Grim Company 02 - Sword Of The North (42 page)

A string of curses turned the air blue as Jerek limped down towards them, even more bad-tempered than usual at having missed the fighting. The Wolf didn’t seem the least bit thrilled at encountering yet another wanderer on the road. ‘Who are you?’ he rasped. ‘Show your face.’

‘Very well.’ The woman reached up with a gloved hand and removed her veil, revealing a pert nose and striking features that were very different from any other woman Kayne had ever met. ‘I am Jana Shah Shan,’ she said, pulling off her gloves and extending a bronze-skinned hand towards the Wolf in a gesture of greeting.

‘Oh, for fuck’s sake.’

Jana raised an eyebrow so thin it looked like it had been drawn in ink. ‘Excuse me?’

Kayne cleared his throat noisily. ‘Don’t mind him. You don’t look like you’re from around these parts.’

‘I hail from the Jade Isles.’

‘You’re far from home.’

‘Further than you can imagine. I long to return to my betrothed, but I have a duty and I am sworn to see it done.’

‘Duty, eh? I know or thing or two about that. Jana Shah Shan, you say? That’s an odd name. No offence meant.’

‘None taken. Shah is my father’s clan name. Shan is my mother’s. It is very important in my culture to know whence one came. Whence… Is that word correct? Do you understand me?’

Kayne’s brow creased in confusion. ‘Er… Aye, perfectly. What you doing in these parts, if you don’t mind me asking?’

Jana’s fist clenched in anger. ‘I was sent by the Wizard-Emperor. An item of great value was stolen from the imperial treasury. A key capable of activating a terrible being imprisoned somewhere in these ruins.’

‘Terrible being? You talking about some kind of demon?’

‘Worse than that. A gholam.’

‘A what?’

‘It is a fell weapon of the gods,’ Jana explained. ‘Created during the Age of Strife by the Congregation to annihilate the armies of the Alliance. If the gholam were ever activated, there is no telling what devastation it might unleash.’

Grunt made a low moaning noise to get their attention. He turned to Brick and made a series of hand gestures.

‘He knows this… gholam,’ Brick translated. ‘The gholam devastated the city of Azrath. Grunt barely escaped there with his life.’

‘You must be mistaken,’ Jana Shah Shan replied softly. ‘The city-state of Azrath was destroyed six hundred years ago.’

‘I think a wizard worked some kind of spell on him,’ Kayne explained. ‘I got a feeling he’s older than he looks.’

Grunt nodded at that. He made another hand signal to Brick.

‘The red wizard kidnapped him and put him to sleep for a long time. But he remembers the gholam. He still has nightmares about it.’

Kayne stared at the ruins and felt a shiver pass through him. He turned back to Jana. ‘What makes you believe the gholam can be found here? Or this thief, for that matter?’

‘The gholam was disabled and transported to Mal-Torrad for safekeeping after the Godswar,’ Jana explained. ‘The underfolk sealed it within a great prison in the deepest part of their kingdom. The key was kept in the imperial treasury, which was said to be unbreachable. Yet the thief managed to break in and steal the key. The thief has... peculiar appetites. It is not so hard to follow the trail of desiccated corpses they leave behind. Desiccated… is that a word?’

‘Yeah. I think so.’

‘The last corpse I found belonged to a bandit. I discovered it some distance to the south. The thief is heading north, towards the site where the gholam is buried.’

‘Ain’t no one guarding it now. The underfolk are long gone. They disappeared, just like the Yahan.’ Kayne grimaced, remembering the lake of tar back at Asander’s camp.

Jana shook her head. ‘The fate of the underfolk is no mystery. The death of the gods broke the land and revealed vast treasures buried beneath Mal-Torrad. The seven great cities went to war over these riches. None survived. Now Mal-Torrad is a dead place – the endless halls haunted by the ghosts of the fallen.’

Brick was staring at Jana with a combination of curiosity and admiration. ‘How did you learn to fight like that? I’ve never seen anyone take on a dozen men unarmed.’

Jana Shah Shan smiled, revealing a mouthful of white teeth. ‘Not unarmed. I am a master of Unity, the sacred art taught to all the Emperor’s agents. My body is a weapon, honed through years of practice and a deep understanding of the unseen energies which surround us all.’

‘Would you show me?’ Brick asked excitedly. He sounded like a boy once more, moved to childish enthusiasm at the discovery of another mystery to unravel. Kayne couldn’t help but grin.

‘Even the basics of Unity require many months of study. But if we are heading in the same direction, I could teach you a trick or two.’

‘And here it is
,’ Jerek cut in, causing everyone to stare at him. ‘Go on, Kayne,’ he said bitterly. ‘Just say it.’

‘Say what?’

‘Ask her to come with us.’ The Wolf reached up and began tugging on his beard, his jaw tightening in anger. ‘Thought we had a good thing going, just the four of us,’ he said, nodding at Brick and Grunt. ‘No one can say I raised a fuss about them coming along. Bit my tongue and got on with it.’

‘Hang on, I remember you having a few choice words after—’

The Wolf was in no mood to listen. ‘I can put up with a bandit’s whelp what tried to murder us,’ he ranted. ‘Some big green bastard that might be a demon for all we know? Fuck it, he knows how to fight and he’s all right as far as it goes, no skin off my nose if he tags along. But this—’ He jerked a thumb at the attractive young woman staring at him in bewilderment. ‘This is just taking the piss.’

Jerek spat and then limped away, bristling with righteous indignation. ‘
My body is a weapon
,’ he said, voice thick with scorn. In a fit of anger, he turned and punched a nearby boulder. Even Grunt winced at the sound of Jerek’s knuckles cracking. The Wolf just glared at them all, daring someone to say something as he tried to pretend he hadn’t just busted a couple of fingers hitting a block of solid granite.

Kayne turned to Jana Shah Shan, who seemed perplexed by the whole spectacle. ‘Don’t take it personally,’ he said gently. ‘Jerek’s always a bit on edge around strangers. You get used to it.’

The hooded figure sat in the shadowed corner of the tavern where the light from the globe above failed to penetrate and watched the men enter the common room. They’d been filing in for the best part of a bell now. Every miner who worked the Blight had been ordered to gather at the Black Lord’s Re-Spite after the day’s work was ended. The crowd’s apprehension would soon turn to elation when the Mad Dogs delivered their news. Tomorrow they would all be sailing back to Thelassa – or at least that was what the miners would be told.

Davarus Cole knew better.

Another half-bell passed as he waited. The common room was heaving now, packed wall to wall with sweaty workers covered in filth. Cole received curious glances. A few men tried to speak with him or steal a look under his cowl. He drew back into the shadows and flashed his weapon at them and they quickly left him alone. He replayed Thanates’ words in his head over and over again. He had only one chance to get this right.

Finally the door banged open and Corvac sauntered in. The blonde on his arm glared around the tavern with an air of hostility at odds with the tight, provocative clothing she wore. Cole flinched back at the sight of those two. A moment later he drew courage from the anger that flushed through him, remembering the things they had done to him that night outside this very tavern. He felt his anger turn to rage but quickly checked himself when he glanced at the glow-globe hanging from the ceiling.

Several of Corvac’s lieutenants joined their leader as he made his way to the bar. All wore swords at their belts. That in itself was not unusual, but Cole knew the truth behind the enigmatic smiles on their faces, the eager glitter in their eyes.

He saw Smiler, and Floater, and Smokes, and others he knew well. Even were he to lower his hood they might not recognize him. He had emerged from Derkin’s home a visibly different man after stealing Shank’s soul. He was no longer the Ghost they remembered.

The Mad Dogs ordered a small area cleared around the bar and Corvac climbed onto a table to address the tavern. Goldie gazed at him adoringly, as if he were a king lording it over his subjects. Then she handed him a metal tray the bartender passed her, and Corvac drew his sword and clashed the two together, making a small racket. ‘Silence!’ he barked. ‘I wish to speak.’

‘Shut up!’ Goldie screeched a second later, when the hubbub didn’t immediately die down. That seemed to do the trick; the tavern quickly fell silent.

‘I’ve got some good news for you, gentlemen,’ Corvac said with an appalling smile. ‘As you all know, the Mistress is nothing if not monogamous.’

‘Monogamous?’ someone shouted from the crowd, sounding amused. ‘That’s not what I heard! She was having it off with half those Sumnians!’

‘Don’t you mean magnanimous?’ someone else yelled.

Corvac’s face flushed red. ‘That’s what I said! Magnanimous! Clean your ears out, you sons of bitches!’

‘He said
magnanimous
!’ Goldie shrieked, spittle spraying from her mouth. One of the Mad Dog lieutenants leaned in to whisper urgently up to his captain. After a brief moment in which he visibly struggled with himself, Corvac managed to regain his composure.

‘As I was saying… the Mistress is nothing if not
magnanimous.
Yesterday she sent word to the Trinity. I’m here to relay that message to you now. The White Lady has decided your work here is done. As from tomorrow, you are all free.’

‘
Free?
’ Smiler whispered, in the stunned silence that followed.

‘That’s what I said. Tomorrow you will all sail back to Thelassa and be granted a pardon from the White Lady. It’s better than you lot deserve, but who am I to question the will of the Mistress?’

At Corvac’s proclamation the tavern near exploded with cries of joy. Cole watched it all like a hawk, waiting for his moment to act. Everything was playing out exactly as Thanates had said it would.

Corvac gestured to the bar, where the serving wenches were busy filling tankards of ale. ‘Since it’s your last evening here, we’ve arranged a proper farewell for you. A reward for all your hard work, you might say. Free drinks for every man!’

‘And free snatch for any man that wants it,’ Goldie added with great sobriety. That brought even more cheers. Cole decided it was time. He took a deep breath, then rose and pushed his way through the crowd towards the table at the centre.

He spoke loudly and deliberately so that he could be heard above the din. ‘I’m sorry, did you just say “reward”? I’d rather bugger a shambler than let my manhood anywhere near this shrew.’

The cheers evaporated almost instantly and the tavern fell silent again. Corvac’s mouth dropped open. He looked dumbfounded that someone would dare insult him so brazenly. ‘What did you just call my girl?’ he whispered.

Cole gave a one-shouldered shrug. ‘Nothing she didn’t deserve. You’re full of shit, Corvac. These men aren’t being set free. You’re planning to murder them all.’

Smiler flashed a grin that made no sense at all in the circumstances. ‘Murder? What are you talking about?’

‘The ale in those tankards over there is poisoned. Any man who swallows even a mouthful will quickly find his muscles seizing up. The Mad Dogs were planning to slit your throats while you’re helpless.’

‘Who are you?’ Corvac screamed.

‘The White Lady has decided that Newharvest is a failed experiment,’ Cole continued, ignoring the question. ‘After she learned the truth about the magic mined from the Blight she decided to close this place down. She’s going to kill everyone. That includes you, Corvac, once your men have outlived their usefulness.’

There was a thud as Corvac leaped down off the table. The Mad Dog leader’s face was twitching wildly now; he was near bursting with anger. ‘Who the fuck
are
you?’ he roared again.

Cole raised a gloved hand and pulled back his cowl. The man opposite him hesitated only a moment before realization dawned in his hate-filled eyes.

‘Ghost,’ Corvac whispered, his face filled with utter loathing. ‘You son of a bitch.’

Cole’s fingers tightened around Magebane’s hilt. ‘I know you sent Shank to kill me, Corvac. You’re a coward. A coward and a bully.’

‘I should have finished you myself,’ Corvac spat. He sprang at Cole, who was expecting the move and dodged to the side, planting his boot firmly on the Mad Dog’s arse and sending him sprawling face down on the floor of the tavern.

‘You know something, Corvac?’ Cole proclaimed. ‘My friend Derkin said you were a decent man when you first arrived in Newharvest. A lot of you Mad Dogs were. But the Blight is poison to the soul. The Black Lord’s taint doesn’t just twist the land, it affects people too, makes them mean and crazy.’

‘Why would the White Lady do this to us? I thought she was a just ruler.’ The speaker was Floater, the big Thelassan who’d bought Cole drinks the night Corvac and his men had ambushed him.

Cole turned to the burly miner. ‘You remember when you told me you felt more alive here than in Thelassa? The White Lady keeps everyone in the city drugged. Numbs your brains and suppresses thoughts she doesn’t want you to have. The whole city is under her spell. She takes your unborn children, too. Performs experiments on them and erases your memories so that you can’t remember any of it.’

Floater reached up to his head and pressed his fingers against his temples. ‘Sometimes I have this dream. I dream I’m going to have another child, but my wife disappears right before she gives birth. When she comes back, there ain’t a child in her belly no longer.’

Other Indebted were beginning to mutter darkly, staring at the floor with confused expressions or pursing their lips as if trying to think, to remember.

Suddenly, Goldie darted at Cole. Before he could react, she raked her nails down his cheek, leaving bloody scratches.