Fallen Blade 04 - Blade Reforged (5 page)

“Maybe a little bit,” I replied. “But only in the way I’m talking about things, not
the sentiment behind them. It’s rare that the path to justice is so easy to see, but
Thauvik deserves to die if any man does.” It wasn’t all that long ago that we’d managed
to prevent him starting a war between his neighbors. “We’re among the very few who
could
manage it. Knowing that, do we have the right to turn away from our responsibility
to justice?”

“When did all this occur to you?” Triss sounded more than a little dazed, and I can’t
say that I blamed him.

From the outside it must look like I’d become an entirely different person, changing
who I was as completely as I’d changed my face, and all rather suddenly. Some days
it felt like that from the inside, too.

“I’m not sure, Triss. I think it happened in the instant that jackal torturer laughed
on the wall of the prison, though it took a while to sink in. It’s been years since
I felt as sure about anything as I was about the fact that what he was doing was evil,
and that if I didn’t stop him right there and then, I’d be complicit in whatever evil
he did going forward. I might not have thought about it at the moment, but if what
the torturer was doing was evil enough to kill him for it, how much more evil were
the actions of the king who ordered him to it? If I had to stop the one, don’t I have
to stop the other? Once you’ve asked that question, the answer isn’t something you
can turn away from.”

Triss nodded. “I think you’re right, but I’m still surprised. You sound so decisive,
and that’s not something I’ve been used to hearing from you these last few years.”

“It’s not something I’m used to feeling. Back in the old days, before the fall of
the temple, I was certain all the time. Some days I think that’s what I’ve missed
most in the years since Namara died, that sense of knowing what was right. There’s
a pleasure to that, that I can’t even begin to see anywhere else, though I didn’t
even know it was there till I’d lost it. In the shadow-jack years, I wasn’t certain
of anything.”

“You seemed pretty sure about wanting to get drunk,” he said, but without the heat
that comment would once have held.

“No, not even that.” I glanced over at Maylien who was doing an excellent job of pretending
she wasn’t listening to every word we were saying. “For all that I couldn’t stop myself
drinking, I never once felt like it was a good idea or
what I ought to be doing. Hell, that uncertainty is half of why I wanted to drink
so much, and more than half of why I still want a drink more days than I don’t, even
today.”

“Wait a second,” said Triss. “I thought you just said you were sure about what you
had to do. Now you’re saying uncertainty makes you want to drink.”

“I’m certain about Thauvik, and that’s good, better than having a drink by far.” I
laughed a bitter laugh. “But that’s the only thing I’m really sure about. For the
rest, I’m still wandering in a fog. I know what we need to do tomorrow and probably
the next day, and the next, at least until Thauvik’s dead and Jerik’s free. After
that? I hope I can find something else to be sure about, but I’m far from sure that
I will. It’s enough to drive a man half-mad and maybe more than half.”

I turned away then and walked to the rail of the balcony. Behind me, I could feel
Triss sliding along the shadow trail that connected us. A moment later I felt a tight
pressure across my back and shoulders as he wrapped his wings around me. He didn’t
say anything, just held me tight for three long beats, then dropped down to hide himself
in my shadow. Maylien’s chair scuffed on the tiles of the balcony.

“I’m very sure about something,” she said, coming closer as she spoke.

“What’s that?” I didn’t turn around.

“That the man I asked to help me with my sister was a damned good one, whatever he
might have believed about himself at the time. That’s not the end of it, though, because
the man he’s become in the year and a half since is an even better one. I’ll help
you with my uncle, and I’ll take the throne if we can put me there. I’ll do it because
it’s the right thing to do and I’ve a duty to the people of this kingdom every bit
as important as my duty to the people of my barony.”

“I’m glad to hear it, we’ll start tomorrow.”

She came into view on my right then, leaning one hip
against the balcony and smiling at me. “I’m sure about something else, you know.”

“What’s that?”

“I like you decisive.”

“Do you, now?”

“I do.” The corner of her mouth quirked up, and I was reminded once again that she
was a beautiful woman and of what had been between us in the past.

“That’s good, because I think I feel another decision coming on.”

“What’s that?”

“This!” I leaned over and scooped her up into my arms.

Her smile broadened into a grin as I carried her toward the doors. “Good decision.”

I kissed her then as Triss opened the door for us, while Bontrang followed along purring
happily.

*

Captain
Kaelin Fei, Tien’s perfect model of a corrupt cop, and my…friend? Ally? Once and
future nemesis? Whatever you called her, the captain was a power in Tien and, by extension,
all of Zhan. We’d saved each other’s lives at least a couple of times in the middle
of the mess with the Durkoth, and because of that she was one of the few who recognized
the new me as well as the old one. When I pulled back the curtain on her private booth
at the Spinnerfish, she gave me a very hard look.

“What’s this about, Aral?”

As I slid into a seat across from her, I let the curtain fall behind me, magically
cutting off anything we might say from potential listeners. The private booths at
the Spinnerfish were
really
private. They were also one of the very few places in Tien where people could meet
with their enemies as safely as their friends. The owner, Erk Endfast, a onetime black
jack, maintained the tavern’s neutral status by the simple expedient of killing anyone
who violated the peace of the house. Since it behooved the powers of the city to
have someplace like the Spinnerfish exist, he almost never had to ghost anyone beyond
the actual transgressor. If all that wasn’t enough to recommend the establishment,
there was always the fish—some of the best in Tien.

I smiled at Fei. “Why does this have to be about anything other than old friends getting
together for a quiet romantic dinner?”

Fei snorted. “We could start with the fact that you’ve never once in the years I’ve
known you asked me out for a social dinner. Or that I don’t particularly like boys,
nor really girls all that much, though I’ve been known to change my mind on the latter.
Add in that you completely vanished from the city late last summer, and that this
is the first I’ve heard of you since. Finally, heap on top of that the fact that it’s
the middle of the night, which is the best time for you to vanish once this is over,
and yeah, I get suspicious. Not that I wouldn’t be suspicious if you’d asked to meet
me at noon in the middle of the square on Sanjin Island. I can’t help it, suspicion’s
an old cop habit. So, again,
what do you want
?”

“Some of Erk’s excellent fish as a starter,” I said, mostly because I wanted to rile
Fei up a bit before I got down to business, put her off balance.

“It’s on the way. I ordered for both of us when I got here and told Manny Three Fingers
to start it when you came in the door.”

“But you didn’t even ask me what I wanted.” Not that anything Manny cooked ever came
out less than excellent, but there was the principle of the thing.

“I told him to give us two of whatever was best tonight, and that if he tried to fob
me off with something they had too much of they’d have to start calling him Two Fingers
instead. I also told him to slather enough salamanda sauce on yours to burn the top
of your head off.”

“I can imagine his response.”

“I bet you can. He told me that if I wanted one of his fingers that bad he’d give
it to me right now.” Fei made a rude gesture. “Then he assured me that the sawfin
was
incredible tonight and he’d save me two good steaks. Now, can we finally get down
to why you’re here? Or do I have to pretend that you’ve got me all flustered to get
you to cough up whatever crazy thing it is you’re planning to spring on me?”

“Fine. Be that way.”

Fei crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows at me, but didn’t say a word.

“I’m going to kill Thauvik.”

“Good. It’s about fucking time someone did it. Who are you planning on replacing him
with? The Marchon girl? I like her, though her bastard status will count against her,
especially with the example of Thauvik so fresh in everyone’s mind. They’re calling
him the bastard king more and more of late, and that’s going to make it a tougher
sell to put another illegitimate ass on the royal seat cushion. Not to mention the
fact she’s a mage, though I don’t think that’ll matter as much just now.”

I blinked several times. That was not the reaction I’d been expecting. Fei was a corrupt
cop, but not for the usual reasons. She didn’t break the law to enrich herself, though
it surely did that. She did it because it was the best way to do what she thought
of as her real job, which was keeping the peace and protecting the citizens of Tien.

In Fei’s city, you could sell all the opium or caras dust you wanted to, but if you
tried to cut it with something lethal, she would see that your body was found, or
the important bits of it anyway. Likewise with gang fights. The Cobble-Runners were
welcome to kill all the Bonebreakers they wanted, and vice versa, but if either side
involved civilians, she would fall on them like a burning building full of red-hot
iron.

“I’m…surprised,” I said after a moment. “I thought you would be worried about the
chaos that a change in the Crown inevitably brings.”

“That’s because you haven’t spent the last six months in Tien. Thauvik may not be
as bad as his late unlamented brother yet, but there’s no doubt he’s headed that way
fast.
I’d rather have a few buckets of blood spilled in the streets in the process of toppling
him from his throne tomorrow than the great vats of the stuff I expect to see if the
madman stays on his fancy chair for another year. So, is it the Marchon girl?”

“I hope so, yes. We have a paper signed by her father before his death that legitimizes
her and her sister.”

Fei nodded. “If it’s real, that
would
change things. Hell, it’d put her place in the succession
ahead
of her uncle’s, at least technically. But you can’t bring it out after he’s dead.
No one will buy it for a second then, no matter how authentic it actually is. And
if you put it out there beforehand, Thauvik’s going to have her killed.”

“He’ll try to, but I’m not going to let that happen. We’re going to deliver the declaration
that legitimized her directly into the hands of the chancellor at the Winter-Round
court.”

“That’s insane…how can I help?”

I told you we wouldn’t have to lean on her,
Triss thought smugly.

A
faint scratch sounded from my chamber door, loud enough to draw attention but not
to disturb. I was getting tired of that and of the deference it implied.

“Enter,” I said.

An older woman opened the door and peered into the dimness. “Lord?” She was carrying
a slim gray bundle.

“I’m over here, and no lord.”

“Close enough for a seamstress like me.” She crossed to where I sat and set the bundle
on the desk. “I’m finished with the first set, my lord.”

“Thank you.” I didn’t bother to correct her again. It hadn’t taken the last five times
I’d tried and it wasn’t going to take now. “I appreciate it.”

She bowed and left without another word. As I turned my eyes to the things she had
brought me, Triss shifted into dragon form on the wall above the desk.

“Don’t hover, Triss.” I still hadn’t touched the bundle.

“I’m not. I just want to see this. It’s been so very long.”

I swallowed hard. Now that the moment had come, I found myself strangely reluctant.
If it hadn’t been for Triss’s
obvious excitement, I think I would have stuffed the bundle in the bottom of a drawer
and tried to forget I’d ever thought this might be a good idea.

“Go on,” said Triss.

With a sigh I put my hand on the top item in the pile. Raw silk met my fingers, whisper
soft, but rough and specially finished, so that it drank light instead of reflecting
it the way the shimmering fabrics the nobility favored did. I wondered briefly what
the seamstress thought I had wanted of something so drab. I flipped over a fold, revealing
the nature of the garment, a loose pair of pants. A shirt and vest of the same design
lay beneath, each with many small pockets sewn into the interior. On the bottom was
a yoke and cowl with its outer seams sewn double to give it more shape. I ran my fingers
along one sleeve, admiring the watermarking that broke up any hint of a straight line.
It reminded me of a fine marble or threaded sandstone.