'It's nothing to do with me!' Casuel tried to shake his head and got a smack across the mouth for his trouble.
'Then why are you asking questions about it, arse-face? Why are you so interested in finding out what scents the Watch are tracking?'
Casuel gaped, lost for words. Evern nodded to the trapper on his left who promptly punched an iron-hard fist into Casuel's gut. Crying out in agonised amazement that something could hurt so much, he would have doubled up but the men held him firm against the wall. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, desperately trying to ease the pain.
'Why are you asking questions? Worried the Watch might be on your trail, are you? That's how it reads to me.' The young man took a pair of slim gloves from his belt and drew them on with elaborate care.
Casuel blinked tears from his own eyes. 'I'm simply trying to find out what happened.'
Evern punched him abruptly, hard in the mouth. 'Why?' he screamed, incensed.
A trickle of blood tickled down Casuel's chin. He winced as he licked at the split in his lip and fought to control a whimper as Evern stood before him, slapping a cupped hand around his fist, heedless of the blood smearing the fine leather. The sound of running feet in the corridor echoed in the tense silence and Casuel looked desperately at the door.
'You're a Tormalin, aren't you?' Evern said thoughtfully. 'There've been a couple of Tormalins asking around, but they seem to have disappeared. Who are they?'
'I really have no idea!' Casuel said desperately. 'I don't even know who you are talking about.'
'You're going to have to do better than this, shit-for-brains,'
Evern spat, his face ugly with frustration. 'I want to know what they had to do with it; why else would they disappear?'
He punched Casuel violently under the ribs, leaving him gasping and retching.
Allin broke into noisy sobs of fear, suddenly silenced when she realised that made her the centre of attention.
Evern turned to look at her, contempt plain on his drawn face. 'What have you got to tell me, then?' He twisted a hand in Allin's forlorn ringlets and wrenched her head back.
'What do you know?' He bent his face close to hers and scowled.
'Nothing,' she whimpered, clutching her hands to her breast.
Evern straightened and looked down on her with disdain. 'So you're just here to warm his sheets, are you?'
He turned abruptly back to Casuel, who flinched as far as he was able. His arms were starting to go numb below the grip of the trappers and his jaw ached fiercely.
'She's a bit young for plucking, isn't she?' Evern sneered. 'But you look as if you'd be desperate for it. So, why not share her around? Let's see what she knows that way!'
'Leave her alone, you swine!' Casuel struggled futilely, jumbled thoughts anguished. What would Usara do to him if the silly poult got herself raped! 'She's got nothing to do with any of this.'
Evern pushed his face close and Casuel could smell the expensive scents beneath his rank sweat. 'Convince me!' he snarled in a low tone.
Casuel closed his eyes and mentally cursed the day he'd left Hadrumal. 'I am a wizard, you know.' He groped for some dignity and missed, his voice emerging as little more than a desperate squeak.
'So what?' Evern stood back a little, his face hard. 'Am I supposed to be impressed or something? Wizards do what they're paid to do, in my experience. Going to turn me into a toad, are you?'
He drew a thin dagger and laid the gleaming steel against Casuel's throat. 'They're saying whoever killed Yeniya used magic to get away. Why don't I kill you anyway, on the off-chance you were involved?'
He pressed harder and turned the edge of the blade into Casuel's skin. Casuel began to shake as a burning line of pain crawled down his neck.
'I swear, I had nothing to do with it,' he croaked. 'I'm sorry for your loss.'
Evern closed his eyes on unbearable anguish and a tear beaded his lashes. He turned away with a gesture and the trappers began to beat Casuel with systematic brutality that spoke of considerable experience.
He tried to curl himself around his guts and groin, dimly aware of Allin wailing as his world shrank to a nightmare of pain beyond anything he had ever imagined he might experience.
'I don't think he knows anything, chief. Mel, shut that bitch up or give her something to really cry about.'
Casuel heard the trapper's words through the ringing in his ears after what seemed an eternity.
'He's not the type to hold out, not after a good kicking.'
Tears of relief joined the slime and blood on Casuel's cheeks. He lay still, tense, not daring to move but cautiously opened his eyes. There was a slight sound outside the room and they all turned their heads towards it.
The trapper on the door grunted as the handle rattled, but as he shifted his feet he got the white-painted panels in the face, sending him sprawling to the floor. Before he could regain his feet, a heavy-set man with a dark beard entered and kicked him swiftly in the groin. Sword drawn, he swept his blade round in a menacing arc and glared at Evern.
'Call off your dogs, or I'll have to kill them.'
'Darni!' Casuel tried to get up, halting on his knees as agonising pain lanced through his chest.
'Bet you never thought you'd be so glad to see me, Cas.' Darni smiled wickedly.
Evern took a step back from Darni's sword point, hands low and wide. 'Who the shit are you?' he spat in baffled rage.
Darni sketched a bow. 'Someone telling you that you're making a big mistake here. It's lucky for you that Carral had the sense to let me know about that letter. This sorry pot of piss had nothing to do with Yeniya's death.'
'And how do you know that?' Evern's dagger began to rise.
'Why don't you drop that rat-sticker?' Darni's voice was cold as ice. 'Kick it over here.'
Evern hesitated but then obeyed and Casuel began to breathe again in shallow gasps.
'I know he had nothing to do with her death, because he's working for the same master as me.' Darni looked around at the trappers. 'Why don't you all sit down and we can discuss this sensibly. That's what I would prefer and I am the one with the broadsword, when all's said and done.'
Evern's lips narrowed and a furious growl of frustration escaped him but he finally nodded. 'All right.'
The trappers moved to help their colleague still groaning on the floor as he clutched himself, face grey under his dirt. They moved to stand in a row by the window, leaving Evern between themselves and Darni.
'So, who do you work for?' Evern folded his arms and looked arrogantly at Darni.
'The Council of Mages, of course.' Darni sounded surprised that the man needed to ask. 'Planir is most concerned over the possibility of magic being used in such an appalling crime.'
'He's an Archmage's agent?' Evern stared down at Casuel with patent disbelief.
'No, but I am. Get up, Cas.' Darni drew a thong from the neck of his shirt and Evern looked open-mouthed at the bronze ring on it.
'Show me that,' he demanded. Darni drew the string over his head, tossing it over.
'How do I know this is real?' he asked, flinging it back after a moment.
Darni shook his head, snatching the ring out of the air. 'Do you think someone's going to risk faking that? People don't cross Planir, believe me.'
He looked at Casuel, who had struggled to a chair, still hugging his aching ribs. 'I don't know what he's going to think of this,' he said contemplatively. 'You've made a right mess of poor old Cas, haven't you?'
'I had my reasons,' Evern spat. 'No wizard's going to tell me how to do things in my own city, Archmage or not. I had reason to think this waste of skin was mixed up in this and I'm entitled to find out. Magic helped kill Yeniya and if any mage was involved, we'll drive the whole sorry mess of them into the ocean. What's your precious Archmage going to do if we close the city to you bastards? The guilds don't need you, we run this city and that's the way it'll stay.'
Darni simply shook his head again. 'Don't make pointless threats. You're the ones who'll lose in the long run if you force out the wizards.'
He smiled at Evern, an expression Casuel found the most frightening thing he'd seen so far.
'Anyway, if Planir finds out a mage was involved in this, that sorry bastard won't be able to hide at the bottom of the ocean, inside an ice-field on the Dragon's Spines, or underneath an Aldabreshi fire-mountain. Slow drowning in a bucket of his own shit would be a better fate than the one the Council will put together for him. Isn't that right, Cas?'
Casuel gagged at Darni's disgusting image and nodded mutely.
Evern raised his hands, the gesture cut short as Darni's sword swung up to block it.
'So who killed Yeniya? How do I find the pox-rotted bastards? What's your cursed Archmage doing to avenge her?'
'That's not your concern,' Darni said coldly. 'However, you might like to consider helping me. I'm after some men who I know were involved and I'd say we've got a good chance of catching them.'
'They killed her?'
'No, but they can lead us to the ones who did.' Darni swapped his sword to his other hand and reached out to Evern.
'My word on it. Help me get them and we'll say no more about your little mistake here. Shut up, Cas,' he added as the mage opened his battered mouth to protest.
'So, are we going to co-operate on this, or do I have to organise a little pay-back for my friend here?' Darni glared at the trappers, who exchanged doubtful glances.
Evern stood, hope warring with grief in his face. The silence was broken by a loud thud as Allin fainted and slid gracelessly into a heap on the floor.
'Drianon's tits,' Darni said in exasperation. 'Just who is this, Cas? Whatever you're paying her, it's not enough!'
The tension in the air snapped and Evern lowered his head, blinking away confused tears. 'All right. But you'd better be right about this,' he warned.
'Trust me,' Darni said grimly. 'I want these people as badly as you do.'
Casuel looked up at him and was appalled to realise this was absolutely true. He started to think he could almost feel sorry for these people whenever Darni caught up with them, but the thought evaporated in the mass of aches and pains growing in every part of him.
The Gidesta Road out of Inglis,
15th of Aft-Autumn
Travelling on horseback and camping in the open was soon going to lose its charm as a winter pastime, I decided sourly. I'd take up quilting instead. I poked Russet in the ribs to make him loose the breath he was holding as I saddled him; he wasn't going to catch me like that twice in one day. Some chance I was going to have to forget Geris, riding the horse we'd named together, I thought gloomily.
Luckily, before my mood descended further into dejection, Ryshad and Aiten rode up on their scruffy chestnut horses that looked as if they came straight off the Gidestan steppes.
'So where are we headed this afternoon?' Ryshad swung his mount round to ride with Shiv.
'We need to cross the river and take the northern road.' Shiv kicked his horse harder than was strictly necessary and Ryshad let him go ahead.
We were well on before the sun began to sink. I glanced back over my shoulder to see dusk climbing over the gleaming sea before the hills finally hid the ocean. We let Shiv lead, as he clearly wanted to be on his own. As Aiten regaled Ryshad with a few rather dubious stories, I realised he'd been doing his scouting in all the low parts of town; I'd heard those tales before but only in a brothel. Don't misunderstand me; a lot of whorehouses offer gambling as an additional way of separating fools from their money and I'd spent an interesting three seasons a few years back helping a couple of houses bend the odds in their favour. It had been an illuminating experience which had certainly cured me of any romantic notions about a prostitute's life but it hadn't been much of a challenge; none of the men had been giving the game anything like their full attention.
I listened idly as Aiten was bringing Ryshad up to date with the latest witticisms doing the rounds of the bear pits; Ryshad was laughing and groaning in the appropriate places but his attention remained on the road ahead and the woods around us. Aiten did not seem to find this unusual and carried on with his tales; he had yet to come up with one I had not already heard. Inglis was the town where old jokes came to die. I trailed along behind with the mule carrying our supplies and came to the conclusion that it was probably the most cheerful one of us.
Shiv paused to stick his hands in the river and stare thoughtfully at the tributary we had reached.
'We'll follow this.' His tone was the mildest I'd heard it since we'd lost Geris and I moved up to ride next to him, relieved to see his good humour resurfacing.
'We're following the rivers? Is Azazir a water mage then?'
'Didn't I say? Yes, one of the best.' Shiv gave me a half smile.
'So how did he…' I couldn't quite decide how to phrase the question that had been hovering at the back of my mind all day.
'How did he fall foul of the Council?' Shiv moved across the muddy track and we rode on the somewhat drier grass. I let him take his time in deciding what to tell me. When he eventually answered, he spoke slowly and thoughtfully.
'You have to understand that, for a mage like Azazir, his element is the most important thing in the world. He's fascinated by water, by its effects on things, how it makes up part of things, what he can do to affect it. Many of the really powerful wizards are like that.'
'Is he powerful? Is he dangerous, come to that?' I asked a little nervously.
'He's very powerful but I don't suppose he's dangerous unless you get in the way of something he's taken an interest in.'
I'd have preferred a little more certainty, myself. 'So, what was Darni saying about him being executed?'
Shiv frowned. 'Azazir was always a loner. He went off and did peculiar things like this supposed trip across the ocean. The Seaward Hall is full of tales about him and it's hard to know what is really true. He used to exaggerate half the time and tell outright lies for the rest if you believe some of the Council. What finally got him banished was the flooding of half of Adrulle.'