Erik de Bie: Downshadow

The two dwarves stared. Redbeard uttered a nervous giggle that died halfway through.

"It is because of faith like yours-that of weak, unquestioning dwarves," said Rath. "The gods thrive upon courage, and when you fear the truth, the gods become weak."

"What?" The black-bearded dwarf was aghast, and the others face was turning red as his beard. "How dare you?"

"You bluster and boast, but I see fear in your eyes-cowardice that would shame your fathers. You have never questioned your heritage, but accepted it without thought, and so you do not know what it is to be a dwarf. I know this, and I choose not to accept it. You…" Rath looked at them directly for the first time, "you do not deserve to be dwarves. You are nothing."

His speech had exactly the effect he had expected-expected, not merely hoped for. Rath was not a dwarf given to hope.

The black-bearded dwarf drew his dagger and spat at Rath, hitting his tankard. "You beardless thin-blood," he snarled. "You take that back, or you draw and fight me."

Redbeard giggled again-malevolently.

Rath picked up his tainted tankard and looked at it distastefully. He made no move to draw his sword-sacred to his order-from the gold-leafed scabbard at his side.

"It is simply the truth," he replied.

Blackbeard growled low like a murderous dog. "You insult your blood, smooth-face. Take it back!" He prodded at Rath with his blade. "Take it!"

"As you wish," he murmured.

Rach flicked his half-filled tankard in the air to draw their eyes. They looked.

In a blur of motion, Rath twisted the dagger out of the black-bearded dwarves hand and plunged it-to the hilt-into his companion's right lung. Redbeard looked down at the hilt sticking out of his ribs and his giggle turned into a wet cough.

Blackbeard just watched dumbly as the tankard fell and clattered to the floor, splitting open and sending ale over his boots.

The dwarf looked mutely at his unexpectedly empty hand, then at Rath, then at his companion, who gaped down at his injury. As if on cue, the red-bearded dwarf's eyes rolled up in their sockets, and he slumped in his chair.

"Really," Rath said. "Why would you stab your companion like that?"

The dwarf looked at him again, eyes wide, and they went even wider when Rath smiled. It was not a pretty smile-handsome enough, but cold and sharp as drawn steel. The dwarf didn't bother to catch his ally but turned and ran for the stairs.

Trembling hands pawed at his side. Rath glanced down at the panting, wheezing dwarf and looked at him indifferently. The dwarf, mouthing pleas for help that went unanswered, fell to the floor with a wet burble that might have been a laugh.

Rath waved for more ale.

"Here's for the tankard-and the blood," he said, pressing silver into the terrified serving woman's palm.

In a secluded corner, behind the half-closed velvet curtain drawn for private dealings, a pair of gray eyes set in a feminine half-elf face sparkled as they watched, with some bemusement, the beardless dwarf defending himself against his assailants. A trifle unsubtle, that one, but some matters did not demand subtlety.

"That," said her patron, indicating her breast with one languid, silk-gloved finger, "is a passing fair brooch."

"It pleases?" Fayne ran her delicate fingers over the edges of the dragon-shaped brooch. "I just obtained it today. Had to elude the fastest red-haired chit of a guard, but I managed it."

She went back to watching the beardless dwarf, and she giggled when he drove one antagonist to the ground and scared the other away with a glance. Hesitant tavern-goerestepped forward to recover the bleeding dwarf-Rath did not so much as acknowledge their presence.

That sort of man, Fayne thought, could be very helpful in certain situations. She would have to see about acquiring hold of his stringscoin-pouch or breeches. Either. Both.

"Whence?" Her patron pointed at the brooch.

Time for business, it seemed. Fayne turned to him. "A bumbling old fool of a merchant up on the Dragon," she said. "I've been robbing him blind for two tendays now."

"Different faces?" Her patron's tone was mild.

"What am I, dull? Of course." She rolled her eyes. "Art is pointless if you don't use it."

"Quite right."

Her patron rubbed at his cheek, where she could see two small scratches that were the only flaw on his otherwise smooth, ever-bemused face. His elf cheekbones were thin and high, his nose sharp without being aquiline, and his eyes a rich gold that matched the soft hue of his skin and his deeper golden hair. He wore a fashionable doublet and coat, rich but not attention grasping, and several rings over his white silk gloves. Each high, pointed ear bore several jewels, and though a great flounce of lace hid it, she knew he wore a thin silver chain around his throat with a locket that she'd never seen him open.

He bore no weapon, but Fayne knew he needed no such thing.

"So to business," Fayne said. "Who shall I ruin this time? Another lordling, perhaps? You'll read about the Roaringhorn girl on the morrow." She smiled at the memory.

He nodded. "Someone more important." Plucking a pink quill from nowhere-it might have come from his sleeve or from the air-he wrote three words, two short, one longer, on a scrap of parchment, without benefit of ink. This he pushed across the table to her.

"Who-?" Fayne furrowed her brow in thought. Then her eyes widened. "You don't mean it." Her hands trembled in her excitement.

He straightened his gloves. "You've prepared for this for some time, yes?"

"Decades," she said. "Suppose that doesn't mean much to you. Just a wink of an eye."

He smiled and handed her a scroll bound with a burgundy leather thong and his seal, a silver shooting star surrounded by a ring of tiny flames.

"I'll do it." She stuffed the instructions into her bodice. "Besha's tits, I'd do it for free."

He put a hand up, and she froze as though he'd smitten her with a binding spell. "Have a care upon which goddess's bosom you swear, dear one," he said. "And mind: as much as you've looked forward to this, take care." He slid his fingers along her cheek. "Do not grow careless."

She smiled. "You know me-I am the picture of care."

He didn't look convinced. "I am very familiar with hatred, my little witch," he said. "And I know well the damage it can cause. Do not let it control you."

She closed her eyes and laughed. "I haven't spent half a century sculpting myself to fail now. Don't-" She looked up, but he was gone as though he had never been there.

Fayne sniffed. His abrupt comings and leavetakings had startled her in her youth, but then she'd started to wonder how to do it herself. She hadn't quite mastered that power-yet.

She put her small belt satchel on the table and waved for ale. The serving woman nodded and held up three fingers. Fayne shrugged, took out a small mirror, a quill and ink, and a bit of parchment, and began writing.

When next Fayne looked up, the woman was standing over her, hands folded in front of her apron. "Aye, lady?"

She was a pretty thing, the serving Iass^ with hair that fell in ruby ringlets to her midback. Fayne liked her looks-had worn such herself, once upon a tenday.

"Take this"-Fayne pressed the note into the girl's fingers, along with a disk of polished platinum-"and a bottle of your best amber brandy to yon beardless gentle."

The young woman looked where Fayne pointed and blanched. "You don't mean… Arrath Vir, aye? Oh, lady… unwise, methinks."

"What?" Fayne flicked blonde hair out of her eyes. "He's not one for the ladies?"

The serving lass shook her head, then slid into the booth opposite her. " 'Tis said he's a mystic or some such, heartless and cruel. Hails from a temple of some sort of… emptiness? Void? Sommat the like. Only"-she leaned closer to speak softer-"only he tired of his brethren, killed 'em all, and now he sells his sword for coin. He'd slit your granddam's throat for a copper nib. Him, or one of the Downshadow folk what worship the ground he treads."