The Bird of the River (15 page)

"The water cannon's been broken!"

"Bloody hell. It's like Synpelene."

"What?"

And now they heard the screams coming from behind the city wall. Torches bloomed along the ramparts, and Eliss heard a distant voice calling for archers. There was a dull concussion on the air followed by the muffled
boom
of an explosion. More screams from within the city.

"It's a trick! It's a trick, they're attacking inside!"

"Wait! You can't let my warehouse burn!"

"To hell with your warehouse, I've got family--"

"We'll save the warehouse!" Mr. Riveter called across the night. "Go!"

Someone came up to him and spoke quietly. Their two shadows merged into one. "You don't suppose it was the greenie boy, do you?"

Alder flinched.

"Don't be stupid," muttered Mr. Riveter. "He's one of us. He knows we didn't cut down the damned tree."

"I'm just saying, is all."

Furious, Eliss started to scramble out, but Alder grabbed her wrist. "Don't," he said. "Just don't."

"Are you all right in there?" That was Krelan's voice. He squatted down and peered in at them. He had clearly dressed in haste and was clutching a long kitchen spit.

"We're fine," said Alder.

"Good. All right, I'm going ashore to help fight the fire--"

"No, you aren't," they heard Mr. Riveter say before he turned to run down the gangplank. "You stay on deck, do you understand?"

"Yes, sir." Krelan stood up. Eliss crawled past Alder and stood beside him, staring across at the fire. It wasn't any bigger, which was a hopeful sign, and the
Bird's
crew had formed a double bucket line. They were beginning to be able to get close inside the warehouse entrance, and there was as much steam as smoke boiling from the windows now. On the other hand, the fighting inside the city was getting louder.

"Well, there goes my chance to be a hero," said Krelan. He made a few lunges and blocking moves with the kitchen spit.
I wonder why he has a set of throwing knives instead of a sword,
thought Eliss. Aloud she said: "This is just like Synpelene."

"You think so?" Krelan came close and spoke in a quieter voice.

"Don't you? Somebody knew the city. Somebody broke the water cannon and then started a fire. While everybody was trying to put out the fire,
they
attacked on the other side of the city. I'll bet they came through the sewers again."

"No," said Krelan. "I had a lot of time to kill, waiting for the coppersmith this afternoon. Just out of curiosity, I went and looked at the city drains system. The vaults come out right over there in the open." He pointed to a section of wall just beside the city gate. "Hadn't you wondered why the docks are a little, er, fragrant? I asked somebody, and he laughed and said this is a working city and they don't care about smelling like a lot of roses. But anybody trying to crawl into
this
city through its sewer would be spotted at once, you see.

"Not that I don't agree with you that somebody gave them advance intelligence of the city defenses," he added thoughtfully. They heard orders shouted within the city, and then abruptly the noise stopped.

"Doesn't seem to have done them much good," said Alder.

"Does sound like they've been squashed, whoever they were." Krelan looked at Eliss. "What was that I heard about you spotting bandits in the forest?"

Eliss blushed. She told him about what she had seen from the ramparts. He listened intently and applauded when she had finished.

"Sharp eyes," he said approvingly.

"We both have them," said Alder.

DAWN WAS BRIEFLY RED, as the sun fought to burn through the pall of smoke in the river bend and at last vanished into a cloud cover. The air was hot, breathless, -- thunder rumbled around the horizon.

The lumber warehouse had been saved. Within the town, however, there were now six heads on pikes on the ramparts. The
Bird's
crew, venturing ashore, learned that the raiders had broken through the city wall right into the quarry manager's office. Several of them had made off with the manager's strongbox, while others had streamed out the door. Some had gone straight for the town's arsenal, and had been in the act of affixing explosives to its doors when they had been caught and slaughtered by the city guard. Others had broken into a shop that sold bluestone souvenirs and taken a case full of gold-mounted jewelery, leaving a trail of dropped earrings all the way back to the quarry manager's office.

The city's officials came aboard and formally thanked the
Bird's
crew for their help in putting out the fire, but their faces were grim.

Eliss, having watched them go back ashore, turned to climb the shrouds to her place at the masthead. She ran into Captain Glass, standing behind her.

"Here." He opened his broad hand and held out something. She looked close. Glinting in his dark palm was a little charm on a silver chain. The charm looked as though it was made of crystal, cut and polished without facets into a smooth curving shape that suggested a ripple of water, or perhaps a coiled serpent, or even a wide eye. "Wear it. You've earned it."

Eliss stared at it, dumfounded. No one had ever given her jewelry before. The captain continued to stand there before her, immobile and solid as a brick wall. Eliss looked up at him but could read no expression on his face. She took the charm and slipped the chain over her head.

"Thank you, Captain sir."

"You're welcome." He turned away and went to his place at the tiller. Eliss looked down at the charm where it glinted on its chain. She tucked it carefully inside her tunic and climbed on up to the masthead.

The
Bird of the River
moved on.

"HELLO THERE."

Eliss looked down in surprise. Krelan was climbing the shrouds, smiling up at her. He hauled himself through the hole in the platform and sat, gasping for breath.

"Aren't you supposed to be scrubbing pots in the galley?"

"Mr. Pitspike is exceptionally cross today," said Krelan. "Mr. Pitspike threw a pot of soap grease at my head and told me that if he had to look at my asinine attempt at a mustache for one more minute today he was going to suffer a collapse and spray blood from his ears. Therefore I have the afternoon off."

"That's nice," said Eliss. "I think."

"I've observed that you do," Krelan replied. "Think, I mean. You also notice a great deal."

"It's my job," said Eliss warily.

"Do you listen as well as you watch?"

"Sometimes."

"I wonder if you have any idea why the flock of charming little girls who play with their dolls belowdecks are looking at me as though I had sprouted six-inch fangs this morning? I asked one of them if she wanted honey on her oatmeal and she burst into tears and ran howling to her mother."

"Oh." Eliss kept her eyes on the river. "One of them got the idea that you're the brother of the dead man we found below Slates Landing, and that you're out to get revenge. And that would frighten anyone who was poor and lowborn, you see, because whenever the princes fight among themselves, some of us always end up getting killed too. My mother, for one."

"I see." Krelan wrapped his arms around the railing and gazed down at the river too. "And they think I'm his brother because ... ?"

"You're an aristocrat. And you came on board soon after we found the dead man. But mostly because ... because somebody noticed you had throwing knives in your bag, and told the other children."

"I see." Krelan sighed. "But it wouldn't have been you, I don't think. You seem as though you keep secrets."

"It might have been me." Eliss's hands tightened on the rail.

"Or it might have been your little brother, who dislikes me. For several good reasons, I suspect, so I can't really take offense. Shall I be frank with you?"

"You can be whatever you want. You know that."

"Because I'm a nobleman? But that's just it, you see. I'm not. Actually."

"It's funny how you talk just like one of them, then."

"That's because I've been around them all my life. Please do me the favor of hearing me out, Eliss. You, of all people, deserve to know the truth."

"Why?"

"Because of what happened to your mother."

Eliss stared down at the surface of the river. There was a sandbar, but far enough to starboard to be no danger. There was the line of bubbles that meant some big river-otter was swimming past. There to larboard was the fresh undercutting of the bank that meant the river would collapse it in that place before much longer, and then there would be rockfall or even a snag to clear away ...

"Go on, then."

"The body your people pulled out of the river belonged to Encilian Diamondcut. Have you heard of the Diamondcuts?"

"Everybody has. They had the big vendetta going with the Fireopal family."

"They did. All patched up now, at least if Denissa Fireopal and Thrason Diamondcut can bear each other's company long enough to have children. Thrason is the oldest brother, you see, the one who's to inherit the name. He had five younger brothers. Now he has four."

"Because somebody killed one of them and threw his body in the river?"

"But kept his head. That's a deadly insult. Almost worse than simply killing him. They took a
trophy
. The Diamondcuts want his murder avenged, of course, but they want Lord Encilian's head back too."

Eliss shuddered. "So what are you?"

"My family has worked for the Diamondcuts for twelve generations," said Krelan, with a sigh. "We do things for them. The sort of things that don't get written into the chronicles or embroidered on the tapestries. It's a very old and honorable profession, you see, we're quite rich as a consequence and we're almost a sort of shadow-nobility ourselves ... only not really.

"Now I'm going to speak blasphemy, or at least my family would call it that. Encilian was a lesser son. He was weak, he was lazy, and he didn't care about his Family's honor or anything but enjoying himself. He lied. He stole things. He ran up debts. Nobody was all that sorry, or surprised either, to learn he'd been killed.
But he was a Diamondcut.

"I'm a lesser son, myself. Not because of extravagant vices, I hasten to add! No. I'm my father's younger son by his second wife. My older brother inherited the name and half the property. He looks like a hawk, whereas I look like some sort of starved duck with mange. He's already taken a wife and produced twin baby boys, whereas I can barely get a girl to give me the time of day. He can lift a caravan cart on his back, whereas I ... but you get the idea.

"When Encilian's body was found, old Lord Diamondcut summoned my brother. The matter was discussed. It was decided that I would be sent upriver to investigate Encilian's murder. I am to reclaim his head, if I can. I am to see to it that he is suitably avenged, once I know who killed him. If I can do that, I'll be avenging your mother too since whoever killed my master's son was indirectly responsible for her death. So we have a common cause, you see."

Eliss shook her head. "People like us aren't avenged when we die. We don't matter to anyone. You don't know much about the world."

"Not as much as I thought I did," said Krelan. "Not now I'm out in it. I'd be grateful for your help, Eliss."

Eliss gave an unbelieving snort. "What do you think
I
can do?"

"Keep my secrets," said Krelan. "It's hard to be discreet when you're scaring little girls. Maybe you could pass the word that I have those knives because my family thought I wasn't worth buying a sword for? Which is true, by the way."

"I can do that," said Eliss. She took her eyes from the river long enough to give him a considering glance. "So ... if you're not actually a nobleman, what really happened at the Lake?"

"The Lake. I wish I knew." Krelan rubbed his side where the gash was a puckering scar. "I went over there to ask a few questions. Had anyone seen Lord Encilian in the last year? I asked after him by name, and I think that might have been a mistake. Generally I've been showing people his portrait, but I assumed that in Prayna there'd be no need. The Diamondcuts were well known to the Agatines.

"I went to the sorts of places he frequented--they exist even in Prayna--and asked whether he'd been seen there."

"You don't think that was a little stupid?"

Krelan looked reproachful. "I didn't just
ask
. There are certain signs one gives, making inquiries. Certain signals of the trade."

"What trade?"

"My family's trade." "Oh."

"And my informant, whom I'd thought was trustworthy, arranged for me to meet someone after dark, who supposedly knew something about Encilian's murderer. I went to the place we'd agreed upon and walked straight into a trap. The rest of the story is essentially true as I told it."

"Essentially?"

"It means, true in essence."

"I know what the word means, thank you. What parts were different?"

Krelan raised his eyebrows. "Shrewd, aren't you? Well ... I defended myself rather more effectively than I told Mr. Riveter."

"Did you kill somebody?"

"... I might have."

"Because if you didn't, and whoever tried to kill you got away, they'll be looking for you. And once they get done looking for you in Prayna, they just might come across the lake and start asking questions at Moonport."

After a moment's thoughtful silence, Krelan said, "You know rather a lot about this sort of thing, don't you?"

"I had a few uncles who were in gangs," Eliss replied. She made a face. "Not that they were really my uncles. Anyway, what if someone from Moonport tells them you left to go upriver on the
Bird?
"

"That would present a problem," admitted Krelan. "But, no. Take my word for it that no one was capable of following me across the Lake, all right?"

"All right. But you still don't know why someone who knew your 'trade signals' set you up to be killed. Do you?"

"No," said Krelan unhappily. "No, I don't. What awkward questions you do ask, young lady. Mind you, I'd rather be told a venomous spider was crawling on my sleeve than have someone fail to mention it out of a desire to spare my feelings."