Ilona Andrews - Fate's Edge

Oh, Kaldar.

Gaston bit his lower lip. “He’s not right. Watching Murid die broke something inside him. He still pretends that everything is cool. You can’t tell by looking at him because he acts normal, but the rudder on his boat is stuck. He enlisted in the Mirror, supposedly because he wants to make sure what’s left of the family is well taken care of, but that’s not the reason. He wants revenge on the Hand, and he doesn’t care what happens to him or how he gets it. He will kill them any chance he gets.”

“Gaston,” she said gently, “I know that you care for your uncle, but Kaldar, he’s a grifter. He isn’t a killer.”

Gaston blinked. “We hold to the Old Ways in our family.”

“What does that mean?”

“Kaldar’s uncle, the head of our family, has a nickname.”

“Aha.”

“It’s Death.”

“I’m sorry?”

“They call him Death,” Gaston said. “Because when his sword comes out, people die. We train as swordsmen as soon as we can hold a sword and not fall over. We learn to stretch our flash out onto our swords and use it in fights. Kaldar isn’t as good as Grampa Ramiar. He isn’t as good as Cerise. Technically, he isn’t as good as Richard, his older brother, because Richard flashes white and Kaldar flashes blue. But aside from them, Kaldar has never met anyone he couldn’t beat.”

“Aha.” Tall tales must’ve run in the family.

“He’s killed dozens of people,” Gaston insisted. “Probably over a hundred.”

“I’m sure he did, Gaston.” Sure as the night is light. She couldn’t picture Kaldar with a sword. A crowbar, maybe. A gun. But not a sword. “And you are supposed to keep him from killing more?”

“I wasn’t even supposed to come. I’m not officially an agent yet, but Cerise talked her husband, William—he’s my guardian—into it. I’m supposed to keep an eye on Kaldar, in case he snaps. So he knows all about things being taken away from him. He just won’t admit it.”

“Gaston, if Kaldar doesn’t care if he lives or dies, how are you supposed to keep him safe?”

He shook his head. His face gained a lost expression. Suddenly, he seemed so young, just a kid really, about Jack’s age. “I don’t know. But I have to try. Most of my family acts like I don’t exist anymore. My dad banished me because of what happened to my mom. Kaldar always talks to me. He comes to all of my annual trials. He’s my favorite uncle. I don’t have many left anymore.”

“I will help you,” Audrey said. It came out as a complete surprise, but she didn’t regret it. “If he loses his head, I will help you hold him back.”

Gaston raised his huge hand, stained with the Mirror’s clay. “Deal?”

She grasped his fingers and shook. “Deal.”

KARMASH pondered the woman. She had small brown eyes and hair of an odd shade, unnatural bright red. Given that she hung upside down, her feet caught by a rope at the ankles, her hair dripped down from her head like a mop. For mid-thirties, she wasn’t roughly used, he reflected.

They’d grabbed her off the street, as she left Magdalene Moonflower’s building in the Broken, and brought her here, to the abandoned building in the Edge that Karmash had designated as their temporary base. Only he and Mura had managed to cross the boundary into the magicless world. Soma and Cotier had been too altered.

Karmash winced at the memory. Entering the Broken was always painful for him. A few months ago, he wouldn’t have even contemplated it, but times changed.

The woman made a tiny noise, like a frightened cat.

Karmash pulled up a filthy chair and sat on it, so their faces were level. “You work for Magdalene Moonflower.”

“Please let me down. I didn’t do anything. Please let me down . . .”

“Shhh.” Karmash put his finger on her lips.

She closed her mouth.

“Let me explain a few things,” he said. “I’m a member of the Hand. I’m a spy for the Dukedom of Louisiana in the Weird. That tells you that I don’t care about your life. That also tells you that I’m magically enhanced enough to crush your skull with a squeeze of my fingers. Make a note of that; we’ll come back to that point later.”

She stared at him in terrified silence.

“I was very successful as a spy. I made a nice name for myself. Then, twenty months ago, my officer became a cripple. Some Edgers severed his spine, you see. The Hand chose to view my performance in that affair as less than satisfactory. I lost my assignment, my prestige, and my paycheck. I have expensive tastes, and I hate to compromise on luxury. Now I have a new assignment, a very prestigious assignment with a famous officer. But I’m very new in this crew. You understand how that is, right?”

The woman nodded frantically. Nodding looked odd when performed upside down.

“What I really need to be is her second-in-command. That’s the position I’m trained for, and I’m best at it. Unfortunately, this officer already has a second, and he doesn’t want to step down. Now my new officer gave me this assignment. This is my chance to prove myself. If I do well, my place in the crew will be assured. If I fail, my career is finished. I tell you all of this so you will understand how important it is for me to succeed. Do you understand?”

The woman nodded again.

“Good. Let’s go back to that point I asked you to remember. I don’t care about your life. It has no value to me. I don’t really want to torture you—it’s a bother—but I will. I can cut you, I can burn you, I can pull out your nails, I can slice open your stomach and pour salt on the wound. I can yank out your teeth, I can sodomize you with jagged glass . . .”

The woman began to whimper.

“Shh.” Karmash held up his hand. “Let me finish. My point is, I don’t really feel like doing any of it. If you tell me what I want to know, I’m perfectly fine with letting you go, provided you disappear for a week or two, until my business is concluded. So now we know where we stand. Let’s try this again. Do you work for Magdalene Moonflower?”

“Yes.” The woman said.

“Did a dark-haired man and a red-haired woman come to see her in the last five days?”

“Yes.”

Karmash smiled. He would deliver Kaldar Mar to Helena on a silver platter. It would cement his position and shake Sebastian from his comfortable perch.

“Where are these people now?”

“I don’t know,” the woman said.

Karmash frowned.

The woman’s words came in a rush. “All I know is that Magdalene made some sort of deal with them. Something that has to do with Ed Yonker.”

“Who is this Ed Yonker?”

“He is a preacher.”

“A priest?”

“Yes, like that. He has a place in the Edge, a big wooden church in a camp. That’s where he does his magic. That’s where your man must be. I can show you where it is. It’s not far. It’s north of here.”

“What’s your name?”

“Jennifer.”

“You did very well, Jennifer. I will cut you down now, and you will show us this church.”

“And then I can go?” she asked, her eyes full of tears.

Funny how, in desperate times, people will believe anything. “Yes. And then you can go.”

THE Wooden Cathedral was large and full to the brim. The mass of people should have made Audrey feel safer. The best place for a thief to hide was in a crowd, especially a crowd like this: well dressed, nicely groomed, seemingly law-abiding, and above reproach. Except that the gathering put out a strained, odd vibe. From the moment the Church of the Blessed people had ushered them into the bus, which had taken them to the Edge, the congregation was unsettled. Now, as they took their seats on the uncomfortable benches of the Wooden Cathedral, their agitation had reached the boiling point.