for them. As is the case here, with this woman. Ten thousand sharks—and revenge. Plenty of incentive, and she says her information will help you. From what she has told me, I think she’s right.”
“Then your orders are?”
Urgaut, unable to keep quiet for long, butted back in. “Wait, for now. You can never tell with these racks what they’ll do, which way they’ll turn or who they’ll betray, so planning too far in advance is heading for disaster. You can talk to our informant, briefly, because she needs to return. Find out what she knows, how she can help.” He waved a hand in dismissal and Rillen turned to go.
Fat old fool. He smiled tightly to himself and made his way to talk to the woman prepared to turn over Van Gast. Maybe he wouldn’t need Haban’s niece anymore after all.
He found the woman in a plush little drawing room on the east side, away from the stifling heat of the dying sun so the small space was cool and dim. Someone had thought to provide her with hot mint tea and the scent overpowered the room.
She looked startled when he came in but soon settled when he introduced himself. She smiled, awkward and unsure. Nervous. Pretty little thing too, just his sort. Soft and round, with wide eyes that were just that tad naïve.
“For a moment I thought, well, I thought you were a rack and they’d found out I was here, what I’m doing.”
“I assure you, no rack enters this palace without us bringing them here. They don’t leave.” Or not alive, anyway.
She relaxed at that and sipped her tea. “Good. If they find out—”
“They won’t, not from me. Now, I’m told you have information that can help us catch Van Gast.”
“Oh yes, he’s docked not far from Mucking Lane. The Glass Dagger. I told the mage that.”
“Mucking Lane?” Brazen, and rash, so close to the city walls. It might make his life a whole lot easier. So might she, if you play her right.
Rillen poured himself a glass of the tea and smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring manner. “A tricky area to start a war in. Too many racks on Van Gast’s side. I prefer subtle, and him on his own, in my territory. The mages mentioned bait. Those close to Van Gast. They said you can tell me who those people are.”
Her smile grew sly, her voice vicious. Maybe not so naïve as he’d first thought.
“Oh, yes,” she said. “Where do you want him to be? Wherever it is, I can make him get there or die trying. I know the bait that will hook him.”
Rillen let his smile match hers. I like the way you think, lady. I like the snake under that pretty face. “I’d rather kill him myself.”
“If you like. Just let me know where and when you want him. I can get on board his ship without a drop of trouble. I have a berth there already. I can tell you more too. More people you’re after, more secrets that you don’t know.”
The smooth wheels of Rillen’s mind began to turn, pondering, planning, plotting. He lifted his glass in a gesture of thanks. “Something a little stronger perhaps, to seal a deal? Forgive me, I never asked for your name.”
* * *
It took some time for Van Gast to make it back to the ship. He didn’t hurry, not once he’d shed his little party of followers, but made his way across the city via rooftop and gave himself time to think and to watch.
He hovered behind a bank of chimneys still warm from the bakery below, wafting up tempting aromas of spice and fruit and yeast. From here he could see across the Godsquare, dim and flickering in torchlight. Everything looked normal, except for the figures hanging by the doors to Oku’s temple. He tried not to look that way, concentrated on the crowds and ignored the persistent itch behind his breastbone.
At first he couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary, and that was enough to make him frown. As he watched further—the movement of the priests through the crowds, the way the crowds themselves moved—a palpable feeling of unrest drifted up. Nothing overt, not the feeling of a riot about to kick off. Hints that everyone was just that little bit nervous. The way that Kyr’s mummers kept a close eye on the guards. How the stallholders scanned about before they took money, how they subtly but