The Beast of the North (5 page)

‘You’ll hang with me, I’ll make sure of it, and the crows will have to decide which tastes better,’ I told him. ‘No. Don’t see any guards,’ I whispered. ‘But they could be there, anyway. If she is a noble.’ That thought made our faces sour. If she were, neither would marry her. And if she were, she was sure to be in a company, it was true. There were so many people that she might at any time nudge someone and give them a familiar smile.

‘Got a fat pouch too,’ Sand smiled, and his face had a superbly disappointed look on it. ‘Gotta be a noble.’ She had a bulging sack on her belt, the strings hanging out haphazardly. ‘She could be a merchant’s daughter? Or a foreigner?’ he whispered, clutching his forgotten sandwich.

‘Could be, I suppose. What do we do?’ I asked him. ‘Truly rob her? I don’t know.’

‘What do we do?’ he mimicked me with spite. ‘We follow her. What do we usually do? As I say. Rob and give it back. It’s a good plan.’

‘Rob her,’ I said slowly. ‘Yes. I’ll take it, the pouch,’ I agreed, grinned, and stuffed my face with bread, wiping my hands discreetly on a silken tent cloth.

‘Fine,’ he stated, staring at me blankly. ‘Shall we?’

‘Be careful. See? She has a sword,’ I said. There was a short sword with a jewel on the pommel on her side, the sheath half hidden in the folds of her white dress. I grinned. ‘She is our target today. Then we decide what to do. Perhaps there are clues to her rank there, in the pouch? If it makes sense, we will return it and see how grateful she will be to get it back.’

‘I agree. But we should wait to return it until she leaves the harbor. I feel there is something dangerous about her,’ Sand said carefully, the lecherous, arrogant tone gone now that I had agreed. He often had animal like hunches one should not ignore. Yet, we would go ahead. We both knew it. The girl was intriguing. Beyond intriguing. He went on, ‘Remember. I want to be the one who gives it back to her. No tricks. We flip a coin, fair?’ I nodded and contemplated on failing to steal the pouch and then beg her for forgiveness immediately and that would eliminate Sand quickly, as the issue would be decided without delay.
No, I could hang.
Sand was right. She might not be a fool.
Better take the risk and let Sand compete with me
, I thought sullenly. She moved off from the jeweler, and I laughed hugely. ‘What?’ Sand asked me, stupefied.

‘Yeah. She is our mark. She has it coming. She stole some rubies. Cannot be a noble.’ I felt better for that reason.

‘She didn’t,’ Sand breathed. ‘Did she? No! Not her.’

‘Eat up,’ I told him and struggled with the food in my mouth. I ferociously brushed my teeth clear with my fingers as if I were about to go on a date. She had taken some of the precious things. I saw it. She had hid at least some in her palm and Lifegiver had betrayed her to my keen eyes, for there was a slight red glitter in the crack of her fingers. She was good. But I was better.

‘You gonna … you know?’ Sand mumbled with a bit of fish sticking out of his mouth.

‘Sure,’ I told him, disgusted as he stuffed a springy, half charred fishtail into his carnivorous maw. I slipped behind a flapping tent and concentrated. I adopted a face. It was the face of the old man in the crowd, the one with blond and white hair.

‘Why?’ Sand asked with evident disapproval. ‘That is so ugly. And your body looks young. You look like a monster.’

‘I remembered it well,’ I told him. ‘And I’m just well preserved.’ It was hard to adopt a face unless you had stared at one recently. If I tried to mimic one I barely remembered, the result could prove to be misshapen and strange. ‘Is it all right? Not really a monster, just ugly?’

‘He was wrinkled, nasty, and old as shit, and so are you. Too ugly. Might draw attention and she might balk from you if she sees you are too close. She’ll scream, and they will pummel you to mush. And poor Sand just after you. Don’t like it.’ He meant the whole thing, of course, no matter it was his idea, but I took after the girl without further discussion. He was right. But it was too late to change anything as she was moving away.

‘Stop worrying like a tottering, grumpy grandmother and come on,’ I told him as I walked, dodging men and women staggering with bales of wheat.

‘You need to develop some form of imagination,’ Sand grumbled nearby as he jogged after me. ‘Always mimicking monsters, freaks, an official of the king and soon the king himself, no doubt. Ash brained idiot. And what are you going to do if you get to take it back to her? You will stammer and blush like you do with Ann.’

‘I stutter with Ann because I feel clumsy. But I am not really, am I? I’ll rob her first and worry about it later.’ I chuckled though I was sure I would make a mess of the whole return-the-loot part. I just wanted to do the part I knew and then figure the rest out. I have to admit, I was curious as to what was in her pouch. I advanced through the crowds, trying to look innocent and people barely glanced at me, despite the uncouth, old face. Sand was walking some ten paces away from me, apparently unconcerned and idle, but he was keeping an eye out for anyone who might not be a causal bystander.

Soon I was close to her and smelled a strange perfume. It left me confused for a moment. The flowery fragrance was suffocating all the other fragrances and stenches of the harbor that were usually so overwhelming. There was only this girl and her perfume.

The press of the people grew thicker. She had to push through two thin women, and as she muscled past them, she was smiling amicably. They got upset, for one had dropped a shawl, but then they were not upset, and her smile left them happy and apologetic. Her smile was perfect, even if a bit crooked, the eyes innocent and slightly tilted, perhaps, and I nearly fell as I tried to catch another look at that face. Then I had to dodge around a tent. There, I did fall over a crouched boy, who was cooing at a cat. I pushed up, grabbed at a stack of crates to balance myself and caused a small chorus of complaints from peddlers of ducks and red lizards that were the delicacy of many a fine tavern up the hill, as the crates fell with a terrible crash. I dodged the merchants without a word and noticed Sand was still following the girl on the crowded street. I dodged laborers, weaned through some scantily clad dancing girls, and ran as inconspicuously as I could to get ahead of her. She was easy to spot, even a tent row away. I kept glimpsing at the beautiful, pert nose, and the strange eyes seemed to notice everything. I rounded a corral of cows and two-legged milk lizards being auctioned to a group of unhappy servants of noble houses, sneaked silently through a tent of reverent buyers of some forbidden religious idols and resisted the urge to grab a fat pouch that was hanging from a thick belt of one of the men admiring the relics. I stopped at the door, gazing at the white dressed girl that was about to pass the tent. I saw her figure through the silken walls and began counting.

Then she was there.

I drew in my breath, prepared. ‘One,’ I whispered, and moved.

I came out of the tent, brushed by her back, and a small knife flashed as I cut the strings of the pouch. I hid the bag inside my hand and disappeared into the crowds, not looking back, sure Sand was positioning himself between her and myself. Nothing happened. None reacted. No shouts, no upset faces. I walked and dodged people and fingered the pouch, feeling rotten.

I had robbed her.

That had been the whole plan, but I was a rotten bastard anyway. Instead of complimenting the girl of my dreams, I had taken her coins. It was Sand’s idea, wasn’t it? Not my fault.
Gods, there was something dreadfully wrong with me, something much more twisted than defending the slayer of my father,
I thought.

I cursed the pouch in my hand and stopped to pummel my head on a tent post. I kept squeezing the pouch and felt the thing was full of thick coins. I hesitated and resisted as I fought the urge to see what kind. Sand should be there. That was the deal. We trusted each other but always shared the loot together, and never alone. The thrill of finding treasure was our shared joy, and discovering the contents of a pouch was exciting beyond anything else. I didn’t want to rob him of the excitement, even if I was determined to snatch the girl from him. While I waited, I felt the rubies inside the pouch as well and grinned as I imagined her face when she sought the treasure that was no longer on her belt.

‘What did we get?’ Sand asked to my ear.

‘Let’s see,’ I said, pretending not to having been startled. ‘Did she notice at all?’

‘No. But now we have to decide on the next step. And I still want to flip a coin with you on who gets to return it,’ Sand said with a chuckle as his eyes sought my fist. ‘But I guess we could take a peek? Even if we will return the money. Or some of it. Most?’ I nodded, confused, and turned to an alleyway between two tents. We went there, crouched, and I fumbled with the bag, made of velvet that was slightly red hued, strung with strong silk cords.

‘Let’s see.’ I emptied it.

On my palm were six huge golden coins. Thick as lips.

‘Gods,’ Sand whispered. They were so fat we drooled, and they were minted with a house insignia. I picked one up to squint at it as Sand was picking at the brilliant rubies.

There were a tower and two ravens circling it, and I knew the sign.

Sand grunted. ‘Isn’t that one of the Ten Lords? Blacktowers?’

‘Blacktowers indeed,’ I agreed. ‘They are. I don’t think they have any high lords or officers. Some old lady serves in the court? In the processions? And only some few hundred men-at-arms. Shit. The least of the ten? But still a formidable noble house.’

‘They won’t hang us if they cannot find us, no matter how high the lady is.’ Sand grinned like a skull, the rubies in his palm. ‘But the deal is off. She is beyond us, Maskan. If they do catch us with these coins,’ he added, ‘they will feed us to the sharks, wolves, or a sauk. Bit by bit. So, we might want to think twice about returning the pouch after all. She might scream murder no matter how chivalrous we appear to be, and then we are cooked.’

I shook my head remorsefully, feeling like a coward. ‘She might. Don’t worry. They won’t find out. Mother can launder the coins. We will be filthy rich, so there is that!’ Still, I felt miserable. She was beyond me. I fiddled with the coins and sighed. ‘But why was this girl out there alone, anyway? With this hoard of coins? This is enough to buy you a small castle.’

‘Shit, it’s crazy,’ Sand agreed. ‘What’s that?’

‘That?’ I asked and pocketed the coins as I hung on to a small piece of paper stuck between two of the coins. The silver bells of the guard towers of the first ring battlements rang midday; the other gate bells answered, and their hollow, clanging noise distant in the general commotion of the market. I fumbled with the piece of paper, neatly rolled up, and finally managed to pull it open.

“As agreed, find the tavern called the End of the Road. Ask around and you shall find it. It is no secret. Bring the money. V.”

‘The End of the Road?’ Sand breathed. ‘That’s the haunt of the Grim Jesters?’

‘Valkai,’ I agreed, massaging my forehead. ‘Valkai the Heavy, and she has business with the creature. They have some deal. The hanged idiot, Alrik worked for Valkai, they said.’ I felt a hand of doom squeeze my heart. ‘He was a Jester, they said.’

‘Not our problem, is it?’ he laughed, then shut up and looked down, distraught. ‘We have her money.’

‘We have her money,’ I agreed. ‘She is going there, into the lair of the dirt lizard to bargain, and she has nothing.’

‘She had a sword?’ Sand breathed unhappily, but shook his head. He cursed and struck a tent post so hard some birds took off from the top. ‘Fine.’

‘We going?’ I asked him.

He nodded. ‘I guess so. And then what? How will it look when we appear in some filthy, squalid back alley with her coin? She will know we are guilty. It was a fine game, but this—’

‘Doesn’t matter,’ I told him. ‘If we catch her before she enters, it will be worth it.’

‘Damn, but you are an idiot,’ Sand hissed. ‘We should have some plan to save her if she puts her pretty little head in a noose, and we are too late.’

I nodded and thought about it. ‘Try to find some rope.’

He stopped at that. ‘Rope? Will you tie her up? You going to tame Valkai the Heavy and ride him around the harbor side?’

‘No,’ I said sadly. ’I have an idea. In case, we are too late.’

‘Odin help us,’ Sand cried and found some rope.

D
agnar has many dark places where few men should venture, at least without preparation and good company. And no decent women should even think about it, company or not. The Gate District, the Bad Man’s Haunt and the harbor host many such places, and while the Mad Watch guards were relatively thick in the harbor area and the gates to protect the customers and the merchants alike, there were corners of the harbor even the Mad Watch did not venture into without numbers and surprise.

The maze of alleys behind the market was such a place, and it had a few dead ends, but only one Dead End.

That was the land of Valkai’s gang, the Grim Jesters. They specialized in everything illegal and were known to take the Trade very seriously. They housed themselves under the streets where the Old Town lay half forgotten, and there Valkai, a man of dark reputation, a former, disgraced captain of the army ran his business. They hired out at times if the price was right, and they knew how to keep their mouths shut unless, of course, someone offered a price that was high enough for them to rat out on the former client. We stayed far from them and the known rut of an establishment that served as a doorway to their nefarious underworld, the Dead End Tavern. There were many entrances to the Old City, but this was their storefront.

‘Never seen the tavern,’ Sand complained. ‘Never wanted to.’

‘Sorry about that. We cannot let her go there without the coin. They might sell her to the south if they have already performed their end of the deal and she cannot. They might just hurt her.’ I hissed and kicked a stone at the thought.

‘Damned knight,’ Sand spat, but I heard a hint of agreement in his voice.

‘I wish I had a sword like one,’ I told him. ‘If only to fall on it before they break my face.’

‘Well, you can always take a new one,’ he said drolly, and we laughed like maniacs as we ran, dodging laundry stretched across the streets. Slick mud made us skid crazily at the corners. The stench grew worse and worse as we went on, the number of people grew fewer and their faces more savage, poor looking and desperate. The bustling chorus of the harbor abated as if sound was reluctant to visit the place. Then we saw the infamous, formerly grand alleyway with moldy lion statues on each side. Music wafted from behind the corner, flute, and lute.

‘Here we are,’ I told him and peeked around the corner. ‘I doubt she found her way—’

But she had.

There stood our lady, her hands folded under her breasts. She looked bright and petite, and her hair cascaded down low behind her back. She was staring at two men sitting in a tavern, eating thick, blackened bits of mutton, taking no note of her. We did not budge. Sand was swallowing nervously. ‘Should we … you just take it to her and tell she dropped it? Smile politely at the gents and bow out?’

‘Yeah, with a purse and it’s cut strings. That is just a great idea,’ I agreed. ‘She might tell them to clobber me.’

‘But—’

And then Valkai the Heavy appeared.

He was heavy, there was no doubt about that, as he was one large, evil block of mischief, but the name came from his preferred execution method. He would jump on the victim until the ribs were broken. And then he would jump some more. A lot more. The man wore practical leather pants and a white shirt, stained with ale, but his left ear was missing, something the king’s Elder Judges had deemed a just punishment before he had been kicked out of the army. He had stolen a dinner from a lord, they said, but it was just a rumor. After the punishment and the dismissal, he had stolen hearts as well as gold. Real hearts. On his face, there was a sly look of cunning and a hint of brooding sorrow, brutality, and barely disguised civility. He was like a wolf in a disguise of a man.

‘That’s him?’ Sand whistled. ‘Big. Dangerous. I’ll go home now.’

‘Bear is bigger,’ I whispered, but Sand’s father did not have as ferocious a reputation.

‘He is not here, you—’

‘Shh,’ I told him.

The woman bowed like the nobles did, quickly, as if the act was insulting. She knew him. Or of him. Not usual for a noble female of one of the top ten houses.

‘Lord? Are we on time?’ she inquired.

The man chuckled crudely. ‘Yes. And no. Do I look like a lord?’ He turned around to show his disheveled condition.

She waved her hand around. ‘There are no noble houses here in the shadows. But that does not mean there are no lords in the dark.’

‘You are correct, small one.’ He jumped down from the rotten platform, and the two thugs got up as well. They all approached her, and she did not flinch. ‘So,’ he nodded at her. ‘We are here, you are here, and shall we move forward with our business?’

‘Have you found a way?’ she asked imperiously. ‘We don’t like sharing our business, but we need a way.’

‘Yes, perhaps,’ the man to Valkai’s right stated and grinned, and the prominent leader of the gang thumbed him.

‘He found a man. It cannot take place in the Tower of the Temple. Up there, it is just too hard. Risky.’

She squinted at the thug. ‘But is it possible? And I know it cannot take place in the Temple. I told you this. I also told you where we think it might be possible.’

Valkai nodded slyly. ‘You did. I am not trying to sell you something you already know. There is a way. It will be imaginative. It will be hard. But I think it is possible. Alrik, a rogue of mine, found out something as he stole in for a few hours. He sent me a missive and tried to find out more, but failed. What he got out, is enough. Poor Alrik. Hung today. But I got lucky,’ Valkai’s eyes were burning as he took a long look at the slender female before him, his eyes running across her shapes. ‘But as you know, one does not hand over the goods until one is paid.’

She laughed. It was a clear and high and happy voice and utterly inappropriate in the presence of the rogues. It was a show of bravery. We all fell in love with her at that moment. Again. Except for Valkai. He frowned. She was apparently still chuckling as she addressed him. ‘But I’m unaware of what I’m buying. A high death, to be sure; that was the deal. But what does it involve?’

‘I’m selling you, lady murderess,’ he said softly, and I flinched, for surely she was not capable of murder, ‘a way to kill the bitch. I’m not asking why though one hears things.’

‘One does indeed,’ she smiled, ‘and I hear you have family.’

They all froze.

Finally, Valkai shrugged. ‘Ah, I see. Dangerous games you are playing. Whether I do, or I do not, is no business of yours. But you have ways, I see, to hurt me. Surprising for a noble house of such a low rank. I deny I have family, girl. But I am impressed and shall move this non-existent family of mine, just in case. I see you understand the game, but do you understand how far one goes before one goes too far? We shall see. I stand warned, of course, and this business will not spread beyond this alley.’

‘Ask no more of our reasons, and we won’t delve into your family life,’ she said bluntly. ‘And then we are all happy and safe. As safe as we can be in this business.’

‘As I was saying,’ Valkai growled, ‘I have a way. It involves a doppelganger. Alrik told us this man leaves the house that day, for a while. And I have someone who looks just like him. I know a way to switch them up when he leaves the house for a few hours. Then our man goes in and does his thing.’

‘May I see this person?’ she asked sweetly. ‘I assume you have him or her at hand?’

‘You may,’ he agreed. He whistled, and a man in a red and black royal livery of a king appeared to stand on the tavern’s porch. A red tabard covered his chest and hung to his knees. A dark eagle was imprinted on the chest, house Danegell insignia. A silver belt hung on his hips, and his boots were long and supple. Dark, thick, braided hair hung behind his back. He had thin cheeks and blue eyes. ‘Meet … Asfal. I’ll not call him by the name of the one he is supposed to mimic.’

She strode forward.

Her white hem was dirtied as she carelessly stalked through a puddle of mud. She effortlessly jumped past the men and climbed some rotten stairs up to the tavern. She walked around the man, running a finger across his back. The man jumped. She came to stare down at Valkai. ‘I know who this man is to mimic. The idea is good. But he needs to be trained. In so many ways, they are alike, but then, in the critical ones, not so. But he has … possibilities. He looks nearly exactly like him.’

‘He has been trained,’ Valkai said darkly. ‘Will be trained more. It is not your concern.’

‘He is skittish as a pregnant deer,’ she told him with a sneer. ‘And the real thing can fight like a flesh eating barbarian. Which he used to be, in fact.’

Valkai dismissed the concern with a snort. ‘He will learn. He can fight. Probably won’t need to either. And as you said, he looks just like—’

‘Yes,’ she agreed. ‘He does look like him.’

‘So that is the most important thing. Our actor here owes someone a lot of money and will be paid well, and so he is motivated. And—’

She jumped down and walked to Valkai. ‘How will you do the change?’

‘Our man has vices. A vice. As Valkai told you,’ one of the brutes said while staring at her lecherously.

‘Shut up,’ Valkai told him, and he did, blanching. Valkai turned to look at the girl. ‘We will make it happen. We have our ways and know his. That is why you pay us. Though you have yet to show the gold.’

‘He is a slave,’ she said with suspicion, not giving up. ‘A trusted slave, true, but he never leaves her side. He is bound to her. He has to be, because—’

‘No,’ said Valkai. ‘He is a trusted slave, as you said. And she does not need him all the time. He gets around. And in any case, he is always there when the bitch eats,’ he grinned.

‘Give me something to make this whole deal worth my time,’ she said. ‘Walk me through it. When the bitch leaves the Temple and the Tower?’

Valkai took a heavy, exasperated breath and finally nodded. ‘Fine. The bitch visits her noble house; you told us this. It is where we started from, and you are right. She does so very rarely, very cautiously, very secretly, but she does. We know. We lost another man finding this out. And then, when she does, he comes with her. And he, I tell you, sometimes leaves her side. Even in the Tower of the Temple and that day, she visits her own house. He is … accessible.’

‘But—’

‘Trust us in this.’ Valkai tilted his head. ‘I told you; he will always be there when she eats. You know what he does for a living? And how changing him to this lout here could reap great rewards?’

‘Yes. And I agree this has possibilities. She has to fall.’ The woman was tapping a finger on her lip.

‘I guess we know why she had to die,’ Valkai grinned. ‘To elevate you. Rumors say Morag fills his bed with you. And perhaps you aim to be the queen?’

The queen? I looked at my friend, and Sand’s eyes were huge, and we both regretted entering the alley. She was plotting regicide.

She stared at him coldly, the beauty enhanced by the brief fury in her face. ‘Now you are going too far. But I am indeed after Morag’s heart.’ She made it sound like it had nothing to do with love. Only Morag’s heart.

‘Are they also after the king?’ I whispered to Sand, who shook in terror.

‘We are such damned fools,’ he whispered back. ‘Can we get insensibly drunk and pretend this never took place?’

‘No,’ I said.

Valkai smiled hugely and bowed in a mockery of apology. ‘So, let us agree and move on to the down payment then. Gold. Or ... ’ he said and nodded at her.

‘Favor?’ she said tiredly. ‘Yes, I heard the Jesters give their clients this possibility. Gold or favor. We will not owe you any favors. Gold it is. As agreed.’

‘I’ll give you a discount if you spend the night in my bed?’ Valkai said crudely and smiled nastily. His eyes were judging her as she just stared at him blankly as if someone had offered to sell her offal. He was the sort of man who hated the nobles and would hurt her, should he bed her, I decided. ‘Fine,’ he grinned as she said nothing. ‘Cough it up. Have you someone near holding it? Somewhere? Give me six now, twenty later. Or ten when Asfal here has taken his place. Ten when she is dead.’

She shrugged. ‘Six now, twenty when it is all over. I have the gold here,’ she told him quickly and thinly as if loath to pay him anything.

‘Where?’ he frowned.

‘Here,’ she said and patted her side, and I swear I could see her fight to hold her composure. Her hands were frantic for just a moment and then her shoulders relaxed.

Valkai was looking around at his thugs. Then he fixed a feral stare her way. ‘Send a girl to deal with such important issues, and she fails. Did you lose it? Spent it? Or have you not, you self-centered, isolated fool of a noble cow heard of thieves in the harbor?’

‘I seem to have been robbed,’ she agreed coolly. ‘I will fetch the coins.’

‘You will fetch the coins?’ Valkai said slowly. ‘No. We will take the favor then.’

‘No,’ she said quietly.

‘And you will spend the night here, after all,’ Valkai grinned nastily, and I felt rage tug at my guts. One of his brutes stepped forward as Valkai snapped his finger ‘We will send word to your family. You will stay here until this deal is settled and agreed on. Surely, you cannot expect to walk out of here after we explained what we are offering? We have no payment.’