face. Are you sure?”
“Yes. Okay, other leg.”
“So, a case I worked on then. Difficult one, got a bit political.”
“Sounds interesting. Going to bend the knee now, pressing knee to chest.”
“Got it. So it was all about this young man. He’d joined the army, trying to make a name for himself, get out from under the shadow, do his bit, you know the drill.”
“Yep, same reason a lot of people join up. Okay, other leg.”
“So he’d joined the army but he was a bit shy, and not a big man.”
“Ah. I think I see where this is going. Can you press my legs outwards in a sort of splits?”
“Sounds painful.”
“It will be, but it’ll be good for me as long as you don’t push too hard.”
“It’s your body. So, yes, what you’re thinking is right. He got bullied and in a big way.”
“It happens. I’m not sure I’m seeing a case where the watch could get involved yet though.”
“I’m getting to that. More pressure?”
“Ah, no that’s good. Couple of moments more and we’ll ease off for a bit.”
“So the bullying developed into something worse. A couple of the soldiers thought he looked ‘pretty’.”
“Ah. You don’t need to spell out what happened next. It’s not unknown, I’ve heard of similar events. If they’d have been under my command, I’d have hanged them.”
“Yes, well, their commanding officer wasn’t quite so moral. He turned a blind eye.” There was barely disguised anger in Elena’s voice.
He looked her in the eyes. “That was your brother, wasn’t it?” he said quietly.
“Yes,” Elena said simply, letting go of his legs and stepping back slightly.
“This can’t be an easy story to tell. Thank you for trusting me with it. And I can’t tell you how sad I am that something that monstrous happened to someone you love,” Daeholf said sincerely.
“Thank you.”
“What did you do?”
“What would you have done?”
“If they did it to me? Kill them at the first opportunity. Nasty if I got the chance. If it was a family member? I’d have hunted them then killed them.”
“I thought about it. Even started putting a plan together though it ran against everything I believed in as a servant of the law.”
“What happened?”
“Let me backtrack a bit. The company sawbones found Regis beaten and bleeding
. Much of it coming from his, well, his arse. He patched him up and went to see the commanding officer, who as I said before turned a blind eye. The sawbones told Regis, so as soon as he could walk, he went AWOL and came here.”
“Where did this all happen?”
“City barracks.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah.”
“So they came for him?”
“Yes. Didn’t take him though,” Elena said fiercely. “And they collected a few bruises for their troubles.”
“Good for you.”
“As I said, I was seeing red so I started to put a plan together to get to the men that attacked my brother. I was angry so it wasn’t a good plan. Regis twigged what I was doing and made me promise not to do it. He knew I’d probably end up dead.”
“He was right.”
“It took me a while to see it, but yes, he was. I knew they weren’t going to stop coming for him though. If he talked and people believed him it would be a huge embarrassment.”
“Huge. Do the army’s reputation no good at all. And would hurt recruiting badly.”
“I did the only thing left. I went after them with the law. I was a promising up and coming watch sergeant at the time, so it was easy enough to persuade a few of the squad to come with me.”
“What did you do?”
“Arrested them.”
“How?”
“Marched into the barracks and took them.”
“Bloody hell. I don’t know how you got away with that but I’d have loved to see it.”
“Early morning when everyone was a bit dim-witted.”
“Still, that took some major balls. Ah, no offence.”
“None taken.”
“So you just marched them down to the station?”
“Pretty much. Watch captain nearly had a fit when he found out what I’d done though.”
“I’ll bet.”
“Like I said though, it was early morning. I timed it well. I had an hour with them in the cells before I was ordered to turn them loose.”
“That’s not a lot of time.”
“It was enough.”
“What do you mean?”
“I got confessions out of them.”
“How the hell did you do that?”
“I was angry. Motivated.”
“I’m a little scared of you now.”
“Still want me to help you stretch?”
“Perhaps we’ll save the rest for another time. The confessions can’t have stood though, not after the way you got them.”
“There was a lot of detail. Stuff that I couldn’t have made up. And the captain didn’t know I’d got them until after I’d made copies. Many copies. And I made sure they were in a number of different hands.”
“Clever.”
“The captain was furious when he found out. And it got worse. The company commander stormed into the station, demanding my head on a stick. My captain was ready to give it too. He knew that I’d brought a shitstorm down on him and that there was no way the watch was willing to go to war with the army.”
“But you had leverage.”
“Yes. Leverage. I didn’t back down. I demanded justice for my brother. And I made it clear that if I didn’t get it or if either of us were to disappear or to die suddenly the confessions would be made very public.”
“They didn’t call your bluff?”
“They thought about it I’m sure, but I was very convincing.”
“So…?”
“So we struck a deal. I kept quiet and the two men were tried and imprisoned by a military court. The captain and I were both reassigned of course. And as you can imagine, after causing that much trouble my career stalled and I was a pariah, both among the watch and especially among the army.”
“And they’ve not come after you since?”
“Not yet that I know of.”
“I’m impressed. I can see now why you had a problem with the three of us when we were strutting around like we owned the place. It must be hard to trust any sort of soldier now.”
“Yes, well, you owe me now.”
“Owe you?”
“Yes. You owe me the story of why you left the army.”
“It’s true, I do. It’s the sort of thing it would be dangerous for you to know though so I’ll need to think of the best way to tell it. I’ll need a little time.”
“Don’t let me down. I feel a bit exposed now having told you my story. I’m trusting you like I’ve not trusted anyone in a long time.”
“You have my word.”
*****
Kasan looked at the map and smiled.
He’d been using a map of the city to help in his investigations, but had grown frustrated with the inaccuracies, and none of the others he tried were any better. Then he remembered that Vika — or should he just call her the Thieftaker? — had the best map of the city and he managed to negotiate time in her office to sit and copy the relevant areas down.
Which was why he had an accurate map of every street and building in this section of the city, and why there was a blown up version mounted on the wall behind him.
Eyes were on it, lots of eyes, as a considerable amount of the city guard were stood in front of Kasan, awaiting orders.
It occurred to Kasan then that he’d managed to gather under his command more guards than your average watch captain had, and that this might be the largest command until you rose to the Thieftaker herself. He soon rejected the idea, however; he was not here because of success.
He had these men and women because of failure.
The guard had failed to capture the Nightwalker, the killings had increased to a double event, and the guard was going to strike back.
The plan was Kasan’s, the first stage used the guards. They were going to go street by street, building by building, room by room, and they were going to search this part of the city until they either found clues or had turned over everything.
No one was going to be allowed to object, stop them or hide.
Everyone and everything was going to be examined.
Surely no one could hide from that.
Kasan finished his speech with the simple but effective “And catch our killer!” Then he watched them stand, clasp each other on their backs and arms, pick up their batons and shields and march out onto the streets.
People got out of their way quickly, as this quasi-military unit moved with speed to their starter roads, some at the front, others at the far end to catch fleeing killers, and doors were kicked open.
Guards surged in, hiding behind shields until the populace was subdued, then they began to look.
Bloody knives? Bloody rags?
There were plenty in every district, but the guard took them all as a sign to dig further, and by dig they usually meant cause damage as they searched quickly and ruthlessly.
Time ticked on in the grand clocks of the city, and the heartbeats of the residents. The guards moved from house to house, and word spread, with people taking their valuables and attempting to flee from whatever the fuck this all was. They bumped into waiting guards who searched them too.
But Kasan had been clear about one thing, and that was to not steal. Property was not taken. That rule was adhered to.
It was a shame there were no other rules, and aggressive searching became the order of the day.
It went wrong.
These things normally do.
A few treasured possessions broken in the rush, a few angry homeowners pushing back and getting a truncheon on the head, violence began and spread. Fights, clusters of angry locals, talk of their own weapons.
Word filtered back to Kasan, but he became determined they must search, that a killer was lurking in these buildings, even as the start of a riot began outside.
“Kasan?”
The voice stopped him cold, and he turned to find Vika coming in through the door, flanked with a guard on either side.
“Thieftaker, the search is going well. We are gett
ing in and looking. The locals seem to be hiding something.”
“Their pride, perhaps.”
“Sorry?”
“You are about to cause a riot, Kasan. Searching is all well and good, but you have wound your guards up to violence. Now … I take it you don’t follow the news we get from outside the region.”
“No. Why?”
“Never mind. I suggest you retire to your desk and examine all the reports you will have collected today.”
“I’m so sorry…”
“You’ve moved from catching criminals, which you are good at, to local politics, which you will have to learn. I, as your superior, already have and I will sort this. Go back to catching a criminal.”
“And where will you go?”
“To stop this riot.”
“Then I and the guard will come with you.”
“No, that won’t be needed.” Vika turned, and her bodyguard followed. They walked briskly towards a handful of locals who were shouting at a scared looking guard.
“What is the problem?”
“These fucks broke all my pots. What do you think I should cook on? I want money.”
“Pay them,” Vika ordered.
“What?”
“You will be paid. Now,” and a guard handed over a coin.
“Th–thank you.”
They marched on, moving from group of angered local to group of livid local, and they paid and promised their way until they saw, up ahead, a nucleus of angry locals.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Vika declared as she neared them.
“Come to break our stuff in person?” one shouted.
“Going to burn us out next?”
“My guards have overstretched themselves. You have my full apologies, and all damage will be paid for. Now. If you take it, return to your homes and go back to your lives…”
“Pay us?”
“Restitution.”
“We want revenge!” one shouted, but the rest glared at him for saying it.
“You’re sorry?”
“We are. Any further searches will be done in concert with local leaders.”
“They’re leaving?”
“Right this moment.”
“Then…”
“Take the payment, return home.”
“Yes … okay.”
Vika nodded. This didn’t have to be a riot and it sure as fuck wasn’t going to be while she was in charge.
Knives of Bastion (An Empire Falls Book 2) Page 35
