Thraxas - The Complete Series (161 page)

“No,” says Makri, sharply. “Why would you think that?”

“Investigator’s intuition.”

“Well your intuition is quite mistaken. It’s not all you make it out to be, you know. Here, take this pile of money. It’ll make you feel better.”

T
HRAXAS AT
W
AR

This a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

Copyright © 2003 by Martin Scott. Published by permission of Orbit (Time Warner Books UK).

A Baen Book

Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
www.baen.com

ISBN 10: 1-4165-2050-3
ISBN 13: 978-1-4165-2050-4

Cover art by Tom Kidd

First U.S. printing, February 2006

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Printed in the United States of America

Chapter
One
Chapter
Two
Chapter
Three
Chapter
Four
Chapter
Five
Chapter
Six
Chapter
Seven
Chapter
Eight
Chapter
Nine
Chapter
Ten
Chapter
Eleven
Chapter
Twelve
Chapter
Thirteen
Chapter
Fourteen
Chapter
Fifteen
Chapter
Sixteen
Chapter
Seventeen
Chapter
Eighteen
Chapter
Nineteen
Chapter
Twenty
Chapter
Twenty-One
Chapter
Twenty-Two

IF YOU’RE DOWN ON YOUR LUCK IN TURAI, AND IT’S HOLIDAY TOO…

In the enchanted city of Turai, the royal family is corrupt, the politicians can be bought, and the civil guards have better things to do than guard. Being rather fat as well as more interested in his next mug of beer than the pursuit of justice, Thraxas may look unprepossessing, but if you’re in trouble in Turai this portly private eye is probably your only hope. At least, in normal times…

But this time, the entire city is in trouble. Years ago, the Orcs attacked Turai, and came frighteningly close to victory. Since then, the Orcs’s usual internecine squabbles and feuds have kept them too divided to be a serious menace. But now a new charismatic leader has united the Orc legions under his banner and they are preparing to march on Turai.

Thraxas may have been a valiant hero in the last Orc War (at least that’s the way he tells it), but he’s intent on keeping his head down this time. Unfortunately for his preferences, he has had to take on an investigation at the war ministry. There are suspicions of treachery within the city government itself and a Senior Councilor has been murdered. And this last case may take the cake, because that’s just what the murder weapon seems to be…

I
’m sitting at the bar in the Avenging Axe, a beer in one hand and a thazis stick in the other, trying to decide whether to have a glass of klee with my next beer. It’s a difficult decision. There’s a bottle of klee upstairs in my office. I could wait till I get there. But there’s nothing quite like a glass of klee washed down by a flagon of Gurd’s freshly drawn ale. Having examined my options for a while, studied the problem using the full weight of my experience, I decide on the klee. And another ale while I’m at it.

Dandelion, the idiot barmaid, looks as if she might be about to make some comment as to the wisdom of embarking on an ambitious drinking programme so early in the afternoon. I direct a stern glance in her direction. The last thing I need is a lecture about my drinking from Dandelion, a young woman who, while not working behind the bar, is generally to be found on the beach, talking to dolphins.

I frown. This tavern is really going downhill. It’s bad enough having to put up with Makri and her moods without having to endure Dandelion’s own particular brand of foolish behaviour. Worse, there’s still no sign of Tanrose, the tavern’s cook, coming back. I haven’t had a decent meal for weeks. Life just gets worse.

Gurd, owner of the Avenging Axe and my oldest friend, sits down next to me. I’m about to launch into a complaint about the deteriorating quality of his barmaids but I bite back the words.

“No work, Thraxas?”

I shake my head.

“Things aren’t so good. And you know why.”

“The investigation?”

I nod. A few months back I was accused of cowardice in the face of the enemy. Throwing my shield away on the field of battle. This allegation, relating to the Battle of Sanasa, which took place around seventeen years ago, is so completely without foundation that it should never have been brought to court. Not when the man being accused has fought bravely for his city. Unfortunately Turai isn’t a city that rewards a man for his past valour. Rather, it’s a place that seeks to drag an honest man down, allowing advancement to the rich and corrupt at the expense of the poor but upright.

“Business has really gone downhill.”

“No one believes it, Thraxas.”

“Maybe not, but these things are lethal for a man’s reputation. I’m tainted. I’m beginning to regret not killing Vadinex when he made the allegation. Would have got it over with quickly.”

“And you’d be a fugitive by now,” points out Gurd.

Vadinex fought at the Battle of Sanasa. Why he’s now come up with this false accusation is something about which I’m still not certain.

I’ve spent the past weeks gathering evidence to defend myself in court. Plenty of men still living in Turai were at the Battle of Sanasa but it’s not been easy finding many who were close at hand when the alleged events took place. Even for a professional Investigator like myself some of my old comrades took a lot of finding. It meant a lot of uncomfortable trudging round the city in the hot rainy season. Having found a few old comrades, I’m reasonably confident I’ll win the case. Unless my enemies do a lot of serious bribery, which is always possible in this city. If that happens I’ll kill my accuser and leave town. It’s not like Turai is such a great place to live anyway.

I’d have run into money problems by now had it not been for a rather successful series of visits to the chariot races at the Stadium Superbius. I picked the winner of the Turas memorial race and went through the card very successfully, ending the week’s racing with an extremely healthy profit and my reputation as a gambler somewhat restored after last year’s debacle. But the races last year were fixed, of course. Everyone knows that Thraxas never makes losses like that in normal circumstances.

The tavern door flies open. An assortment of foul Orcish oaths heralds the arrival of Makri. The uttering of Orcish oaths is both taboo and illegal in Turai but Makri, in times of stress, tends to revert to the language of her youth. As she grew up in an Orcish gladiator pit, she has a wide variety of Orcish bad language to choose from.

Gurd frowns at her. Dandelion looks pained. Makri ignores them both.

“You know someone just insulted me in the street? I was minding my own business and then for no reason this man said, ‘There goes that skinny Orc.’ ”

Makri reaches over and takes a thazis stick from me, igniting it from a candle and inhaling deeply.

“I hate this place,” she says.

Makri is one quarter Orc. In a city where everyone hates Orcs, it can lead to trouble. Most people in Twelve Seas are used to her by now but she still runs into occasional hostility on the streets. Neither Gurd nor I take the trouble to ask what happened after the man insulted her. We already know.

“So aren’t you going to ask what happened?” demands Makri.

I take a sip of my beer.

“Let me see. A stranger calls you a skinny Orc while you’re walking down Quintessence Street. Now what could your response possibly be? You chuckle merrily and walk on? You congratulate him on a fine turn of phrase? No, don’t tell me, I’ve got it. You punched him to the ground, then told him at sword point that if he ever bothered you again you’d kill him without mercy?”

Makri looks disappointed.

“Something like that,” she says. “But you spoiled my story.”

Makri lapses into silence. These past few weeks she hasn’t been any more cheerful than me. Not just because of the Hot Rainy Season and her aversion to the continual downpour. Even now, when we’ve reached Autumn, one of the brief periods when climate in Turai could be considered pleasant, she’s not happy. This summer was one of the high points of her life, when she scored top marks at the Guild College and sailed into her final year of study as number one student, but after the elation of that faded she got to remembering that her first romantic encounter seemed to have come to an untimely end. This encounter featured a young Elf on the Isle of Avula; a young Elf who has since neglected to get in touch with her. Avula is some weeks’ sail from Turai, but, as Makri says, he could have sent a message. So Makri has spent the past month being about as miserable as a Niojan whore, much to the distress of the customers in the tavern.

There was a time when the sight of Makri, struggling to remain in her tiny chainmail bikini while bringing a tray of drinks, was enough to cheer up the most downhearted local dock worker. Makri’s figure—unmatched, it’s reckoned, in the entire city-state—was of such renown as to make people forget their prejudices against her. As old Parax the shoemaker says, you can’t hold a little Orcish blood against a girl with a physique like that. And there have been plenty more comments in a similar vein, not just from Parax. But even the finest physique can’t compensate for a waitress who bangs your drink on the table and looks like she’ll knock your head off given the slightest excuse. When dockers, sailmakers and the like come to the Avenging Axe after a hard day’s work, they’re looking for a little light relaxation, and when Makri’s angry, it’s hard to relax.