Return of the Crimson Guard

laugh. ‘Imagine his dismay to find the Guard actually returning! Now he might face his own officers-’

Laseen regarded her silently then glanced away.

Havva decided she'd said quite enough. Further intelligence would have to wait, perhaps for ever. Oh, my Empress! You are alone; the walls you have raised have driven all from your side. Was it arrogance? Contempt? Failure to understand anything beyond your own drive to rule? Yet you say nothing and so we who could help you cannot know for certain. And there is too much to lose in that uncertainty. Now you stand apart. All alone but perhaps for poor blind Possum. Perhaps that is the cruel logic of your silence. Laseen, if I chose this private moment together to tell you all I know perhaps we would have a chance — a slim chance — of victory against the conspiracy that has closed itself around us. I have been doing all I can. But I dare not speak openly. I dare not take the chance. I am ashamed and so sorry, my Empress. I too have failed you. All because my time in the Archives was not wasted. I know the name Jhistal. And I fear I do not have the power to oppose it.

The ranks of surrounding guard parted to admit the spear-slim form of High Fist Anand followed by a waddling, sweaty Mallick Rel fanning himself and grimacing at the stink of stale smouldering fires and burnt flesh. A white cloth encircled his head. ‘Congratulations, Empress! A great victory!’ the councilman called.

‘Victory?’ Laseen repeated flatly. ‘A few hundred of the Crimson Guard visit us for less than a day and half the capital is blown up and burnt to the ground?’

‘An invasion grandly repulsed!’

‘They left because they saw there was nothing here for them,’ Havva said.

Anand shook his head. ‘I have to admit that it was the volunteer citizen militia that drove them off.’ He sounded as if he were still surprised by the fact. ‘And for that I apologize, Empress. I hadn't thought them a force worth considering before. They have no formal command structure or professional officer corps.’

‘A mere mob,’ Mallick sneered.

‘Mobs rule urban warfare,’ Anand said. ‘Bring enough numbers to bear from all directions and you smother any opponent.’

‘Apology accepted, High Fist,’ Laseen said, cutting through the confrontation. ‘Their numbers?’

‘My officers in the streets put their numbers as high as ten thousand. And climbing — more are joining every day. There are lines outside their headquarters.’

‘And just where are these vaunted headquarters, High Fist?’ Mallick inquired mildly, his round face gleaming.

Anand paused, reluctant to answer, then reconsidered, stating boldly, ‘neighbourhood taverns.’

‘Faugh! Rabble who would melt at the first clash of iron. Empress, such forces are useless. The First Sword would have nothing to do with these undisciplined amateurs.’

‘To their great relief, no doubt,’ Anand observed. ‘In any case, they themselves recognize their shortcomings and they've put out a call for retired regular and marine officers to join them. I understand a ship full of retired sergeants and officers just put in from Malaz Isle. Old Braven Tooth himself among them.’

‘Braven Tooth!’ Laseen repeated, amazed. ‘I thought he was dead.’

‘So did everyone.’ Anand's smile held rueful affection. ‘Seems he sank his decades of back-pay and pension into some kind of Denul ritual that turned him into an oak stump.’

‘Unnecessarily,’ Laseen remarked, facing aside.

Mallick sucked his stained teeth loudly. ‘All very well. However, it would take months to hammer such a force into an army. Time we do not have.’

‘What happened to your head?’ Havva asked him.

‘What?’

Havva gestured to the cloth. ‘Your head.’

Mallick's hands flew to the wrap, straightened it. ‘The blast. A lamp fell on me.’

Pity that was all. ‘Wounded in defence of the city. How noble.’

Mallick's gaze narrowed to slits. ‘And where were you, Havva Gulien? Cowering in the Archive's sub- basement, sharpened quill raised?’

Always closer than you know, Mallick Rel.

‘I agree with your estimate of our time, Mallick,’ Laseen said. ‘When is the First Sword expected?’

‘Later today,’ Anand supplied.

‘When he returns, inform him that we will be departing from Unta with all haste. Close the harbour, Anand. Confiscate every vessel. We sail with every available man and woman.’

Anand bowed. ‘Very good, Empress.’

‘We?’ Mallick asked, arched.

‘Not you, Spokesman for the Assembly. Will you remain here in Unta, overseeing the rebuilding and the defence of the capital?’

Mallick's brows rose and he bowed. ‘It would be my honour, of course. I will report daily on the progress.’

‘That will be difficult, Mallick, because I will be leading the army.’

A gasp from Anand, ‘Empress!’

Laseen raised a hand to silence all objections. ‘It is decided. We must leave immediately.’

Though clearly unhappy, Anand gathered himself and bowed stiffly. Havva bowed as well. So shall I too go. As will Possum and the majority of the Claw. In the field again, as it was so long ago.

‘I shall raise a magnificent monument to your future victories on this very site,’ Mallick said, bowing.

‘Wait until I have won them,’ Laseen said, her unreadable gaze steady on the man.

In an urban garden servants brushed ash from laden tree-branches while workers dismantled one of its collapsed brick walls. A man in loose trousers and a long plain maroon shirt stood at a planting bed, examining a potted flower. His long black hair hung loose. A woman with a heart-shaped face and short black hair entered the garden and walked swiftly upon him. Without turning, he said, ‘A rare specimen from Avalli, Kiska. Undamaged, thankfully.’

The woman covered her nose. ‘It stinks.’

‘Its scent imitates the smell of weakness: rot and death. Attracting flies and other insect scavengers. Which it then eats.’

‘Disgusting.’

‘Revelatory. There is a lesson here for anyone who cares to reflect upon it.’

‘Avoid stinking plants.’

Tayschrenn sighed, set down the pot. ‘You are too much the child of the city, Kiska.’ He faced her, set his darkly tanned hands on his waist. ‘Could not stay away, could you? I suppose I should have known better.’

Kiska studied the workmen, the usual local labourers hired to maintain Tayschrenn's home, all cleared by Hattar. ‘I just kept an eye on things.’

‘Good. I see that some wisdom has penetrated your thick stubbornness. But one does not merely “keep an eye” on men such as Cowl.’

‘He left by Warren.’

‘Which?’

‘Hood's.’

Tayschrenn grunted. ‘How appropriate. So, what did you witness — other than futility and waste?’

Flicking back her short bangs, Kiska tilted her head to one side, frowning. ‘I saw a number of Claws fleeing Avowed open ways into the Imperial Warren.’

‘Yes?’

‘They never returned.’

‘Indeed.’

‘I saw an Avowed named Amatt break a barricade of burning wagons and piled timbers simply by walking into it and pushing a section aside. I counted seven crossbow bolts in him. He then walked down to the ships, pulling the bolts out as they struck him.’ She shook her head, amazed. ‘I tell you, I do not want to face those Guardsmen again.’