Arm Of Galemar (Book 2) (66 page)

“We do not need such absolute proof,” Landon spoke. 
He had redrawn his blade at Sestion’s approach.  “Rumors spread like wildfire
in the right instances.  All it would take is the right words dropped in the
correct situations to set all your peers to gossiping about your ties to the
dark guilds.”

The baron watched Landon through slit eyes.  Marik
resumed the disclosure.  “That alone would cause you no end of trouble, but
don’t forget your man Darteel.  We know about several of your little business
dealings.  Quiet tips to the cityguard here or in Spirratta would have them
baying like dogs. 
They
would stumble onto the facts of your involvement
while they tore apart your black deals.  Then opening an inquiry on the hearsay
of a pair of commoners would be a political risk to no magistrate.  I’d hate to
do that to Ferdinand, but we know enough to shame you.  Possibly enough even to
have you brought before the king on high charges once enough of your dealings
were exposed.”

Sestion continued watching them for several moments
before muttering, “I believe you understand plenty concerning games of
intrigue.”

“Enough to inform you of one last card we have
played,” Landon added.  “We have already informed several friends and close
acquaintances of what we learned.  If any one of us meets an untimely end by
your plotting, those tips to the cityguard will immediately be passed.”

“So this is your threat then?  You hold your knowledge
to my throat rather than that sword.”

“Think instead that you trade us your schemes for our
silence.  A business deal.”

“Business is not conducted with knives.”

“Isn’t it?” countered Marik.  “You seem to have a
great many such dealings in the city’s shadows.”

Santon shot him a hate-filled look.  “Be on your way
then.  You’ve won your ‘understanding’.  Take it and leave my sight!”  He
walked to the windowed wall to watch the last red fiery slivers melt into the
foliage crawling up the property wall.

Marik glanced at Landon, who shrugged.  What else
could they do?  They departed.  Mission accomplished.

In the hallway they waited in the trophy room while
the gaunt gateman passed on errands for his master.  They stepped lightly and
met no others on their way to the front door.  Silently they exited the Sestion
household.

Ilona met them on the nearest corner.  She wanted to
know how matters had progressed.  Marik explained, reviewing the encounter in
his mind as he did so.  He asked a question of Landon.  “What’s your take?”

Landon shrugged.  “We have him over a barrel, and he
knows it.  But I think it best we depart Thoenar as soon as Hilliard can
weather the journey.”

Marik sighed, nodding sadly.  “I was afraid you were
going to say that.”

“Sestion might reconsider if we give him time to
examine his situation.  Best not to linger.  Hilliard is no longer a
contender.  Nothing holds us here.”

Nothing?
 
Marik surreptitiously peeked at Ilona from the corner of his eye.  She caught
the look, having been watching for it.

“Yes?”  She waited.

“Well…” 
Well what?
  “I suppose…we have to take
Hilliard back to Spirratta.”

“So?”

“So…I guess I’m leaving…”  He trailed off, at a loss
to articulate the acid roiling in his gut.

“Are you saying you want to abandon me?”

“No!  I mean, I don’t
want
to, but—”

“Then don’t.”  She gazed down through those endless
brown eyes, so much like frozen earth, pinning him with all the steely power
her gaze could hold over him.

“I have no choice!”  Rage at the unfairness of life
boiled within.  He used it to fight back against her forcefulness.  “I have a
contract to finish!  I have to return to Kingshome and might not ever return to
Thoenar!  I can’t come and go across the entire kingdom whenever I want!  If I
could, I would do it for you!”

“Who said anything about the entire kingdom?  If you
can’t be bothered to walk two candlemarks for me, then you’re hardly a man
worthy of my time.”

This made not a shred of sense to Marik.  “What are
you talking about?”  Only then did he notice the slightly amused sparkle behind
the stern countenance.

“Mother still has reservations, but it’s time to
expand the Spell.  I want to open a new location.  Trying to break into the
market in a different city would take years, and we might never gain a greater
share anyway.  Since I don’t feel like fighting the existing houses, I opted to
run the new branch in an unclaimed local.”

“
You’re
going to run a brothel?”

The instant the words left his lips, he regretted
them.  Their tone sounded completely wrong.  He could see the amused sparkle
harden to a dangerous glacial lance.  “A
gentleman’s establishment
,” she
enunciated through clenched teeth.  “Not some back alley whorehouse!”

“I didn’t mean—”

“And why not me?”  Her question rang with challenge. 
“I’ve spent my life learning how to run the Spell!  I can manage a new location
perfectly
and without help!”

“Where, uh…”  Her gaze fixated on him, making him
stumble a moment.  “If not a city, then where?  Are you going to set up in a
larger town and wait for it to grow around you?”  He thought that made sense
after a fashion.  It would allow the new Spell to dominate the business by
knee-capping competitors as they arrived.

“A town is worse,” she informed them in a tone which
clearly stated any fool should have known that.  “Townsfolk always glare with
that same holier-than-you scorn so they can feel worth more than the shit
sticking to their heels.”  Marik flushed when a passing group of well dressed,
middle-aged men turned toward them after they overheard Ilona.  She paid no
heed to them.  “And no town boy can afford the Spell’s fees!  They’d all pass
by to find a plague-wracked harlot dropping her bloomers for twenty coppers a
toss!”

He hated it when she galloped at full froth.  Landon
glanced at him with interested speculation.  Marik ignored the man.  “What,
then?”

“I’ve decided to jump to the far corner of Galemar. 
Mother and I can spread between the two depending on how the new Spell
prospers.  Your gambling friend says nearly seventy percent of the nobles
riding into your little town come from the west along the Southern Road.  The
wealthy merchants travel the road year-round as well, especially once the
Nolier border opens up again.”

“Kerwin?”  Marik nearly shouted the name.  “What’s he
have to do with you?”

Ilona snorted.  Landon turned away to hide a suspicious
quirk of his mouth.  “It so happens he’s my new business partner.  He’s agreed
to expand his fancy inn and give me the space I need in exchange for the extra
draw it will provide to wealthy visitors.”

“You…what?”  Where was the head or the tail to this?  Marik
struggled to find them.

“It works well for both of us.  We compliment each
other’s businesses.  Wealthy or noble travelers who stop to visit the new Spell
will be able to spend the night in his inn, so needn’t worry about traveling
after dark once their evening is finished.  Mostly likely they will spend a
pouch full of coin at his games while they visit.  Or if they come to play at
his gambling paradise, many will drift over to rest from the games.  A less
wealthy man who beats the odds to win a small fortune will have something near
at hand to spend his new coin on, and find the rare experience of the Spell’s
entertainments well worth the expense.”

“But…Kerwin?  Why?”

“Opportunity knocked,” she responded simply.  An
enthusiastic light overcame her coldness.  “And only a fool allows her
opportunities to pass her by.  I’d been discussing this with mother for a year
already, then your friend popped in with all his questions and dreams of
building his personal utopia.  I could see his vision at once, and how it fit
with mine.”

Jealous thoughts of Ilona and Kerwin scheming together
disintegrated as what she planned suddenly struck him like a slap.  “So you’re
coming down with me!”  His heart took wing to soar beyond the clouds.  “You’re
coming down to live with me!”

“Trust me,” she informed him in a flat tone, arms
crossed, “
you
were the least of my considerations.  Don’t go getting a
fat head.”

“But if you’re that near Kingshome, I can come see you
whenever I’m in town!”

She continued watching him sideways while they
walked.  After a moment she relented on him.  With the smile she rarely ever
gifted him with, which always made his heartbeat skip, she told him, “You
better, or else I’ll have to find another man.  But I’ll be spending
considerable time shuttling back and forth between the new Spell and Thoenar
for the first year at least.”

Marik watched her, adoring her every line and curve
before he finally faced front, wondering that he did not march through every
obstacle before them.  He felt as though
nothing
could stand in his way,
could hold before the thriving bliss overflowing his body.  As though the gods
had blessed his path as Truth and all in his way must either yield to his
footsteps or shatter upon contact with him.

He caught sight of Landon, and the true meaning behind
the hidden smile thundered through him.  “
You
knew about this?”

“To a degree.  Kerwin asked me to retire from the
Kings with him and act as his chief guard for the inn.”

“But you knew about
her
?”  Marik swept a hand
to gesture at Ilona.

Landon shrugged.  “Kerwin mentioned it.  I figured you
would learn of it in due time.”

“There you go again, already knowing these things and
watching me fumble my way through the dark to find them!”

“You’ve succeeded so far.  It’s good to use your brain
to work out your problems.”

“Yes,” Ilona added unnecessarily.  “We wouldn’t want
you getting dull and slowwitted, would we?  Or,” she turned to Landon, “is
‘dull-er’ a word?”

“It’s not worth wasting strength getting angry over,”
Landon continued.  “If you want to spend your mental energy, worry about
Hilliard instead.”

The thought sobered Marik instantly.  It brought him
down from the clouds to ground his feet firmly in the present.  “Yeah.  If that
Healer couldn’t work her miracle, we’re all hip deep in it.  How long do you
think it will be before he can travel?”

“No guessing.  I understand Healing only starts you on
the path to recovery.  She might be able to reform the bonds, tie the greater
veins back together, but his body will need to heal naturally in order to
recover fully.  The Healing is merely the glue and paste that holds the body
together while it reforms damaged tissue.”

Marik nodded.  “A house made of nails and glue alone
would fall apart at the first good shock.  That’s what Delmer told me when I
asked why the priests couldn’t have Healed me completely.  They only undid the
irreparable damage and left the rest to me.”

“In all likelihood they could not have done more for
you anyway.  You didn’t look human, and they nearly depleted themselves to the
point of death to repair what they could.”

“Let’s hope this lady Healer manages the same for
Hilliard.”

Landon nodded.  Nearly a month after summer’s first
day, they discussed a return to Spirratta depending on Hilliard’s various
possible states.  Ilona followed mostly in silence while they fretted, praying
the youth would survive, debating whether they should tell Hilliard of
Sestion’s role and wondering how he would take the news that the Arm of Galemar
had left him behind.

*        *        *        *        *

The view of multi-hued blossoms trailing from winding
trellises had long since faded to gloom.  They were shadows lurking within a
darker blackness cast by the night.  Santon Sestion, baron of the court of King
Raymond Cerella of Galemar, peered through his office windows, seeing nothing. 
Lost in his mental wanderings, twin candlemarks passed without notice.

Puppies.  Egotistical commoners who believed
themselves cleverer than their betters.  Did they actually think him so
vulnerable?

That one who spoke the most, there lived a man blinded
by his inexperience.  He believed Darteel to be the only man whom he, Baron
Sestion, utilized?  The fool truly believed him to be so careless?

His eyes narrowed in the gloom.  No one dared threaten
him so!  That they had entered unbidden into his dominion to speak thus to
him…that alone would sign their execution orders.

And they had discovered too much.  That, above all
else, demanded their deaths.  Let them posture and plan.  It would be no proof
against their fate.

The first order of business would be Tallior.  Better
skilled than Darteel anyway, he would clean this garbage from the world. 
Santon would send the man to the inn housing the sham of a baron, there to
learn all there was to know about him and his men.  How many they were, who
they knew and, most importantly, who they had trusted with the information
gleaned on Baron Sestion.