Weapon of Fear (38 page)

“That’s
what I was going to tell you.”  Dee dropped into a chair.  “I thought we should
leave, too, but they all said no.”

“This
isn’t up for a vote!  We’re leaving!”

“There
ain’t nothin’ to say he won’t find that place, too.  What we gonna do if he
does, just run to another?”  Digger shook his head.  “Nope.  Ain’t gonna
happen.”

Mya
stared at them in open-mouthed shock.  In five years as Master Hunter, never
had a subordinate refused an order.  Now she was being contravened by a bunch
of kids.  “We can’t stay!  It’s too dangerous!”

“
Everything
’s
dangerous, Miss Mya.”  Gimp bit her lip, looking to her friends, then back to Mya. 
“You can’t run from it.  You gotta face it.  You gotta fight it.”

“Right. 
That’s why we’re a gang.  We fight.”  Digger drew his knife, a real dagger
this, not a rusty kitchen knife, and buried the tip in the table top.  “We
don’t run when some rat kills one of us.  We kill him right back!”

“Knock!” 
Knock slapped her stick into her hand with a loud pop.

“You
can’t fight Hoseph!”  Mya bit back the desperation honing her temper.  Yelling
at them wouldn’t help.  “He can blink in anywhere now that he knows where we
live.”

Dee
shook his head.  “Not anywhere, I think.  He was in my room, and the door was
still locked, but I don’t think he can just materialize anywhere he wants.  The
first time he came to Lad’s house, he knocked on the front door.  The second
time, he appeared in the front hall.  I think he has to see where he wants to
pop in at least once.  Maybe he saw my room through the drapes.”

“All
the more reason we should leave.  He’s been in here, and can pop in any time he
wants.”  Mya raked their faces with a glare.  “We can’t fight that!”

“Master
Dee shot him, and Knock whacked him good.”  Digger retrieved his dagger and
brandished it.  “He ain’t immortal.  He pops in, and we pop him.”

“And
if you don’t, another one of you dies.”  The last thing she needed now was a
rebellion.  Mya glared at them, but the urchins just glared right back.

“Might
want to think it through, Miss Mya.”  Paxal furrowed his brow.  “They got a
point.  Yeah, he knows where we live, but he’ll also know we’re ready for him. 
Knock and Dee hurt the bastard.  We can have more hurt waitin’ if he tries it
again.”

“And
when do we sleep?”

“Different
room ever night, and leave lamps on so he don’t know which one we’re in.” 
Nails examined the tip of the nail protruding from his stick.  “And we rig up
trippers to tangle him up if he uses that magic to pop in here.”

“He’s
the wasp, but we’s the spider!”  Gimp nodded and the others with her.  “We done
that before, too.”

Mya’s
brow furrowed at their chatter.  “What are trippers?

“This.” 
Digger pulled from his pocket a ball of heavy waxed catgut, the kind fishermen
used.  “We rig our webs, and put broke glass on the floors where we don’t
walk.  He pops in, gets tangled, and maybe even falls and gets cut up.  We take
turns sleepin’, just like Knock watchin’ over Master Dee.”  Digger put the
twine away and patted the crossbow on the table.  “Buy us some more of these
pig-stickers and we’ll stick this pig for you.”

“Crossbows
are
easy to use.  We could train in the cellar.”  Dee suggested.

Mya
looked from face to face once again, and saw no way to fight them.  Some
Grandmaster she turned out to be.  She couldn’t even control a pack of street
kids.

Rubbing
her eyes, Mya cursed under her breath.  The fatigue and stress of her foray
into the palace wore on her, and now this.  She felt grimy and tired, but she
doubted she’d be able to bathe or sleep.  The former required privacy, for she
couldn’t let anyone see her tattoos, and the latter required calm, which she
knew wouldn’t come tonight.  She saw Tiny’s crooked smile behind her closed
eyelids.

Damn
it
!

“Okay,
fine.  If we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it right.”  Lessons from
her long-dead master flicked through her mind.  Traps, snares, alarms…a
Hunter’s stock and trade.  “We set up your nets, and broken glass in likely
places, and rig bells on the wires, but nothing on the first floor.  That has
to be clear if someone knocks on the door.  And we have to have escape routes. 
If Hoseph torches the building, we have to be able to get out.  Dee, set up
watch schedules and sentry posts.  Nobody’s alone at any time, and someone’s
always watching over
anyone
who’s asleep.  If you’re on watch, you sit
with your back to a wall so he can’t pop in behind you.  He’s more likely to
try at night.  Darkness favors his tactics, so daytime’s probably safer for us
to rest.  Pax, outfit everyone with whatever weapons they’re best with.  Crossbows
are good if they don’t have to reload, and we can set up a target in the
basement for practice.  Digger, you clear your ideas with me before you do
anything beyond what we’ve discussed.  Is everyone clear on this?”

“Yes,
Miss Mya,” they all said.

“Everyone
get busy,” Digger ordered, gathering his urchins.  “Master Pax, we need more
catgut, hammers and nails.  Nestor, you get us as many broken bottles as you
can scrounge.”  He tossed his ball of twine to Nails and said “Start with what
we got.  Gimp, you set up our routes if there’s a fire.  Oh, and rope would be
good, too, if we gotta go out a window.  Master Pax?”

“On
my list.  I’ll go out shopping as soon as it’s light.”  Pax got up and looked at
Mya.  “Don’t you worry about Tiny, Miss Mya.  I’ll take care of him when I go
out.”

“Fine.” 
Mya clenched and unclenched her fists.  This would put them all in danger, but
setting traps seemed somehow more satisfying than running away.  She’d been
hiding for weeks.  It was time to face her fear.

“You
look like you could use a mulled wine.”  Paxal started for the kitchen,
grabbing an urchin in passing.  “Come on, Twigs.  Nobody’s alone!”

“No
wine, Pax.”  Mya met his questioning look.  “Blackbrew.  I need to stay sharp. 
I will, however, wash up.  I’ve been crawling through musty passages all
night.”

“Water’s
already on to boil.” He continued toward the kitchen.

“I’ll
watch for you.”  Dee stood and picked up his crossbow.

Mya
opened her mouth to argue with him, but there were no arguments left in her.
“Fine.  I’ll just get my things and—”

“I
set your things out in the washroom before I went to bed.”

She
scowled at him.  “Dee, your efficiency would be irritating if it weren’t such a
comfort.”

“Lad
always just found it irritating.”  He tried to smile, but it fell short.

“He
would.”  Mya took another long look at Tiny’s wrapped body and gritted her
teeth.  “Come on.”

Dee
closed the door to the washroom and flipped the bolt.  The air in the chamber
was already thick with steam, moisture beading on the stone walls.  The
cave-like room was centrally located in the inn’s cellar, with a fireplace in
one wall, a huge copper tub, and a drain in the floor.  It had an earthy scent,
but had been well scrubbed to keep the constant damp at bay.  He swept the room
with his eyes one last time as Mya sat down on the dressing chair and started
removing her soft leather boots, then turned his back to her and focused on the
door, crossbow at the ready.

“Thank
you for watching for me, Dee.”

A
boot fell to the floor, and the chair creaked.

“I
knew you’d be keyed up and tired.  I thought a bath would be welcome.”  He
concentrated on the swirling patterns of the woodgrains in the door.

“I’m
filthy, too.  We crept through about a hundred miles of dusty passages.”

The
other boot fell, and he heard the rustle of cloth.

“So
you got the message to the prince?”

“Yes,
but he woke up.”  Mya’s snort of laughter almost brought Dee’s around but he
stopped himself.  “I think I scared him half to death, but I don’t think he got
a good look at me.”

“I
sure hope not.”

Silence
stretched, and he heard more cloth rustling.

“I’m
sorry about Tiny.  It was my fault.  Hoseph was after me.”

“I
think you should blame Hoseph, not yourself.”  As Dee traced the swirls of
woodgrains with his eyes, a flick of motion in the burnished brass doorknob
drew his attention.  “I remember Lad mentioning the glowing hand when Hoseph
tried to kill his informant, and I saw it when he tried for Sereth.  I woke up
to that glow and thought I was dead.”  A dark reflection moved in the burnished
brass and Dee looked away.  Maybe he should have had Gimp watch over Mya. 
“That’s how he tried to kill Sereth.  But that other magic…the thing that
brought all the horrible memories…  Is that what happened when you and Lad were
fighting the blademasters?”

“Yes.” 
She sighed and the chair beside the tub creaked again. “It knocked me on my
ass.  Lad saved my life.  I couldn’t move for a moment, but he seemed to be
less effected by it.”  Her voice always sounded different when she spoke of
Lad. 

“That’s
odd.”  Cloth rustled again.  How long did it take disrobe?  He remembered the
dark cloth he’d seen on her arm and wondered what it was.  Dee refused to let
his eyes drift to the reflection in the doorknob.  Even though he could discern
no detail, Mya deserved her privacy.  “With all he’s been through, I would have
thought having it all dredged up at once would kill him.”

“He
was already in pain.”  There it was again, that twinge in her voice.

“I
know.”  Dee had seen Lad’s pain, so Mya’s words made a morbid kind of sense. 
To someone suffering from a horrible wound, the pain of a scalpel might go
unnoticed.  He suspected that Mya harbored her own pain.  Dee considered what
he knew about her.  She was a loner with no apparent friends or family.  No
lovers, though, at least once, she’d paid for the services of a prostitute. 
That secret would go to his grave with him.  All he knew about her past was
what Paxal had told him, and he wasn’t about to ask Mya for details.  “He
seemed…better when we met him on the road.”

“Did
he tell you about Kiesha?”

“Yes.” 
Dee heard the splash of water, and his eyes flicked involuntarily toward the
doorknob.  A dark shape moved there, and he wondered if the wrappings he had
seen on her arm covered her whole body.  Was it armor of some kind?  Did she
never take them off, even to bathe?  Was that part of her secret?  “I can’t
believe they did that to her.  Why?”

“The
Grandmaster was…he was worse than Saliez.”  More splashing, and he looked
away.  “The two were cut from the same cloth.  No wonder the guild’s a mess
when it’s run by maniacs who torture for recreation.”

“No
wonder...”  Dee rubbed his eyes and blinked away the desire to yawn.  His
nerves felt like they’d been dragged through broken glass.  “Good riddance to—”

Something
clacked on the stone floor, and Dee whirled, visions of dark mists and
murderous priests flashing into his mind.  He swept the crossbow in an arc,
looking for something to shoot, but Mya had only knocked the scrub brush from
the bathing table.  Her arm and shoulder were out of the tub, reaching for the
brush.  A fine tracery of black runic tattoos shone on her skin, twisted shapes
hard to focus on.  They writhed like snakes before his eyes, as if possessing a
life of their own…but not.

The
crossbow started to slip in his sweaty grasp.  He caught it before it fell to
the floor, though his jaw might have followed it there if he hadn’t clamped it
closed.  Then his eyes met Mya’s and he whirled away.

“Sorry!”

Silence,
then a splash and sounds of Mya scrubbing.  Not a word.  Dee’s mind spun.  He
wondered if he should say something, apologize again.  What had he really
seen?  Dark symbols on her skin that seemed to move… 
Magic
! 
Of
course
!  That explained all the rumors of the fight at Fiveway Fountain.

Dee
kept his mouth shut and his eyes focused on the door.  Another splash, the
rustle of a towel, then more silence.

“Dee,
I need to explain something to you.”

“You
really don’t, Miss Mya.”  He swallowed, his hands sweaty on the crossbow. 
Would she kill him for learning her secret?

“I
really
do
.  I need to tell someone, and I know you’ll understand.  Turn
around.”

“Miss
Mya, I don’t—”

“Turn
around, Dee. 
Now
.”  Command edged her tone.

Dee
didn’t know what to expect.  He was still her subordinate, but he remembered
the eagerness in her face when she greeted their arrival.  Something had
changed in their relationship, though he wasn’t sure how.  Dee turned slowly

Mya
stood wrapped in a towel, her arms, shoulders, and legs exposed.  Black tattoos
writhed on her exposed skin from neck to wrist to ankle, every inch of exposed
flesh covered in magic.