"They wouldn't move it. Why should they? It's safe. Or somebody would have found it. They'll just be worried about staying alive till they can sell it."
"What makes you think they want to sell?" I asked.
"If they could use it they would have."
Made sense. That's the way bandits would work. "So why haven't they tried to hawk it?"
"Because all these assholes here think they can take it away from them and outrun each other."
I decided to take a nap. Talk was getting us nowhere. We weren't doing nothing but yak and wait on the Plain critters to drop by with reports. When the spirit moved them. They don't think like us. Some got no sense of time at all.
Which is maybe why Donkey Torque sounded so damned surprised after he took a look outside. "You guys better take a gander here."
We crowded around him.
We had us a whole new angle on all our troubles. Everybody did.
A new gang had come to town.
A black coach had just rolled into the square in front of the Civil Palace. Four black horses pulled it. Six black riders on six black horses surrounded it. An infantry battalion followed. Surprise. Those boys were all duded up in black.
"Where the hell did they come from?" I muttered.
Raven said, "You got your wish, wizard."
"Eh?"
"The Tower has taken an interest."
I felt a hand on my shoulder. Darling. I scrunched over so she could get up beside me and see. She left her hand where it was. You can guess how many friends that made me.
Someone got out of the coach. No black for this clown. "A popinjay," Bomanz said.
And me, "I always wondered what that meant."
The peacock looked around at the bodies, at the remains of the palace, said something to one of his outriders. The horseman rode up the steps and into the unburned part of the building. A minute later people started tumbling out. The other riders herded them together facing the clown.
Gossamer and Spidersilk came out. A rider chivied them toward his boss. "Called on the carpet," Bomanz said. "Be interesting to hear that."
There wasn't no doubt who was senior to who down there. The twins did everything but get down on their bellies. A back and forth went on for maybe ten minutes. Then the twins started sending their people scurrying off.
"What now?" Raven muttered. Next thing the peacock did was set up housekeeping in the only undamaged building in the neighborhood. The temple. Downstairs. We was stuck.
People started coming to see the new nabob. Brigadier Wildbrand was one of the first. The Nightstalkers had not been involved in any of the fighting so far.
The chaos died away for a few hours while the madmen of Oar digested the news about the new boy in town. Then it blazed up, white-hot.
But it died out, spent, before sundown.
We got the word well after dark, knew why it had gotten quiet.
The Limper was headed for Oar, bent on grabbing the silver spike.
Oar was not going to let him have it. According to Exile, the new man from the Tower.
"Shit," I muttered. "That Limper has more lives than a cat."
"I knew we should have made sure of him," Raven growled. He glared at Darling. Her fault. She had been so sure she had seen no need to argue with the tree god.
Exile had orders to hold Oar and destroy the Limper. Our spies said he meant to do that if it cost every life in the city.
Shit. The Tower would have to send some guy who took his job serious.
LIII
Smeds woke first. Before he had his wits in hand he knew there was something wrong.
Tully was gone.
Maybe he had to go take a leak.
Smeds scrambled out into the unexpected brightness of morning. No sign of Tully. But the nearby street, unused in recent times, was choked with traffic. Every vehicle carried corpses.
Smeds gaped. Then he ducked back down into the ruined cellar and found Fish, shook him till he growled, "What the hell is the matter?"
"Tully's gone. And you got to see what's outside to believe it."
"That idiot." Fish was wide-awake now. "All right. Get your shit. We got to move just so he don't know where to find us."
"Hunh?"
"I've run out of trust for Cousin Tully, Smeds. I want to know where he is, not the other way around. A man who can lose a fortune the way he did? That's stupid to the point of being suicidal. A man who gets over a fit of common sense as fast as he did and goes sneaking off with this city the way it is? I'm pretty close to the end of my patience. Every stunt he pulls puts us all at risk. If he's screwed up… I don't know."
"Go look outside."
Fish went. "Damn!" He came back. "We have to find out what's happening."
"That's obvious. They're using that landfill to dump bodies from the riots."
"You missed the point. Who thought that up and got all those people to work on it? When we crawled in here they were frying to rip each other's throats out."
They soon discovered that the chaos had not so much died as gone into momentary remission. And not universally. There were hot spots, most surrounding wizards reluctant to embrace a new order that had come in overnight
The twins from Charm were out and somebody called Exile was in. And Oar was supposed to be girding for another visit from the Limper.
"Things are getting crazy," Smeds said as they approached the Skull and Crossbones.
"There's an understatement if ever I heard one."
Their landlord seemed disappointed that they hadn't been killed in the riots. No. He hadn't seen Tully since he'd wanted breakfast and had stormed out because he couldn't get credit. Wasn't anything to fix, anyway.
"You got nothing?" Smeds asked.
"I got a dried-out third of a loaf I'm gonna soak in water and have for supper. You want to dig around in the cellar you might find a couple of rats. I'll roast them up for you."
Smeds believed him. "Tully didn't happen to say where he was headed, did he?"
"No. He turned right when he left out."
"Thanks," Fish said. He started toward the street.
The landlord asked, "You heard about the re-ward?"
"What reward?" Smeds asked.
"For that silver spike thing all the commotion's supposed to be about. The new guy says he'll give a hundred thousand obols, no questions asked, no tricks, no risks. Just take it in and get the money."
"Damn-O!" Fish said. "A guy could live pretty good, couldn't he? Wish to hell I had it."
Smeds grumbled, "You was to ask me, there ain't no such thing. All them witches and wizards would have found it if there was. Come on, Fish. I got to find that shithead cousin of mine."
Outside, Fish asked, "You think he'd try something?"
"Yeah, if he heard. He'd figure we deserve to get screwed on account of we been treating him so bad. Only he don't know where it's at. So he'll have to make up his mind if he can sell me to the torturers."
"I think he can. Without remorse. There isn't really anyone in this world who really matters except Tully Stahl. He probably started out just figuring to use us, then get rid of us one by one. Only things didn't go as simple as he thought they would."
"You're maybe right," Smeds admitted. "Guess we got to assume he's going to sell us out, don't we?"
"We'd be fools to give him the benefit of the doubt. You know his habits and hangouts. Look for him. I'll find out where Exile holes up and wait for him to show up there."
"What if he's already…?"
"Then we're screwed. Aren't we?"
"Yeah. Hey. What about we sell this guy the spike? A hundred thousand ain't bad. I can't even count that high."
"It's good. But if the situation is what they say—the Limper coming back—they'll go way higher. Let's let it ride a couple days."
Smeds did not argue but thought they ought to get what they could while they could get it. "I'll catch up if I can't find him."