Mistworld (Deathstalker Prelude) (4 page)

“Sit down, Gideon,” said Donald Royal, smiling slightly. “Your precious command centre can manage without you for a little while longer yet.”

Steel sank wearily back into his chair, which complained loudly on receiving his weight again. “All right, Donald,” he said patiently. “What is it this time? If it’s about the sewers again, we can’t afford the time or the technology or the engineers. I know we need sewers—I had to walk through the same streets to get here—but for the time being we’ll just have to go on managing without them.”

“Mind you, the smell is getting worse,” said Darkstrom.

“How can you tell?” asked du Wolfe.

“It takes longer to scrape off my boots.”

“Desperate though our need for sewers is,” said Donald Royal heavily, “we have something more important to discuss. Hob hounds have appeared at the city boundaries. The beasts are at our gate once again.”

For a moment, nobody said anything. Steel frowned, and found himself reaching automatically for the gun on his hip.

“Have there been any actual sightings?” asked Eileen Darkstrom.

“Several,” said Donald grimly. “And three deaths, all in the Merchants Quarter. One of the victims was a little girl. She was only five years old.”

Steel shook his head disgustedly. The winter had barely begun, and already the cold was worse than at any time since Mistport records began. As the temperatures fell lower and lower, and game became increasingly scarce, it was only to be expected that the Hob hounds would leave their bleak mountain passes and open tundras, and come sweeping down to raid the outlying farms and settlements, and then the city. The hounds were always hungry.

“What’s being done?” asked the Bloodhawk.

“I’m sending Investigator Topaz and a company of the Watch into the Merchants Quarter to check conditions,” said Donald Royal slowly. “They’ll make a start first thing tomorrow. It’s not much of a response, but with the weather as it is, I daren’t send any men out at night. Still, if there are any answers to be found, I daresay Investigator Topaz will find them.”

That she will
, thought Steel grimly. He’d had dealings with Topaz himself, and wasn’t in any hurry to repeat the experience. The last time the Bloodhawk had tried to nail Steel, he’d sent Topaz to look for evidence. If it hadn’t been for some extremely fast footwork on Steel’s part, she’d have found it. Still, it had to be said that the Investigator was a good choice when it came to hunting down Hob hounds. Even the hounds had enough sense to be scared of Topaz.

“What about the outlying farms?” he asked suddenly. “Any news from them on the hounds?”

“Communications are still out because of the blizzards,” said du Wolfe, just a little smugly. “The Espers Guild are keeping essential news passing, but so far there’ve only been a few vague references to the hounds. A few people have gone missing in the storms, but we’ve had no killings reported.”

“That’s odd,” said Darkstrom slowly. “The hounds don’t usually bypass the farms. And surely there should have been some reports of approaching hounds before this.”

“Yes,” said Donald Royal. “There should have been. It’s as though the damn animals just appeared out of nowhere.” He stopped short, and glanced worriedly at Suzanne du Wolfe. “You said the blizzards had hit the farms; how will that affect our food supplies here in the city?”

Du Wolfe shrugged. “Shouldn’t affect us much. Bloodhawk, that’s more your department, isn’t it?”

“There’ll be some shortages,” said the Bloodhawk calmly, “But nothing to worry about. Most of our supplies come from underground hydroponics these days. We’re in no danger of going hungry. Not in the short term, anyway.”

“I don’t see what else we can do at this time,” said Darkstrom, getting to her feet. “I move we adjourn until the Investigator returns with more up-to-date information.”

“Seconded,” said Steel quickly.

Donald Royal shrugged, and sank back into his chair, the fire already fading from his eyes as the tiredness returned. Steel got to his feet as du Wolfe and the Bloodhawk pushed back their chairs, and as quickly as that, the meeting was over. Steel made polite goodbyes to his fellow Councillors, and then hesitated as he saw Donald Royal had made no move to rise from his seat. The others paid no attention, but Steel could tell something was wrong. Royal was usually a stickler for courtesy. Steel waited till the others had left, and then moved back to pull up a chair and sit down facing the old Chairman.

“Donald,” he said quietly. “It’s me, Gideon.”

“I’m glad you stayed,” said Donald slowly, his voice firm and unwavering though his eyes remained weary. “I need to talk to you, Gideon. Private business, not Council.”

“Of course,” said Steel. “I’ll help if I can. You know that.”

“It’s about my grandson,” said Donald Royal.

“Jamie,” said Steel ruefully. “I might have guessed. What’s he been up to this time?”

“What do you think?” said Donald. “Gambling, of course. He owes money. I’ve had to help him out on occasion before, but those were always small loans, and he always repaid them. From what I’ve heard, this time his debts are a great deal larger, and he owes them to some rather unpleasant people. So far, he hasn’t dared come to see me, but no doubt he will eventually. You’re his friend, Gideon; see if you can talk some sense into him. He can’t go on like this. He can’t afford it, and neither can I.”

“If I can find him, I’ll do what I can,” Steel promised. “But you know Jamie; he only hears what he wants to.”

“Yes,” said Donald Royal quietly, bitterly. “I know.”

Steel shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He knew it couldn’t be easy for a living legend like Donald Royal to have a grandson like Jamie, but the lad had been in tight spots before, and always got out of them in the end. If nothing else, Jamie Royal was a survivor.

“I’ll get in touch with you as soon as I hear anything,” Steel said finally, and Donald nodded slowly, his old eyes vague and far away. Steel got up, and crossed quietly to the door. He looked back once, but Royal was still sitting in his chair, lost in his yesterdays. Steel left, closing the door quietly behind him.

He hurried down the bare wooden stairs to the lobby. It had been more than six hours since dinner, and he was starving. He could have eaten a horse and gnawed on the hooves. He tempted himself with thoughts of sweetbreads and fresh cream pastries, and took the stairs as quickly as his bulk would allow. He paused in the lobby to tap his personal code into a monitor console, on the off chance there was a message waiting for him, and the screen immediately cleared to show him the duty esper at the starport command centre.

“Director, I’ve been trying to contact you for hours.”

“Sorry,” said Steel. “The Council meeting dragged on longer than any of us expected. But we’ve got the go-ahead for the disrupters; you can tell the technicians to start installation immediately.”

“Director, we’ve had a refugee ship arrive from Tannim; the
Balefire
. A medium-size ship, around five million tons. She had to crash-land on the main pad, but she came through it well enough. I’ve placed her under strict quarantine, and put the centre on Yellow Alert. The
Balefire’s
Captain says that Tannim’s… gone. I really think you should get back here as soon as possible.”

Steel shook his head sickly. “So, the rumours were true. Tannim has been Outlawed. The whole damned planet.”

“Yes, Director. According to the
Balefire’s
Captain, the Imperial Fleet just dropped out of hyperspace, took up orbit around Tannim, and then scorched the planet lifeless. There’s no telling how many millions died. There was no warning given. None at all.”

“There never is,” said Steel. “Dear God, a whole planet… Follow standard procedures, duty esper. I’ll be with you as soon as I can. Any problems with the
Balefire?”

“I’m not sure, Director. I’ve had the port espers scanning the ship, and apparently they’ve been getting some rather… unusual readings.”

Steel frowned. “How do you mean, unusual?”

The duty esper shrugged unhappily. “It’s not easy to explain, sir. I think you’d better come and take a look for yourself.”

“If I must, I must,” said Steel. “Maintain Yellow Alert, and contact the city Watch, just in case anyone tries to break quarantine. Any other problems can wait till I get there.”

He blanked the monitor, and thought wistfully about sweetbreads and pastries. The esper scan was probably just a false alarm, but he didn’t feel like risking it. In his own way, Director Steel took his duties seriously.

CHAPTER FOUR

Killer in the Mists

THE sun had just begun its slow crawl up the sky as Investigator Topaz and Sergeant Michael Gunn led their company of Watchmen through the Merchants Quarter. The early morning light filtered unevenly past the thick curling mists, and the sun was little more than a pale red circle, glimpsed dimly through the fog. The night’s bitter cold was falling reluctantly away, and the icicles hanging from roofs and gutters and windowsills had all developed their own persistent drip of icy water.

The winding, narrow streets were still mostly deserted, but already the first few beggars and street traders had begun to appear from dark back alleys and sheltered leantos. And here and there, lying half-buried in the snow, were the stiff unmoving bodies of those who’d been unable to find shelter from the cold. All too many of them were children, left to wander alone in the bitter night, bereft of family or shelter or hope. The Watch passed the bodies by, paying the pathetic heaps of rags no real attention; it was too common a sight to be worth a second glance. One of Mistworld’s first lessons was the futility of mourning over things that could not be changed, or even eased. The Outlaw planet was a harsh world, and cared little for the life it reluctantly sustained.

A lone horse moved slowly out of the mists towards the Watch, its rider huddled inside a thick black cloak. Horse and rider moved with an eerie silence over the snow-covered cobbles, forming slowly out of the fog like some shadowy phantom. Investigator Topaz kept a wary eye on them as they passed slowly by and disappeared back into the mists. The cloaked and hooded rider had paid the Watch no attention, but in this kind of area it was wise to trust nothing and nobody.

Topaz strode on through the thick snow, one hand resting lightly on the butt of the holstered gun at her side. Her eyes flickered at every alleyway and side street she passed, but nobody challenged her, and the shadows remained just shadows. It seemed the threat of the Hob hounds had been enough to keep the human vermin off the streets, for a time at least. Topaz frowned. The city boundary wasn’t far now, and Topaz hadn’t much experience of Hob hounds. She knew what everybody knew, that they were quick and they were deadly and there was no defence against them except to attack first, but that was all she knew. She had a strong feeling that might not be enough.

She glanced at her husband, walking quietly beside her. Sergeant Michael Gunn was an inch or so taller than her five foot six, but his broad shoulders and muscular frame made him seem shorter. He was in his mid-thirties, but as yet his face and body had made no concessions to either his hard life or the passing of time. His long brown hair was pulled back in a scalplock, the sign of the mercenary. Gunn had been a Sergeant of the city Watch for over five years, but he liked to keep his options open. His dark laughing eyes were fixed on the street ahead, and his stride was loose and easy, almost as though he was looking forward to his encounter with the Hob hounds. Topaz smiled slightly. Maybe he was; Michael Gunn needed excitement the way most men needed food and drink.

The boundary wall loomed out of the thickening mists before them, a huge twenty-foot barrier of stone and mortar that marked the outer limit of the Merchants Quarter, and the edge of the city. The stonework was scarred and pitted from the unrelenting weather, but the four-feet-thick wall was still strong enough to keep out most of Mistworld’s predators. Unfortunately, a twenty-foot leap was nothing to a Hob hound. Topaz glared thoughtfully about her as Gunn spread out the Watchmen in a defensive pattern. They moved silently and cautiously into the surrounding warren of side streets and alleyways, checking the snow for recent tracks. Gunn came back to join Topaz, and took his gun from his holster to check the energy charge. It was almost full. He put the disrupter away, and looked gloomily about him.

“Hob hounds in the city… If you ask me, the Council’s gone daft. Everyone knows the hounds don’t get this far south until midwinter at the earliest. Do you think this could be some kind of drill?”

Topaz shrugged. “Could be, I suppose. But then, you never can tell what the damned hounds are going to do from one year to the next.”

Gunn grunted an acknowledgement, and glanced dubiously at the boundary wall. There could be half a hundred hounds gathered on the other side of that wall, and he’d never know it until they came scrabbling over the top.
They should have built some eye-slits into the damned thing
, he thought. Gunn sniffed disgustedly, and looked back at his men. The Watchmen had trampled the surrounding snow into slush, and half of them were so far away they were little more than shadows moving in the mists. The fog muffled most sounds, and even the slow, gusting wind had been reduced to a dull, faraway keening. At least it had finally stopped snowing. Gunn sniffed heavily and wiped his nose on the back of his glove. Ever since he’d first come to Mistworld six years ago, he’d had one damned cold after another. He was beginning to forget what it was like to have a sense of smell. He stamped his feet hard against the packed snow, trying to drive out some of the cold that was already gnawing at his bones. He should have brought his cloak. He glanced at Topaz, standing quietly beside him, and smiled fondly. She never seemed to feel the cold, or if she did, she refused to give in to it. There were those who mistook her poise and elegance for coldness, but Gunn knew better. Topaz prided herself on her control; that was what made her such a deadly fighter. Not for the first time, Gunn looked admiringly at his wife and wondered what he’d done right to deserve her.

Investigator Topaz was a medium-height, slim, handsome woman in her late twenties, who wore her sword and her gun with a casual competence that was both disturbing and intimidating. Her close-cropped dark hair gave her classical features a calm, aesthetic air. Her face was always composed, and her stance was relaxed but unyielding. Most people considered her a cold fish, but Michael Gunn had always admired her poise. Topaz had her fires and her needs, but she shared them only with him. Perhaps because he was the only man who’d ever earned her trust.

The fog seemed to be growing thicker, and the sun was lost to sight. Lanterns glowed bravely on the surrounding walls, their light the only landmarks in the endless sea of grey. The mists pressed close about Topaz, leaving a sheen of moisture on her hair and cloak. The Investigator frowned thoughtfully. The Hob hounds preferred a heavy fog to do their hunting in. She thought about drawing her gun, but immediately decided against it. To do so this early might be misinterpreted by her men as a sign of weakness, and Topaz had sworn never to be weak again. She tried not to think about her past with the Empire, but her memories were always with her. Memories of the things she’d done, the things the Empire had made her do; all the many deaths… Topaz closed her eyes a moment, forcing back the past by concentrating on her assignment. There was always work, to bury the memories. Topaz had a lot she needed to forget, but sometimes it seemed to her that even on Mistworld there was no escape from the Empire; the spectre at the feast, the wolf at the gate. Topaz opened her eyes and glared coldly at the mists around her. She was free, and she would stay free, even from her own memories. Her hand closed tightly around the pommel of her sword, and her heavy Investigator’s cloak of navy blue settled about her shoulders like the weight of past sins.

“Chasing Hob hounds,” growled Michael Gunn. “We should be tracking down last night’s burglar, not wasting our time with this nonsense.”

“We have our orders.”

Gunn muttered something under his breath, and Topaz smiled slightly. “What’s the matter, my husband? Pride hurt?”

“Something like that. I would have sworn an oath our security could keep out anyone but a Poltergeist, but that flaming roof runner just walked right in like our defences weren’t even there. And it’s more than that; it’s knowing that someone else was in our house, our home, invading our privacy.… “

“He didn’t get the crystal. You came back in time to stop him.”

“There is that. Though if I hadn’t had to go to the toilet, maybe the sensor on the bedroom door would have caught him.” Gunn shook his head unhappily. “At least the crystal is safely at the command centre now, and out of our hands. Anything that happens to it from now on is their responsibility.”

“Exactly,” said Topaz calmly. “The Hob hounds are our responsibility.”

“All right, all right.” Gunn leaned against the boundary wall, the harsh uneven stone pressing uncomfortably into his back. His broad, stocky body was full of a nervous energy that gave him an edgy, restless look even when standing still. His right hand rested on his gunbelt, not far from his disrupter, while his dark, darting eyes probed the shadows of the nearby alleys. The rest of the Watch were methodically searching the alleyways and side streets for traces of the hounds, poking their swords and pikes into the darker doorways and openings. So far all they’d found had been half-a-dozen cats and one rather startled drunk.

Topaz rested her hand on her holstered gun, but knew that if the hounds were here, they’d have to be fought with cold steel in the end. Out of the whole company, only she and Gunn had disrupters. Energy guns were rare on Mistworld. Still, a reliance on energy weapons just made you soft in the long run, and Mistworld had its own ways of dealing with the weak. Gunn shivered suddenly, and Topaz frowned.

“You’re cold,” she said brusquely. “I told you to wear your heavy cloak.”

“I don’t like cloaks. They get in the way when you’re fighting.”

“They keep you warm when it’s cold. Here.” She took off her own cloak and draped it round her husband’s shoulders, ignoring his protests. “Don’t argue with me, Michael. I don’t feel the cold like you. I’ve been trained to survive much worse extremes of temperature than this.”

“You and your Investigator’s training,” muttered Gunn, pulling the cloak about him nonetheless and fiddling with the clasp. “Even a Hadenman couldn’t do half the things you claim.”

“Wear the cloak,” said Topaz firmly, but her eyes were full of fondness. Topaz had spent many years as an Investigator, a paid murderer in the service of the Empire. She’d been very successful in her work, until she met the mercenary called Michael Gunn. He’d taught her to feel human again. Not long after, they’d both been Outlawed, and they had come, as so many before them, to Mistworld, the rebel planet. The only surviving rebel planet. Now Topaz and Gunn were both Sergeants in the city Watch, guardians of law and order, a fact that never failed to tickle Gunn’s sense of irony.

Topaz still kept the title of Investigator. Even she wasn’t sure why.

“You ever seen a Hob hound, close up?” asked Gunn.

Topaz shook her head. “You have, haven’t you?”

“Yeah. I led the raid up at Hardcastle’s Rock, this time last year. The place was crawling with the ugly beasts. The hounds had killed every man, woman, and child in the town, far more than they could ever have hoped to eat. They killed just for the joy of it. Most of what’s written about the hounds is rubbish. The largest one I ever saw was barely ten feet long, and they’re not poisonous. They don’t need to be. They run on all fours, they’re covered in fur, and the head is long and wolfish, but that’s all they have in common with a hound. They’re always hungry, and they move so fast they seem like a blur. Their fur is white and their hearts are dark. They delight in slaughter and the torturing of prey.”

“They should feel right at home in Mistport,” said Topaz, and Gunn cracked up. He loved Topaz’s dry sense of humour, mostly because it was so rare.

Topaz suddenly became very still, and Gunn froze in place beside her. The Investigator’s face had formed into harsh, unyielding lines, and her eyes were hunter’s eyes.

“What is it?” asked Gunn quietly.

“There’s something out there,” said Topaz, her voice little more than a murmur. “Something moving, deep in the mists.”

“Here in the Quarter with us?” Gunn looked casually about him, but all he could see were the shifting shadows of the nearby Watchmen. “Is it a hound?”

“I don’t think so. It feels more like a man. At about four o’clock, I’d say.”

Gunn glanced in the indicated direction. All he could see was the curling mists, but suddenly his skin was crawling beneath his scalplock as all his old mercenary’s instincts kicked in. The feeling of being watched and studied was all at once so overpowering he wondered how he could have missed it for so long. Assuming, of course, that his clash with the burglar hadn’t suddenly turned him paranoid. Gunn whistled quietly, and three Watchmen appeared out of the mists before him.

“Anything to report?” he asked casually, but his hands moved surreptitiously in the mercenary’s hand signals he and Topaz had carefully taught their men. His voice was routine, but his hands said,
We’re being watched. One man. Four o’clock. Find him
.

“Haven’t seen anything, Sergeant,” said the most senior of the Watchmen, nodding slightly.

“Okay,” said Gunn. “Keep looking.”

The Watchmen faded back into the fog, and were gone. Topaz looked at Gunn.

“Do you think they’ll find him?”

“I doubt it,” Gunn admitted. “Whoever’s out there has to be bloody good to have got this close without either of us catching on earlier. But who the hell would be that interested in us?”

“Empire agents?”

Gunn shook his head slowly. “There’ll always be some Empire spies in Mistport, but we were never important enough to justify any of them coming after us here.”

Topaz looked at Gunn thoughtfully. “So why is there somebody out there watching us?”

“Hounds! Ware the hounds!”

Topaz and Gunn drew their disrupters at the Watchman’s shout and moved quickly to stand back to back. Watchmen boiled out of their hiding places and peered quickly about them, swords and pikes at the ready. Somewhere out in the fog a man screamed shrilly, and the sound was cut suddenly short. And out of the curling mists the Hob hounds came howling.

Their white fur blended into the fog, so that it was hard to tell where the one ended and the other began. Only their bright emerald eyes showed clearly against the mists, together with the steaming scarlet maws that gaped wide to show long, vicious teeth. The hounds moved through the fog like wild, demonic ghosts, and their cry was full of an endless hunger and an endless hate. They leapt among the Watchmen, rending and tearing, and blood flew on the freezing air. Men and hounds rolled together on the hard-packed snow, sword and fang searching for a dropped guard or a bared throat. One Watchman thrust his pike deep into a hound’s side, spiking it to a sturdy wooden door. The hound screamed and struggled, refusing to die until the Watchman cut its throat with his dagger. Two hounds pulled down a Watchman and tore him to pieces almost before he had time to scream. Gunn took careful aim with his disrupter, and the searing energy beam shot out to burn clean through a lunging hound. It fell silently to the snow and lay still, its fur burning fiercely. Gunn slipped the disrupter back into its holster and drew his sword. The gun was useless until its energy crystal had recharged, and that would take at least two minutes. A lot could happen in two minutes. Gunn hefted his sword eagerly, and headed for the nearest hound.