by Toby Bennett
He was still holding the sack, when he crawled up the muddy shore that the Ash-men spent their lives scavenging. Akna gulped the air, trying to regain the strength and feeling that would allow him to take his first steps out of the shallow water. Mud clung to him, as he forced himself up the bank. The tide was still low enough that the ground in front of it was a sucking quagmire and gaining the safety of Niskar’s cobbled streets seemed as draining as his escape from the tomb. When he had finally made it up onto one of the grimy alleys that ran parallel to the low dyke wall, Akna felt like he was flying rather than walking. His feet fell with a heavy thud that shook his whole body and jarred his vision but other than that, he had no sensation of actually propelling himself forward, it just seemed as if the buildings were flowing past on either side of him.
Ash-man territory was on the other side of the city from Alanski’s establishment and the pleasure districts. It was their proximity to the flooded districts in the East of the city which allowed them to take such advantage of Nisgul's fluctuations; a boon for the Ash-men but a long trek for an exhausted man through streets, where the inhabitants would gut you for a silver mark, let alone the priceless contents of Akna’s sack. Akna would never have dared to take a direct route through the Ash-downs, had he been in a better state but perhaps it was his brazen behaviour that deterred any attack. With ragged clothes and covered in mud, he looked like anyone of a thousand moonhorn addicts weaving through the streets and it would never cross anyone’s mind that one of those poor wretches might be carrying the price of a small kingdom over their shoulder in a dripping sack.
He crossed the bridge over the main canal without incident. The lights of the Asylum blazed above him on the top of the hill; weaker lights of many colours winked and twisted along the narrow streets and empty channels of the pleasure district. It seemed to Akna, as he stood there, that the bottom of the hill was like a reflection of the majesty at the top. Like light broken and reflected in water, so the pleasure districts tried to offer something of the ecstasy enjoyed by the true believers that ruled the top of the hill. He had seen them both, Niskaan’s faithful and those who plied a supposedly less honest trade. He could see no difference in them now, save that one shone brighter than the other. He shook his head in an attempt to clear it. It had been three years since he had felt such thoughts, three years since he had even dreamed; now he dreamed with open eyes. Water dribbled from nearby fountains and he looked down at the boats languishing in the lowered waters of the canal from a height that appeared far too great to be provided by the arched bridge on which he stood. The channels were nearly empty now but soon they would be bursting with renewed flood. Would he also be renewed? For some reason the image of Ilsar’s face framed by sunlight returned to him. Could he be renewed? Would the night he had known all his life end in daylight? Akna spat into the water and he was reminded of his gnawing thirst. It was all fancy, an after-effect of the poison and his exhaustion. He hoisted the sack in his hand and staggered forward towards familiar streets and the respite of Alanchi’s bar.
He did not use the public way to enter Alanchi’s establishment, Niskar’s official guard was not very vigilant and for the right price it would turn a blind eye to the genocide of half the city, a point that had been proved at least once in the city’s history. There was probably no one watching but particularly after the business with Seroke, Alanchi insisted that his people’s comings and goings be as secret as possible. Akna had been given the key to a house, two buildings over from the tavern. A tunnel led from the house under the neighbouring buildings and into one of the many subterranean rooms under the tavern. Akna stumbled through the door of the house, before collapsing into a heap on the dusty floor. To his surprise someone was helping him back up, almost as soon as he had hit the ground. Akna could not see who it was that had helped him, the room was too dark and his vision kept blurring, but he could guess at the height of the person helping him so he was not entirely unprepared to hear a familiar voice.
“You’re back.” Zenker tried to turn it into a matter of fact statement but Akna could hear the relief in his voice. Zenker and many others made the mistake of thinking that Akna’s poor range of emotion limited him, when it came to understanding emotions in others, at times the reverse could be true, since without the distraction of strong feelings, he was often able to better analyse what was being said. The undertone in Zenker’s statement let him know, in no uncertain terms, that there was trouble waiting for him even in the sanctuary of his home.
“You were waiting for me.”
“No use denying it I suppose,” Zenker said.
“Why?”
“Not now, you look as bad as the first time I met you and there will be questions enough from Alanchi.”
“You came here to warn me before I got there.” Akna’s head spun, what could have happened while he was unconscious? Why was Zenker worried about whatever Alanchi might ask?
“I did, but it looks like you might never have made it there if I hadn’t.” Zenker reached into one of his many pockets and drew out vial. “I don’t know what you’ve been dosed with but this should help. This elixir will drive any foul humours from your body.”
“I wish you’d told me that before, I feel like I’ve been in a bad humour for years.”
“No time for jokes, drink it and then you can tell me what happened.”
“I’m more interested in knowing what you think happened, you wouldn’t have been waiting for me if you hadn’t heard something.”
“If what we heard was true then I doubt you would have ever come back.”
“You forget you have something of mine,” Akna smiled weakly, “and I’m not leaving without it.”
“Exactly why I know you would do nothing to risk it, but Alanchi doesn’t understand how strong its hold is on you, so he wonders but I know there must be more to this than we have heard. All that can wait for a few more minutes, though.”
Zenker helped to prop Akna up and poured some of the elixir into his mouth, Akna choked almost immediately and had to work to get even half of the dose down.
“Niskaan’s teeth! Chases out bad humours! I’m not surprised the last patient almost certainly died miserable.”
“Have you known anyone who dies happy?”
“If they knew they didn’t have to drink that slop any more they might.”
Zenker shrugged
“Take your chances then, if you find the taste so harsh.”
Akna forced down another mouthful of the ghastly liquid.
“Now no more hints and half truths, if you’ve decided to warn me about Alanchi then you have also decided to help me, against his wishes. Why not just fill me in on what has happened?”
Zenker frowned. “Because I’m not sure I have made the right decision yet. I need to hear your version of events first.”
“You won’t tell me what’s going on otherwise?”
“You’ve never been slow, Akna, if you want me to stop making a meal of this, so should you.”
“All right,” Akna coughed, “you didn’t bring any water to wash that stuff down with did you? Thanks. There’s not much to tell, really, the Ash-man and I went in and I left him in the main treasure chamber, just as we planned. Then I went looking for the true burial chamber.”
“You found it, I was right.” It was a statement not a question.
“Yes, but you knew that I had found the chamber you predicted already, how?”
“Let’s just say that there have already been ripples as a result of what you found. You managed to find the hidden vault and then the Ash-man found you am I right?
“No, I didn’t see the Ash-man after I found the chamber, why would you think otherwise?”
“I need the truth, Akna if the man had to die to preserve something valuable enough then Alanchi might protect you; if he struck first, even better but we must know exactly what happened down there, if we are going to be able to protect you.”
“I didn’t know what
happened to the Ash-man for certain until now, she said she had killed him but I couldn’t be sure.”
“She? Someone else was there then, someone from another organization?”
“I suspect she wasn’t from any of the other outfits.”
“Then what?”
“She was from the Asylum and she knew what she was looking for.”
“The same things as you no doubt, but why kill the Ash-man?”
“Why not? She tried to kill me too and it wasn’t the treasure that she was after. She came for Takiaza.”
“Hell’s breath, anyone from the Asylum should know the history; the Hierophant wasn’t even buried in his tomb.”
“They knew the history better than we did; somehow he had preserved a part of himself and sealed it in the tomb before he died.”
“A ghost? What would they want with that? The thing would be raving after so long.”
“But that’s just it, the ghost remembered exactly who it was and what it was doing there, the girl even said she had come from some minor daemon named Vulkas or Varkas.”
Zenker shook his head, obviously struggling to take in what he had just heard.
“Daemons left this world at the very dawn of human civilisation, even their most minor servitors have faded to little more than echoes, still resounding beyond the veil.”
“That is the common lore, but I heard her talk of the daemon and the Hierophant recognised the name, had even been waiting to hear it.”
“So whatever is happening might have been set in motion all that time ago. I suppose I wouldn’t take the chance on there being witnesses either, if I was in their position. It makes me wonder how it is that I am even talking to you now, if the stakes are so high.”
“Luck, if the bolt had hit me square on and I’d got a bigger dose of the poison, I’d be dead and you wouldn’t get to look inside this sack.”
Zenker took the soggy bundle from Akna, he opened it then quickly slid it shut when the brilliance of the gems inside it ignited and lit the room.
“You got these from the Hierophant's chamber?” Zenker gasped.
“Our friend made the mistake of leaving me unconscious there.”
“And she didn’t take the opportunity of finishing you off?”
Akna did not miss the suspicion in Zenker’s voice.
“She thought her bolt had found its mark and she was in a hurry. The tide must have been rising by then, I was lucky to make it out.”
“You said lucky, the Ash-men will say something different, when they hear that their man had his throat slit ear to ear and you came back with a sack of fine crystals.”
“Why should we care what they say? Would you prefer that I had never brought you those gems?”
“You know that the Ash-men are the biggest organization in the Eastern half of the city. Alanchi may be a rich Westside operator and he might have enough muscle to get his way in the pleasure districts but he cannot afford a war. We cannot afford a war, the organisation wouldn’t survive it.”
“He means to give me to them, doesn’t he?”
“In truth he has little choice.”
“The treasure will make no difference?”
“Not in the long term, it might sweeten him for a bit but ultimately, he knows that as soon as the Ash-men found out about them, they would be suspicious. Whatever he told them to save you would seem like complicity, when the gems in that bag started to hit the market. Crystals of that purity are rare and it wouldn’t take much to guess their source.”
“So what do you recommend, leave the city?”
Zenker shook his head. “No not that, there might yet be a way to salvage the situation.”
“How?”
“Find the girl, find out what her master is doing.”
“What? She almost killed me, why would I want to find her? I’d sooner just leave.”
Even as Akna said it, he knew that was a lie. He did not know why but he didn’t want to leave. The image of Ilsar’s face revealed in the pale sunlight of Takiaza’s living dream flashed through his mind.
“Your elixir is not countering this poison fast enough for my liking.” Anka muttered.
“Don’t change the subject. Do you really think you can just leave Niskar?”
“You mean do I think either you or Alanchi would ever be willing to let me go?”
“For your own good, no, I don’t just talk of the debt for having saved your life. Where would you go? How long would you last without the drives that come so easily to other men?”
“You said I might heal and you might be right. I don’t know if it was the poison or the place but I have felt something for the first time since we met. It is so strange to feel that I cannot yet define it but I think something within me is awakening.”
“All the more reason for you to stay, with guidance and help you are more likely to heal. Perhaps the secret to your recovery lies with the Hierophant.”
“You only say that because you want to know more of what is happening. You want to use me, not cure me.”
Zenker twirled one of his fiery whiskers. He gave Akna an appraising look.
“Use you?” He helped Anka into a sitting position and then backed off and lent against the wall. Light bloomed from between his cupped fingers and Akna smelt the acrid smoke of one of Zenker’s hand rolled cigarettes on the air.
“We use each other. We always have and what’s more, you’ve always known that.”
“True. I thought you were going to try to give those up?”
“Helps me think. Now here’s the thing, Akna, you know that Alanchi is using you, that I am prepared to risk you, to sniff out even a hint of a daemon in the city, but it doesn’t matter to you. It can’t, you aren’t even angry because you really don’t know what it is to be what you say you once were.” Zenker knew he was taking a chance with his strategy, the memory of being whole was one of the few things that might still get an emotional rise out of Akna. Dangerous but manipulation always required emotion to play on
“I don’t just say it, I was more than this once.” Something close to sorrow gripped Akna as he thought about the sun-drenched mountain side and the woman’s face; both already seemed to be fading, their colour leaching into the grey that was all he had known since Lothar stole so much from him.
“Whatever you are or were, you are not equipped to leave the city. You’ll just have to take my word for that.”
“And what is your word worth in this matter?”
“Senseless but not stupid,” Zenker muttered under his breath.
“You know what I am, Akna, but you also know that I have always looked to your interests, when to do so did not go counter to my own. In this case our interests are conjoined; you need to find the Hierophant and the girl or you will be a fugitive, you would have to leave the only safety you know and even that might not be enough. Alanchi would see it a desertion and the Ash-man would say it was absolute proof of your guilt. Your new enemies wouldn’t normally look beyond Niskar but you would be surprised by their reach if they decided to find you.”
Zenker took another drag and exhaled a cloud of orange tinged smoke into the darkness. The glowing tip of the cigarette briefly revealed his sharp features, reminding Akna of some feral rodent more than a man. The effect did not perturb the assassin but he did briefly wonder if it were possible that the little thief had become more wild looking since they had first met.
“Let us pretend for a moment that I agreed to go after the girl and the ghost, how would you suggest I go about it? I presume that if I follow our ‘conjoined interests’, you’ll keep Alanchi off my back?”
“Alanchi need never know that you returned and if he should somehow find out, I believe that I could convince him to give you a chance. Obviously, I could not promise the same if the Ash-men should learn of your existence; I hope you were circumspect on your return journey?”
Akna didn’t bother point out that he had been delirious for most of the trip back.
“I assume you will take custody of the gems?”
“What use could you have for them? Besides they must be hidden, since they would surely point to your survival if they were ever sold.”
“Meanwhile, I’m sure you will catalogue them?”
“Naturally.”
“And should the best never reach the markets, who would ever know?”
“Why do you bother to state the obvious?”
“Because I want you to understand how our arrangement is going to work, I don’t care what you take from that sack but I want my own stone back.”
“That will not be easy, I am no longer even its guardian. Alanchi has never understood the depth of your need for the stone but he thought it would be wise to have as much leverage as he could over you.”
“I’ll bet you know where the stone can be found, though.”
“Sure but what’s in it for me? You were bringing back the stones anyway.”
“You know the answer to that.”
“Let's state it plainly anyway.”
“You get me my stone and I’ll find out if there is still really a daemon in the city and what it might be up to. I’ll also bring back the girl.”
“I’m not interested in the girl, you are the one who has convinced himself she is important.”
“Be that as it may, we have an agreement: the stone for information.”
“And if you should happen to be able to get your hands on the Hierophant’s dream stone...”
“We've known each other too long for you to slip that in Zen, aside from my own stones there could be nothing more valuable to me now. If anything contains the lore to undo what was done to me, it is that stone. It is no mere trifle to be tacked on as an afterthought .”
“And of the two of us who would be best suited to learning the Hierophant's secrets? Do not worry I would be generous with what I learned.”
Akna smiled thinly. “As you could well afford to be. No, if I somehow manage to survive this madness, you will have to do better than offering me scraps.”
