145 - A thousand gold and an autograph

With the wheels stopped, the silence was eerie. Somewhere distant in the city below, I heard what sounded like an old man hackingly throw up.

Then the platform lurched up a bit again, bouncing again, and then again. To my shield-side I saw the other one, mirroring the motion, but downward. When they were side-by-side, the lurchings stopped.

The middle position, I thought. Placed here by someone with skill, who’s fussy enough to line them up. It had the feel of the person who did it every night. Arkans were definitely controlling the lefaetas. Niku and Mana were gone, true to their oaths. Or captured, or dead… I stifled those thoughts in my mind. Most likely, knowing them and the number of guards, they were gone.

Fly, my love, and our child within. Run, my heart’s brother, till you find a fast horse. In case I was wrong, and one or both of them happened to be on the other platform, I called across, “Mana? Niku?” They weren’t. Even if I did not get out, we’d two-thirds succeeded—no, three quarters. And I hadn’t not got out yet.

As I clung, I considered my choices. The one that I eliminated out of hand was climbing up onto the platform and waiting until they raised it in the morning; the master would see me in one glance. The only others were, first, to stay clinging underneath until they raised it at the start of the day’s operation—or, better, climb up to rest my arms, then back underneath before daylight—and rush the guards at the top; or, second, to climb up the cable while it was still dark. Both involved climbing up onto the platform first, so I did that, and lay back on the smooth wood planks to rest my body, staring up at cliff and sky. Halfway there. I thought I saw a shadow cross a star, but told myself I was most likely imagining it.

Though it would be harder—it was a good forty man-lengths of cable—I chose the latter. If they’d gone back to the usual complement, there’d be only four rather than ten, and it would be dark, which always favours me. It seemed unlikely that it would be the usual complement only—they were probably panicking from someone competent at killing having escaped on a lefaetas—but at least I’d be able to reconnoiter by weapon-sense on my own time, rather than at the speed of the lefaetas.

I was out of training with this sort of thing, since there’s little use for it in the Mezem, and my arms were already tired from hanging onto the underside of the platform, so I rested them until the itch to move grew worse than the tiredness; once out in the countryside, the longer I could move in darkness, the better. (Might I catch Mana? The plan had been to go to Haiu Menshir by way of Fispur, and for him to go to Yeola-e by way of Fispur if I was not with him, so we were going the same way, and he wasn’t that far ahead of me. I set my mind on that.)

I shinnied up one of the four corner-cables, which was slender enough that I could wrap my hand entirely around it; the main one, to which they converged, was actually four cables twined around each other—in case one parted—and thus not so easy to hold; they were a little slippery with oil, too. I’d have to do climb-rest-climb, and even resting, I wouldn’t exactly relax.

But once I’d started, it was easy enough to keep going when I felt myself flagging. I would just cast a glance back down to the huge dark bowl that was the Mezem, or across to the towers of the Marble Palace, or think of Yeola-e, and my arms would go fiery with strength again.

But as I got near enough to the top dock—it was too far from the cable to clamber straight onto, so I’d have to climb up to the spar that supported the platform—I weapon-sensed one guard standing on the dock. He was armed as outdoor Arkan guards usually are: straight longsword and dagger slung on the shield-side and sword-side of the belt, respectively, spear in his hand; but he also had a dart-tube. Mahid?

By where his weapons were in relation to each other, I knew he was facing the city. Stationed there just in case someone happens to come climbing up the cable, I thought. At least I could take as a compliment their commander’s judgment that it was unlikely enough that it only needed one guard.

I tightened my legs around the cable to rest my arms, which felt jelly-like, reminded myself that the fighting-muscles are not the same as the climbing ones, and thought. No, I needed to know more; I climbed high enough that I was still too far below the dock for him to see me, but I could weapon-sense out to the walls. I counted in my mind. They were about twenty, and ten or so had dart-tubes; another six had bows and arrows.

Had they had time to report back to the Marble Palace, which had then sent to the Mezem and found out who was missing? If so, why hadn’t they used this lefaetas to go down, when it was the quickest way there? Or were they dealing with it just at the Serenity Lefaetas Department level, and had just got out heavier weaponry than usual, and the reinforcements from an off-shift or other lefaeti?

I set my mind on that one man, for a while, making my weapon-sense glass-edged clear. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, leaning a little on the spear. Not a Mahid; they don’t do that. So the Palace doesn’t know, yet, and these men think it’s just a break, not a break of national importance. The first plan was very unlikely—climb up very slowly and silently in the hope he didn’t notice me in the dark—so I got the second one ready, by fishing in my pouch for a large jewel, and putting it in a pocket where I could reach it quickly.

He saw me easily; he had a standing torch. First he tensed, and then he whipped out the tube. “Don’t move,” he said, “or I’ll stun-dart you, which would be good as a kill-dart, where you are.”

“Wouldn’t they take my value out of your pay, then?” I said. “That might be quite a few pay-days. Better idea: let me out, and I’ll give you a thousand gold chains. Take this as a deposit.” I tossed the jewel so it landed on the dock beside him.

He saw it flash as it skittered past his feet. Now he stared at me. I’d put the hooded cloak in my pack to make the climb. “Karas Raikas,” he said, wonderingly.

“Yes. So you know I’m good for it.” His face was in shadow, and I wished I could see it, whether he looked greedy, or kind, or treacherous, and so what words would best move him.

“But once you have your feet on the ground, you’ll whip out that sword, and then a few of us, at the very least, are for Celestialis—I saw you fight Riji Kli-fas, that was amazing—I can’t betray my brothers-in-arms that way.”

Kind, I thought. He’s kind. From one of the booths another voice came: “Simmas, who the fik are you talking to?”

“My oath on it, you can keep that dart-tube trained on me as I go, and I’ll cut them all in, too.”

“What, a thousand apiece? Hey!” he called to the others. “Intruder spotted. Umm… very rich intruder.”

Give them credit; four stayed at their posts while the others gathered. Suddenly, I desperately wanted a katzerik. But while Niku, Mana and I had been planning, we’d all happened to light one at the same time, looked at each other and made a pact that the moment we were out of Arko, not another breath of that poisonous smoke would pass our lips. (Yes, it was good for the grium; but once I was out of Arko, I’d be on Haiu Menshir in a few days.) So I had left my katzerik-box in my room. I couldn’t have lit one clinging to the cable anyway.

“Kazen, are you suggesting accepting a bribe?” Their commander, by the shoulder and chest badges.

“No, no, ser, not at all—”

“Not for an amount that wouldn’t be worth it, anyway,” I cut in. “A thousand gold, I offered him. But since the commander takes the greatest risk, for you, two. Everyone else, one.”

They all went very still and quiet.

“The words ‘two thousand gold’ are so much air,” the commander said, “until there’s some…” He caught the jewel I tossed him, which was even bigger. “Ser, he’s Karas Raikas,” the first one, Simmas, said. “He’s got the chains.”

“Celestialis’s crap-holes, what Bakas said was true—it was Niku fikken Wahunai who got Miksas, Brisas and Haradas. The two of them were in this together!” They don’t know about Mana, then. Well done; fly high, my love.

“A thousand gold and an autograph for my son,” another said.

“Son, my crotch-hairs,” said another. “He wants it for himself.”

“He’s escaping, he’s probably got it on him, we could just…” This one dropped his voice so I couldn’t hear the rest.

“No I don’t, not twenty-one thousand,” I lied. “I’ll give you a note for Skorsas.”

“We’re not doing that,” snapped the commander at the man who’d made the suggestion. “The Mezem will be wanting to know where the money went, and then we’re implicated.”

“I’m not taking the money of the barbarian fikkers who killed my Brisas,” said another, with a catch in his voice. All the others stared at him. “Well… em… maybe I am.” There are a good many Arkans who’d throw another Arkan off the Rim for a thousand gold chains.

“There’s a lot of us, to make a secrecy pact,” another guard said. “Burn you, burn myself, I know, but what if one of us makes a slip of the tongue?”

“Or someone higher up decides that truth-drug is warranted?”

“I word the report carefully enough, that won’t happen,” said the commander. “Obviously Niku alone did the killing, so none of us seeing Raikas as he went with her is plausible.”

His logic struck me as flawed; his eyes were gold-blinded. Twice as much as everyone else’s, I thought. I wouldn’t correct him. “Don’t worry that going to Skorsas is going to leave a trail,” I said. “The boy is a genius. We already have a pretext for the amount that I am carrying.”

“You know…” One guard who was standing close to another looked at him. “We could do what we’ve been saving for, Ansas, retire to Kassabria, now.”

“I could get my dad’s chariot out of hock…” said another.

“You know that fessas arms-dealer I’ve been telling you about? This would give him enough to open a store in the city, and I know he’d give me good return…”

Now things are going better, I thought. “Your arms must be tired, Raikas,” one of them said, almost considerately. I had all my weight on my legs wrapped around the cable then, so I let go with one arm and shrugged, ignoring the spikes of pain that went through both. “Eh. We Yeolis do this sort of thing all the time. Let me lighten my load, though; you all want a deposit, I would think.” I started tossing jewels, one to each man who didn’t already have one.

“Hold on, hold on, hold on!” A voice from one of the booths; the man came running out. “That’s Karas fikken Raikas?”

“Dangling like a spider on the cable and raining gems on us, and none of us have drunk or smoked a bit,” another said, chuckling.

“No, no, no, no!” the guard who’d run out yelled. “If we let him go, we are fikked, fikked, fikked! Don’t you idiots read the Pages? He’s the missing fikken king of Yeola-e! That’s truth-drug for absolute shennen sure, and then… you want to see your family flung off the Rim one by one or your boy hook-raped by Mahid or your own bowels as you’re being made to eat them?”

Kyash. Feeling a sudden weakness, I grabbed on with both hands. “It’s true,” said another. “I wasn’t going to say anything. Smack me, I’m a moron.” They all went very quiet again.

“Fik you, you miserable lying barbarian bastard,” the commander said to me. He drew the jewel back as if to fling it over the edge, but then pocketed it. One of the ones who hadn’t got one watched him covetously. I got an urge to look down into the yawning darkness below, but didn’t, afraid it would be too tempting just to let go.

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