The Beast of the North (11 page)

‘Right,’ I said while bowing my head. ‘Let’s share the blame. I should have forgotten the pouch and her. I could not.’

‘Cursed idiots. Both of us,’ he said darkly. ‘I agreed to return it to her. That I did. I am not sure why, but I thought it was important.’

‘It is strange,’ I agreed. ‘But she was special.’

‘She is,’ he agreed. ‘Strangely unique. It’s not like there are no other beautiful, petite girls out there. She did strike me as … different? Yes. Enough to put our heads in the noose.’

‘She changed everything,’ I told him, and then Lith filtered through my mind. I frowned at the thought, and Sand misunderstood me.

‘Ann,’ he said. ‘Don’t break her heart. I know you don’t care for her, you blind idiot, but at least think of her feelings. Act like you care. Or cared. Whatever. Make it up. She is smart as a goddess, but she is also wretched. Rarely smiles. Spare her heart. Or I’ll break yours.’

‘I don’t know why,’ I said. ‘But I don’t think you can, anymore.’

‘Maybe,’ he growled, eyeing the staff. ‘Should something happen, Maskan, tomorrow? We finish it together. We have been friends this far. Be careful in that mint. I’ll … create a distraction up the street.’

‘Oh? I didn’t know about that.’

He chuckled. ‘Ann’s idea. Father didn’t want you to, in case you get caught and spill your guts, and I am not talking about disembowelment. I’ll set up a fire in a warehouse,’ he grimaced. ‘Terrible crime, that is. I’ll roast if they catch me doing it. But I will be careful. You will have to be as well.’

‘I will try,’ I agreed.

Later we ate. It was a slow, tired affair, for it was late, and we didn’t have an appetite. I rarely saw Mother eating at all, and Ann was always picky about her food. Bear often finished their plates. The next morning we would be up and about very early, and there was precious little anyone wanted to say. I sat at the end of the long table, staring at the fires. I ate a few bits of steaming venison, some frost-bitten potatoes, and bitter tomatoes, but did not have an appetite. The women only sipped their ale and stared at the fires.

Damned terrifying,
I thought, wondering if we would survive the coming day. The next day, men might die. At least the Master of Coin, Naram would. That much was likely. It was hard to imagine Kallir and Molun failing at that. The man was small and refined. So would the soldiers, maybe. They might have families. I frowned at that. If we succeeded, the Jesters would be at a war they could not win. The king would send thousands of soldiers down to the Old City, and there would be no mercy. If we failed, we might hang instead. With luck. Probably my skull would be strung up next to Father’s, hanging in the Singing Gardens, ringing with bells. I rubbed my face. It did not matter. There was no backing off now. We would rob the king’s gold, and I would carry it in plain sight of all the people of the Third Ring, and I’d be wearing Valkai’s face. I chuckled at that, and the others froze for a moment as if I had committed a crime. The Bear snapped his fingers. I lifted my face to him. ‘Know the plan now?’

‘I’ll be with this Lith tomorrow morning,’ I told him.

He snorted. ‘Lithiana. You’ll go in and behave. And then this friend of ours will enter, he’ll be very shocked by your presence, and my boys will do their thing, and that is when you step up and become the damned main actor in this tragedy. You’ll dress up like this dandy, adopt … face, his face that is. You’ll do your thing outside the door. Not inside, got it? Lith … Lithiana surely can be bought to be silent, but I don’t want to pay her more than we will already.’

‘OK,’ I agreed. ‘Then I’ll go to the door, this gate—’

‘Past the barracks, a street up from the Thin Way. Then to the gate. Open it up, talk to the guards. They will tell you the passphrase. Then Molun and Kallir will do them in at their guardhouse just outside the mint.’

‘They are soldiers,’ I whispered.

‘What?’ the Bear asked.

‘They are soldiers. You sure Molun and Kallir can … do them in?’

‘Yes!’ he hooted. ‘They’ll use crossbows, and then swords, and these louts will be sitting or sleeping. They cannot find it in their hearts to suspect anyone would dare to do something like this.’

‘And then, I’ll just see what is inside and take ’em all out, right?’ I said and giggled hysterically, and they stared at me glumly. ‘Right,’ I said and picked at the food on my plate.

‘Yes. And may the Gloom Hand grant you luck,’ he chanted, invoking the dark spirit of thievery.

‘I got it,’ I told him morosely.

Then Mir got up, gathered the plates, or rather kicked Sand up to do so and grabbed the Bear to follow her. He came reluctantly, and Ann was left with me. We sat there silently; so long, I nearly fell asleep in the crackle of the flames, but not quite, as Ann sighed. She tilted her fair head and leaned on the back of her hands. Her blue eyes regarded me strangely. ‘You are an idiot.’

I opened my mouth in shock, but the voice came out as a squeak. She rarely spoke and always looked worried, but now she had a curious look on her face. I gathered myself. ‘You were to give me some practical advice. That was not very practical. An idiot, eh?’

‘Yes, you are,’ she added darkly. ‘Sand confessed you ran after this Shaduril because you both liked her. I tell you I am disappointed. You’ve known me for ages. So you are an idiot.’

‘I have been told that previously,’ I said with somewhat hurt tone. ‘But I like you.’

Her eyes enlarged as she stared at me, and then she giggled. She had beautiful laughter, and she shook her head at me. ‘I have been staring at you like a lovesick dog for such a long time. I’ve seen you and Sand grow up into two handsome dolts. I have smiled back at you—’

‘That is not true. You rarely smile. In fact, I just heard you laugh for the first time,’ I said with rising anger, which I immediately regretted. I looked at her shocked face and prayed she would not walk away.

‘I’m the daughter of the Bear. I don’t make noise. I don’t attract enemies. I think, I act, and then I survive, and so do those whom I love,’ she said sharply as a whip. ‘And a daughter to the Bear, a bandit king does not simply run after a young boy. But had I done so, perhaps I would not have found he is smitten by someone else.’

‘I am not …’ I began and slumped.

‘She was pretty. Shaduril?’ she asked sweetly. ‘Pert and blonde, and lips to swallow hearts.’

‘She was pretty,’ I told her, embarrassed. ‘But most of all she was helpless as a doe—’

‘She is hardly helpless,’ she interrupted and bit her lip. ‘I am sorry. I like her if you do. I missed my chance.’

‘It was my fault,’ I said simply, and it was the truth. ‘I had to step in. And you are like a sister to me. An older sister.’

She was nodding stiffly. ‘Old. A sister.’

I cursed myself under my breath. ‘You are thirty? I cannot ever remember the time when you were growing up,’ I said, and she nodded again.

‘It is true. But you broke my heart,’ she told me. She was nowhere near as beautiful as Shaduril, but there was something very becoming in her. ‘I’ve been somber for years and years, Maskan. I’ve been hoping to die.’

‘What?’

‘Die, Maskan. I have been hoping to die,’ she said seriously.

‘And now I—’

She smiled. ‘It’s not your fault. You cannot change your heart.’

‘Ann—’ I whispered, feeling rotten. ‘You must not—’

‘I’ll try to find something worth living for,’ she whispered. ‘I trust you. Give us a way out of this, and I will try. I promise.’

‘Thank you,’ I said weakly.

She got up, her tall body quivering. There was a strange look on her face. It was one of desire, and perhaps … rebellion?

She pulled my face to her and kissed me with passion, murmuring sweetly, and I felt myself lift higher than the clouds over the mountains. She broke it off. ‘That one was for me.’ She lifted her head, and I saw Mir had entered the room and was looking at her with astonishment. ‘At least I got a piece of you before the two. And boy? Remember to kiss the girl. You kiss her. She will be happy. Grow bolder, fool.’

‘Ann—’ Mir began, but the girl walked off, angry as a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

‘What is with her?’ I asked Mother with confusion.

‘She is unhappy, Maskan,’ Mir said, scowling at her. ‘She is strange. Bear says it was always so. Forget it. She was supposed to run the plan through with you a few times.’

‘I know the plan,’ I told her.

Mother leaned over me. ‘Practice. Practice. Practice. Never think you are ready without practice. Come, let’s do it again. As for Ann, I think our silent flower had more feelings for my boy than I thought possible. I feel sorry for her.’

So did I. And we practiced.

We should have practiced more.

I
t was very early in the morning, and Kallir and Molun were hunkered on a street leading to the fantastic fountain by “the Affront,” staring at the alleyways, from where our man would soon emerge. He was fastidious and sharp as the gate’s Silver Bells announcing the hours in Dagnar, and even if I half-hoped he would not appear, he would. ‘Best get up there, boy. Just greet him, as he steps in. Say something nice to him, as it will be the last thing he hears. And don’t scream when we do our thing.’

‘Yes, and I won’t,’ I told him and hopped up and down. Up and down. I was so tense. They stared at me incredulously; I stopped jumping, smoothed my mustaches, and then I walked across the street, smiled at a vendor laying out fresh bread and entered the tavern.

‘Not a table this morning?’ A brusque, sturdy girl asked me, and I shook my head, nodding upstairs. She smirked at me with barely disguised disgust and nodded. ‘I see. Finally summoned up the courage to have something different for breakfast. She is up there.’

I took to the stairs, climbed them, and hesitated as I mounted them; I thought of the mysterious anger of poor Ann, the enchanting Shaduril, and cursed myself for a damned fool as I feared opening Lith’s door. I reached the upstairs, turned to the marble covered door, then I pushed it open to enter the room and went in.

I stopped in shock.

She had just been squatting on an elaborately embroidered pot. Her eyes portrayed her shock as mine did as well, and then she cursed me profusely as she pulled her skirt up. ‘Ever seen that before?’

‘No, can’t say I have,’ I agreed with a deep blush as she scowled at me.
Damnable idiot
, I thought,
why didn’t I turn away?

‘Just ogling there like an owl,’ she grumbled coldly. ‘Nearly the time?’

‘Yes, almost,’ I told her and walked cautiously to the room. She quickly pulled me in, kicked the door closed and poured me some wine. I mulled it in my hand and went to recline on the windowsill that served as a bench as well. She was not her brazen self, not at all, but concentrated and careful. ‘You OK?’ I asked her carefully while sampling the wine.

‘I'm all right. But as I said yesterday, this had better be worth it,’ she scowled.

A whistle. There were steps coming up the stairs. I got up, in panic. Lith stiffened and walked briskly over to me. She pulled me up, her face screwed in a determined scowl and then she devoured my lips. I dropped the cup of wine. She placed my hands on her breast and hips, and I did not fight her.
Again? First Ann, then her?
Then, I remembered the steps and realized they were now by the door, and the Master of the Mint stepped in, already removing his coat. His thin face changed from a leer into a shocked silence as he saw us entwined in each other’s arms, my hand rubbing the butt cheek of Lith. He took an involuntary step forward, and then another, and then I saw Molun appear behind him. A truncheon went up and came down, and the man fell forward. The door closed, and Kallir and Molun pushed in, kicking the twitching soon-to-be-corpse inside.

‘Any trouble?’ Molun asked, casting a speculative look at Lith, who was still pressed into me.

‘No trouble,’ I assured Molun and pushed Lith away. She was smiling dangerously at me, like a cat that let go of a mouse, but only for now, and I tried to pay attention to the task at hand. ‘Make sure the clothes do not tear.’

‘Don’t worry,’ Kallir grinned. ‘We have stripped nobles before. You want to help, Lith? You’ve done this often, no doubt.’

‘You seem to do an okay job at it,’ Lith noted and made no move to help them, her eyes calculative. She stared at her former client with morbid fascination.

‘Just be careful,’ I whispered, feeling so nervous. They laughed and then tore the man around brutally, removed his long, dark jacket, then his shirt over his shoulders. There was a heavy pouch full of coins, bulging in fact, but Lith snapped her fingers and pointed at her desk. Molun hesitated, cursed, and left the bag with Lith. Finally, they removed one shoe; Molun fetched the other one from the hallway, and then the pants came off as Kallir jerked at them. And there, clinking to the floor was the key with a chain that had been crafted into the bone of the poor fool.

Molun grinned, and they took out a coin with cool familiarity. ‘Sword or ship?’ asked the bald man. ‘Or do you still want to do this?’

‘I want to do it. The ship,’ Kallir said, and then the coin flipped and landed. Kallir grinned at Molun’s sullen look. ‘Give me the cutters.’

‘Here,’ Molun said and handed him something that was meant for thick hedges. He placed pliers and a saw on the side.

‘Over the rags and the carpets, please,’ Lith said with sudden concern. ‘Don’t want the stench to linger here for too long. I’ve heaped some thick ones on the floor, and that should do the trick. Please bind it after, the wound.’

‘Hey,’ Kallir said. ‘He is alive.’ He was poking at a piece of caved-in skull. Blood trickled to the top of the skin, and the man twitched. My belly heaved, and I turned away. Lith handed me the piss bucket, and I emptied my breakfast there. While I was retching, I happily spared myself from seeing the spine breaking coup de grace though I heard it. Naram made a strange, moaning sound as he died. I decided to stare out of the window for the duration of the bloodletting. I sensed Lith also looked away, seemingly distressed, and I heard meat being cut. ‘There, cut that strand!’ Kallir said. ‘Look out for my hands, for dark’s sakes. Lok’s hairy ass, he has so much of it. It is going to soak to the boards. He looks thin. Where does it all come from?’

‘Just get it over with … ’ Lith said, and leaned on me.

There was a terrible, grinding sound, followed by meaty, wet thuds, curses. I heard saw grating on a bone, and then bone cracking. There was a rattle of chain. ‘I’ll bind some of that,’ Kallir stated. ‘Wash the key.’

Molun grunted, and there was a trickling sound of water and clanking of chain. ‘Here, boy, change,’ he said, and I nodded, avoided looking at the corpse and began stripping as Kallir was pointing at the heap of clothing. I pulled on the clothes and tried on the shoes. The pants were very tight in the crotch.

‘Eats too much. His ass is thick with fat,’ Kallir noted with some worry as he looked at me with clear disapproval.

I cursed him. ‘Not true! I’m fit!’

‘He is just well endowed, Kallir,’ Lith giggled.

Kallir sighed. ‘Do not stretch them too much. Best not sit down.’

‘How is he going to pass in?’ Lith asked irascibly, her mood swinging. ‘He does not look like the man. And they have a very, very tight security in the establishment.’

‘We know a way in,’ Molun assured her and then looked a bit concerned as he mulled over the rest of her words. ‘The security is the door. Why would they guard it inside? You said you didn’t know anything about the inside.’

‘I don’t,’ Lith told him softly. ‘But it’s filled with gold flans in the morning and gold coins in the evening. Of course, they guard the inside of it.’

Molun nodded. ‘He has something to deal with the people inside, eh?’ I did, I patted the bottle.

I glanced at the key held by Kallir. It was elaborate and made of black iron, and I wondered how they had managed to shackle it to the man’s bone. The links were fine, thin, but supremely strong. ‘Would take a long time to pry it off him on the street,’ Kallir said and handed me the key. ‘Hide it in your pocket. Make sure the whole chain never leaves it. Fake a limp. He had a slight one.’

‘Fine,’ I said and got ready to get up.

‘Wait!’ Kallir hissed, but it was too late. Struggling in the strange, elegant leather shoes, I could not find my footing and nearly slipped. I windmilled, gripped at a table, and then sent one foot to the side, pushing myself up.

The pants ripped.

‘Damned idiot.’ Molun groaned.

‘Wretched specimen, to be sure. You will keep your jacket closed,’ Kallir added. ‘You’ll sweat like a pig, but you cannot take it off. Maybe it will cover your ass. It might, barely.’

‘You lot are asking for trouble,’ Lith said sadly. ‘I won’t even ask you how you will disguise his face. I doubt I will see you, boy after you leave the room.’

‘See me?’ I asked, buttoning the thick leather coat, feeling heat and sweat pouring out nearly immediately.

Kallir grunted. ‘You are to bring her part of the payment here after we run and everyone has seen Valkai. I’ll give you the sack, and then you will hide here for the night. And remember to keep quiet.’

‘Not too quiet,’ Molun said with a lecherous grin, and I prayed, for Lith nodded at me, her eyes gleaming with joy. Shaduril. There was only that girl in my heart.
I’d stay pure
, I thought, fearing the night with Lith more than the mint, suddenly.

‘Why can’t I just leave the city?’ I asked them.

‘The city will be closed, and everyone searched,’ Molun said with exasperation. ‘Just let us handle this.’

Lith winked at me. ‘Good luck, Naram.’

‘Fine,’ I growled and gathered all my bravery, wondering what we had forgotten. I walked out of the room, clutching the key like I would the last piece of bread in Midgard. I got downstairs, my confidence shattered by the fact I felt my underwear sticking out of the fresh tear in the pants, and I fought the urge to grope under the coat to adjust it. I prayed the coat would cover the damage. I walked to the door and stepped out. I froze in terror.

I turned and walked back up the stairs, praying the soldiers had missed me. At the stairs, I concentrated, and my face flowed to adopt the thin face and silken hair of the poor man that had died upstairs. It felt right, and I screwed my lips into a ruthless, arrogant smile.

Let me not make a mess out of it again, gods.
Showtime.

I went back down and exited the door, and the two brown bearded guards shot up from the bench they had been sitting on, looking mildly surprised. I hesitated. Naram had not stayed up for a very long time, and they whispered some snide comments to each other about my longevity. I ignored the crude soldiers and walked forward towards the northern side of the Third Ring, passing blue doors decorated with white, wondering how the birds were singing so happily when I was actually risking my life. I prayed as I fingered the key and the yellow stoppered bottle and whistled a light tune as I walked. My mouth was dry with terror.

‘She probably had a headache. Shouldn’t wonder,’ one of the guards still whispered to the other, but I heard him well enough. I turned my eyes his way, and his face straightened as if he had just been slapped on both ears. I got some brief satisfaction from that as we hiked on. There is power in this form.
Enough to make it through this Hel
, I thought. Ahead, we could see the guard barracks of the Third Tier, a pinkish white building with an iron fence. Riders in armor were going in and out, and I skirted them as I walked to the north side of the Third Ring, the hill face, or the Drop, as it was called. There, a seemingly bottomless, bird infested rock face stood, and no walls were needed. The mint was standing at the very edge of it, a bit on top of it, in fact, and a major street went up and down the hill near it, the Griffon’s Stride. Local merchants, hawkers of rarer products than those sold in the harbor, ringed it. We walked up it, and then I took to the northwest for the Thin Way, a narrow way with wealthy shops and some taverns.

My throat tightened as I saw the building.

It was made of dark stones, cumbersome and forbidding and had a single story. A light was shining from behind its color glass windows, all barred and locked, and there was a doorway with an iron-bound gate and a lock my key would open. I went forward, slowly, but resolutely. I felt the urge to take a piss, and to vomit, and to find shelter where I could just curl up, but I was committed. I reached the door, glanced back at the guards, scowled, and fumbled with the key. The two dolts were staring at me with some mockery. I inserted the key, twisted, and cursed, for it would not budge. Then I tried the other way, in a panic, nearly dropped the key and the lock just clicked. I ignored the guards calling out, saying something to my back, and entered. I locked the door. There, before me was a dark oaken door with a beast headed knocker. I grabbed it, trying to calm my nerves. Then I froze.

I had forgotten to ask the guards for the password. The phrase.

I stood in shock for the longest time, cursing and shaking. Then I remembered Kallir and Molun were to silence the guards in their small guardhouse right about then, and I fumbled with my key. ‘Odin’s wrath, shit,’ I cursed and opened the gate and rushed forward, looking at the whitewashed little guardhouse’s doorway while sobbing desperately. I reached the door and gazed inside.

I was too late.

Molun looked up, startled, and Kallir was there, his back turned to me. He was strangling the younger of the two guards and then, very suddenly, I saw he was done. The other one’s chest had a crossbow bolt and blood was seeping from the wound. ‘What in Hel’s rotten breath are you doing here?’ Molun breathed. ‘You should be inside. Yes?’

‘Well, there is this thing. I forgot to ask for the passphrase.’

They stared at me in utter stupefaction. ‘What?’ Kallir asked with hysterical incredulity and despair, his voice growing thin as a child’s. ‘You have got to be kidding me.’

‘Well, no,’ I sulked. ‘And you didn’t have to kill them so fast!’