I nodded, then looked at Degan. He still had his sword pointed at the Kin. I was about to say something when Degan dropped the tip of his weapon and sent it home to its scabbard with a snap.
“Lead on,” I said.
The cowl shook back and forth. “Payment first,” he said, holding out a gloved hand.
“Not until I see Larrios,” I said. Thunder rumbled overhead. I allowed myself a small smile at nature’s timing.
“There are other buyers,” said the smooth voice inside the hood. “Larrios is a popular man right now.”
Meaning Iron Degan was likely offering a reward as well. “One half now,” I said. “The rest after.”
“Done.”
I counted some hawks into his hands. He laughed at the amount. We dickered, finally settling on a price.
Our walking shadow led us deeper into Ten Ways. The alleys grew steadily narrower as we went, seeming to gather and condense the darkness around us. The buildings on either side went from shoddy to pathetic to practically uninhabitable. Evidence of fires marked several structures, and those that had not collapsed in on themselves looked to be seriously considering the idea. And the stench… It almost made me miss the sewers. Waste, rot, decay-and most of it human in origin. Somewhere along the way it began to rain, which at least reduced the smell.
The worst part, though, was that things were beginning to look familiar.
“The Barren,” I said to no one in particular.
The Kin’s cowl turned to face back over his shoulder. “You know it?” he asked.
“I used to live here,” I said. Live? More like “survive”-that hadn’t been living. “I swore I’d never return.”
“Oaths are meant to be broken,” said the Kin. Behind me, I heard Degan grumble deep in his throat.
The more desolate a place, the less it changes. Then again, it wasn’t as if anyone was going to come running into the Barren and start fixing things up. The neighborhood was wide-open-no one ruled here-and people seldom asked, or answered, questions.
This made it all the more impressive that our guide had managed to find Larrios here, of all places. You didn’t track someone down in the Barren unless you were local, or good, or both. He didn’t strike me as the former, which pointed at the latter. But if he was that good, what was he doing here?
Sometimes, the best way to get answers is to let a thing play out. I didn’t expect this Kin to tell me what his game was, but that didn’t mean I had to walk into it blind, either. I loosened my rapier in its sheath and let my left hand slide closer to my dagger. Degan noticed and followed suit. If anything happened, I decided, our guide would be the first to go down.
We stopped at the end of a particularly narrow alley. “There,” said our guide, pointing out of the alley and down the street. “The fourth one on the left. Larrios is on the second floor.”
I had to squeeze past him just to see where he was pointing. “Which room?” I asked.
The cowl turned toward me. “How should I know? You’re lucky I found him at all.”
I studied the building through the rain. It looked to be an old warehouse of some kind, but I couldn’t be sure.
Rain has always caused problems with my night vision; looking through it is like looking through a curtain of fine beads falling from the sky. I can still make things out, but it gets disorienting now and then. This time it was worse-despite the rest I had gotten, despite all the seeds I was taking, I was still feeling the last several days weighing down on me. Fatigue was doing as much to blur my vision now as the rain.
“How do we know he’s still in the building?” I asked.
“Larrios is there,” said the smooth voice. “Don’t worry.”
“What, you made him promise to stay put?” I said.
The cowl remained pointed at me for a long moment. I gathered I was being scowled at. “He’s there,” repeated the Kin.
“Let’s hope so,” I said. “Otherwise, you owe me a fairsized pile of hawks.”
“Just worry about what you’ll owe me when you’re done,” said the Kin.
I turned to Degan. “Ready?”
Degan had pulled his hat lower to keep the rain from his eyes. It made him look ominous. He nodded, and we headed out, leaving the cloaked Kin standing in the alley.
The top layer of dirt and refuse on the street had softened in the rain. It shifted and slid beneath our feet as we walked to the building. There was no door on the hinges. We went in.
Puddles were already beginning to form on the first floor. The sound of the water dripping from the ceiling overhead blended with the whisper of the rain to produce a constant noise that was at once both gentle and disturbing. The air was heavy with the smell of mold.
The lower level was open and empty. A small forest of posts had once held up the entire second floor, although a good third of it had fallen through at some point in the past. We were halfway to the stairway at the back of the building when we heard several loud thumps from somewhere above us.
Degan and I stopped and looked at each other. We listened. Drip drip, splash splash. Then the sounds came again. Footsteps.
“Shit!” I said. “He’s moving!”
Degan and I raced for the stairs. I scrambled up as fast as I could, Degan vaulting along beside me, clearing two steps at a time. The stairs creaked and groaned, but didn’t collapse beneath us.
The second floor consisted of a big main room with several large doorways to our left and right. A good half of the roof was gone up here, covering the floor with its remains. I noticed that the rain was now coming down harder. A path had been cleared in the debris, leading from the stairs to one of the doorways under the surviving portion of roof. A curtain hung across the doorway, and a feeble flicker of light showed around its edges.
We ran for the curtain without a word. I wondered if the cloaked Kin outside would stop Larrios if he made it out of the building before us. More likely he’d let the Whipjack run so he could follow him and charge me for his location all over again.
When I tossed the curtain aside, I had my rapier in one hand, dagger in the other, and Degan at my back. Larrios was empty-handed. Even better, the two men who were busy beating the crap out of him hadn’t drawn their weapons.
I smiled.
“Sorry to interrupt,” I said, “but I’m afraid I’ll have to insist you stop kicking that Whipjack’s ass-that’s my job.”
The man closest to us looked up almost casually from where he was kneeling, while the other didn’t even pause in dealing out his punishment. Both were wearing dark, water-laden cloaks.
“Get out,” said the first man. “Now.”
I stepped through the doorway so Degan could come in behind me. The room was wide and deep. Toward the back, near Larrios and the men, a trio of candles flickered on the floor. My eyes ached a moment, then adjusted. I put my rapier through a small circle in the air to make sure it caught what little light there was.
“Just what I was going to suggest to you,” I said.
The first man got slowly to his feet. The other slowed in his work but still kept up a rhythmic pounding of Larrios’s face and body, alternating fists with each strike. Degan and I moved a step closer.
The first man studied me for a moment, then moved his shoulders forward and back, shifting his cloak so that it hung behind him.
“Mistake,” he said.
I didn’t answer. I was too busy staring at the white sash wrapped around his waist and the golden imperial hawk emblazoned on his breastplate.
Chapter Seventeen
White Sashes!
I froze, all my bravado gone in an instant. What the hell were two of the emperor’s elites doing here, working over Larrios? Why did they want him? What the hell had I just walked into?
I opened my mouth to say… What? What do you say to men whose predecessors had nearly wiped out the Kin? Men who, if we weren’t lucky, might very well try to do it again? Not a lot, I decided, especially when there were two of them and two of us.