Graeme Talboys - Players of the Game

‘You would die if you unsheathed it,’ said Dahbeer calmly.

‘Then we would make that journey together,’ replied Alltud as calmly.

Dahbeer was silent a moment, shrewd eyes assessing first Alltud and then Jeniche, the positions in which they had placed their chairs. He nodded slowly. ‘Just as I had been told. Fearless. Loyal.’

‘More of your interview?’ asked Jeniche, who drew one of her swords and laid it on the table before the old man had time to react.

‘And much quicker than my own people.’

‘You placed them in an awkward position. The archer on the roof behind us has the light in his eyes and, since Alltud moved his chair, runs the risk of putting an arrow straight through his intended target and into you.’ She sipped some lemonade. ‘Strategy,’ she added.

With exaggerated care, Dahbeer picked up the Tunduri sword and spent some time admiring its workmanship. ‘A matched pair?’ he asked, returning it. ‘You have been to Tundur?’

‘Why are we here?’ asked Alltud.

Dahbeer sighed and then smiled. ‘I have an extremely valuable item that must be moved to… a destination in the south.’

‘You seem to have an able household,’ said Jeniche. ‘The men we saw with Tohmarz looked capable of guarding something.’

‘Oh, they are. But everyone knows them to be my men. Besides, they have another task.’

‘A diversion?’ asked Alltud.

‘Exactly.’ He looked pleased. ‘I don’t want the people guarding my treasure to be too obviously of my household. That is why I have been recruiting—’

‘Mercenaries.’

‘Some people are uncomfortable with that term.’

‘And what is the going rate for a mercenary in your employ?’

Dahbeer clapped his hands and Tohmarz appeared. He placed two heavy purses on the small table.

‘That,’ said Dahbeer, gesturing to the purses, ‘is half. The other half will be given to you when the item is delivered. All food and equipment will be supplied.’ He became brisk now, as if bored with the game.

‘And if we refuse?’ asked Jeniche.

‘You are free to do so.’

She looked at Alltud. They both knew it was no answer. Alltud shrugged. He still wanted to go home, but he knew it would be easier if they weren’t being chased by Dahbeer’s men through the city streets, if they could choose a time of their own to slip away, so he picked up one of the new purses along with his own. He opened it and counted out a sum which he placed beside his glass.

‘What is that for?’ asked Dahbeer.

‘To pay the owner of the lodging house for our room there.’

As Alltud answered, Jeniche counted out a sum from her purse.

‘And that?’

‘For the damage I caused in the laundry.’

‘But that has all been taken care of.’

Jeniche and Alltud stood and returned to their rooms. They left the money on the table.

‘Who in their right mind tells his plans to strangers and then hires them to protect his treasure on a long journey?’

Alltud shook his head slowly as he crossed the room to the main door. Satisfied the corridor was empty, he said: ‘No one. The whole thing stinks worse than a fish market at the end of a long, hot day. Unless…’

‘What?’

‘Pointless speculating, I suppose, but I was wondering if we were going to be part of the decoy.’

‘That’s a bit too complex for me.’

‘He did seem to go on about game playing. He clearly fancies himself as a strategist. In this case, you have two sets of guards. One obviously his own and sent out to draw interest while a covert group slips quietly away.’

‘Except, of course, that is a bit obvious. So anyone interested in the treasure, whatever it is, will be expecting such a strategy and keep a watch for the covert group. If they see one, they’ll go for that.’ She shook her head.

‘Might work.’

‘I don’t doubt it, and you are probably right. Dahbeer seemed to know a lot about us. A great deal more than he let on. In which case, he knows what I used to be. So he wouldn’t hire a thief to watch his most valued possession. Unless he’s trying to bluff us as well.’

‘I doubt that. He wouldn’t bother hiring you at all, unless he thought we were in the running.’

‘How so?’

‘Valuable object. Thief.’

‘So he hires me and put me in the decoy group to ensure I can’t get my hands on his valuables. I wonder if the rest of this party is made up of the light-fingered and morally challenged.’

‘Oh. That will be fun.’

Jeniche went to the open doorway that looked out onto the garden. ‘I don’t buy it. Why go to all this trouble? He must know who all the likely candidates are. Which we weren’t, until now. We’d never heard of his treasure until he told us about it. Besides, why not just arrest all the likely thieves and throw them in jail for the duration? Why go to the bother of stealing our money and making us run, then recruiting us and paying us? What if we hadn’t run?’

‘He’s a game player. Perhaps it’s second nature.’

‘A game player who cheats.’

‘We can do that as well. We’re being fed and paid, provided with horses I would assume. And once we’re well away from this place, we can cut out and head off north. There are bound to be other ports along the coast to the west. More likely to find something there that’s heading up the coast of Iber and on to Brocel.’

With something resembling a plan, they relaxed a little, but were given no time to enjoy themselves. Tohmarz appeared and asked them to collect their gear and follow him. Jeniche hoped the washing facilities would be as good. And as private.

They were led through a maze of small rooms and passageways at the rear of the palace, emerging from the cool shadow where breezes blew onto a large sun-baked yard surrounded by stables and barracks. No fountains and bowers of jasmine here, just pumps and troughs with benches in the shade of the long roof that overhung the stable doors.

Jeniche cast a seasoned eye over the horses’ accommodation. Grilles and shutters meant it was well ventilated and cool inside for the animals. She could hear them as she and Alltud crossed the yard, jostling and fidgeting, the quiet voices of grooms working in there with them.

Those men that were outside sat on the benches, working on harnesses, sharpening swords, taking what rest they could in their duties. Only Tohmarz was dressed in the livery of the Qasireu’s household.

He showed them to a small storeroom in one corner, half filled with bales of hay.

‘You can put your things here, sleep overnight. Hadar,’ he pointed to an open doorway at the far end of the range from which hammering emerged, ‘will check your boots and any harness or belts you want repaired.’

Alltud put their things in the dusty, stuffy hay store and began to improvise places to sleep. Jeniche stood in the doorway watching Tohmarz as he made his way back across the yard toward the palace.

‘Why do these things always start so early?’

Alltud continued to grumble to himself, still half asleep in the relative cool of the dark. Jeniche was used to it. He was not a morning person, always took his time waking. She smiled, walking in torchlight to the nearest pump. There she doused her head in cold water, shaking it from her cropped hair.

All around her, the yard was filling with men and horses; order emerging by fits and starts from the chaos. Whilst Alltud woke himself properly at the pump, Jeniche pulled on her boots, strapped her swords on over her coat, and checked everything was neatly settled in her pack. By the time Alltud was likewise dressed and ready, their mounts were being led across to them by a large, smiling ostler. Jeniche could not help but think of her old friend Trag, lost all those years ago beneath the desert. He had worked with horses in the stables in Makamba, had sheltered Jeniche there and watched over her. One of many dear friends lost for ever. She hoped it wasn’t an omen.