Red Seas Under Red Skies: The Gentleman Bastard Sequence, Book Two (Gentleman Bastards 2)

A dozen Eyes of the Archon were waiting for them in the entrance hall. They fell in wordlessly on either side of Locke and Jean as Merrain led them forward.

Though not to the same office as before, it appeared. Locke glanced around from time to time as they passed through dimly lit halls and up twisting staircases. The Mon Magisteria was truly more fortress than palace; the walls outside the grand hall were devoid of decoration, and the air smelled mainly of humidity, sweat, leather and weapons-oil. Water rumbled through unseen channels behind the walls. Occasionally they would troop past servants, who would stand with their backs to the wall and their heads bowed toward their feet until the Eyes were past.

Merrain led them to an iron-reinforced door in a nondescript corridor several floors up from the entrance. Faint silver moonlight could be seen rippling through an arched window at the far end of the hall. Locke squinted and realized that a stream of water from the palace’s circling aqueducts was falling down the glass.

Merrain pounded on the door three times. When it opened with a click, allowing a crack of soft yellow light into the hall, she dismissed the Eyes with a wave of her hand. As they marched away down the corridor, she pushed the door open slightly and pointed toward it with her other hand.

‘At last. I might have hoped to see you sooner. You must have been away from your usual haunts when Merrain found you.’ Stragos looked up from where he sat, on one of only two chairs in the small, bare room, and shuffled the papers he’d been examining. His bald attendant sat on the other with several files in hand, saying nothing.

‘They were having a bit of trouble on the inner docks of the Great Gallery,’ said Merrain as she closed the door behind Locke and Jean. ‘A pair of fairly motivated assassins.’

‘Really?’ Stragos looked genuinely annoyed. ‘What business might that be in relation to?’

‘I only wish we knew,’ said Locke. ‘Our chance for an interrogation took a crossbow bolt in the chest when Merrain showed up.’

‘The woman was about to stick one of these two with a poisoned knife, Protector. I thought you’d prefer to have them both intact for the time being.’

‘Hmmm. A pair of assassins. Were you at the Sinspire tonight?’

‘Yes,’ said Jean.

‘Well, it wouldn’t be Requin, then. He’d simply have taken you while you were there. So it’s some other business. Something you should have told me about before, Kosta?’

‘Oh, begging your pardon, Archon. I thought that between your little friends the Bondsmagi and all the spies you must have slinking about at our backsides, you’d know more than you do.’

‘This is serious, Kosta. I aim to make use of you; it doesn’t suit my needs to have someone else’s vendetta on my hands. You don’t know who might have sent them?’

‘Truthfully, we have no bloody clue.’

‘You left the bodies of these assassins on the docks?’

‘The constables have them by now, surely,’ said Merrain.

‘They’ll throw the bodies in the Midden Deep, but first they’ll inter them at the death-house for a day or two,’ said Stragos. ‘I want someone down there to have a look at them. Note their descriptions, plus any tattoos or other markings that might be meaningful.’

‘Of course,’ said Merrain.

‘Tell the officer of the watch to see to that now. You’ll know where to find me when you’re finished.’

‘Your will . . . Archon.’ Merrain looked as though she might say something else, then turned, opened the door and hurried out.

‘You called me Kosta,’ said Locke when the door had slammed closed once again. ‘She doesn’t know our real names, does she? Curious. Don’t you trust your people, Stragos? Seems like it’d be easy enough to get your hooks into them the same way you got them into us.’

‘I’ll wager,’ said Jean, ‘that you never take up your master’s offer of a friendly drink when you’re off-duty, eh, baldy?’ Stragos’s attendant scowled but still said nothing.

‘By all means,’ said Stragos lightly, ‘taunt my personal alchemist, the very man responsible for me “getting my hooks into you”, not to mention the preparation of your antidote.’

The bald man smiled thinly. Locke and Jean cleared their throats and shuffled their feet in unison, a habit they’d synchronized as boys.

‘You seem a reasonable fellow,’ said Locke. ‘And I for one have always found a hairless brow to be a noble thing, sensible in every climate—’

‘Shut up, Lamora. Do we have the people we need, then?’ Stragos passed his papers over to his attendant.

‘Yes, Archon. Forty-four of them, all told. I’ll see that they’re moved by tomorrow evening.’

‘Good. Leave us the vials and you may go.’

The man nodded and gathered his papers. He handed two small glass vials over to the Archon, then left without another word, closing the door respectfully behind him.

‘Well, you two.’ Stragos sighed. ‘You seem to attract attention, don’t you? You’re certain you’ve no idea who else might be trying to kill you? Some old score to settle from Camorr?’

‘There are so many old scores to settle,’ said Locke.

‘There would be, wouldn’t there? Well, my people will continue to protect you as best they can. You two, however, will have to be more . . . circumspect.’

‘That sentiment is not exactly unprecedented,’ said Locke.

‘Confine your movements to the Golden Steps and the Savrola until further notice. I’ll have extra people placed on the inner docks; use those when you must travel.’

‘Gods damn it, we cannot operate like that! For a few days, perhaps, but not for the rest of our stay in Tal Verrar, however long it might be.’

‘In that, you’re more right than you know, Locke. But if someone else is after you, I can’t let it interfere with my needs. Curtail your movements or I’ll have them curtailed for you.’

‘You said there’d be no further complication of our game with Requin!’

‘No, I said that the poison wouldn’t further complicate your game with Requin.’

‘You seem pretty confident of our good behaviour for a man who’s all alone with us in a little stone room,’ said Jean, taking a step forward. ‘Your alchemist’s not coming back, is he? Nor Merrain?’

‘Should I be worried? You’ve absolutely nothing to gain by harming me.’

‘Except immense personal satisfaction,’ said Locke. ‘You presume that we’re in our right minds. You presume that we give a shit about your precious poison, and that we wouldn’t tear you limb from limb on general principle and take the consequences afterward.’

‘Must we do this?’ Stragos remained seated, one leg crossed over the other, a mildly bored expression on his face. ‘It occurred to me that the two of you might be stubborn enough to nurse a bit of mutiny in your hearts. So listen carefully - if you leave this room without me, the Eyes in the hall outside will kill you on sight. And if you otherwise harm me in any way, I repeat my earlier promise. I’ll revisit the same harm on one of you, tenfold, while the other is forced to watch.’

‘You,’ said Locke, ‘are a goat-faced wad of slipskinner’s shit.’

‘Anything’s possible,’ said Stragos. ‘But if you’re thoroughly in my power, pray tell me, what does that make you?’

‘Downright embarrassed,’ muttered Locke.

‘Very likely. Can you, both of you, set aside this childish need to avenge your self-regard and accept the mission I have for you? Will you hear the plan and keep civil tongues?’

‘Yes.’ Locke closed his eyes and sighed. ‘I suppose we truly have no choice. Jean?’

‘I wish I didn’t have to agree.’

‘Just so long as you do.’ Stragos stood up, opened the door to the corridor and beckoned for Locke and Jean to follow. ‘My Eyes will see you along to my gardens. I have something I want to show the two of you . . . while we speak more privately about your mission.’

‘What exactly do you intend to do with us?’ asked Jean.

‘Simply put, I have a navy riding at anchor in the Sword Marina, accomplishing little. Inasmuch as I still depend on the Priori to help pay and provision it, I can’t send it out in force without a proper excuse.’ Stragos smiled. ‘So I’m going to send you two out to sea to find that excuse for me.’

‘Out to sea?’ said Locke. ‘Are you out of your fu—’

‘Take them to my garden,’ said Stragos, spinning on his heel.