Rulers of the Darkness

"No, not like that," Skarnu said again. "Don't hang around. Wander through. Pause on a platform when a caravan comes in from the north or east. Wander off again. Buy yourself a mug of ale or a news sheet. Kill time."

"Beastly lies in the news sheets," Amatu said.

"Of course there are," Skarnu agreed. "But knowing how the enemy is lying is military information, too." That seemed to startle the other noble, who thought for a bit before nodding. Amatu had probably been fine fighting on dragonback- his headlong aggressiveness matched his mount's. Skarnu's opinion was that his brainpower also matched his mount's, but that was nothing he could say.

He decided not to trust Amatu alone in the ley-line caravan depot, at least at first. To his relief, the returned exile seemed glad for company, not irate because Skarnu was coming with him. He probably hasn't realized why I'm coming along, Skarnu thought. I'm not going to tell him, either.

"Bloody ugly building," Amatu remarked as they walked up to the red-brick depot. Skarnu agreed with him, but he hadn't come as an architecture critic. Once they got inside, he studied the board, then pointed. Amatu nodded. "Aye. Platform three," he said. Skarnu didn't stomp on his toes to make him shut up, but couldn't have said why he didn't. He was more merciful than he'd suspected, that was all.

On the way to platform three, he bought some ale and a news sheet. Amatu refused to buy a news sheet and made a horrible face when he tasted his ale. Skarnu wondered if his comrade were trying to get them both caught, if he were in Algarvian pay. Skarnu didn't think so, but stupidity and arrogance could be as deadly as treason.

The caravan that stopped at the depot seemed ordinary. It had no passenger cars with wooden shutters nailed over the windows, no baggage cars from which came the stench of crowded, filthy people. "Well, this was a waste of time, wasn't it?" Amatu said.

"Aye, it was, but we didn't know ahead of time that it would be," Skarnu answered in a much lower voice. "That's why we keep an eye on the depot: because we don't know ahead of time, I mean."

Amatu accepted that, even if reluctantly. He was glad to leave the depot, though. Alone, Skarnu would have hung around for a while longer. With Amatu for a comrade, he was delighted to get away unscathed. He let out a silent sigh of relief when they got past the pair of Valmieran constables standing at the entranceway.

Once they reached their street, Amatu started toward their block of flats without the least hesitation. "Wait," Skarnu murmured, and took him by the arm. "Let's walk past. Let's not go inside."

"Why not?" For a wonder, Amatu kept his voice down.

"I've never seen those fellows lounging by the stairway," Skarnu answered. "Beggars usually have their own turfs. Those fellows are new. Their rags look too clean, and so do they. They've never missed a meal. I think they're constables… No, curse you, don't stare at them."

"Lauzdonu-" Amatu began.

Skarnu had become a better actor than he would have imagined in his carefree days in Priekule. Without seeming to break stride, he contrived to step on Amatu's foot and make the noble hop and curse. For good measure, he stuck an elbow in the pit of Amatu's stomach, too. "Shut up, you cursed fool," he hissed. "They may have him already. Odds are, they do."

For another wonder, Amatu heeded him and said not another word till they'd turned the corner. Then, in tones more subdued than he usually used, he asked, "What do we do now?"

"We go to that eatery," Skarnu answered patiently. "We talk on the crystal- just long enough to let people know there's trouble here. After that, we disappear again. This isn't my town, you know."

"Nor mine, powers above be praised for that," Amatu said. "All right- the eatery."

No suspiciously well-fed tramps lingered outside. But when Skarnu casually asked after the waiter's health, the fellow answered that he was fine, and didn't use the words he was supposed to. Skarnu ordered ale and a plate of smoked beef tongue for himself and Amatu. They ate and drank, paid the scot, and left.

"No good?" Amatu asked.

"No good," Skarnu agreed. "They're waiting for people in the underground to come in and show themselves. If we'd done it, we wouldn't have walked out again."

"What do we do now?" Amatu asked again.

"Walk around for a while," Skarnu answered. "They can't have grabbed everybody in Zarasai. Somebody will give us a hand." I hope, he thought. Oh, by the powers above, how I hope. Otherwise I'm stuck here with the worst excuse for an underground man the world has ever known, and no way to get free of him.

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