From the corridor to a broader hallway, then on to the colonnaded transept, into a side passage and on to the compound’s north postern gate. Meeting no-one on the way, further befouling Karsa’s mood. The gate was inset with a small guardhouse to its left where the heavy latch release could be found.
The Letherii seated within had time to glance up before the Toblakai’s fist connected solidly with his face. Blood sprayed from a shattered nose and the hapless man sank down into his chair, then slid like a sack of onions to the floor. Stepping over him, Karsa lifted the latch and slid the bronze bar to his left, until its right-hand end cleared the gate itself. The bar dropped down into a wheeled recess with a clunk. Emerging outside once more, Karsa pushed the gate open and, ducking to clear the lintel, stepped out into the street beyond.
There was a flash as some sort of magical ward ignited the moment he crossed the threshold. Fires burgeoned, a whisper of vague pain, then the flames dwindled and vanished. Shaking his head to clear the spell’s metallic reverberation from his mind, he continued on.
A few citizens here and there; only one noted his appearance and that one-eyes widening-quickened his pace and moments later turned a corner and was lost from sight.
Karsa drew a deep breath, then set off for the canal he had seen from the roof of the barracks.
Vast as a river barge, the enormous black-haired woman in mauve silks filled the entrance to the courtyard restaurant, fixed her eyes on Tehol Beddict, then surged forward with the singular intent of a hungry leviathan.
Beside him, Bugg seemed to cringe back in his chair. ‘By the Abyss, Master-’
‘Now now,’ Tehol murmured as the woman drew closer. ‘Pragmatism, dear Bugg, must now be uppermost among your, uh, considerations. Find Huldo and get his lads to drag over that oversized couch from the back of the kitchen. Quick now, Bugg!’
The manservant’s departure was an uncharacteristic bolt.
The woman-sudden centre of attention with most conversations falling away-seemed for all her impressive girth to glide as she moved between the blessedly widely spaced tables, and in her dark violet eyes there gleamed a sultry confidence so at odds with her ungainly proportions that Tehol felt an alarming stir in his groin and sweat prickled in enough manly places to make him shift uneasily in his chair, all thoughts of the meal on the plate before him torn away like so many clothes.
He did not believe it possible that flesh could move in as many directions all at once, every swell beneath the silk seemingly possessed of corporeal independence, yet advancing in a singular chorus of overt sexuality. Her shadow engulfing him, Tehol loosed a small whimper, struggling to drag his eyes up, past the stacked folds of her belly, past the impossibly high, bulging, grainsack-sized breasts-lost for a moment in that depthless cleavage-then, with heroic will, yet higher to the smooth udder beneath her chin; higher still, neck straining, to that so round face with its broad, painted, purple lips-higher-Errant help me-to those delicious, knowing eyes.
‘You disgust me, Tehol.’
‘I-what?’
‘Where’s Bugg with that damned couch?’
Tehol leaned forward, then recoiled again with instinctive self-preservation. ‘Rucket? Is that you?’
‘Quiet, you fool. Do you have any idea how long it took us to perfect this illusion?’
‘B-but-’
‘The best disguise is misdirection.’
‘Misdirection? Oh, why… oh, well of course, when you put it that way. I mean, all the way. Sorry, that just tumbled out. Came out wrong, I mean-’
‘Stop staring at my tits.’
‘I’d be the only one in here not staring,’ he retorted, ‘which would be very suspicious. Besides, who decided on that particular… defiance of the earth’s eternal pull? Probably Ormly-it’s those piggy eyes of his, hinting at perverse fantasies.’
Bugg had arrived with two of Huldo’s servers carrying the couch between them. They set it down then hastily retreated.
Bugg returned to his seat. ‘Rucket,’ he said under his breath, shaking his head, ‘do you not imagine that a woman of your stature would not already be infamous in Letheras?’
‘Not if I never went out, would I? As it turns out, there are plenty of recluses in this city-’
‘Because most of them were the Guild’s illusions-false personalities you could assume when necessity demanded it.’
‘Precisely,’ she said, as if settling the matter.
Which she then did with consummate grace, easing down fluidly into the huge couch, her massive alabaster arms spreading out along the back, which had the effect of hitching her breasts up still further then spreading them like the Gates of the Damned.
Tehol glanced at Bugg. ‘There are certain laws regarding the properties of physical entities, yes? There must be. I’m sure of it.’
‘She is a defiant woman, Master. And please, if you will, adjust your blanket. Yes, there, beneath this blessed table.’
‘Stop that.’
‘Whom or what are you addressing?’ Rucket asked with a leer big enough for two women.
‘Damn you, Rucket, we’d just ordered, you know. Bugg’s purse, or his company’s, that is. And now my appetite… well… it’s-’
‘Shifted?’ she asked, thin perfect brows lifting above those knowing eyes. ‘The problem with men elucidated right there: your inability to indulge in more than one pleasure at any one time.’
‘Which you presently personify with terrible perfection. So, how precise is this illusion of yours? I mean, the couch creaked and everything.’
‘No doubt you’re most eager to explore that weighty question. But first, where’s Huldo with my lunch?’
‘He took one look at you and then went out to hire more cooks.’
She leaned forward and pulled Tehol’s plate closer. ‘This will do. Especially after that cruel attempt at humour, Tehol.’ She began eating with absurd delicacy.
‘There’s no real way in there, is there?’
Morsel of food halted halfway to her open mouth.
Bugg seemed to choke on something.
Tehol wiped sweat from his brow. ‘Errant take me, I’m losing my mind.’
‘You force me,’ Rucket said, ‘to prove to you otherwise.’ The dainty popped into her mouth.
‘You expect me to succumb to an illusion?’
‘Why not? Men do that a thousand times a day.’
‘Without that, the world would grind to a halt.’
‘Yours, maybe.’
‘Speaking of which,’ Bugg interjected hastily, ‘your Guild, Rucket, is about to become bankrupt.’
‘Nonsense. We have more wealth hidden away than the Liberty Consign.’
‘That’s good, because they’re about to discover that most of their unadvertised holdings have been so thoroughly undermined that they’re not only worthless, but fatal liabilities.’
‘We transferred ours beyond the empire, Bugg. Months ago. Once we fully understood what you and Tehol were doing.’
‘Where?’ Bugg asked.
‘Should I tell you?’
‘We’re not going after it,’ Tehol said. ‘Right, Bugg?’
‘Of course not. I just want to be sure it’s, uh, far enough removed.’
Rucket’s eyes narrowed. ‘Are you that close?’
Neither man replied.
She looked down at the plate for a moment, then settled back like a human canal lock, her belly re-emerging from the shadows in silky waves. ‘Very well, gentlemen. South Pilott. Far enough away, Bugg?’
‘Just.’
‘That answer makes me nervous.’
‘I am about to default on everything 1 owe,’ Bugg said. ‘This will cause a massive financial cascade that will not spare a single sector of industry, and not just here in Letheras, but across the entire empire and beyond. Once I do it, there will be chaos. Anarchy. People may actually die.’
‘Bugg’s Construction is that big?’
‘Not at all. If it was, we’d have been rounded up long ago. No, there are about two thousand seemingly independent small-and middling-sized holdings, each one perfectly positioned according to Tehol’s diabolical planning to ensure that dread cascade. Bugg’s Construction is but the first gravestone to tip-and it’s a very crowded cemetery.’