[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
a society. We haven't had enough of that." "Time is up now. Isn't that what
you said?" "I guess," I admitted. "All right. I'll scout the castle. But you
find out what went on down there last night. Especially around that placed
called the Iron Lily. It keeps turning up, just like that guy Asa." All the
while we talked, Elmo was changing. Now he looked like a sailor down on his
luck, too old to ship, but still tough enough for dirty work. He would fit
right in down in the Buskin. I told him so. "Yeah. Let's get moving. And don't
plan on getting much sleep till the Captain gets here." We looked at one
another, not saying what lay in the backs of our minds. If the Taken did not
want us in touch with our brethren, what might they do when the Company hove
in sight, coming out of the Wolanders? Up close, the black castle was both
intriguing and unsettling. I took a horse over, circled the place several
times, even flipped a cheerful wave at the one movement I detected atop its
glassy ramparts. There was some difficult ground behind it-steep, rocky,
overgrown with scraggly, thorny brush which had a sagey odor. Nobody lugging a
corpse would reach the fortress from that direction. The ground was better
along the ridgeline to east and west, but even there an approach was
improbable. Men of the sort who sold corpses would do things the easy way.
That meant using the road which ran from the Port River waterfront, through
the scatter of merchant class houses on the middle slopes, and just kept on to
the castle gate. Someone had followed that course often, for wheel ruts ran
from the end of the road to the castle. My problem was, there was no place a
squad could lie in wait without being seen from the castle wall. It took me
till dusk to finalize my plan. I found an abandoned house a ways down the
slope and a little upriver. I would conceal my squad there and post sentries
down the road, in the populated area. They could run a message to the rest of
us if they saw anything suspicious. We could hustle up and across the slope to
intercept potential body-sellers. Wagons would be slow enough to allow us the
Page 56
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
time needed. Old Croaker is a brilliant strategist. Yes, sir. I had my troops
in place and everything set by midnight. And had two false alarms before
breakfast. I learned the embarrassing way that there was legitimate night
traffic past my sentry post. I sat in the old house with my team, alternately
playing tonk and worrying, and on rare occasions napping. And wondering a lot
about what was happening down in the Buskin and across the valley in Duretile.
I prayed Elmo could keep his fingers on all the strings.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: JUNIPER: LISA
Shed spent an entire day lying in his room, staring at the ceiling, hating
himself. He had sunk as low as a man could. There was no deed too foul for him
anymore, and nothing more he could do to blacken his soul. A million-leva
passage fee could not buy him aboard on Passage Day. His name had to be
written in the Black Book with those of the greatest villains. "Mr. Shed?"
Lisa said from the doorway next morning, as he was contemplating another day
of ceiling study and self-pity. "Mr. Shed?" "Yeah?" "Bo and Lana are here." Bo
and Lana, with a daughter, were his mother's servants. "What do they want?"
"Their accounts settled for the month, I expect." "Oh." He got up. Lisa
stopped him at the head of the stair. "I was right about Sue, wasn't I?" "You
were." "I'm sorry. I wouldn't have said anything if we could have afforded
it." "We? What do you mean, we? Oh, hell. Never mind. Forget about it. I don't
want to hear about it anymore." "Whatever you say. But I'm going to hold you
to your promise." "What promise?" "To let me manage the Lily." "Oh. All
right." At that moment he did not care. He collected the monthly accounting
from the servants. He had chosen them well. They were not cheating him. He
suggested they deserved a small bonus. He returned upstairs for the money.
Lisa watched him go, perplexed. He realized his mistake too late. Now she
wondered why he had money today when he'd had none yesterday. He located his
dirty clothing, emptied his pockets onto his bed. And gasped. "Oh, damn!
Damn," he muttered. "What the hell am I going to do with three gold pieces?"
There was silver, too, and even a fistful of copper, but.... It was a gyp! A
fortune he could not spend. Juniper law made it illegal for commoners to hold
minted gold. Even incoming foreigners had to exchange theirs for silver-though
foreign silver was as welcome as local. Lucky, too, for the black castle
mintage was a decidedly odd coinage, though in the standard weights. How could
he get rid of the gold? Sell it to some ship captain headed south? That was
the usual procedure. He slipped it into his most secret hiding place, with the
amulet from the black castle. A useless fortune. He assessed the remainder.
Twenty-eight pieces of silver, plus several leva in copper. Enough to take
care of his mother and Sal. Way short of enough to pry Gilbert off his back.
"Still be in the damned money trap," he whined. He recalled Sue's jewelry,
smiled nastily, muttered, "I'll do it." He pocketed everything, returned to
the ground floor, paid his mother's servants, told Lisa, "I'm going out for a
while." First he made sure Wally's family was cared for, then ambled down
toward Gilbert's place. No one seemed to be around. Gilbert was not like
Krage, in that he felt he needed an army on hand, but he did have his
bone-breakers. They were all away. But someone was in Gilbert's office because
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]