sandals. The other naked bony feet. Very bony, and very definitely inhuman in shape. Shedding dirt as they came.
While he crouched there before the door it opened and Rallick found himself staring up at the grim, emaciated figure of the ancient Jaghut Tyrant Raest, prisoner to the house, and now its … guardian? Or perhaps more accurately its interpreter or spokesman. Or doorman.
‘Not even if you beg,’ the Jag breathed, his inflection completely dead.
Rallick straightened. ‘May I speak to you?’
The unsettling vertical-pupils of the eyes rose to encompass the night sky over the estate district; narrowed. ‘We already have a boarder. I am not taking in more. No matter how awful it will get.’
A shiver ran its fingers down Rallick’s spine. He clenched and unclenched his sweaty hands. ‘That is the last thing I would want.’
The Jag shuffled out of the doorway back up the hall. ‘That is what they all say — then there’s no getting rid of them.’
Rallick forced himself up the hall. Behind, the door swung shut, enclosing him in almost utter gloom. On one side, in a narrow corridor a large man lay blocking the way, snoring loudly and wetly. Raest passed this strange apparition without comment and Rallick was forced to follow. Murky light shone ahead; a sort of limpid greenish underwater glow cast down as if from a skylight. Here he found the Jag seated at a table and across from him sat another creature — an Imass. Or at least so Rallick assumed. He was no expert. Half-rotted flesh over bones and those bones stained dark. Battered armour of leather, furs and bone plates. And over all clumps of dried dirt. The entity held wooden slats in ravaged hands of bone and ligament. It raised its empty sockets to regard Rallick for a moment then returned its gaze to the slats in its hands.
In that brief regard a cold wind had brushed Rallick’s face. He heard it moaning, carrying the call of large animals far in the distance. He shivered again.
The Jag, Raest, took up his own slats.
Cards, he realized. They were playing cards. Now. With so much hanging over the city.
On the table between them sat the corpse of a cat.
Rallick cleared his throat. ‘What is going on?’
‘I am up ten thousand gold bars,’ Raest breathed. ‘My friend here is having trouble with the changes in the rules.’
The Imass’s voice came as a low creaking of dry sinew: ‘I am better at mechanisms.’
‘No,’ Rallick insisted. ‘The city. What’s going on outside?’
‘The neighbourhood is fast deteriorating. I am considering a move.’
‘A move? You can move?’
The Tyrant turned his ravaged features to study him wordlessly for a time.
Rallick swallowed.
The Jag laid down one wooden card from his hand.
The Imass edged its blunt skeletal chin forward to study the card then sat back to return to the contemplation of its own. Rallick also leaned to squint at the face; he saw nothing more than a crudely scratched image he couldn’t make out.
‘No,’ the Jag continued, ‘I’ve put too much work into the place.’ Rallick eyed the walls of rotting wood, the hanging roots, the dust sifting down through the cascading starlight. ‘Besides, Fluffy here would be devastated.’
‘Can you give me any hint of what is to come?’
‘I serve the House now. Only it. However, I can tell you what sort of game we are playing.’
From his mangled leathery hand the Imass slowly slid a wooden card on to the table.
Raest leaned forward to study the image scratched upon its face. He sat back, shaking his head. ‘No — not her. She’s out of the game. For now.’ He brushed the card aside. The ligaments of the Imass’s neck creaked as it followed the card to the far edge of the table. It growled.
Rallick found he was holding his breath. ‘What sort of game … is it?’ he asked, hardly able to speak.
‘It’s a game of bluff. Bluff on both sides. Remember that, servant of Hood.’
‘Hood is gone.’
‘The paths remain.’
‘I see.’
‘Do you? It would be astounding if you did.’
Rallick clenched his lips.
The Jag remained immobile, his slashed and battered face a mask, long grey hair like iron shavings hanging to his shoulders. ‘I can tell you that you are distracting me from the game. Go away.’
Rallick decided that he should not wait to be told twice. He edged back out of the room, not turning away from the oddly mismatched, yet so utterly matched, couple.
He reached the closed door.
But the door did open.
When someone entered his office, Legate Jeshin Lim’s first thought was that a councillor had requested an unscheduled meeting and his staff had ushered him or her through. He was surprised, therefore, upon peering up from composing his next speech to see the merchant Humble Measure standing before him.
He stifled the urge to leap from his chair.
He stood, smiling, and came round the desk. ‘Humble Measure! This is a surprise!’ He motioned to a chair. ‘Please, sit. May I offer you some tea?’
The big man sat stiffly and ponderously. ‘None, Legate … thank you.’
‘First,’ the man ground out, ‘congratulations upon the renewal of the ancient honoured position, Legate.’
Lim waved such formalities aside. ‘It is
Humble inclined his head in acknowledgement. ‘The Legate is too generous. Yet I wonder, then, why, with this victory in your grasp, you have not gone on to move Darujhistan towards the position of pre-eminence we once agreed it deserves?’
Jeshin frowned, cocking his head. The tea sat forgotten before him. ‘How so?’
‘Legate — Darujhistan must have an arsenal. Arms, armour, siege engines. The materiel of war-’ He stopped himself, because the Legate had raised a hand to speak.
The merchant interrupted. ‘Darujhistan has walls, Legate.’
Jeshin waved this aside. ‘Hardly worth the name. Playgrounds for the city’s children. Neglected and pillaged for centuries. They must be rebuilt, strengthened.’
‘It’s not the