A Lady in Crystal

by Toby Bennett

  “So what you are actually saying is 'stolen' another man's life.”

  “Was there all that much left to steal? Listen Akna Asemutt you can curl up and die, stay empty or you can make the best of what I have offered. My way, there is at least hope.”

  “You are a fool,” Akna told the ceiling, “I would have thought that you didn’t need me to do your dirty work. What can I offer that a thousand knife-men all over the city could not?”

  “How many of them were candidates for…”

  “Enough! I do not need my ego stroked or to have to listen to your inanities. You have something I want and as you point out I have no commitments elsewhere. Right now what I need is sleep. When I wake up you can simply tell me who needs to die.”

  Akna rolled over on his palette with a groan. It hurt but it felt better to make this symbolic rejection of Zenker and his transparent attempts to manipulate him. It didn’t matter what the little man said. Nothing mattered any more, it was all so much meaningless noise battering at his frayed senses and all that was nothing compared to the howling of the void within. His only escape was sleep, dreamless oblivion, so strange to one who had once so easily travelled Niskaan’s realm. Exhaustion tipped him over the edge into the darkness before he could wonder how Zenker had known his name.

  Chapter 6:

  “Blackest iron, blackest night creep beyond the fitful light;

  Burning shadows sharp and bright, fading from the razor edge of sight”

  The man they wanted dead was called Seroke, Magistrate Azav Seroke to give him his full title. The magistrate had long been a thorn in Alanchi’s side but recently, he seemed to be able to thwart him almost as soon as any enterprise was conceived. One reason that Alanchi had been prepared to take on new men was the imprisonment of a large number of his crew. The arrests were a direct result of a raid on one of his warehouses by authorities acting on Seroke’s orders. The raid had uncovered numerous missing treasures including a full shipment of dream crystals, which had failed to find their way to the Asylum only a few months before. The loss of such a prize was incalculable since, without the crystals, it was impossible to contain or control the dream phantoms that were the source of real wealth in Niskan and thus the backbone of Alanchi’s smuggling operations.

  “You must understand the nature of the loss,” Alanchi moaned, he was a heavyset man with hair that was too dark to be natural for someone of his obvious age. Akna privately wondered how long it had been since Alanchi had done his own dirty work. “One of the crystals, a great blue stone that I had only just managed to extract from one of my competitors, could produce silver Thalins at will.”

  Akna blinked, he was not much interested in anything the thief master had to say but he could not help but feel slightly amused at the irony. Thalins were the currency used by the Agristan City states that dotted the eastern coast of Seg. Not only were they about as far as you could get from Niskan without having to cross the ocean but they were famously sun soaked, thus reducing the chances of any currency the stone made lasting very long. Still Akna could see how it would appeal to the thief master, if you paid for things at night and were gone by morning…

  Naturally the coins would last forever in Niskar but it would be even more perilous to spend them than in the world beyond. Akna’s life in the Asylum had insulated him from the day to day realities of living in a city where the line between truth and illusion were so blurred. The training he had received and his natural sensitivities had made it possible for him to detect all but the best hidden dream counterfeits. In Niskar proper the arts practised by the priests were a mystery to all but a few. Zenker, he had discovered was one of these individuals. The lenses he wore were not just for show, without any innate sense of Niskaan’s realm, authenticators like Zenker had had to find a way to discern the difference between reality and illusion. Anyone caught trying to palm off one for another was quickly dealt with, whether their crime was claiming a dream was real or the reverse. Money was a relatively new concept to the ex-intitate and it was clear that there was much to be made by selling people what they dreamed of.

  “The empty stones were worth enough on their own.” Alanchi moaned, echoing Akna’s idle thoughts. “I’ve had to turn people away, with no stones to catch their dreams, I’ve let untold gold slip through my fingers.”

  Akna stiffened, the idea that anyone but a priest should take the fruits of Niskaan’s realm was blasphemy. He doubted that anyone in Alanchi’s employ would be able to reach the depths that a true priest might and he knew that so much trade had to come from more than rogue priests but it still startled him to hear the thing so casually talked about.

  Alanchi misinterpreted his sudden tension. “Don’t be concerned, I am not asking for your help in Niskaan’s realm. Zenker made it clear that the damaged you suffered might keep you separated from dreams for years to come but none the less I am sure you can appreciate my position. One of them swore he’d had a vision of the debauch of Agris; he claimed he could summon the scene down to the last virgin.” Alanchi paused “Your sure he’s even listening Zenker? There’s no point presenting him if he’s dead on his feet.”

  “He listens.”

  “His eyes are barely open.”

  “I hear you, none the less.”

  “Not exactly a study in alert intelligence though, are you? Zenker waxed lyrical about you and now I get the feeling I’m boring you.”

  “You are.”

  “No way to get on my good side, you slack little cuj.” Alanchi balled his oversized fists

  “You must understand what they took from him Al,” Zenker interrupted.

  “I’ll take his bloody balls to boot if he doesn’t keep a civil tongue. Seroke takes half the company and you want to tell me what this wretch has lost. I was minutes out the door when they took the warehouse and you know he’s not finished. I get raided while Kygar’s boys go on like its business as usual.”

  “You could have paid the bribes, just like they did.”

  “For how long? He wanted a quarter of my business, just for starters.”

  “You just said he cost you half, it must sound like a bargain now,” Akna commented, without inflection.

  “Niskaan’s teeth, if I didn’t think you were mad.”

  “If you didn’t need me.”

  “For what? you haven’t said or done anything sensible and I’ve wasted a month waiting for you.”

  “But you have made the investment, so you might as well let me make the attempt on Seroke on your behalf.”

  “And how well do you think you’ll do, if you don’t listen? You think other crews haven’t tried to deal with him? Zenker thinks you’re something special and you’ll need to be. You look young to me, young and you don’t listen; three men have already died trying to reach the magistrate and you think you can just ignore everything I have to say?”

  “I fail to see how a list of your losses will help me in this task, if I choose to accept it.”

  “Akna.” Zenker warned.

  “I have not forgotten the stone Zenker. I accept that you have me at a disadvantage. I simply don’t have any inclination to listen to pointless whining.”

  Alanchi’s features reddened and then without warning he began to laugh.

  “True said,” the thief master sat back against the corner of his desk, “none of this is to the point. You must forgive my anger, I have suffered one too many indignities this month. If you are as implacable in the face of the task I have set you, then perhaps you have a chance. You certainly seem as unflappable as Ildar’s tits.” Zenker smiled to himself at this reference to famous statue that stood at the centre of Carver’s Square. The carvers claimed that one of their number had made the lifelike sculpture in the distant past but others claimed that Ildar was a mortal woman, cursed by Niskaan for her frigidity.

  “I am glad we can get back to business.” The little man said. “It might not be relevant what was lost but you might want to consider how it was lost. The ra
id and many like it were carried out with incredible precision. We don’t know exactly what has changed but the magistrate seems to be remarkably well informed these days.”

  “You are sure that he hasn’t simply got an informer?”

  “Some I’m sure but it’s more than that. The stones were only meant to rest in the warehouse for a few hours while they were being sorted and divided up. No one involved had time to tip anyone off. Besides we have informers of our own and from what we can tell, no one taken in got any special treatment. According to our intelligence the magistrate dragged the men out of the barracks with almost no notice. They were actually undermanned because he called the raid together at the last possible second.”

  “If my lads had known there were fewer of them, they might not have surrendered so easily.” Alanchi muttered to himself.

  “The lack of proper preparation tells you that Seroke didn’t know anything until the last minute.” Akna said to Zenker, ignoring the agitated thief master.

  “When he couldn’t have known anything.” Zenker agreed

  “So you think he may not be using natural means?”

  “What is natural in this city?”

  “The rats?” Akna joked, in response to the sound of something shifting behind a nearby bookcase. Zenker did not take the noise so lightly, he leapt across the room with surprising speed, snatching up a candle as he went. He dislodged the books on the lowest shelf just in time to see the movement as something escaped through a crack in the wall.

  “Hells!”, he exclaimed as he pushed more books from the shelf in his pursuit.

  “Zenker! What are you doing?” Alanchi yelled, “those are valuable.”

  “Look!” Zenker shouted pointing at the wall.

  “I see nothing.” Akna said. The wall looked slightly stained, due to neglect but there was nothing abnormal about it.

  “Nor me, what’s wrong with you?” Alanchi growled.

  Zenker tutted to himself . “I keep forgetting that you can’t see as well.” He plucked the gold rimmed glasses from his nose and passed them to Akna. “Now look.”

  Akna placed the strange spectacles over his eyes and the world shifted into a bluish tone. Though the lenses, the wall behind the bookcase looked quite different, the stains were less noticeable but had been replaced by a line of shifting colour, like the sheen on oil; the line lead along the wall and down into a crack in the wall.

  Zenker took position of his spectacles again before continuing. He kept a wary eye on the hole as if expecting something to creep back out at any moment.

  “It is not the first time I have seen a residue like this. I noticed several in the warehouse.”

  “You think that there is some connection to the magistrate's new found insights? He might be employing some kind of dream creature to spy?”

  Zenker shifted the lenses into the green end of the spectrum and examined the mark again. “My glasses would be of no help unless it were some kind of summoning and it would be an extraordinary coincidence if it had nothing to do with the magistrate.”

  “Then, if that was one of his spies, I should assume that he knows I’m coming.”

  “Not necessarily, he doesn’t know who you are and cannot know…”

  “Let’s keep it that way.” Akna said hastily, “I know my target and the more that is said the greater the chances of him gaining advantage.”

  “But you are new and untested in the city,” Alanchi protested, “we should have a plan, help you with the details.”

  “I will keep my own counsel, thank you. All I ask is that you provide me with good steel and a map of the places he can commonly be found. I will ensure that only I can read it.”

  “Weapons are no problem.” Alanchi said crossing over to a large cabinet and unlocking it with a key that hung from his thick neck. The door of the cabinet opened without a sound, to reveal a collection of well made and functional looking weapons.

  Akna selected a sabre, that might have been a twin for the one he had lost beneath the cardinal's palace, two belt knives and a small crossbow. The bolts of the crossbow were tipped with narrow points designed, to hold a few drops of venom or some other poison.

  Alanchi smiled at this choice. “At least you aren’t so far gone that you are above such methods. The way you were talking about taking him on single handed, I thought you might be suicidal enough to simply march into his offices sword in hand.”

  Akna opened his mouth to explain that he would never be such a fool but before he could speak, Alanchi put up a hand to forestall him.

  “I know, I know the less we know the less Seroke can know. I’m happy to stay out of it, to be honest, just so long as the job gets done. I just wanted you to know I’m not scared to get my hands dirty solving my own problem.”

  More than my last master was prepared to do Akna thought to himself.

  “There’s some good poison in the drawer there. Careful though, even a large man couldn’t hope to get more than two steps if it got into a scratch.”

  “How do you know I won’t just use it to take the easy way out then, since you think I am suicidal?”

  “Same reason we know you won’t run.” Zenker said sweetly, “you’re going nowhere without the stone.” Akna left without responding.

  *

  Rain fell in sheets and the wind made the unprotected torches gutter. People did not observe the cycles of night and day in Niskar but for those that lived beyond the walls of the Asylum, these rhythms did make themselves felt. Before the rain had come, Akna had seen the muted luminescence of the day, beyond the clouds that hung over the city. The light was distant, a gold and silver haze on the horizon, only briefly glimpsed through the gaps between the buildings that wound their way up Gallows Hill. Once, he might have been curious about the distant brilliance but he had no more capacity for wonder about the world beyond the one he knew, despite Zenker’s promise that such things might regenerate, he felt no real need or stirring, apart from his desire to regain the stone that represented at least a fragment of what he had once been. Next to that need, every other consideration seemed secondary.

  Gallows Hill was not as big as the slope on which the Asylum was sprawled or even old Crown Hill, which rose beyond it from the darkness of the ghosts, but it had once housed the royal courts, before the kings were deposed and the houses of law and the city's senate, were still situated on the hill. Like the houses of the aristocracy and the king’s palace in the abandoned ghosts district, the buildings that had housed the original courts had been empty for years but with flooding a regular reality, high ground could not be given up to superstition or regret.

  Akna stood, impassive, hidden between two run-down buildings at the base of the hill. He lost track of time, as he waited without moving. His patience had been rewarded, not by his mark making an appearance but when the storm he had smelt on the wind finally broke. True darkness was rare. Niskaan’s followers understood that the Lord of Shadows was not opposed to light, it was light that cast the shadows and made them dance. Even without the sun or moon to show him up, there were normally enough artificial light sources and open flames to make his approach easily observable. The rain and wind gave him some cover, since they made short work of open flames and cleared the streets.

  Lightning flashed dully, a single finger of brilliance piercing the low clouds of the city and touching the ragged tip of the old palace, that jutted like a black and broken tooth from old Crown Hill. The ancient stone shook off the impact and the air rumbled with thunder. For an instant, the light transformed the street that Akna watched, into a patchwork of gleaming stones and flashing rainbows. The cobbles were dark and wet and the old gargoyle that channelled some of the water from the drains higher up the hill, was projecting water over the lip of the fountain. Caught in the after images of the lightning, the squatting monster looked like it was made of flesh rather than stone. Slick with water, it appeared to be caught in the grip of some terrible fever. If the channel bearing the water it wa
s vomiting had not been so clearly fused into the back of the thing’s head, Akna could have believed it was watching him. It was not the gargoyle, however, that probed the darkness. Akna could feel that he was not alone, long before he heard the sound of footsteps on the street.

  The magistrate was hurrying on account of the weather. Even though he had his own litter, it was not completely impervious to the heavy downpour. He had instructed his bearers to move quickly and with the rain soaking them to the skin, they were happy to oblige. Akna watched litter go past stoically, he had never expected that this first encounter would give him an opportunity, he was waiting for something else. He ignored the icy water running down his neck and kept a wary eye on the road where the litter had just passed. Sure enough, a few seconds after the litter had swept by, a small shape broke from the shadows and dashed in the direction the litter had gone. Two tiny flashing eyes seemed to fix on Akna for a moment but he remained still, in the concealment of the deeper shadows caused by the storm.

  From what Akna could make out, the thing on the road was simply a common rat. It had been going somewhere but now it seemed wary. Akna doubted that it had seen him but he couldn’t be too careful. Zenker’s glasses had revealed something unnatural about Seroke’s spies. Perhaps the thing was not simply a rat or perhaps Seroke had some device that allowed him to communicate with the creatures. A spy network of all the rats in the city would be formidable indeed. Then again, perhaps it was just a rat, but if that were true why was it staring in his direction and why had it stopped? Something about the timing was definitely suspicious. It didn’t do to take chances and the last thing he needed was the magistrate getting wind that he was coming for him tonight.

  Akna was slowly bringing his crossbow to bear when the rat turned tail and began to run. Akna’s arm came up in a blur of motion but before he could release his bolt something slithered across the slick cobbles and pounced upon the unfortunate rat. There was another rumble from above and another bolt winked through the dark, churning vapour that still covered the city in defiance of the raging elements. The flash of light briefly revealed a white orb trailing a long crimson tail. The tail was raised high like a scorpion's stinger. The rat squealed in defiance, its instinct told it that escape was impossible, so it chose the only option it had left. Akna was not close enough to see the orb split open into a wide mouth that virtually bisected it. Sharp little teeth stood in rows behind the lipless opening and digestive juices oozed out into the rain, hissing slightly as they touched the wet stone.