Paul Kearney - The Mark of Ran

“When they find the time,” Gallico grunted. He nudged Creed. “Hi, master convict, don’t be too free with the wine just yet. The night is young.”

Creed wiped his lips. He had not uttered a word since entering the city. “Elias,” Rol said. “You’re all right?”

Creed nodded, but his eyes were suspiciously bright. “I’ve not drunk Auxierran in over eleven years. I have found my way to the only place in the world where I am free of looking over my shoulder for the overseer’s whip. This night I will drink whatever I can hold.” But he did not sound like a man intent on celebrating; more like one trying to forget.

Miriam came elbowing through the throng with her musket held over her head. Beside her was a black barrel-shaped man in salt-stained leather with the rolling walk of one lately come off the sea. The crowd made way for the pair, calling out ribald greetings. They halted in front of Rol.

Miriam’s companion stared at him frankly. He had a face dark as wet rawhide, a wide nose and full, folded lips, but his eyes were an icy blue that seemed to take light from the fire and hold it writhing in the pupils. With a start, Rol realized that this man had the Blood in him. His eyes reminded him of Rowen’s-there was a cold implacability about them.

“I am Artimion. Gallico, let us go elsewhere,” the man said, his gaze not unlocking Rol’s for a second. “There are things to say that cannot be said here.” One hand rested on a curved short-sword at his belt, the fingers thick as sausage.

“Bring your friends.”

Artimion had a room farther down inside the hollowed-out cliffs that butted onto the bay. It had a wide window, glassless, but otherwise perfect in the sculpted stonework of its construction. It might have been set in place just that morning. A fire burned in an equally wide hearth, logs hewn out of Ganesh’s illimitable forests. For furniture there was a table upon which olive oil lamps burned, and a series of three-legged stools. A sea-cloak unfurled upon a pile of heather and brush served as a bed and a cross-staff was propped up in one corner. The moon was high and white and cast a silver-speckled track across the bay beyond the window. Rol stared at it, at the almost unbroken barrier of the sea cliffs in their caldera. He could smell sea salt in the wind. It seemed like a breath from another world. Here, at least, he could feel the sea air on his face.

“A fine view, fit for a prince,” he said.

Artimion did not reply. He had set a series of clay mugs on the table and was pouring wine into them. Alongside stood a fine goblet of beautifully chased silver. This he gave to Gallico, though the thing looked far too fragile to be gripped in the halftroll’s vast taloned fist. Gallico lowered himself cross-legged on the floor but did not touch his wine. Creed sat staring owlishly into the fire and Miriam remained standing by the door, leaning on the muzzle of her musket. Rol moved away from the window. For some reason he felt as though there was danger in the room, and his hand dropped automatically to Fleam’s cold hilt.

“Drink with me,” Artimion said, and held out two clay mugs brimming dark.

They drank together, their eyes never leaving one another’s face. Rol knew that this man was the ruler of Ganesh Ka, as surely as Canker had ruled Ascari.

“I knew Mathuw Creed,” Artimion said casually, not looking at Elias. “He was a wastrel, a whoremonger, and a liar. He cheated at dice, and stole other men’s women. He reveled in cheap finery and could not hold his drink.” As Elias raised his head, blood filling his face, Artimion smiled at him. “He was my friend. As his son, you are most welcome here. I drink to his memory.” And he did so. After a confused moment, Elias did likewise. The wine trickled incontinently over the black and gray of his brindled beard.

“And now you,” Artimion said, his eyes sharpening their cold light. He smiled again, this time with no trace of humor. “You with the Blood staring out of your eyes. What in the world am I to make of you?”

“Artimion-” Gallico began.

“Hush, Gallico. I must make up my own mind here. I have no doubt this man is your friend, that he has behaved admirably, that he is a true companion. But he is here in our home with some cloud hanging over his head. I know it as sure as I stand here. Of the five of us in this room, three have the Blood in them, but in this fellow it runs perilously close to true. I can smell it.”

Miriam blew casually over the muzzle of her musket, a hoarse mote of sound. Rol relaxed, hands hanging wide of his sides. He began to breathe deeply, listening to Fleam’s hungry voice. Automatically, his mind mapped out the position of everything in the room. There was almost a joy in it.

“You have been trained,” Artimion said. “By whom, I wonder?”

“I am a mariner,” Rol told him. “Like you.” Why this feeling of danger, the creeping closeness of the walls closing in on him-too many people around, the fire too bright? He began to sweat.

Artimion nodded. He set down his wine. “Everyone who comes to Ganesh Ka has left something behind or is fleeing something-it is hard to tell one from the other at times. There is no shame in it. But you, Rol Cortishane, have brought with you that which you are trying to leave behind.”

“And what might it be?”

“The blood in your veins, for one. You are not to be blamed for that-many with the Old World in their flesh wish to ignore it, or even cut it out in some kind of exorcism or other. But the thing is, I have been talking to a man, a man with a feather in his hat, and he has offered me a huge amount of money-a ransom in ryals-if I will but bring him news of a young man named Rol with the Blood bright and strong in him, trailing a past as dark as his shadow. This man was named Canker, and he is the right hand of she who would set herself up as queen of all Bionar. I see that name is known to you and that you are the Rol he named.”

Fleam slid out of her scabbard with the scrape of ice on wood. There was a light in her that gleamed pale and yet illuminated nothing. The blade hissed like a cat.

The lock on Miriam’s musket snicked back with a well-oiled click in reply. The long barrel pointed now directly at Rol’s heart.

Gallico stood up, the silver goblet clinking to one side. “What in the hell is this?” Creed sprang to his feet beside the halftroll and drew his cutlass, swaying. Artimion ignored them both.

“How do you know Canker?” Rol asked, to gain time and because he was genuinely curious.

“We were in the Guild of Thieves together at one time, upon Corso. Yes, I was a Featherman in my youth, before I found the sea.”

“In our youth we all do things we regret later.”

Artimion laughed, an odd, snapping sound. “By God’s breath, you are right there. And I am no longer a youth.” Now he deliberately took up his cup and drank deeply from it. “I am not a betrayer either. Put up your sword, Rol Cortishane. Drink with me again and fear nothing. You are safe here-from us at least.” He jerked his head. “Miriam, put down that damned contraption before somebody gets hurt.”

Rol stood irresolute for a second-Fleam quivering and eager in his fist-and then he looked at Gallico and Creed, and sheathed the hungry edge of the sword. “I still do not understand,” he said, not touching the wine.

“ Mine enemy’s enemy is my friend, it is said. I have been making contacts with the rebels on this last trip, and Ran knows I was startled enough to find that my old cellmate Canker is now chamberlain to the woman who may well win Bionar for herself. I have made an alliance with them-why should I not? But the king’s forces have got wind of it, and now there are warships gathering on the shores of Ganesh.” Artimion’s face grew sober. “I have backed the winning side, I am sure of that, but the winning side are up in the mountains and midlands of Bionar. The losers are out there in the Reach in their floating argosies, and are hungry for blood.”