A Dance of Blades

28

Deathmask knew he might be walking into an early grave, but he didn’t let worry show on his face, not with the rest of his guild watching him.

“Keep an eye out for anything suspicious,” he said to the others. “I don’t expect him to do anything stupid, but it is Thren Felhorn, after all. Stupid to us is step five of a plan for him.”

They approached the headquarters of the Spider Guild. It was more a mansion than anything else, though careful examination would have shown how the windows were reinforced so no one could break through, and all other doors but the front were boarded over. Two men in gray waited at the front, and they drew their swords and daggers at his approach. Veliana glared at them, but she remained quiet.

“I am Deathmask, leader of the Ash Guild. I’ve come to speak with Thren.”

“Only if Thren says,” one said. The other banged on the door. A small window opened up, and the guard relayed the message inside. A few minutes later, the door opened.

“Just him,” said one of the Spiders from inside, pointing to Deathmask.

“It’s all right,” he told Veliana, who looked ready to object. “I can handle myself.”

He stepped inside.

The interior of the mansion might have once been well-decorated, but nearly all its treasures had been plundered and sold off. Bright squares on the walls showed where paintings had once been, and in many places the floor was scraped and dull, as if the carpet atop it had been ripped up, or a long-standing rug removed. Deathmask tracked the turns and doors to ensure he could find his way back, all the while going over every bit of information he knew about the near-legendary leader of the Spider Guild. At last they reached a door, and the thief gestured. Deathmask opened, stepped inside, and closed it behind him, leaving him alone in a small den with Thren Felhorn.

Thren looked old. That was the first thing that struck him. He knew the man’s age, still in his late forties, but his hair was fully gray. His skin had a tight, stretched look about it, but his eyes still shone with intensity. He stood beside a fireplace, a drink in hand. His two shortswords hung at his side, their hilts gleaming in the light. He smiled at Deathmask, but it hid a strong sense of impatience and contempt. Thren surely knew the reason for his coming, and was not pleased.

“Welcome,” Thren said. His voice was deep, and the power in it impressed Deathmask to no end. He wished he had such a commanding voice as that. The man could probably describe himself taking a shit and still have it sound authoritative. “I’ve heard rumors of your assuming control from Garrick Lowe, not that there is much to assume.”

“What is it we say to the ladies, it’s not the size of the sword, but the skill in the wielding?”

Thren chuckled. This was good. If he could get the man to feel a sense of kinship, things might go smoother.

“Maybe so, but even I wouldn’t assault a man with a spear wielding only a butter knife.”

“You know you would, Thren, if the price was right. You’d cut the man three times before he knew where you were, too.”

The flattery didn’t get him what he hoped. Thren waved a dismissive hand and set down his drink.

“Enough. The night is late, and you didn’t come here to banter, nor make introductions. This is about that Watcher madman, isn’t it?”

“I must admit, I am curious to your thoughts on the deal.”

“Deal? Deal? This is no deal. This is enslavement. This is the king severing our testicles and selling them to the Trifect. Do you know how this world works, Deathmask? The strong take what the weak cannot hold, and that is the proper order of things. The foolish and the naive try to prop up the weak, to protect them with strength that is not their own. Babes, all of them, nothing but babes forever suckling their mother’s milk.”

“We would still make plenty of coin,” Deathmask said. “And we have accepted protection money before. Is that not a way of the weak voluntarily giving up what they have to the strong?”

“Never on this scale before,” Thren insisted. “They don’t just protect their own, but the entire city. What insanity led to this? I have watched them bleed before me. Entire nations could live and die on the wealth I have taken from the Trifect’s safes. Yet now they throw gold at me in a pitiful attempt to barter safety and peace of mind. At least Alyssa was willing to fight back, though even that moment of pride lasted only two nights before cowardice returned, no doubt replaced by this deal from the king.”

Deathmask saw an open bottle on a small stand, and he walked over and poured himself a drink. He sniffed it once, and was pleased by the scent of strawberries. Thren didn’t object, so he took a drink and set it aside.

“This is how I see it,” he said. “It’s been what, ten years? A man can only fight for so long, even the greatest of us. We need a break. We need a return to some shred of normality.”

“Says the man wearing a mask.”

Deathmask laughed. “Relative normality, then.”

He watched Thren carefully, though he knew it was pointless. The man could guard his emotions better than anyone, probably better than even him with his mask on. Thren was watching him as well, gauging his reactions, staring into his eyes as if he could divine the true purpose of his visit.

“This Watcher…he claims he’ll kill everyone who refuses. Do you think he’ll succeed?”

“You and I are alive,” said Thren. “It seems to me he is doing a poor job. And it doesn’t matter. He could kill everyone, but he won’t kill me, and as long as I survive, the Trifect will never have a moment of peace.”

Deathmask tapped his forehead with a finger.

“As long as you are alive…that’s the clincher right there, Thren. Don’t tense up, I’m not here to kill you. That wasn’t a threat, just a statement. This war is yours, solely yours, and it is yours to end as you see fit. But you won’t have the ending you’re hoping for. The Trifect is too big. Yes, you’ve hurt it, killed many, and taken away their coin. But has it mattered? If an opponent is not allowed to surrender, they’ll keep fighting, and fighting. Give them the option of defeat. That’s what this deal is, if you look at it from their perspective. They admit they cannot defeat you, cannot protect themselves from you. So they make it worth your while to instead do the protecting for them. It’s a bribe, nothing more, nothing less, and in a city where this is hardly an unusual circumstance.”

Thren looked tired of the debate, and Deathmask knew he was treading on thin ice. He’d lied when he said he hadn’t come there to kill him, at least partially. Could Thren have read him correctly, despite his best attempts otherwise? More than anything, he wanted a victory here without bloodshed. Other thief leaders could come and go, but if Thren died, the Trifect might decide it didn’t need protection after all.

“Aren’t you tired of this?” he asked, letting his voice soften. “Every man and woman in this city has lost someone these past ten years. Despite the rumors, I know you are human, and lost as much as any.”

For a moment, so quick Deathmask thought he might have imagined it, Thren allowed himself to look exhausted, look torn with despair.

“It’s for that loss I continue,” he said. “Why else would I go on? To accept anything less than total victory would be an insult, not just to myself, but my wife, my…”

He seemed to return to his senses, and he glared at Deathmask as if he were the reason for the sudden weakness.

“I will not agree,” he said. “And if that is your sole purpose here, get out now.”

Deathmask chuckled. The slightest misstep might cost him his life. But this was it. This was the heart of everything.

“That Watcher, I hear he is good, almost impossibly good. I also hear he fights like you. Did you know that? As if he might be your own son, but we both know that couldn’t be. He died in a fire, of course. I’m sure you saw his body…”

He looked to Thren, letting the guildmaster know there was far more he wasn’t telling. No lie. No bluff. Thren opened his mouth, and then closed it. Those blue eyes barely moved. What firestorm of thought must rage behind them, Deathmask wondered. Taking a deep breath, he performed his wildest gambit.

“If he succeeds, the Watcher will be a legend. He’ll have beaten both the Trifect and the thief guilds, all in a single night. He’ll have ended ten years of conflict with a stroke of his swords. The entire city will fear him, for he will be the king’s Watcher, enforcer of the truce. The night won’t belong to us anymore. It’ll belong to him.”

He swallowed. Now or never. Take the risk.

“He’ll have surpassed even you, Thren. How amazing must that man be?”

Thren looked like a heavy burden had settled upon him. His muscular frame wasn’t quite so strong anymore. The terrible will that had ruled him weakened, and a million questions died unspoken on his lips. For perhaps the first time ever, Thren Felhorn looked uncertain.

“Did he send you here?” he finally asked. Deathmask nodded. “So be it. Give him his chance. My guild will accept the terms, so long as the Watcher lives. This city is a cruel one, and even now, it might have claimed him.”

“I doubt it,” Deathmask said, his heart pounding in his chest. “Given who he is, who made him. Come the morning, we’ll count the bodies, and we’ll see what remains of those in power. I have a feeling, though, that tonight is when it all ends.”

“Get out of here,” Thren said. “And never speak a word of this to anyone, or I will kill you.”

Deathmask bowed low.

“As you wish,” he said, glad the mask could hide his enormous smile. More relieved than he’d ever been in his life, he exited the room, weaved unguided through the halls, and emerged from the mansion, alive and victorious.