Old Man's Ghosts (14 page)

Narin woke early after a fractured night; mingled bursts of exhausted sleep and anxious wakefulness. Dov’s cries were born of need and, for the main, were easily calmed, but not long before dawn they became frantic and insistent for no reason Kine or Narin could fathom. Eventually, Narin had half-dressed and carried the baby around the bed again and again, almost drifting off to sleep himself as his daughter was slowly soothed.

Still he refused to sleep elsewhere, whatever the day might bring. Foolish or not, Narin had longed for that night and would not be moved until the first scrap of dawn’s light lined the shutter outside their window. Only then did he prod the fire back into wakefulness and reluctantly haul on his stiff leather boots, but it was with a glow of happiness he kissed them both goodbye and headed downstairs.

Enchei was waiting for him in the kitchen, Kesh having long since gone to bed.

‘Good night, then?’ the old man asked.

Narin smiled wearily. ‘As good as promised,’ he agreed, accepting a black mug of coffee. ‘Gods I hate this stuff,’ Narin commented as he took a tentative mouthful.

‘Aye, but most likely someone’ll try to kill you today,’ Enchei grunted, pushing forward a board on which he’d cut a few slabs of bread. ‘So let’s not have you so tired you’re ready to fall over.’

‘What about you?’ Narin said. ‘You’re hardly your irritating and alert self this morning.’

Enchei scowled and took a large swallow of his own coffee. ‘Aye well, you get old and ya don’t sleep so well.’

‘Why not? You didn’t get any at all the previous night – even an old wreck like you should’ve been tired out after all that.’

‘Tired yes, asleep no. Sometimes a man’s thoughts don’t allow for it.’

‘Conscience keeping you up?’ Narin had meant it to be a joke, but from the way Enchei tensed he realised it was far closer to the bone than he’d realised. ‘Sorry,’ he added. ‘Want to talk about it?’

That elicited a snort from Enchei and restored his more usual manner. ‘Not a bloody chance. You’ve got enough on your plate anyway.’

‘I’m not a child, Enchei,’ Narin pointed out, ‘I’m your friend and you’re helping me enough with my problems. Is it about these hounds?’

Enchei looked up, eyes wary for a moment. ‘I, I suppose so.’

‘Right then,’ Narin said. ‘Today, Rhe and I are going to be trawling districts for summoners – Wolf, Redearth, Salamander and Iron. That’s a lot of ground, a lot of Lawbringers we could be wasting the time of. Now I know how this goes, I can’t claim some knowledge without telling others how I came by it, but tell me now if we’re going to be wasting the day. I’m walking round with a target on my back here. In the absence of being able to do bloody anything about it, I’m fine with that, but it’d help knowing if these investigations are going to get us anywhere.’

‘I ain’t the fount of all demon wisdom you think I am,’ Enchei snapped. ‘Don’t know a whole lot about hellhounds and lots of others besides. Truth be told I can’t really say if you’re wasting your time.’

‘What can you say?’

Enchei shrugged. ‘That you might not be, for what that’s worth. I ain’t certain of anything here, I just don’t like coincidences.’

‘Coincidences like you knowing the barman who was killed.’

‘And the night he was killed,’ the veteran said darkly, ‘that’s part of it too. Was a special night for me. If I’d not been paranoid, I’d have been drinking there till closing that night.’ Enchei sighed and knocked back the rest of his coffee. ‘Right, here it is then. Last year, that night, I was drowning my ghosts in that pub like I do every year. A man came in and we recognised each other – not who we were, but what, if you get my drift. Now, my people aren’t much fans of renegades and you don’t get to retire anywhere but on the family farm.’

‘And you think he’s now hunting you?’

‘Could be him, could be someone else. My lot never used hellhounds or contracted out to those who do, but a lot could’ve changed in twenty years. It don’t make sense, but it’s one hell of a coincidence – the sort that gets a man killed if he ain’t careful.’

Narin forced himself to eat while he thought. ‘And if they catch you, then what?’

‘You know what,’ Enchei said. ‘No one’s taking me alive.’

As though to make his point he grabbed his long leather coat and tugged it on. Narin remembered the quilted interior to it, the powder or earth that Enchei had sewn into the coat himself.

It had seemed a quirk until their conflict with the goshe, where Narin had seen the firepowder used by Irato’s former colleagues, both as weapons and to burn their own casualties beyond recognition. Their crossbow bolts had exploded on impact, lighting up the night with blinding white-hot flames – and the goshe’s weapons had been crude compared to Enchei’s. Whatever the old man had in store for his suicide, Narin knew he had taken pains to ensure there would be nothing left at all.

‘Is it really as bad as that?’

‘Aye – the man I was officially died a long time ago. They find out different, my family’s in danger and I won’t allow that. He didn’t know my name and there won’t be enough left of me to identify if it comes to the pinch.’

‘So how do I investigate that?’ Narin asked, almost laughing at the task he saw ahead of him.

‘I’m no Lawbringer, you know your craft better’n me. All I can tell you is I don’t think it’s my lot playing with hellhounds. For Astaren things don’t change quickly – methods, approach, commanders, whatever. Twenty-odd years ain’t long enough to go from nothing to using weapons like that in one of the most observed cities in the Empire. Some renegade ain’t worth revealing a new toy to the rest o’ the Empire.’

‘Even if you’ve a traitor to hunt down? Someone who faked his own death and could now be working with the enemy?’

That made Enchei hesitate, but at last the older man shook his head. ‘No – there’d be no need if they knew
who
I was. You’ll have to take me at my word there. I’m right, but you don’t get to know why, okay? No, what’s more likely is someone’s looking for a feather in their cap and is doing it on the side.’

‘On the side? How could that work?’

‘Simple – demons were here before the Empire. Shamans and the like have existed as long as humans have. As much as the Astaren might like to pretend so, they don’t hold all the cards even if theirs is a winning hand. There are others out there – some keeping to their own, others willing to use their unique skills for the right price.’

‘Astaren mercenaries?’

‘Freelance agents,’ Enchei corrected. ‘We could be talking about a teenage girl or a wizened old man who never served any House a day of their life. Don’t just be looking for soldiers out there. My point is they might be working for Astaren whether or not they know it. The great merchant houses, banking consortiums or militant temples, not least criminal organisations – none are above hiring special mercenaries like that. We called ’em Gealann back home, they’re as different to sellswords as Astaren are to warrior castes.’

‘Would the Astaren employing them step in if I made an arrest?’ Narin asked as he slowly took in the information.

‘Unlikely, they’re doing it at a remove for a reason. If it doesn’t expose them, it’s possible, but you don’t want your masters noticing what you’ve been up to for the wrong reason. Certainly not when you’ve been doing it in a Dragon-controlled city and are risking a wider conflict if those buggers catch you. They tend to disapprove of things like that, so more likely they’ll write it off as a roll of the dice that didn’t come off. So long as they don’t lose Astaren or artefact-weapons, everything else is expendable and they’ll walk away with no more’n a moment’s regret.’

Before Narin could ask anything more, Enchei rapped his knuckles on the tabletop and took a last bite of bread. ‘Come on, the morning’s a wasting.’

‘Come on?’

‘Aye, I’m your shadow today. No doubt Lawbringer Rhe’s waiting at the Palace of Law so best we don’t keep him too long. Remember when you leave to use the exits we agreed in order, don’t need you slipping your own protection now.’

Enchei reached into a bag that was sitting on one of the vacant chairs and extracted a pair of gauntlets made of some sort of flexible mesh metal. Narin had only seen them twice before, but he recognised them easily enough, part of Enchei’s Astaren armour and likely more was hidden underneath his clothes. That he intended to wear it during the daytime showed how seriously he took the threat to his life.

‘I suppose winter’s a safer time for you,’ Narin commented as he pulled on his jacket and buckled his sword belt around it. ‘Everyone’s bundled up under layers of clothes.’

‘Also keeps an old man’s bones warm when by rights he’d be freezing his tits off,’ Enchei said with a forced smile. ‘So if you’ve got your head on straight, let’s be off.’

Outside, the city was clean and bright. A weak sun peeked through the ribboned clouds and the breeze had lessened so, while the air was crisp and cold, Narin found his heart lifting as he left the narrow, snowdrift-cluttered sprawl and reached the Public Thoroughfare. Few people were up and about this early so the snow remained thick on the ground, rooftops heavy with slabs of white. He ignored the Tier Bridge, eerie and shining in the morning light, as a likely place for Kine’s relatives to watch, instead crossing by boat so he had a clear view of those crossing behind him.

Once he was satisfied, Narin took an oblique route to the Palace of Law. The inhabitants of the Imperial District seemed reluctant to wake this morning, lulled by the soft blanket that covered it. Here and there were pockets of children and adults out to play in the first fall of winter, but by usual standards the streets were deserted when the bells of Smith’s temple rang the waking hour.

The Palace of Law was equally quiet and there was a rare, relaxed air about the place as Narin entered through the training courtyards. He smiled as he spotted a group of young novices engaged in a rather less formal battle than would normally take place there – using them as an excuse to pause and watch the gate he’d entered by. If there was anyone following him, they remained outside and at last he dragged himself away in search of Rhe. The senior Lawbringers, of whom Rhe remained the youngest, occupied a long, curved hallway on the second floor that looked east over the city.

Narin wove his way through the tall oak partitions that extended halfway to the ceiling until he reached Rhe’s spartan corner – just a bare desk that looked abandoned beside the two neat stations next to it. To Narin’s surprise Rhe was standing waiting for him when he arrived and the look on the Lawbringer’s face spoke volumes.

‘Come.’

Narin turned as Rhe marched past him and followed in the man’s lee, only catching up alongside as Rhe turned the corner and set off down the stairs.

‘What’s happened?’

Rhe stopped walking, an unusual abruptness to his manner. ‘Murder and foolishness.’

Narin frowned. That Rhe might be angry with him was hardly a surprise, but it seemed that his ire had increased since yesterday and the Lawbringer was a man with ice in his veins. Brooding on a slight was not his way at all.

‘What are you talking about?’

‘Come.’

Rhe led him down the stairs to where the remaining Lawbringers had their communal offices. At the foot of the stair stood a piece of black slate – ten feet high and twenty wide. It was where all the serious crimes reported in the city were posted, divided by district and overseen by a scowling Lawbringer who was a legend in her own right.

Badly injured early in her career, Talash Cailer had walked with a cane for over forty years now and had overseen the slate for most of that. It was her domain absolute and her formidable memory was as much an institution of the Lawbringers as the crack of her cane on the calves of careless novices.

‘Lawbringer Cailer,’ Narin called with a bow.

‘Back so soon, Rhe?’ she replied, merely nodding in response to Narin’s greeting. ‘Surely you’ve not forgotten anything?’

‘I merely intend Narin to see the news for himself.’

Narin felt a sinking feeling as he scanned the slate; it took him only a moment to realise what was wrong, but that was enough. The least-used corner of the slate was reserved for the Imperial District and there were only two crimes recorded there – one outstanding from two days previously, and one new.

‘Civil tattoo rooms,’ Narin read, mouth as dry as ashes. ‘Imperial administrator, violent murder.’

‘Friend of yours?’ Cailer asked, peering hard at Narin’s expression.

He shook his head. ‘Not really, but I saw him recently if it’s the man I think it is. Did they say how bad?’

‘Bad?’ she echoed. ‘Worse than murder? Ah, but your tavern one yesterday – that’s what you mean. They only said violent, but the doors were locked and no mention of theft. Means the killer came in over the roof and through a window – a lot of trouble for a middle-ranked administrator.’ Cailer gave him a nasty smile. ‘Judging from the look on Lawbringer Rhe’s face, I think I know who got volunteered to work through all the writs to see what’s missing or changed.’

Narin glanced towards the man and felt something similar.

But it’s not the boring job Rhe’s got in mind for me; at best it’s one of the lesser hells. Even without everything that happened yesterday, it’d have been a stretch to get him to believe this is a coincidence. Only question now is whether I’ve got enough of a career left to see this all through to the end.

‘Shall we head to the scene?’ Rhe said coldly. ‘You can perhaps fill me in on the way.’

Narin ducked his head as Rhe swept imperiously past. This time he didn’t try and catch the man up but kept in his wake while Lawbringer Cailer cackled in the background.

Outside, Rhe set a pace that seemed not to account for the fact there was close to a foot of snow on the ground. Narin struggled to keep up with the taller man’s strides, but was more concerned by the fact they had left the palace by the main entrance. Whether deliberate on Rhe’s part or not, any one of the twenty-odd anonymously bundled figures in Lawbringer’s Square could have been there to watch for him.