Krondor: The Assassins

  Amos’s laughter redoubled.

  To Captain Guruth and Sheriff Means, Arutha said, ‘‘We tore out the heart of the Nighthawks in the area, but we didn’t destroy them all.’’

  Amos nodded. ‘‘Damn things are like cockroaches. Turn on the light and they’re scurrying for the shadows. You don’t see them most of the time, but they’re there.’’

  James kept grinning, while Arutha showed his displeasure at the interruption. ‘‘As I was saying, we didn’t destroy them all. If some of them reach the city, and if there are already agents here, they may mount a renewed attack on the duke to discharge their obligations.’’

  The door opened, and a soldier admitted a scribe, who 333

  R A Y M O N D E . F E I S T

  bowed. ‘‘Highness, I’ve read the text you surmised as being the most important.’’ He was a little man, in a simple blue tunic with gray trousers, and plain black boots. His most noticeable feature was a tendency to squint.

  ‘‘What can you tell me?’’ asked Arutha.

  ‘‘Admiral Trask mentioned to you the possibility the scribe might have been semi-literate,’’ said the clerk. ‘‘That is how it might look to the untrained eye, but rather than such being the case, it’s actually a clever code.’’

  ‘‘Code?’’

  ‘‘Not a cipher, such as the Quegans use—badly I might add—but rather a set of agreed-upon phrases that I believe are substitutions. The names of the duke and his family are quite plain to read, but other pertinent information is cleverly disguised by phrases that are seemingly innocuous.

  ‘‘Let me cite an example: ‘Our lord instructs everyone to be in place by the tide of green fulfillment.’ ‘Tide of green fulfillment’ is obviously a particular time agreed upon in advance by the writer and whoever the message was intended for. Here’s another: ‘The gift must reach the named one before he departs the feast of crows.’ ’

  Arutha said, ‘‘Is there any way to make any sense of this?’’

  ‘‘Had you a captive who knew these keys, and if you could get him to give them to you, then all would be clear. But to guess at what these arbitrary phrases mean is fruitless.’’

  ‘‘Read a couple more, please,’’ asked James.

  ‘‘Ah . . .’’ began the scribe, ‘‘ ‘Word must reach the master at winter’s coldest night.’ ’

  James nodded. ‘‘I doubt this will help, but there used to be a Keshian gang that ran slaves out of Durbin. Called themselves the Woeful Brothers, or something like that.’’

  334

  K R O N D O R : T H E A S S A S S I N S

  ‘‘Brotherhood of Woe,’’ supplied Amos. ‘‘I ran up against them a couple of times in my . . . raiding days. Bad bunch.

  Ignored laws in every land, took freeborn as well as prisoners and sold them on the blocks at Durbin.’’

  ‘‘They used to come into Krondor from time to time, and the Mockers would run them right back out as soon as we knew they were around,’’ said James. ‘‘I heard they used this code in which a place was a person, a person was a time, a time was a place, like that.’’

  ‘‘So the ‘feast of crows’ could be a place, rather than an event?’’ asked Arutha.

  ‘‘Yes,’’ said James. ‘‘Not that it will help much to know that, but I thought I’d mention it.’’

  Arutha sat back. ‘‘It might.’’ Looking at the scribe he said,

  ‘‘Does that help?’’

  The scribe said, ‘‘Perhaps. We have quite a number of such phrases in a large number of documents. Maybe we can learn something by looking for similar or identical phrases.’’

  Arutha waved him from the room, saying, ‘‘See to it, and report tomorrow morning on what you have learned.’’

  To Captains Issacs, Guruth, and the sheriff, Arutha said,

  ‘‘Turn over every rock and if you find any of those murderers, bring them here and don’t let them speak to anyone.’’

  The three men saluted and departed.

  Arutha stood and the others at the table immediately did likewise. ‘‘Let’s look at that trunk.’’ To the priest, he said, ‘‘Father, if you would join us, just in case there’s some magic that eluded your inspection?’’

  The priest of Prandur nodded.

  William and James fell in behind the Prince, and Arutha said, ‘‘Join us, Amos?’’

  335

  R A Y M O N D E . F E I S T

  With a laugh, Amos answered, ‘‘As if you could stop me.’’

  They went to a large storage room used by the royal family for a variety of purposes. It was currently half-filled with furni-ture, trunks of old clothing, toys the royal children had outgrown, and other family items.

  James said, ‘‘Perhaps we should move this lot down to the lower dungeon before we open it?’’

  ‘‘After you inspect the lock, squire, if you think it’s dangerous, we will do so.’’

  James produced a set of tools, rolled up in a leather strip.

  He untied it, unfolded it, and took out a probe. He examined the lock and after a few moments said, ‘‘There is a trap, but it’s a very simple needle, almost certainly poisoned.’’ He removed a tool and inserted it in the lock. He experimented a bit, then everyone in the room heard a loud click. At that instant, James swiftly removed the probe, and cut the needle with a tiny pair of metal clippers.

  ‘‘Just in case,’’ suggested James as he stood up, ‘‘everyone stand back.’’

  James lifted the hasp from the lock and opened the trunk.

  Instantly the room darkened, as if a cloud had passed over every light in the chamber. A puff of wind came from within the trunk and a dark shape billowed up.

  It was man-shaped, but lacked depth, as if a shadow could be cast in air, without a surface upon which to rest. It appeared to look around the room, then stepped out of the trunk and hurried toward the door.

  Everyone in the room was rooted to the spot in astonishment, until James shouted, ‘‘Stop it!’’

  Arutha pulled out his sword, as did William and Amos.

  William was the only one in a position between the entity and 336

  K R O N D O R : T H E A S S A S S I N S

  the door, and he tried to block its movement by thrusting his sword before it. The creature walked through the sword as if it wasn’t there.

  ‘‘After it!’’ shouted Arutha. To James he said, ‘‘What is this thing?’’

  ‘‘I’ve never seen anything like it,’’ said Amos.

  ‘‘Neither have I,’’ said James, ‘‘but I’ve heard about them.’’

  ‘‘What is it?’’ repeated Arutha.

  ‘‘It’s a Shadow Stalker. A magical assassin. The reason the chest was so easy to open is that someone wanted it here and easy to open!’’

  ‘‘You’ll have a hard time convincing me the assassins let their entire population be slaughtered so that we could bring this chest here,’’ said Arutha, hurrying after the creature as it passed through a closed door into the hall.

  They pulled open the door and peered down the hall. There was no sign of the creature. James said, ‘‘I don’t think that, Highness, but they might have been getting ready to bring that chest to someplace we could find it—there!’’ He pointed down the hall.

  ‘‘What?’’ asked Arutha.

  ‘‘Movement in the shadows.’’

  ‘‘I see nothing,’’ said Amos.

  James was running, Arutha a step behind him. James shouted, ‘‘You could have looked right at it, admiral. You wouldn’t have seen a thing!’’

  Abruptly a ball of flame came flying overhead, then it came to a halt and hung at the corner where the hallway turned to the right. All shadows seemed to fade in the bright light, except for the man-shaped shadow-assassin who stood revealed in stark relief.

  337

  R A Y M O N D E . F E I S T

  Arutha and the others looked behind and saw Father Belson holding his hand aloft, as if guiding the ball of
fire. ‘‘Prandur’s fire burns true, Highness. I do not know if I can halt the creature, but I can show you where it hides!’’

  ‘‘Keep following, Father!’’ shouted the Prince.

  William said, ‘‘Highness, where is it going?’’

  ‘‘Wherever His Grace, the Duke of Olasko, rests,’’ said the Prince.

  James said, ‘‘It’s heading for the guest wing.’’

  Arutha caught up with the creature and slashed at it with his sword. The blade passed through the man-shaped shadow, which hesitated, its head moving as if it was looking around, then it continued on.

  ‘‘