Making Peace, page 20
“So what do you want to do,” Sen asked, “go ransack the Second House and burn it to the ground right now? With all those women and children inside?” Tavel ground his teeth, seething, but didn’t say anything else.
Captain looked around at the rest of us. Ugly nodded, and so did Sen. Shield didn’t do anything but stare at the floor. I felt Captain’s eyes on me as thought about it, then I nodded.
When did I become part of this decision? I wanted to ask. Does Captain consider me a part of the team? Hold on, do I think of myself as one of them? When did that start?
Captain slapped a hand against his knee and stood up. “Well then, there’s the majority. We bring in Andre Covina for questioning.” He put his hands in the small of his back and stretched with a cracking sound.
“That’s what we call the popcorn of age,” Sen said.
“Quiet in the gallery,” Captain said. “Get your gear together. We’re leaving for the Second House in twenty minutes. Do this right, people.”
CHAPTER 27
CAPTAIN, UGLY, SHIELD, Tavel, Sen, and I walked through the streets toward the Second House, Captain in the lead. Just six heavily armed and armored people tromping through the ritzy part of town after nightfall, don’t mind us folks. People out enjoying the night gave us a wide berth, partly due to the blades we carried and partly because of the steel in our eyes.
The gate guards at the Second House tried to stop us, but Captain flashed the Keeper badge stitched into the back of his left glove, and after some hesitation and white knuckles the guards let us in.
There was considerable talking and activity in the back gardens behind the manor but we weren’t headed there and couldn’t spare the time to check on it. We repeated the same posturing dance with the guards at the front door, who eventually let us in. The servants inside hastened to run ahead and announce us as we tromped into the front hall. Captain grabbed one poor young fellow by the shoulder of his black servant uniform.
“Take us to your master.”
The young man shook so hard his teeth rattled. Was he afraid of us personally, or afraid of the House being dissolved? I wondered if he had family working for the House, maybe sisters. What would happen to them if we dissolved the House tonight? He had to be asking himself the same question. Nevertheless, he pulled himself together and did as Captain asked, leading us up a wide staircase and down another long hall.
He let us into a sitting room on the second floor with hardwood floors and a scattering of plush furniture. The entire room was decorated in a variety of wood hues. There we found Andre Covina and his wife Sarenna Covina already in their dressing gowns for the night. Andre was leaning against the fireplace mantel and staring into a roaring fire. Sarenna was seated comfortably in an overstuffed chair, sipping her tea. Both looked quite surprised to see us there, and I was a little surprised myself to see Sarenna’s perfect mask slip out of place for the first time. Andre recovered more quickly, his expression turning to anger. He stood upright and stalked toward us.
“You’ve come unannounced. What’s the reason for this visit?”
“Rather blunt,” Sen muttered to me.
Captain, back straight as a lance, did not respond in the least to Andre’s scathing tone. “We request your assistance with an investigation. Please accompany us.”
Andre shifted into surprise and then back to anger even more quickly this time. Sarenna set her cup and saucer down smoothly on a side table without so much as a clink, and rose to her feet, the hem of her heavy dressing gown swooshing around her ankles. She clasped her hands in front of her waist and said nothing. Andre, however, had plenty to say.
“You come into my house uninvited, armed to the teeth, stinking like the gutter filth that you are, and demand I accompany you?”
“Captain said ‘we request,’” Sen corrected him. “And only some of us stink.”
Andre hadn’t stopped. “You bear no seal or warrant from the Council, and I would know for I would have been part of any such decision upon my House and my person. You exist by my continued good will, and you are wearing that dangerously thin. You insult me, trash.” He spat at Captain’s feet. I idly wondered if any of the sting was lost if it was your own floor you were spitting on, but judging from the venom in Andre’s face he was not concerned.
Sarenna had moved to stand behind the chair she’d been seated in, a songbird scenting danger and taking refuge on a higher branch. Her face was carefully blank. She saw me watching her and our eyes met, and I saw rapid calculations taking place there. “Not without a brain,” Ugly had said. He’d been right.
Andre stomped forward and got right in Captain’s face. “I want you out of my house. Now. Before I have you thrown out and your cell wiped from the city.”
Captain’s expression remained calm and professional, despite the spittle flying with every word Andre spoke. Captain let a few seconds go by before replying. “We will, of course, have to come back once we get the warrant. It will be easier if you just come with us now and answer the questions we have.”
Andre’s face loosened up, and he laughed as if Captain had told a joke. “A warrant? You think you’ll get one? With me on the Council?” He shook his head, grinning at Captain. “No, trash. I won’t be assaulted in my own home. As much of a handle as I’ve got on the Council, there will be no warrant. Now get out.”
Tavel, standing beside me, spoke up next. “We’ll be back, wretch. You’ll answer, by my life.” Ugly spun to Tavel and glared at him in warning, but Andre just laughed.
“Is your pet mouse squeaking at me, trash? And what am I supposed to answer for, mouse?”
“Shut up, Tavel,” Ugly growled.
Tavel spoke right over Ugly. “For the deaths of our companions. The deaths of pregnant women, and their children. The abominations you’ve perpetrated against the people of this city.”
Andre laughed again. “Oh, mouse. Those are quite the accusations. You’ve got proof?”
Ugly grabbed Tavel under the arm and tried to drag him out of the room. Tavel shouted, “You bet we do. Your mercenary sold you out. It’s over for you.”
For just a moment Andre’s face lost its laughter, going rigid with shock, and I knew the witness had spoken the truth. He recovered quickly and chuckled to himself, then turned to Captain. “I know you lost a lot of people recently. I’ll let this rudeness go. Hopefully, nothing else unpleasant happens to your people.” Andre let his words hang in the air.
Tavel froze in Ugly’s grip.
A threat? I wondered. Yeah, it must be.
The Keepers were silent. Tavel shrugged off Ugly’s hand and walked to the other side of me between me and Sen, sulking. The tension crackled in the room, until Captain finally cleared his throat.
“We’ll be back with that warrant.”
Andre smirked. “Yes, let’s bet on that.” And he put his hands in his pockets, assuming a casual stance.
I turned to go with the rest of them, not able to bear the smug look on Andre’s face. I had taken my first step when I heard a hissing sound which made every muscle in my entire body tense. It was the sound of ceramic on leather, a blade clearing its sheath. And it was fast, too fast. It was either an extremely short blade, or… I turned back, hoping I was wrong.
I wasn’t wrong. Tavel had drawn his long, curved dagger, the one sheathed at his hip. Only he could have drawn it so quickly. I had turned fast enough to catch the last of the arc and to see his blade come to a stop in midair.
The smug look was gone from Andre’s face. His expression was completely blank, his hands still in his pockets. Tavel’s curved blade had ended its arc and was frozen a foot to the right of Andre’s head, the top three inches glistening a deep crimson. Droplets were still flying in an arc and splattered across Sarenna. Her eyes went wide at the feel of warm blood on her face. Painted lips parted as if she wanted to ask a question, but she hadn’t even drawn a breath. She was the perfect portrait of a traumatized heroine from one of my stories.
Andre burbled something, and blood began to spill from his mouth. Blood oozed down his throat in a crimson sheet. He pitched forward abruptly but his neck wobbled and the head went the other way down his back, still connected by a strip of flesh. His bleeding corpse crumpled to the floor and a pool of blood grew under him, staining the rich carpets.
Shield gasped something about the Lady, the first sound she’d made since coming into the room. Sen and I were both completely frozen. Captain’s mouth hung open.
Ugly turned to Tavel, who was still in his attack stance and panting heavily. Their eyes met, and Tavel’s face split in a wolf’s grin. I had never seen Ugly so unnerved before. His face was rigid and eyes wide with horror as he shook his head at Tavel. “What have you done, boy?”
A puzzled frown replaced Tavel’s grin. His eyes darted from the corpse at his feet to Sarenna, the blood-spattered widow. His eyes connected with the dagger in his hand and he suddenly dropped it as if it had burned him.
Tavel took a few steps away from us, shaking his head. No one else moved.
“I… I… I had to, he…”
Ugly took a step toward him. “You murdered him, Tavel.”
At these words, Sarenna finally found her voice and screamed, an agonizing keen that pierced my ears.
Tavel’s eyes went wild, his teeth chattering. One moment he was looking at us, the next he had turned and was racing toward one of the windows. I remembered the girl at the First House and tried to make my feet move, but they were still sluggish with shock.
The rest of the Keepers went after Tavel, but he was fast and had a head start. I saw him go through the lattice window with his arm raised over his face. Glass shards and bits of painted wood swept out into the night after him. By the time I got to the window Tavel was sprinting across the grounds. The hedges below the window were mangled and crushed from breaking his fall.
The rest of us turned to follow, but the doors smashed open behind us. In through the door bolted ten members of the Watch, with swords drawn. The Keepers froze in place.
Sarenna slowly wiped one of her white-silk-gloved hands across her face, smearing the blood. She looked at the bloody, gloved hand, then used it to point at us. “They killed Andre,” she said in a small voice empty of all feeling. “They killed my husband.”
The Watch immediately surrounded us. Blades hissed all around me as the Keepers drew their weapons, and I was surprised to find my hand gripping the hilt of my own bared sword.
Shield was in her combat stance with shield raised, looking fretfully around at the unexpected enemy. It occurred to me we were going to have to fight our way out through two to one odds, and that was just to get to the door. We still had House guards and whatever other members of the Watch were present in the manor.
Too late, I realized these Watchmen had probably been the ruckus in the back garden, all of them gathered in one place. But why were the Watch on the grounds? And why had they been so close to the room?
The ranking officer of the Watch stepped forward and barked at us, “One chance. Throw down your weapons.”
“Fat chance, asshole.” Ugly tightened his grip so hard his knuckles cracked and he shifted into a forward stance, what I knew to be the first stage of his standard opening attack. But a gauntleted hand stopped him, gripping his harness at the shoulder. It was Captain Dancer.
Captain lowered his blade and let the point rest on the floor, but did not drop it. “I am Captain Dancer, First of the First Cell of Keepers. My subordinate committed this crime without my prior knowledge or approval.”
The Watch members stopped advancing but did not relax. Neither did any of the Keepers.
Captain went on. “I offer myself as collateral until the Watch apprehends my renegade subordinate. If he is not caught, I offer myself in his place.”
Shield immediately screamed “No!” and tried to throw herself in front of Captain. Sen grabbed her around the shoulders and held her back as she struggled.
Ugly was staring intensely at Captain over the shoulder Captain was still holding. “Are you sure about this?”
Captain nodded, then dropped his sword. After a few moments, the rest of us did so as well. Shield was the last, and she sobbed as she refused. She started turning this way and that, looking lost. “No, you can’t take him,” she whimpered. “No. Please don’t.” It was a terrible sound, broken and hopeless. Ugly wrapped her in his arms, forcing her to lower her mace and shield. They clanged as they hit the wooden floor, dropping from nerveless fingers, and her face went blank. If we hadn’t lost her before, we definitely had, now.
The Watch officer didn’t seem to know what to do, so he turned to the only person who outranked him and wasn’t under arrest: the newly widowed leader of the Second House. Sarenna Covina met Captain’s gaze and nodded her consent. The Watch officer gestured to two soldiers as Captain stepped forward, and they snapped shackles onto his wrists. Without ceremony, they led him from the room. He glanced back only once as he passed through the doorway to share a look with Ugly, and then he was gone.
The rest of us weren’t under arrest but the Watchmen weren’t about to let us stay in the room with Sarenna after our companion had just murdered a political leader. We collected our weapons and they ushered us out of the room. Ugly sheathed his blades and had to help Shield walk, practically carrying her. The utterly empty expression on her face was frightening.
As I left, I saw Sarenna kneeling beside the body of her husband, carefully holding her skirts so as not to let them drag in blood. Her head was down and her hair had fallen forward over her face, hiding her expression.
CHAPTER 28
WITH A HEAVY slam and the clang of the latch, my new bedroom door sealed out the rest of the world. We were at a new safehouse the Watch didn’t know about, yet another nondescript stone warehouse, and we were settling into unfamiliar quarters yet again.
My leather boots, broken in enough to finally stop biting my feet, tracked mud across my wooden floor, but I was beyond caring. I staggered to my desk and removed my sword belt, something I was able to do now in a few twists of my fingertips, and dropped the entire heavy affair on top of the wooden desk.
My numb fingers went to the clasp around my throat to remove the cloak, but it was stubborn. I snarled as my fingers started clawing at it, finally ripping it off. Suddenly furious, I turned and hurled the heavy cloak against the wall, then stood panting and glaring at the damned thing as it slid down to pool on the floor. I kicked my boots off with a savage growl and they landed on top of the cloak. I left it all to get soaked with mud. The energy went out of me and, still dressed in my street clothes, I collapsed onto my bed on top of the quilts.
Face buried in the thick bedding, I closed my eyes and focused on bringing my hard breathing under control. The last three weeks had been a terrible mixture of frenzied activity and self-pity for the remaining Keepers. Captain was under arrest and being held at an undisclosed location. Tavel, that rash fool, had disappeared. The last report by the Watch had him hightailing it out of town on a stolen riding lizard. Technology being so poor here, there was no way for us to get a message to the spaceport before he could escape. Even if we could get a message out, the planet didn’t keep a database of citizens so spaceport security wouldn’t be able to identify him.
Tavel’s family, upon questioning, reported not seeing him and having no knowledge of his whereabouts or plans. They had been taken in by the Watch and were also being held at an undisclosed location.
I knotted my hands into the quilts, crushing handfuls of the material. The crush released the smell of sundried cotton, which brought back memories of Shield and the time she had comforted me, which only worsened my already sour mood.
After losing Cora and the other members of the staff, Shield had been nearly broken. Losing Captain on charges of murder and then Tavel abandoning the rest of us to the consequences had been too much for her. The shattering of her small family had rendered her completely catatonic. Just like Vapor, Shield was now bedridden and completely unreachable.
During the hours when we believed Shield was awake her eyes just stared vacantly at the ceiling, glossed over and reflecting very little light. They showed no recognition at any voice or face, and nothing had brought her around after three weeks of trying. I had stopped visiting her after the first few days, unable to stand the inexplicable rage which burned in me when I saw her.
The last time I had gone to see Shield I’d heard voices inside her bedroom and stopped outside the door. I’d crept to the doorframe and looked inside. Ugly had been sitting at her bedside, his large body perched upon a small wooden chair. Shield had been dressed in her nightgown and had lain unmoving in the bed, blankets pulled up to her shoulders, arms resting outside the blankets at her sides. She’d stared up at the ceiling. Occasional blinking and a shallow rise and fall of her chest were the only movements she’d made.
Ugly had been reading haltingly to her from her favorite book of Valkyrie teachings, his voice carefully picking out the sounds as his brain slowly recognized the words. I hadn’t realized it before, but he must have been illiterate and was slowly learning to read, and he’d learned just enough to sound out the words in her book.
It hadn’t been the most eloquent reading of the Valkyrie’s writings I’d ever heard, but it was perhaps the most meticulous and earnest. Absorbed, I’d watched them for a good twenty minutes. At last he’d paused and leaned over to deposit a gentle kiss on her forehead. My heart had broken for them both when there was still no reaction, but it hadn’t seemed to faze Ugly. He’d taken a sip of water from a brown ceramic mug and had gone right back to reading. I’d left them to their privacy.
The dull throbbing in my white knuckles reminded me how long I’d been clutching the quilts, and I consciously eased the tension out of my hands. There was a knock at my door, and my fingers knotted back up before I could stop them, which meant I had to spend several seconds unclenching them again. I didn’t want to deal with anyone at the moment, but the knock came again, louder this time. I sighed and turned my head to one side to see the door and be heard. “Come in.”
