Dangerous Gifts Read online

  “I won’t tell anyone.”

  “He tries to hurt her, what will happen to him?”

  “If he tries something, I get between him and her. He might live through it.”

  “Might.”

  “My first priority is her; if I can only stop someone harming her by killing them, that’s what I’ll do.”

  She nodded, looking away into the misty night.

  “I’d really rather not have to protect her from her own damn guard, though. And it’s not as if it’s only Gudain she has to watch out for.”

  Stikinisk’s head whipped around. “What you mean?”

  “Well, you must know, there are Ikinchli who think she’s a fraud. Some kind of Gudain plot. We met one on the way here, and he’s not the only one.”

  “You did?”

  “Yeah. They missed. And she let them walk away. So, in the guard? Are there any? Come on, Stikinisk. You want to protect her, you need to tell me.”

  She sighed. “Not in the guard. That I know.”

  “All right. What about the captain?” I said.

  “Captain mostly looks at us, sighs, goes away again.” She shrugged. “He hears you are coming, he is not happy.”

  “I’m not planning to take his place. But he seems to think that the guard are going to be disbanded.”

  “Yes. We been hearing that, when lady Enthemmerlee become Patinate, she is meaning to send us all away, hire foreign guards in. She is all for change things, you know, breaking traditions, so maybe it is true.”

  “How would you feel about that?”

  She looked at the ground. “Is okay here, you know? I mean, Dentor, he is not so fun, but is people like him anywhere. And I like the Lady Enthemmerlee. She always treat us decent. She doesn’t think we are so good as guards, she is right, but maybe we can be better. So, I would like to stay. To guard the Itnunnacklish, that is something, yes?”

  “You believe in her, then?”

  She shrugged. “The priests say that she is the bringer of peace. This is good. Me, I don’t want a war.” There was the faintest emphasis on me, and I remembered what Fain had said.

  “You think some do?”

  She sighed. “For some people, fighting is the only way to solve anything.” She glanced at me again. “I got to go.”

  “All right. Thanks for talking to me, Stikinisk. One thing, before you go. No one’s patrolling the grounds. Now, I don’t want to get you in trouble with your captain, but maybe if you know a couple of people who are trustworthy, you could set something up, hmm? Just walking about, looking, making sure no one’s sneaked in over the wall, you know?”

  She nodded. “I talk to some people, we get something going.”

  “Oh, one more thing,” I said. “I don’t suppose you know anything about the silk route, do you?”

  “Goes through to the docks. Seen the caravans sometimes. Always lots of guards, lots of weapons.”

  Well, that was faintly comforting. “Thank you.”

  “You be careful, Lady Steel.”

  “I’m always careful,” I said, as she hurried away.

  Then I realised I was echoing the Chief, and it was as though the rain had made its way right inside me, chilling my bones. Suddenly I could feel every one of the miles between us.

  The seneschal could wait. I had to talk to Fain.

  ON MY WAY back, out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement over by the curtain wall.

  A little late for gardening, and they didn’t move like someone familiar with the ground. I drew, and moved up as quietly as I could.

  Bergast, feeling his way along the wall and breathing like a man trying to push a cart stuck in the mud. He seemed to be sticking some kind of black threads to the stone, fragile stuff that clung like spiderweb, then dissolved. A faint smell of burning sugar hung in the air.

  Eventually he straightened up, hands in the small of his back, panting, and saw me. “Oh, it’s you.”

  “Yes. Wards?”

  “Yes.” He wiped his forehead.

  “And the gates?” I said.

  “Yes, I’ve warded the gates,” he said. His expression was so exactly that of Jivrais being asked if he’d picked his laundry off the floor that I felt at once exasperated and desperately homesick. He didn’t look as though it had been that easy, though; there were shadows under his eyes and his hands were shaking.

  “They were shut?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. What do you make of the guard?”

  “No worse than one would expect. I don’t suppose it’s a job requiring much intelligence.”

  Since it was a job I’d done, more than once, the remark got my back up somewhat.

  “Well, I’ll let you get on,” I said.

  “Thank you.”

  I watched him for a moment. I still wasn’t sure about the lad, although there wasn’t anything I could put my finger on other than that he irritated the hells out of me. And if that was a crime, half the people I’d ever met would be in gaol.

  “AH, MADAM STEEL,” Fain said. “Where have you been?”

  “Getting some food,” I said, fighting to keep a straight face. I’d found my way to Fain’s room to discover him clothed in traditional Gudain costume, which even his looks and grace could not render anything other than absurd, especially when he sat down, looking like a cloth caterpillar bent at the middle.

  “Well, we need to talk,” he said. “This situation is ridiculous. I cannot possibly stay here, but at the moment it is proving impossible for me to leave. I tried earlier, to arrange transport back to the port, and a wheel came off the carriage. All my clothes are covered in mud.”

  “Ah,” I said. “That explains... Right.”

  He gave me a supremely irritated look. “I’m glad you find this amusing.”

  “I don’t,” I said. “Really.”

  “If you remember, I don’t happen to have any spares with me. Or much else.”

  “I know. I don’t know how many more ways I can apologise,” I said. “Look, I need to talk to you.”

  “About?”

  “The attempted assassination, for a start.”

  “Ah, yes. Unfortunate.”

  “One word for it. It didn’t even sharpen the guard up worth a damn, and she just let him walk off.”

  “You think she should have done otherwise?” Fain said, linking his fingers under his chin, and watching me.

  “As her bodyguard? Bloody right I do. As a politician? You’d know better than I whether she made the right choice.”

  “I rather think she did. How naïve a choice it was remains to be seen.”

  “Depends whether or not he comes back, doesn’t it?” I said, throwing myself into a chair so overstuffed I almost bounced straight back out.

  “It depends whether she saw the small group of determined looking Ikinchli who started to walk in the same direction our murderous friend did. I do not think they were planning on patting him on the back.”

  “Oh. I missed that.”

  “You were, very sensibly, concentrating on your charge. They were heading away from her, not towards her.”

  Had Enthemmerlee noticed? If she had, and had done nothing... No. Not naïve, unless it was naïve to assume your supporters would do your dirty work for you.

  I tried to think back; had she glanced behind us? Hesitated? I couldn’t remember.

  And it wasn’t my place to ask. If she was less naïve than she sometimes seemed, then, frankly, it improved her chances of survival considerably.

  I knew that from brutal experience.

  “You think he’s dead?” I said.

  “I believe it is more than likely, unless he had the sense to run like the very hells as soon as he was out of sight.”

  “Didn’t strike me as the type.”

  “No.”

  “Well, that’s one less thing to worry about. I hope. Now, how quickly can we get a message back to Scalentine?”

  “Normally it would take at least a day and
a night, probably more.”

  “Well, you might have to resign yourself to another day here, then,” I said. “It’s all I can think of.”

  “You plan to send a message? Who to?”

  “To Laney, asking her to come here and do whatever it is that has to be done to take off the oath. It’ll dent our takings something rotten, but...”

  “I hope you’re not going to ask me to pay you more, considering that you’re the one who put me in this absurd situation.”

  “No, I’m not. But I’m not going to send for her unless you do something for me.”

  “I am not in the mood for bargaining, Madam Steel. What exactly do you want from me?”

  “I want you to tell me who you were talking to on the boat. And what’s going on that involves the Chief.”

  His face went very still. “What were you doing, spying on me?”

  “Oh, come on, Mr Fain. You hired me to spy. And I overheard you, purely by accident.”

  “Why do you want to know?”

  “Look, Fain. I have enough of a situation here, without having my mind distracted by wondering what’s happening back home.”

  “So you are involved with Bitternut.”

  “We don’t shout it about, but yes. Don’t tell me you didn’t know.”

  “Not for certain, no.”

  “Fine, happy now? You’ve another card in your hand. I told you I was no strategist, Fain. I don’t like these games. I just want to know what you think you’re doing telling people to watch him as though he was up to something. If you don’t know he’s the straightest arrow ever shot, you’re mad. Or maybe working for the Section distorts your way of thinking; you said as much to me once. But if he’s in some kind of trouble, I want to know about it, and I’ve no intention of yanking Laney over here without having some idea of what the hells is going on.”

  “There are means by which I could get her here myself,” he said.

  “And when she finds out she’s been deceived, I’ll watch you try and deal with one pissed-off Fey with a deal of power, and you won’t be in Scalentine, where it’s damped. I’m pretty sure the oath will be the least of your worries, at that point.” Not to mention, which I didn’t, the fact that Laney might still be up to her neck in remorse and somewhat to the left of rational. “Besides, what were you planning to do with me while all this was going on? I can’t exactly bodyguard Enthemmerlee if I’m in irons.”

  Fain shoved himself to his feet. “And if I cannot get back to Scalentine I can’t keep an eye on a situation that may be at least as bad as the one here!”

  “Meaning what, exactly?”

  “Meaning I should be there. That is my job. And if it becomes known that I am not a businessman, it will do nothing to improve things here, either.”

  “You’ll just have to be discreet, then, won’t you? Tell me why you want the Chief watched.”

  “Whatever you think you heard, Madam Steel, I have the greatest respect for Chief Bitternut. He is an asset Scalentine can ill afford to lose, and I have every intention of trying to ensure that it does not.”

  “Fine. When you decide to tell me what’s going on with the Chief, I’ll send for Laney. Until then...” I turned to leave.

  “Madam Steel.”

  “What?”

  “I cannot force you to take a Fey oath, but I need a promise from you, that if I tell you, you will stay here, and complete the task – both the tasks – that have been asked of you.”

  I turned around. “How bad is it?”

  “Do I have your promise?”

  “What happens if I break it?”

  “Then you break another promise. You said you would guard Enthemmerlee until after Patinarai. And it wasn’t a promise made to me. You promised her.”

  I had, too. And having seen what passed for a household guard... Well, I wouldn’t think too well of myself, if I left her safety to that scrow.

  And what would the Chief think of me, if I went back now?

  “All right, damn you, I’ll stay. But you’d better tell me what the hells is going on, Fain.”

  He sighed. “You may have noticed an increase in... tensions, recently, between Scalentine’s various citizens.”

  “The Builders?”

  “Among others. There have been a number of murders.”

  “Yeah, I heard.”

  “Did you also hear that the murder victims have only one thing in common? They’re all weres.”

  “They’re all...” It hit me in the guts, and to stop myself falling I fumbled into the nearest chair, banging my hip hard on the arm. “You think the Chief...”

  “I think if one of these groups is targeting weres, for whom they do seem to have a particular hatred, then the Chief is likely to be a tempting prize.”

  “But...” My throat locked. Oh, Hargur. You must have known. And you didn’t tell me.

  He wouldn’t have missed it – not a connection like that. But I had. Like I’d missed whatever else had been worrying him.

  Fain passed me a cup of water. I looked up when I took it, and thought I saw something showing through the usual smooth façade. He looked... stricken. But then there was nothing in his face but mild concern.

  “You didn’t tell me,” I said. “You knew this, and you didn’t tell me.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Are you?”

  “Babylon...”

  “I’d rather we went back to Madam Steel, if it’s all the same to you, Mr Fain. You didn’t tell me.”

  “And what would you have done, if I had?”

  “Stayed on Scalentine and watched his back, what do you think?”

  “And who would have watched Enthemmerlee’s?”

  “You could have found another bodyguard.”

  “She wanted you. And so did I.”

  “Damn you to hells, Fain. All of them. So what will you do when you get back, since you’re so concerned to protect him as an ‘asset to Scalentine’?”

  “I’ll be honest with you,” he said. I snarled, but he ignored me. “I don’t know if I can protect him, but I do know I can try. And I can do things, or arrange for things to be done, that members of the Militia can’t. You remember our conversation about Bergast? Before we left Scalentine?”

  “No.”

  “I told you he wouldn’t have been my first choice; though his qualifications are extremely good, he lacks experience. But our major specialist in defensive magics is currently assigned to Chief Bitternut.”

  “You... But magic strong enough to kill isn’t usable on Scalentine.”

  “I considered it a reasonable precaution to take.” Which gave me serious pause. Firstly it meant that Fain was taking the threat to Bitternut really seriously. Secondly, it meant that Fain, a man high up enough in the Diplomatic Section to know a deal more about how Scalentine worked than I did, thought that assassination by magic might, under the right circumstances, be possible, even there.

  “So Bergast is your second best?” I didn’t even know why I was asking, except that it gave me something to say while I tried to cope with the idea that Hargur – whose job, the All knows, was dangerous enough anyway – was now, possibly, the target of some nutter who wanted all weres, especially influential ones, dead.

  “No,” Fain said. “Another of our magicians was assigned to another non-human in a vulnerable position, in case weres were not the only ones in danger. Personally, I was not sure this was necessary, but I was overruled. And another was supposed to be returning from a mission, but her ship was delayed. So, it ended with Bergast.”

  Right now I didn’t give much of a fart about Bergast. “A day and a night before a message will reach Laney,” I said. “Another day and a night before she can get here. If there are ships going in the right direction. How much would it cost to hire a ship, just to carry a message? Is it even possible?”

  “Not, perhaps, so long as that,” he said.

  “What do you mean? You were the one that said it.”

  �
��Yes, assuming you go by civilian means. However, there is an alternative. Considering the urgency of the situation.”

  I had no idea what he was talking about. I was trying not to let the churning panic in my stomach overwhelm me. I’d never felt this kind of fear in battle. I didn’t think I’d ever felt this particular kind of fear. Except perhaps once, long ago, for a sweet-eyed gentle boy who’d been burned alive in front of me.

  Don’t think of that.

  “Here.” He held something in his hand. It was only a few inches across, and put me in mind of those armatures that sculptors use before they add the clay; a structure of wires that indicates a shape to come, set into a base covered in tiny cogs and dials no bigger than my thumbnail.

  “What is it?” I said.

  “It’s a device for speaking between planes.”

  “Oh. That’s what you were using in the cabin.”

  “Yes. It is fortunate that I had a chance to pick this up, at least, before my need to follow Enthemmerlee became overwhelming.”

  “Why didn’t you ask for someone to be sent, then, to take off the oath?” I said.

  “There are no Fey employed in the Section. They do not seem to find it conducive. Getting someone to find and persuade another Fey to come here would take days, and would risk exposing the situation.”

  “So you can send a message to Laney.”

  “Yes. Well, I can send a message to someone who has the other part of this device, and they can contact her by more standard means.”

  My brain hurt. “But if you could do this, why is it so vital for you to be in Scalentine? Surely you can tell people what to do from here?”

  “My job consists of rather more than ‘telling people what to do,’ Madam Steel,” he said, a little crisply. “And there are other factors. But for our purposes, this should be perfectly adequate.”

  “Show me,” I said.

  Using the device, or rather watching Fain use it, was an exercise in frustration. It had to be fidgeted and fadgeted with, twisting the dials the merest fraction this way and that way, edging a tiny handle down the smallest bit with a fingernail, and so on and so forth, until finally there was a kind of tingling crackle and a shiver of blue-purple light ran along one of the wires.