Authors: Scott Lynch
“What won’t work?”
“The plan.”
“Oh-ho! Nervy little Shades’ Hill purse-clutcher, thinking you can keep me in the
dark. What plan?”
“The plan to steal a corpse.”
“Ahem. Anything else you’d like to tell me about it?”
“It’s brilliant.”
A passerby tossed something into the kettle. Locke bowed and Chains waved his hands
in the man’s general direction, his restraints clattering, and yelled, “Fifty years
of health to you and your children, and the blessings of the Lord of the Overlooked!”
“It would’ve been a hundred years,” muttered Chains when the man had passed, “but
that sounded like a clipped half-copper. Now, your brilliant plan. I know you’ve had
audacious
plans, but I’m not entirely sure you’ve had a
brilliant
one yet.”
“This is the one, then. Honest. But I need those names.”
“If it’s so, it’s so.” Chains leaned backward and stretched, grunting in satisfaction
as his back creaked and popped. “I’ll get them for you tonight.”
“And I’ll need some money.”
“Ah. Well, I expected that. Take what you need from the vault and mark it on the ledger.
Screw around with it, though …”
“I know. Lead ingots; screaming; death.”
“Something like that. You’re a little on the small side, but I suppose Jessaline might
learn a thing or two from your corpse anyway.”
PENANCE DAY was the traditional day for hangings in Camorr. Each week a sullen handful
of prisoners would be trotted out from the Palace of Patience, priests and guards
surrounding them. Noon was the hour of the drop.
At the eighth hour of the morning, when the functionaries in the courtyard of the
Palace threw open their wooden shutters and settled in for a long day of saying “fuck
off in the name of the duke” to all comers, three robed initiates of Perelandro wheeled
a narrow wooden pull-cart into the courtyard. The smallest of the three made his way
over to the first available clerk; his thin little face barely topped the forward
edge of the clerk’s booth.
“Well, this is odd,” said the clerk, a woman of late middle years, shaped something
like a bag of potatoes but perhaps not quite as warm or sympathetic. “Help you with
something?”
“There’s a man being hanged,” said Locke. “Noon today.”
“You don’t say. Here I thought it was a state secret.”
“His name’s Antrim. Antrim One-Hand, they call him. He’s got—”
“One hand. Yes, he drops today. Fire-setting, theft, dealing with slavers. Charming
man.”
“I was going to say that he had a wife,” said Locke. “She has business. About him.”
“Look, the time for appeals is past. Saris, Festal, and Tathris sealed the death warrant.
Antrim One-Hand belongs to Morgante now, and then to Aza Guilla. Not even one of the
Beggar God’s cute little sprats can help him at this point.”
“I know,” said Locke. “I don’t want him spared. His wife doesn’t care if he gets hanged.
I’m here about the body.”
“Really?” Genuine curiosity flickered in the clerk’s eyes for the first time. “Now
that
is
odd. What about the body?”
“His wife knows he deserves to get hanged, but she wants him to get a
fairer chance. You know, with the Lady of the Long Silence. So she’s paid for us to
take the body and put it in our temple. So we can burn candles and pray for intercession
in Perelandro’s name for three days and nights. We’ll bury him after that.”
“Well now,” said the clerk. “The corpses usually get cut down after an hour and tossed
into holes on the Beggar’s Barrow. More than they deserve, but it’s tidy. We don’t
usually just go handing them out to anyone who wants one.”
“I know. My master cannot see, or leave our temple, or else he’d be here to explain
himself. But we’re all he has. I’m supposed to say that he knows this is making trouble
for you.” Locke’s little hand appeared over the edge of the booth, and when it withdrew
a small leather purse was sitting on the clerk’s counting-board.
“That’s
very
considerate of him. We all know how devoted old Father Chains is.” The clerk swept
the purse behind her counter and gave it a shake; it jingled, and she grunted. “Still
a bit of a problem, though.”
“My master would be grateful for any help you could give us.” Another purse appeared
on the counter, and the clerk actually broke a smile.
“It’s within the realm of possibility,” she said. “Not quite certain yet, of course.”
Locke conjured a third purse, and the clerk nodded. “I’ll speak to the Masters of
the Ropes, little one.”
“We even brought our own cart,” said Locke. “We don’t want to be any trouble.”
“I’m sure you won’t be.” Her demeanor softened for just a moment. “I didn’t mean ill
by what I said about the Beggar God, boy.”
“I didn’t take it ill, madam. After all, it’s what we do.” He favored her with what
he thought was his most endearing little grin. “Did you not give me what I asked for
because I begged, simply out of the goodness of your own heart, with no coin involved?”
“Why, of
course
I did.” She actually winked at him.
“Twenty years of health to you and your children,” Locke said, bowing and briefly
disappearing beneath the lip of her counter. “And the blessings of the Lord of the
Overlooked.”
IT WAS a short, neat hanging; the duke’s Masters of the Ropes were nothing if not
well practiced at their trade. It wasn’t the first execution Locke
had ever seen, nor would it be the last. He and the Sanza brothers even had a chance
to make all the proper reverential gestures when one of the condemned begged for Perelandro’s
blessings at the last minute.
Traffic across the Black Bridge was halted for executions; a small crowd of guards,
spectators, and priests milled about afterward as the requisite hour passed. The corpses
twisted in the breeze beneath them, ropes creaking; Locke and the Sanzas stood off
to the side respectfully with their little cart.
Eventually, yellowjackets began to haul the bodies up one by one under the watchful
eyes of several priests of Aza Guilla. The corpses were carefully set down in an open
dray pulled by two black horses draped in the black and silver of the Death Goddess’
order. The last corpse to be drawn up was that of a wiry man with a long beard and
a shaved head; his left hand ended in a puckered red stump. Four yellowjackets carried
this body over to the cart where the boys waited; a priestess of Aza Guilla accompanied
them. Locke felt a chill run up and down his spine when that inscrutable silver-mesh
mask tilted down toward him.
“Little brothers of Perelandro,” said the priestess, “what intercession would you
plead for on behalf of this man?” Her voice was that of a very young woman, perhaps
no more than fifteen or sixteen. If anything, that only enhanced her eeriness in Locke’s
eyes, and he found his throat suddenly dry.
“We plead for whatever will be given,” said Calo.
“The will of the Twelve is not ours to presume,” continued Galdo.
The priestess inclined her head very slightly. “I’m told this man’s
widow
requested an interment in the House of Perelandro before burial.”
“Apparently she thought he might need it, begging pardon,” said Calo.
“It’s not without precedent. But it is far more usual for the aggrieved to seek
our
intercession with the Lady.”
“Our master,” managed Locke, “made, ah, a solemn promise to the poor woman that we
would give our care. Surely, we, we mean no ill toward you or the Lady Most Fair if
we must keep our word.”
“Of course. I did not mean to suggest that you had done anything wrong; the Lady will
weigh him in the end, whatever is said and done before the vessel is entombed.” She
gestured, and the yellowjackets set the corpse down on the cart. One of them unfurled
a cheap cotton shroud and swung it over Antrim’s body, leaving only the top of his
head uncovered. “Blessings of the Lady of the Long Silence to you and your master.”
“Blessings of the Lord of the Overlooked,” said Locke as he and the
Sanzas bowed in unison from the waist; a braided silver cord around the priestess’
neck marked her as more than a simple initiate like themselves. “To you and your brothers
and sisters.”
The Sanza brothers each took one pole at the front of the cart, and Locke took up
the rear, to push and to keep the load balanced. He was instantly sorry that he’d
taken this spot; the hanging had filled the man’s breeches with his own shit, and
the smell was rising. Gritting his teeth, he called out, “To the House of Perelandro,
with all dignity.”
Plodding slowly, the Sanzas pulled the cart down the western side of the Black Bridge,
and then turned north to head for the wide, low bridge that led to the Shifting Market’s
eastern district. It was a slightly roundabout way home, but not at all suspicious—at
least until the three white-robed boys were well away from anyone who’d seen them
leave the hanging. Moving with a bit more haste (and enjoying the added deference
the dead man was bringing them—save only for Locke, who was still effectively downwind
of the poor fellow’s last futile act in life), they turned left and headed for the
bridges to the Fauria.
Once there, they pressed south and crossed into the Videnza district; a relatively
clean and spacious island well patrolled by yellowjackets. At the heart of the Videnza
was a market square of merchant-artisans; recognized names who disdained the churning
chaos of the Shifting Market. They operated from the first floors of their fine old
sagging houses, which were always freshly mortared and whitewashed over their post-and-timber
frames. The district’s tiled roofs, by tradition, were glazed in brightly irregular
colors; blue and purple and red and green, they teased the eyes and gleamed like glass
under the glare of the sun.
At the northern entrance to this square, Calo darted away from the cart and vanished
into the crowd; Locke came up from the rear (muttering prayers of gratitude) to take
his place. So arrayed, they hauled their odd cargo toward the shop of Ambrosine Strollo,
first lady of Camorr’s chandlers, furnisher to the duke himself.
“If there’s a niggardly speck of genuine fellowship in Camorr,” Chains had once said,
“one little place where Perelandro’s name isn’t spoken with a sort of sorry contempt,
it’s the Videnza. Merchants are a miserly lot, and craftsfolk are pressed with care.
However, those that turn a very pretty profit plying their chosen trade
are
likely to be somewhat happy. They get the best of all worlds, for common folk. Assuming
our lot doesn’t fuck with them.”
Locke was impressed with the response he and Galdo received as they
drew the cart up in front of Madam Strollo’s four-story home. Here, the merchants
and customers alike bowed their heads as the corpse passed; many of them even made
the wordless gesture of benediction in the name of the Twelve, touching first their
eyes with both hands, and then their lips, and finally their hearts.
“My dears,” said Madam Strollo, “what an honor, and what an
unusual
errand you must be on.” She was a slender woman getting well on in years, a sort
of cosmic opposite to the clerk Locke had dealt with that morning. Strollo exuded
attentive deference; she behaved as though the two little red-faced initiates, sweating
heavily under their robes, were full priests of a more powerful order. If she could
smell the mess in Antrim’s breeches, she refrained from saying so.
She sat at the street-side window of her shop, under a heavy wooden awning that folded
down at night to seal the place tight against mischief. The window was perhaps ten
feet wide and half as high, and Madam Strollo was surrounded by candles, stacked layer
upon layer, tier upon tier, like the houses and towers of a fantastical wax city.
Alchemical globes had largely replaced the cheap taper as the light source of choice
for nobility and lowbility alike; the few remaining master chandlers fought back by
mingling ever-more-lovely scents in their creations. Additionally, there was the ceremonial
need of Camorr’s temples and believers—a need that cold glass light was generally
considered inadequate to meet.
“We’re interring this man,” said Locke, “for three days and nights before his burial.
My master needs new candles for the ceremony.”
“Old Chains, you mean? Poor dear man. Let’s see … you’ll want lavender for cleanliness,
and autumn bloodflower for the blessing, and sulfur roses for the Lady Most Fair?”
“Please,” said Locke, pulling out a humble leather purse that jingled with silver.
“And some votives without scent. Half a dozen of all four kinds.”
Madam Strollo carefully selected the candles and wrapped them in waxed burlap. (“A
gift of the house,” she muttered when Locke began to open his mouth, “and perhaps
I put a few more than half a dozen of each in the packet.”) Locke tried to argue with
her for form’s sake, but the old woman grew conveniently deaf for a few crucial seconds
as she finished wrapping her goods.
Locke paid three solons out of his purse (taking care to let her see that there were
a dozen more nestled therein), and wished Madam Strollo a full hundred years of health
for herself and her children in the name of the
Lord of the Overlooked as he backed away. He set the package of candles on the cart,
tucking it just under the blanket beside Antrim’s glassy, staring eyes.
No sooner had he turned around to resume his place next to Galdo when a taller boy
dressed in ragged, dirty clothes walked right into him, sending him tumbling onto
his back.
“Oh!” said the boy, who happened to be Calo Sanza. “A thousand pardons! I’m so clumsy;
here, let me help you up.…”
He grabbed Locke’s outstretched hand and yanked the smaller boy back to his feet.
“Twelve gods! An initiate. Forgive me, forgive me. I simply did not see you standing
there.” Clucking with concern, he brushed dirt from Locke’s white robe. “Are you well?”