by Allan Cole
He looked at me. “It was the other Magistrates that went and did it,” he said. “It’s the Magistrates that vote fer things like that in Orissa. Not the citizens. Guess you Anteros didn’t think of that. Here yer went and set folks free. But yer didn’t think to give ‘em the power to hold it. Trusted in the old families, yer did. Higher princerbles, and such, of the noble class.”
I flushed. Pip was right.
Pip grimaced, sorry he’d had to say it. Then, “Kato invites Palmeras and the top Evocators over to congratulate him. Like the new Chief Magistrate always does.
“Except, this time there was soldier’s waitin’. Soldier’s in Kato’s pay. Wearin’ patches with the Lyre Bird symbol on ‘em. That’s how ready Kato and Novari was. Same time other soldiers were marchin’ on the Palace Of The Evocators.
“Went after Hermias too. He was livin’ at yer brother’s villa and a troop of cavalry was sent to bring him in.
“Whole thing would’a ended there, ‘cept Hermias got tipped. Rode out with Quatervals to stop Palmeras and got there just in time. Big friggin’ fight commenced. But there was too many.
“Hermias and Palmeras just got out with their skins. Along with some of the other Evocators. Still wouldn’t a made it, ‘cept for the Maranon Guard.
“They got the word about what happenin’ and joined up with Hermias and the others just outside of Orissa. And it was good thing, too, ‘cause the soldiers were on ‘em.
“The whole group fought their way to Galana with Novari blastin’ away with her sorcery and Kato’s troops choppin’ at their heels. But they made it, they did. And turned and fought so hard Kato was thrown back. Heard Novari was hurt by somethin’ Palmeras did. But it must’a not been that bad, ‘cause the bitch got better by and by.
“Lot of the fellers in the army didn’t go along with Kato. They snuck off to Galana. For a time things weren’t goin’ well for Kato, although he was still holdin’ the Harlequin. Just bidin’ his time, it turned out, until Novari got better.
“We knew she was back when the plagues started hittin’. Lot of people died. Then the insects came. Sky was black with them. Just at harvest time. Lot of people didn’t eat.
“Then the talk against the Anteros got really hot. Blame’n ‘em for the plagues and insects. Sayin’ only Novari could save us. Sayin’ all the Anteros had to die. The talk was from ferrety villains workin’ for Kato. But after awhile it started takin’ hold and spreadin’. Then peeries started in. Spyin’ on folks and tippin’ Kato’s rogues when the talk didn’t favor them. Things started happenin’ to people. Lot of trips to the river haulin’ kin out.
“But some folks dug in, ‘stead of foldin’. Raggedy armies popped up in the countryside. Under old Otavi, it turns out. Somebody’d told him what was up and tipped where some arms was to be had and he roused up all the farmers to join with Hermias.
“Fought all the way to the gates of Orissa, they did. The sky was on fire night after night.
“Saw the Lyre Bird herself up there, soarin’ across the moon, shootin’ down lightnin’ and dodgin’ bolts thrown back at her.
“Then somethin’ happened. Don’t know what. Don’t know how. But somebody got close to Hermias. Knifed in the back, it’s said. Went after the whole command. Otavi was killed the same way. Went after Palmeras, too. But he got away.
“Whole thing collapsed after that. Quatervals had to retreat. Lost a lot of men and women. But he got ‘em all back to Galana.
“Heart went out of everybody. Just got down and slunk like worms. And that’s when they started killin’ Anteros. It was an awful time. Didn’t seem like a day passed without we didn’t hear news of some poor Antero bein’ murdered in her bed.
“But the Antero Novari seemed to want most was Emilie, yer little niece. And Hermias’ darlin’ daughter. Scoured the countryside fer her. Burned whole villages tryin’ to track her down. Almos’ got her more’n once. But ever’ time she’d sniff little Emilie out, somthin’ would happen to warn us. ‘N we’d get her away to safety.”
“It took some doin’, but we finally got her to Cap’n Kele. Who died gettin’ Emilie up the river to Galana. And yer know the rest.”
“Actually, I don’t,” I said. “There’s many mysteries to be explained. Such as your part in this, Pip. Who tipped Hermias and the Maranon Guard? Who saved Emilie and got her to Kele?”
Pip actually blushed. He ducked his head and mumbled, “It was me, Cap’n.”
“I thought so,” I said. “It appears Orissa owes more than it can every repay to Cheapside and the King Of Thieves.”
Pip shrugged. “Didn’t want the job,” he said. “Had ‘nough stashed to last me whole life. But it was the only way I could think of fightin’ Kato and Novari.
“The rogues think well of old Pip,” he said. “Got family ties too that made it a natural. It was easy, to tell the truth, Cap’n. I was even a bigger hero in Cheapside than I was in the rest of the city. Bein’ a local lad, and all. So I had whisper here and a whisper there and I twisted some arms and busted some heads and before yer knew it was runnin’ the whole thing.”
He chortled. “It didn’t hurt,” he said, “is that there’s nothin’ a villain hates more than a hard-fisted crew like this. Hurts business for good honest thieves, it does, when you thumps on regular citizens. They holds on to their purses tighter. Don’t trust folks like they usta. Serspicious of ever’body.”
Then he stopped and pointed at the hourglass. It was a few grains past the mark he’d set.
“Yer’ll soon get a taste of what we been doin’ here, Cap’n Antero,” he said.
Then from far off I heard a heavy crump. The chamber shuddered around us. Dust showered, then all was still.
Pip grinned evilly. “Me lads just got one of the barracks,” he said. “With luck maybe fifty or so of the Lyre Bird soldiers just kissed their arses farewell.”
“An explosion?” I marveled. “So large. And without sorcery, it seems. At least I didn’t sense any.”
“Nothin’ sorcerous about it, Cap’n Antero,” Pip chortled. “Plain old horse shit and tar oil. Got the idea from Otavi. Bein’ a farmer and all, he knowed that sort of thing. Get the horse shit good and dry, he said. Crumbly. Lots of that stuff layin’ around the stables of Orissa. Then it soak good with tar oil and pack it real tight in some barrels. More barrels, bigger the hole in the ground.”
He scratched his head. “I ferget how many we used this time,” he said. “But it oughtter make a big enough hole to give ‘em pause.”
He winked at me. “Only sorry we couldn’t get Novari standin’ over it when it went off. Send her someplace else to do her goddessin’.”
“I saw the statues of her,” I said, dry. “When did she become a goddess?”
“They done it right off,” Pip said. “Kato got her declared a goddess. Swore in the troops. Sacrificed a herd a cattle and sealed off the other temples, like fer Te Date and Maranonia and such.
“She’s buildin’ a new templefer herself,” Pip said. “Just laid the foundation.” He stared at me a moment, then said. “She’s buildin’ it out by yer bruvver’s villa. Livin’ there, she is. Until the temple’s built.”
My stomach roiled, thinking of Novari residing in Amalric’s home. Strolling in the garden. Doing whatever she liked with my mother’s shrine.
Pip patted me. “We’ll get her outter there, Cap’n Antero,” he soothed. “Now that yer with us, I knows we can do it.”
He drew back and sipped his wine. “Anyways, that’s the kinder thing us Cheapside villains have been up to. We hit ‘em ever chance we gets.
“Outsida town we got all the country villains with us. With a lot of honest folk bandin’ with them. We used them to shuffle little Emilie about and get her to safety.
“But the biggest help they give us is gettin’ weapons and supplies to Galana. We robs barracks and stores here and then smuggle‘em out the country stiffs. They hide stuff in farmwagons. In their clothes. Up their arses, even. A
nd they’ve dared the Lyre Bird’s snoopers and Kato’s soldiers ever hour of ever day since this whole friggin’ thing started.”
His eyes suddenly shot up to the hour glass again. “What’s this?” he said. “There was supposed to be another one go off right after the first.”
“Somethin’ must’a gone wrong. Two barracks was supposed to be hit tonight.”
Pip cursed and smacked his palm with a fist. “Must’a been the horse shit,” he growled. “I was serspicious of its quality, Cap’n. Not crumbly enough, I told the lads.”
He sighed. “It’s the details that getcha in this job, Cap’n.
“If yer don’t take care of the horse shit, it won’t take care of yer.”
He said it so earnestly I had to bury a burst of laughter, covering with a loud clearing of my throat and saying my father’d said similar things about merchanting, although without the barnyard reference.
Then I said, “Pip, I don’t think we have much time. The Goddess Maranonia gave me until the first snowfall. I remember her words like it was yesterday, instead of nearly a year ago. ‘When next the snow falls in Orissa,” she said, “the child Emilie will reach the first level of her powers.’
“And she said Novari was determined to prevent this.”
Pip’s eyes narrowed. “First snow can’t be more’n a month off,” he said.
“It could be even sooner,” I pointed out, “if winter comes early this year.
“Regardless, considering what we’re up against, we’ve almost no time. I feared it was impossible when I set out for Orissa hundreds of days and thousands of leagues ago. I’m pointing my doubts out to you so you’ll completely understand our situation. Our chances are poor, to say the least.
“When I fought the Lyre Bird before I was confronting a primitive force with little knowledge and only the raw power of her hatred to drive her. Now she has the knowledge of the Evocators’ workshops at her command.
“The only reason she has succeeded so far is that Palmeras and the few Evocators who escaped with him also have that knowledge. They are using it to block her. But how much longer can they hold out?”
“If yer don’t mind me sayin’ so, Cap’n,” Pip broke in. “Yer on’y lookin’ at this from one side. If we’re runnin’ out’a time, so’s Novari. Like yer said, first snowfall ain’t far off. That means if Novari’s got as little time to bust the siege as we got to stop her.”
I clapped him on the shoulder. “I can see why your knavish friends made you king, Pip,” I said. “That’s exactly right. And it cheered me just to hear you say it.”
Pip brushed aside the praise, intent on our conversation. “Novari’s gotter know the same things we know,” he said. “And if old Pip was in her skin I’d be makin’ a big push soon. I’d be throwin’ ever’ thing I had into that seige at Galana.”
“She’s probably already started,” I said. “I’ve sniffed around and Novari’s attention definitely seems elsewhere. There’s all kinds of spells and magical traps set all over Orissa and the countryside on the way up here from the Delta. Not only was I able to avoid them easily, but I had the feeling that if I slipped a little, made a mistake, it might have gone unnoticed for a time.”
“Which means she’s concetratin’ on Galana,” Pip said.
“Exactly.”
“What do we do then?” Pip asked.
“What does any self respecting thief do,” I asked, “when he sees a rich man’s house left unguarded.”
“Why, he gets up to all the knavery he can, Cap’n,” Pip said.
“That’s what I had in mind, Pip,” I said.
Pip laughed. “Yer couldn’t a found a better villain fer the job, Cap’n Antero,” he said.
“I didn’t know that when I set to find you, Pip.”
I looked around the chamber at the dazzling treasures he’d stuffed it with to make it seem like a pirate’s den.
And I said, “But I do now.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THE WARRIORS OF CHEAPSIDE
The day after our meeting Pip gathered his top lieutenants together to launch the first part of our campaign against Novari and Director Kato.
“‘Afore old Pip starts yammerin’,” he began, “I wanna know if any of yer squints think Cap’n Antero here ain’t what I says she is. Which is Rali Antero come back from the dead to stick the Lyre Bird’s gizzard.”
He glared around at the assembled group.
It was a bizarre gathering. There was Queenie, head of the Thugs Guild, a big muscular tub of a woman dressed in rich furs and sporting a gem-encrusted tiara. And Garla, the tall, handsome chief of the Beggar’s Guild. Pearl, the tawny seductress who headed the Harlot’s Guild. Palmer and Lammer, the baroness and baron of the Pickpockets. And Tink, Ratboy leader, smaller even than Pip but powerful in presence - since he’d doused himself with perfumes and oils to hide the scent of his specialty, which clung to him no matter how often he bathed.
There were others, just as colorful, but those are the ones I remember the most. Probably because they were the ones Pip first pointed out as they assembled and their names stuck more firmly in my mind.
It was a gathering of Cheapside’s most dangerous men and women, but as deadly as this group appeared, they all turned away from Pip’s steady glare. He didn’t let up and the silence grew uncomfortable.
Finally Queenie cleared her throat. “What’d we do, Pip,” she asked, “ to make ya think we don’t believe ya? She’s whatever ya say she is, Pip. Rali Antero, if ya like. Lookin’ not a day older’n thirty six, thirty seven. Even though she’s been gone more’n fifty years. And was that age then, accordin’ to all the tales we’ve heard since we were just wee dabs.”
“Aha!” Pip roared. “So yer’s don’t believe me!”
Queenie raised a meaty hand in protest. “I didn’t say that, Pip.”
“Might as well’ve,” Pip growled. Then he said, “Now, lissen to me. All’a yers. Spit it out. Whatcha’ believe and whatcha’ don’t. Old Pip’ll set yer square.”
More silence. The group obviously was too frightened of Pip to say what they plainly thought, which was that he was crazier than a chimney bird. Bumping into the bricks, he was. Lost in the smoke.
I came forward, raising my golden hand, making it glow like a beacon. Emanating power enough to make their hackles rise. I smiled to lessen their fear.
“Forgive me for what I am about to do, my friends,” I said. “But I don’t have time for doubts, tricks or quarrels. You must be with me to the end, no matter where that end lies.”
I chanted:
Draw the veil,
Part the curtain,
See what’s lying tale,
And what is certain.
I sliced the air with my etherhand and it swept open like a great window. A frigid wind blasted through and the knaves all jumped and cried out in alarm.
Spread out before them was a wasteland of ice and swirling snow. Perched on the black rocky coast and washed by frozen seas was my citadel of ice. A hunched half globe so white it burnt the eye.
“My home,” I said.
The rogues shifted and muttered.
I gestured again and the view changed. We were looking inside the citadel now. There were weapons racks set in the great hall. There was the empty wooden cradle where my silver ship once perched.
And set in a wide alcove was the tomb with the lid of ice as clear as glass.
Inside was the sleeping auburn-haired Salimar. My heart wrenched when I saw her and I felt ashamed for bringing these strangers into our bower. She stirred and I thought I heard her whisper my name. I wanted to answer but it was too far. And only a vision.
I gestured at Salimar.
“My Queen,” I said. “And the woman I love above all others.”
I heard the knaves murmur in wonder and sympathy.
Then Salimar stirred in her tomb. Her lips moved and she called out, quite faint:
“Rali, dear. Please. I’m cold. So cold.”
And she stretched out her arms.
I could bear it no longer. I pawed at the air and the vision collapsed.
Queenie, leader of the Thugs Guild sniffled and wiped her eyes. The others seemed equally moved. Palmer and Lammer, the pickpocket princess and prince were clutching one another. Tink, the Ratboy, was soothing Pearl, the weeping Mistress of the Harlots.
Only Garla, Master of the Beggar’s Guild seemed unmoved. He had a knowing smirk on his handsome lips.
Pip must have noticed it too. “Whatcher problem, Garla?” he snarled. “Yer think what yer saw was just caused by gas from bad eats?”
