‘Which reminds me,’ Zhia continued after a pause, ‘one of our acolytes -I forget which one; it is starting to annoy me that they refuse to give their names, and the white masks make them all look alike -but whichever it was, he said last night that they are noting a number of illegal entries into the city. Since this is not their city, they do not care, but they felt they should inform me.’
‘So there really are assassins in the city?’ Aras asked.
‘One would presume so. The interested parties will be augmenting their own households. King Emin won’t be able to keep his sticky little paws out, and the Farlan consider this their territory. The only questions are whether the Devoted are going to bring a significant presence to the table, and who else might get involved. Are the Menin also gathering intelligence this far north? If I were in charge in Circle City or Raland I would certainly have put some agents in play.’
‘Yet with all this going on, still you find time for your little project, this theatre in Six Temples?’ Haipar didn’t try to hide the snap in her voice.
‘Which remains as mysterious as ever,’ Zhia said pointedly. ‘There have been rumours of hauntings throughout that district, a number of out-of-the-ordinary murders—’
‘Does that mean out-of-the-ordinary by the standards of your own daily routine?’ Haipar continued.
Zhia raised an eyebrow and Aras half rose from his seat, hand on his rapier’s hilt. ‘Haipar, do I detect a note of displeasure in your voice?’ Zhia asked smoothly, motioning for Aras to sit back down.
He glared at Haipar, but they all knew the threat was empty -though he could best Haipar with a blade, she wouldn’t bother with a sword; her own claws would have split him groin to gizzard almost before he’d drawn his weapon. His magic-imposed loyalty to Zhia was not so great that he would test Haipar in her lioness form. He had no false illusions there.
‘Well, you did turn the head of the Prefecture -I wouldn’t think we have to look too far to explain unusual deaths.’
‘He is under control, I assure you. As for your personal feelings about vampires—’ Zhia started.
‘You know I don’t give a damn about them -except when they could cause us difficulties,’ Haipar replied hotly. ‘You know better than anyone how they can suddenly snap - if they can’t withstand the pressure of the change, they explode into murder.’
‘And I repeat: it is under control,’ said Zhia, very quietly.
Legana sighed; she couldn’t understand why Haipar kept prodding; Zhia’s anger was not to be taken lightly but the Raylin was constantly argumentative whenever the subject of the theatre came up.
Zhia rose gracefully and walked to the windows. ‘These deaths have nothing to do with me or my breed. There is something else afoot. The acolytes have been watching the theatre. This company doesn’t spend much time rehearsing, but the players have made some interesting contacts amongst Scree’s criminal element. And surely you have heard the tales of the
Dark Man
who walks the streets, snatching children -in the slums, of course, but nonetheless, the result is a state of panic in four districts of this city.’
‘And you should attend to this personally?’ Haipar muttered.
Zhia leaned forward in her seat. ‘This is a situation I do not understand. I have lived for millennia; I have founded half a dozen cities, and I’ve lost count of those I have ruled. Believe me when I say it is rare that I do not understand something.’
Her companions all subconsciously moved back at the frosty tone of her voice.
‘What do you want to do?’ Aras asked, hoarsely.
Zhia turned suddenly and beamed. ‘To do? I want us to go to dinner now, and afterwards, you may accompany me to the theatre’s first night for a little culture - I suspect the experience will be illuminating.’
‘What meat is this, Mayel?’ The abbot was looking quizzically at the lump of indeterminate meat in his spoon.
The young man grimaced, his own spoon halfway to his mouth, and tried to avoid the abbot’s gaze. ‘Rabbit, Father. Good rabbit stew.’
The abbot took another tentative mouthful. ‘Are you sure?’
Of course I’m sure it’s not rabbit, you stupid old bastard. You should be glad it’s actually dog, considering what some folk are eating these days.
He shrugged. ‘The butcher told me it was rabbit, Father, but folk are saying that food’s getting scarce. If this heat continues, who knows what we’ll be dining on soon.’
The abbot didn’t press the point. He was too tired. This summer was the hottest anyone could remember, and every day the heat sapped more strength from the abbot’s frail body. Whatever magic he was doing in the cellar of their tumbledown house, it was compounding the problem, and if he were not careful, he would run himself into the grave. It was always the old ones who went first, collapsing in the street, never to get up again.
These days they ventured outside only after the sun had gone down, and even so, it was still humid enough to bring on a sweat. Mayel wiped his face on his sleeve again, but it didn’t have much effect, for his clothes were sodden with perspiration. That was about the only thing about the monastery he did miss, fresh habits to wear -even if it was the novices who did the cleaning. He took another mouthful of dog stew. Suddenly life in the monastery didn’t seem all that awful.
‘I did hear some interesting gossip from the butcher though,’ he piped up, hoping conversation would stop them focusing on the grim stew. ‘Some madman is saying the prophecy of the Flower of the Waste has been fulfilled; that the tribesmen in the Elven Waste have joined under a king and have marched on the Elves -or the Siblis, the butcher wasn’t sure which. Not that he thought it was really true -but he did swear that he’d had it on good authority that the Devoted have started fighting amongst themselves. The Knight-Cardinal ordered troops from Embere to attack their forces in Raland, and Telith Vener was waiting for them. Word is that Vener would have wiped them out if it hadn’t been for a third Devoted army that stopped it all and forced the Knight-Cardinal’s troops to return to Embere.’
‘And why is that interesting exactly? The squabblings of soldiers mean nothing to me, and should not to you either.’
Mayel suppressed a sigh at the abbot’s stern tone of voice; he could feel another lecture about attending to the divine coming on. ‘But Father, we’re not in the monastery at the moment, and these are dangerous times. I heard that the Farlan might invade, that the city might become a battle-ground—’
‘Pay no heed to what you might hear in a butcher-shop,’ the abbot repeated. ‘You would do better to spend a little more time here in prayer than gossiping in the street or running errands for your cousin.’
‘We have to pay for his help somehow,’ Mayel replied hotly. Mayel knew he had proved himself invaluable to the abbot, securing much of what he needed on credit with Shandek. He doubted the abbot would have lasted a week without him; mage or no, you couldn’t protect yourself from a knife in the back day and night. ‘I’ve been clerking for him to repay him for the use of this house and the protection he’s given us.’
‘You are paying him for this ruin? You almost killed yourself going upstairs,’ the abbot grumbled, looking at the state of the wall beside him. Mayel had grown to loathe that pinched expression. Since the heat had taken over, the abbot had been impossible to please, despite Mayel’s best efforts.
‘Everyone pays for their living quarters, Father, and not everyone gets the protection we do. Folk know his men are watching us, so they keep their distance, just as you wanted. The slate’s far from clear, even with the work I’m doing for Shandek now.’
‘Should we be so indebted to anyone?’ the abbot asked, querulously.
‘I think Shandek’s decided we’re a safe investment, me being family and you being a high priest. Maybe he thinks that there’s money in the monastery, so if he wants a reward he’s going to have to get you back there safely.’
‘But what use have we for money at the monastery?’ asked the bewildered abbot. ‘In any case, the prior is still hunting us, and I do not know if I am strong enough to face him now, not if he has truly allied with a daemon.’
‘But he won’t be prepared against people he’s never met.’ Mayel hesitated, but then—Well, he was sure the abbot had guessed Shandek had some criminal connections. ‘Shandek’s put the word out about Jackdaw, so he won’t be able to show his face here -there are more than enough people who’d be glad of the bounty the Temple of Death would pay for a daemon-worshipper. ’
‘Mayel,’ the abbot said sharply, putting his spoon down with a clatter, ‘you speak as though you know Prior Corci to be in the city -do you?
Is he?
’
The novice froze, and then muttered, ‘Well—’
‘Mayel!’ the abbot shrieked. ‘Have you seen him? Merciful Vellern protect us, has he seen you? Was it today? Could he have followed you back here?’
‘Father Abbot, relax,’ Mayel interrupted hurriedly, trying to placate the old man, ‘I haven’t seen him.’
‘Then what is it?’ he said, still shaking. ‘I can tell there is something you’re not telling me.’
‘I did think I saw Jackdaw, when I was at the theatre with Shandek,’ he admitted. ‘But I didn’t actually
see
anything -there was a movement in the shadows, that’s all, and I got frightened.’ He went on, looking shamefaced, ‘Since then, I have felt like someone was watching me, but I swear, I’ve never actually seen him.’
‘You could have led him back here,’ the abbot insisted, fear reducing his voice to a whine.
‘What choice did I have?’ Mayel demanded as the abbot rose, knocking his bowl of stew to the floor in his haste.
‘I must prepare,’ Abbot Doren continued, more to himself than Mayel. ‘There’s so much to do before he finds me,’ he said, pulling open the battered door that led to the cellar. He was gone before Mayel had moved. A muffled bang from downstairs indicated the abbot had slammed the door behind.
Mayel looked at the mess on the floor and sighed. He scraped up the remains of the stew and the shards of pottery and returned the uneaten portion in his own bowl to the big pot simmering above the fire. He couldn’t stomach any more of it tonight.
‘Balls to this, I’m going to find something better to do,’ he growled, and pushed open the kitchen door to reveal the dark city, as caked in sweat and dirt as he was. Scree had never been considered beautiful, and with the unnatural heat drying everything, the streets now stank like a bloated corpse. He kicked the door shut and went out into the night.
Doranei dropped from the wall and crouched in the shadows, holding his breath while he listened for sounds of pursuit, taking in the features of the ten-yard-square walled courtyard as he counted twenty heartbeats. No light filtered in from the house that made up two of the sides. The few terracotta pots with withered stems drooping from them and a half-full stone-edged pond with four stone trout rising from the surface suggested the house had been closed up for the summer months. There was no guard, so there was no one to give him away to the Scree city guards who had been chasing him.
He couldn’t hear them any longer. ‘Damn,’ he muttered, brushing dust from his hands. Normally escaping a city guard so easily was something to be pleased about, but not tonight. He checked the pack on his back, but everything was secure, including his pair of sheathed swords.
He was ready to start running again. He walked to the pond, dislodged one of the pots on the low wall and watched it shatter on the flagstones. The King’s Man didn’t bother to listen any longer. He jumped to reach an iron bracket fixed to the house and hauled himself up, using toeholds in the rough-mortared stone wall to reach the roof three storeys up. There he paused, silhouetted against the hunter’s moon to wait for his pursuers.
‘Bloody wizards.’ He looked around at the streets. ‘“You’re a good runner, Doranei,” he says. “You’ll be a fine decoy,” he says. Didn’t bloody tell me the guards were bloody blind.’
Finally he heard confused, urgent voices coming from the winding streets, and spotted torches bobbing here and there as the men of the city guard fanned out down the side streets. The night air was still, and strangely quiet. Doranei could hear the guards distinctly.
He looked about to fix his location. A domed building, the biggest landmark, that had to be the Temple of Death, half a mile to the south, surrounded by the five grand temples to Nartis, Belarannar, Vellern, Karkarn and Vasle. Around them in turn were shrines to every other God and Aspect the good folk of Scree had been able to think of.
In the dark he’d somehow blundered further than he’d intended, and now found himself well into the district north of Six Temples, where some of the oldest and most splendid houses in Scree were to be found. There were regular patrols, but old money too often had little to spare for expenses like maintaining a city staff when they left for the country, as most of Scree’s noble families had done.
A shout came from behind him, taken up by other voices a lot closer than Doranei would have liked. ‘There you go,’ he said to the night air. ‘Now keep up, you bastards -for a bit, anyway. I’ll give you a much-needed workout.’
He’d scanned the streets for the best escape route, but he’d picked badly; there wasn’t a lot to choose from here. A wide, empty avenue ran towards the hunter’s moon, nicely illuminated -and useless for his purposes, for the torches would round the corner and be onto it before he’d managed to climb down and get away. He ran the length of the slate roof-top and hopped the gap onto the next building, and again, until he reached a tall building that protruded out into the avenue, creating a bottleneck with a smaller house on the other side of the street.
This suited Doranei’s purposes nicely, for it was the quickest way to cross the avenue and get away from the guards. People rarely bothered to look up in a city, especially where most streets were narrow, with overhanging buildings.