In Part One there was a storm, a death, and a reveal. Now we find out what the reveal means. Enjoy Part 2
We returned to the wheelhouse. Captain Shammy had shifted course to put the wind directly behind us. Thick skeins of sand whipped round the edges of the superstructure where they recombined in the piercing lights and flowed forward, a swirling mass moving in one direction.
“I have been betrayed, and you and your ship are in danger,” said Lmarr.
Shammy flicked a look to me, but I was already shaking my head. She looked back at him.
“Explain.”
“The things I tell you now…” He trailed off. When he spoke again there was firmness and surety. “We of the assassin’s guild are not casual killers. Nor are we mere cut-throats for hire, no matter what others would have you believe. There is a strict code, rules which must be followed. The only time we kill of our own volition is to protect the secrets we hold. This is why I believed I was sent to Sar-Chona. You know of the Inspectorate?”
We nodded our heads.
Sar-Chona’s security organ was known by all. Extensive and ruthless, the visible operatives moved around the city with impunity. The unseen network listened to voices of dissent and watched acts of rebellion, removing those they deemed dangerous before their plans came to fruition. Their reach was rumored to stretch the full width of the twin continents.
He continued, “The head of the Inspectorate, Kelly Secnish, has been trying to obtain our secrets. She may even have been successful; several of our order have disappeared, with reasonable suspicion the Inspectorate were involved. I believed I was being sent to deal with her. My briefing said Solstice was one of the few times we could be sure of her whereabouts.”
“So, if she isn’t your target, who are you being sent to kill?” I asked.
“Sar-Chona.”
Sar-Chona. The grimy jewel of the co-joined continents. People, goods and wealth swirled into it like flotsam and jetsam into a whirlpool. The best was creamed off, ending up in lavish residences on the high bluffs, or fertile estates half a days ride away. The unlucky sank with the detritus; begging and scavenging in The Lumps, prostituting themselves or thieving round the docks. When the eventuality of time overwhelmed Sar-Chona, the stories of its history would be disregarded as fable: A cautionary tale of excess, gluttony and greed.
Until then, it was the home I fled as a girl, and rarely returned to as a woman. But it was still home.
“How can you kill a city?” I asked.
“With the power of the sun,” Lmarr said.
He stood silent. Shammy looked at me, eyebrow raised, I shrugged again.
“Explain, Lmarr,” I said.
He nodded. It looked like he was deciding how to tell us. Finally he spoke.
“For revealing this to you, my life is forfeit.” He pointed at us, slender finger jabbing in the gloom, “Your’s also. But our lives were already forfeited, we just didn’t know it. So now you will carry this secret, and you will run and hide. You will hope the guild thinks you too insignificant to hunt.”
“We are insignificant,” said the Captain, “a tiny trader on the sand seas, part-time smugglers. We see many things, and we say nothing.”
I added, “We’ll say nothing, anywhere, ever. You don’t have to harm us.”
He shook his head, “You mis-understand me. I intend to do you no harm. But you will still be in danger.” Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath. “When I say that I was betrayed, this is very deliberate. I am to be an explosion that destroys the city.”
Bending over he pulled the legs of his sirwal up, the heavy, blue, linen slid easily over his long socks. But instead of the tawny legs I expected, there was bronze.
“Your legs are metal.” My voice was flat.
“Yes,” Shammy said, “he’s an assassin and a mek-mek.” She asked Lmarr, “What has this got to do with destroying Sar-Chona?”
He tapped his thigh with a knuckle. I expected a hollow ringing sound, like a muted bell. Instead there was the same dull thud you get from banging a solid iron pole.
I couldn’t look away. The metal was matt, and moulded in a stylization of muscle. It was also inscribed, all over, with flowing script that looked like Harveesi. The knee was a ball and socket joint, though how it was fixed while managing to be flexible and mobile was unclear.
He let the legs of his sirwal drop back down and straightened up. “Within these legs is the explosive device that will destroy Sar-Chona. Or wherever I am on the day of Solstice in Sar-Chona.”
“Can’t you turn it off? We can take the bomb out of your leg and throw it into the sand. By the time it explodes we’ll be leagues away.” I asked
He shook his head. “A noble idea, but futile. If we try to remove it, or my legs, or if I die, the device will explode. This is how I am betrayed.”
“Do you know why?” Shammy asked.
“I can guess. The Guild are concerned at what the Inspectorate is doing. Someone has decided that losing the city is a survivable catastrophe.”
“But why are you being used like this?” I asked.
He looked sheepish, and for a moment it appeared he was going to try and evade the question, then Shammy asked, “A woman?”
He reddened, his cheeks flushing noticeably even in the gloomy wheelhouse.
“Yes, a woman. I knew I had angered her protector, I thought an assignment across the desert sea was the punishment, time and distance. Now I know better.”
The Captain voiced the question I barely kept in check. “I’m sorry, Lmarr, but you are being punished for infidelity?” He nodded, she continued. “How? I mean, I don’t want to be indelicate, but your metal legs. I assumed other parts would have been, removed.”
He smiled, the flush on his cheeks deepened, “No, things still work.”
There was an embarrassed silence. Then Shammy laughed, her throaty chuckle breaking the awkwardness.
“Typical man.” She slid off the chair and went over to the map. Pushing her headband back to restrain her dark ringlets, she peered at it, sliding her finger across the parchment. “Is there anyway that you can prevent yourself from blowing up?”
He shook his head.
She tapped her finger on the map, and her face scrunched up. I recognized the look. She had an idea.
“There is no way I am letting a walking bomb destroy one of my best markets. So we’re going to drop you at Gorger’s Outcrop. We should arrive two days before the solstice. That gives us time to get clear before you explode, but also leaves you somewhere with water and food if you’re wrong. If you are, we’ll collect you on our return trip.” She looked at him, “Or are you intending to kill us all and try to sail on anyway?”
He looked back, his face impassive, and then he shook his head, “No. I have no intention of harming you, nor do I intend to destroy Sar-Chona. I may not believe as fervently as your crew-mate, but if there is an after-life I don’t want half-a-million innocent victims pointing at me.” He stopped and scratched his neck. “You have a good plan. Though you will not have to return.”
“We’ll see.” She turned to me, “You’d better get some sleep, and be ready to take over in a couple of hours. This storm doesn’t appear to be letting up.”
In part three we find out if Lmarr is correct about what will happen
text by stuartcturnbull, art by Roses_Street via Pixabay