Richard Kadrey - Blind Shrike

At the edge of the market, by the last big dune, some teenagers were juggling fire without moving their hands. They stared silently and the balls of flame moved through the air all by themselves. Spyder started walking up the dune, when he heard someone call his name.

"Spyder, are you there? It's me!"

He turned and saw Shrike running after him through the sand.

"I'm here," he said quietly, and she followed his voice over.

"I've been thinking about it and I have a proposition for you," Shrike said, a little out of breath. "This client I'm meeting, she's expecting me to have a partner. But my partner isn't here. Stand in for him and I'll pay you."

"My rent's covered. I want my life back."

"I can't give you that. But some of the people I work with have power. If this client is who I think it is, she might be able to help you."

"Might?"

"It's the best I can do."

"What would I be? Your bodyguard? Your wind-up -rabbit?"

"Your job will be to stand by me and say absolutely nothing," said Shrike. "I'll do all the talking and ask all the questions."

"I'm a mute?"

"People interpret silence as strength. The less you say, the more formidable you'll appear. I need you to be more dangerous than a two when we meet her."

"And maybe she can help."

"No guarantees."

Spyder walked down the dune to where Shrike was waiting. He stood a little above her in the sand. "I'll help you get your bags from the hotel," he said.

"That's not necessary," Shrike said. She removed a battered leather book from an inside pocket of her coat. "Everything I need is right here." She opened it and little paper shapes stood up from the pages. Horses. Swords. Things that might have been exotic fruits or vegetables. To Spyder, it looked like a kid's pop-up book.

Shrike put the book away and led Spyder over the dune in the opposite direction. "Jean-Philippe, the bird man, told me about a lovely deserted warehouse where we can spend the night."

"Feel that fog? We'll be ice pops by morning," said Spyder.

"Don't worry. I'll read to you," said Shrike. "A good book will always keep you warm."

Shrike led Spyder up Broadway toward North Beach.

Behind an abandoned furniture warehouse near Battery Street, they ducked through a hole in the hurricane fence and stomped through weeds and smashed glass to the back of the building.

Spyder, who had broken into more than his share of warehouses, spotted a smashed window near a rusting fire escape on the second floor. "Looks like we can get in through an upstairs window," he said to Shrike.

Shrike was feeling her way along the back wall of the warehouse. When she came to a door, she jiggled the knob, but the door was locked.

"Hey, there's an open window," said Spyder.

Shrike kicked in the door with her big boots. Her cane had already flicked up and transformed into a sword. She held it in striking position as she strode into the warehouse. Spyder was impressed, but kept quiet.

"Stay behind me," she whispered.

"Hear anything?

"Rats. People. Shh."

The interior of the warehouse was a black hole decorated with a few grimed windows inlaid with chicken wire and decorated with graffiti. Shrike moved cautiously, but quickly, seemingly sensing where the trash and broken furniture lay and avoiding it. Spyder stumbled along behind her trying to keep up.

"Is it all open down here or are there any rooms?" Shrike asked him.

Spyder tried to see as deeply as possible into the dark. "I can't see much, but it looks all open down here. I think I can see some offices upstairs."

"Show me."

Spyder led Shrike upstairs and she checked all the rooms until she found one that was still locked.

"Move back," she told Spyder.

Faster than his eye could register, Shrike bought her sword arcing down and sliced the padlock off the door. The lock clattered to the floor noisily. Half of it skipped way and rattled down the stairs. Spyder heard low voices from the edges of the room.

Shrike turned toward the darkness and leaned casually on her sword. "You're all welcome to stay here, but anyone stupid enough to come through this door will end up like that lock."

The interior of the office was dusty and littered with paper and rat turds. It looked as if it might have been a records office. Old filing cabinets stood against one wall along with a tilting, three-legged desk. Spyder had stayed in worse places, but not recently. He described the scene to Shrike, who walked from wall to wall, pacing off the room.

"Would you push the old furniture into a corner?" she asked.

When he'd dragged the rusting junk out of the way, Spyder said, "There were some old sofa cushions and maybe a futon out there. I'll go get them."

"If you want to sleep on mildewed trash, feel free. I prefer something clean."

Shrike had her pop-up book open to a page that, in the dark, looked like a scene from The Thief of Baghdad . She whispered a few words and the storage room was flooded in light and warmth.

The light came from burning braziers set at each corner of the room. The floors were covered with Persian carpets and bright pillows. There was an enormous bed against one wall and storage vessels and cabinets against the opposite. The place smelled instantly of incense and spices.

"Welcome to my home away from home," Shrike said.

"When I was five, I had a metal folding cup that I thought it was the coolest thing in the world," said Spyder. "But I was wrong."

"I'm glad you like it. You're my guest. Please sit down. Are you hungry?"

"Now that you ask, yes."

Shrike dropped her coat and sword onto the big bed and went to the cabinets without hesitation. Spyder sat down on the edge of the bed watching her sure movements. Even though it was occupying an alien space, he thought, this was clearly her room.

"I've been on the road for a while, so I'm not really Suzy Homemaker these days," said Shrike, opening and closing the cabinets. She came back to the bed with a couple of bundles. "All I have is some wine and focaccia."

"The breakfast of champions," Spyder said.

"My glasses are all broken, so we're going to have to share the bottle," Shrike said.

"That's okay. It'll give me a chance to look butch for once tonight."

Shrike smiled and sliced the wax and cork from the top of the bottle with the edge of her sword, then handed the wine to Spyder. It tasted like wind felt at the top of a hill on a summer night. He handed the bottle back to Shrike. "Wow," he said.

Shrike took a long drink. "Don't forget to eat, too. Give it a chance, and this wine will leave you half-naked, shoeless and wearing a dog collar, with only a vague memory of how you got that way."

"Does the wine have a sister?"

"You wish."

Between bites of spicy focaccia Spyder said, "You're not at the Coma Gardens. How is your client going to find you?"

"Magic."

"You're not much like most girls."

"I'm going to take that as a compliment."

"That's how it's meant."

"Slow down on the wine, pony boy. You don't want your mouth getting too far ahead of your brain."

"How long have you been living like this? Out of your little magic book?"

"A long time. Since… Almost half my life."

"You and your business partner, the one I'm standing in for."

"He'd be the one."

"What happened to him?"

Shrike chewed with great deliberation for some time. "He was killed by assassins. Hellspawn."

"You don't ever do anything halfway, do you? It's not enough that your friend got iced. He was done in by hell's hit men."

"I didn't ask for an exciting life, believe me. I crave boredom."

"I know the feeling."

"I don't remember what seeing is like," Shrike said.