Blade of the Ghosts

by Jonathan Moeller

  She strongly suspected the latter.

  Yet Taldrane was a native of Artifel, the city in the eastern Empire that hosted the Magisterium’s Motherhouse, and so did not have a house of his own in Malarae. Instead he lived in the Magisterium’s Malarae chapterhouse, a sprawling fortress of gleaming black stone located not far from the base of the mountain spur that supported the Imperial Citadel.

  That was bad. If Taldrane had indeed killed the Count and stolen the Sword, Caina could have broken into a house and retrieved the blade. There was no way she could break into the Magisterium’s chapterhouse. It was simply too well guarded. Perhaps she could contrive some excuse to enter the chapterhouse under a false identity, but until she knew if Taldrane had taken the Sword, she dared not risk it.

  Beggars were not permitted in the district near the chapterhouse. Fortunately, the magi enjoyed wine and food and books and occasionally prostitutes, and shops supplying all of those things filled the forum below the chapterhouse’s grim gates. The Ghosts had no spies within the chapterhouse or the Magisterial Guards, the bodyguards of the magi, but they did have friends among the shopkeepers. Caina paid them to tell her of Taldrane’s comings and goings from the chapterhouse, and then left in search of Jurchan.

  It took her the better part of a day and a considerable amount of bribe money to locate Jurchan. The grim Kagari noyan held himself aloof from much of the social life of the Imperial capital. At last Caina tracked him to an old apartment building near Malarae’s northern gate. The building was little different than thousands of other apartment buildings scattered around Malarae, a large brick cube five stories tall built around an inner courtyard. A few questions to the neighbors revealed that Jurchan had bought the entire building, and housed dozens of his Kagari warriors within the apartments. Jurchan and his warriors were widely hated in the district. The Kagari warriors had begun operating as a criminal gang, demanding money from local merchants in exchange for protection from nonexistent threats. It was a dangerous course, since eventually Jurchan’s men would come to the attention of the urban praetor and his magistrates…or they would attract the lethal attention of Malarae’s older, more established criminal organizations.

  The Kagari noyan’s neighbors hated him so much that Caina did not have to bribe them to spy on him.

  She spent the next several days circulating between Eastwarden, the Magisterium chapterhouse, and Jurchan’s run-down apartment building. Sometimes Caina disguised herself as a caravan guard, or as a merchant in furred robes, or a member of the civic militia, and once or twice when she went near the chapterhouse she dressed as a woman.

  As far as she could tell, none of her targets suspected they were under observation.

  A pattern emerged. Aetius did not leave Eastwarden, not even once, though his betrothed Doriana visited him several times. Taldrane left the chapterhouse every day, always accompanied by a half-dozen Magisterial Guards, and visited Aetius once. Yet as soon as he departed Eastwarden, he traveled to Jurchan’s apartment building. The Magisterial Guards waited outside while Taldrane went into the building, and the master magus departed with a sour, irritated expression on his face.

  Caina wondered what that meant. Were Taldrane and Jurchan working together? That made more sense than Aetius murdering his father. Perhaps Jurchan and Taldrane had conspired together to murder Armus, take the Sword, and make it look as if thieves had broken into Eastwarden and killed the Count. Of course, there was only one Sword, and she wondered if Taldrane and Jurchan had fallen out and were quarrelling about who would take the Sword of Nicokator.

  Caina could use that to her advantage. If Taldrane and Jurchan came to blows, perhaps she could steal the Sword before they noticed.

  Or this was all supposition, and she was spinning nonsense from insufficient facts. Aetius, Jurchan, and Taldrane all had motive to murder the Count and take the Sword. Caina needed more information, and she was unsure where to find it. She would have to break into Eastwarden, the Magisterium chapterhouse, or Jurchan’s building, and look around.

  Then, four days after she started watching the three men, Aetius did something unexpected.

  Caina had come to Eastwarden to check on the beggars when a cloaked man slipped out the servants’ entrance and headed into the street. The cloak was long and thick, with a deep cowl, yet Caina glimpsed the black coat of a Nighmarian lord beneath the cloak.

  It was Aetius. He was going somewhere alone…and he didn’t want anyone to follow him.

  He wasn’t going to get his wish.

  Caina trailed him at a discreet distance. Today she was wearing her caravan guard’s disguise, and she made sure to stay out of Aetius’s sight. If she approached too closely, he would assume that Caina had come to rob him. She darted into alleys and ducked into doorways to stay out of sight as Aetius made his way down the Via Fluminis, the wide street leading to the piers of the river. Aetius turned onto one of the side streets, heading towards the district near the northern gate.

  Was he going to visit Jurchan?

  At last Aetius ducked into an old apartment building of weathered brick roofed with red clay tiles, vanishing down a flight of stairs to the cellar. Like many apartment buildings, the ground floor and cellar had been given over to shops. It looked as if Aetius had gone into a wine shop. Caina counted to thirty, and then crossed the street, descending the grimy steps, and went through the door.

  The wine shop was a dim, gloomy hole of a place, lit only by a dying fire in the hearth. A few men sat at the benches, most of them elderly and grim-looking. The landlord was even more villainous-looking than Cadiz, which took some doing. She saw no sign of Aetius in the common room.

  She did, however, see two Kagari warriors in leather armor disappearing through a door in the back of the common room.

  “What do you want?” growled the landlord, squinting at Caina.

  Caina looked at the back wall. There were three doors in the wall, and presumably they led to rented rooms.

  “That room,” she said in her disguised voice, pointing at the door next to the one the Kagari warriors had used. “How much for an hour?”

  The landlord grunted. “You don’t even have a woman with you.”

  Caina grinned. “Not yet. How much?”

  He named a ridiculously inflated price, and Caina handed over the coins without argument. The landlord passed over a rusty iron key, and Caina murmured a word of thanks and crossed the common room, unlocking the door and letting herself in. The room beyond was dingy and smelled of cheap wine and vomit, but the walls were built of cheap wood, with light leaking through the gaps in the boards.

  Caina could hear everything happening in the next room.

  She closed the door in silence, crept to the wall, and listened.

  “This is ridiculous,” said Aetius, his voice dark with fury. “Utterly ridiculous. For the gods’ sake, why could Jurchan not come himself? We were in the Legion together. We were on campaign together! After all that, could he not trust me?”

  “As I recall,” said a voice speaking High Nighmarian with a thick Kagari accent, “you were so inept as a commander that after your term expired, you were not asked to serve again as military tribune.”

  There was the sound of fist striking wood. “Do not throw that in my face. The centurions were too brutal with the men. I tried to improve matters, and…well, that is hardly relevant now. There are more important matters to discuss.”

  “If you insist,” said the Kagari.

  “I do insist,” said Aetius. “Where is Jurchan? Why will he not come to speak with me?”

  “The noyan,” said the Kagari, “has no wish to speak with you. Therefore he has sent us to deal with you. State your business quickly. I tire of speaking your uncouth tongue.”

  “How dare you!” said Aetius. “I am a lord of the Empire and the Count of Eastwarden. You will not address me in such a tone…”

  “You are the lord of a crumbling ruin you inherited from your father,” said the Kaga
ri, his tone bored. “If you dislike my words, then you can gather your retainers and make war upon us, assuming the old men and women who clean your ruin can manage to lift a sword without wounding themselves.”

  Silence hung over the room for a moment.

  “I suggest,” said the Kagari at last, “that you state your business.”

  “Very well,” said Aetius, his voice cold as ice. “Why has Jurchan not contacted me? Why has he not agreed to continue with the second half of the expedition?”

  Caina frowned. The second half?

  “Because our agreement is dissolved,” said the Kagari.

  “What the hell does that mean?” said Aetius.

  “The noyan’s agreement was with your father,” said the Kagari. “Your father is dead. Therefore, the agreement is dissolved.”

  “Like hell it is!” said Aetius, slamming his hand against the table again. “I know that Jurchan has the map. I know that he’s working with Taldrane, and I know that both Jurchan and Taldrane are planning to go behind my back and find the tomb.”

  “Do you, now?” said the Kagari, his voice cold.

  “I am entirely certain of it,” said Aetius.

  “If you are,” said the Kagari, “then why don’t you go forth and claim the tomb first? Perhaps your Emperor will shower you with rich rewards.”

  “Because,” said Aetius, “I don’t have the map, and I don’t know which tomb it was. My father figured it out, and he likely told Taldrane. But I don’t have the map, and I don’t know where to find the tomb.”

  “The noyan,” said the Kagari, “fails to see how this is his problem.”

  “It will become his problem,” said Aetius, “if I go to the urban praetor and report my suspicions.”

  Silence answered him for a moment.

  “That, Lord Aetius,” said the Kagari, “would be most unwise.”

  “Would it?” said Aetius. “My father might have been the lord of a crumbling tower, as you said…but he was still the Lord of an Imperial House and a Count of the Empire, and such things matter a great deal in Malarae. If I go to the urban praetor and report that an exiled Kagari noyan murdered my father and took the Sword of Nicokator from him, do you not think the lord praetor would investigate? Do you not think the magistrates would take Jurchan for questioning?”

  “The Magisterium would not allow it,” said the Kagari. “Master Taldrane would intervene.”

  “No, he would not,” said Aetius. “Taldrane would not risk his own precious neck to protect Jurchan. Oh, I have no doubt that Jurchan and the master magus plotted something between them. Perhaps they are even responsible for my father’s death, and if they are, I shall deal with them in time. Take this message back to Jurchan. He will meet with me, and he will return the map…or I shall go to the urban praetor.”

  A long, brittle silence stretched out. Caina frowned as she considered her next move. Aetius had gone into the wine shop alone, and unless she missed her guess, there were at least three or four Kagari warriors in the room with him. If the Kagari warriors decided that Aetius represented a threat to their noyan…

  “You are committed to this, then?” said the Kagari.

  “I have said what I have said,” said Aetius. “Take that back to your master.”

  “Very well,” said the Kagari. “Upon your own head be it.”

  There was a shout and the sound of blows.

  “Dog!” snarled another Kagari. “You will scream for that!”

  “You will release me at once!” said Aetius. “Release me at once! I demand it!”

  Caina whispered a curse, loosening her short sword in its scabbard.

  “Fear not, my lord,” said the first Kagari man. “We shall weigh down your corpse with stones and drop you into the middle of the Megaros. In this city of liars and thieves, I understand that many of the dead lie at the bottom of the river. You shall join them, and we shall release you from all mortal cares.”

  “Thieves!” shouted Aetius. “Bandits! Thieves!”

  The Kagari man laughed. “The landlord has been well-paid. He will not lift a hand to save you. None of the other patrons care. Perhaps you ought to lie down and die with dignity, my lord. No one is coming to save you…”

  Caina opened the door, slipping a throwing knife into her hand.

  The scene she had expected greeted her eyes. A Kagari warrior stood near the door, clutching his bleeding arm. Aetius’s broadsword lay upon the floor near his feet, stained with the warrior’s blood. Two more Kagari men held Aetius by the arms against the wall, while a third stood before him with a curved dagger in hand. A rickety table stood in the center of the room, its surface worn and splintered.

  All five men looked at her in astonishment, and before they could react, Caina decided to improvise.

  “What,” she said at the top of her lungs, “the hell is all this nonsense?”

  The Kagari with the curved dagger scowled. “This is none of your…”

  “Like hell it isn’t!” said Caina. “I paid you idiots good money for an assassination, and this is what I get? A thousand denarii, and you can’t even do one simple thing right? For the gods’ sake!” She let out an exasperated sigh and shook her head. “I should have hired the Ulkaari to do it. They would have done it right!”

  “Dog!” snarled the wounded man. The Kagari absolutely detested the men of the Ulkaari provinces in a feud that went back centuries. “You dare to insult us so? I shall cut the tongue from your lying mouth and feed it…”

  “Shut up,” said the Kagari man with the dagger. Caina supposed that he was the leader. “Explain your business, now.”

  “I hired you to kill this man, Aetius Valdarion, Count of Eastwarden,” said Caina, pointing at Aetius, “and you have failed to do so.”

  All five of the men stared at her with confusion.

  “You speak nonsense,” said the Kagari with the dagger. “We’ve never seen you before. Get out of here before we kill you too.”

  “So sure of that?” said Caina, gesturing with her empty right hand. “What if I paid you even more money?”

  “We are not mercenaries,” said the Kagari with the dagger. “We are warriors, serving our noyan and fulfilling our oaths.”

  “Oh, good,” said Caina. “Then you will enjoy the large present your noyan has left for you.”

  She pointed at the corner of the room.

  It was an old trick, but her nonsensical performance had so baffled the Kagari warriors that they turned to look anyway. In that instant, Caina stepped forward, the throwing knife dropping from her sleeve and into her hand. Her arm snapped back and then forward, hurtling the knife into the neck of the Kagari warrior holding Aetius’s left arm. The man fell with a scream, his hands flying to blade. Caina whirled and lunged at the wounded Kagari warrior as he started to draw his sword. She grabbed his wounded arm and twisted, and the warrior stumbled with a groan as the pain overwhelmed him. Aetius seized the opportunity and drove his fist into the warrior holding his right arm. The Kagari stumbled with a wheeze, eyes going wide. The warrior with the dagger turned, raising his weapon to strike, but Caina was already moving, shoving the table towards him. The rickety table fell, and Aetius lurched free from his captors.

  “Follow me and run!” said Caina, snatching up Aetius’s broadsword. Aetius, to his credit, did not hesitate, but followed Caina as she sprinted from the common room. The landlord and the grim patrons gaped at her as she raced past, shying away from the sword in her hand. Three of the Kagari warriors burst from the room, bellowing in fury as they ran after her. Caina supposed the fourth man was bleeding to death with her knife in his neck.

  Aetius ran through the door and up the steps, and Caina seized a table and pulled it in front of the door. It would not slow the Kagari for long, but given the maze of alleys that opened off the street, it would slow them long enough. She scrambled up the stairs and into the street, and saw Aetius staring at her with puzzled eyes.

  “This way!” said Caina. “Foll
ow me, quickly!”

  Aetius followed as Caina led him into the alleys, taking turns at random to throw off the Kagari. Caina had lived in Malarae for years, and doing Halfdan’s errands had given her a thorough knowledge of the Imperial capital’s back ways. She headed towards the foundry district, where the huge foundries that provided the Imperial Legions with arms and armor squatted over the river. The sounds of pursuit rose behind her, but grew fainter with every minute. Aetius tried to keep up, but she saw his face turning red, his breathing growing more ragged with every step. Evidently he had let his training lapse since finishing his term as a military tribune.

  “Here,” said Caina, beckoning him. She ran towards a squat brick warehouse. Usually it stored iron ore transported by barge down the Megaros, but it was often empty, and sometimes Halfdan and the other Ghosts of the capital used it for clandestine meetings. The door was unlocked, and Caina pulled it open. The warehouse was currently empty, light shining through the skylights in the roof. A thick layer of gritty dust covered the floor, and rusting ore carts stood here and there. Aetius stumbled inside, and Caina closed the door behind him.

  “We’ll wait here,” said Caina. “I think we lost your Kagari friends, but we shouldn’t have to wait long.”

  Aetius shook his head, catching his breath. “They won’t stop looking for me. Hulagon will make sure of that.”

  “Hulagon?” said Caina. “The talkative fellow with the curved dagger?” Aetius nodded. “He’ll have to give up the search before much longer. We left one of his men dead in that wine shop. A dead body will invite questions, so Hulagon will have to clean up after himself. We can slip away then. Oh.” She reversed her grip on the broadsword and offered it to him. “You’ll probably need this back.”

  “Thank you,” said Aetius, cleaning off the sword’s blade. “I never thought Jurchan would try to have me killed. Gods, we shed blood together in battle. Hulagon and I fought side by side.” He let out a long, irritated breath, slamming the sword back into its scabbard. “I thought…I thought Jurchan would be a trustworthy man in this venture.”

  “I see,” said Caina.