by K. T. Davies
Tobias paced before an ornate fireplace, warmed by the cheery glow of crackling logs. A silk sampler lay discarded on the couch beside the regal dowager. A small, furry creature lay curled in her lap. Whenever she ceased to stroke it, the thing flapped its leathery wings and chirped. Backlit by the fire, a crystal decanter of wine scattered fragments of scarlet across a silver side table.
“You’re overwrought. Have a drink, dear boy.” She gestured to the wine.
He shook his head. “No, thank you. I can’t…What shall I do?”
“Nothing. My nephew has been told that you are dangerous by the same poisoned tongues that told him my beloved Aethun was dangerous.” She shuddered and turned her gaze to the fire. “He killed him. His favourite uncle. In order to survive, I’ve had to pretend I’m a drooling dotard and I nursed the little bastard from my own breast.” She gave a bitter little laugh. “You don’t stand a chance, my boy.”
“Please, help me, Domina.”
She sighed. “Your mouth is not your friend. It makes you a hard man to help, Tobias.”
He sank to his knees before her. “If you won’t help me, help my mother. She has always been a friend to you.”
The thunder of hooves hammered a warning of approaching danger. I turned to see a flash of scarlet and a half dozen horses flying up the hill. They were still a fair way off, but not for long.
“Can’t Tsen put in a good word?”
“Our beloved Tsen has been blinded by power. She is not the innocent girl you remember, Toby.”
“Then I am lost, and my mother is doomed.” Defeated, he slumped.
The hoofbeats grew louder. As much as my gut told me otherwise, a more optimistic part of me hoped that they would charge past the house.
They did not.
“Don’t be so dramatic, boy,” she rasped impatiently. “I’ll get your mother out.”
“How?”
“By throwing gold at the problem, how else? But mark me, Tobias Vulsones; you must leave the Empire. I will arrange transport, send you somewhere like Shen where I hear they are more tolerant of dissent than here…if you’ve a full purse. I’m sure you’ll be able to return soon enough; no doubt after someone sticks a knife in dear Durstan’s black, little heart.” She coughed. “Or perhaps it will be poison. Either way, you must remain in exile until it’s safe to come back.”
He took her hand in his and kissed it. “Thank you, Domina.”
The peace was shattered by a door being thrown open followed by the sound of armored bodies charging up the stairs. A woman spoke, and the charge slowed. A moment later the door opened. Tsen Murcatoria, the Empirifex’s favorite concubine entered followed by a clank. He was wearing gold-trimmed armor and the scarlet cloak of an elite, imperial guard. He carried his helmet under his arm, and a heavy broadsword hung on his hip.
The Domina’s face was slack, her expression vacant as she turned to her unwelcome visitors. “Is it time for supper? Look who’s come to play with you, Tsen…”
Tsen stepped forwards. “Mother, these sold— these men have come for Toby.”
The old dame’s vapid expression shifted to one of bewilderment. It was a masterful performance, one that even the exacting Captain Cobb would have applauded. “Toby…?”
The knight stepped forward, and smiled apologetically at Tsen, before addressing the older woman. “Domina…” he began, but Tsen put her hand on his arm and shook her head. “Toby has to go home, Mama. It’s his bedtime.”
“Honestly, I’m not in a rush.” Tobias offered.
The knight glared at him. “Best come quietly, Senator.” He put his hand on the ivory hilt of his broad sword. An excruciating silence followed. I waited to see what Tobias would do. I didn’t dare use magic for fear of killing everyone in the room. He should surrender and live to fight another day because without magic, neither of us stood a chance against the half dozen imperial knights who were waiting impatiently in the corridor, no doubt itching to fulfill their remit and stab someone to death.
Tobias approached the younger noblewoman. “Tsen—” was all he managed before she slapped him across the face. The old woman whimpered.
“How dare you come here,” Tsen hissed. A tear ran down her perfect cheek. “My mother is not a well woman.”
Defeated, Tobias let the knight escort him from the room. The younger woman cast a forlorn glance to the ceiling as the sound of heavy footsteps retreated. When they were gone, she drew a steadying breath and regained her composure. “Mother…?”
The Domina stared resolutely at the carpet. Her daughter crouched beside her. Without warning, the older woman slapped her across the face so hard that she stumbled sideways. “Trebolt!” The old woman cried. “Help, there’s a monster in my room!” The Domina recoiled from her stunned daughter. “Trebolt!”
The amphibane servant bounded in and helped Tsen to her feet. “Best leave, Mistress,” he urged. “All the excitement has brought on one of her turns.”
With a hand pressed to her reddened cheek, the young woman fled the room cloaked in shame. When she had gone, the Domina sagged. “A monster in my room. A monster from my womb.” The amphibane placed his wide, webbed hand on her shoulder. She rested her head upon it, seemed to draw strength from his touch. “That will be all, Treb.”
“Are you sure?” Now they were alone he didn’t sound like a servant. She kissed his hand, confirming my suspicions.
“Yes, I’m sure. Keep an eye on her. Follow her if she leaves the house.”
The knights rode out. Being a patrician, Tobias was allowed to ride to his uncertain fate, rather than be dragged through the streets like a commoner. I say ‘uncertain’ but pissing off a mad king only ever had one outcome. I just hoped they wouldn’t kill him immediately. I needed time to come up with a plan or, failing that, get used to the idea of him being dead again. I stole a peek through the window. The Domina was pouring a glass of wine. Sensing eyes upon her, she looked up and saw me. I waved and opened the door. She took a step back and drew breath, I presumed to fuel a yell rather than offer a greeting.
I raised my hand. “Wait! I’m a friend of Tobias,” I said quickly. She eyed me critically, no doubt considering whether or not to shout. “I mean you no harm. I only want to help.” I realised when I said it that I meant it. Gods damn me for a fool, I meant it.
“Inside before anyone sees you,” she hissed at last.
I entered, mindful not to step on the winged thing that was scampering around.
“So, what’s your name?” she demanded.
“Breed, Domina Murcatoria.”
“Breed?” she gave a wry smile. “As you wish. How long were you out there?”
“Long enough.”
“You say you are Tobias’s friend and yet you did nothing to help him?”
I smiled. “If I’d jumped in, all I would have done was bleed on your nice carpet.”
“A fair point. Drink?”
“No, thank you.”
“What do you want?”
I wanted to be in another world. I wanted Mother to be alive, and for little Sakura to have a future safe from an assassin’s blade. I wanted my friend to know me. Failing that, I wanted to be a real sorcerer again, so that I could at least have the satisfaction of killing Ludo. But that wasn’t the answer she wanted. She put her hand on the mantlepiece. A painting of a castle bathed in the light of not two, but three suns was hanging above it.
“Well? Go on; I don’t bite.”
“Gold, ma’am. In exchange for which I’ll bring you Tobias and his dam.”
“And what makes you think I want him?”
“Because he can help your cause.”
She hid it well, but I heard her breath catch in her throat and smelled fear bloom. She sat down. Firelight flashed from the wine glass as she turned the slender stem in her six- fingered hand. “Mox,” she said.
“Eh?” A moment later, I realized she wasn’t talking to me. She was talking to the furry, winged thing, which promptly wh
ipped the tiny barb on its tiny tail into my ankle. A dreadful coldness invaded my limbs and before I knew it, my arse had hit the floor. There followed a second of befuddled panic, and then nothing much at all.
21
“I’m telling you, that ain’t no tert.” The words were baffled by fangs. The looming form of whoever had spoken crossed the waxen light that was bleeding through my eyelids. Footsteps approached prompting me to try to move, but my limbs were leaden and unresponsive and all I managed to do was flop around. As consciousness returned my head began to throb, my limbs ached, and my skin was stinging like I’d been cuddling a beehive.
I opened my eyes, saw a fanged, grey face peering down at me, turning this way and that to get a better look at what I could only guess was an unfathomable puzzle. He grinned, displaying more of the massive yellow canines poking out of his lower jaw. “It looks like a little thoasa. Maybe it’s a dwarf or something?”
“It isn’t a ‘little thoasa’ you dolt. It’s not particularly little, for a start,” a human cove with reddish hair snapped.
I tried to say that I was half-thoasa, which was when I discovered I could only speak fluent gibberish.
Fang Face laughed at my attempt at coherent speech.
The redhead came over. “It doesn’t even have a tail. And look at that.” He pointed at my arm. “That’s not thoasa scale, is it? This is a tert, not a seccy.”
“Does it matter?” The woman sounded bored.
“Yes, actually it does matter.” Fang Face folded his tattooed arms. “It’s important not to lose our identity.”
“Here we go again.” Red sighed. “This is about me, isn’t it, Hruth? Come on you great, grey ballsack. Say what you mean.”
“Both of you knock it off.” She didn’t shout but the steel in the woman’s voice cut their argument off at the knees. “Like it or not, Hruth, Jax is with me. If you’ve got a problem with that, you can fuck off.”
“Oh. That’s how it is, eh, Chella? Turn on your oldest comrade for this hume cockstain.”
This was as interesting as one of Cobb’s dramas and a useful distraction, because while the three of them bickered, I willed my limbs to work and managed to roll onto my front. Not exactly what I wanted, but it was a start.
A key turned in a lock and a bolt slid. Somewhere behind me, old hinges groaned, followed shortly by the solemn clang of a door closing.
Fang Face grabbed me by the shoulders, and maneuvered me into an almost sitting position. I coughed and drooled a bit.
“Our guest is conscious?” Her voice was muffled, but I recognized the Domina Murcatoria’s dry rasp.
“Aye…Madame,” Chella answered before drawing close and whispering in my ear. “Try anything funny, and I’ll gut you. Can you stand?”
Before I could attempt an answer, Fang Face hauled me to my feet, which felt only loosely connected to my legs. He let go and I collapsed.
“That’s a no then,” said Chella.
The Domina had changed out of her finery and was now wearing long black robes and a black veil. She made her way around the room and took a seat on one of three, obsidian thrones. Another hooded and robed cove who smelled strongly of pel took the second. The arrhythmic staccato of hurried footsteps on stairs drew everyone’s attention. A key turned in the lock, and another robed cove dashed in, breathing hard through their veil, their robes gathered in their hands revealing three, skinny legs and a trio of velvet-slippered feet. They locked the door behind them and dropped the key in their pocket.
“Sorry, sorry, everyone.” Three Legs spoke with a soft, Grundvelt accent. He made his way to his seat, hunching as he passed beneath the mournful gaze of statues of the noble dead. “I’ve had a devil of a day. You wouldn’t believe what a trial it’s been just getting here. There was a dead urux blocking the Alturni Bridge for hours. Ridiculous! What do we pay our taxes for?” He flopped into the remaining throne.
“Eye’s sake, man.” The pel smoker muttered. “Always an excuse.”
The Domina’s head snapped round. I couldn’t see her eyes, but I knew she was glaring at the smoker. “That’s enough, Ru—. That’s enough. Remember our guest?”
I propped myself on my elbow. “Guest? Where I come from, we don’t poison guests.”
Chella snorted. “Welcome to Valen.”
The Domina pulled off her hood and scratched her head before turning to her companions. “I’m not convinced by these hoods, you know.”
“We decided. And it’s a bit late to change now,” the pel smoker sighed.
Three Legs cleared his throat and raised his hand. “I actually like the hoods, I think they lend an air of mystery, but if we could possibly look at the color again.”
The pel smoker slapped the arm of his throne. “We’ve been over this. Black is sober and smart.”
“I just don’t think it says, ‘Third Dawn,” Three Legs continued. “We could be members of any of a dozen cults or secret societies. Nothing of this defines us, you know?”
As fascinating as this was, following on from the lovers’ tiff, I had things to do and places to be. I cleared my throat. “I don’t mean to interrupt…”
“Then don’t,” said Chella, her yellow-eyed gaze as sharp as a raptor’s.
Before I could tell Chella where to shove her advice, Domina Murcatoria stood up. “Senator Vulsones has been taken to the Leads prison to await trial for high treason and arson…so far. Whatever the accusation, I fear he will be dead long before he has his day in court.”
“A tragedy, to be sure,” I said, and meant it. “How long have I been here?”
“Since yesterday eve. I didn’t think you’d be incapacitated for so long, but Mox’s venom is growing more potent the older he gets.”
The little flea farmer wasn’t going to get any older if I got my hands on him. I nodded and smiled politely. “No harm done, mistress. However, as you point out, time is of the essence.”
The leaders of the Third Dawn put their heads together and held a heated, whispered conversation. There was lots of headshaking and gesticulating, along with the occasional, pointed glance cast in my direction. I know every cult has to start somewhere, but this was a woeful crew. I could well understand why Tobias had turned down their invitation to join them. From what little I’d seen, I wouldn’t trust them to organize a fuck in a brothel. A sentiment seemingly shared by the fighting arm of the Third Dawn. They were literally trying to distance themselves from the shrouded clowns by standing near the door.
“Before we proceed, there’s a couple of things we need to establish,” said Three Legs. The Domina and Pel Smoker nodded in agreement and turned to me.
“What that’s that then?” I asked. My legs were tingling.
“Are you of the Third Estate or some variant of Warspawn?”
“You people are obsessed,” I muttered.
“What was that?”
“I said, why does it matter?” My voice echoed around the vault.
Pel Smoker sat forward. “The Third Dawn champions the rights of the Third Estate. We are of the Third Estate.”
I sat up, feeling more like myself. “He isn’t. He’s human.” I pointed at the redhead.
“Jax is an exception,” said Three Legs. “He’s a friend and an ally.”
The big, grey fellow’s face twisted in a sarcastic grin as he smothered a laugh.
“Never mind, him. We want to know what you are.” Given that I was unarmed and feeling a little wobbly, I should probably refrain from antagonizing the Domina, but Sweet Salvation, they were a shower of shit and no mistake.
“Fuck’s sake. I’m as terty as it is possible to be.”
Three Legs cleared his throat. “That’s wonderful. But with regards to your abilities…” I waited for the rest, but he didn’t elaborate.
“What about my abilities?”
The triumvirate of incompetence bent their heads together once more. At this point, I didn’t even try to listen to their conversation because I doubted anyth
ing they had to say would shed any light on anything except their ineptitude. Eventually, it was the Pel Smoker who broke off the fractious negotiations and turned to me. “What can you do?” He must have taken my stunned silence for lack of comprehension, so after a moment took a different tack and began speaking slowly and loudly. “What qualifies you to undertake the task of rescuing Toby Vulsones?”
It doesn’t happen often, but I actually felt insulted and had to bite my tongue to stop myself saying something stupid like, ‘don’t you know who I am?’ because obviously, they didn’t. If they knew who I was, they would have probably cut my throat when I was insensible, but still, I have some pride.
“Do you want me to get him out or not? If not, I’ll have my weapons back and be on my way, no harm done.”
“Yes. Of course, we want you to rescue him, absolutely.” The Domina turned to Three Legs and Pel Smoker.
Pel Smoker pointed at the warriors. “I think these three should do it. Lazy bastards, let ‘em earn their keep for a change.”
“They’re doing the other thing, Rubus. Shit, I mean, comrade.” Murcatoria sagged, defeated.
“We’re supposed to be a secret society, Mila,” said Rubus spitefully.
“I already know who she is,” I added with a smile.
Three Legs sniggered and raised his hand.
“Yes, Naxir, what is it?” asked the Domina.
Naxir Three Legs cleared his throat. “The matter that Jax and Chella raised?”
“I was getting to that.” She turned to me, smiled tightly. “We do not know you, Breed. Some of the Third Dawn are concerned that you might not be up to the task.
“I assure you, I am.”
“And I believe you, for I am a good judge of character, but there is more than one life at stake here.”
I smiled. “You have that right.”
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing, please, do go on.”
I heard the clink of harness behind me and the sly adjustment of weapons. I’d made the warriors nervous. Good. At least they knew a dangerous and capable cove when they saw one, even one who wasn’t quite in control of their limbs.
