The Blade Itself

Yesterday these were some of the finest rooms in the Agriont. They were reserved for the most honoured of guests, the most important of foreign dignitaries. Yesterday. A gaping hole was ripped out of one wall where the window should have been, the sky beyond blinding bright after the darkness of the stairwell. A section of the ceiling had collapsed, broken timbers and shreds of plaster hanging down into the room. The floor was strewn with chunks of stone, splinters of glass, torn fragments of coloured cloth. The antique furniture had been smashed to scattered pieces, broken edges charred and blackened as if by fire. Only one chair, half a table, and a tall ornamental jar, strangely pristine in the middle of the rubble-strewn floor, had escaped the destruction.

In the midst of this expensive wreckage stood a confused and sickly-seeming young man. He looked up as Glokta picked his way through the rubble round the doorway, tongue darting nervously over his lips, evidently on edge. Has anyone ever looked more of a fraud?

“Er, good morning?” The young man’s fingers twitched nervously at his gown, a heavy thing, stitched with arcane symbols. And doesn’t he look uncomfortable in it? If this man is a wizard’s apprentice, I am the Emperor of Gurkhul.

“I am Glokta. From his Majesty’s Inquisition. I have been sent to investigate this… unfortunate business. I was expecting someone older.”

“Oh, yes, sorry, I am Malacus Quai,” stammered the young man, “apprentice to great Bayaz, the First of the Magi, great in high art and learned in deep—” Kneel, kneel before me! I am the mighty Emperor of Gurkhul!

“Malacus…” Glokta cut him off rudely “…Quai. You are from the Old Empire?”

“Why yes,” the young man brightened slightly at that. “Do you know my—”

“No. Not at all.” The pale face sagged. “Were you here last night?”

“Er, yes, I was asleep, next door. I’m afraid I didn’t see anything though…” Glokta stared at him, intent and unblinking, trying to work him out. The apprentice coughed and looked at the floor, as if wondering what to clean up first. Can this really make the Arch Lector nervous? A miserable actor. His whole manner reeks of deception.

“Someone saw something, though?”

“Well, erm, Master Ninefingers, I suppose—”

“Ninefingers?”

“Yes, our Northern companion.” The young man brightened. “A warrior of great renown, a champion, a prince among his—”

“You, from the Old Empire. He, a Northman. What a cosmopolitan band you are.”

“Well yes, ha ha, we do, I suppose—”

“Where is Ninefingers now?”

“Still asleep I think, er, I could wake him—”

“Would you be so kind?” Glokta tapped his cane on the floor. “It was quite a climb, and I would rather not come back later.”

“No, er, of course… sorry” He hastened over to one of the doors and Glokta turned away, pretending to examine the gaping wound in the wall while grimacing in agony and biting his lip to keep from wailing like a sick child. He seized hold of the broken stones at the edge of the hole with his free hand, squeezing them as hard as he could.

As the spasm passed he began to take more interest in the damage. Even this high up the wall was a good four feet thick, solidly built from rubble bonded with mortar, faced with cut stone blocks. It would take a rock from a truly mighty catapult to make such a breach, or a team of strong workmen going night and day for a week. A giant siege engine or a group of labourers would doubtless have attracted the attention of the guards. So how was it made? Glokta ran his hand over the cracked stones. He had once heard rumours that in the far south they made a kind of blasting powder. Could a little powder have done this?

The door opened and Glokta turned to see a big man ducking under the low lintel, buttoning his shirt with slow, heavy hands. A thoughtful kind of slowness. As if he could move quickly but doesn’t see the point. His hair was a tangled mass, his lumpy face badly scarred. The middle finger of his left hand was missing. Hence Ninefingers. How very imaginative.

“Sleeping late?”

The Northman nodded. “Your city is too hot for me—it keeps me up at night and makes me sleepy in the day.”