Blood Ties tw-9

by Robert Lynn Asprin

  It was one more cause for Chenaya to smile. After all, she didn't train automatons-she trained gladiators. And fighters without some spit in their souls would never be worth a damn. She'd kept a close eye on Daphne; for a princess she was coming along just fine.

  Chenaya headed for the practice field, but before she got much farther than her door she bumped into her father. "Ummm, pardon me," she said, leaning one hand on the door he had just closed. "Isn't this Aunt Rosanda's room?" She batted her eyelashes in mock innocence, knowing how such an expression usually irritated him.

  But this time Lowan Vigeles imitated her, batting his own eyelashes. "I knew all those expensive tutors were a fine investment." He tapped her on the forehead with a fingertip. "I brought your aunt a breakfast tray. Nothing more lascivious than that."

  She just stood there, looking up at him, grinning, batting her lashes.

  Lowan drew a deep, patient breath, his usual silent invocation to the god of parenthood, and pushed open the door. Lady Rosanda flashed them a startled look of embarrassment from her bed as a strip of cold meat fell from her lip to the tray on her lap. She chewed hurriedly, hiding her busy mouth with one hand.

  Lowan pulled the door closed once more and regarded his daughter with the look of an unjustly wronged man.

  Chenaya brushed at her hair with one hand and refused to look repentant. "What a selfish bastard you are. Father," she accused. "Too saintly to offer what we both know you've got? Have pity! The only man she's seen in years is Uncle Molin." Chenaya faked a shiver.

  Lowan Vigeles took her by the arm and led her from Ro-sanda's door and down a broad staircase to the floor below. "I saw Dayme off," he said, changing the subject. "He bears a writ from me that should speed our cause. Later today, I'll hire artisans to start the barracks and outbuildings. I'll set Dismas and Gestus to constructing the training machines."

  "Not those two," she contradicted. "I'll need them myself today. Have Ouijen see to it, and Leyn when he has time. But there's no rush. It'll be a few weeks at least before anyone arrives. Assuming any will answer the summons."

  Lowan shook his head as they left the manse and stepped out into the rear garden where nearly a score of falcons were elaborately caged. "That's not an assumption. Daughter. My school in Ranke produced most of the finest auctorati ever to fight in the games. They will come when I call. And Dayrne carries enough money to purchase any other fighters he deems worthy."

  She nodded. She would miss Dayme's presence at her side, but when it came to choosing trainees and fighters there wasn't a better judge of manflesh. And except for herself or Lowan there was no other she would trust with such a mission.

  "I have to get to the field. Father," she said suddenly. She raised on tiptoe and gave him an affectionate peck on the cheek. "Then, I'll be gone most of the day. Don't worry if I'm not back tonight."

  Lowan batted his lashes, turning her own coy expression against her.

  She punched him playfully in the ribs. "Nothing so lascivious," she said, adopting his line. "This is business." Then, she looked thoughtful and amended her remark. "Well, some of it's business. Some of it will be pure pleasure." She reached up and scratched his chin; "That mare of yours, is she still hot?"

  Lowan Vigeles eyed her suspiciously. "Changing the subject? Don't want to talk about tonight's boyfriend?" He sighed. "Yes, the mare's still hot. I've taken pains to keep her away from any boyfriends. It spoils them for riding when they swell."

  She said no more to her father. He'd forgive her, after a few days, when he found out what she'd done. Tempus, on the other hand .. .But who cared about him? She grinned, relishing the delightful mood she felt today. Had she said pure pleasure? She chuckled aloud.

  Lowan looked at her strangely. She patted his hand, winked, and headed for the practice area where Daphne and eleven of the best gladiators ever to set foot in the arena were already hard at work and sweaty.

  The sun was nearing its zenith when Chenaya called a halt to the workout. She sent Daphne, Leyn, and the others back to the manse, but called Dismas and Gestus to her side. The two were a team, almost never apart. Lovers, they even resembled each other with their sandy hair, close-cropped beards, and exaggerated musculature.

  "Interested in a little game, friends?"

  The two looked at each other, then at her, and said nothing. They had a good idea what she meant. They'd helped her with other little games before.

  "Nobody can sneak around like you two," she continued. In fact, they'd been the shiftiest pair of thieves and burglars in Ranke before they were finally caught and sentenced to Lowan's school for arena training. "And very few are faster on their feet."

  Dismas folded his arms, repressing a grin. "Save the grease, mistress," he said in clipped Rankene. "It's too hot to stand here and exchange flatteries, even true ones."

  Chenaya sidled up to Dismas and rubbed her body against his. "Aren't you taking good care of him these days?" she said teasingly to Gestus. With a knuckle she tapped the leather groin guard under Dismas's kilt. "He's so grumpy today."

  "N'um faults," Gestus answered with a shrug. That was the odd thing about this pair. So alike in everything else, Gestus had never mastered Rankene. Dismas, on the other hand, spoke it like a court noble.

  She stepped back again and turned serious. "There's someone I want you to watch for me, and something I want you to do. You'll have a fat purse of coins to spend. If your quarry goes to a tavern, so do you. If he goes to a brothel..." She hesitated, scratched her temple. "Well, you'll think of something." Gestus folded his arms, too, and grinned. Clearly, she'd caught their interests. "Just make sure you don't attract notice." She flipped a finger against their studded belts. "Wear something less identifiable."

  Dismas unfolded his arms, so Gestus did, too. "The name of our fox?" he said conspiratorially.

  "No fox," she cautioned. "A deadly mountain cat. Mind you, don't cross him. Just keep an eye on him and inform me of his movements." She beckoned them closer, and they bent to hear. She made a show of glancing in all directions, then put a finger to her lips. "Now here's the fun part. Before sundown I want one of you back here with half a brick of krrf."

  That raised eyebrows.

  As she'd predicted, the day turned scorching, too hot for her usual fighting leathers. Yet she'd wanted to make sure she attracted attention, so she'd donned trousers and blouse of shining black, loose-fitting silk and spit-polished boots that rose almost to her knee, not quite high enough to conceal the hilts of the daggers stuck in each one. Over one shoulder she wore a leather strap to which a number of Bandaran throwing stars were attached; a simple twist easily freed them from their stud mountings. On her right hip she wore one more weapon -a gladius whose golden tang was fashioned to resemble the wings of a bird. Lastly, because she'd seen Zip do it, she'd tied a sweatband of clean white linen above her eyes.

  Every gaze turned her way as she strode brazenly across Caravan Square on her way to Downwind. She smiled and winked at the gawkers, sometimes lightly brushing the hilt of her sword. Only a few had balls enough to smile back; most glanced quickly in some other direction and passed on.

  As she approached the bridge that crossed the White Foal River a gaggle of grubby street urchins surrounded her. She smiled at their play, dipped a hand into the purse on her belt, and tossed a fistful of coins over her shoulder. The children lost interest in her and began scuffling for the glinting bits of metal. She laughed heartily, started past the deserted guard-post and across the bridge.

  As she set foot in Downwind two men appeared to block her path. "Mebbe y'ud be s'free wi' the rest o' yer spark," croaked the one on her left. The point of his sword indicated her purse.

  "An' wit' yer other charms, too," his partner suggested.

  A disdainful smirk flickered over Chenaya's features as she heard two more slide up behind her, heard the soft susurrus of steel slipping from sheathes. They wore no armbands, so they weren't part of Zip's group. From the rags they wore she guessed th
ey followed Moruth.

  That suited her fine. Moruth-the beggar king-was one of the faction leaders that had dared to oppose the PFLS. Well, she hadn't come to Downwind to win Moruth's favor. Unfortunately for His Beggar-Majesty, she had come to win Zip's.

  She didn't bother turning to see the two behind her. They gave away their positions by their breathing and by their constant foot-shuffling. "You'll make perfect offerings," she informed them gruffly. "I'll pour your blood as a libation to the leader of the PFLS."

  The man who had spoken first tuned pale, but he held his ground, tapping his blade against his palm. "You part o' Zip's group?" he asked suspiciously. "You got no band on yer sleeve,"

  "Spoils the silk," she answered. She waited a brief moment, daring them with her haughty gaze to make their move or to scatter from her path. The man on her left stopped his incessant sword tapping; the one beside him chewed his lip. Yet they were unwilling to back away from her, a mere woman.

  "She mus' think she's purty good wit' that sticker," said one of the men behind her.

  Chenaya had no more time to waste. "Watch carefully," she advised with impatience. "I don't often give lessons to scum."

  Her hand was almost a blur. Bright steel flashed through the air. A soft thunk; a groan of surprise and fear sounded as a throwing star embedded in the first man's throat. His sword tumbled into the dirt, followed instantly by his lifeless body.

  Even before the star scored, Chenaya had her sword free. She ran screaming at the man on her right. In stark terror he raised his sword to protect his head. Her blade crashed down twice against his, then arced down and across, opening his belly. On the backswing she knocked the sword from his grip, severing several fingers.

  There was no time to watch him fall. She whirled, settled in a deep forward stance to meet the remaining two. But these were beggars, not seasoned warriors. Still, they knew the better part of valor. She watched their departing backs as they ran for shelter beneath the bridge. Laughing, she hurled a second star with all her arena-trained skill. A scream ripped from one of the fleeing beggars; he tumbled headlong through the weeds, down the bank, and into the river. Sputtering, screaming, clutching at the four-pointed agony behind his knee, he dragged himself onto the bank and scrambled after his comrade.

  She laughed again, a bitter and challenging sound that rattled in her throat, and she glanced around in time to spy the street urchins who had gathered at the far end of the span to watch. They melted away like shadows in the sun. On the Downwind side, too, figures faded into alleys and doorways, unwilling witnesses. Chenaya bent and wiped her blade on a dead man's garments, retrieved the first star, and cleaned it, too.

  She had no doubt that Zip would hear of this. She wanted him to hear. It was why she had come to this stink-hole side of town. Sheathing her sword, she walked on, giving no further thought to the bodies in her wake.

  Come to me, Zip, she willed, come to me.

  There were taverns in Downwind, or places that professed to be taverns. Only Mama Becho's, though, could legitimately claim to be such. Even so, there were lifelong drunks in Sanctuary who wouldn't deign to spit on its threshold, let alone consume its questionable product.

  Chenaya stepped through the low, doorless entrance, her vision swiftly adjusting to the dim light. A dozen pairs of eyes turned to examine her. Quite a different crowd from the one that frequented the Unicorn. There the faces were full of menace or scheming or general disinterest. The eyes at Mama Becho's reflected only desperation and despair.

  It was like no place she had ever seen before, and she thought of the men who had met her at the bridge, men like these, men with the same desperate eyes. They had wanted her gold and had gone down for it. She saw in Mama Becho's men who would have done the same and welcomed the death she gave. And why not? For such as these, life had little to offer, little to hold them.

  She thought of the bridge again, of men who poured their blood into the dirty street for a handful of spark, and for one moment, Chenaya hated what she had done.

  Fortunately, the moment passed. She reminded herself she had come to this cesspool on business.

  "You want somethin', honey, or you jus' come to see the sights?" A mountainous woman in a tattered smock leaned one elbow on the board that served as a bar and leered at her. She wiped at the interior of an earthen mug with a grimy rag that hadn't seen a rinsing in weeks. Wisps of grizzled hair floated about her thick jowled face as she worked.

  "Uptown bitch," someone muttered into his cup. Pairs of eyes began slowly to turn back to their drinks, to the private fantasy worlds found only in foul brews.

  "Honey," Chenaya said smiling to Mama Becho, "I want a couple of things. First, a cup of some decent beverage, Vuksi-bah if you've got it in this dump." The eyes all turned her way again, whether at her mention of the expensive liquor or because of the insult, she didn't know or care. "A respectable wine or cool water if you don't." She leaned on the board facing the fat proprietor and felt it sag under their combined weights. The old woman's breath was worse than fetid, but Chenaya managed to force a grin. "Then I want Zip."

  That got their attention. She reached into her purse, drew out another handful of coins. Not bothering to look at them or judge their value, she threw them over her shoulder, all but one which she placed on the board. It was a gleaming soldat.

  "I'm betting somebody here knows how to contact him," she said, still addressing Mama Becho, well aware that everyone could hear. "And when he walks through that door I'll scatter another fistful of coins."

  "An' what if we jus' take yer spark, lady?" said a lean, twisted man who squatted in a gloomy comer against the wall. He fingered one of the silver pieces that had fallen his way.

  "Shet up yer mouth, Haggit," Mama Becho snapped. "Can'tcha see we got us a fine noblewoman here? Mind yer manners!"

  Chenaya cast the soldat to the one called Haggit; he caught it with a deft motion. "I give my gold where and when I see fit. Two who tried to take it are still cooling at the foot of the bridge." She gave him a hard, penetrating look. "Now, I want to see Zip, and I'll pay fairly to find him. Play me any other way, Haggit-" Chenaya winked at him and nodded her head "-and you'll do all the paying."

  Haggit glared at her for a long moment, bit into the soldat with his front tooth, then rose and went out. One by one all the other customers drifted out, too. Not one of Chenaya's coins remained on the floor.

  "Now ye've scared away my business," Mama Becho complained. She still scoured the same mug with the same filthy rag. "Might as well get comfy, honey." She waved at the cloth-covered furniture that served in place of stools and tables. "No tellin' when Zip'11 turn up. Thet boy comes an' goes as he pleases."

  Chenaya remained where she was as the old woman disappeared to fetch her wine. She took a deep breath and let it out. Zip would turn up, she had no doubt. She'd spread enough wealth to insure that; she'd killed his enemies, too. He'd come all right, if only out of curiosity.

  She took another deep breath and held it. What was that odor? She glanced at the doorway Mama Becho had gone through. An old, worn blanket hung across it; a thin, tenuous smoke wafted around the edges.

  Krrf smoke.

  She wet her lips slyly and wondered how Gestus and Dismas were faring.

  Two bitter cups of wine and one cup of water later, the man she had come to find mercifully walked in, leaving, by the sound of things, a couple of his cronies standing guard in the alleyway. Mama Becho made a discreet nod of greeting and headed for the back room.

  "Don't bother listening through the curtain or one of the cracks in the wall. Mama," Zip called and waved his hand to draw her back. "Up here-where I can keep an eye on you, too." Mama Becho put on a look of wounded innocence and reached for another mug to polish.

  Zip walked calmly up to Chenaya; his gaze ran unabashedly up and down her body.

  "There's a lot more swagger in your step than when we met in Ratfall," she commented wryly.

  His gaze met hers with unco
ncealed arrogance. "You've got a lot less muscle with you this time," he answered bluntly. "What do you want, Chenaya? Did Tempus send you?"

  She laughed. Her hand reached out to touch his shoulder, drifted down over his chest, then resumed its place at her belt. Hard, lean muscle beneath his clothing, she'd discovered, no fat. "Tempus Thales isn't quite the puppeteer he thinks himself."

  Zip leaned on the board, close to her, giving her a long look. "I wouldn't tell him that-not me."

  He had a nice face, she realized. Young and rugged, crowned by a mop of dark hair. Sweat-tracks lined his brow and cheeks, and there were circles of dirt around his neck where the flesh showed above his rough-woven tunic. He smelled, but it was a man's musky odor, not the stench of Downwind. She stared brazenly into his eyes and chuckled.

  "Oh, I've taken his measure," she said, "and he comes up short."

  "He hears the voice of the Storm God," Zip cautioned with an enigmatic, taut, little smile.

  "He hears voices, all right." She caught a piece of his tunic and pulled his face close to hers. In conspiratorial tones she whispered, loud enough still for any to hear, "But the Storm God?" She shrugged meaningfully. "Between you and me and these others, I suspect he's just a crazy, common madman. He uses the so called voices to excuse his perversions and aberrations. After all, he can't be blamed-and needn't take responsibility for his actions-if divine voices compel him. He's only a poor avatar."

  Chenaya didn't actually believe it; she had little doubt of the veracity of Tempus's relationship with the Storm Gods. Her own experiences with Savankala were proof enough that such god/mortal alliances evolved. Still, it was a delicious rumor to start.

  Zip picked up the mug of beer Mama Becho had placed at his elbow. He took a long drink, regarding Chenaya over the rim. He set the vessel down between them. "You threw away a lot of money to find me, woman," he said finally. "Why? Not just to gossip about the Riddler."