The Heresy Within (26 page)

Nothing about this man is normal, Jez.

“What was that about?” Jezzet asked again.

He smiled at her as he once again took her arm with his own. “Oh nothing, it doesn't matter.” His other hand was buried deep in one of his coat's pockets. “We should introduce ourselves to Lord Xho. It is his ball after all.”

Jezzet shook her head. “He won't be here, not yet. Maybe not at all. Those that throw these things tend to turn up late, after all the other guests have arrived. D'roan used to routinely not make an appearance at all. Used to just sit upstairs in his manor while the ball went on below. He used to say it showed his power over them. While it was going on we used to...” Jezzet trailed off, not wanting to talk about it and found Thanquil looking at her. “Why are we here anyway? Why am I here?”

“I'm here because I need to talk to one of the council and this is the only way I can do so without the other three.”

“Lord Xho?”

“No. You're here for two reasons. The first you've already been more than successful at. With you on my arm no one has spared me even a second glance.”

Flattery made Jez nervous and uncomfortable but among all these fancy folk she was already more than enough of both.

“The second reason you're here is because I may need a distraction and if I do you're going to be it.” Worrying words but the Arbiter said them with a pleasant smile.

“You want me to distract an entire room full of the richest and most powerful people in Chade?”

“Maybe, yes.”

“How?”

Thanquil grinned and looked around the gathered fancy folk. “Jezzet there isn't a man in this room who hasn't spent at least some time staring at you and you're without a doubt the most graceful person I've ever seen. I'm sure you can find some way to distract them. Failing that just start... you know... killing people.”

“Killing people?”
In a room surrounded by armed guards and some of the meanest looking bodyguards I've ever seen.
The bodyguards were there, keeping to the walls, trying to look inconspicuous.

“Yes. With a spoon if you like.”

She shot a glare at him but he laughed it away. “And how will I know when you need a distraction?”

A shadow of doubt crossed his face. “If I need one, you'll know.”

“Do you enjoy being cryptic and mysterious?”

“It's part of the Arbiter training. Over there,” he said nodding across the dance-floor. “The door on the far wall. I wonder where it leads.”

Jezzet looked. Seemed to be an unassuming door. One of the servants' entrances, she guessed, maybe even leading upstairs. Getting all the way across the room would be hard with the music playing and the fancy folk dancing.

“If you ask me to dance I may have to hurt you again,” she warned him.

Arbiter Thanquil laughed. “I wouldn't dream of it. No I think we'll be better splitting up here. You draw far too much attention. Remember, if I need the distraction, you're it. In the meantime, mingle, dance, and enjoy yourself Jezzet Vel'urn.”

She sent a dark scowl his way but Thanquil didn't see it, he was already striding away, skirting the dancers, heading for the door.

Slipping through the door Thanquil took a quick look at his new surroundings. A long corridor leading further into the mansion and a flight of stairs that led back on themselves before reaching the first floor of the building. He pulled the door closed and breathed a short sigh of relief for being out of the ball room. All that noise and falsity was enough to make him long for the Inquisition grounds, at least there the people didn't try to hide their hostile stares.

Nobody had noticed him leave, he was certain of that. Nobody noticed him because nobody wanted to notice him. He felt bad about leaving Jezzet to her fate but certain sacrifices had to be made. She would most likely survive one way or another. He fingered the small copper band in his pocket. The stolen ring calmed him and calm was something he needed right now. He needed to find a servant or a guard, someone to question.

The stairs were carpeted, a thief's best friend and Thanquil's, though he had no intention of stealing anything further tonight. Of course that didn't mean he wouldn't if he got the chance.

His footfalls made almost no sound, just a light brushing of leather sole on pile. He mounted the stairs two at a time and waited at the top, listening. He could hear nothing but the distant sounds of music. He poked his head around the corner first one way, then the other. Another corridor and again empty.

The walls were bare of decorations. It seemed Lord Xho kept an austere home. That didn't surprise Thanquil. Xho had once owned half of the southern wilds and was reported to have had an army of fifty thousand black skins at the time. He had warred and pillaged and raped and butchered his way north until an alliance of blooded had crushed his army and thrown him back. Xho escaped the battle and with a fortune, enough money to buy his way onto the Chade ruling council after a previous member had mysteriously vanished. Now he was reported to own half of Chade itself and it was because he still knew the value of gold and didn't spend it rashly.

It was not Lord Xho; Thanquil had come here to see tonight. It was the fat one, Lord Farin Colth. The pig was a sot and a letch and he would be here. It had taken a fair few gold coins for Thanquil to find out where Colth would be tonight. He always turned up to these balls, a courtesy, but never stayed in the ball room. He would meet and greet and then Xho would provide him with a room and a woman. Rumours said Colth had a weakness for black skinned girls, the younger the better, and Lord Xho was willing to provide, no doubt for a favour somewhere down the line.

Through his bribes and eves-dropping Thanquil had discovered the politics of the Chade council were complicated and treacherous. Only the pirate Drake Morrass seemed to be free of the machinations of the others and only then because he rarely, if ever, visited Chade.

Footsteps. More than one set for certain and heading this way by the sound. Thanquil tried the handle on the closest door and found it unlocked. He slipped inside the darkness of the room and waited, his ear pressed close to the door. Three sets of footsteps he counted and making no pretence at quiet. Whispered voices as well but he could hear no more than the hiss of breath escaping lips. Two male and one female by the sounds of it.

The footsteps came closer, passed and receded and still Thanquil waited to make sure. He turned to look at the room he had found. Never know when there might be something worthless to steal. He almost jumped out of his coat when he saw the figure on the bed. He watched for a moment but saw no movement and decided to approach.

A man lay, stripped down to his undergarments, motionless among the sheets. He breathed and his eyes were open but he did not seem to notice Thanquil. The Arbiter waved a hand in front of the man's face, above his eyes. Still no response. There was a pipe discarded on the bed close to the man's left hand. Thanquil picked it up and sniffed. Casher weed without a doubt but there was something else as well, something he couldn't place. A quick search of the room turned up a uniform the guards were wearing. The guard had been drugged and Thanquil was certain he hadn't done it to himself. The casher weed was mixed with something.

Again Thanquil approached the guard on the bed. At least he was alive, and conscious. Thanquil took hold of the man's face and turned it to look into his own. He hated asking questions.

“Where is Lord Colth?” The compulsion didn't work, he could feel the man's will but it was like trying to hold onto water with an open hand, it just slipped through his grasp every time.

“Colth... with whore... second corridor... down... second door on... right,” the guard spoke as if in a dream.

Thanquil stood confused for a moment. “Why did you answer me?” His compulsion hadn't worked, hadn't taken hold. The man shouldn't have said a word.

“I... don't know...”

Thanquil looked at the man again. His pupils were wide, too wide but his gaze was unseeing. A trickle of blood ran from his nose and another from his ear. His forehead was hot, clammy, sweating. Whatever had been done to the man seemed to be killing him. Thanquil considered for a moment trying to figure out what had caused it but he didn't have time. He needed to get to Colth and fast. Quick enough to question the fat man.

Outside the footsteps were long gone and the whispered voices gone with them. Still, Thanquil could hear far away music, distant and muffled but the only other sound was the faint hiss and pop of burning candles.

Second corridor down. Thanquil turned one way then the other. No choice but to pick a direction and hope. He went right, slipped past one adjoining corridor and then, with a glance to check it was clear turned down the next. The mansion was huge, Thanquil couldn't guess at just how big from his brief view of the building but he had to wonder how many rooms it had. A prince of the Five Kingdoms had once boasted to him the royal palace had three thousand rooms which seemed a bit excessive by any standards. Lord Xho's mansion was no palace but its rooms must have numbered in the hundreds at least.

Second door on the right. He stopped outside the door for a while, pressed his ear to it and strained to hear even the slightest of sounds. He whispered a quick blessing of hearing and noise swamped in around him. The music, still muffled became loud; the candles sounded so close; padded footsteps a long way away, still quiet even with the blessing; a half-whispered curse followed by
thump
but not from this room; a bird call outside somewhere in the night; a grunting, groaning, moaning sound that could only come from sexual activities sounded close by.

Thanquil stopped whispering the blessing and twisted the door handle before slipping into the room. What he saw made him forget to close the door after him. There was blood. Blood everywhere, the bed, the floor, the walls, the furniture, even the ceiling a good ten feet above was dripping blood.

Two bodies lay on the bed, both opened up, innards pulled out. One was a huge carcass, a man and a fat one at that. Without a doubt it was Colth. The other was thinner, smaller, and younger, with black skin and, at one time, breasts but not now. Both were... gone. Where, Thanquil could not say.

He approached, careful to step over or around the blood on the floor, making sure to dodge any spots where it dripped from the ceiling, walking on his toes. Closer he went and closer, fighting the urge to gag. So much blood. He needed to investigate, to see if any clues existed as to the nature of the killing.

The bodies looked to be cut open by a blade, sharp but serrated, ragged flesh attested to that. Both must have been dead before, they could not have gone through such butchery without screaming loud enough to drown the music in the great hall. Both corpses were naked. Lord Colth's cock was missing, cut off with only a torn, bloody wound to show.

Thanquil had seen many things in his time as Arbiter. He'd seen and in fact had been the cause of burnings. He'd seen murder in a horrifying variety of forms. Bodies cut up, torn up. It never failed to affect him though, never failed to make him sick to his stomach. This was no normal murder, someone was sending a message, he was certain of that.

Thanquil felt a drop of blood tap him on the shoulder, fallen from the ceiling, and it was all he could do not to wretch. He turned and fled from the room, leaving the slaughter behind.

Betrim pulled open the top draw, nothing. The second draw; nothing. The third; nothing. Three rooms he'd been in and each one was more fancily decorated than the last and not one had a single damned thing worth stealing. For the most part they were empty barring the furniture itself and, while he had no doubt it was worth a few bits, escaping with a wardrobe strapped to his back did not seem a good idea.

Even the sconces on the wall were ugly things made of dark grey iron. Betrim had never been in a mansion before but he was sure everything was supposed to be made from gold. As it was Betrim owned more gold himself than he'd seen in the mansion so far and that came to a grand total of one bit. Far from a fortune.

He checked the wardrobe; good-looking hardwood, he reckoned, imported from somewhere far off. Empty. There was a large mirror Betrim reckoned was worth a lot but it was as tall as him and he didn't like his chances of getting it out the mansion without breaking it and breaking mirrors was bad luck, everyone said. He'd had more than enough bad luck of late already.

He considered bundling up the curtains and having off with them but who the hell would buy a set of curtains? No one he knew. He hoped Swift was having a better time of it. They'd broken into the estate no problem, wasn't hard when the owner built in a secret tunnel entrance that turned out to be not so secret. The Boss had left Bones to guard the entrance as it also happened to be their exit and the rest had slipped across the gardens, running from shadow to shadow when guard patrols weren't looking. They'd climbed to the first floor and Swift had opened them a window, nice and quiet. When inside the Boss had taken Henry and Green to do the job while Betrim and Swift were to steal anything worth a bit that wasn't nailed down. So far all Betrim had to show for his night of thievery was three bronze bits that he'd found in a discarded pair of britches in one of the rooms.

The Boss, Henry and Green would be done with the killing by now and that meant it was time for Betrim to get out as well. Fact was he didn't want to be here when the body was found; chances are the Boss would leave him to his fate in that case.

Betrim checked under the bed. Bare except for a shiny looking bed pan. Looked to be made out of good metal, steel maybe, and it was empty. Good steel was worth a few bits to the right people so Betrim grabbed it and gave it a quick sniff. Smelled clean, not that it would stop Betrim from stealing it even if it wasn’t.

With bed pan in hand he walked to the door, opened it and stuck his head out, looking both ways down the corridor to make sure it was empty. It was. He stepped out just as another man stepped out of a doorway two doors down.