Old Man's Ghosts

by Tom Lloyd

  He slipped his hand down to his belt and was punished immediately by a blade slamming into the back of his shoulder, through his armour. Flames of pain raced down his arm but he didn’t stop, yanking the last of his grenades from his belt and pulling it round to the damaged part of her back. He called whatever power was left in his hands and felt a hiss of lightning briefly surround his fingers. With a last burst of strength in his legs he finally tipped her back and over.

  Priest’s balance gave out as she tried to work her blade further into his shoulder and down they went. Enchei dipped his head and slammed her into the stone flooring, howling with pain as her dagger twisted violently in his wound. As his vision blurred he hauled with all his strength to free his hands and at last they—

  Everything went white. He didn’t hear the explosion; just felt the gut-punch as he was hurled up. His hands were thrown out wide by the force of the explosion, his body snapped up and around to tumble in a heap beside Priest. More pain came, then a slap of darkness as the grenade’s flare receded. Lights and colours swam before his eyes. He sensed movement, grey shapes pouncing forward, but no claws pierced his shuddering, defenceless body. As one they were hauled through the air, the unseen radiance of the Imperials casting them back once more as Priest’s strength failed.

  Enchei wrenched around and screamed as his weight went on to his left hand. Again his eyes blurred, overtaxed strength taking an age to dull the blinding agony. With a gasp he found himself able to see again, levering himself up to his knees with his one good arm and not daring to look at the other.

  Beside him, astonishingly, Priest stirred and looked up, her mouth forming an O of pain and wonder. Enchei found himself unable to stand for a moment, struggling under the weight of his own body. He could only watch in amazement as the woman slowly focused on the failing roof above and turned her head towards him. Her clothes were flayed to nothing, the strange scale-patterned armour now cracked with dark fissures from which blood flooded.

  ‘Slayer of gods,’ she whispered, shuddering under the agony of movement.

  Enchei stared back a moment, awed she could manage to speak at all, but at last he nodded.

  ‘Slayer of gods,’ she repeated, a small smile appearing on her lips, ‘it is time to run.’

  He looked down, eyes widening. The rents in her armour began to glow, red light shining out over the expanding pool of blood around her. More cracks began to appear, rapidly spreading all the way across her chest as the light intensified to magma-red. The light filled his mind but Enchei could only scrabble backwards, his exhausted body failing him as Priest’s scraps of clothes were consumed by flames. Even through his armour Enchei could feel the heat.

  ‘Come on, old man!’ roared a voice inside his head.

  He tried to look around but the searing red light was everywhere, filling his mind. Distantly, he felt a jerk and a burst of renewed pain as his arms were grasped by strong hands. Suddenly he was surging backwards, dragged like a ragdoll through a crashing obstacle course of wreckage while the ball of red light rose and expanded before him. He felt the heat and light consume him, blotting out the world around—

  And then he was hauled free, the light no longer red but instead the unfeeling ice-white of the Gods above. The ground beneath him became rough and clattering rubble instead of smooth flagstones and at last he made out shapes around him. The looming bulk of the palazzo, lit red from within like the belly of the seventh hell. The shattered front doors, one torn entirely from its hinges, flashes of white and gold on the figures staring aghast down at him, his blood-stained and panting daughters each standing with one hand under his armpit.

  Maiss ducked down and slipped his arm over her shoulder, bringing Enchei upright while the veteran tried not to cry out again at the too-slowly-receding pain in his hand. With his one good hand he fumbled at the hidden clasps of his helm – the armour now constricting with its power so sapped.

  Enchei pulled the helm off and gasped at the shocking slap of cold air on his skin. He felt himself tilt sideways and had to grab at Maiss’ shoulder until the world righted itself under his feet.

  ‘How bad?’ he croaked at his daughter.

  ‘You or us?’ she said with a snort.

  ‘I ain’t dying,’ he wheezed. ‘I meant you.’

  She patted his shoulder. ‘Better’n you – so long as we get out of here.’

  Up ahead the first of the roof timbers began to fall, Priest’s body invisible at the infernal heart of dancing flames. Nothing of the inside at all was visible and even at the mouth of the gate, twenty yards from the palazzo’s stone flanks, Enchei’s skin stung with the heat. He sensed movement and drunkenly brought his punch-dagger up, realising a moment later it was just the Imperials being driven back by the intense heat.

  ‘Now now, Master Jen,’ Prince Sorote said from behind him. ‘Let us not part on unfriendly terms.’

  ‘Part?’ Enchei echoed, looking around at those assembled and noticing Narin, Kesh and Myken for the first time.

  Behind them, Irato sat with his back against the wall – still reeling from the demon-fragment being torn from his mind no doubt, but the man looked straight back at him and gave Enchei an unsteady nod.

  ‘After all that, you’ll just walk away?’

  Sorote gave him a half-bow. ‘I am a man of the Imperial caste,’ he said solemnly. ‘My word is my bond. Without that assurance, what would the Imperial family have?’

  Enchei coughed, wincing at the pain it provoked. ‘More’n I’d have suspected a few days ago.’ He waved away any reply from the prince. ‘You’ll get no argument from me – just thought there’d be some bargaining to be done.’

  ‘It is concluded. Your friends are quite capable without you.’ Sorote smiled. ‘I wish you luck in whatever your mission is in the Imperial City,’ adding, with an inclined head towards Prince Kashte, ‘so long as it doesn’t interfere with our own endeavours.’

  Enchei looked up at Enay, lance slung easily beneath one arm, then exchanged a look with a pale-faced Narin. ‘Our mission? Guess I can agree to that easily enough.’

  Sorote bowed. ‘Then we shall leave you. I suspect House Iron’s Astaren will eventually creep from their burrows to investigate this, so it’s time we were elsewhere.’

  At his gesture, the Imperials swept away and disappeared into a side-street far from the eyes of the district, leaving only Lawbringer Rhe standing in the street beyond.

  ‘The scene is mine,’ Rhe announced, looking straight at Narin. ‘You, Investigator, are suspended. You should leave now.’

  The six friends looked at each other, all too tired to laugh at the absurdity.

  ‘Gladly,’ Narin said with a weary nod. With Maiss supporting her father and being supported in turn, Enay hauled Irato up to his feet and steadied the former goshe.

  ‘I’m not carrying him home again,’ Narin commented. ‘Once is enough.’

  ‘I’ll walk,’ Irato groaned, ‘I just need an arm to steady me.’

  With half their number propping the others up, they began the long trudge home. Enchei offered Rhe a grateful nod as they passed, but the Lawbringer was already looking past him at the flames shooting from the palazzo roof. A small smile crept on to Enchei’s face, but then he caught sight of his mangled fingers and that faded again.

  ‘What mission do I have?’ he whispered once they were past the Lawbringer. ‘Am I likely to get in Sorote’s way?’

  Narin gave a snort. ‘Your mission? Same as all of ours, just to keep on living and look after your own. Prince Sorote can imagine what he likes, I’ll not correct him.’

  Enchei grunted. ‘Keep on living?’ He drew his daughter in close and embraced her as best he could. ‘That I could probably manage, though you two might be looking after me for a while. I tried death and it never sat right for me.’ He brightened. ‘Dov’ll need a sensible eye to watch over her in the years to come, though.’

  ‘And she shall have me to do so,’ Myken said firmly.

/>   Enchei managed a weary grin. ‘Aye, mebbe I’ll teach Narin then – once I remember how to be a father. Can’t have been too hard, these two turned out okay.’

  ‘Keep talking, old man,’ Maiss grunted, ‘and you can walk the rest of the way unaided.’

  ‘See, they don’t suffer fools. Dov’ll need to learn that if she’s to spend any time around you.’

  EPILOGUE

  It was a week later and no one had died in between. The days passed slowly and the wounds began to heal. With the threat to their lives lifted, Kine and Dov moved with Narin to Kesh’s temporary boarding house – the jewellery from Kine’s former life sufficient to pay their way for many more weeks to come. There had been tears and angry words, delight and relief, between Kesh and her mother Teike upon their reunion, but at the sight of Dov, Teike’s anger had faded like the morning mist.

  Enchei and his daughters had taken over the other house in the meantime, to recover and reacquaint at their own pace. Both Enchei and Maiss had been grievously injured – so Enay had told them on her one visit – carrying wounds that would have killed lesser mortals, but they were now healing fast.

  The only incident had come four days after what was already being called the Night of Wolves in parts of the city, a night that had claimed more than a hundred innocents before they stopped it. A large dark-skinned woman with two armed attendants had appeared suddenly at the boarding house. It had been enough to make Kine cry out in alarm, fearing Lord Vanden had gone back on his word, and Kesh and Irato had drawn weapons before realising their mistake.

  Only the magnitude of the error had prevented it escalating. The two attendants had drawn their guns before Kesh and Irato could do anything more, moving between their mistress and the onrushing pair but so confident of their superiority that they had no need to shoot. In the next moment Kesh had realised they were Astaren and dragged Irato to a halt. By the time Narin had appeared, both were kneeling before the high castes and making their apologies.

  The interrogation had been remarkably brief, given the grilling they had received in the wake of the Moon’s Artifice affair. It was, in fact, a formality only – Lawbringer Rhe had given his account, as had Prince Kashte, and while it was never mentioned, they all knew about House Ghost’s bargain with House Dragon. The Astaren had seemed careful not to intrude too far on any subject there, painstakingly so to Narin’s mind. It was quite unlike the impression of Dragon’s rulers he had grown up with, but Narin knew they had a war brewing in the north and even the position of neutral Great Houses would be significant. Belligerent House Dragon might be, but they were neither ignorant nor foolish.

  Inside half an hour the Astaren had announced the matter closed and stood to leave. She had hesitated a moment over Dov, making a point of congratulating Kine on her birth, and then they were gone – back out onto the frosty Harbour Warranty streets, leaving a warm sense of relief in the low castes they left behind.

  In what seemed like no time, Narin’s suspension was over and he rose early to wash and have Kesh help re-bind the dressing on his shoulder. The bullet had broken a bone and his arm had to be strapped to his body to give it time to heal, but they all knew he couldn’t let that be an excuse to stay away. He was close to fainting with fatigue by the time he returned home that first day, but that melted away with the cold once he stepped through the threshold of the boarding house.

  At the table, beside Dov’s wicker cradle, sat Enchei. One side of his face was yellowed with bruising and dotted with dark scabs, his left arm was in a sling and a cane leaned against the table. Kine and Irato were with him, peeling vegetables with short knives with varying degrees of success, while Kesh ducked her head out through the kitchen doorway briefly having heard the door.

  ‘How was your day at work, dear?’ the veteran called with a sly smile.

  Narin grinned. ‘Long. Where’s my dinner?’

  ‘There’s some soup left over, Kesh’s dealing with it. As for supper – I’ve got something rather more impressive planned, but my helpers are slowing things up a tad.’

  Narin made his way over to the table and Irato jerked a chair out for him to slump into. Narin ignored it at first and shuffled over to Kine, who was now making her way around the cradle. Her smile sent a flush of warmth through his body, the barest brush of her lips electric against his cheek.

  ‘How are you, my love?’ she breathed into his ear.

  ‘All the better for seeing you,’ he said. With Kine’s help he managed to extricate his one good arm from his coat and settle into a chair. ‘All’s well here?’

  ‘A happy home,’ Kine confirmed, ‘and Enchei tells us Maiss is recovering well.’

  ‘Aye, that she is,’ Enchei said. ‘My girl’s starting to claw at the walls today, though – bed-ridden doesn’t suit her any more’n it does me – but it won’t be long before she’s strong enough to leave it.’

  ‘And you?’

  ‘Pah – I’ve had worse.’

  ‘You shattered most of the bones in your hand and wrist, no?’

  Enchei shrugged. ‘Bones are easy to heal if you’re like me. Not saying it’s a whole lot of fun, but broken bones are better’n the sliced sinew and ripped ligaments elsewhere. Just takes time, and the three of us are eating enough for ten in the meantime, but we’ll end up better’n you, most likely.’

  ‘And what then?’

  Enchei gestured at the others in the room. ‘I was just telling the others. Winter’s got a way to go yet so we’ve all time to recover before travelling’s much fun. Once spring’s with us I’m thinking I’ll travel back with my girls – stay with them a season or two. Moving back to any part of the Ghost hegemony is foolish, even if House Clearlake’s lands are a long way from Ghost’s own, but a few months will give us time to work each other out a bit.’

  ‘I intend to persuade Myken to go as well,’ Kine said as she returned to her butchery of supper, domestic duties not coming easily to the former noblewoman. ‘Otherwise she’ll waste her life watching over me.’

  ‘Aye – she’ll do well there,’ Enchei added. ‘There’s a cachet to having Dragons and the like as overseers there. She could do nothing more than glare at the customers in their gambling house and within days she’d get others trying to tempt her away.’

  ‘No news from your old friend?’

  Without meaning to, Narin had lowered his voice before remembering that they’d taken all the available rooms at the boarding house, using Kine’s jewellery to secure rooms elsewhere for the current guests. It afforded them some much-welcome privacy and allowed Kesh and Irato to spend every daylight hour working at their old house.

  ‘Eh? Oh, him. No, no word, which I’m assuming is a damn good sign. Enay did the Dragons a good turn burning half of Iron District with the lance – to any Astaren it’ll be as obvious as a dog checking the scent on trees. Makes it look to those who count like Dragon cleared up the mess themselves and neither they nor Ghost will correct that.’

  ‘We couldn’t have asked for more, really,’ Narin said, pleased. ‘And while he was as formal and stiff as you might expect, Lawbringer Rhe’s holding no grudge against me. At least he never cared about his own standing, unlike some Lawbringers, so my shame in the eyes of our colleagues means little.’

  ‘His legend didn’t do badly out of it,’ Enchei said. ‘It’d be cheap of the man to complain after all that.’

  ‘Maybe now life will quieten down for a while,’ Kesh announced, emerging from the kitchen carrying a clay pot topped with a flatbread. ‘I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m looking forward to watching this little one grow while absolutely no one’s trying to kill us.’

  Enchei snorted. ‘I’ll drink to that.’

  Kesh set the pot down in front of Narin and gave Enchei a hard look. ‘Be my guest, but you’re fetching the drink yourself.’

  ‘Irato—’

  She reached over and cuffed Enchei around his head. ‘Irato, you stay where you are. The old sod can fetch his own
drinks, one hand or not. It looks like Narin could do with a cup of something as well, Enchei, Kine too.’

  ‘That would be lovely,’ Kine said with a sudden radiant smile. Enchei burst out laughing at that and grudgingly nodded as he hauled himself up.

  ‘Move away,’ he hissed at Narin. ‘That one’ll be a bad influence.’

  ‘Oh, shut up and fetch the wine,’ Narin replied. ‘I spent the day with Rhe and wasn’t annoyed once by his damned noble attitude or any of the looks I got from the high castes – that deserves a celebration, I reckon.’

  ‘Your heroics continue to amaze us,’ Kine said in a level tone. ‘We all know how much you despise your betters.’

  Narin hesitated a moment then leaned over the table to kiss her once on the cheek. ‘Lucky you’re servant caste then, eh?’

  Kine raised an eyebrow at him. The dark-skinned woman brushed an errant trail of hair back and looked over towards Kesh. ‘You’re right, he’s already getting airs about it.’

  ‘Told you.’

  ‘Told her what?’ Narin demanded.

  Kesh grinned at him and headed back towards the kitchen. ‘Oh, just a few things us servants know about the craftsman caste.’

  ‘And Kesh and I have agreed,’ Kine added, ‘that the imbalance must be corrected at once. It’s really the only way to stop you getting yourself into trouble.’

  ‘Eh?’

  ‘We’ll be getting married, the sooner the better.’

  ‘Married?’ Narin exclaimed, half in jest but feeling ambushed all the same. ‘Don’t I get a say?’

  She frowned at him. ‘Why would we allow something like that?’

  Narin couldn’t help the smile that broke across his face. He nodded and closed his eyes, leaning back in his chair with a gentle sigh. When Enchei slipped a cup of wine into his hand he raised it in silent toast to his friends. Dov shifted and snorted in her sleep, a sound that filled his body with a warmth he’d never known before. He felt hands slip gently over his shoulders and breathed in Kine’s faint scent as she hugged him close. Narin drank with a heart lighter than he’d ever known, the pain and fatigue in his body dwindling as that perfect moment stretched on and on.