“You stubid pitch,” he shouted as he pinched his nostrils shut to stop the flow. “Johan, get me a rag. Now, you idiot!”
The birdlike bones in her hand had barely started to throb before Leofric was by her side, ready to prevent her from striking again as Bartolo moaned and swore at his servant, who looked rather pleased with the unexpected development as he hurried away to fetch a cloth.
“That was for Arran,” she spat, shaking off Leofric’s grip. “You better hope I don’t get a chance to give you what’s coming from me.”
“Keep her away from me,” Bartolo snapped as he dragged himself onto the couch and tilted his head back to press the moist towel to his wounded face.
“Perhaps you’d like to sit over here, Miss Prinsthorpe,” Jairus said, motioning to a chair on the other side of the room. Like the servant, he was struggling to keep a straight face, and had done nothing but stand quietly to the side as his patron suffered her assault. Nikko was nearly laughing outright, barely hidden with a pretend cough into his sleeve, as she sat ramrod straight on the edge of the chair, her heart racing with pleasure, excitement, and rage, ignoring the growing twinge in her knuckles. She always bruised after hitting someone. It had never been more worth it.
“Now. Where is Arran, and how do I get there?” she said calmly, putting on her Guild inspector’s voice.
Bartolo was trapped like a rat in a baited flour sack without a single soul in the room on his side. She would have her information and be on her way in a half hour at the worst. For the first time since leaving Paderborn, she felt like she was in control not only of her mission, but of herself. It was a good feeling. It was the best feeling, and she knew how to use it.
“I don’t know,” Bartolo said.
“You have one chance to change that answer,” she said steadily.
“I really don’t,” he repeated, lowering the rag to glare at her. The circles under his eyes were already puffing up, she noticed with satisfaction. He would be in pain for days. She smiled.
“I’m afraid that wasn’t the right thing to say,” she told him, and made to stand up. He flinched.
“If you will listen for one goddamn minute,” he cried, holding up the cloth like a bloodied white flag. “Just listen. I want him back as much as you do. But I don’t know the answers. If I did, I’d have him already.”
“Continue,” she said, sitting down again.
“The Siheldi have him. I can only assume, from their inaction on the surface lately, that they are either working out what to do with him or starting the process already. If they had succeeded, we would know, because we would all be dead.”
“Succeeded with what, exactly?”
“Arran is…special,” Bartolo said carefully.
“I know. He is an eallawif’s child,” she said, and he looked surprised.
“How –”
“Please,” she scoffed. “Do not treat me like an idiot, or I will treat you to another wallop. There is something about him that the Siheldi want.”
“Yes. And they will squeeze him like a ripe grape to get it.”
“And you wanted to be the one turning the winepress,” Megrithe guessed.
“More like collecting the end result. If I could doctor that wine as the Siheldi consumed it, they would be entirely under my control.”
“Under Tiaraku’s control, you mean,” Nikko put in. “He is behind this.”
“He is financing it,” Bartolo acknowledged.
“But you plan to betray him,” said Nikko.
“That is a strong word.”
“But an accurate one,” Megrithe added. “No?”
“I think that’s really beside the point. My plans are irrelevant if I cannot prevent the Siheldi from breaking through the only prison that has held them this long.”
“Prison?”
“Sind Heofonne – what you might call Fyrendor – is not just an entrance to their world. It is a gateway that has been locked and guarded for many, many centuries. As I understand it, the Siheldi wish to use Arran as a prism, focusing his power on the keyhole, so to speak. At least, that’s what I think. If they do this, the Siheldi Queen would be unbound. She could do as she pleases to humankind. Which is why I need him back. For the good of all of us.”
“You only want him back in your control,” Leofric said. “You don’t want to keep the Queen in her prison. You want her to break out, but only so you can have her as a pet.”
“Is that not better than allowing her to roam entirely free?” Bartolo asked with a brazen innocence that raised Megrithe’s hackles again. “Either way, Arran must be recovered, and it must happen soon. I saw Faidal take Arran through the gateway. I know that’s where they are – Tiaraku’s mirrors do not lie. What I don’t know is what sort of state Arran may be in – he wounded himself quite severely before being taken – but I believe he still is alive, and that is dangerous for us all.”
“And how do the Divided enter into all of this?” Megrithe asked, turning to Jairus.
“As far as I know, the Divided are in agreement with Bartolo,” he said. “I am not privy to such important information, Miss Prinsthorpe. I only do as I’m told.”
“The Warden has asked for your cooperation,” Bartolo told Megrithe. “He specifically said that I should meet with you and obtain your help.”
“Is that so? And how do you suppose I help you if neither one of us knows where Arran is?”
“Because he does,” he said, pointing right at Nikko, who looked uncharacteristically discomfited by the attention as everyone else turned towards him.
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” he said. “What do I have to do with it?”
“You’re the Daggertooth.”
“I’m a Daggertooth,” Nikko corrected. “So?”
“So you know how to reach Sind Heofonne.”
“What is he talking about, Nikko?” Megrithe asked when the neneckt scowled and slumped in his seat, arms crossed and brows lowered. Leofric put a hand on his shoulder, but Nikko shook it off.
“He’s confusing me with someone else,” Nikko said. “There are a lot of Daggertooths. Or at least there used to be. Before Tiaraku.”
“And whose fault was that?” Bartolo said.
“You’re Nikodelmus Daggertooth?” Jairus said suddenly, as if he had just made a connection. “Really?”
“No,” Nikko said. “I’m not. That’s a stupid human name and it doesn’t belong to me.”
Megrithe felt like things were slipping from her grasp a little, and she didn’t like it. She didn’t know what was happening to make Nikko so uncomfortable, but she wanted it to stop. “Explain,” she said sternly to Bartolo.
“Do they teach you no history at the inspector’s school?” he asked.
“Suppose that they don’t.”
“Your little friend here nearly ended up on the throne – before Tiaraku got the best of him. A pretender that everyone decided to believe was real,” Bartolo said with a smirk. “Of course, Tiaraku had no more of a claim to it, but he did have the strength and the fire. It was hardly a contest, when it came down to it.”
“Tiaraku had mercenaries who slaughtered their own people without remorse,” Nikko said. “It is no failing of character to try to preserve lives.”
“It is if you lose,” Bartolo said.
“There are other things to break along with your nose,” the neneckt growled, but Bartolo just ignored the threat.
“Regardless of the politics, you are no stranger to the mountain of fire. You know where it is. You could take your friends there. I am certain you could even take them under.”
“My brothers were the ones who held those secrets,” Nikko said, all the fight suddenly draining from him as if someone had pulled the plug from a tub. “And they are dead.”
“Enough of this,” Leofric finally said as Nikko withdrew into himself even further. “This is pointless. You haven’t given us any answers, or any reason why we shouldn’t tie you up and bring
you back to Paderborn to hang.”
“You have had the answer with you already,” Bartolo said. “Let the Daggertooth take you to the mountain. I will lend you Jairus, if you wish. The darkness will not hinder him. You will be as well equipped as anyone to find Arran, assuming he can be found.”
Megrithe hesitated. She wasn’t opposed to the idea of bringing as much protection as possible with her, but taking Jairus would mean leaving Bartolo free to pursue whatever plans he had in motion. And it would give Jairus plenty of chances if he did feel like changing his mind about killing her.
“I would be happy to accompany you, miss,” Jairus said. “I do have some experience with the Siheldi which may be helpful to you.”
“Are you certain that’s a good idea?”
“Yes, miss,” he said, but he couldn’t see her face, and she didn’t know how to communicate her misgivings about Bartolo to him in any other way.
“I can’t get you inside Sind Heofonne,” Nikko insisted. “It is sealed. There’s no point in going there.”
“Do you know how to get to the mountain, at least?” Megrithe asked.
“Yes,” he replied reluctantly. She didn’t blame him for being reticent. He should have told her before. He had wasted so much of her time – after being cross with her for withholding some of her own information, too – and she wasn’t sure just how angry she was about it.
“Then that’s a good enough start,” she said firmly, putting the thought aside for the moment. She stood up, and everyone but Bartolo followed suit. “Thank you for the exercise,” she said to him, flexing her sore hand. “I hope we can do it again sometime.”
Megrithe turned and left the room without a single look back, not even to see Bartolo’s face, and simply expected everyone else to follow her. They did, and they kept on following her without a word as she marched purposefully down the street and turned several corners, leaving the block of flats far out of view before she stopped to take a few deep breaths.
“I presume you would like me to send a message to my uncle about this,” Leofric said.
“Yes, please. I would like the Guild to keep watch over him. I don’t think it would be wise to take him into custody just yet, though I would be perfectly thrilled to pull the lever of his gallows when the time comes.”
“As would I,” said Leofric. “But Andrus should question him, at the very least.”
“I would prefer if he didn’t, sir,” Jairus put in. “As far as I’m aware, Tiaraku does not know where Bartolo is hiding, which means he doesn’t know that you have been visiting him. If you want to get to Sind Heofonne unmolested, I suggest we keep our travels a secret for as long as possible. Watch him, by all means, especially since I won’t be able to, but I cannot advise further action at this time.”
“I am still not all that convinced that your advice is much worth following,” Leofric said. “What is your game here? Is the Warden trying to double-cross Bartolo, or are you trying to get the better of them both with that story you told to Megrithe? I swear to all that is holy, if you lay a finger on her –”
“On my honor, sir, I mean Miss Prinsthorpe no harm,” Jairus protested, but Leofric just shook his head.
“Your honor? What does that mean to me? I don’t know you, and I don’t think I care to.”
“It should mean a great deal if Miss Prinsthorpe believes it, sir.”
“Miss Prinsthorpe is entitled to her opinion, but I am entitled to mine. Guessing a few colors does not make you trustworthy.”
“I have taken no action today that would indicate I am anything but sincere,” Jairus said, but Leofric was unwilling to hear it.
Megrithe sighed, turning to Nikko with the expectation that he would intervene, but she was surprised to see he was no longer with them. He had wandered a half block away, seating himself on the lip of a pool, turning his head so he could stare into its depths. Megrithe left Jairus and Leofric quarreling with each other and went towards him.
“I suppose we must let them have it out, as long as they don’t come to blows,” she said, trying to sound cheerful. He didn’t respond, but neither did he object when she perched beside him on the stonework.
“I didn’t lie to you,” he said after a while. “Not intentionally.”
“I don’t think you lied. But I wish you had told me you knew how to get to the mountain so I didn’t have to waste so much time.”
“I don’t want to go there.”
“Neither do I. But you know I have to. You’re the one who told me that.”
“I fear that you will die there, Megrithe,” he told her, raising his head to look into her eyes. “I fear that I will, too. I hoped that you would find another way before it came to that. I was just – I was just hoping there was another answer. I am sorry.”
“I’m not angry,” she said. “I’m just not sure I understand. Is it true, what Bartolo said? About who you are?” she asked, but trailed off as he hunched his shoulders again.
“It was so long ago,” he said quietly, but then he stopped.
“I suppose I’m not the only one with shadows in my heart that I’d rather forget.”
Nikko sighed. “No, you’re not. I left Niheba to follow the sun,” he said, looking over at Leofric, who was still bickering with Jairus. “But in my heart, the night always returns.”
“And so will the light,” she said. “Eventually.”
He smiled faintly. “We will not find any in Sind Heofonne.”
“You said you had brothers,” she prompted after some time.
“Yes. Two of them were oughon, with interests in the Siheldi. They were very well respected, and they even advised our previous king. The third of my brothers was not trained in any arts – he was just a plain fool, arguing with the old men and the radicals in the streets of Niheba, quarreling over history that couldn’t be changed.
“It was all an accident, really. He did not like our practice of choosing a ruler, which is far too complex to explain to you, if you’ll forgive me. It seemed random to many of my own people, too, and it irked my brother deeply.
“One day, he used me as an example during a rally to say that any stranger off the beach was as good as whom the the oughon picked, and unfortunately, I decided to play to the crowd. You know I can hardly ever turn down a spot of fun. It was just some theater to make them laugh. I thought that’s all it was, and I hardly even remembered it the next day.
“But not everyone was so forgetful, and it all got rather complicated very quickly. There was a great deal of discontent among the neneckt – this was before the Treaty of Libourg, and old Eormi Stoneclaw was not the best of kings. His weakness let us slide back into being loyal to our clans ahead of our nation. There were so many petty little wars brewing between the tribes, and we had let ourselves be carried by that current far too many times before.
“No one wanted a return to that bloody way of life. They wanted something different, and I suppose a young mason’s apprentice who charmed them with jokes and courted them with fresh ambitions was about as different as it could get.
“I let myself be turned into a figurehead, brought along to a war that had nothing to do with me,” Nikko said. “And I can’t say I didn’t love every moment of it, before everything went wrong.”
“Tiaraku saw the weakness in your people, too,” Megrithe guessed when Nikko paused.
“Yes, and he was not slow to exploit it. Tiaraku was a bully and a bastard. A violent, greedy, horrible choice, but he promised strength and unity. He brought us all together, for a time, but it was in opposition to the humans instead of in harmony with ourselves. Not even the oughon really wanted to choose him as king, but they said the Sea Father’s signs all pointed his way.
“There were a great many protests against Tiaraku when he took the throne. When my oughon brothers broke ranks with their fellows to lend me their support, suddenly there were no rules anymore.
“I wanted to be what the people wanted, and I really did try. But I wasn�
��t willing to take the crown by force. When it came down to it, I just couldn’t outmatch Tiaraku. I didn’t have the fortitude to do what was required when there would be so much death because of it. Bartolo was right about me.”
“Bartolo isn’t right about anything,” Megrithe said. “Don’t you ever think differently.”
“Tiaraku killed them all,” he said bleakly. “My brothers, my parents, my clan. Many other clans. Anyone who stood against him. The Black Salts, the Fan Sharks, the Hawkfish…so many families obliterated. It was the worst war we’ve ever had. And I don’t think the humans even knew it was happening.”
“There were storms,” Megrithe said. “My father remembered. He said there was a year where it rained almost every day and the sea was impassable for months at a time. Trying to go to Niheba was a death sentence.”
Nikko nodded. “There were fewer humans on the island back then, but the Siheldi cannot resist the call of strife. Their work was very bloody, and I think that’s where Tiaraku must have gotten his ideas. My brothers took me to the mountain once, to show me what Tiaraku would do to us if he won. They showed me the Siheldi so that I would fight with my eyes open, they said. And I really tried to. And I still lost.”
“But you’re still here. Tiaraku hasn’t defeated you yet.”
“He thought I was so small of a threat that there was no point in killing me,” Nikko said bitterly. “I amused him. He traded me away as part of the Treaty of Libourg, after I had spent enough time in prison. As much as I love that it led me to Leofric, sometimes I wish Tiaraku had changed his mind and killed me instead.”
“Don’t say that. It isn’t fair.”
“It isn’t fair for you to ask me to do something I can’t do,” he replied. “I can’t open the gateway. I don’t know how.”
“If Faidal could find a way, then so can we.”
“That’s right,” Jairus said, coming towards them. “And as a last resort, we can have the lady knock her way through with her fists.”
“Where did Leofric go?” Megrithe asked, smiling vaguely at the joke.
“To see Andrus. I think we have come to a very tentative agreement,” he said before putting out his hand to help Megrithe stand up. “We will not kill each other unless one of us gives the other a good reason. He is an impressively tough nut, that one.”
Dark the Dreamer's Shadow Page 17
