‘Good plan,’ Chase said and shook his head. ‘Of course the problem with it is that I’d have to hope you were too dumb to figure out what I was doing.’
His sarcasm wasn’t lost on Crystal, who grinned faintly, but Hunter’s face hardened. ‘You’ve got a smart mouth,’ he snarled.
‘Okay, so I don’t swim over. Now what’s your plan?’ Chase asked, meeting Hunter’s eyes. The silence between the two young men bristled with enmity as it had in the tunnel and the cave.
‘I say you go and fetch help,’ Crystal said, ignoring Hunter’s protest.
‘I’ll be as quick as I can,’ Chase promised. ‘The weather doesn’t look good. When I come back, if it’s rough, I’ll expect you to be sheltering in the cave.’
‘That’s where we’ll be,’ Crystal agreed.
‘Good,’ he concluded. He removed his boots and handed them to Crystal. ‘They’re a good reason to come back,’ he said, grinning. ‘I only have that pair of boots to my name.’ He glanced at Hunter and descended the steep slope, clambering nimbly over the rocks to the water level.
At the base, he paused to gauge his bearings for the northward swim. The swell was strong, waves foaming and tumbling over the rocks. He smiled wryly. It seemed that every aspect of this strange adventure on old Sunlight’s behalf was destined to end with him swimming in the ocean. Mrs Merchant and her bodyguard ought to be grateful that he knew how to swim. Without him, they would perish from thirst on their rocky prison. He waited for the rising swell and dived into the ocean, relishing the soothing wash of salt water over his skin.
‘If he isn’t involved, then how did the assassins know where we were?’ Hunter asked.
‘I don’t have an answer, Hunter. We’ve been over all of the possibilities.’
‘Then he has to be the key. He won’t be coming back. You know we’re stranded here.’
‘If he’s the key, then he’s a very clever young man and an even better actor,’ Crystal replied. ‘Or he’s been set up and betrayed by whoever paid him in the first place. I think you’re wrong about him. He’s a simpler man than that.’ She wanted to add that, for a thief, she thought that he was considerably honest, but she knew her young bodyguard lacked the sensibility to understand subtlety in an ironic observation. Instead, she turned her attention to a wall of rain drifting across the grey ocean and watched silent lightning flash in the distant cloudbank. The day was running out of light. Soon they’d have to retreat to the cave to sleep another cold night away from home. Yet she was not dismayed. For the first time in several years, she was released of all the daily responsibilities of running her company and the feeling was good. Imprisoned as they were on the tiny finger of isolated rock, she appreciated the temporary insulation from the city world and routine intrigue of business.
Sighing, she turned back from the wider ocean to see what else was happening closer to shore, and noticed Hunter staring silently at the water. A small fishing boat with a single green sail curved by the offshore wind was beating towards their rocky perch. Three figures rode it across the waves, tacking to make headway against the freshening sea breeze, racing the approaching rain. ‘Seems you underestimated our thief,’ she said. Hunter just stared silently at the boat.
Swift knocked gently. A shadow crossed the lantern light within and a voice whispered from behind the door, ‘Who is it?’
‘Swift,’ she whispered in reply. ‘I’ve come to see Runner, Passion.’ The door opened and Passion stood framed in the lantern light. Behind her long skirt a small face peered out. ‘Hello, Jon,’ Swift said. The little face vanished.
‘Come in,’ Passion urged. She shut and bolted the door after Swift entered. Little Jon retreated into his bedroom. Passion turned and said, ‘Sit down. Hungry?’
‘I can’t stay long,’ Swift said. ‘Where’s Runner?’
Passion turned aside, biting her lip momentarily. Then she met Swift’s gaze and said, ‘I don’t know. I haven’t seen him in several days.’
‘Did Nail come to see him?’
‘Nail sailed on the ships with the army,’ Passion said. ‘Didn’t he tell you?’
Swift stared in disbelief. ‘Nail joined the army?’
‘They dragged in conscripts from all over the Foundry Quarter.’
‘He was forced to go?’
Passion hesitated, and said, ‘He volunteered.’
‘They wouldn’t have taken boys, would they? Boys Runner’s age?’
‘They rounded up a lot of young men. Some were boys, but I never saw Runner in any group and no one’s mentioned seeing him to me.’
Swift went to the little window and peered into the dark street. She remained there a while, ignoring Passion’s presence, and when Swift eventually turned back to Passion, her eyes were red. ‘I came for another reason,’ she said. ‘It’s important you don’t tell anyone we’re sisters. It’s dangerous to you.’
‘Why?’
‘I killed Prince Shortear, Passion. They know who I am and they’re already hunting for me. If they know you know me, they’ll come for you and for Chase.’
‘You’re an assassin?’
Seeing the astonishment on her sister’s face, Swift confirmed her question. ‘Yes, I am. And you don’t need to know anything else.’
‘That’s why you left Runner to me. Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘Because,’ Swift said and left the statement hanging. ‘You may have to leave this place. I’m sorry if that happens, but don’t hesitate if you get any hint of people associating you with me. The watch won’t treat you nicely, no matter how little you know. Make sure Chase knows all this too. Where is he?’
‘Working for the Joker.’
Swift’s eyes widened. ‘Why?’
‘A promise he made to her grandfather when he was in the Bog Pit.’
‘Chase was in the Bog Pit? When?’
‘A few days ago. He escaped.’
‘No one escapes from the Bog Pit.’
‘Chase did,’ Passion said proudly.
‘What did he do to get put in there?’
‘They caught him stealing bread from the royal pantry,’ Passion explained.
Swift shook her head in disbelief. ‘Chase got into the palace?’
‘He knows a secret way. He’s been in and out before for food. He was unlucky last time.’
‘Is he a Guild member?’
‘A what?’ Passion asked. Then she remembered the Guild being described by Rose, and said, ‘No.’
‘Is he working?’
‘No. He can’t get a job. No one wants him. That’s why he steals.’
‘So what’s the promise he made to the Joker?’
‘Helping her find something her grandfather said was hidden somewhere. I don’t know the details.’
Swift moved closer to Passion and reached out to stroke her sister’s long red hair. ‘The Joker is a dangerous woman. Tell Chase to keep away from her, and tell him to go see Plug Lager in the Fat Wombat tavern and ask for an introduction to the Guild. They might have something for him that will pay.’ She looked Passion over and said, ‘You’re very beautiful, little sister. I’m sorry I haven’t had time to be a better big sister to you.’
Passion smiled at the compliment and apology. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘I have to go,’ Swift said, taking her hand from Passion’s hair. ‘If anyone asks, you don’t know me. We’re not sisters. If you hear even the slightest mention of anyone connecting you to me, no matter who it is, take little Jon and get out of this place. Make sure you tell Chase everything I’ve told you. Watch out for the guards and the king’s men. Don’t attract their attention.’ She kissed Passion on the cheek quickly. ‘Take care, little sister,’ she said. She opened the door, carefully checked no one was watching, and slipped into the darkness, leaving Passion still touching her cheek where Swift’s kiss lingered.
CHAPTER THIRTY
‘You have no idea how worried I was. I sent people out searching for you. I thought yo
u’d been murdered or lost somewhere in the tunnels. I was so scared.’
Crystal eased out of Lin’s embrace and kissed her on the nose affectionately before she moved away. ‘I was nearly murdered,’ she announced, reaching for a crystal decanter on a sideboard.
‘Oh,’ Lin gasped. ‘In Jarudha’s name—when?’
‘At the end of the tunnel. Lucky Hunter was with me.’
‘Do you know who sent them?’
‘I have no idea,’ Crystal replied. She opened a small gum wood cabinet and withdrew two glasses. ‘Drink?’
‘Yes,’ Lin answered.
As Crystal poured, she said, ‘What I can’t work out is how the assassins knew where I was. Only four people knew where I was going. The thief, Hunter, you and I.’
‘The thief double-crossed you!’
‘That’s the logical conclusion,’ Crystal agreed, passing a glass to Lin, ‘except that he also saved us. And that isn’t logical.’ She sipped her port wine.
‘Unless he’s trying to make you trust him,’ Lin suggested. ‘Perhaps he’s planning to infiltrate your business—you know, become a trusted confidant. Then he can give whoever’s employing him information about what we do and you won’t suspect him.’
‘I thought of that.’ Crystal crossed to the lounge and sat on an arm, where she started stroking the smoky grey cat curled on the seat. The animal mewed and stretched to show its pleasure at the soft caress. ‘But he hasn’t asked to work for me. In fact, he didn’t ask for anything. I even had to make him accept payment for helping me to retrieve my grandfather’s secret items.’
‘You mean you’ve got the things he said would be in the tunnel?’
‘I’m not sure. The assassins took a jewel box and we came back with a canvas bag.’
‘What’s in the bag?’
‘I don’t know. We can’t open it. It’s a strange bag. Hunter tried to cut the canvas and he couldn’t get through it.’
‘Where’s the bag?’
‘I’ve locked it away. Apparently it’s meant to go to Prince Inheritor.’
‘Why?’
‘That’s what my grandfather requested, according to the thief.’
‘Where is the thief now?’ Lin asked.
‘Gone back to wherever he lives in the slums. He took the payment, thanked me and left.’
Lin smiled as if she knew what the thief was doing. ‘Too smooth. He’s clever, far too clever for a common thief. If I was you, I’d have him followed and eliminated.’
Crystal stared at Lin. ‘The scary fact is I trust him. I don’t believe he’s anything more than what he says he is, or appears to be.’
‘But the assassins?’
‘I’m convinced they had nothing to do with him, not directly. Perhaps he inadvertently told his sister or a friend in the brothel and they passed on the information to one of my enemies. I don’t really know. I can’t think of any other explanation. He certainly didn’t set me up.’
‘You can’t be sure about that,’ Lin warned.
‘No. I can’t. But then I can’t be sure about any of it. All I know is that someone knew where I was and tried to murder me. I have to find out who before they try again.’ Crystal swallowed her drink and eased into the lounge, dislodging the cat. Miffed by the inconsiderate human invasion, the cat jumped onto the red rug and curled up again. ‘So tell me what happened with the business deal?’
‘Well,’ Lin said, taking a seat beside her on the lounge, ‘I should begin by telling you that King Hawkeye is dead.’
Crystal put down her glass. ‘When?’
‘The day you went into the tunnel.’
Crystal stood. ‘So Inheritor will be crowned,’ she said. ‘That changes matters.’
‘There’s been no announcement from the palace yet. The funeral is scheduled in three days,’ Lin explained.
‘And the deal?’ Crystal asked.
Lin approached her, holding out a hand, as she said, ‘There’s been a terrible accident.’
‘You failed me.’ The prince’s condemnation hung over Hordemaster Fist because the assassins he procured were meant to be professionals, but their quarry was alive and safe inside her protected mansion and Prince Shadow was infuriated. He risked looking at the prince and saw him pacing across the floor, hands clasped behind his back. ‘If she connects the incident with the bad luck concerning her precious cargo ships, she might work out what’s going on and implicate me. I can’t afford that.’ Shadow stopped pacing and turned his attention on Fist. ‘For the time being, we need an interim plan, something to either distract her curiosity or to eliminate her without fuss. What’s happened to the individual to whom you entrusted Shortear’s fate?’
‘Warlord Roughcut has identified her, Your Highness,’ Fist explained. ‘He questioned me on the matter, but I denied any knowledge of such a person except as a matter of routine investigation.’
‘Good. Give her another task. She can deal with the Joker.’ Shadow hesitated, staring up at Fist’s impassive face. ‘This assassin—she can’t possibly make any connections between the tasks and our royal self?’ he queried.
‘Your Highness,’ Fist replied, ‘I take every precaution to ensure that people employed to conduct unpleasant duties on your behalf neither know the source of their orders nor can acquire evidence to trace back to the source. I’m efficient.’
‘I’m sure you are, Fist,’ Shadow said, ‘which is why I keep you.’ He laughed as he strolled across the marble floor of the empty throne room, and pirouetted in the centre. ‘Have this associate take care of the Joker and arrange for some less savoury individuals to visit her new friend—this thief that I’ve been told is in her employ.’
‘A thief, Your Highness?’
Shadow stared at Fist, and said, ‘I have it on good authority that a young man from the Foundry Quarter is claiming to know her grandfather. You and I both know that her grandfather died in an unfortunate manner in the Bog Pit, so from where this whelp has arisen is a mystery, but my source tells me he is having a significant influence on the Joker. It would be expedient for him to also embrace his destiny. Can you see to that, Fist?’
‘Yes, Your Highness,’ Fist obediently replied. ‘Does this young man have a name?’
‘Chase Goodenough,’ Shadow replied. ‘The rest you’ll have to ferret out for yourself.’
Alone in her bedroom, Crystal stared over the bay, where sharp wind gusts whipped the grey waves into angry white foam and rain lashed the coast. The changing weather matched her violent mood. From Lin she had learned that two of her three ships mysteriously foundered returning from the Fallen Star islands, vanishing with crew and cargo. Consequently, she had failed to deliver the precious euphoria shipment to Prince Shadow and the prince was angry with her. Lin’s account was that the prince, learning that the business deal was unfulfilled, threatened to take his business elsewhere. Crystal had to prevent that. Losing the prince’s goodwill guaranteed that she would lose the supply to the Seers and her monopoly on the city’s drug trade, and that would jeopardise her business equity. She had invested a considerable portion of her family fortune in the plantations on Storm and Dolphin islands in the Fallen Star islands and needed the prince’s deal to be concluded to recoup the major share of her investment. She sighed and sat on a chair.
The shipping tragedy was part of a bigger threat. Someone in the city, perhaps an old foe, had upped the ante in the game to kill her. The assassins left no clue as to her latest enemy’s identity, and the thief, Chase, was an enigma. Monopolising the drug trade was always going to make her a target, but she was going to have to be far more careful than she had been of late. Her flirtation with trusting the unknown thief, resulting in the subsequent assassination attempt, was undoubtedly a timely reminder that she was still a significant target for potential and actual competitors.
She rose and reached under her bed to retrieve the heavy canvas bag. ‘Your grandfather insisted that it be delivered into the hands of the king or the princes,
’ Chase reminded her on the homeward journey. ‘But not to Prince Shadow. He’s the one the Seers are going to put into power because he’s sympathetic to their religious cause. You have to give it to King Hawkeye, or Prince Inheritor.’
‘And then what?’ Crystal had asked.
‘I don’t know. Your grandfather told me they would know what to do.’
His strange tale detailing the intentions of the Seers to summon the Demon Horsemen was by far the least credible part. She knew there was a fundamentalist movement among the Seers, one based on a very narrow reading of the Book of Jarudha—everyone knew that—but the fundamentalists were curtailed in their ambitions. Strict laws created and enforced by King Ironfist the First, and then by Hawkeye, forbade the practice of religion as a means of government. But now Hawkeye is dead, she considered. Who will be the new king?
Lightning flashed and thunder chased the light across the bay. Crystal flinched. There is no real harm in passing the bag on to the princes, she considered, except if it turned out to be as worthless as it appeared—in which case her professional reputation might be tarnished. It might be wiser to get it into the princes’ possession by a circumspect method. If the thief, Chase, was telling the truth, then the princes would know the bag’s value. If he wasn’t, then the item would be disregarded as a strange, fruitless gift from an unknown donor.
The small adventure had exhausted her. She slipped out of her clothes and crawled into her bed, enjoying the sensual texture of the sheets against her bare skin. The rain beating on the roof soothed her mind into sleep.
PART FIVE
‘If you offer your services to another, the best you can expect is to be well used, and only for as long as you are useful.’
A BUSINESSMAN’S MAXIM, WRITTEN ABOVE THE BAR OF PLUG LAGER’S TAVERN, THE FAT WOMBAT
Prisoner of Fate Page 25
