William King - The Queen's assassin

He understood her thoughts at once. “Malkior is coming here.”

“Yes. He has to. He has to kill you and he has to kill me. We know too much about him now.”

“What difference does that make? He is a High Lord of the Dark Empire. The Inquisition is not going to come banging on his door.”

“It might if we win this war. And he knows that sooner or later I am going to have to kill him. He knows that you will try too and the longer you live, the more dangerous you become.”

“You are flattering me.”

“There is a thing you should know about human wizards, and I suspect about half-breed ones too, Rik. They come into their power very young compared to Terrarchs. You have already made more progress in the past few months than most Terrarch wizards would in years, and you are much, much stronger than any Terrarch would be at your age.”

He turned this information over in his mind. The voices whispered that this was true. The Quan had certainly never met a human so strong. The fact that he was still alive proved this. “To tell the truth, Rik, you are already far and away the strongest mortal sorcerer I have ever met, and you will only become stronger if you are given time.”

He kept silent, and as he hoped she kept speaking to fill the silence. “I don’t know whether it’s because of your Shadowblood heritage or some other factor but you are different from all the other mortal mages I have encountered.”

“You think I can kill Malkior?”

“No, Rik, but I think that between us we can. I have a score to settle with him. Queen Amarielle was my friend and I was supposed to protect her. He killed her. He has killed an awful lot of people, and will kill many more if he is allowed to. The time has come for him to be stopped.”

“In this we are in agreement, but how will we find him?”

“He will come to us, Rik. If for no other reason than he has to take you back to the Quan to prove that he was not responsible for your escape.”

“I would die before I let that happen.”

“If the situation should arise that will probably be your best choice. We have other problems as well.”

“That’s good — we did not have enough already.”

“Lord Jaderac and Tamara are up to something, she as much as told you so. Given the fact that they are here in Halim, I suspect this is where their plan will come to fruition. I imagine it is not intended to benefit the Talorean army in any way.”

“What are you going to do about that?”

“I already have agents at work in the city. They are digging up leads. I have the Sardean embassy watched day and night, although that will not stop Tamara from coming and going. She may be able to take Jaderac with her.”

“What could they be up to?”

“We know Jaderac is a sorcerer, and he specialises in necromancy. He must be planning something in that line. I have warned military intelligence about that. I have assigned your friends Weasel and the Barbarian to make contact with the local underworld to see if they can find any leads that way. I have worked a few divination spells and learned a few things that way.”

“What have you learned?”

“That there has been a quite extraordinary build-up of necromantic energies in the city since we have been away.”

“Someone is planning on raising the dead?”

“I don’t know. And I can’t pinpoint the source but there is a definite cloud of energies at the darker end of the magical spectrum in the city’s aura right now. It is getting stronger every day. It’s most likely the by-product of someone working ritual magic somewhere.”

“Can’t you pin it down?”

“I might be able to, but by then it might be too late. The coronation is only a few days away now.”

“You think they intend to prevent it?”

“It would be the logical thing for them to do.”

“Then how are you going to get to the bottom of this?”

“The old fashioned way. By spending a lot of money and talking to a lot of people. You and your friends are going to do that anyway. I will keep working away at my divinations.”

“You are sure about this?” Rik asked. The vodka burned as it went down his throat. Uri wiped his mouth and his huge handlebar moustache with the sleeve of his left arm then he looked at Rik’s empty glass and poured him another one. He poured one for himself.

“To keep it company,” he said. At this time of day it was quiet in the Nag’s Head. There were very few people around. None of them could get into this alcove anyway. The Barbarian and some of Uri’s toughest boys were out there to prevent that.

“You sure about this?” Rik repeated. Partially it was the alcohol that made him do so. Partially it was the fact that Uri seemed more interested in the vodka than he was in telling Rik what he knew. Uri snapped the glass back to his mouth, downing it in a single gulp. Rik did the same, drawing on the spells to neutralise poison, to counter the effect of the booze and any drugs that Uri might have put in it. He did not exactly trust the Gang Lord.

“Of course, I am sure. As sure as anybody can be about these things. My boys have been selling bodies to some so-called alchemist. They thought it was the usual stuff, you know, for dissection and showing to medical students. They thought they might be able to use that to put a little bite on the guy, but when they tried it, he just laughed at them, and told them that if they tried anything they would die very slowly and painfully. They told him he had been smoking too much black lotus, which he had been too, since his pupils were the size of plates and his skin was a sallow yellow. He got mad and showed them a walking corpse, and told them they would become just like that if they told anybody. He had friends in high places, he said. Well that’s what Standa and Rudi said anyway. Nobody believed them. They were famous liars.”

“So why should you believe them now?”

“No one has seen them in days. They were supposed to show up with their share of the take a couple of night’s back but they never did.”

“Maybe they legged it with your money.”

Uri looked at him and guffawed. He poured more vodka. “They would not dare. And they would not leave their families behind either. Standa’s wife Lucie says he was pretty strange the last night she saw him. Eyes were blank. Seemed to be in a trance. He just walked out, never came back. Kept muttering something about graves.”

“If you want to talk about blank eyes take a look into the Barbarian’s sometimes.”

Uri had another drink. He did not offer Rik one. It did not seem to have too much effect on him, except that he was becoming more aggressive. “Look, pretty boy, I don’t care if you believe me or not. It’s just my friend Weasel there brought word that you and the Taloreans were looking out for just this sort of story so I mentioned it to him.”

The voices whispered to Rik that he should kill this arrogant fool, and drink his life. He forced them down. “Maybe you made this up because you heard there was money to be made for such tales.”

“Yes, and maybe I have nothing better to do with my time than sit here and tell these stories to you. However I have other ways of making money. This was a favour for a friend. One I can see is not much appreciated.”

“Calm down,” said Rik. He did not need any trouble with the local gangs. “You know where this bodysnatcher had his premises?”

Uri nodded. “My boys have had it staked out since I sent you the invitation.”

“Then here’s the deal. We’ll check this out, and if there’s anything in it, you’ll be owed. Money, favours, whatever you need. We don’t forget the people who help us.”

Uri looked as if he was considering asking for money up front, and remembering that he had claimed he was doing this as a favour. Eventually, he nodded. “Tell your masters to check out the basement of the old ruined tenement on Angel of Hope Street. The whole area was wrecked when you boys came to town but there’s still a few beggars around there.”