Weapon of Fear (17 page)

That’s
my
Assassins
Guild you’re talking about, buddy!

“Spies?”
someone asked.

“Spies…and
more.”

“You
say the
emperor’s
private constabulary.  Doesn’t that mean you’re
working
for
Arbuckle?”  Duke Seoli’s question startled several of the
guests.

Hoseph
smiled.  “Arbuckle is not yet emperor, and we intend that he never will be.”

So
that explains all the secrecy
. 
T
hey’re planning to assassinate the crown prince
.

Over
the ensuing barrage of questions, Mya heard the twitter of a bird, recognizing
the signal for danger.  Glancing down the street, she spied a troop of
constables rounding the corner, still a block away, but approaching.  They
might pass without seeing her, but she couldn’t take the chance.

With
a surge of panic, she sought a way out.  She’d made a foolish mistake by not
planning an escape route.  Climbing up to the would risk being seen from inside
the window, and noise if any shingles happened to be loose.  The only other
direction to go was down.  Mya peered into the thorny foliage beneath her and chose
a gap to her left.  If she landed just right, she could hunker in the shadows
beneath the colorful leaves, invisible in her dark clothing.  Mya winced as she
remembered the shrub’s long thorns.

No
pain
…

Mya
swung her legs and released the window sill, plummeting like a stone.  Only a
light rustle of leaves marked her passage into the shrubbery.  She flexed her
knees as she hit the ground and remained crouched, lowering her face and holding
her breath, listening.  Slowly, she withdrew a long thorn from the back of her
hand and felt warm blood trickle down to her wrist.  She wondered how many
pierced her elsewhere.

The
constables talked quietly as they passed by, but none spied anything amiss. 
With the recent violence, they were probably looking for mobs of troublemakers,
not burglars.

Mya
considered climbing back up to listen some more, but reconsidered.  She had
gleaned the most important implication of the meeting: Lady T was working with
Hoseph.  Their plan to assassinate the heir to the throne didn’t concern Mya. 
That wasn’t her fight.  She had enough on her hands trying to gain control the
guild.  Easing from the prickly embrace of the hedge, she made her way back
around the block and through the courtyard garden.

Kneeling
down by the gate, she whispered to Gimp, “Thanks for the warning.  That’s
enough for tonight.  Go get some rest.  Tell tonight’s night watch to meet me
behind the inn, but it’s going to be a while.  I’m going to have a little chat
with Lady T after her party’s over.”

“Aye,
miss.”  Gimp hobbled off into the night, surprisingly stealthy despite her
uneven gait.

Mya
recovered her clothes and settled down to wait, considering what she’d heard. 
It sounded like Hoseph was making all the plans, but she couldn’t imagine the
guildmaster playing second fiddle to the non-guild priest.  Patiently, she
watched the window and planned her approach.

Tonight
I find out what game Lady T is playing
.

Dee
blinked at the light looming out of the darkening gloom.  His gelding snorted
and lunged from a canter into a gallop despite the mist and dark.  This was the
third mount Dee had ridden today, and he recognized that behavior.  The horse
knew that a way inn was close, and Dee was more than ready to stop for the
night.

If
I’m this sore, how must Pax feel?
 He
glanced over, but shadows rendered the innkeeper’s face unreadable, and Paxal
wasn’t talking much, at least not to him.

The
geldings bolted through the open gate, across the turning court, and straight
for the stable where they stopped and blew noisily.  The way-inn stableman
stepped out and took the reins as they dismounted.

“Room
for the night, sirs?”

“Room,
food, and somethin’ to soak my achin’ arse in, if you don’t mind.”  Paxal
stumbled as his feet hit the ground, his back popping audibly.

“And
fresh mounts an hour before sunrise, if you please.”  Dee dug a silver crown
from his pocket and handed it to the man.  He pulled the precious saddlebags off
the horse and slung them over his shoulder, trying to look as if they weren’t
heavy with tightly packed gold crowns.

“Happy
to oblige.  Just see the missus about supper and a room.”  The stableman tipped
his cap and led the two horses into the stable.

Dee
followed Paxal into the inn, his mouth flooding with saliva at the aromas of
savory cooking.  Jerky and bread on horseback hadn’t made for a satisfying
lunch.

A
man and woman in merchants’ garb were the only other guests in the common
room.  That wasn’t surprising, considering the late hour and the inn’s
location, far from any town or village.  They’d be getting no locals in for an
evening drink, which was fine with Dee.

“Good
evening, sirs.”  A matronly woman bustled forward.  “You two look done in.”

“Whipped
like a rented mule, ma’am.”  Paxal doffed his hat and jacket, and Dee followed
suit.

“We
need a room for the night, and a meal if it’s not too late for supper,
please.”  Dee kept the saddlebags in hand.

“Of
course.  Would you like to put your bags in your room before supper?”

“There’s
no sense in climbing stairs twice, is there?”  Dee wasn’t about to let the
saddlebags full of gold out of his sight.

“Not
at all.  What will you be wantin’ to drink?”  She gestured them to a table.

“Wine
please.”

“Ale
for me.”  Paxal winced as he sat down.  “A large tankard if you please, ma’am. 
I gotta kill the pain in my…um…”

“No
need to explain.  We get couriers all the time.  I’ll be back in a trice!”  She
bustled off.

“Rethinking
your decision to come along, Pax?”

Paxal
shot Dee a cold glance.  “No.”

They
sat in uneasy silence until the kitchen door banged open, and the woman hurried
back with a large tray.

“Here
you are, sirs.”  She set out laden plates and brimming cups, then placed a key
on the table. “You’re in room number three, just left at the top of the
stairs.”

“And
would a bath be available?”  Paxal looked up hopefully.

“Of
course!  I’ll heat the water.  When you’re done eatin’, the washroom’s just
through there.”  She pointed to a door leading off the common room.

“You’re
an angel of mercy, milady.”  Paxal lifted his tankard to her and drank deeply. 
“Gods of Light, I may survive after all.”

Laughing,
she bustled off again.

Dee
dug into his dinner.  His tongue tingled at his first bite of the spicy potato
soup, but cool wine quenched it nicely.  Thick gravy drenched tender mutton and
a mound of stewed greens.  He sopped up the excess with slices of crusty warm
bread, and only slowed when his plate looked like it was ready to put back in
the cupboard.  Picking a tart from the desert plate, he nibbled, but his belly
was already too full.  Looking around, he saw that the merchants had apparently
gone to bed.  Aside from the stableman, who busied himself tidying up, the
place was empty.

“I
know these way inns get an imperial charter to get started, but how do they
make a living out in the middle of nowhere?”

“Likely
family run.  No mortgage, no rent, and no employees to pay.  Ain’t bad land
hereabouts, so they probably have a plot to farm, a few sheep and chickens.” 
Paxal stuffed a huge piece of mutton into his mouth and chewed.  He didn’t seem
inclined to more conversation, but those had been more words than he had said
to Dee since they started.  The old man had no problem chatting with innkeepers
or stablemen, and Dee had seen him carry on a half dozen simultaneous
conversations tending bar at the
Golden Cockerel
.

Dee
sighed.  They couldn’t go on like this all the way to Tsing.  “Paxal, we’ve got
to talk.  I know you don’t like me, but—”

“Don’t
dis
like
you, just don’t trust you much!” the innkeeper barked.

“What
do you mean by that?”  Dee bristled.  “If you think I intentionally—”

“Doesn’t
matter what you
intended
.  You were set up and fell for it hook, line,
and sinker.”

Dee
gritted his teeth.  He didn’t like to remember the way he’d failed Mya. 
“You’re right.  I screwed up.  But Morin’s dead, and Mya kept me on.”

“Mya’s
the forgiven’ sort.  Always been that way.”  Paxal frowned.  “If I thought
you’d learned something from it, I might—”

“You
think I
didn’t
?”  Mya had trusted Dee with her most private
correspondence, and he had failed her. She could have killed him, but instead,
she had given him a second chance.

The
old man looked up with a curious expression, then back down at his plate.  “Maybe
you did at that.”

“You’ve
known Mya longer than anyone, haven’t you?”

The
innkeeper slathered butter on a slab of bread and took a bite, a faraway look
in his eyes.  “She was just a skinny girl when I first caught sight of her
hanging ’round the alley behind the
Cockerel
.  Skittish as a stray cat
she was.”  A smile twitched his lips, then disappeared.  “She reminded me
of…someone, so I let her work for scraps and a cot.”

“The
word is you sent her to the guild.”

Paxal
shot him a glare from under bushy eyebrows.  “Word from who?”

“Come
on, Pax.”  Dee spread his hands.  “Mya’s the youngest Master the guild’s ever
had, and you think people don’t gossip about her?  They gossip about you, too. 
The
Golden Cockerel
’s more than just an inn, after all.  It’s been Mya’s
headquarters for years.”

“That’s
just good business.”  Paxal quaffed his ale.  “She pays more rent than she
ought for what I do.”

“She
owes you.”  Dee chuckled at Paxal’s glare.  “She cares for you.  It’s obvious. 
And everyone knows you care about her.  You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t.”

“You
think I’d leave her fate in
your
hands?”  Paxal’s sarcastic snort took
the sting out of the sarcastic comment.  He pushed his plate away and sighed. 
“Look, I know you care about Mya, too.  I think you’re just a little…green is
all.  Maybe you think you’d do better if you was out here alone instead of
having an old man slowing you down.”

“Don’t
be ridiculous!”  Dee shook his head.  “You’re not holding me back, Pax.”

Paxal
met Dee’s eyes and nodded.  “All right.  I know Mya, and I know Tsing, if we
don’t find them on the road.  You know guild business and how she operates.”

Dee
nodded.  “And I know Lad, too, to a certain degree.  Between the two of us,
we’ve got a better chance than anyone of finding them.”

“And
we
will
.”

Heartened,
Dee picked his tart back up and took a bite.  The flaky crust melted in his
mouth, the flavor of apple and cinnamon burst delightfully on his tongue.  He
wiped away the sweet juice dribbling down his chin with a napkin.

“How
well do you know Tsing?”

 “Born
and raised there.”  Paxal sat silently for a moment before continuing.  “It was
a good place once.  Good and bad, like any city, I guess, but you could make
your way.  I had the hopes and dreams of a young man.  Opened an inn, got married,
had a daughter…then things went bad.” 

“What
happened?”

“The
emperor died, and the new one took over.  There was trouble and…  Someone broke
into my inn, and…my wife and little daughter were killed.”  Paxal hung his
head.

“I’m
sorry, Pax.  I ask too many questions.”

“No,
it’s all right.”  Paxal rubbed his face, then sipped his ale and sighed.  “Just
been a long time since I thought of it, is all.  That’s who Mya reminded me of
at first, my little Nance.  But Tsing’s rotten through now.  It’s no place for
Mya.  She’s too afraid.”

Dee
stared slack-jawed at the older man. “Mya?  Afraid?  That’s the last thing I’d
think of her.”

“Shows
you don’t know her like I do.”  Paxal finished his ale and picked up his apple
tart.  “She was so scared when she was little, you could see it in her eyes. 
You’d twitch, and she’d shrink back like she expected you to backhand her. 
Don’t think she had much of a childhood.”

Dee
tried to reconcile Paxal’s description with the strong, vital woman he knew. 
They didn’t mesh.  “She certainly doesn’t show it.”

“I
gave her some advice, but not what your
rumors
say.  She needed to feel
safe, and I told her to be safe you had to be strong.  That if somethin’ scared
her, she had to learn to fight it.”  Pax chuckled wryly.  “She disappeared,
came back a few days later with a pocket full of silver and a dagger on her
hip.  She’d joined the guild.  Not quite what I had in mind, but it worked out
okay.”