Darkness Weaves (12 page)

Cassi was a hunted man. Most of his life he had been a hunted man. Childhood in the alleys of Thovnosten leads either to rapid maturity or to early death--for survival there is a merciless game whose winners are the strong and the clever. Cassi had been a scrawny child, but his mind was sharp and cunning as a rat's. This natural talent eventually established him as one of the Empire's most resourceful thieves. And when the youth had finally been captured, he cheated the waiting gallows with an unprecedented escape from the Imperial dungeons. Never again could the Imperial guard ensnare him, and his colleagues marveled at his incredible fortune.

Withal, there were a few--a very few--who knew him instead to be one of the Empire's most capable spies. For Netisten Maril had recognized in Cassi a craftiness that could render great service to the Emperor. Maril had himself arranged for Cassi's escape, once he had procured his loyalty, and the fabulous thefts that made Cassi almost legendary among the Empire's underworld were clandestine payments for some valued item of information.

Vague suspicions impelled Maril to send his spy to Pellin. He had maintained a careful watch upon this island ever since the collapse of its Queen's conspiracy. The reports he received had been purely routine, and his nephew's treason had later necessitated his full attention. Otherwise he might have felt alarm, when one by one of his spies on Pellin ceased to make their reports. Those few who did return from that island assured him that all was peaceful there, that the Pellinites were unconcerned over the death of their Queen. But Maril was no fool, and he knew that a spy was a weapon not difficult to turn upon its wielder. A great many separately insignificant circumstances throughout the Empire hinted to him that some plot might be festering unseen. So the Emperor ordered Cassi to go to Pellin.

And Cassi found his master's suspicions vindicated.

A rumor had persisted for some months throughout the slums and waterfront dives where Cassi skulked. There was a haven, so men whispered, that promised wealth and safety for any rogue, regardless of his crimes, in return for his cooperation and obedience in some secret venture. Just where this haven was, or what was expected of them once there, no one would say. Talk was that some mastermind contemplated an Empire-wide smuggling ring, or that a newly formed pirate band was recruiting hands, or that one of the island lords sought to raise a private army in secret, or a host of other wild guesses.

Cassi's own information had tied the rumor to Pellin, so he acted on intuition and made known his interest in this refuge. On cue, the Imperial guard began making things very hot for the thief, and very shortly Cassi made contact with those who promised sanctuary and riches. He was then taken to Pellin, along with a shipload of companions who would have provided a full day of hangings in Justice Square.

On arrival they were taken to newly erected barracks that housed hundreds of other green recruits, chosen from the dregs and the gutters of the Empire's underworld. Here they were given food, weapons and equipment, and the promise of gold. To earn their keep, they were ordered to drill for battle each day. Although the pretense of secrecy was maintained, it was obvious to the dullest of them that open rebellion was planned. Talk flowed endlessly--gloating prospects of plundering an Empire, excited speculation on all aspects of the bold venture, wild conjectures regarding the sinister stranger who directed all preparations.

As soon as he found it discreet, Cassi slipped away to make contact with Netisten Maril's spy network on Pellin. After failing to turn up several of those he sought, he finally contacted one Tolsyt, who was also the chief wine merchant to Dan-Legeh.

The wineshop stank of stale vinegar and sour sweat. It had the look of an empty tavern after the bar has closed--seedy and abandoned in the stark absence of customers. Tolsyt himself looked only half the role of a fat, jolly wine dealer. He was quite plump, certainly--although a noticeable looseness to his skin hinted that he had lost a number of pounds recently. But he was not jolly at all. He was scared. And he looked as though he hadn't seen a sober day in months.

"All right, what's happened here?" Cassi demanded, as soon as he caught the frightened wine merchant alone and satisfied him of his identity. "By Lato's black heart! You people must have known something was going on in Pellin for months! Why were there no reports? Why did the few agents who returned to Thovnos never tell us a damn thing about this blatant conspiracy? And Maril has more than doubled his intelligence force here--where are all the others?"

"Dead. All dead." Tolsyt's soft voice answered simply. "By the gods, how they died!"

His words quavered. Cassi noted in alarm that his eyes were damp with tears, though his face was drained of emotion.

Cassi exploded. "Dead! Everyone dead but you! Do you expect me to swallow that line of bullshit?" His eyes were narrow; now they drew narrower. Cassi was a small man, of drab and undistinguished appearance. An asp is small and unimpressive as well, until it strikes.

The other man smiled stupidly through his tears. "Dead, yes. All but me. Just Tolsyt alone. There were a few others whom she must have bought over to her service. These few she spared so they could bear false reports to Netisten Maril--poisoned lies about quiet, peaceful Pellin. They earned their pay well, it seems. Maybe they told her where to find their former comrades. Maybe she tore betrayal from some of the others with her hellish instruments of torture.

"If you only had seen what she did to them. She was proud hung their carcasses up before the walls of Dan-Legeh, so everyone could admire her art. Must have spent days at her sport. Flayed, burnt, broken bodies--"

"And why not you?" cut in Cassi suspiciously.

"Maril always took into consideration the chance of betrayal, you know that," Tolyst answered. "'He even employed two separate spy networks on Pellin, neither one supposedly aware of the other. And he used a few completely independent spies. And, of course, there were other agents just like me--assigned to watch over one segment of the network without anyone else knowing our identity. Guess that's why I'm still alive--no one here knew I was Maril's agent.

"She found all the others, though. All the men I knew, and Horment knows how many others that Efrel claimed were spies. Maybe her demons told her their names. I only know they didn't tell her mine. I didn't dare try to warn Maril, to try to help the others--I was afraid even to try to escape. I did nothing to give any hint of my true business here."

He winced under the other's sneer. "If you had been here, it would have been the same with you, Cassi. Watching the witch hunt us down like a weasel in a rabbit warren. Living in endless dread of the day she'd hang your shredded corpse up on the walls of Dan-Legeh."

"So you believe their propaganda that Efrel still lives?" Cassi asked contemptuously. What jest of fate had preserved this coward's worthless life, he mused, while better men had died horribly.

Tolsyt snorted in a flash of anger--the first indication he had given that some backbone remained to him. "Efrel alive? You can bet your sweet ass she's alive! That's not just a rumor they've cooked up to fire the public's imagination. Everyone here knows Efrel is still alive--no matter if no one has seen her. But it's Efrel's hand in this rebellion. Who did you think was behind this entire affair? Alremas? Kane?

"Oh, you're a real bright one, aren't you just? Sneaking in here after all of us lie butchered. Knowing right off exactly what's been done wrong. Doubting the words of the only man who was smart enough to escape the damned witch."

Cassi scowled at the wine merchant in dubious appraisal. He needed the man, but wasn't certain whether he could rely on his help--or even trust Tolsyt. Perhaps more than luck had spared the agent's life.

"Why did no one escape the island?" Cassi demanded suspiciously.

"Few had the chance, she struck so fast. And no ship leaves Pellin except under closest surveillance--not even a fishing boat. Something always happens to ships that try to slip away in secret."

"They're all caught?" Cassi frowned skeptically. "No blockade can stop every boat."

"Out there there's worse things waiting than Efrel's navy," Tolsyt shuddered. "Candon and Mosna escaped. Stole a small boat, and sailed off into the fogbound night. I watched them leave. I saw them the next day, too. Hung up outside Dan-Legeh, all pale and bloated--and their bodies covered with puckered gouges and welts, like they'd been whipped and branded all over. That was all anyone knew about it. They sailed out to sea one night, and the next morning they were dragged out of Dan-Legeh and hung up to feed the crows. And I don't know how many other attempts failed just the same way."

Cassi changed the subject. "What do you know about this man Kane?"

"No more than what you will have heard. Nobody knows anything much about Kane. Efrel brought him in to take charge of her rebellion. Oxfors Alremas had to step down for him, so the two are deadly enemies. Alremas is too popular and too powerful a lord to dispose of easily, and Kane is doing his work too well for Alremas to recover his leadership. Something has to break there in time."

"What about these... stories they tell about Kane?"

Tolsyt shrugged. "You mean, that people say he is the Kane of old? Red Kane the Pirate, come from the past to wreak vengeance on the Empire that destroyed him two centuries ago? For all I know, it may be true. Why not? Efrel was destroyed by the Empire, too. She still lives--why not Kane? Everything else about this conspiracy defies the laws of nature. Why did Maril ever take a sorceress to his bed?"

"Ask him when he gets here," advised Cassi caustically. "And you may be certain that Maril will be here with his fleet to destroy this cancer as soon as I make my report to him. And that I'll do just as soon as I can find a way to get back to Thovnosten--without joining your not-so-lucky colleagues," he added pointedly.

Tolsyt seemed ready to dismiss the matter. "Sure, you go on and make your report. Just swim back to Maril and tell him his late wife and a centuries-old pirate are sort of planning on pulling his throne out from under him. You do that. I'll just wait right here for the Imperial fleet to land."

Reluctantly Cassi decided he would have to trust Tolsyt. "I'll work something out. For the moment, I'm going to scout around and see what other information I can pick up. Then tomorrow, say, you are going to get us into Dan-Legeh, If Efrel really is alive, Maril will want to know."

Tolsyt's plump face blanched. "Me? Like hell I will! That's suicide! Maril paid me to spy for him, not to get myself killed. I'm through with this."

"I don't think you are," Cassi told him pleasantly. There was casual cruelty written in his eyes. "I need to get into Dan-Legeh, and since you furnish wine to the fortress, you've got an excuse to pay a visit with your new assistant. And don't even think about crossing me, Tolsyt. I know ways to make a man die horribly, too,"

"But I'm not due to make my delivery there for a week," the other protested.

"Tomorrow, Tolsyt. You've just gotten in some special stuff, and you know the chief steward there will be interested."

He turned his back on the vintner's pleading and hurried from the shop. After wasting time to check on the other agents whose names he had been given, Cassi was forced to admit that Tolsyt had not exaggerated. It seemed incredible that Maril's entire intelligence network had been utterly wiped out, but that was the case. He would have to rely on Tolsyt, then.

The preparations for the rebellion were extensive, Cassi noted, as he walked through the city. Armed men were everywhere, and dozens of forges spewed forth weapons and armor. Ranks of soldiers drilled on several of the open fields beyond the walls, and Cassi had already learned that a number of military camps existed farther inland. The rebels must plan to strike soon, he realized, since the scope of operations had now reached a point where it was obvious that some major plot was underway. Enforced isolation and clever lies could cover up only so much. He would have to get word to Maril soon.

The harbor was filled with ships, and hundreds of workmen toiled at building new vessels and refitting old ones. He spotted some unusual construction in one corner of the harbor and decided to risk a closer look. Munching on some rather green apples he had acquired from an unwary peddler, Cassi strolled over toward the docks.

He gazed at the work in puzzlement. Workers were constructing a number of gigantic catapults, weapons of a size sometimes used to besiege cities. They were fitting these catapults into huge barges--clumsy vessels equipped with long rows of oars for propulsion. Cassi frowned. When completed, these lumbering vessels would scarcely be seaworthy. They certainly could not be rowed as far as Thovnos; and if Kane planned on using them to besiege Thovnosten, the practical course of action would be to transport the bulky catapults disassembled in the holds of his warships and set them up once landed.

It was growing late. Cassi decided he had best get back to his barracks before someone took notice of his overlong sightseeing excursion. With all the confusion here in Prisarte, it was unlikely that anyone cared--but then the Pellinites had demonstrated their efficiency at ferreting out spies.

Riders were approaching. Cassi stepped back to let them pass, and was startled to recognize Imel on one of the horses. He had already learned of the Thovnosian's treason, for Imel had been given a high rank in the rebel army. Moving cautiously, Cassi kept to the shadow of a shop awning. He had seen Imel on numerous occasions around Thovnosten, but fortunately the renegade did not know him.

On another of the horses rode a dark-haired man of rather tough appearance. He wore leather trouser, and a vest with silver conchos. Broad bands of muscle bunched can his arms and chest as the wind whipped his vest. Cassi did not recognize him.

Although the spy had never before seen him, the third rider could only be Kane. There was no mistaking his massive build--even his mount stood seventeen hands at a guess. Kane wore boots and trousers similar to those of his companion, along with a fine rust-colored jupon that matched his beard. The red hair and primitive features followed the descriptions of Kane--and one look at his demonic blue eyes removed any doubt. With a shiver Cassi looked away. He found himself wondering whether the tales whispered of Kane might not be true after all. Certainly there were many bizarre mysteries on this earth, and who could say what manner of creature a demented sorceress might summon to her aid?