The Magic Council (The Herezoth Trilogy) (17 page)

Rexson had warned her Gratton was fond of
alcohol, but he gave no hint that drinking had ever impacted the man’s career
and never directed her not to let him taste ale. They needed to drink, at this
of all places, or draw unwanted attention, so Bennie gave the guardsman’s order
of two pints no second thought. The pair took a table, sticky with some spilled
liquid or other, near the kitchen so they could eavesdrop on the conversation
inside; the swinging doors did little to keep noise in, or the smell of a roast
sizzling to the point of being burnt.

“How many sandwiches, Paulie? Three or four?”

“Four, woman!” growled the innkeeper. “They want
four. Are you deaf? What’s so hard about that?”

“Why do they want four of ‘em? They’re just
three.”

“Let ‘em throw the extra one out the window for
all I care! If they pay for it….”

“I guess the gent wants two,” said the woman.
Bennie assumed she was Paulie’s wife or lover, but had no way to know who she
was. Paulie, the infamous innkeeper, spoke again.

“Damn nuisance he is. Did you see the way he
looked at me when he came in? Like a puppy I was about to drown. Why should he
be chicken around me?”

The woman sounded exasperated. “You can’t brag
to everyone about that scoundrel you clocked on the head and not expect news to
get around.”

“What’d I ever do to this guy, eh? If he heard
of me and got spooked, why’d he come? And the gal he had with him, the young
one, her nose was so high in the air I could’ve counted her boogers. Who’s she
to judge us? Did you hear her talk? The thickest fisherman’s accent I ever
heard. If she thinks she’s above us….”

“Their silver’s as good as anyone’s, you fool!
Keep your voice down. You want them to hear you and vamoose? What’ll we do with
their food, eh? We’ll eat the cost of it!”

“They won’t hear. They shut themselves in their
room. Miss High and Mighty’s above socializing with our crowd.”

Bennie and Gratton’s eyes met. The guardsman
whispered, “We’ll have our drinks. Keep up appearances. Then you’ll let the
others know we found them. I’ll stay in case they leave, so I can follow.”

The fake blonde nodded solemnly. Professionally.
Gratton gave her a wry smile and observed, “You know, for the lady you are,
you’re quite at ease here.”

“I’m not as sheltered as I look.”

“I know your training. Heard all about Ranler. I
guess your teacher was a no-frills, direct kind of individual, meaning no
disrespect.”

“If you meant no disrespect, you wouldn’t
clarify.”

Gratton cleared his throat. Their beers came in
cloudy glasses. Bennie didn’t touch hers, while Gratton emptied half of his in
one gulp. “You don’t seem shocked we found them this easily.”

“Me and my friends have always had a way of
finding what we need. And of being found, when that’s what’s in order. I guess
I took it for granted we’d get lucky at some point, if luck’s what you want to
call it.”

“You don’t?”

“I call it providence.” Gratton downed most of
what remained of his beer, and Bennie said, “I could be wrong, I guess, but
I’ve always come across what I needed to get by. And the awful things, the evil
I’ve seen, I’ve also seen good worked through them somehow.”

“So all the deaths….”

“They were tragedies. But they weren’t in vain,
not one of them.”

Gratton lowered his voice, but the disparaging
note in it was clear. “Not one, eh? Not a single one? What about that duke’s
son, Crescenton’s son? The one Rexson named his kid after?”

“Neslan,” muttered Bennie.

“Rexson’s told me how he died: needlessly, at
the very end, because he opened his damn mouth against Zalski. What good came
from that?”

“Besides Zalski’s death, because the way Zalski
killed him turned his general to our side? The king leaned heavily on Neslan.
Too heavily. If he’d had Neslan to advise him when he took power, he never
would have come into his own, never come to trust his own instincts and
inclinations. I believe that.”

“Because it fits into your worldview, perhaps?”

“That’s possible, I can’t deny it. I certainly
can’t prove you wrong. All I can say is that I feel none of them died in vain,
even Neslan. Especially Neslan. Leaving the king out of it, he’d never have
forgiven himself if he hadn’t challenged Zalski: not the way, looking back,
it’s so clear how he loved Laskenay.

“Gratton, I can’t help but judge that some good
came from each and every death, and I’ve always chalked that up to something
greater than dumb luck. You don’t toss tails twenty times in a row, you see?
Well, every death contributed to our final victory, to Herezoth’s eventual
stability. Every one, the same result, like tails after tails after tails, and
there….” Bennie swallowed. Her throat went dry. She eyed her beer, but no, the
glass was too filthy. “There were a lot of deaths.”

“Which one gets to you the most?”

“A girl I grew up with. Her name was Kansten,
Kansten Carder. Zalski’s wife sent her through a window. That’s how they killed
her, but I, I think Kansten wanted that. They only needed one prisoner, so they
were bound to kill any extras, and Kansten wasn’t cut out for confinement.”

She
wouldn’t have squealed, I’ll never think that of her. But she wouldn’t have
been in a state to comfort Zac.

Gratton frowned. “They captured multiple people
when they took Kansten? Who’d they take hostage, then? Anyone I know?”

Bennie coughed.
Forget the grime
, she thought, and took a swig of ale.

“It was you, wasn’t it?”

“It’s none of your business who it was.”

“I guess it isn’t,” Gratton conceded. He raised
an eyebrow. “You’ll want to be going. You remember where we left the others?”

“Sure do.”

Bennie pushed her beer to him. He downed it, she
noted, as she walked to the door trying not to draw eyes. What she failed to
notice, and later regretted, was the guardsman calling the keeper over with an
impatient wave when the latter emerged from the kitchen with four plates of
sandwiches. Gratton asked for a glass of whatever liquor was cheap: cheap and
plentiful.

“When I got back,” Bennie told Kora, “he was
close to passing out. Hayden, Zac, the king, they were with me. We found out
what room the Fist had taken, and I got us in there. It wasn’t hard. Everyone
was pretty drunk in that place, the keeper too. I guess Arbora and Ursa
couldn’t stand the racket all those idiots were making, because they’d left. Without
Gratton seeing. Lanokas wasn’t happy.”

“I guess he wasn’t,” said Kora. “In Gratton’s
defense, isn’t Arbora a sorceress? And Dorane casts too. They could have
transported from their room, and Gratton would never know.”

“Don’t defend him! He’s got no excuse. He could
have stationed himself by the lodgings, tried to listen. Maybe he would have
heard where they went off to. As it is….”

“We have no idea,” Kora finished. “Fantastic.”

Bennie crossed her arms. “There’s no
we
here.”

“I’m helping and that’s that.”

“Man alive! You’re as stubborn as Kansten was,
just as stubborn. How you two were friends I’ll never know. I’m shocked you
didn’t burn the Landfill down on top of each other before Zalski beat you to
it.”

“Who cares about Zalski anymore? And what’s the
deal with Lanokas? Zac mentioned he wasn’t doing well, that he did something to
Vane.”

“He stopped Vane growing complacent about his
magic. He meant no harm.”

“The way Menikas ‘saved my life’ by gagging me?
Something harmless like that?”

Rexson’s brother had once attacked Kora, to
prevent her endangering herself by transporting to the Crimson League’s headquarters
while Zalski was invading them. Bennie claimed, “I didn’t say I approved the
king’s methods.”

“What’s that gleam in your eye? I’m not in love
with him, Bennie. That’s not why I’m here. For God’s sake, I have five kids
with Parker. Just tell me, is he cracking?”

“I thought he might be. Then Gratton gave him a
talking to, and he seemed better, but now, what with Gratton’s drunken lunacy,
I don’t know. I really can’t say. This might sound odd, but I’m more worried
about the guardsman. Your brother warned me about him after tonight’s fiasco.
We know there’s a spy, and Zac thinks it could be him.”

“Gratton’s the spy?”

Bennie blanched. “I hope not. I hope to God not,
because I, I’ve grown fond of him. He’s been kind to me, gone out of his way to
do that: which means he could be using me. I don’t think he’s any traitor, but
there’s nothing to prove him loyal. He’d have known the princes’ routine, so he
could have told the Fist, and tonight, his drinking.... It just doesn’t make
sense to me, not unless it was a ploy, a way to explain how the Fist left the
inn with him sitting in the building. He wasn’t too pleased when the king sent
us there in the first place. I want to trust him, but I don’t know if I should.
Remember what happened the last time a spy caused us trouble? He led Zalski
straight to headquarters.”

“Mouser Rone,” said Kora. “Heard his full name
only once, but I’ll never forget it. Bennie, what does Lanokas say about
Gratton?”

“I’m too chicken to tell him my fears. I
convinced Zac to keep quiet too, at least for now. He hasn’t liked Gratton from
the start. They rub each other the wrong way, so anything he says against the
man, the king won’t take it seriously. And then, what if we’re wrong? What if
Gratton’s as loyal as a lap dog? Sure, he looks like a wolf, but…. And there’s
the king to consider too, Kora. I don’t know how he’d take the news, not on top
of everything else. Gratton’s his crutch. He leans on him, and I can’t take
that support away. Not without proof.”

“You shouldn’t,” Kora assured her.

“Man alive, I didn’t realize how much I miss
you! You shouldn’t be here, you really shouldn’t, but it’s wonderful to catch
up face to face. Letters are nice, but they’re not the same, and Zac…. He sure
is something, your brother. Made quite a name for himself. Me, I think I’ll
always see him as a twelve-year-old.”

Kora smiled. “Me too.”

“He did you and Laskenay proud when we rescued
those children. He had both that Arbora woman and Dorane shooting spells at
him, and he deflected them all. It’s a good thing, too. I don’t know what half
of them would’ve done. He’s very…. He’s confident in his magic, Kora. More than
Laskenay was, more even than you. The only comparison I can make—and I, I
don’t mean any offense—it was almost like watching Zalski again. Not that
Zac uses the magic he did, but they’re not unlike in build, or complexion.
Their hair’s the same color, and they carry themselves the same way. Zalski, he
was assertive. You have to give him that. He wasn’t afraid to take risks, and
Zac’s not either.”

“Zac never was,” said Kora. “That doesn’t make
him like Zalski. Zac takes calculated risks.” Bennie raised an eyebrow. “For
worthy
causes. Just causes, that’s
the difference.”

“You don’t think Zalski justified everything he
did? Every execution? He always thought he was in the right.”

“But he wasn’t. How can you say…? My brother’s
nothing
like that man.”

“Kora, I….”

“For God’s sake, Bennie!”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything by
it. You know I don’t think your brother could ever….”

“Drown someone on dry land? Blind a helpless
girl? Attack his dying sister? Damn right he couldn’t.”

“I don’t want to upset you, I just…. I
understand Laskenay’s compassion for her brother now. Because Zac, he’s what
Zalski could have been, that’s what I mean to say. He’s like a Zalski that
never let the world turn him bitter, the Zalski Laskenay must have grown up
with and never quite forgot.”

Kora bit her lip. “She forgot in those last
moments. She was like him at the end, you know. Bitter’s a perfect way to put
it. Vengeful. Don’t you remember the way she gloated about killing Zalski’s
wife?”

“Laskenay was a good woman, a good woman who
suffered more than her share. If she let herself feel all she lost before she
died, if she struck back at the man who took it all away, well, that’s more his
fault than hers, I’d think. He drove her to it.”

“He did,” said Kora. “But she was a different
person that last day. It still unsettles me.”

“Give the woman a break. She was human. We’re
all human. We all did things we weren’t proud of those in those last weeks.”

Bennie grabbed her wrist, the wrist she had
almost sliced open while on guard duty, and Kora had the tact to leave the past
alone.

“So we don’t know where the Fist went off to?”

“Our best guess is another inn in town, assuming
Gratton’s on our side and didn’t tip them off. We’re looking for them tomorrow.
Zac made a point of partnering Gratton, to keep an eye on him. The king’ll join
them. I’m supposed to help Hayden.”

“And if you two find them?”

“We’ll tail them. Hayden and I aren’t about to
fight sorcerers.”