Babylon Steel (35 page)

It probably meant she’d taken the trouble to kill her herself.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

I
GOT A
message to Antheran’s suite, and he came down the stairs to the main hall at such a pace that he tripped on his robes and only saved himself a bad fall by clutching the banister. He forced himself to a walk, his face rigid, and advanced on Antheranis, who, having seen his father’s face, was now trembling quite badly.

He wasn’t the only one, I realised, when Antheran, ignoring him, took my hand in a fervent but distinctly shaky clasp. “Babylon. Antheranis, you will go to our suite and you will await me there.” The boy shuffled off, casting a scared look over his shoulder.

“He’s quite well, my lord,” I said. “Came to visit Essie. I thought you’d prefer I brought him back to you myself.”

“I can see he is well. Whether he will be feeling quite so well in another hour is entirely a different matter. And I shall have to dismiss his bodyguard.”

I looked over at the boy, who was hovering miserably at the foot of the stairs, scuffing the floor with his foot, and occasionally casting apprehensive glances at us.

“May I make a suggestion, my lord?”

“You think I should just punish the bodyguard?” He looked down at his hand, and I realised the knuckles were split. “I already broke the man’s jaw. I was... a little upset.”

“Don’t dismiss the guard. He’s going to be twice as careful now, and if he’s any sense, grateful that he hasn’t been turned out. Boys your son’s age are like cats – they can get through gaps you wouldn’t think possible, before you can turn around.” I had reason to know; I’d hauled more than a few curious youngsters out of the Lantern over the years. There’d been that boy the other day who’d wriggled in through some hole or other.

“I shall think about it. Thank you, Babylon.” He leaned close, and pressed a pouch into my hand. “That is only a token, a nothing,” he said. For ‘nothing,’ it was pretty heavy. “You brought my son back safe to me. If you need
anything
...” His voice shook for a moment.

“Thank you, Antheran.” I kept my own voice low – I normally addressed him as ‘my lord’ in public. “Believe me, he’s fine.”

“This time.” He drew a deep breath and turned towards his son, who put his shoulders back and raised his chin. It was time I left.

I
ABANDONED THE
idea of a drink and headed back to the Lantern. This wasn’t going to be pleasant, but I’d done enough of putting off the unpleasant recently.

Previous was on the door, pulling at her new bracers. I could see the red marks on her wrists, where they’d rubbed.

“We need to chat,” I said.

I called Unusual down from where he was still dancing attendance on Cruel. He stationed himself out front, looking so grim that I said, “Unusual.”

“Yes.”

“We don’t know who did it, and we don’t need any more trouble. So no haring off after anyone on suspicion, all right?”

“Right.”

I was uncomfortably aware that I was echoing what the Chief had said to me. I didn’t want to think about the Chief right now. We’d spatted before, but never like that.

“So what’s this about?” Previous said.

“Come upstairs, okay?” I took her into my room, shut the door behind us and got the wine out of the cupboard. Then I put it back, and got out my bottle of golden instead. I wondered if perhaps I should go down and find out where Flower kept his extra-special bottle, then realised I was just delaying. I poured us both a good knock of the stuff.

“Babylon?” she said.

“You seen Frithlit today?”

“Not since yesterday. Why?”

“How much do you know about him?”

“
Frithlit?
I thought this was going to be about whatever the hells is going on with you!”

“Huh?”

“Come on, Babylon. You’ve got a scar on your face that looks at least three years old, but wasn’t there last week. You’ve been twitchy as a cat on a windy day ever since Clariel turned up yesterday...”

“Was it only yesterday?” I was honestly surprised.

“Yes. So what’s going on?”

“Later. Previous... look. Those bracers Frithlit gave you... someone cheated Bannerman’s out of a pair like that. The matching greaves are in his window.”

She looked down at the bracers, with their delicate running deer, and her coppery brows drew together. Then she sighed. “Oh, Thukret’s hairy balls.” She drank her golden off at a gulp and held out her glass. I hesitated for a moment, then refilled it.

“You think he bought them off some bloke in the Sideways Road, or the Break, maybe? Thought he was getting a bargain?” she said.

“Umm... no, honey. I don’t think so.”

She sighed again, heavier than before. “No. No, nor do I.”

“You don’t?”

She turned the glass around in her fingers, staring at it. “You know when we met? He’d just come out of the Sideways Road. I know the sort of games they run, but I thought he was some tourist who’d got caught, you know? But there’s been other things.”

“Like?”

“I caught him in your office yesterday. He said he was looking for you, but... and the day the Vessels came?”

“Mmm.”

“Well, he told me he hadn’t been here long, but he knows a lot about the law, doesn’t he?”

“Maybe too much for someone on the right side of it, you mean?”

“Yeah.” She drank the rest of the golden, sniffed hard, stood up and started to unbuckle the bracers. “And he’s been asking questions.”

“Like what?” I said, suddenly even more worried. What if Frithlit wasn’t just a lowlife fixer, but a lowlife fixer who’d been hired by the Avatars? What if he’d gone off to tell them about the woman who ran a brothel, who had a scar on her jaw...

Previous glanced up at me, and I could see there were tears in her eyes. Previous! I’d seen her take a blade right through the arm without crying. I didn’t care if Frithlit was working for the Avatars; if I got my hands on that mouse-eared little creep, he was going to
seriously
regret it, just for hurting her.

“Stuff about what sort of money the place earns, and where we did our banking and... well. So I started asking a few, too. And he just sort of slid out of answering. What should I do with these, take ’em back to Bannerman’s? Think he’ll have me arrested?”

“Previous...”

“Don’t,” she said. “I’ve been an idiot. That’s all there is to it.”

“But that isn’t all there is to it, is it?”

“Oh,” she said. And then laughed, a little hard laugh, like a cough. “Funny, I actually forgot for a minute. Yes. I’m pregnant. Dumb, eh?”

“We’ll deal with it,” I said. “Whatever you want to do, we’ll deal with it.”

“What I
want
to do is take that little wretch by the scruff and throw him to the Twins, is what I
want
.”

“I don’t blame you. Give me the bracers, okay? I’ll sort that out, at least. And Previous?”

“Yeah.”

“If he comes back here, don’t kill him, all right? Just tell him to bugger off, punch him if you like, but don’t kill him.”

She snorted. “I’ll just tell him he’s about to be a daddy. If that doesn’t send him running for the hills, nothing will.”

She’s not the type for hugs, so I slapped her on the shoulder. She gave about half a grin, which was pretty good, considering, and made for the door. She stopped halfway through, and turned around.

“Babylon?”

“Yes?”

“I’m used to watching your back, but I can’t do it if I don’t know where the spear’s coming from.”

“I know,” I said.

A
S
I
WALKED
back into town with Fain’s money still in my coat, and the bracers wrapped in a piece of cloth, I realised I was skulking close to walls, like a cat avoiding unpleasant children. I don’t
skulk.
It made me even angrier than I was already. I forced myself towards the middle of the pavement and inserted myself into the stream of people going into the main entrance of the Exchange. The low roar of business and the clatter of coin echoed off the soaring ceilings and lethally polished floors. Exchange guards in yellow-and-brown striped jerkins stood at intervals along the walls, or wandered about, eyeing everyone.

People were exchanging samples of goods and currencies, doing deals that filled the holds of ships and emptied the coffers of kings. Many of the traders were casting signals, strings of hand-gestures so rapid their hands looked like flickering wings: the lingua franca of finance. One language I never managed to learn.

Hugging the walls like they were my best client, I tried to work my way around to the cashiers without drawing attention to myself. I had that constant itchy crawl along my spine that didn’t mean I was being watched, but meant my spine wished it had eyes.

I’d barely visited the Exchange Hall since I first arrived in Scalentine, weary of running and thinking I’d left my past behind. Damn fool that I was. When I had any money to put in, I tended to dump it and get out of there as soon as possible. The place made me twitchy.

“Madam Steel?”

I was on my feet with my hand on my sword before I thought,
they wouldn’t call me that.

There was a little round man in front of me, with oiled hair and beard, his hands flying up in horror. “Sheath, sheath! Drawing steel in the Exchange hall? What are you thinking?”

“I wasn’t.” They’re excessively touchy about people waving weapons around in there; a guard was already eyeing us, ready to head our way. The little man raised his hand to show he didn’t think I was going to cut his throat.

Wonderful. I’d drawn attention to myself for no reason at all. But why shouldn’t I? This was my city, I should be able to draw attention if I damned well pleased.

I tried to push my anger down and looked at the man in front of me. I had a feeling this man had been a client, anyways I knew him, but I couldn’t dredge up his name for my life.

“How do you know me?” I said.

“We have met before, and of course, I know that ring.” He nodded at my hand. “Did you want to talk about the arrangement?”

I gaped like a landed fish, I’m sure. “Arrangement?”

“Yes. Your loan.”

“Loan?”

“Are you quite well?” he said.

“I’d feel a damn sight better if I understood anything you just said. What loan?”

“The loan I was arranging for you...” His high colour began to wash out of his face, like linen bleaching in the sun. “Oh. Oh dear, I think you’d better come with me.”

“I’m going nowhere until you tell me what you’re talking about.”

He looked around the hall. “Please, this is best done out of range of curious ears.”

“Not moving.”

He glared. “Very well. A young man came to me yesterday morning. He had your signature, and your seal...”

“
What?”

“That ring. The same you showed when you borrowed money from us several years ago, to set up your... ah... place of business.”

Ah.
So I had been a client of
his,
rather than the other way around.

“Are you telling me someone borrowed against my name?”

“In your name. He said he was your emissary in the matter.”

I looked at him. He started to back away, raising his hands protectively. “We haven’t given it to him yet! It was a considerable amount, it had to be transferred... but we had no reason not to believe him. The signature, the seal....”

I raised my hand, looked at it. “This ring?”

“Of course.”

“It’s never been off my hand...” I started to say. But of course, it had. I’d taken it off to bathe, and to sleep.

I had been bathing, and had been interrupted. And who had been waiting outside in the hall? Frithlit. Charming little Frithlit, with his wide eyes and his crinkly ears.

And the ring had been covered in soap, and the soap missing. It was an old trick; you want to make a copy of something, take an impression in a chunk of soap. Use it as a mould.

“Tell me,” I said, “what did he look like?”

“Slight. Shorter than me. Blue skin...”

I cut him off. “You, Mister, just arranged to lend money to a fraudster who ripped off Bannerman’s two days ago, and who knows how many other people before that. Or since.”

He raised his hands and made a series of flickering gestures, without taking his eyes off me. I glanced up and saw one of the cashiers make a short gesture back to him. “What?” I said.

“The loan has been cancelled. I have placed a small sum of fifty silver in your account to compensate you for the inconvenience. I do hope this will not affect our future business relationship.”

“I hope not too,” I said, handing him the bag of coin I was carrying, and realising I’d left the other bag at home, dammit. “This is to go with that fifty silver. I’d take it...
kindly
if you don’t give it to anyone else who happens to turn up carrying my seal.”

He bowed low and started to make a lot of protestations about how pleased he was and that if I needed anything...

“Just tell me when he left, and if you know where he went.”

“Yesterday.” He spread his hands. “Unfortunately, he did not inform me of his plans, and had he done so, one must doubt whether the information would be accurate.”

“If he comes back here, I want to know.”

The banker smiled, for the first time, stroking his beard. “He will. We were going to give him the money this afternoon. He’s due to collect it in less than an hour.” He flicked his hands at the cashier again.

I said, “I’ll wait for him. Out of sight. That’ll help compensate me for the inconvenience.”

“Of course,” he said, then glanced down at my sword. “But please... we can’t have any
unpleasantness.
I have already arranged for a message to be sent to the militia.”

“Get a lot into a few flicks of the fingers, don’t you?” I said. “You should be in the profession.”

“Madam! I’m a happily married man.”

“I’m not surprised,” I said. “Look, I just want to be personally sure that the greasy little fraud is under lock and key.”

So he found me a room to wait in, and I sat there, fretting. And fretting some more. And watching a brass clock under a glass dome tick through the minutes, all its little wheels working.