Authors: Glen Cook
"The wishes of shopkeepers are of no consequence."
"That attitude is what makes shopkeepers and tradesmen hail a Jehrke Protector. I have done my duty to the state by giving warning. I'm going to get ready for the awards ceremony now."
The King stared at Rider, exasperated. "Like father, like son," he said. "Where are you going, Konstantin?"
"My people need to be alerted. I must tell ... "
"No one. You will tell no one, on your life. Rider at least sees the ramifications of Jehrke's death, if he is so vain as to arrogate his father's place."
The other man present, a greyhair whose role was informal and advisory, said, "There should be no announcement. Let Rider take over. There will be speculation but slight inclination toward adventurism and chaos. A formal announcement would unleash the hounds of fear Jehrke kept chained."
The King grumbled something.
"You have your enemies, Belledon. Are they more restrained by the numbers of your soldiers or by the Protector's approval of your reign? Has any ruler he approved been found by an assassin? How many of the Bad Kings died natural deaths?"
"It
is
something to consider, Your Majesty," Konstantin observed.
The older man said, "You are a king, Belledon. Not a god. Never forget your oath. You serve Shasesserre. The city does not serve you."
The King continued to grumble, but admitted the truth. It was just such moments the old man was supposed to get him through.
Rider returned to his father's laboratory, thinking he had to get used to it being his. "Everyone's still here?" he asked in mock surprise. "I'm amazed."
"Yeah," Chaz grumbled.
Spud said, "Rider, have you decided what to do about your father? Can't put it off much longer."
"Yes. It's grisly, but ... A pattern of spells of stasis and preservation, and leave him where he died. As his own memorial. And as a reminder to us that we're mortal. That we can't let our vigilance slip."
Chaz leaned out the window, tossed something. Rider asked, "What are you doing?"
"Throwing pop seeds at Su-Cha. He's down there waiting to see if anybody comes for that Emerald."
Spud snickered. "He's been doing it since you left."
Rider looked outside. There were torches on the uppermost platform of the diving tower. The crowd was noisy and restless. "Almost time to go down. Chaz, I want you, Soup, and Preacher to follow me. This would be a good time for our enemies to express their displeasure with us."
"Right."
"Spud, you stay and back up Greystone and Su-Cha."
"Hey! How come I have to miss out?"
Rider tended not to hear such protests. He stepped into the library, where Greystone was perched on a massive oak throne of a chair. It served as the heart of the web for those who, unlike Rider, were unable to make themselves part of it.
"Greystone. What have we got?"
"She's stopped moving." He tapped the map on the table with a pointer. "One of these tenements."
"Right against the river. Heart of the Protte rookery. Not a good place for a woman alone. Fifty thousand foreign sailors and not a ghost of law."
"But a good place for a foreigner to disappear."
"A most excellent place. We'll go down in the morning."
"Why not tonight?"
"These ceremonies. And we're tired. When we're tired we make mistakes. We'll rest. Odehnal will wait."
Rider moved on through the library. Beyond lay a vast suite of rooms he and his father had used from time to time. There he would find apparel appropriate to the awards ceremony. He told Spud, "We'll refurbish these rooms so we can hole up here comfortably."
"Our lives are going to change, aren't they?"
"They have already. It'll be a long time before we comprehend how much."
XI
There was a band to precede the King, and guards in flashy uniforms with ostrich plumes atop their helmets. In a tradition which antedated the celebration of Jehrke Victorious, the King scattered tiny, specially struck silver coins.
"Helps clear the way," he told Rider, who walked beside him. Citizens scrambled wildly as a dozen coins arced into the crowd.
"Cynical attitude."
"Only a cynic and pessimist will survive wearing the crown."
"Or a stoic?"
"My father was a stoic. A very patient stoic. He got a foot of steel stuck into his gizzard. Philosophy means nothing to a dagger." The King seemed more companionable than earlier. Was that a good sign or bad?
As the procession neared the tower, where the medalists waited, onlookers began to murmur about the Protector's absence. Rider was not universally known. But he was recognized by some. His presence fueled speculation.
Shasesserre was a wild and rowdy city. More so on festival days. Fifteen minutes passed before there was order sufficient for the King to speak. He did so at length, dulling the edge of the crowd. He passed the stage to Rider without explaining his presence. Rider presented the victors' laurels with amusing asides and humorous observations, and no more explanation. He finished swiftly, yielded the rostrum to the organizers of the contests.
"So your assassins turned out specters," Belledon said as they pushed through the crowd. "I wonder if half what you've told me isn't imagination."
"We'll see." During his presentation he had felt a tug at the web, just a tiny vibration. Someone learning that the web had been made sound. The deaths of Emerald and Vlazos had not ended the game.
The attack came as the party passed behind an arm of the Rock and started up the incline to the Citadel gate. The King's guards were feeling safe.
A horde of waterfront villains poured out of the dark cracks in the Rock, howling in a dozen languages. Odehnal seemed to have cleared the rookeries. In an instant the guards were all locked in struggle. More thugs swept toward Rider and the King.
Rider's men charged into the fray, falling on the villains from behind.
Rider dipped into pockets, spoke words of power rapidly. He scattered a handful of small black marbles. Smoke and stench boiled out of them. He shoved the King toward the densest smoke, called his men to join him.
A scarfaced rogue plunged toward him, cutlass reaching. He turned inside the thrust, seized his assailant's wrist. The man shrieked as bones broke. Rider caught the dropped weapon and threw himself between another attacker and Belledon. He used the sword with a skill that would have embarrassed Shasesserre's most famous duelists.
The smoke caused confusion and bought time, but not enough. The evening breeze off the
Golden Crescent
dispersed it all too soon, and the scene it betrayed was not one to inspire hope.
Most of the King's guards had been slain. A score of attackers remained upright. They began to close in.
Rider became aware of a great warp in the web. Someone had cast a powerful spell. He stood at its center. Everyone and everything within fifty paces was invisible to outside eyes.
No help would come, for no one could see this disaster.
He dipped a hand into a pocket, freed the thing he had loosed at the Vlazos mansion.
His men joined him, the King, and two surviving guards, everyone getting their backs together.
The demon raged. And still the villains came on. What had they been promised?
There was a violent twist in the web. Rider's demon shrieked, dropped a mangled victim, began to spin head over heels. And to shrink. In seconds it dwindled to a point, which vanished with a loud
pop!
But before it went the monster did, momentarily, frighten the attackers into backing off. Rider turned his attention to the spell that masked the fray.
The attackers again moved in. The area was carpeted with soldiers and assassins. Chaz growled, "These guys must be getting paid gold by the boatload." None were the sort who threw themselves on swords for causes.
The clangor resumed. A guard went down. A blow staggered the King himself. Chaz collapsed, struck on the head. Rider fended blows ... He ripped the fabric of the invisibility spell.
Not three seconds later there was a wild bray of trumpets from the Citadel. The garrison was alert already, concerned because the monarch had not yet appeared.
Soldiers poured from the Citadel. The villains saw their deaths upon them. No reward was worth the mercy they could expect if they were captured. They fled.
Groggy, Chaz caught one by the heel and piled onto him.
The very sky seemed to shriek in frustration.
Rider was ready when the deadly sorcery fell. So swift and sure was his response, none of his companions realized they came within seconds of death by melting.
Rider asked the King, "Now will you concede the possibility Shasesscrre may be in danger?" But he paid little attention to the response.
That attack had not come from Kralj Odehnal. Of that he was sure. It did not have the dwarf's stamp. Nor did Rider believe Odehnal to be that powerful, nor possessed of so mighty an arrogance.
As he helped Chaz with his prisoner, he told his men, "This is even bigger than we suspected. And there are more players in the game than we thought."
XII
Rider wakened with the sun. His body ached from the previous day's exertions and bruises, yet he was eager to be at his new vocation. He leapt out of bed, began doing calisthenics.
Su-Cha stuck his head in the doorway. "Up already?" Su-Cha was always up. Imps did not sleep often. "The juices are flowing, little friend." "Shall I waken the others?"
"No need. They deserve their rest. How is the prisoner?" "Unhappy. And as full of blessed ignorance as ought to elevate him direct to nirvana. Someone put sixty pounds of gold on your head. The King's, too. Chaz is going to wilt when he hears his noggin is worth only five." "What I expected. What of the web?" "Nothing shaking. His nibs ain't moved." Rider abandoned his exertions, though customarily he devoted an hour to exercise. "I'll bathe quickly. Two chores to be done. Take your pick. Cook breakfast or fetch shantor's robes for the whole crowd."
"And if I choose cooking?"
"I'll boot you downstairs."
"What I thought." Having little need to consume food, Su-Cha had no need to learn cookery. His occasional efforts verged on the poisonous. "Enough for everybody?"
"Yes. It'll take the whole crew to corner a rat like Odehnal."
"Remember the old saw."
"I do. I don't expect he'll be taken easily."
Someone in one of the sleeping rooms grumbled about all the racket. Moments later Spud toddled past, headed for the kitchen. He banged around enough to waken everyone else. When Su-Cha returned with the shantor disguises he found the whole crowd tripping over one another while cooking and eating.
The donning of disguises took place not far from the suspect tenements. The weeping sickness was common in the slums, and the terror of the riverbanks. It was a slow and gruesome killer, and one challenge Jehrke had not been able to meet. Rider's men would not stand out unless they made it appear there were too many shantors in one area. People would stay out of their way. Though Jehrke had proven the weeping sickness not to be communicable like measles or the pox, no one believed him.
"Take your time getting into position," Rider told the others. "Don't attract attention. I’ll touch you through the web when I'm ready." He sent them off in pairs, ringing their warning bells.
He let a half hour pass. He spent that time touching the neighborhood through the web. There was a disconcerting quiet about it, as though people had sensed Odehnal's presence and knew it augured explosion and terror.
Odehnal was not difficult to locate, this close. The woman Caracene made an outstanding marker. From her Rider caught hints of turmoil, from the dwarf a glowing calm.
There were others in the place. At least four more men, none of whom Rider gave any special attention. They would be the dwarf's hirelings.
He tugged that part of the web which allowed him to touch his associates.
I am going in now,
he sent.
Be alert.
He moved into the filthy street, stooped, tinkling his shantor's bell. Through a gap between drunkenly leaning tenements he glimpsed the brown dirtiness of the river. Here the old wooden buildings stood with their tails over the water, supported by pilings rising from the bottom mud. These places were always collapsing into the flood, drowning their occupants, and being rebuilt as slovenly as before.
The suspect structure was identical to its neighbors. Rider tinkled from door to door, pausing before each as if begging. When he reached his destination, though, he flicked a finger. A soft click sounded behind the door, a bolt snapping open. There was no guard.
He stepped inside. Behind him one of his men rang his bell.
The darkness within was asphalt thick. He drew a gem-like crystal from a pocket, whispered to it. It began to glow, no more brilliant than a lightning bug. He did not go on till his eyes adjusted.
Odehnal was too confident, Rider thought. No guard, no spell to alert him to intruders. As a soldier Rider had learned that one must always expect the worst in enemy territory.
Eyes adapted, he touched his men again.
I am going upstairs now.
Odehnal was above somewhere. Caracene and the others were in the rear, also upstairs.
Odehnal was not as lax as first glance suggested. Two thirds of the way up, Rider froze. Something was wrong. He allowed his senses free rein, not moving a muscle. His attention focused upon a stairstep a couple above that where his feet rested.
Even knowing where to look it was a moment before he spied the black thread stretched taut an inch above the worn and grimy tread.
Tricky, setting the trap for a point where an intruder would begin worrying more about what lay ahead. He examined the steps above with even more care.
He
would have set a back-up.
There it was. A step set to trigger an alarm when weight fell upon it.
He stepped over both carefully.
The stair ended on a balcony which ran athwart the building and L-ed to his right. Several doors along the back leaked light beneath them. But Odehnal waited out along the L.