In the Claws of the Tiger (19 page)

“I worry about his soul,” Dania said softly.

“So do I,” Mathas said. “Losing Maija seems to have driven him away from the Sovereign Host.”

“And he seems quite uncomfortable every time I mention the Silver Flame.”

“Yes, though I suspect that has as much to do with his experience of your church in Sharn as it does with the overall state of his soul.”

“The church in Sharn is hardly a fair representative of the church as a whole. I mean, it has its share of corrupt patriarchs—”

“And pompous asses,” Auftane interjected.

“And people like Kophran, yes,” Dania said. “But I am convinced there is no greater force for good at work in the world. Mathas, when I went to Karrnath, I was as ruined as Janik is. My past felt like an enormous weight on my shoulders. We were hunting these vampires, and for a while I was convinced that I was as bad as they were. I couldn’t stop thinking of all the people I killed during the war. Kophran didn’t help that, of course—he treated me as though I were not quite a person. But there were two things that got me out of that. One was the realization of what vampires are—they’re warped by pure evil stronger than anything that grows in human hearts. And the
other was my taste of the Silver Flame, my experience of pure good. I felt it wash over me when Kophran drove Krael away.”

“So how do you account for the evil you say has grown in Maija’s heart?” Mathas said. “You said she was not a vampire.”

“No, but I am not convinced that she is human any more.”

“What do you mean?” Mathas’s brow furrowed, spreading deep wrinkles over his face.

“I’m not sure. It’s possible that she has made a pact with some demon, or one of the Dark Six. Perhaps it is her use of evil magic that has so deeply corrupted her. Maybe both, and those two things could certainly be related.”

“But not human?”

“I don’t know, Mathas. She’s not a vampire. She’s still alive, near as I can tell, but she’s more evil than anyone I’ve encountered since. She’s the only living person whose evil was almost tangible like that—like what I could feel from the vampires. That’s what I mean.”

Dania looked at the dwarf beside her, who had been sitting quietly through most of her conversation with Mathas. “I’m sorry, Auftane,” she said. “We seem to spend a lot of time talking about the past.”

“I suppose it’s a good thing I find such topics interesting,” Auftane replied with a smile.

“Damn it, why do we spend so much time talking about Maija?” Dania threw her hands in the air. “It’s been three years since she walked out on us.”

“The topic of Krael, at least, seems relevant to our current expedition,” Auftane said.

“True, and it is hard to separate one from the other,” Mathas observed. “They left Mel-Aqat together, and you encountered them together in Karrnath, Dania. I’m not sure
that Maija is completely irrelevant, either. Perhaps it was only by chance that we did not meet her on the street tonight.”

“That would have been ugly,” Dania said. “Janik was bad enough after seeing Krael.”

Janik strode along the darkened streets of Stormreach toward the inn. Half of him hoped he would run into Krael again, while the other half knew it would mean almost certain death, at least if Krael was still with Sever and Tierese and his other half-dozen allies. One on one, Janik figured it would be an even match, vampire or no vampire.

Like his friends, Janik wondered if Maija were here as well. But he kept coming back to Krael’s scornful comment, “Her, you can have back, as far as I’m concerned.” So it seemed likely that Maija was not here with him. But Krael had said he was here for revenge—and not against Janik. Was he looking for Maija to take revenge against her? Had she turned on Krael as well? In that case, perhaps she was here on her own. Perhaps she had taken the Tablet of Shummarak from Krael and brought it to Xen’drik, hoping to release a demon lord. Perhaps she was taking it to Mel-Aqat, the Place of Imprisonment.

But if she was no longer working with Krael, then why was she doing any of this? If she didn’t work for the Emerald Claw any more, who did she work for? Why would she be trying to free an imprisoned fiend, if not on Emerald Claw orders? Could Dania be right—that Maija had become irredeemably evil?

“No!” Janik shouted aloud, drawing some alarmed stares from passersby on the street. Scowling, he lowered his head and kept his eyes on the cobblestone street, quickening his pace toward the inn. He gritted his teeth. He simply could
not accept that he would never have Maija back, that she was forever lost to him.

He reached the inn, stumbled up to his room, and collapsed in his bed.

Dawn’s light and a gnawing hunger woke Janik early, and he looked blearily around his room. He jumped to his feet when he realized that the contents of his pack were strewn across the floor near the door. He couldn’t be absolutely certain, but he was fairly sure that they had been neatly in place when he returned to his room the night before.

“Damn you, Krael,” he muttered as he knelt on the floor. Without touching anything, he took inventory of the items—the pack was empty, but nothing seemed to be missing. Then he noticed that several items lay right in front of the door, which opened inward. The door could not have opened since the gear was spread over the floor. That meant two things. First, someone had definitely been in the room while Janik was sleeping. Second, that someone had not left by way of the door. Janik drew his sword and thoroughly searched the room. It was small, and there was no place to hide. The window was directly over the bed, which meant that someone using it to leave the room would have had to step right over Janik as he slept. He was a fairly heavy sleeper, but he was confident that would have awakened him.

“Now you’re just showing off,” he said. Shaking his head, he stowed his gear back into his pack.

“Turned to mist,” Dania said. They were walking to the dock—Janik hoped they could encourage Breddan to set sail
early, staying ahead of Krael. “Gered told me that vampires can turn to mist, and I saw Havoc do it in Atur.”

“That’s probably it,” Mathas said. “He could have turned to mist outside your door—or anywhere, really—and slipped through the crack under the door. Then he returned to solid form inside your room, spread out your belongings to let you know he had been there, and left the same way.”

“He’s just trying to scare you,” Dania added.

“Well, it damn well worked!” Janik said. “There was a vampire in my room while I slept last night! I made sure to check for bite marks when I got dressed this morning.”

“Did you find any?” Auftane asked. He looked genuinely worried.

“No, I did not. And the point is, he could have done anything he wanted.”

“That’s exactly the point he was trying to make,” Mathas said. “He wants you to think he’s in control, that he’s the one with the power.”

“He’s driving home the point that I walked away from our little encounter last night, not him,” Janik said. “Rubbing his victory in my face.”

“That wasn’t a victory, Janik,” Dania said. “And walking away from a confrontation in the street is not a defeat. We have more important work than brawling with Krael, Janik. Don’t let him intimidate you.”

“I’m not worried about him intimidating me. I’m worried about him drinking my blood while I sleep! But he can’t do that while we’re sailing across the Phoenix Basin … can he?”

“No,” Mathas said, “he won’t be able to move as fast as the ship travels. Unless he’s stowed away on the ship.”

“Or Breddan’s ship is more of a wreck than you let on,” Auftane said, drawing laughter from everyone.

“Janik, if he had wanted to kill you, or drink your blood, he would have done it last night,” Dania said.

“Maybe he got in there and realized he wasn’t hungry,” Janik said. “It doesn’t matter. I just want to leave town as quickly as we can, whether Krael has any designs on my blood or not. The fact that he’s here means he has caught up to us. We need to stay a step ahead of him, so we need to leave now. And,” he added, pointing at Mathas, “we need to make sure he isn’t stowed away on the ship. I know it sounds crazy, but I’m going to inspect the ship’s stores crate by crate before we weigh anchor. If you would help me, I’d appreciate it—I’m not sure I’d recognize a vampire who had turned to mist.”

“He would have a hard time concealing his presence from me,” Dania said. “The stink of his evil is as strong as Maija’s. I’ll help you look.”

“Thank you. Oh, look at this.” They reached the docks, and Janik was leading them toward Breddan’s berth. But he pointed now at a different ship—
Hope’s Endeavor
. “It’s Nashan’s ship—the one Krael stole out from under us. Let’s have a word with Captain Nashan, shall we?”

“A word,” Dania said firmly. “There’s no need to hurt him.”

“You don’t think so?” Janik said, but he smiled. “Don’t worry, Dania. I am capable of restraining my temper. We’ll just have a civil conversation.” He stepped onto the gangplank leading up to the ship’s main deck. “Ho there,
Hope’s Endeavor!”
he called. “Permission to come aboard!”

No one moved on the deck or in the rigging. Janik looked at his friends, then walked up the gangplank to the deck. “Anyone here?” The ship creaked and water lapped at its sides, but no one answered Janik’s call.

“They must have all gone ashore,” Auftane said, making his way slowly up the gangplank.

“And left the ship unguarded?” Dania replied. “Unlikely. I’d say something is definitely wrong.”

Janik moved to the forward cabin and pushed the door open. “Sea of Fire! Nashan!” Ducking his head, he rushed into the dark cabin.

Shutters were closed over all the portholes, and the cabin smelled of illness and death. The ship’s captain lay on the floor, his legs and arms spread-eagled, blank white eyes staring up at the ceiling. Janik kneeled beside him, and Nashan took a long, painfully slow, rasping breath.

“Should’ve … waited … for you,” he wheezed. His skin was chalk-white, and as Janik looked him over he quickly noticed the angry red wound at his neck. The skin was puckered and the twin punctures were white inside.

“He bribed you to take him instead, then killed you instead of paying you,” Janik said quietly. “Nashan, you were the spawn of a sea devil, but you didn’t deserve this.”

A flicker of a smile passed over Nashan’s face, but he said no more.