Brohl Handar slowly nodded. ‘The Emperor’s K’risnan are also capable of determining their general whereabouts. Those passes are blocked.’ He paused, then said, ‘It is as Hannan Mosag predicted.’
Orbyn’s dark eyes studied him from between folds of fat ‘I am reminded of Edur efficiency.’
Yes.
The man known as Truthfinder went on, ‘The Patriotists have questions regarding this white-skinned Tiste Edur, this White Crow. From which tribe does he hail?’
‘None. He is not Tiste Edur.’
‘Ah. I am surprised. The description…’
Brohl Handar said nothing.
‘Overseer, can we assist?’
‘Unnecessary at this time,’ Brohl replied.
‘I am most curious as to why you have not already closed in on this party and effected a capture. My sources indicate that the Tiste Edur is none other than Fear Sengar, the Emperor’s brother.’
‘As I said, the passes are blocked.’
‘Ah, then you are tightening the net even as we speak.’
Brohl Handar smiled. ‘Orbyn, you said earlier the Bolkando Conspiracy is under the purview of the Liberty Consign. By that, are you truly telling me that the Patriotists are without interest in that matter?’
‘Not at all. The Consign makes use of our network on a regular basis-’
‘For which you are no doubt rewarded.’
‘Of course.’
‘I find myself-’
Orbyn raised a hand, head cocking. ‘You will have to excuse me, Overseer. I hear alarms.’ He rose with a grunt, pushing open the carriage door.
Bemused, Brohl said nothing, watching as the Letherii left. Once the door was closed he reached to a small compartment and withdrew a woven ball filled with scented grasses, then held it to his face. A tug on a cord stirred the driver to collect up the traces. The carriage lurched as it rolled forward. Brohl could hear the alarms now, a frantic cacophony. Leaning forward, he spoke into the voice-tube. ‘Take us to those bells, driver.’ He hesitated, then added, ‘No hurry.’
The Drene Garrison commanded a full dozen stone buildings situated on a low hill north of the city centre. Armoury, stables, barracks and command headquarters were all heavily fortified, although the complex was not walled. Drene had been a city-state once, centuries past, and after a protracted war with the Awl the beleaguered king had invited Letherii troops to effect victory against the nomads. Decades later, evidence had come out that the conflict itself had been the result of Letherii manipulations. In any case, the Letherii troops had never left; the king accepted the title of vizier and in a succession of tragic accidents he and his entire line were wiped out. But that was history, now, the kind that was met with indifference.
Four principal avenues extended out from the garrison’*s parade grounds, the one leading northward converging with the Gate Road that led to the city wall and the North Coast track-the least frequented of the three landward routes to and from the city.
In the shadows beneath the gabled balcony of a palatial estate just beyond the armoury, on the north avenue, a clear line of sight was available for the short, lithe figure standing in the cool gloom. A rough-woven hood hid the features, although had anyone bothered to pause in passing, squinting hard, they would have been startled to see the glint of crimson scales where the face should have been and eyes hidden in black-rimmed slits. But there was some-thing about the figure that encouraged inattention. Gazes slid past, rarely comprehending that, indeed, someone stood in those shadows.
He had positioned himself there just before dawn and it was now late afternoon. Eyes fixed on the garrison the messengers entering and exiting the headquarters, the visitation of a half-dozen noble merchants, the purchasing of horses, scrap metal, saddles and other sundry materiel He studied the skin hides on the round-shields of the lancers-flattened faces, the skin darkened to somewhere between purple and ochre, making the tattooing subtle and strangely beautiful.
Late afternoon, the shadows lengthening, and the figure made note of two Letherii men, passing across his field of vision for the second time. Their lack of attention seemed… conspicuous, and some instinct told the cowled figure that it was time to leave.
As soon as they had passed by, heading up the street westward, the figure stepped out from the shadows, walked swiftly and silently after the two men. He sensed their sudden, heightened awareness-and perhaps something like alarm. Moments before catching up to them, he turned right, into an alley leading north.
Fifteen paces in, he found a dark recess in which he could bide. He drew back his cloak and cinched it, freeing his and hands.
A dozen heartbeats passed before he heard their footfalls.
He watched them walk past, cautious, both with drawn knives. One whispered something to the other and they hesitated.
The figure allowed his right foot to scrape as he stepped forward.
They spun round.
The Awl’dan cadaran whip was a whisper as it snaked out, the leather-studded with coin-sized, dagger- sharp, overlapping half-moon blades-flickering out in a gleam-ing arc that licked both men across their throats. Blood sprayed.
He watched them crumple. The blood flowed freely, more from the man who had been on the left, spreading across the greasy cobbles. Stepping close to the other victim, he unsheathed a knife and plunged it point-first into his throat; then, with practised familiarity, he cut off the man’s face, taking skin, muscle and hair. He repeated the ghastly task with the other man.
Two fewer agents of the Patriotists to contend with.
Of course, they worked in threes, one always at a distance, following the first two.
Prom the garrison, the first alarms sounded, a shrill collection of bells that trilled out through the dusty air about the buildings.
Folding up his grisly trophies and pushing them beneath a fold in the loose rodara wool shirt that covered his scaled hauberk, the figure set off along the alley, making for the north gate.
A squad of the city guard appeared at the far mouth, five armoured, helmed Letherii with shortswords and shields.
Upon seeing them, the figure sprinted forward, freeing the cadaran whip in his left hand, while in his right hand he shook free the rygtha crescent axe from the over-under strips of rawhide that had held it against his hip. A thick haft, as long as a grown man’s thigh bone, to which each end was affixed a three-quarter-moon iron blade, their planes perpendicular to each other. Cadaran and rygtha ancient weapons of the Awl’dan, their mastery virtually unknown among the tribes for at least a century.
The constabulary had, accordingly, never before faced such weapons…
At ten paces from the first three guardsmen, the whip lashed out, a blurred sideways figure-eight that spawned screams and gouts of blood that spilled almost black in the alley’s gloom. Two of the Letherii reeled back.
The lithe, wiry figure closed on the last man in the from row. Right hand slid along the haft to run up against flange beneath the left-side crescent blade, the haf** slapping parallel to the underside of his forearm as he brought the weapon up-blocking a desperate slash from the guard’s shortsword. Then, as the Awl threw his elbow forward, the right-side blade flashed out, cutting at the man’s face, connecting just below the helm’s rim, chopping through the nasal ridge and frontal bone before dipping into the soft matter of his brain. The tapered, sharp crescent blade slid back out with ease, as the Awl slipped past the falling guard, whip returning from an over-the head gather to hiss out, wrapping round the neck of the fourth Letherii-who shrieked, dropping his sword as he scrabbled at the deadly blades-as the Awl dropped into crouch, his right hand sliding the length of the rygtha haf** to abut the flanged base of the right-blade, then slashing out. The fifth guard jerked his shield upward to block, but too late-the blade caught him across the eyes.
A tug on the whip decapitated the fourth guard.
The Awl released his hold on the cadaran’s handle and gripping the rygtha at both ends, stepped close to slam the haft into the last guard’s throat, crushing the windpipe.
