Wicked Bronze Ambition gp-14 Page 7

  Kevans told me, “They don’t get along.”

  “I picked up on that, kiddo. Not completely senile yet. Looks like Kip is about to head out. You maybe ought to say good-bye.”

  “Yeah. I should.”

  She made it sound like forever lurked in the back of her mind.

  We had no customers. Barate and I could talk. He said, “That boy is thicker than a paving brick.” Meaning Kip Prose had no clue that his longtime best friend, who was a girl, was just as much taken by him as was his girlfriend, Kyra, a fact that even Kyra suspected.

  “He doesn’t think of Kevans as a girl.” I sneaked a sideways glance, thinking he might have some feelings about his daughter’s infatuation. I saw nothing but parental concern.

  “I won’t touch it, Garrett. It’ll be one of those Daddy-don’t-see things.”

  Kip had a mother out there somewhere. She did not participate in his life except to enjoy the allowances he provided. I was more of a parent, which was scary. Mostly that meant he was raising himself. “That sounds like the best plan. He wants us to think he’s a grown-ass man. Let’s treat him like one till he asks for help.”

  Barate grunted. “Not exactly what I was thinking.” Since his stake in the matter was his daughter, not Kip. He was about to tell me something when Tara Chayne beckoned.

  Time for him to go be Constance’s boy instead of Kevans’s dad.

  I stood around looking dull and feeling like a dim candle, watching my friends stuff their faces and fill their pockets. Staffers and servers pretended not to notice.

  They would stock up on leftovers themselves, later, if there were any.

  All afternoon, despite all else, either Morley Dotes, Penny, or Pular Singe was somewhere close by, in case I began to demonstrate erratic behavior. Singe and Penny were fiercely uncomfortable in this venue.

  I felt plenty of out-of-place myself.

  Pockets full, my friends began to move on once the rain slackened.

  I considered heading for Macunado Street myself, come the end of the day. I could just run back to my old life. There would be less pain in my old familiar places. Barate could go back to the mansion he’d had to leave a year ago. Plus, at the old place I could have my business partner manage, reshape, or even suppress the emotions threatening to destabilize me now.

  I shunned considering the broader situation, instead investing my time in feeling sorry for myself.

  Barate returned. “Time to talk to the dragon.”

  “Huh?”

  “She wants to see you.”

  I pulled a face.

  “It’s probably not what you think. She probably wants to ask you not to sell this place because of the family history here. Strafa was born here. So was Kevans.”

  “Sell it? How could I do that?”

  “We made it over to you and Strafa after you announced the engagement.”

  I gulped some raw air and chewed. For somebody in my racket that flashed a big ugly red flag. Motive. A mansion high on the Hill, where the heavyweights live, is worth more than I can imagine. And my imagination has fiddled some seriously big numbers.

  “But. .” I might have heard someone tell me the place was mine without having listened. I was not attentive to the exterior world lately.

  “Strafa didn’t tell you?”

  “She did not.”

  “That’s my little girl. Probably didn’t consider it worth mentioning.”

  Probably. Strafa never had much interest in wealth. Her wants were never large. She never encountered a situation where she couldn’t just buy whatever she wanted.

  I oozed into the library. Shadowslinger shifted her bulk, turned her massive face my way, smiled hungrily.

  Barate said, “Mother feels that it is time to get to work. As soon as your guests leave.” Hint, hint.

  “I’ll deal with that.”

  22

  The overworked staff, while polite, did nothing to encourage anyone to linger. Only Winger and Saucerhead Tharpe were still underfoot and still eating. Neither Penny, Singe, nor Morley quite counted as guests.

  I told Singe, “Go if you want. It’s going to get boring now.” Her brother had left long ago, unable to stand the company of so many humans.

  “I do not want. This is family. I will be here for the planning and there for the kill.”

  I glanced at Penny. As the priestess of a cult now numbering just one, she was tough and fierce. As a girly girl she was timid. She had her angry fangs out right now. “I’m not going home by myself.”

  No need to look at Morley. He would become my shadow.

  Winger and Saucerhead, stomachs and pockets bulging, finally took the hint. Strafa’s kitchen and household staff, Race and Dex, saw them off. Those old boys were a couple. I found them creepy but not because of their orientation. They made me think of zombies.

  “You’ll find those two quite frugal,” Barate told me as I returned to the library, indirectly suggesting that they be kept on the payroll. They might be third cousins, or something.

  “You want this all back? I’ll do a quit claim.”

  “This is you and Strafa now.”

  The fat lady nodded.

  The Algardas were the weirdest family I’d ever encountered, the full details not germane. And I was a made member of the tribe.

  Shadowslinger offered no objection when Morley, Penny, and Singe entered the room behind me. They were family hangers-on now, because they came with me.

  While I was out, Kyoga, Bonegrinder, and the Machtkess sisters had moved in, as had Kevans. The room was tight and getting hot. Shadowslinger grew more pungent as the temperature rose. The smell made my eyes water.

  Barate said, “Huddle up. Move your chairs into a circle. We’ll brainstorm.” He gestured impatiently at Kevans and Penny to join the grown-ups.

  The family talent for sorcery had skipped Barate, but he had other skills. He shared the olive coloring of his mother. Like her, he was built wide, but his wide hadn’t gone to fat. He could pass as a thug, and had done thug work for the family. He had scars as souvenirs of the Cantard War, where he had done two tours.

  He had done no muscle work lately. Strafa hadn’t been that kind of girl, and Grandma was retired. But he was set for a vengeance run now.

  Shadowslinger’s beefy lips spread in a sneer when I settled into the chair she had saved for me, next to her. She had fun creeping me out.

  Strafa had been convinced that the old witch loved me and was thrilled to have me join the tribe. Maybe. I hadn’t been hung from a meat hook yet.

  Barate said, “We’ve had time to vent our emotions. Now let’s get rational and start the hunt. All yours, Garrett.”

  “Huh?”

  I do have the occasional profound intellectual moment.

  “You’re the professional. This is what you do. Tell us what our parts will be.”

  “Oh.” Numb pause. Was he making fun? Shadowslinger had given assignments the other day. “Let’s hear what you all did the last two days.”

  That turned out to have been a big lot of nothing, which was the case with me, too. I hadn’t found the ambition to start. But they supposedly had resources I couldn’t even imagine, emotional and otherwise. I grumbled, “I’ve never had me for a client before.”

  “Worst client ever,” Morley predicted, his pointy elf teeth all a-glitter.

  “Probably true. When you’re self-employed your boss is almost always a slave-driving dick.”

  Singe snorted. My custom, historically, was to quiver a finger only when starvation threatened. Her genius kept the Macunado house afloat.

  “All right,” I said. “I talked tournament with my partner the other night, before what happened happened. He told me to take it to the Guard. They have the manpower resources. Plus, just word getting out that the Guard is interested could put the quietus on the whole damned project.”

  “An incorrect estimate, apparently,” Richt Hauser observed.

  “He’s only right most of the ti
me. But. . How would the tournament have gone in your day if there’d been police like we have now?”

  Silence till Moonblight opined, “It would have happened anyway, but the game would have been harder to play.”

  “And deadlier,” her sister said. “Some Champions wouldn’t have scrupled about killing tin whistles who got in the way.”

  True then, maybe. Not many villains today were likely to see red tops as disposable annoyances, though. Deal Relway had earned his reputation.

  Shadowslinger grunted, stabbed an ugly finger at Barate. He said, “The Guard does enjoy a numerical advantage. They may be able to root out the Operators in no time. And the men in charge aren’t devoted to formalities or individual rights for actual bad guys.”

  I chirped, “They now have on staff people able to cope with the likes of Dread Companions. Assuming I understand what those actually are.”

  I wasn’t the most popular guy for having brought that up. It suggested that there might come a day when the Guard’s wizard teams, working like an orchestra, could handle the mega monsters of the Hill. Hill folks already had their knickers in a twist because the Crown and Guard insisted that they meet behavioral standards expected of ordinary folks.

  Barate said, “Mother and I agree that alerting the Guard was sound strategy. The Operators will have to work slower and more carefully. That should give us more time. But did the Guard believe you, Garrett?”

  Relway had been intrigued before Strafa was attacked. “Yes. They haven’t found anything useful yet, though, according to General Block. What happened couldn’t be personal. Strafa got along with everybody and she had no secrets.” She had been too open, I thought, glancing from Barate to Kevans.

  Singe got up. She couldn’t stand a human chair for long. She was bold enough to speak in front of those people, most of whom probably considered her clever vermin. “In the interest of narrowing possibilities, would anyone profit from Strafa’s death?”

  “It is the tournament,” Bonegrinder said. “The tournament and only the tournament. No one bore that child any ill will.”

  “That is not what I asked. We have established that Strafa was an idol.”

  Shadowslinger stirred beside me. “No. That is not it.” Something had been going on with her, quietly, the past few minutes. Her outer apparel had grown darker. It moved in breezes that touched nothing else. Foul smells leaked out. A massive hand encrusted in ugly jewelry reached toward me. “You aren’t looking at this the way you should.”

  For one mad instant it felt like she was channeling the Dead Man. “How is that?”

  “You’re ignoring what happened before whatever happened out front.” She had the devoted attention of everyone shoehorned into the room.

  She opened her hand.

  23

  A piece of iron dropped into my extended palm. “What is this?”

  “Could it be a pork chop?”

  Stupid answer to a stupid question.

  It was an iron crossbow bolt. The fletched end was missing. It had been designed to rip through plate armor. “This must have weighed three pounds, whole.” How do you break a chunk of iron like that? “This wouldn’t fit any man-portable weapon.”

  It was a light artillery bolt made for a small siege piece or an infantry support weapon. It had a hardened-steel penetrator tip.

  I wondered, “Any chance it was a stray?”

  “Seriously?”

  I tried again. “What is this?”

  “Tell us what happened at your other house that night.”

  Penny squeaked. I blushed. Really. I may be grown up, sort of, but I couldn’t discuss that stuff with a woman’s family.

  “Oh, come on!” Kevans said. “It isn’t about that. Everybody knows you and Mom were like weasels. You couldn’t keep your hands off each other even in front of people. What were you going to be like when nobody was watching?”

  “Uh. Yeah. Well. She kind of snuck out, after. There was a break in the weather. She wanted to go flying while it lasted.”

  She was a Windwalker. Her greatest skills at sorcery centered on flying. There was nothing she would rather do than grab a broom and go walking on the sky. And that was what she had done that night.

  “She was restless. She was all keyed up about the wedding. She was sure something would go wrong.” And hadn’t it just? “And she was even more worried about the reception.” That was supposed to have happened in the Royal Botanical Gardens, made available because people she knew in the Royal Family owed her.

  She was scared my lowlife friends would get drunk and rip the place apart.

  I said, “She grabbed a broom and went out the window. She asked if I wanted to go but didn’t hang around after I said no.” I’m not fond of going strolling in places where there is a hundred feet of nothing underneath my feet. “She wasn’t back yet when I got up. She still wasn’t back when I left for the Al-Khar. My partner wasn’t worried. It never occurred to me to be.”

  Plus, I was all distracted by the onrushing tsunami of matrimonial doom.

  I admit, I’d found no more perfect candidate for Garrett’s wife than Strafa Algarda, forgetting the family weirdness that came attached. Stipulated, the world was replete with better husband material.

  Morley finally had something to say, tentatively, being unsure of his right to participate. “Was anything going on that night? Something she might have wanted to see?”

  That was some good thinking. Strafa had become a rabid hometown tourist once she roped me in and had someone to drag along. I should’ve thought of that myself, but my thinker was all clogged up with dark emotions. Never a paragon, it was less sharp than usual lately.

  Penny said, “There was an autumn solstice festival in the Dream Quarter. It started at midnight.”

  The Dream Quarter is TunFaire’s religious center.

  I asked, “You went?” I hadn’t seen her before leaving that morning but hadn’t thought anything of it. Penny was often invisible when I was there. Singe said that was because she had a crush on me, which was silly. Penny had made her feelings about me quite clear.

  “I had to.” She still took her priestess role seriously, never mind that she was the whole cult now. “Mr. Playmate went with me.” Stated before I could go all parental and start barking about young girls being on the mean streets after midnight.

  If you were a girl and had to be out there, Playmate was the man you wanted to be with. He was big, he was fierce, and he was one of the good guys. And he was a wannabe reverend who never quite got around to making the final leap of faith.

  Penny volunteered, “We didn’t see Strafa.”

  Kevans said, “Mom wasn’t the sort.”

  True. She had been less religious than me. Hardly surprising, considering her trade and background.

  Penny said, “There was a bad turnout because of the weather. We would’ve seen her if she was there.”

  Shadowslinger closed my hand around the bolt. “Relax. Take the advice you give your clients. Stay calm. Use your head till you find a target.” She squeezed, grinned a horrible grin. “And then I will take over.”

  She was right. I was at a stage where I was likely to waste time, energy, and emotion running in circles and whining.

  I said, “My partner would like to interview each of you.”

  That took the warmth out of the room.

  After long silence, Shadowslinger said, “Very well. I will set the example. Barate, make sure my carriage is capable of making the journey.”

  “Yes, Mother. Right away?”

  She turned to me. “Right away?”

  “Sooner would be better than later. He was fond of Strafa. He will find connections that none of us are likely to see.”

  “I’m sure that you are correct. Do you all understand? Good. Perhaps you can work it out with Miss Pular today.”

  Singe said, “He is awake all the time these days, but the rest of us have to sleep and do chores. It would be best if you visited in the after
noon or evening.”

  Shadowslinger then told me, “Tell us about the child who attacked you in the cemetery.”

  “There isn’t anything to tell. You saw it all. I don’t know who she was and I have no idea what she was up to. Maybe she had me confused with somebody else.”

  “Possibly. You’ll see her again. Treat her kindly and gently.”

  “Mother?” Barate was startled by the sentiment. The others also stared.

  “The child isn’t one of our problems. Only Garrett needs be concerned.”

  Which left everyone curious about an incident that had come close to being forgotten, with me not least among the forgetters. But Shadowslinger had said her piece. She would only reiterate her injunction that I be kind.

  After that stuff about me being the man because I was the pro, she had Barate tell them all how they would contribute to my efforts to find my wife’s killer. She told the expert how to do his job, in detail.

  I nodded a lot. I would do things my own way when she wasn’t watching. But I was open to original ideas.

  It was the methodology I’d developed in dealing with my mother.

  24

  The crowd had broken up. They were all gone but me, Dex, Race, and Morley. Penny and Singe had gone sullenly, under orders to report to the Dead Man and to make sure Dean was still breathing. Though his managers kept sending whining messages, Morley was determined to stick like he was my Mortal Companion, while he could. And I felt more comfortable having him close by.

  Barate would be back once he had taken his mother home.

  Oh, and Vicious Min was still around, stashed in a room big enough to fit, in medically induced unconsciousness. Dr. Ted said he’d check on her regularly. He expected her to recover, but if she did, she was likely the sort who got up and going before she was really ready.

  I knew all about that. I’d been known to charge back into the fray before I was physically ready.

  I burned some energy helping Dex and Race deal with the wreckage. It is amazing how much damage a few guests can do. We didn’t talk much. Those two were more uncomfortable with me than I was with them. They were worried about their jobs. The employment climate in TunFaire had not yet recovered from the outbreak of peace.