Arm Of Galemar (Book 2) (46 page)

“Do we need to know anything about it other than what
we already do?  We recovered it from an attempted assassin.  Such a person in
possession of a dubious object of a magical nature might give us the starting
point.”

“Yeah, a starting point.  And where is that exactly? 
Is the point here in this district, or across the city?  Is it back in the
Thirty-Seventh near the One Soul’s chapter house, or maybe out in Tourney
Town?  Or all the way back in copping Spirratta?  If we can’t even
find
 the
starting point, then it’s no good to us!”

Landon sat impassively, sensing Marik’s frustrations
had not yet been fully drained.

“There’re too many mysteries.  They had a trap already
set for us the
first day
we arrived.  They tracked us to the chapter
house and attacked us again.  They waited eightdays without doing
anything
until
last night.  Dietrik’s investigation only netted us a list of shady shops
around the city, and that’s next to worthless.”

“Still, we haven’t acted on that list yet.”  He held
up a hand as Marik made to retort.  “I know.  If any leads from the latest
attack prove to be blind alleys, we can always return to that.  We will need to
plan our strategy beforehand to exercise proper caution.”

“If the place we’re looking for actually is an alchemy
shop, which is still only conjecture, simply walking through the door won’t
tell us if we found the right one,” Marik replied.  “We can’t simply go in and
ask if they have any connections to dark guild assassins!”

“Which is why we haven’t bothered yet and also why we
need to plan our actions well in advance.  If we do pursue that course, we must
decide the best questions we might ask.”

Marik continued as though the archer never spoke. 
“That’s why I’ve been puzzling over this bracelet.  Knowing it’s magical
doesn’t actually tell us much.  Except that our assassin was well-funded.  I’ve
been hoping that, if I can figure out exactly what it is or does, it might
reveal whatever we need to know.”

“And has it?”

“No.”  Marik paused a breath before adding, with
extreme reluctance, “In fact, I was wishing Tollaf were here.”

That surprised Landon.  He laughed briefly before
stopping, drawing an irritated look from Marik.

“This is what
he
does!  The old fool’s always
picking things apart in his workroom, figuring out how they work!”

“It’s unfortunate we don’t have time to send it to him
for analysis.”

Marik shrugged.  “I don’t think we’ll have this very
long.  Ferdinand said he would tell the cityguards.  I’ll be surprised if they
don’t show up today to demand it.  In the meantime, we need to learn everything
we can about it.  Here.”  He tossed it into Landon’s lap.  “You have as much
chance of uncovering its secrets as me.”

The archer rotated it in the low light.  Thinking
aloud, he observed, “Nothing unusual.  At least from a casual inspection. 
Let’s name all we know about it first.”

“Which isn’t much.  Other than the fact an assassin
had it, what else is there? 
I’m
convinced it’s a killer’s tool, but I
can’t prove how.”

“A killer’s tool, yes…but a mage’s?  It is magic made,
but made for whom?  Another mage?  Or a magicless user?”

Frowning, Marik said, “I don’t think she was any kind
of mage.  That’s only my instinct, though.”

“So magic is not the required key for activating
whatever this does.  It must be simpler.”  Lips pursed, Landon suddenly slipped
the bracelet over his hand.

“Hey!  Landon, that’s not smart!”

After a brief squeeze over his fist, the oversized
circle slid onto his wrist.  Marik waited, tense.  Nothing overt occurred. 
“You moron!” he exclaimed while Landon waved his hand around.  “No wonder you
get along so well with Kerwin!  You’re as much a gambler as him!”

“It had no effect on the lady assassin.”

“Yeah, but it might have been triggered specifically
to her!”  Marik actually had no idea if that might be possible, but why take
chances?  “It could have been set up to kill anyone else who put it on.  Might
still be, in fact!”

After prodding the bracelet on his wrist, Landon
removed it.  “I don’t think so.  From what I understand, anything magical can
usually only hold one type of spell.  At any rate, simply wearing it doesn’t
seem to force the magic to work.  I felt nothing different.  Did you?”

“Nothing I noticed,” Marik admitted.  He had wondered
earlier if putting it on was required to trigger it.  His reluctance had held
him back.

“It can’t be complicated,” Landon decided.  “An
assassin in the middle of a job can’t afford to waste time on complications. 
At the same time, the payoff for bringing this must be worth the effort of
utilizing it.”  He began examining the bracelet’s details closely, searching
for cracks or joining lines.

“I think,” Marik offered, “that the charms must be a
key element.  Last night I thought they were only a camouflage to disguise the
bracelet as an ordinary trinket.”

“Look here,” Landon said.  He pointed to one section. 
“This one loop is missing a charm.  Did you search her body for other items?”

“No,” Marik admitted.  “Ferdinand turned frosty and I
was thinking about Hilliard.  I didn’t notice then.”

“Perhaps there is a second piece to this.  Could there
be a separate charm?  One that activates the magic once it is connected to the
empty link?”

“I suppose so.  Hells, probably you’re right.  I’ve
never studied magic like this before.”

“These aren’t locked in place,” Landon continued with
his testing.  “They slip right off.”

“Remember the order,” Marik suggested when Landon
began twisting the small charms off their links.  “Maybe arranging them in a
certain order is the key.”

“I wouldn’t think so in this case.  Remember, it can’t
be complicated or time consuming if we have guessed right.  But I was wondering
what she might have done with this.”

“If we ever figure it out, we’ll know.”

Landon smiled slightly.  “You misunderstand me.  She
obviously did something to activate the magic since you felt it half a building
away.  You don’t feel the same way with it sitting right before you as you did
last night, do you?”

“No.”  Marik frowned.

“So what you must have felt was the activation of the
magic.  But when you found her, she was about to kill Hilliard with a knife. 
And a typical thief’s long knife at that.  A definite clear message to the duke
if Hilliard were found with that stuck into his body.  Knives may be standard
for an assassin, but if the spell she invoked was not meant to kill him
directly, then what was it meant for?”

“It can’t have been to seal off the room.  I broke
through the door with muscle power.  So…not a call for help either.”

“Perhaps it was.  If others were close at hand, they
may have backed off once they saw us in control.”

Marik shook his head.  “That can’t be right.  When she
triggered the spell, she was in complete control there in the room with
Hilliard.  She didn’t need help then.  She could have just stuck him with the
knife and been gone before we ever realized.”  He refilled his glass with
wine.  His head pounded, which happened whenever he forced his mind to think in
circles.  “Like that damned onion…” he muttered.

Landon, overhearing, smiled broadly.  “Yes, exactly
like an onion.  I’m glad you remember that.”  He twisted a small, golden sword
free of the bracelet.  “Let’s look at it from that perspective.  Many times all
you need is a fresh look from a different angle.  If this is an onion, then
what is the topmost layer?”

Marik shrugged, raising the wineglass to his lips.

“The topmost layer is usually the most obvious one. 
In this case, it would be the dark guilds in Spirratta.  We learn they might
have designs on our charge’s life, and so act accordingly to protect him while
near that city.”

“So what’s the next layer?”

“Beneath the first layer exists the next.  The thing
to remember is that the people creating the deeper layers never intend for them
to be seen, or at least remain undiscovered until it is too late.  The nobles at
the court call it Rooks.”

“The nobles are a bunch of self-righteous fools.  Most
of them anyway,” Marik amended.  “But fine, let’s follow that logic and see
what other moves are being planned under the surface.  Probably the next layer
would be the ambush we walked into in district Thirty-Seven.  They must have
been counting on us to lower our guard once we arrived safely at our goal with
Hilliard intact.  All we saw then was the top layer, which is what they planned
for us to see.”

“Agreed.  But the smart assassin always makes
contingency plans.  When the first strike failed, the assassin, or assassins in
all likelihood, must have made arrangements with the local dark guilds to find
us.  Thus the attack on the chapter house.”

Marik nodded.  “We already figured that much before.”

“Ah, but what then?  Having failed the task at hand,
would the assassins return to Spirratta to report their failure?  Such might
mean their own deaths.  No, they must have decided a different tact was
needed.  They were facing dangers they had not anticipated, as demonstrated by
your mage powers.  So they schemed to create a third layer after we became
focused on the second.”

“Right.  We were being careful on the streets, so they
had to outsmart us and strike when we felt safe.”  A looming question suddenly
struck Marik.  “Hey!  How did they slip her into Sestion’s party?  Wouldn’t the
other women have recognized she wasn’t one of them?”

A peculiar smile played across Landon’s lips.  He took
off the last charm, a wicked stiletto.  “How indeed?”

“Unless they didn’t know each other in the first
place.  Ferdinand might have rounded them up from all over the city.”

“Unlikely that he would spend so much time doing so,
even to impress his peers.  Likely instead that he went to one of the prestigious
brothels to hire the lot all at once.  The name of their house, if it was
prestigious enough, might impress his guests as much as the ladies.”

“Yeah, that sounds like them,” Marik mused, meaning
the aristocracy as a whole.  “But then how could the assassin have slipped in
with the others without notice?  Isn’t that a big risk?”  He clenched his
teeth.  “Damn.  I should have asked Ferdinand where he got those women from.  I
should have thought of that last night!”

“He arranged with the Standing Spell to host their
ladies for an evening.”

“What?”

“I gather it is a higher class gentleman’s
establishment here in Thoenar.”

“You mean a brothel.”

“At heart, yes.  But it is supposed to service greater
needs than simply the primal.”

Studying him suspiciously, Marik asked, “How did you
find that out?”

“About the brothel?  I asked Walsh last evening while
you and Kerwin carried Hilliard upstairs.  About where Ferdinand Sestion
gathered the courtesans?  I asked his lordship in the hallway before we walked
in on you and Dietrik.”

“So why,” Marik continued, more tired than angry,
“didn’t you say so in the first place?”

“I wanted to see how far you would work it out on your
own.”

He verged on asking why, then decided he did not care
why Landon acted the way he did.  Instead, he posed a different question he’d
wondered over frequently since they had departed Kingshome.  “Why aren’t you in
charge of the group, Landon?  Officially in charge among the four of us?”

“You’ll have to ask the commander about that.”

“You aren’t going to?  You’re more experienced, have
better instincts and think faster than I do.  You’re completely senior to me.”

Landon’s smile persisted.  “But you listen whenever I
mention my thoughts, and learn from the experience.  Why should I quibble if my
advice is being valued?  I’m not power hungry.  Besides, if the worst happens
in the end, it’s better not to be the leader.  It keeps your head from
rolling.”

At times, Marik struggled to decide if Landon was
joking or not.  This was such a time.  Ignorance usually imparted bliss, so he
refrained from asking the man.  “Mostly I feel like a horse with blinders over
the front of my eyes as well as to the side.  I’m blundering along without
knowing if I’m walking in the right direction.”  He clutched the wineglass and
contemplated it.

“I’m sure most leaders will tell you the difference
between a successful leader and a failed one is how well they play at cards.” 
At Marik’s confused expression, he added, “A good card player can conceal any
hand, good or bad, behind a mask.  A good leader can do the same, projecting
calm assurance despite his true feelings.  It’s a tip to keep in mind for
future reference.  Much like that talk we once had about onions.”

They had strayed from the subject at hand.  Marik
turned from his misgivings, wrenching his mind back to their problems.  Sounds
from upstairs told him people would soon come down and steal their privacy. 
“Speaking of which, the assassins failed with this third layer.  We’re on our
maximum guard.  I can’t imagine they could be so devious as to come up with a
new plan that would get around us.”