The Broken Bell

came in late. Probably demanded that the Colonel deal him in.”

“You’re beginning to sound like Evis.”

She laughed. “I’m certainly associating with a rough element these days.” She slipped into my arms. “Fortunately, I have you to protect my virtue.”

I was searching for a comeback when there came a knocking at Darla’s door. She frowned. “I’m not expecting anyone.”

“Mr. Markhat? Is there a Markhat here? Hello?”

I let go of her.

“Never heard of him. Who are you?”

“Evis Prestley sent me. My name is Barlow. I have a message. And a carriage too.”

I crossed Darla’s living room and peeked through her lace-curtained windows.

A black Avalante carriage was parked at the curb. A smiling young man in Avalante black stood at her door. He didn’t see me, but he did push his Avalante lapel pin forward just in case I was peeking through the curtains.

His hands were empty. He didn’t have half a dozen bowmen at his back.

“I just remembered. I’m Markhat. Be right out.”

“I’ll wait by the curb.”

Darla sighed. “My virtue is safe once again. Hurrah.”

“Not for long.” I eyed her wall of papers. “Better take that down, hon. In fact-maybe I’d better take it with me.”

“Oh, no. I’m keeping it. Now scoot. Evis wouldn’t have sent a man here if it wasn’t important.”

“At least take it down? Lock your door. Keep it locked.”

“I’m staying with Mary tonight. She’s upset with all the War talk. You could give me a ride.”

“I could indeed. Packed yet?”

“I keep a bag ready.” She darted into her bedroom, popped out an instant later, bag in hand. She snatched her papers off her wall and shoved them down beside her unmentionables.

We left, locking her door behind us before dashing into the wild-eyed crowd lining the street.

I dropped Darla off at Mary’s and saw her to the door. Mary lives in a tiny walk-up in a New People neighborhood not far from my old friends the Hoobins. Mary’s four brothers live next door. They aren’t quite as large as the Hoobins, but unless a trio of ogres showed up looking for Darla I was sure Mary’s siblings could fight off just about anyone who offered their sister or her houseguests harm.

Darla couldn’t have picked a safer place to spend the night. Unless of course it was on a boat headed out of Rannit.

As my carriage wove its way toward Avalante, I watched and listened. What had been conversation and concern yesterday was rapidly building into the panic the Regency sought to avoid by suppressing news of the coming troubles. I saw cabs and carriages packed high with chests and trunks and kids and grannies. People were heading out, fearing Rannit’s fall under siege even if the old walls held.

I couldn’t really blame the people who decided to run. It took the Trolls eight weeks to breach Right Lamb’s defenses. We’d run out of food in five weeks. If it hadn’t rained the last two we’d have died of thirst. I slept with Petey tucked under my arm for fear he might be eaten despite the Army’s ban on anyone but me touching my tunnel dog.

A few minutes of memories from Right Lamb, and I was nearly ready to head for the hills myself.

Instead, I remembered Evis’s note, so I pulled it out and read it and cussed so loud the driver pulled to the curb.

“What’s that, sir?”

“Nothing. Never mind. Dammit.”

“Huh?”

I crumpled the note and threw it out the window. “Forget Avalante. Take me home. To Cambrit.”

“Cambrit, yes, sir.”

And with that, we were off.

I fumed and scowled. Damn you, Evis.

The Regency was underway, headed north to blow the bluffs. Evis was aboard, despite his earlier pronouncement that he would do no such thing. Accompanying him was Gertriss and Buttercup. And of course enough unstable gunpowder to blow a pair of cliffs to gravel.

Evis had written that the Regency was ready sooner than expected, and he saw no need to delay. He’d invited Gertriss along rather than leave her alone in the House, and of course that meant Buttercup was aboard the warship as well. His tone seemed to indicate they’d popped out for biscuits and tea.

All that laughing and giggling. Hell, Evis had probably cooked the whole thing up last night, and Gertriss was only too happy to go along.

I was to expect routine dispatches, starting tonight, which I could pick up at Avalante at my convenience. Important ones would be sent via courier to my office. I assumed that Avalante would be using some sorcerous device to communicate with the Regency, although Granny Knot’s trained pigeons seemed to work about as well.

One day soon, I decided, I was going to need to teach everyone around me a lasting lesson in manners.

Here and there I passed shops with boarded windows and hastily lettered CLOSED signs hung carelessly on the doors. Every corner sported a kid hawking handbills and the attendant tight-lipped crowds. I saw the Watch swoop down on a couple of barkers, but they simply dumped their handbills and vanished.

I stopped and grabbed a handbill myself. RANNIT TO FALL TO INVADERS, it announced, emphasizing its point with a crude rendition of the High House and the Big Bell consumed by leaping flames. OLD KINGDOM KING SEEKS TO REGAIN THRONE.

I crumpled it up and tossed it out the window. As if the man calling himself King was any more the cause behind this than myself, or old Mr. Bull.

We rounded the corner on Cambrit. I sat up and peeked out my window, hoping to find my poor door intact and unmolested.

It was intact, but it wasn’t alone. A big man leaned against it, and two of his big-boned friends helped him idle by squatting on either side of him. Their clothes were ragged and filthy, right out of Pot Lockney.

I cussed, sighed and bade the driver to keep going. If I was forced to fight my way to my icebox and its heavenly stash of beer, I needed reinforcements, and I knew a man who owed me a favor.

We walked all the way back to my place. I wasn’t in favor of it, but Grist insisted, claiming exercise left him sharp and invigorated.

I’d shrugged, half-hoping the trio of bumpkins might have given up and gone by the time we arrived at my office.

They hadn’t. Maybe it was the hex that brought them to their feet when Grist and I drew near. Maybe they’d sneaked around enough to see me from a distance and recognize me. Maybe they knew trouble was coming.

Too bad they didn’t know what kind of trouble.

Three big strong country boys. It took Grist exactly five blows to lay the trio out cold in the street. He took a single blow to his chin, which had all the apparent effect of a tap from a feather pillow.

“You are as good as they say.”

He grinned and nudged the biggest of the three with the toe of his boot. “What you want done with these?”

A small crowd was gathering. Flowers was among them. I flipped him a copper and bade him fetch the Watch.

“Leave ’em. The Watch can haul them off when they come around. If they get up and try to make tracks before that, put them back to sleep.”

“You’re the boss.”

I nodded. Hell, he’d not even drawn a deep breath. I made a mental note to never cross Mills. My stunt with