Best Served Cold

“And all those dead men’s smiles you’ve kept folded up in your heart, they were keeping you warm when I found you, were they? How did they taste when you were hungry? They raise a smile, even, when you were desperate?”

Shivers puffed out his cheeks. “Hell, but you’re a ray of sunshine. Might be they did me some good.”

“More than a pocketful of silver would’ve?”

He blinked at her, then away. “Maybe not. But I reckon I’ll try to keep thinking my way, just the same.”

“Hah. Good luck, good man.” She shook her head as if she’d never heard such stupidity. Give me only evil men for friends, Verturio wrote. Them I understand.

A last quick clicking of the scissors and the barber stepped away, dabbing at his own sweaty brow with the back of one sleeve. “And we are all finished.”

Shivers stared into the mirror. “I look a different man.”

“Sir looks like a Styrian aristocrat.”

Monza snorted. “Less like a Northern beggar, anyway.”

“Maybe.” Shivers looked less than happy. “I daresay that’s a better-looking man there. A cleverer man.” He ran one hand through his short dark hair, frowning at his reflection. “Not sure if I trust that bastard, though.”

“And to finish…” The barber leaned forwards, a coloured crystal bottle in his hands, and squirted a fine mist of perfume over Shivers’ head.

The Northman was up like a cat off hot coals. “What the fuck?” he roared, big fists clenched, shoving the man away and making him totter across the room with a squeal.

Monza burst out laughing. “Looks of a Styrian nobleman, maybe.” She pulled out a couple more quarters and tucked them into the gaping barber’s apron pocket. “The manners might be a while coming, though.”

– 

I t was getting dark when they came back to the crumbling mansion, Monza with her hood drawn up and Shivers striding proudly along in his new coat. A cold rain flitted down into the ruined courtyard, a single lamp burned in a window on the first floor. She frowned towards it, and then at Shivers, found the grip of the knife in the back of her belt with her left hand. Best to be ready for every possibility. Up the creaking stairs a peeling door stood ajar, light spilling out across the boards. She stepped up and poked it open with her boot.

A pair of burning logs in the soot-blackened fireplace barely warmed the chamber on the other side. Friendly stood beside the far window, peering through the shutters towards the bank. Morveer had some sheets of paper spread out on a rickety old table, marking his place with an ink-spotted hand. Day sat on the tabletop with her legs crossed, peeling an orange with a dagger. “Definite improvement,” she grunted, giving Shivers a glance.

“Oh, I cannot but agree.” Morveer grinned. “A dirty, long-haired idiot left the building this morning. A clean, short-haired idiot has returned. It must be magic.”

Monza let go the grip of her knife while Shivers muttered angrily to himself in Northern. “Since you’re not crowing your own praises, I’m guessing the job’s not done.”

“Mauthis is a most cautious and well-protected man. The bank is far too heavily guarded during the day.”

“On his way to the bank, then.”

“He leaves by an armoured carriage with a dozen guards in attendance. To try and intercept them would be too great a risk.”

Shivers tossed another log on the fire and held his palms out towards it. “At his house?”

“Pah,” sneered Morveer. “We followed him there. He lives on a walled island in the bay where several of the city’s Aldermen have their estates. The public are not admitted. We have no method of gaining advance access to the building even if we can deduce which one is his. How many guards, servants, family members would be in attendance? All unknown. I flatly refuse to attempt a job of this difficulty on conjecture. What do I never take, Day?”

“Chances.”

“Correct. I deal in certainties, Murcatto. That is why you came to me. I am hired for a certain man most certainly dead, not for a butcher’s mess and your target slipped away in the chaos. We are not in Caprile, now-”

“I know where we are, Morveer. What’s your plan, then?”

“I have gathered the necessary information and devised a sure means of achieving the desired effect. I need only gain access to the bank during the hours of darkness.”

“And how do you plan to do that?”

“How do I plan to do that, Day?”

“Through the rigorous application of observation, logic and method.”

Morveer flashed his smug little smile again. “Precisely so.”

Monza glanced sideways at Benna. Except Benna was dead, and Shivers was in his place. The Northman raised his eyebrows, blew out a long sigh and looked back to the fire. Give me only evil men for friends, Verturio wrote. But there had to be a limit.

Two Twos

T he dice came up two twos. Two times two is four. Two plus two is four. Add the dice, or multiply, the same result. It made Friendly feel helpless, that thought. Helpless but calm. All these people struggling to get things done, but whatever they did, it turned out the same. The dice were full of lessons. If you knew how to read them.