Mistworld (Deathstalker Prelude)

  Cat swung down from the gable, ran swiftly across the roof, and jumped the narrow alleyway to land easily on the next roof, casually disdainful of the long drop beneath him. He hurried on, passing from roof to roof like a drifting phantom, moving gracefully from gable to chimney to guttering as he headed deeper into the corrupt heart of Thieves Quarter. Some half an hour later he dropped down onto a low roof overlooking the docks area and perched precariously on the edge, staring out over the dark waters of the River Autumn.

  Thin streamers of mist curled up from the sluggish waters as the River Autumn meandered into Thieves Quarter and out again. The river ran through most of the city, stretching from boundary to boundary and passing through three of the city’s Quarters. Iced over as often as not, it was still the simplest method of transporting goods through Mistport. No matter what time of the day or night, there were always barges moving on the River Autumn. Cat watched happily as the coal-fired barges slowly nosed their way through the darkness, a single lantern burning on their sterns, glowing like dull coals on the night.

  Cat swung down from a slippery buttress and dropped silently to the empty dockside. He faded back into the shadows and looked cautiously round. A dozen crates stood piled to one side, waiting to be loaded, but there was nobody about. Even this early in the evening, nobody braved the cold unless they had to. The dockhands were probably huddled round a brazier in some nearby hut, just as Cat had expected. Frostbite was an occupational hazard for those who worked on Mistport’s docks. The pay was good, but then, it would have to be. Cat had never been tempted. He waited patiently in the shadows as the barges drifted unhurriedly past him, the long flat boats appearing out of the grey mists like huge floating coffins. Ice forming on the surface of the water cracked and broke against the steel-lined prows of the barges. Cat watched, and waited. Finally a barge passed directly by the dockside, and choosing his moment carefully, Cat darted forward out of the shadows and stepped quietly aboard the barge. With the ease of long practice, he ducked under the greasy tarpaulin that stretched half the length of the boat, found himself a comfortable hollow, and tucked himself away, out of sight of one and all. The barge drifted on, heading out of Thieves Quarter and into Merchants Quarter.

  Cat lay back in the darkness, and let the quiet rhythms of the water soothe him. He liked travelling by barge. Roof running was fun, but this was so much more restful. As long as the barge crew didn’t find him. He stretched lazily. The barge would get him to Gallowtree Gate in plenty of time. For once, his job seemed reasonably uncomplicated. He should be finished inside an hour, if all went well.

  Gallowtree Gate cemetery was ill-lit and ill-tended, and not even the heavy incense from the neighbouring church could hide the graveyard stench. Tall gnarled trees lined the single gravelled path that wandered through the cemetery, their dark thorny branches stirring restlessly as the wind moved them. Overgrown grass lapped around the neglected graves and their markers, and the high surrounding wall was wreathed in ivy. Headstones and monuments gleamed brightly in the moonlight, looming out of the mists like pale, unmoving ghosts.

  Late though it was, a small party of men were digging a grave. Wrapped in thick furs and thicker cloaks, they attacked the hardened earth with vigour, probably because the exercise helped to keep them warm. Captain Starlight watched them a while, and then turned away, bored. The thief was late, and the evening was bitter cold. Starlight pulled his cloak about him, leaned back against a tall stone monument, and glanced briefly at the timepiece embedded in his wrist. Nearly half past ten. He cursed Cyder and her thief, and sipped hot soup from his pocket flask.

  The Balefire was a wreck, and with high tech rarer than gold on this misbegotten planet, Starlight was stranded. He’d let his crew go, and soon enough they’d disappeared into the city, which swallowed them up with hardly a ripple to mark their passing. The refugees were gone; taken care of, one way or another. Now Starlight was finally on his own, with no duties or responsibilities to anyone save himself. For the first time in his adult life he was free, and he hated it. He felt naked. He was also broke. His ship and all its technology was forfeit to the port in docking fees. All he had left was the jewellery and other loot he’d acquired from his passengers, one way or another. Starlight frowned. They had no cause for complaint, any of them. He wasn’t a smuggler or a rebel, just a starship Captain caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. He’d saved as many people as he could, and lost his ship doing it. He was entitled to make some profit on the deal. Assuming the Port Director didn’t rob him blind first. Starlight shook his head angrily. All that mattered was raising enough money to buy passage off world on one of the smugglers’ ships. From what he’d seen so far, Mistworld was a singularly unattractive place to be stranded.

  Not far away, the gravediggers were singing a bawdy song to the rhythm of their shovels breaking the earth. Thick streamers of mist curled among the headstones, palely reflecting the full moon’s gleam. The wind whispered in the swaying branches of the trees. Coloured lanterns hung from the massive iron-barred gates, their parchment sides decorated with scowling faces to scare off evil spirits. Starlight looked at them, and didn’t smile. Everyone needed something to believe in, even a Captain who’d lost his ship. He drank some more of his soup, hoping the hot, spicy liquid would help keep the night’s cold at bay just a little while longer. He’d been here less than an hour, and already the heating elements in his uniform were hard pressed to keep the chill from his bones. He shifted his weight as he leant uncomfortably against the tall stone cross, and brooded yet again on the foul luck that had brought him to Mistworld.

  Footsteps crunched clearly on the gravel path, growing louder as they approached. Starlight stoppered his flask and slipped it back in his pocket. About time Cyder’s thief finally showed his face. Starlight stepped away from the monument and carefully adjusted his cloak to let his hand rest hidden on the energy gun at his side. A tall blond woman wearing a patched grey cloak came steadily out of the mists towards him. Her sense of purpose and calm, unwavering stare disturbed Starlight, and he moved back into the shadows to let her pass. She drew steadily closer, neither hurrying or dawdling, and then stopped directly before him. Her head turned slowly from side to side, as though she were listening for something only she could hear, and then she looked right at Starlight in his shadows, and smiled. He stepped reluctantly back into the moonlight, his hand still resting on his gun.

  “Captain Starlight,” said the blonde happily. “I’ve been looking for you.”

  Starlight nodded stiffly. “I thought Cyder said the thief would be a man.”

  The woman ignored him, her eyes searching his face with a naked hunger that chilled Starlight more than the night ever could. Her eyes seemed very large in her pale face. She was still smiling. When she finally spoke again, her voice was harsh and urgent.

  “I want my sapphire, Captain. What have you done with it?”

  Starlight’s eyes narrowed, and he nodded slowly. “So. You’re one of the refugees I brought in, aren’t you?”

  “My sapphire, Captain Starlight. I want it.”

  Starlight eased his gun in its holster. “I’ve nothing for you, lady. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “That really is a pity, Captain.” She giggled suddenly, and two bright spots of colour appeared in her gaunt cheeks. “Look at me, Captain Starlight. Look at me.”

  Their eyes met.

  Cat crouched low on top of the slippery stone wall as the gusting wind swayed a tree’s thorny branches against him. He glanced quickly around, and then dropped silently to the damp grass below. All was quiet in Gallowtree Gate cemetery. The shadows lay undisturbed, and no one walked the single gravelled path.

  Cat stared about him suspiciously. There were supposed to be guards to discourage grave robbers from the body banks, but the rusty iron gates gaped wide, unmanned. Cat shrugged. More budget cuts, he supposed. He glanced up at the night sky and shook his head disgustedly. If he hadn’t fallen as
leep on the barge, he could have been here ages ago. As it was, he was almost an hour late. It wouldn’t surprise him if Starlight had got tired of waiting and decided to fence his loot somewhere else. And Cyder wouldn’t like that at all.

  Cat shivered, not entirely from the night’s cold, and moved off into the cemetery, padding down the wide gravel path like a stealthy ghost. Moonlight shimmered on his white thermal suit. He would have preferred to stick to the shadows of the walls, but the graveyard was littered with overgrown and unmarked graves, and Cat was superstitious.

  He found Captain Starlight sitting with his back propped against a tall stone cross, breathing harshly, staring at nothing. Cat knelt beside him and waved a hand before the staring eyes, but they didn’t react. Cat scowled, the hackles rising on the back of his neck. Brainburned, just like the ones he’d found at the Blackthorn. He swallowed dryly, and fought down an almost overwhelming impulse to turn and run. It was like being caught in a nightmare that followed him wherever he went. He quickly brought himself back under control, and searched Starlight’s clothes with emotionless proficiency. All he found were a few silver coins and a small, polished ruby. He studied the stone with a practiced eye. Good stuff, but with Starlight gone there was no way to get at the rest of it. Cyder definitely wasn’t going to be pleased.

  He kicked the stone cross in disgust, and then froze as he caught a sudden movement at the corner of his eye. All his warning instincts suddenly kicked in, and he darted out of the light and into the shadows of the nearest wall, disregarding any graves he might be treading on. Whoever or whatever mindwiped the Captain might still be around, and the same white suit that hid him in the fog and the snow worked against him in the dark cemetery. More and more, Cat was coming to the conclusion that he should stick to the roofs where he belonged. He looked cautiously around him. A dim movement not far away caught his eye, and after a moment he moved stealthily forward into the mists to investigate.

  Two men lay trembling on the ground beside a freshly dug grave, their heels drumming against the wet earth. One stared up at the night skies with unseeing eyes. The other had torn his eyes out. Brainburned. Cat edged closer, and peered down into the open grave. His hackles rose as he made out a still form lying on the uneven earth at the bottom of the grave, its neck twisted at an impossible angle.

  Well, thought Cat crazily, he’s in the right place.

  He shuddered suddenly, and decided enough was enough. He faded back into the shadows, clambered over the high stone wall, and fled back to the more understandable evils of Thieves Quarter. He didn’t know that the dead man had been an esper, and was already dying when he fell into the open grave.

  Sitting under the tall stone cross, Captain Starlight stared unseeingly at the open cemetery gates through which Typhoid Mary had left. Guttering lanterns scowled at each other in reproach. Although Cat couldn’t hear it, Starlight was whimpering.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  * * *

  Blood and Terror

  THE Hadenman called Taylor was drinking wormwood brandy in the Green Man tavern when Blackjack found him. The Green Man stood on the boundary between Thieves Quarter and Tech Quarter, where the lowest of the low mixed openly with the rich and powerful. It was a place where deals were made and plans were finalized. Secrets were sold and traded, or openly discussed, and the devil take the hindmost. Deaths could be arranged, reputations made or destroyed. At any time of the day or night somebody would be making a deal, to somebody else’s disadvantage.

  Nothing cheap or nasty, of course. The Green Man boasted luxurious surroundings, first-class cuisine, and an excellent wine cellar. Rare and precious tapestries decorated the walls, and an oil-fired generator in the basement provided electricity for lighting and heat. There was a subtle perfume on the air, and no one was ever ill-mannered enough to raise their voices above a murmur. There were standards to be observed. The Green Man took a straight percentage from all deals made on the premises, and had never failed to make an extremely healthy profit at the end of each year.

  Blackjack stood just inside the door, looking about him. It was early in the morning, with the sun barely up, but still some fifty or so patrons sat drinking at the exquisitely carved and polished tables. The Green Man never closed. Blackjack looked thoughtfully at Taylor, sitting alone in an alcove, with his back to the wall. The bottle of brandy before him was almost half empty. He looked up as Blackjack made his way through the tables to join him, and nodded politely. The mercenary pulled up a chair and sat down opposite the Hadenman. Taylor shifted his chair slightly so that Blackjack didn’t block his view of the door. The two men looked at each other for a while in silence, each waiting for the other to speak first.

  “Have you heard about Sterling?” asked Taylor finally. His harsh, buzzing voice grated unpleasantly on Blackjack’s ears.

  “I saw it happen,” said Blackjack. “She broke his back with her bare hands.”

  “Fifteen hundred in gold,” said Taylor flatly. “I want it by tonight.”

  “What’s the rush?”

  “Sterling gave Topaz my name. It’s only a matter of time before she finds me. Assuming the city Watch don’t find me first. It seems there’s a price on my head. Even my friends don’t want to know me anymore. They’re scared of the Investigator. I’d known Sterling for almost nine years. He was one of the finest gladiators ever to survive the Golgotha Arenas, and that woman made him look like an amateur. I always knew she was dangerous. You should have told us, mercenary.… Investigators are no more human than I am. Anyway, I don’t plan to be around when she comes looking for me. I don’t know what fool killed her husband, but I don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of convincing her of that. I’ve booked passage offworld on a smuggler’s ship, leaving at first light tomorrow.”

  “Such berths tend to be expensive,” observed Blackjack.

  “Fifteen hundred in gold,” said Taylor. “If I didn’t need him to fly the ship, I’d break him into little pieces and dance on the remains. Now, mercenary, I can get the money from you in return for my silence, or I can get it from Port Director Steel, as a reward for turning you in. I really don’t give a damn which.”

  Blackjack looked at the Hadenman thoughtfully. The rasping, inhuman voice held few shadings of emotion and never rose in volume, but deep in the golden eyes Blackjack saw something that might just be fear.

  “What’s so special about this Investigator?” he asked slowly. “All right, I’ve seen her fight. She’s good, very good. But you’re an augmented man. You should be able to take care of yourself.”

  Taylor shook his head, and drained the last of his brandy. He stared down into the empty glass, his face grim, his eyes brooding. “You’ve never heard of Investigator Topaz? I thought everyone on Mistworld knew her story. She’s a legend in the Empire. Mothers frighten their children with her name. She’s a Siren, mercenary. When she sings, she can rip your mind apart. The Empire trained her to destroy whole alien civilisations. By all accounts she was very good at her job. And then one day she turned against the Empire, or it turned against her, and she went on the run. Sirens are rare, and the Empire wanted her back, under its control. I think even then she frightened people. The Empire sent a whole company of the Guard after her, five hundred fully trained warriors. They caught up with her on a little backwater planet called Virimonde. She killed them all with a single song; the most powerful esper there’s ever been. Add to that an Investigator’s training in gun and sword, and you’ve a warrior I’ve no wish to meet in combat. Nor would you, if you’ve got any sense. Now, how soon can you get me my money?”

  “Forget it,” said Blackjack.

  Taylor looked at him steadily. “Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear, mercenary; you don’t have any choice.”

  “There are always other choices.”

  “Do you think I’m bluffing?”

  “No,” said Blackjack. “I don’t think that at all.”

  Taylor threw himself sideways out of his chair,
and the blazing stream of energy from Blackjack’s gun missed him by inches. The Hadenman was quickly back on his feet, smiling grimly. Blackjack pushed back his chair and rose to his feet, sword in hand. Taylor started towards him, and the mercenary backed warily away, holding his sword out before him. There were frantic scrambling sounds all around as the Green Man’s patrons hurried to get out of the way and under cover. At the rear of the tavern a table burned fiercely, having absorbed the disrupter’s energy beam. Blackjack holstered his gun, and switched his sword to his right hand. By the time the crystal had recharged, the fight would probably be over, one way or another. He slapped his left wrist against his hip, and a glowing force shield sprang into being on his left arm.

  Taylor slowly circled the mercenary, his golden eyes unwavering and unblinking. His movements were calm and deliberate, with a disturbing fluid grace. He didn’t wear a sword or a gun. He didn’t need to. Blackjack hefted his sword in his hand. He’d never fought a Hadenman before, but he had faith in his abilities. He circled slowly to keep facing Taylor, careful to keep the gently humming force shield between them. For a while the only sound in the tavern was their regular, controlled breathing and the quiet slap and scuffling of their feet on the floor. Blackjack feinted with his sword and then cut viciously at Taylor’s exposed neck. The Hadenman ducked easily under the swinging blade and threw himself at Blackjack’s throat. Blackjack got his shield up just in time, and Taylor slammed into it. Fat sparks spat and sputtered on the still air, and Taylor fell back, shaking his head. Blackjack staggered back from the impact, only just keeping his balance. He’d been lucky, and he knew it. He’d never seen anyone move so damned fast.