Take the body and give me the rest (13 page)

Elizebetha
found him a few hours before they were to dock and pulled him
aside. ‘Seth, I’ll be leaving the ship separately from you lest we
give you away to anyone who might be watching the ship arrive,’ she
said.

‘Of course,
I’ll disembark and head straight there,’ he said.

‘As I said,
there is a diary I need badly but you won’t find it in the ordinary
library. You’ll have to search for it,’ she said.

She reached
back into her purse and poured a small amount of gold coins into
his palm.

‘Sorry I
haven’t got more for you, but I think you’d better go to that place
with some armed company. You won’t be able to trust the guards, the
food and especially the servants. Who knows what they were going to
do to Minsetta when she was there and they’ll think you’re her. As
you said, the guards have no idea who is coming, only someone
dangerous. Who knows what they have planned?’ she said. ‘I’m sorry
to put you in such danger, Seth, but I need to know what he did.
It’s all I’ve been searching for the last so many years.’

Seth wasn’t
afraid of the Dark Guild’s little snare; he had confidence in
Stephan’s swordsmanship and Minsetta’s dark cunning. Already,
Stephan was talking to him about men, not to hire them from bars
and such but to buy them, slaves. Seth didn’t like the idea of that
very much but knew they would be much more useful than some drunken
thugs he’d picked up from a tavern.

‘Never fear,
Elizebetha. We’ll show them the folly of playing games with the
night’s darkest shadow.’

Elizebetha
shuddered and looked at him strangely. ‘Why did you say that?’ she
asked.

He laughed. ‘I
don’t know; it just came to me.’

Chapter 15

The passengers of
The Opulent
were treated to the very rare sight of the Captain
on deck, near the tiller as the ship came into the port and slowly
docked with the many ropes cast from the deck. Seth held back and
wandered the decks for the last time. He went and stood by the
sparring decks as the happy and rowdy sea of people made its way
with many trunks and chests of luggage off the ship. After most of
them had left, Seth breathed out deeply, shook himself and also
strolled off the ship.

He felt like a
part of his life was now over. He knew he’d never be that person
again. By absorbing the memories and feelings of Minsetta, he’d
lost so much of his own naivety. She had seen so much pain, not
only in the summoning and fighting but also in love and life. He
felt like what they had had was just a candle in the dark night; it
could never have lasted long.

His feet found
their way easily through the city and any eyes watching him
wouldn’t think for a moment that this was his first time to tread
its polished cobblestone streets. Pelloss City was well ordered and
prosperous. Everywhere, trade and life carried on. People had
wooden stalls along the sides of most streets and every few minutes
Seth would pass by some men in the bright red cloaks of the city
guard. They seemed a peaceful lot, mostly talking with this or that
trader about issues of orders. Seth knew from Minsetta that the new
king was called the Coiner as a mockery. Trade and order were his
passions, not warfare.

Seth was happy
in the knowledge he’d be left the hell alone in his visit to
Pelloss. It was also nice to know that the king wasn’t a part of
the Dark Guild, as far as he could tell. Seth walked on and slowly
the city began to get rougher and rougher. Normally, a city’s docks
were its worse feature, but in Pelloss they were the centrepiece
with the white towering walls and deep bay. As he got towards the
slave market, Seth started passing the familiar ill-made boarding
houses, taverns and slattern houses.

The smell of
the slave market found and stung his nostrils and, at his first
sight of one of the long cages with people for sale pressed against
the bars, Seth was filled with a creeping dread and deep, deep
burning anger. He hated slavery with a passion now, and he knew
that lovely Pelloss, like every other one of these cities, built
its wealth from it.

Seth walked
closer and closer to the cages and heard the first hails from the
slave masters, keen to engage in selling with him. He looked at the
wretches in the cages, like he’d been only a few short months and
many lifetimes ago. As he looked at the people, they turned from
being a faceless mass to individuals: an old woman on her knees at
the front of the cage softly weeping, a tall and simple-looking man
next to her with a faded shirt with a large mud stain on the front,
three dark-skinned southerners who looked a lot like mother, father
and a son, who was almost a man. Seth turned his head; he didn’t
want to take them in as people.

As he closed
his eyes, the memories came now, thick and fast bursting in his
mind, landing like blows. Minsetta standing at the front of a giant
summoning circle. Inside, he knew, there were ten terrified slaves.
Around the edges of the circle stood the people of her sect, all
dressed in dark robes and with hidden faces. She summoned a rift
and through it ran, literally ran, the creature he had seen the
night she’d tried to take him. It ripped and tore at the slaves,
killing them in an instant in front of the followers. Minsetta
stood solemn, watching the carnage without expression.

Seth had heard
her words, heard her change them to, ‘And give us the rest.’ He saw
the surge of power hitting not only Minsetta but her followers as
well. They were all washed with the memories, the life and the
power of it.

‘Hello, good
master, looking for some fine slaves today?’ Seth was startled out
of his reverie by a lanky fellow with a gold tooth engaging with
him.

Seth composed
himself to the task at hand. After all, he’d bought lots of slaves
because Minsetta and even Yend had before. ‘Yes I want some good
footman, fighters if you have them.’

The man smiled.
‘Right you are, my good master, the best slaves in Pelloss I have
here.’ He pointed to a group of eight Cravosi men all chained
together. They looked dirty and angry, but they looked tough as
well. Seth realised, though, that his handful of gold coins
wouldn’t go very far at all. He knew he would need at least four
men if they were going to sleep in shifts and also fetch meals if
the food might be poisoned.

‘I have eight
gold pieces and I want four men,’ Seth said.

The man
actually snorted at him. ‘No, no, no, two pieces for a life? Not in
Pelloss city. Maybe back across the sea you’ll get such a deal, but
not from Sevron, not today or any day.’

Seth didn’t
even wait to hear the rest of his talk and walked off along the
line of cages to the cheaper and worse cared for of the living
chattel. The bars on the cages were getting thicker and groups of
people milling inside soon became people chained individually to
the floor or the wall. Slaves without much life left but plenty of
ambition to escape.

As he walked
on, a dark-skinned Southerner approached Seth. ‘Sevron is a crook.
I think two coins a man is a fine price and I have just the men to
suit your purpose, my lord,’ he said.

Seth didn’t
like the look of him at all. It was probably the long, rolled-up
leather whip he had dangling at his side or the lopsided smile. The
man indicated the cage and Seth saw five men all chained to the
back wall, but that one of them had his head hanging at the angle
of dead.

‘Bloody
troublemakers they are, but they will work once you apply the good
whip to them. Strong as beasts as well. Be glad to see them go with
you at that price,’ he said.

Seth looked
deep into the gloom of the cage and through the dirt and the blood
thought they might even be Northerners; they seemed tall enough and
had clothes that may have been sailors’ garbs once before
saltwater, dirt and slavery had set to work on them.

Seth spoke to
them in the first Northern he’d said in months. ‘How’d you boys get
into this bloody mess?’ Slowly, four hanging heads came up to
regard him. They were Northmen indeed, under the bruises, cuts and
mistreatment he could see it clearly.

They looked at
him but couldn’t see past the rapier, dagger and clothes that,
while also sea stained, still looked fine enough.

‘Ignore the
clothes. I’m a Northerner too, from Bloodcrest,’ he said with
pride.

One with dirty blond hair and a very badly split lip spoke.
‘We were on
The
Fleet
and it got taken by these
pirate bastard Pellosi. Sold us to this piece of shit right here
along with twelve or so others.’

‘What happened
to the others? The Captain?’ Seth asked.

‘Captain
drowned with three arrows in his back. Some were sold but most died
in this cage,’ the man said.

Seth filled with anger. ‘I was almost on that ship, but
got
The Opulent
instead.’ He thought of travelling with Minsetta instead of
winding up in another slave cage.

‘Nice if you
can afford it,’ the man said.

‘I’m in the
mind to get you boys out of there; I have need of some guards in
the next two days. What would you say to that?’

A different one
who was a bit older and had a bruise almost black across his
cheekbone spoke to Seth. ‘Better than dying in this fucking cage, I
reckon.’

The deal was
struck. Seth had bought four men body and soul for two gold coins
apiece. He still had two gold coins left and some silvers from Yend
to buy food and drink from outside the library. He walked slowly
away from the slave market with four stumbling and limping shadows
following behind him. The slaver had tried to sell him some good
foot chains or a nice branding, but Seth had declined.

Once they were
away from the market and on one of the cobblestone streets alone,
Seth turned and looked at them. They were as tall as he but clearly
had the look of sailors to them. Well-built but underfed with each
carrying different small injuries and marks of bad treatment.

Seth regarded
the Pellosi slave collars around their necks. One solid metal ring
bent into place while hot and by two black smiths, Very simple and
hard to remove. Seth reached out with his hands to the man with
dirty blonde hair. He didn’t flinch as with an incredible display
of strength Seth pulled the thick steel collar apart and cast it to
the road. He repeated the process on all of them until they stood
in front of him, rubbing sore necks and regarding him with awe.

‘You can run if
you want; all I’ve paid for is to get you out of those cages. I
don’t think one man can own another and, believe it or not, I’ve
been on your side of the transaction. I don’t hold with slaves,
but, as I said, I need some strong lads to watch my back for the
next two days. If you stick with me, I’ll get you fed, get a sword
in your hand and, when I’m back into coin, I’ll get you a fighting
man’s wage. Takers?’ Seth said.

The slightly
older one of the group picked up his slave collar, looked at it,
then, dropping it back down on the street, he stepped forward and
clasped Seth wrist to wrist. Seth could see the painful black
bruise across his right cheekbone, and he bore whip marks on his
strongly muscled arms. ‘You’re a good damn lad, truly. I thought we
were all dead in that cage, dead and thrown in with all the rest,
buried not burned, too,’ the man said. ‘They call me Grimm and I’m
with you.’

‘I’m Seth. Good
to have you, Grimm,’ Seth said, gripping his arm.

Two of them
stepped forward, and Seth saw now under the dirt they were
brothers. Both had long black hair and were big men even for
Northerners, at least half a hand taller than Seth. One clasped his
wrist, then the other. ‘I’m Flint and he’s Stone. We’re with you,
Master Seth.’

Seth felt the
power in their arms on a friendly clasp. ‘No master needed, just
Seth and glad to have you.’

The
blond-haired man regarded Seth and slowly looked at the others and
then the vacant streets of Pelloss, not a soul stood between him
and freedom. Looking at Seth, he smiled a charming grin. ‘I’m
Goldie, and I’m with you too, but I have a question to ask
you.’

‘What’s that,
then?’

‘What’re our
chances of killing some Pellosi?’

Seth felt the
rage coming off the man and the other three as well, and he
understood it. ‘I’d say that’s part of the deal.

Chapter 16

They walked
through the cobblestone streets in silence. Around them hustled the
vibrant trader city, Seth let them buy some cooked meat on skewers
which they devoured in mere moments like the half staved men they
were. He followed the directions Minsetta had been given, and they
weren’t hard to follow. The house was made of large white stones
and set off on one of the main streets, surrounded by a large iron
fence. The ornate but solid gate was guarded by two footmen in
house livery. It wasn’t a hidden location; rather, it was hidden in
plain sight. He knew that this large manor house actually had many
levels underground where The Guild hid their leather-bound
treasures.

Approaching the
gate, Seth looked at the footmen. They were well-dressed but held
their pikes with the rigid attention of soldiers. Much more than
just servants these, they held themselves like men born to fight.
The people on the street strolled quickly past this house, like
many others in Pelloss with guards. Almost all of them did. It was
only people like Seth who had made a profession of war who could
spot a soldier underneath the fine garments.

He approached
the man on the left. He was tall and looked at Seth intently as he
approached, without moving from his stance of pike across the open
archway, interlocking with the man across from him. Seth didn’t
know what these men were expecting, but it probably wasn’t a
slightly worn-looking Northern lordling with a gang of four dirty
slaves with him.