Dark Healer (An Empire Falls Book 1)

by Harry Leighton

  Some people’s money might have been in danger on the route the trio took, from a market district packed with people and items, through streets which narrowed until you couldn’t walk two abreast, to places where the very buildings themselves hung over them and cut off the light. The road got darker as the conditions got more dangerous, as the poverty increased, as the quantity of people lodging grew denser. Some people might have been the target for robbers, and seasoned travellers could be relied upon to provide interesting pickings, but three tall men with ex-military weapons tended to be off-putting. That was why they were unmolested as they went down a side street, having stepped over a stream of fresh piss which was flowing down the middle, and even though they found themselves outside one of the cheapest lodging houses in the region.

  Daeholf sighed and looked around. “The list of misfortunes Brig could have suffered has suddenly got very long. With a lot of culprits we’ll never find. Which idiot thought recommending an out of towner stay here was a good idea?”

  Trimas grinned and looked round. “I get the feeling that if we don’t move quickly enough someone will have sold the rights to rob us to someone else.”

  “Let’s see if we can find a landlord.”

  A battered door was open, and the three went inside, finding a hallway which had someone curled in one corner asleep. A spot he’d no doubt paid for, but the creaking of the door brought the person in charge forward. The woman was stout, with her greying hair mostly under an off-white cap, and she was looking the three up and down and clearly judging prices before she even said, “Yes?”

  “We’re looking for someone who might have stayed here, called Brig.”

  “I know the bastard,” she scowled. “Owes me some money, that’s what he does.”

  “Do you know what happened to him?”

  “Do you know him? Want to settle his debts?”

  Daeholf nodded to himself, understanding that an exchange was going to happen for this information, he looked quickly at his comrades for a nod of assent, then paid what was owing, but stood firm over giving any interest on the amount. The landlady realised she was having a good day by getting any money, so she smiled, revealed her missing teeth, and explained.

  “He got into a fight. Don’t know with who, don’t know what over, we don’t ask, see,” and that was believable, because out there anyone could get into a fight if they didn’t keep an eye on what they were doing. “But a couple of my regulars carried him in from the street. He was in bed, had a headache, and recovered enough to go see a healer. I never saw him again.”

  “Do you know which healer?”

  “Oh yes. Marlen. Took all the custom from the healing pool.”

  *****

  Jonas and Alia waited for nightfall and installed themselves opposite Braxis’s house in an unlit alleyway and watched the grand, torch-fronted building. It wasn’t particularly warm and they huddled together in the shadows.

  It had been easy enough to get past the gate into Hightown and, as was often the case with rich people’s houses, there were a number unoccupied at that moment in time, so it hadn’t been difficult to find a suitable vantage place to wait for their quarry. A quarry who lived in a very large, smart house with railings around the outside and guards on watch.

  “Here he comes,” Alia said, noting a coach with a distinctive crest pulling up outside the house.

  “Finally,” Jonas grumbled.

  Four guards came out of the house to meet the coach and a further two got out of the carriage before Braxis appeared. A heavy-set man got out of the coach, looked around seriously and marched towards the house, guards in tow.

  “This could be a problem,” Jonas said.

  Alia rolled her eyes in the dark.

  “Well now we’re certain.”

  “So what’s the plan?”

  “I’m half-tempted just to set fire to the place and grab him in the confusion.”

  Alia looked at him, shocked.

  “Sometimes simple plans are the best plans.”

  “Simple? Plain wrong more like.”

  “It can be effective as long as you can keep passers-by from getting caught up in it. Probably won’t work though as with all the rain it’s going to be hard to get a big enough fire going fast enough.”

  “And it’s wrong.”

  “We’re in a dirty business. Sometimes you have to make do.”

  “We can certainly come up with something better,” Alia said firmly.

  Jonas studied her for a moment. “Indeed,” he agreed. “Let’s go back to the inn before we’re noticed here.”

  *****

  Daeholf had led a quick discussion. The issue of who Brig had fought with was unresolved, but at the moment it seemed more useful to try and find him, and their lead for that was a healer, because ultimately either Brig was dead and had a body to be found, or he’d fled for some reason, and the healer was currently the last person that they knew of who might have seen him alive and in the area. But there was something nagging away at the three of them as they walked through the streets once more, and that was the landlady’s evasiveness about which healer. She’d given them a name alright, and told them where to ask for him, but the three men weren’t naïve and could detect there was something she wasn’t telling them. Presumably for the same reason she hadn’t sent any heavies out to get her money back.

  They were now in streets pitched between the wealth of the market and the poverty of Brig’s hovel, because the streets on either side were home to healers of every variety. There were physicians of all kinds for those who wanted to pay, there were potions and pastes with every constituent ingredient a human would willingly ingest, and a fair few they wouldn’t. In fact, the full range of medicine a person could call upon throughout the empire had representatives here, and a great deal of it wasn’t pleasing one of the travellers.

  “This is silly,” Zedek opined as they walked along.

  “Hunting for my cousin is silly, or…”

  Daeholf turned his head to catch Zedek waving dismissively at the buildings alongside them.

  “All of this. What proportion do you think would heal you? A tenth? Less?”

  Trimas turned and looked at the first sign that caught his eye. “You mean skinning a cat, stuffing the flesh with hair and sleeping on it won’t cure your teeth?”

  Zedek summoned up as pompous a voice as possible and said, “No.” At least it sounded like that was what he meant to do. “Some of the things people sell in here are dangerous, outright killers, why don’t people realise? Why are these people allowed to sell this filth?”

  Trimas nodded. He and Daeholf had heard Zedek complain about quacks and charlatans before, and what was a friend if not someone who’d let their comrades repeat their rants? Oh, no, a friend would wind them up instead.

  “Leeches over there,” Trimas said, nodding at them. “You sure you don’t want to be sucked by anything?”

  Zedek turned to Trimas with a death stare, but rather than dropping dead the target just started laughing.

  Mercifully, Daeholf stopped and re-read a sign. “I think we’re here.”

  It wasn’t a shop, or a temporary stall, but a brick building. They entered, and immediately smelt odd chemicals coming up from a deep pool of water, which must have been refilled frequently as nothing was running down here besides sewage in the streets. There were two attendants in red robes allowing access to what were presumably healing waters, all for a modest sum, and they approached the newcomers.

  “We’ll get all three of you in at once…”

  “Actually, that’s not why we’re here,” Trimas interrupted. “We were told you could point us in the direction of Marlen?”

  The attendant looked confused. “You don’t know?”

  Daeholf sighed. “What’s happened to him?”

  “No one knows.”

  “Right. And who actually is he?

  “He was a travelling healer, arrived here with no fanfare, set up in the s
hop opposite, and starting offering to heal. Nothing surprising about that, many people do until they’re found to fail and have to leave. They all come back to us because…”

  “If we could stick with the narrative?”

  The attendant looked at Daeholf, at his stern face, and decided he should get on track. “But something amazing happened. He cured people. Anyone who came to him — and he was charging prices which brought everyone to him — but everyone came away cured. He was a marvel, and we tried to weasel out of him how he did it, but he claimed to be using a new form of physic.”

  “And then something happened?”

  “No. Everything was going smoothly, but we all woke one day and he’d gone. All appointments abandoned. He could have lived here and made his fortune, but everyone assumed he’d travelled on, and the last we heard there was an amazing healer passing through cities east. Had to have been him. A miracle worker.”

  Daeholf looked at the way the attendants’ faces had lit up in wonder, and had to ask, “Do you have a date for that? The night he went?”

  He did, and it was the night Brig had gone missing.

  The trio were out on the streets shortly after, having paid a donation to the pool but refusing all offers to strip and enjoy the waters. Now they were talking.

  “So your cousin is hurt, goes to see a healer, and they both vanish.”

  “Do you think your cousin had some sort of head injury that killed him, panicked the healer, and he fled?”

  Daeholf offered another reason: “Or did he fuck up and kill Brig?”

  Trimas rubbed his beard. “Either way, there’d be a body the man either dumped or took with him.”

  “True.” Daeholf wondered aloud, “It seems unlikely that Brig’s disappearance isn’t connected. This healer is far too suspicious. It also seems unlikely that Brig, if he’s alive, left without the healer. Why would he?”

  Zedek cocked his head. “You think they went off together?”

  “It’s an option. Either he’s dead and hidden somewhere, or with this healer.”

  “But why?”

  “I don’t know, but I think we have a clear target here.”

  Trimas smiled. “So you want us to hunt this healer down?”

  “Yes. Yes, I do.”

  Zedek nodded, already picturing the map east. “I’m sure we can find a successful healer. No one will forget having that around.”

  *****

  Jonas and Alia left the inn the next morning to find the day calm, the city bustling. The plan was to gather more information on Braxis’ movements, and they’d walked off to do so, when Jonas found their path blocked. This was unusual to say the least, because if there was one thing people did around Jonas it was get out of his way, but there now stood a man in front of them, wearing battered leather armour and carrying a sword at his side in a scabbard covered in cut marks. Whoever this was they’d clearly been through the wars. His face was little better, heavily scarred, but one might have been a punishment cut he’d received, it was hard to tell amidst the rest.

  Jonas looked the man up and down quickly, and concluded they were either being robbed by the bravest veteran in the city, or they had found a colleague of sorts. But he didn’t have to initiate the conversation.

  “Greetings, my fellows. How are you today?”

  Jonas noted the voice was filled with phlegm, but clearly trying to be nice. Too nice.

  Making a point of keeping his voice low and abrupt, Jonas asked, “You hunt?”

  “Oh yes, you can tell, can’t you, you can tell me and I can tell you. We’re kin.”

  Alia stifled a snort, and Jonas made a note they’d still have to work on her neutral face.

  “You want something?” he asked.

  “Yes, very much, I believe I can be of great use to you. Why don’t we have a drink?”

  “For a payment I assume?”

  “Sorry?”

  “Great use for a payment.”

  “Of course!”

  Jonas shared a glance with Alia, who wasn’t sure whether to say yes or no, and turned back and grunted assent. His apprentice then added, “I know an inn where you’d fit in perfectly.”

  As they moved towards the nominated inn, Jonas conveyed to Alia what he was thinking. They’d developed a system of silent signs for when they were working, and as they turned Jonas touched Alia lightly on the forearm. It was brief, and elsewhere might have looked like a touch from a father to a daughter, but here it allowed Jonas to silently explain his belief that this man, whoever he was, wasn’t after a simple exchange of information; something that threatened them was going on here. Alia was instantly on full alert.

  They entered the inn and took a table in the corner. Alia was pleased to see the innkeeper blanching at the sight of three people with weapons, and mugs of ale were quickly served. Jonas paid, and turned to their guest.

  “Let’s not waste time. What have you got?”

  The man seemed taken aback, clearly prepared to blather and sell, but he went straight to it as requested. “I can tell you how to get to Braxis.”

  Alia frowned, Jonas kept his face impassive. Interesting, he concluded silently.

  “Braxis?” he said carefully.

  “Come now, we both know why you’re here. There’s a large bounty on Braxis but it’s not common knowledge around these parts. He’s too well guarded for me to take him myself so I’ve been keeping an eye on the gate for out-of-towner Hunters to help.”

  Jonas’ mind was working overtime. He didn’t think they’d been that obvious but clearly someone had been watching the gate and identified them. They’d also been tracked quickly. Either he was getting old and slipping badly or something else was going on here.

  “Let’s say that’s why we’re here. And that we don’t mind partnering up. What do you want?”

  “Well, that’s an interesting question. I’m not interested in hauling the body off so you pay me now and I’ll let you take the body and claim the reward.”

  “How much do you want?”

  “You’re doing well, say, fifty silver?”

  Alia raised an eyebrow and repressed the urge to whistle. That was pretty much all they had available.

  “We don’t carry that, as you’d imagine. We have enough at our lodgings.”

  “Then let’s go back there and do this deal. When I’ve got the money, I’ll fill you in on how we can get him.”

  Jonas knew the smile was fake, but the man was doing a good job at lying, and he rose and led them out of the inn.

  As they walked through the streets Jonas took the chance to speak a little to their mystery guest.

  “How long have you been after Braxis then?”

  “Two years. Been taking other smaller jobs on the side but I’d been looking at this as the big payday. I think I’ll go back to easier targets though. These long jobs just aren’t worth the trouble.”

  Jonas nodded agreement and noted the man’s body language: he was lying utterly, but completely confident in his own abilities. Too confident.

  Alia took over the small talk as Jonas pondered, and they soon reached the inn. Now the man was twitchy, and they took him straight up to their room. Inside the men sat on the cots, as Alia removed a broken floorboard and pulled out a pair of coin purses and started counting.

  “Let's hear the plan then,” Jonas said, noting how closely their new friend was watching the money.

  “His mistress is coming over tonight. He’ll dismiss the house guards around ten and they’ll return at dawn. The outer guards will still be present but between us I think we can deal with them,” the hunter said, slightly fixated.

  Alia, playing her part, was counting slowly and making a big show of the money. “Ooh, a gold one,” she said, holding it up to look at.

  “Sounds promising,” Jonas said. “How do you know it’s tonight though?”

  “My contact is sure.”

  “Who is your contact? Is he reliable?”

  The hunter lo
oked at Jonas for a moment, as if wondering what to say. “Minor merchant by the name of Vanora. Has some dealings with Braxis.”

  “Felix? Scrawny man who pays too much attention to styling his hair?”

  “That’s him,” the hunter said then realised his mistake. He went for his sword but Jonas was prepared and acted quicker, grabbing his arm and putting a knife to his throat.

  “Who do you really work for?” Jonas said grimly.

  The hunter wasn’t done yet and tried to jerk away from the knife whilst barging Jonas to release his sword arm. Jonas was forced to use the knife and sliced across the hunter’s neck.

  “Did you have to do that?” Alia said, dancing back away from the spray, trying to avoid getting blood on her clothes.

  “Didn’t give me much choice.”

  “Not going to be able to question him any further now,” Alia said.

  “Didn’t mean to kill him yet but I think he gave us enough.”

  Alia shrugged at Jonas as she picked the purse up and put it back, while her mentor searched the body. He soon found what he wanted, a piece of parchment.

  “Here we go, a contract for two assassins.”

  “Two?”

  “I suspect his colleague is lying in wait for us at Braxis’ house this evening.”

  “So this one got greedy and wanted our money as well as his?”

  Jonas smiled. “Yes. A lot of people get killed when they get greedy.”

  “As you keep telling me.”

  “Then don’t get greedy.”

  “What do we do with him?”

  “We’ll stick him under a bed for now, dump it out of the window at night and move it then.”

  “Best do it tonight before it smells.”

  “We’ll be alright for a few days, people think Hunters stink.”

  “What do we do now?”

  “I think we go with our dead friend’s plan.”

  “That’s insane.”

  “We know it’s a trap. And if they really do send the guards away hoping their assassins do the job, we’ve got an opportunity.”