'Then you remove the stopper.' The Amnesian Hero waved at the amphora. 'If the contents are truly the concern of the Hall of Information, it will not trouble the Lady that you opened her gift.'
The Thrasson's mocking manner drew none of the expected sniggers from the guards. Instead, Madame Mok studied him with narrowed eyes for several moments, until finally the shadow of a smile crept across her lips.
She shrugged. 'As you wish. The amphora's contents are no concern of mine. I was only trying to do you a favor, Thrasson.'
'I am sure you intend to tell me how.'
Madame Mok nodded, accepting the sarcasm with surprising humility. 'Tell me, how much do you recall about the Lady of Pain?'
'I know only what the King of Seas told me,' the Amnesian Hero admitted. 'She is the winsome ruler of Sigil, alone and aloof, and very sad.'
'All that is true, of course, but she is also quick to anger. If she dislikes the gift, she will certainly slay you.'
'I thank you for the warning, Madame Mok.' The Amnesian Hero believed at least this much of what she said. Conditions in Sigil certainly suggested the city's ruler was callous and cruel. Still, the Thrasson had every intention of delivering the amphora. Poseidon had promised to restore his memory once the Lady of Pain received her gift. 'We men of renown must accept such risks, so I would be grateful if you would direct me to the Lady of Pain's palace.'
Madame Mok gave him an acid smile. 'Certainly. It will be a pleasure to get you out of my hall. I trust that heavy purse of yours contains five more gold pieces?'
Though the Thrasson would gladly have parted with the coins just to learn the location and be on his way, a Mercykiller stepped to the counter and aimed a glaive at Madame Mok's breast.
'By edict of the Hall of Speakers: bribery, or the solicitation thereof, is punishable by-'
Madame Mok slapped the glaive aside. 'Buckle your bone-box! I'm not hunting a garnish.' She turned back to the Amnesian Hero. 'Do you have it or not?'
The Thrasson opened his purse and withdrew five yellow coins, then raised a hand toward the counter. Madame Mok shook her head and pointed at the square-chinned Mercykiller who had accused her of soliciting a bribe.
'Give it to Cwalno.'
The Amnesian Hero passed the money to the guard, who held the coins at arm's length and grimaced as though clutching a handful of scorpions.
'What am I to do with these?'
Madame Mok pointed at the door. 'Go outside and hire eight lantern boys and a sedan chair for the Amnesian Hero.'
'A sedan chair?'
'Of course. He'll need to show the proper dignity when he goes to see the Lady.' Madame Mok looked down at the Amnesian Hero, then glanced at his open purse and sneered. 'In fact, I'm sure he has coin for each of you Mercykillers as well. Why don't you give him a full escort and make sure he arrives at the Gatehouse in style?'
'Are you sure that will do?' The Amnesian Hero shoved his hand into his purse. 'I have more gold. Perhaps you want to come too?'
Madame Mok smirked and shook her head. 'That isn't necessary. Eight Mercykillers should be enough – even for you, Thrasson.' Bleak House
How squalid the Amnesian Hero must find the Hive as he rides down Whisper Way in his elegant sedan chair, borne over the muck and the sludge on the hulking shoulders of four white-tusked ogres, four lantern boys leading the way and four more bringing up the rear, four Mercykillers to the left and four more to the right. How he must despise the grimy bloodblades who slip along the mud brick tenements, shadowing his chair, balancing the heft of his purse against the swiftness of his guards' bare blades. How he must abhor the droning black flies that hang in the air as thick as drops during a rainfall, feeding upon the stink of a street knee-deep in carrion and offal. How he must pity the gray armies of children, with their wooden forks and their starving eyes and their rat-hunt scramble.
How the Thrasson curses the wickedness of callous, foul Sigil, until he comes at last to the Marble District, where the buildings are tall and stony and black with soot. His bearers turn down Bedlam Run toward the Lady's palace, and how he gasps at its sprawling, begrimed majesty.
The Gatehouse looks like no palace the Amnesian Hero has ever seen. Large enough to house the Cleaver of Lands himself, its shape, that of an immense battle crown with a long, blocky wing spreading outward from each side. The walls were as drab as mudstone and as high as cliffs, their faces striped by three mundane rows of small square windows. The most striking feature was the central gate tower, an immense helmlike turret crested by six curving spires that arched inward toward a central minaret so high the apex was lost in Sign's brown fog. The gate itself was an impossibly huge portcullis, with bars the size of Arborean cypress trees and spaces through which a titan could have passed.
A long string of gray flecks stretched from this entrance halfway down Bedlam Way. So dwarfed by the Gatehouse's immensity were these specks that the Amnesian Hero did not recognize them as people for several minutes, until his bearers had carried him close enough to make out the shapes of their heads sitting atop their hunched shoulders. The column packed the street completely, leaving only enough room for area residents to squeeze along the tenement fronts on the way to and from their homes. The Thrasson groaned, realizing that this was a line of petitioners, waiting to see the Lady of Pain.
'Lock that bone-box, berk!' hissed Cwaino, who was marching along outside the chair box. 'In this part of town, sniveling draws bloodblades like flashing gold draws glitter girls.'
'I do not snivel. As for your bloodblades, let them come. I would welcome the fight.' The Amnesian Hero glared at the supplicants ahead, wondering how many coins it would cost to declare an Emergency Priority to bypass them. 'Is no place in Sigil free of these monstrous lines?'
