The Bird of the River (29 page)

"Somebody's coming," said one of the men holding the clerks.

"You in the bank," called a voice from outside. Eliss saw the officer of the militia walking out to the end of the street, visible in glimpses between the bodies of the hostages. "Let's talk."

"As long as you like," Shellback shouted. He turned and stared down the corridor, presumably at his men who were filling bags with money, and made hurry-up gestures.

"You're Shellback, aren't you?"

"My fame precedes me!" Shellback held up his hands like an orator. The demons grinned and stamped their feet.

"This is a new tactic for you, isn't it?"

"Never do to become predictable!"

"Didn't work very well, did it? I mean, there you are, and here we are. Where's Mr. Coppersheet?"

"Now, who would that be?"

"The man in charge. Him with the gold chain."

"Then I must be the man in charge now, because I'm wearing the chain!"

"So you killed him?"

"Him and the guards too. Stupid to keep just two spears in here, wasn't it?"

"Well, see, but we knew we'd just established a civil guard for the whole town. We didn't think anybody'd be stupid enough to get themselves in the fix you're in. See, now you're trapped."

"Looks that way, doesn't it?" Shellback winked at the demons. His men came up from the corridor, dragging the filled sacks. He shook his head and signed that they should go back, and pointed down the corridor and mouthed
Back wall.

"So what it comes down to is, you're going to die in there. I know this. Your men can see the troop I've got lined up across the street. They know they're outnumbered. The demons probably don't care, but the others know you've killed them. Unless we can cut a deal, Shellback."

"What kind of deal?" Eliss watched Shellback making gestures at one of the demons, who stared in blank incomprehension. Grimacing, Shellback crossed the room in two strides and picked up a wooden case one of them had carried in. He thrust it into the demon's arms and whispered,
"Back wall, remember?"

"You let the hostages go. Do that and surrender, and your men will live. You'll die. The demons will die. But, and I swear this by all the gods, your men will live."

Shellback laughed loudly. The demon smiled around his tusks, slapped his forehead with one hand, and ran off down the corridor with the wooden box.

"Laugh if you like, but I'll bet your men aren't laughing. I think they're thinking about turning on you," said the officer of the militia.

"I think you don't know them very well!"

"Listen to me, Shellback's men! The first one of you comes out the door with his head, that man gets a full pardon and a reward."

"They're not listening!" Shellback paced back and forth, watching something going on down the corridor.

"They can't help but hear me. The Krolerett Merchant's Council will pay a thousand crowns to any one of you who turns on Shellback. Two men turn, two thousand crowns. Three men, three thousand. Gold crowns. The more of you turn, the more you'll be paid. You outnumber the demons, don't you? You can earn more than you would have made sharing out the loot. Think about it. Think about being true sons of the Father Smith."

All the while the other was speaking, Eliss watched Shellback watching what was going on down the corridor. He gnawed his lip. When the other finished, there was a long moment of silence. Shellback stepped close behind one of the men holding hostages and muttered, "Ask him to swear by the gods you won't go to prison."

"Can you swear by the holy gods we won't go to prison?" the man shouted obediently.

"I swear by all the holy gods you won't go to prison!"

The two demons, Feriolekk and the one who had carried the wooden box, came running back. "It's set!" Feriolekk told Shellback, who grinned.

"Don't trust him! You have to be
alive
to spend cash, my friends," cried Shellback. He dropped his voice. "Right. Tradeoff. Demons take the hostages. You four run with me to the back. Just as we planned, eh? Feriolekk, the minute it goes, kill 'em. Then fight for your lives."

The minute
what
goes?
Eliss wondered, as the demons traded places with the men holding the hostages, who had begun to whimper and scream.

"You were a good lord," said Feriolekk, as a sudden dull
boom
came from the rear of the building, but Shellback had already turned and bolted with the other men in the direction of the explosion. Eliss looked away from the shutter at last, but not soon enough to miss the sight of the demons killing the hostages. Someone grabbed her wrist.

"Now
will you get down?" Krelan murmured in her ear. She let him pull her to the floor with him as he sank down, and braced his body against the bottom of the door. Eliss lay on the floor, staring at Mrs. Riveter's market basket with its string of onions poking out of the top, while bolts snapped and thumped through the windows. There were horrible high-pitched screams. A bolt came through the shutters and buried itself in the wall opposite, not near enough to have killed Eliss if she had still been on her feet but too near, all the same. Eliss shut her eyes and prayed.

"He's still moving! Kill him!" someone shouted. There was a thump and a snarl that faded into a gurgling noise. Eliss heard the heavy tread of boots walking on broken glass.

"They blew out the back wall!"

"Smith, take your men and go after them. Maybe they'll drop the loot."

"Did they kill them all?"

There was a pause. "Gods below, they killed everybody."

"Not us," yelled Krelan. "We hid in here!" He rolled away from the door just as it was kicked open. Eliss looked up into the eyes of a grim-looking guardsman with a cocked crossbow. She burst into tears.

It was, as Krelan afterward told her, the best thing she could have done.

THEY WERE MARCHED to the Krolerett Civic Hall, which was doing double duty as a temporary barracks, and questioned at some length by the officer who had stood out in the street and attempted to bargain with Shellback. Once Krelan had presented his tablets, the questioning was done in a quieter tone of voice, but was no less intensive.

"You stated the thief identified as Shellback said, quote, They don't
have
a, er, militia. He said they didn't have any militia. I'll, er, kill him,' unquote," said the officer, reading off the tablet whereupon he had been taking notes.

"That's what he said," agreed Krelan wearily. Eliss sat staring into Mrs. Riveter's market basket. Onions, radishes, herbs, a bag of cough and cold tea, a jar of sweet syrup, Krelan's old sandals. And, buried under them all, the box he had been about to open when the thieves had attacked.

"Who do you suppose
he
is?" The officer lowered the tablet and looked at Krelan.

"You're asking me? I would think it was their informant. Whoever it was told them you had a bank and no walls around your town." Krelan rubbed his eyes.

"So you think we have a traitor in our midst?"

"No," said Eliss. Both men turned to look at her. "If it was somebody who lived here, he'd know you have a militia now."

"That's true," said Krelan. "Wouldn't it be more likely it was someone who passed through here a few months ago, before all the trouble started? You
don't
have walls. The town is wide open."

"Krolerett has always been an open town, young sir," said the officer, with a faint edge to his voice. "It facilitates trade."

There were shouts from the hallway outside. The officer looked up. "Excuse me a moment," he said, and got up and left the room.

"You should probably not say anything else unless you're asked," said Krelan. "But you made a good point."

"Thanks so much," said Eliss crossly. "It ought to be obvious that somebody--"

She halted, as more puzzle pieces came together, and couldn't believe how blind she'd been. "This whole summer," she said in a faint voice. "Oh, gods below, every place we've been--think about Synpelene! We--"

The door opened and the officer came back in, trying not to grin.

"Did you catch them?" Krelan inquired, with a warning look at Eliss.

"No." The officer dropped into his chair and leaned back. "But we got the loot. They'd dropped it into a hole and covered it with branches, and kept going. Deep hole, had to have been dug beforehand. Same with the cut branches. So they planned all along to leave it and come back. Because, who'd try to run three leagues weighed down with gold?"

"Congratulations," said Krelan. The officer shrugged.

"We still lost five good citizens."

"May we go now?" asked Eliss.

"Soon," said the officer. "The merchants of Krolerett thank you for your assistance in this matter. We appreciate your public spirit. We would just like to verify that you did in fact arrive on the
Bird of the River
. As soon as we hear from her captain, you will be free to go. Would you like any tea?"

"Yes, please," said Eliss.

"You, sir?"

Thank you, yes."

The officer left the room again. Krelan grabbed Eliss's hand. "What about Synpelene?"

"What if your lord hired his servant when he was in Synpelene?" said Eliss. "If a lot of people named
Waxcast
live there? What if the servant's been working with Shellback the whole time? Think about it. Every place we've been that's been attacked, your lord and his servant had been there. What if he was using your lord to get inside the rich places, so he could find out where the expensive stuff was and where the weak places were? And then he passed the information on to Shellback!"

"But ..." Krelan's voice trailed off as the implications hit him.

"Think about it! Think what happened at Synpelene! Somebody who knew the town made it easy for the thieves. The sewer grate was unfastened
from the inside.
That hotel where all those poor men died, didn't the innkeeper say the thieves had gotten hold of a key somehow?"

"And Encilian stayed there," said Krelan slowly. "The innkeeper remembered him. And the man would have carried his master's key while they stayed. He might have made a copy."

"He must have! And everywhere else they went ashore, he would have been prying into each town's secrets. He knew where the safe was at Bluestone, and the armory and even the jewelry shop. He knew about the water cannon on the docks. He knew a
lot
about Silver Trout Landing, because they stayed there a month, and he must even have told Shellback about that lord and his boat, what was his name, Lord Chrysoprase? He knew how many servants they had and I'll bet he knew where all the valuables were kept," said Eliss.

"And the little towns with nothing much of value haven't been attacked," said Krelan. "And there's nothing worth much at Latacari except iron, and nobody steals that."

"But we know they stayed
here.
They opened an account at the bank together. The servant must have talked him into it somehow. And while they were in there he had a good chance to look around. But that was months ago, before the town bought a militia. Which they probably did because of all the other attacks. Which was why Shellback said what he did, what was it?
'He said they didn't have a militia.'
He was talking about Waxcast."

"Maybe he was." Krelan narrowed his eyes.

"And when Waxcast had learned as much as he could ... then he must have thought he didn't need your lord anymore. So he killed him and threw his body in the river. And he sank the boat to make it look like river pirates had done it."

"But he took his head," said Krelan. "Why do that?"

Eliss thought about it. "Maybe to make it look like a vendetta killing? Maybe to keep the body from being identified, if it washed up somewhere? But then he'd have taken the snake armlet too ... I haven't figured out all that part yet."

"But you may be right," said Krelan. "And if you are, it makes my job easier. All I have to do is find Stryon Waxcast, and exact retribution."

His face was like a stranger's as he said it, cold and remote-looking. Eliss shivered.

"Do you think he might be in Karkateen?"

"He might be. I'll certainly have to look for him there," said Krelan, turning as the door opened. The officer came in, closely followed by Mr. Riveter, who had thrown a tunic on in his haste but forgotten to put on shoes.

"You're free to go," said the officer. "All vouched for."

"Thank you, sir," said Krelan, and when they were outside on the pavement he added, 'That was fast. We never got our tea."

"Captain said to go into town and find you," said Mr. Riveter, his eyes wide. "Captain said you'd got into trouble. Actually
opened his door
and put his head out to tell me. Then I came up the hill and there were all these guards standing around putting demon heads on poles in the center square. I asked one what was happening and he said to go ask at this office. I went in and asked and the one in charge says, 'Who did you say you were?' I thought I was going to be arrested!"

"I suppose they're all edgy because of the robbery," said Krelan. The streets were still so crowded, what with people standing about watching the demons' heads going up on poles, that the three of them fell into single file as they made their way along the pavement going downhill to the river.

"I don't ever remember a summer this bad for thieves," Mr. Riveter said, half over his shoulder as he walked in front. "I heard the Master of the Mountain got married, thought to myself, 'At least that'll keep
him
home nights,' and lo and behold here's this new one Shellback pops up, and to make things worse he's working the river."

Krelan said something in agreement. Eliss didn't hear what, exactly, because her attention was captured by the man in the wide-brimmed hat, who darted out of an alley as they passed it. He had a knife in his hand. He lunged toward Krelan from behind.

Eliss screamed and threw herself at him. Krelan turned just as the blade entered his side, rather than his lower back. Eliss shoved the attacker, driving his head into a wall. From somewhere within the folds of his clothing a pastry cone flew out and hit the wall too, and the sugared almonds cracked like crossbow bolts as they scattered on the bricks. Krelan, having spun around with the blade still in his side, ran his own knife up under the man's ribs.