Babylon Steel (27 page)

A voice from the darkness said, “Hey now, no need for this, just hand over girl and everything be fine, we all friendly as can be.”

That pudgy sod in the greasy shirt. I should have known. Guess they’d tried to sneak up on us and the others had spotted them.

“Changed your minds, have you?” I was stalling, waiting for my sight to come back. I couldn’t just run off with the girl, I had no idea where in these bloody tunnels I might end up. And where were Previous and Bliss?

“Give us girl.”

Malleay yelled, his voice shrill, “Don’t you touch her!”

“I not touch nobody, am businessman, me. I do public service, return her to grateful family for reward as offered.”

I should have known the bastard had listened in. He must not have realised who Enthemmerlee was before, or she’d already have been handed back to her family – in a sack if necessary – and her companions and fellow-soldiers slaughtered and slung in the river.

I brought my sword up just in time as someone ran at me out of the darkness, sliced; there was a soft thump. I caught a glimpse of a pallid face, mouth open in shock; blood spattered my skin, and there was a hand lying on the ground, a dagger still in its fingers. The face backed into the darkness. My night vision was beginning to come back, I could make out the shape as he went tottering along the jetty. Then the rotting wood gave way and he tipped into the water; there was a sudden violent churning, and a bubbling scream.

I thought of those blind fish with their vicious little teeth.

Swimming for it was out, then.

More running feet, a shriek. I saw Previous, holding off the ratty thing; her sword catching the firelight as she flicked and parried, but the rat was fast, an ugly-looking short sword in each hand. I couldn’t see the brute Pudgy anywhere.

Beside me, Kittack hissed, clutching his arm, blood streaming between his fingers.

“Get back,” I said. “You’ve no weapon.”

“Yes, have, but is behind bar.
Politics,”
he spat.

“Come here, and I’ll bandage that,” Enthemmerlee said. “I have a scarf.”

There was a thud, a shriek. The ratty thing ducked as Previous swung, stabbed at her and missed. Previous kicked out and sent it flying into the wall. It slid down and lay in a heap.

Previous backed towards us. She was breathing hard; it echoed off the tunnel walls and roof. We had a solid wall behind us and the sides of the archway on either side, but there was no knowing how many reinforcements that greasy bastard could summon.

“You seen Bliss?” I said.

Previous shook her head. “I was a ways down, keeping an eye on you, when a couple of them tried to sneak up.”

“You all right?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t you be foolish now,” Pudgy said from the darkness. “We not want to hurt nobody, you give us girl, all be fine.”

“Not believing that,” I muttered. “Where the hells is Bliss?”

I could make out more shapes, down along the tunnel. Moving towards us. Crap.

And yet there was part of me that relished it; a sword in my hand, enemies before me, mates beside me. Even in this mess, I could feel myself grinning.

I glanced to the side; Rikkinet was by me. I never even saw her draw, but one of the moving shapes pitched backwards.

Two down.

The Ikinchli man – I didn’t even know his name – must have followed suit; someone else squawked and doubled over.

“Okay,” Pudgy’s voice came out of the shadows. “You want be stupid, fine. Go, boys.”

They ran towards us, a tatterdemalion line of rags and glitter. One of them had a dagger in his teeth. Idiot. Elbowed him in the mouth; he dropped, choking on his own blood, his jawbone gleaming in the firelight.

I swung, parried. Managed to defend my lower right when a blade swept low. He left himself wide open; took him in the side. He didn’t notice at first. Sometimes they don’t. Then he fell.

Thrust forward. Remember the girl, don’t get too far out, got to stay between her and these fools, what do they think they’re doing? Going to kill their bargaining chip if they’re not careful.

Almost backed into the fire. Dammit. Not enough room. The stones slippery with blood.

Splashes of light in the darkness. Rikkinet’s run out of stones for her sling, using a dagger. She’s fast, but it’s risky. Lots of longer weapons. Spray of blood in my eyes, blink it out.

Rikkinet’s down, taken through the shoulder. Alive, I can hear her swearing.

I keep swinging. Can feel the grin on me, there’s one in front, got a grin too, I grab his arm on the downswing, punch my hilt through his grin. He falls back, goes down in the press. They keep coming.

Then someone yells, “Hold up! Hold!”

Not very disciplined, this lot; they back off in pieces, and we get a couple more before they’re out of range. I fight down the impulse to belt after them; get as many as I can.

Silence, except for hard breathing, a whimper, the drip of blood. And the river.

“E
VERYBODY BACK,
” P
UDGY’S
voice, a little tight and sounding slightly less full of itself. “Okay. You too much trouble. You go now.”

“Stay where you are,” I said, when Malleay started forward. “I don’t trust him any further than I can spit, and at least here we’ve a wall at our backs.”

“We can’t stay here!”

“No, but I’m not risking it when he could send more after us from a side-tunnel as soon as we’re on the path.” I raised my voice. “Come out where I can see you!”

I could hear a muffled argument from somewhere above and to the right. Then the sound of footsteps scrabbling down towards us. Finally I could see a bobbing, rounded shape making its way cautiously downwards; there must be steps or something cut into the wall. Pudgy. And behind him, a lanky pale figure I knew.

“Bliss? How the...”

I elbowed Previous in the ribs to shut her up. I didn’t know how the hells he’d managed it, either. He didn’t carry weapons, but somehow he’d not only cornered our plump friend but persuaded him he was in mortal danger.

As they got closer, and I saw Bliss’s glowing eyes and the predatory tilt of his head, it was a little easier to understand. He didn’t look a lot like the gentle, faintly grieving creature I knew. He looked like a cat on the hunt.

I just hoped that no-one would notice that the cat didn’t have any claws.

Bliss kept Pudgy close to the wall, where his cronies couldn’t get between them, and edged him towards us. Pudgy looked around at the bodies of his gang that littered the walkway.

“No need for this,” he said.

“No, there wasn’t,” I said. “And we’re leaving.”

I could see the men all watching their boss. “Yes, yes,” he said, his voice sounding strangely prissy, “please all to go away now.”

“Bliss? Let’s take him with us, shall we? Just as far as the way out.”

Pudgy started to protest and then made a little breathless squeak. “Fine! Fine! I show you way out!”

Malleay didn’t look happy about the idea, but Bliss edged the man ahead of us and, moving in a close bunch, weapons at the ready, we followed; me and Rikkinet bringing up the rear.

We made it to the exit without attack, and emerged blinking into the daylight. It felt as though it should have been evening already, but it was only just past midday; this is what happens when you get up so damned early.

I stood in front of Pudgy. “Now,” I said. “You stay out of my way, I’ll stay out of yours, all right? Are we done?”

Pudgy, squinting in the light, had a kind of stretched, tiptoe look. He nodded, but carefully, as though afraid to lower his chin too far. “Just get crazy fadefreak away from me!”

I tossed his weapons through the open doorway, back down the tunnel. “Go,” I said. With an expression of intense relief, he dived after his gear. Rikkinet and Malleay dragged the door closed after him, and I turned to Bliss. “How in the hells...”

Bliss just smiled and held out one of his pale hands. A single long, very sharp fingernail glimmered like metal. “I had his... full attention,” he said.

No wonder the pirate’s voice had gone squeaky. The cat had claws after all.

Malleay was looking at Bliss’s hands with something between horror and delight. Previous simply guffawed, and slapped Bliss on the back. “Unexpected, you,” she said. “Right, what now?”

“First, we need to get away from here, before our nearly-castrated chum decides to come back with all his friends,” I said. “Let’s move.”

“We’re not going anywhere with you!” Malleay said. Fervent, that boy, but a little behind the times.

Rikkinet said, “We go with her. You want to be sliced up by sewer rats? You no good to Enthemmerlee, then.”

I couldn’t help wondering how much good Malleay was going to be to her anyway, but presumably he had the necessary equipment.

The male Ikinchli caught my glance and let one of his eyelids droop fractionally, as though he’d caught my thought.

“Kittack’s,” I said. “Safest place I can think of until I can talk to the... paymaster.”

W
E MADE A
pretty conspicuous group, even for Scalentine near Twomoon; I tried to hail a couple of cabs, but the drivers took one look at us and snapped their horses to a fast trot. Admittedly even Enthemmerlee had streaks of gore on her gown from Kittack’s injury, and Previous and myself were bloody from head to knees.

Somehow, we reached The Swamp without attracting either a mob or the militia. Kittack ushered us in through the back, in case someone got curious. We stood in a store-room surrounded by smells of alcohol and soap and fish. I fingered the bottle of Laney’s lust-preventive potion I was still carrying.

“One of us must come with you,” Malleay said, “to hear what you say.”

“All right, all right. Fine. Rikkinet?” I said. “You want to join me? If it goes bad, I’ll try and keep the guards occupied, you get yourself out and get them out of here, wherever you can.”

She nodded. We tidied ourselves up a little, and I swallowed the potion.

The ‘courtesy guards’ at the Singing Bird were well trained. “Madam Steel, how nice to see you. Are you planning to play the tables this afternoon?” said one.

“In a manner of speaking,” I said.

They bowed us through. Rikkinet made a low whistling sound which indicated either that she was impressed by the surroundings or that she, like me, was made distinctly nervous by the ease with which we’d got in.

Fain appeared almost instantly through one of the hidden side doors, and flicked his glance over us both without so much as raising an eyebrow. “Madame Steel. And friend. You have news?”

“We have something to discuss,” I said.

“Please.” He gestured towards one of the booths.

Laney’s potion had worked, and fast. I could still see Fain was attractive, but in a distant way, as though he were a well-made statue of some subject I didn’t much care for. He could have stripped his shirt off and I wouldn’t have been interested. It was a weird feeling; like water in the ears, a sense of deafness, and silence. I caught myself shaking my head as though I could dislodge it. Fain himself looked tired; I wondered if it was trying to control his trait that did it. I wasn’t going to tell him about the potion, though – let him think I was still susceptible. Any advantage I could get over him, I wanted.

“Can I offer you anything?” he said.

I glanced at Rikkinet, but she shook her head.

“No,” I said. “Let’s get to business. I know where Enthemmerlee is. But before I can pass her to you, her associates require assurances that she and her companions will be kept safe and together until after Twomoon, and that you will then provide facilities here on Scalentine for negotiations between herself, the leaders of the Gudain, and the leaders of the Ikinchli. That she will be protected from any attempts to harm her, and that you will provide her with asylum here on Scalentine if the negotiations are unsuccessful.” I looked at Rikkinet. She nodded, her eyes fixed on Fain. I wondered if Ikinchli were susceptible to his trait; well, at least one of us would have a clear head.

“And you are?” said Fain, looking at Rikkinet.

“I am servant of Itnunnacklish,” Rikkinet said. “Also am negotiator for my people in this.”

“Itnunnacklish?” Fain said. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

So she told him.

Fain’s face went utterly expressionless.

“Is this true?” He said to me.

“I believe it is. So do both the Gudain and the Ikinchli.”

“And this mating must take place during Twomoon?”

“Yes.”

He leaned back, lacing his fingers together on his chest, staring at the wall of the booth above my head. “Madam Steel.”

“Yes.”

“How did you discover this? All the time we have been on Incandress, we have not heard of the Itnunnacklish.”

His ability to pronounce the name perfectly after one hearing irritated me. “Well the
Gudain
were hardly going to tell you about it, were they?” I said. “Did you actually talk to the Ikinchli at all?”

“Attempts have been made,” he said, glancing at Rikkinet.

She made a hissing sound. “You go first to Gudain, then you come to us? We think you cosy-cosy with Gudain, why we talk to you?”

Fain sighed. “Mistakes have also been made, it seems.”

That seemed pretty damned obvious to me. “Look, Fain. We need an answer. Can you give us one, or not?”

“And what do you get out of this?” he said, leaning forward again and looking me in the eye.

“Relief from the sensation that I have been bought,” I said. “I sell sex, not my soul.”

I thought I caught the faintest crinkling of a smile at the corners of his eyes, but I could have been wrong. “I see.”

“So,” I said. “What’s your answer?”

“Really, Madam Steel, these sort of negotiations take time.”

“‘The right orders, correctly signed?’ We haven’t
got
time, Mr Fain. Twomoon is upon us.”

“Actually, yes...” he gazed at the wall again, drumming his fingers against his crisp shirt-front. “If I were to make such a decision, in unseemly haste, well, the fact that I didn’t even know what the truth was until the last minute would be an excuse no reasonable being could ignore... of course, that assumes one is dealing with reasonable beings. However.” He sat upright, and said, “Yes. My answer is yes. If you bring them here, I will arrange for somewhere safe. For you, too, if you wish?” he said to Rikkinet.