Part 17 (1/2)
I signed to Darling, ”You going to keep pus.h.i.+ng it?” and asked Raven, in Forsberger, ”You want to call his bluff?”
Negatives all around. Bunch of wimps. So Raven was going to slide out. I told his kids, ”Your father was very important in the life of the White Rose. He was a stand-in parent to her for years and she knew how it pained him to be in exile. She stopped here because she wanted to try to give back something of what she'd had and you couldn't.”
Neither Raven nor Darling liked me saying that.
I think the girl figured it out about then. She got real carefully interested in Raven. But she didn't say anything to her brother.
I got Darling to agree this was enough and our guests ought to be turned loose. She wasn't satisfied with the way things turned out. What the h.e.l.l can you do with women? You can give them exactly what they ask for and they'll cuss you because that ain't what they really want.
Just before the girl went over the side she turned and told me, ”If my father was alive today he wouldn't have to fear that he would be unwelcome in his daughter's house.” Then she went.
All right. There was an open door if ever I seen one.
We took off the second the girl hit ground. Darling wanted to get far away before word she was there got to somebody who could do something about it. We lit out northeast, like we was headed for the Plain of Fear.
x.x.xIX.
Every day more people came into Oar, and n.o.body left. A pigeon could not get out. Several had died trying.
Some elements of the population were growing restless. There were more fights than usual. More people ended up on the labor gangs. The searches went on and on and on. There was not a building in Oar that had not been tossed at least twice, not a citizen who had not been rousted. There were rumors of big tension in high places. Brigadier Wildbrand did not think she owed Gossamer and Spidersilk anything and resented having her Nightstalkers used as bullies for their personal benefit. They were elite troops, not political gangsters.
The nature of the people entering the city changed with time. Fewer were farmers or traders. More and more were dire characters with no obvious trade.
The news about the silver spike was spreading.
Smeds did not like it. It meant big trouble. How did Gossamer and Spidersilk expect to control all those witches and wizards, some of whom might be much more potent than they suspected? And the bullies they brought with them?
Chaos threatened.
Smeds understood the strategy. The twins meant to up the heat and pressure till the spike popped to the surface. If it came up in hands other than their own they were confident they could take it away.
Could they?
Every witch and wizard in town knew that, too. But they had come hunting anyway.
Only Tully was pleased. He thought the situation perfect for the auction he wanted to run. ”We got to get the word out,” he told the others, over supper.
”Keep your voice down,” Fish said. ”Anybody in here could be a spy. And we don't get any word out. You heard of anybody offering to buy anything?”
”No,” Tully admitted. ”But that's because-”
”Because most of them know they can be outbid. You notice the twins aren't offering anything. They figure they can get what they want by divine right, or something.”
”Yeah, but-”
”You have no grasp of the situation, Tully. Let me offer you a challenge....”
”I'm fed up with your s.h.i.+t, Fish.”
”Indulge me in an experiment. If I'm wrong I'll shout it from the rooftops. If I'm right, you win anyway.”
”Yeah? Let's hear it.”
Sucked him up again, Smeds thought. His opinion of his cousin declined by the hour.
”Here's two coppers. Go find a kid somewhere away from here. One who don't know you. Pay him to go to the Toad and Rose and tell the bullies there that the wizard Nathan is looking to hire a couple men to help him sneak out of the city tomorrow morning.”
”I don't get it.”
Smeds said, ”G.o.ds, Tully, couldn't you just once do something without arguing about it first?”
Fish said, ”The experiment will be more instructive if it simply unfolds, explaining itself as it goes.”
”Why should I do that a.s.shole Nathan any favors?”
Smeds stood up. ”I'll do it. Otherwise we'll be here till the middle of next week.”
”I want Tully to do it. I want him to see that there can be a direct connection between his saying something and what happens in the real world.”
”You're putting me down again, ain'tcha?”
”Tully,” Smeds said, ”shut the f.u.c.k up or I'm going to brain you. Pick up the G.o.dd.a.m.ned money, hit the G.o.dd.a.m.ned street, find a kid, and pay him to deliver the G.o.dd.a.m.ned message. Now.”
Tully went. Smeds had gotten pretty intense.
”He's going to get us all killed,” Timmy said as soon as he was gone.
”How's your hand coming?” Smeds asked.
”Real good. Don't try to distract me, Smeds.”
”Easy, Timmy,” Fish said. ”I think there's a chance this trick will get through to him.”
”Want to bet?”
”No.”
Smeds would not have taken the bet either.
The wizard Nathan and his four men had rented rooms just up the street from the Skull and Crossbones. The grays came there shortly before dawn. They found five dead men and two rooms torn to shreds. They sealed the area, searched it again, asked a lot of questions. Fish made sure they all got a good look at the mess. He asked Tully, ”You starting to catch on?”
”Who would do something like that, man? Why?”
”Nathan was a wizard. If he was going to sneak, that meant he'd found the spike and wanted to make a run for it.”