Dagger - The Light at the End of the World (2 page)

“
Prefect Mawson’s hands
stink of our shit,” Dagger answered.

The eyes disappeared and the
door opened in a rattle of bolts and chains. He was sure he was the
last. All the other Spiders quit hours earlier, maybe some didn’t
even get out that night. It was becoming easier to accept the
relentless punishment of Mama on those rotten days, rather than
venturing out in the dark and rain, given the proximity of the
sacred festivals held to honor Ktisis and their
unique
rituals.

A misty light barely
penetrated through the cracks in the ceiling, falling on a group of
Spiders. They were sitting down, playing dice. Their knives planted
in the ground. He wondered where they could find all that energy at
the end of the night. Then he saw. Some of them were secretly
licking
magic dust
from their dirty fingers and, judging from their delighted
smiles, he realized that Mama would get seriously angry soon again.
He hated when his Spiders used those remedies to stay awake and not
feel the hunger. They were an income for him, all of them. Those he
did not lose because of the guards and the diseases, he lost to
that damn
dust
.
Some Spiders were coughing. Others violently scratched the pustules
on their arms and legs. Some were lying on the ground, unconscious,
at least he hoped, because of fatigue or starvation.

Dagger walked on. The wretch
was already dead, helping him would only serve to prolong his
suffering.
Green
death did not spare. With the
yellow
one, maybe you could get by
somehow, if someone amputated your hands before decay ate the rest
of your body. With the
green
one
, it was better to surrender as soon as
possible: you rot slowly, day after day, you could watch yourself
falling apart. The smell you took up was no longer that of a human
being, not a living one at least: it reminded one of fish left to
rot under the sun on a hot summer day. It was a disease with a
subtle sense of irony, however: when the rotting stopped, when it
seemed things were getting better, and you thought you have
survived after all, that was the worst moment. You could be certain
that the disease had begun to eat you from the inside and suddenly,
one day, you woke up with larvae pushing against the skin of your
belly to open a hole through which it would escape.

“
How long did I sleep?” he
instinctively asked.

“
Your head practically
bounced on the floor, big bro.”

“
A little tired,
uh?”

“
Well, I worked this night,
little sis!”

“
How much did you
get?”

“… ’
lemme sleep…”

“
Dag, how much?”

“
Six Dragoon,
clean clean
,” Dagger
muttered, rubbing his eyes and yawning. “And you? How much did you
scrap up?”

“
Nothing!”

“
Oh, really?”

“
Nothing at all,” Seeth
repeated, looking down. “This place can’t feed us all. We’re too
many. Any white trash spewed from the city ends up in the guild,
so—”

“
How much do you need, this
time?” Dagger interrupted.

“
Three. I told you, I didn’t
scrap up anything.”

Tum, tin,
tin
.

“
I won’t always be so
lucky,” he said. “Try to learn how to take care of yourself. I
spent the whole night in the rain to beg Ktisis for a stroke of
luck, and you? I’d bet my soul you gave up at the first
difficulties to get back here. Sometimes I wonder how you can be
still alive in a place like this. It would be much easier for me if
you were not here!”

With a moment’s delay, he
realized that he had said too much. He saw her smile disappear from
her face, slowly, very slowly. She bent down her head and closed
herself in that offended and impenetrable silence of hers. She did
not answer even after he stroked her hair.
Crap
, Dagger thought. She was really
upset. He hated when she made him feel guilty like that. This time
she was not doing it on purpose, as she always did. He could see
through her emotions. In truth, he could literally see through her
body: Seeth had white skin, white hair and white eyebrows. She was
thin and looked like the ghost of a girl her age. Yet he found her
beautiful; a frail, rare and priceless beauty that did not belong
to that world, certainly not to the
ship
cemetery
. Everyone in there thought she had
a demonic nature. This was the reason why they always kept her at a
distance, at least, those who did not approach her from time to
time in order to try to sacrifice her to Ktisis. Dagger too knew
what it meant to be considered a monstrous creature. Nobody ever
wanted to have anything to do with him either, because he had one
thing in common with that little girl, just one thing: his eyes.
Red as if the flames of hell themselves burned in them. In that
world of snakes, having eyes of the same color was enough to feel
close to someone. If it were not for her, his life would have been
unbearable. If it were not for him, Seeth would have ended in a
brothel, or worse, but perhaps there was no need to remind her
every time.

“
Come on,” he said. “Take
that look off your face. You know I didn’t mean it. I never mean
it. I’m an asshole, remember?”

“
Your cough on request is
becoming more and more impressive, little sis.”

“
Did I already say ‘fuck
you’?”

“
No.”

“
Well, fuck you!”

Dagger looked around and saw
that the other Spiders were so taken by the
magic dust
that they hadn’t noticed
anything. He hated this place, full of spies. He hated his fellows.
He hated being there.

“
You and I are one,” he
said. “What happens to you, happens to me.”

“
Are you drunk?”

“
No. It’s that without you
I… I…”

Dagger closed his eyes and
hoped that moment could last a bit longer than those in which he
felt alone. She was his refuge from the ugliness of the world,
those skinny arms, that one creature who needed him. If, for her,
Dagger was salvation and the only form of protection in the world,
for him Seeth was even more. She was his only
Redemption
, the one element of his
life that the
Overgods
would not fault him on the day he would die. Leaving behind
his mortal remains, he would have faced them on Almagard’s
threshold, asking for toll; a single act of pure and selfless good
accomplished in the sea of mortal sin.
Redemption
.

‘
Guess what’s in
here!’
the spider holding the bag asked,
his eyes dilated, a stupid smile on his face, his fingers white
with magic.

‘
A dog!’
one of the little Spiders answered, yellow in
face.

‘
No, a cat!’
another one replied, his skin greenish.

‘
No matter what it is,
let’s eat it!’
the last one stated, causing
the laughter of all. But not that of Dagger. He immediately
realized that there was a little girl in there.

‘
Where did you find her?
It’s not funny, let her go!’
He noticed
that, just hearing his voice, the little girl in the sack had begun
to move slower. They had been bound then, without having yet seen
each other. He was only seven-years old, but he had no misgiving to
face three Spiders of twelve years each. He already knew how to use
a blade, at least well enough to leave one of his older companions
bleeding on the floor, with a hand to his open throat, and the
other two unarmed and with their bare hands outstretched toward
him. Dagger seemed to be born with a dagger in his hand.

‘
It was just a
joke!’
they had said, stepping back.
‘Calm down, you little shit, you keep her! You
can do whatever you want with her.’

“
If you’ve done something
stupid tell him before he finds out, as he always does,” Seeth
said. “It’s impossible to hide anything from the man. I don’t keep
secrets from him, not in here.”

“
So he knows I give you a
hand, too?”

“
Did I already say ‘fuck
you’?”

“
No more than
necessary.”

Seeth rested her head
against his chest, closing her eyes. “Don’t you do something
stupid,” she said. “Don’t you
ever
. Don’t you leave me
alone.”

“
I’m afraid it’s too
late.”

“
Hmm?”

“
I fucked up tonight. He saw
my face.”

“
Who?”

“
The client I
robbed.”

“
You know I never kill.
Never.”

“
Shit!” Seeth whispered
through clenched teeth. “You and your damned
pact with yourself
! Why? Why must you
always be so stupid? There’s no other moral in this town. Either
they die or you die.”

“
Ain’t you
about to say that you’re different?”

“
We
are different. We are not like
this place. We can be better.” He bowed his head and waited for his
sister to go into a rage.