Frank Tuttle - All the Paths of Shadow

Meralda took the Post , but didn’t unroll it. “Save me some time,” she said to Angis as Mug sent a half-dozen eyes weaving toward the paper. “Just the high points, please.”

Angis shrugged. “Well, let’s see,” he said. “The Hang are buying up bookstores. Not the bricks and the doors. Just the books. All of them. They pay in gold, and I gather more than one or two booksellers just got rich, because the Hang don’t haggle. They just pile up gold until someone says yes.”

“Tell her about the haint,” said Kervis.

Angis chuckled. “Right lot of hogwash, that,” he said. “A street minstrel claims something grabbed him in an alley off Newbrick,” he said. “Just after dark, last night. Claimed it took three of his fellows to beat it back. Street minstrels,” spat Angis. “They’d claim they climbed the Tower if there was a penny in the tale.”

Kervis chimed in. “We heard some of the boys in the barracks talking, ma’am,” he said. “The Watch called the guard out last night, after the attack.” Kervis glanced about. “A couple of them claim they saw a gaunt. Right here in Tirlin!”

Mug lifted a corner of his bed sheet. “Do you even know what a gaunt is, lad?” he asked.

“It’s somebody dead who died in a marsh, and comes back to get their vengeance,” said Tervis. “It’s just an old story from Phendeli. Isn’t that right, ma’am?”

Meralda nodded, stuffed the rolled-up paper under her arm, and lifted Mug’s cage. “That’s right, Guardsman Tervis,” she said. “It’s just an old story. In any case, the nearest marsh is a good four hundred miles from here.”

“Long walk for a dead man,” said Mug. “Unless, of course, our Phendelit friends packed him in their luggage.”

“Would you get my bag, Tervis?” asked Meralda.

“Yes, ma’am,” said Tervis.

Angis held the door, and Meralda found her seat. Tervis clambered in behind her, smiling and smelling of a rather strong army soap.

“Why do you suppose the Hang would buy whole bookstores?” he asked, as the cab rolled into traffic.

Meralda shrugged. “I imagine they’ll take the books home to study,” she said.

“That’s what I decided,” said Tervis. “Going home, I mean. After all, if they were planning to stay, or invade, why would they bother to buy anything? They could just wait and take what they want after the war.”

Meralda tilted her head. “Oh, I don’t think they came to invade us,” she said. “Five ships is hardly an invasion fleet, even if they are Great Sea five-masters,” she added.

Tervis looked about, leaned forward, and lowered his voice. “Ma’am,” he said, in a ragged whisper. “I heard something. They said not to tell it again, but…” His brow furrowed, and he took a breath. “I hear there might be other ships on the way.”

Mug whistled softly. The cab rolled into a pothole, and Meralda had to steady herself with the door latch.

“Are there?” asked Tervis. “Other ships, I mean. I know it’s a secret and all, but are there?”

“Guardsman,” said Meralda. “I have heard no news of any additional Hang ships, of any sort, anywhere. I say this as a member in full of the Court of Tirlin, and I spoke to the king just yesterday. Can the person who told you about this new Hang fleet say the same?”

Kervis let out his breath in a whoosh. “No, they can’t,” he said, with a relieved grin. “I’m pretty sure they spent yesterday cleaning latrines.”

“Ah,” said Mug. “That alone should tell you something about their sources,” he added.

Tervis’ grin vanished.

“Don’t worry, lad,” said Mug. “I rather like you, and your brother what’s-his-name. I won’t tell the captain you were discussing state secrets in a public cab.”

“That’s right,” said Meralda, nudging the cage with her boot toe. “He won’t.”

Tervis sat back in his seat. “I don’t mind telling you I was worried,” he said.

“I’ll bet most of the army is still worried,” said Mug, lifting a red eye up toward Meralda. “Wonder where such a tale came from?”

Yes, thought Meralda. I wonder . It was, after all, just a story.

Wasn’t it?

Meralda dismissed the thought with a shrug. “Well,” she said, unrolling the paper and rifling through it. “Let’s see what that miserable penswift did to my hair.”

Meralda stared in horror at her picture. “I don’t own a blouse with a neckline that low,” she fumed.

Mug sneaked an eye up and snickered at the drawing.

“He fancies you a cabaret dancer, seems like.”

Meralda quickly turned the page.

“More soldiers,” said Mug, sweeping the park with a dozen of his eyes. From his perch on the platform’s rail, he commanded a good view of the entire southern park. “And another dozen mounted guards. Something’s up, mistress,” he said.

Meralda nodded. In her hand she held a cold retaining wand. The holdstone it drew from was nearly depleted, and the first refractor was only half cast.

“Hold,” she spoke, biting back one of Angis’ words. Mug waved his eyes her way.

“Problem?” he asked.

“Blasted holdstone went warm,” she said. The half-cast refractor whirled and twisted in her second sight as she groped on the work bench for a fresh holdstone.

A trumpet blew, loud and close and shrill, and Meralda started and dropped the refractor.

The spell whipped away, tangling and coiling and writhing, grounding itself in the park halfway to the Tower amid a single brief dance of shadows.

Meralda leaned glaring over the rail. Down in the crowd at the base of the half-completed speaking platform, a child hooted in glee and raised his battered trumpet to his lips in preparation for another blast.

“Shall I have him shot?” asked Mug. “Kervis is dying to shoot someone.”

Meralda turned from the rail, took a deep breath, and counted to ten. Mug waited silently.

“It’s early, yet,” said Meralda at last. “I have plenty of time.”

“Of course you do,” said Mug. “Still, perhaps a minor wound?”

“Mug,” said Meralda.

“Silent meditation, I understand,” said Mug. His eyes resumed their sweep of the park. “Take a deep breath, won’t you?”

Meralda found a fresh holdstone and a new retaining wand. “Begin,” she said, and extended her second sight. “Refract.”

“The Hang,” said Mug. “Coming this way.” He paused, then brought more eyes to bear on the Wizard’s Walk. “Sorry, mistress,” he said. “Looks like we’ll be entertaining, this morning. Better conjure up a couch, and some drinks.”

“Finish,” spat Meralda. Her wand buzzed angrily, but soon fell quiet, and Meralda wrapped it in a cloth and put it down on her worktable. “I really should come early and set wards at all the bloody gates and leave them there until the Accords,” she said. “It’s the only way I’ll ever get any work done.”

She watched as a half-dozen Hang, led by six mounted palace guards and surrounded by several dozen of the Watch, ambled down the walk. Meralda recognized Que-long, his red-robed Chezin, and Loman, the elderly Hang wizard. Loman was being pushed down the walk in a plain infirmary-issue wheelchair, by a lad whose head barely peeped over the back. Fromarch and Shingvere flanked Loman’s wheelchair, and all three wizards seemed lost in hand waving and animated conversation.

As the party drew near, Meralda tried to make out the faces or the names of the other Hang, but the press of the crowd and the mounted guards prevented her from seeing them more clearly.

“Marvelous,” she muttered, under her breath.

Tervis came clambering up the stair, halting when his head was just above the floor. “The Hang are coming to see you, ma’am,” he said. “We just got word from a runner.”