56. I cursed the devil and made a partner

“That one, that one,” Swift said. “He’s hammered.”

In fact, the passer-by who had just left the tavern was walking in a zigzag pattern, totally drunk.

“Your turn, Sharpy,” Diver muttered.

I nodded.

“I’m going.”

After glancing at the deserted street and the light of the street lamps, I trotted out of the portico, approached the drunkard, and following Swift’s advice, pushed him, knocked him off his feet, and threw him against the ground. My victim sank to the ground with a muffled cry. I shoved my hands into his pockets and quickly pulled out all I could before turning and running away, pursued by the drunkard’s pasty screams. At last, I reached the end of the street and rejoined my companions.

“Done!” I announced cheerfully.

“Damn, you’re good at this, namesake,” Swift congratulated as he kept what I’d collected. “I knew this one was a son of a nail-pincher. There’s at least three goldies, even after he went through the tavern. What I can’t believe is that nobody plucked him before…”

We heard a whistle. We sat up. It was Manras’ alarm signal. It meant: flies are coming.

“Let’s leg it out of here,” Swift muttered.

We decamped, and the kap went ahead, because he was carrying the loot. All in all, we had accumulated several thefts that night. We were going to be able to buy the karuja without any problem. As a matter of fact, since the illness, we didn’t dare chew asofla, in case it was poisonous for us too.

I walked briskly with Diver, and we joined Manras, and without seeing or knowing, we disappeared from the Tarmil Quarter and took refuge in the Cat Quarter. There we caught up with the kap in the Grey Square and made our way back together. We were descending the stairs of the Labyrinth which led directly to Sheer Cliff Street when Diver took me by the arm and said:

“Sharpy. Remember you said you owed me one?”

I huffed.

“Natural, I remember.”

I did not remind him that I had told him that I owed him even two if he wanted; in any case, if he had asked me for two favours, I would probably have done them willingly.

“Then come and I’ll explain on the way. You go with Swift, shyur,” he added for Manras, seeing him approach curiously.

“Wait,” I said. I took out of my pocket two bones that I had found, already a little gnawed by the dogs, but still firm. “Give them to Little Wolf. Master still lacks arms. I’ll put them on it when I get back. With these, his doll will be perfect.”

“Perfectly macabre,” Diver scoffed.

I gave the bones to Manras, and we saluted Swift before turning and climbing the stairs again. The steps were covered with ash. For three days a black cloud as dense as that which had come at the end of the summer had settled over the Rock, and it kept throwing up ash. All our clothes and faces were ashen. Some said that the people of Plaar to the south were attacking us with new weapons loaded with disease. Others said that the volcanoes of Ushimaka were awakening again, which was a good sign for some and a bad sign for others… Well, good sign or bad sign, I was glad that we no longer needed to renew our wood supply: the ash somehow warmed the air, and even though winter had officially begun, it was not cold and there was not a trace of snow.

We entered an alley, and finally, I broke the silence:

“What’s the matter, comrade? You in trouble?”

Everything was so dark that I could barely see Diver.

“No way. You’re the one in trouble,” he replied.

I arched my eyebrows, and when he didn’t explain, I said, puzzled:

“Me?”

Diver fumbled, grabbed me by the arm, and said:

“You, Sharpy. They’re looking for you.”

My eyes widened.

“Good mother, who? The flies?”

“Mmph. I don’t know. Why would the flies be looking for you?”

I laughed in disbelief.

“Do you really ask why?”

Because I was a thief, a robber, and a professional beggar perhaps? But they didn’t know that, did they? I frowned and admitted:

“I don’t know.”

“Some guy is offering a ten-goldy reward for you,” Diver announced suddenly.

I was stunned and dumbfounded. He pulled me by the sleeve, and we sat down on the step of a small staircase.

“Ten goldies,” I muttered, dumbfounded. “But… who is that guy?”

“He appeared at The Drawer about six o’clock in the afternoon, when the Albino was there,” Diver explained. “He said he wasn’t a fly, but someone followed him out of the Labyrinth, and, guess what, he was lying like a ruffian: he’s a fly. And he said he was your brother!” he added with a stifled laugh.

I grimaced. Blasthell. It must be Kakzail. But why was my older brother looking for me? Did it have anything to do with…? A sudden possibility made me jump to my feet.

“He found the cure!” I gasped. “Diver, that guy… I bet he’s really my brother. It’s Kakzail. He knows where the alchemist is. And if he’s looking for me… that means the gnome has found the cure!”

My words were followed by silence. Then Diver made a strangled sound.

“I can’t believe it! Your brother is a fly?”

I turned pale.

“He is,” I confirmed. “But he’s not a bad guy. A little weird, but that’s it. Listen, did he say where to go for the reward? Who knows, he may give it to me,” I joked. But deep down, I wondered if it was so inconceivable that he would give it to me.

I heard my friend sigh and get up.

“You ruined my plan, really, you did,” he admitted. “There’s another guy who offered me five goldies to find you and go see him. A guy who’s a friend of yours, apparently. His name is Daln Asaveo. You know him, right?”

“Ragingly so,” I said, amused. How could I not know Le Bor when I knew him better than my older brother?

Diver continued:

“Well. So he heard the fly story, and he wants to help you. But, obviously, if he hears that you’re in no danger, he’s not going to give me a nail. It doesn’t matter,” he assured. “Anyway, I’m glad the flies aren’t looking for you. What I was going to ask you is something else that has nothing to do with it. Let’s go.”

We continued to move through the Labyrinth, and I waited curiously for my companion to say what he wanted me to do for him.

“I know where the Black Hawk lives,” he whispered at last. “Wheel Road. Riskel. In a gambling house.”

We came to the Spirit Square and the light of a distant street lamp gently lit our faces. Diver smiled at my apprehensive expression.

“What do you think?” he asked.

What did he mean, what did I think? He’d just told me where the one who’d mutated us and locked us in a mine for two moons was, and he was asking me what I thought? I stirred, worried. The place was deserted, except for one man who was fast asleep on a cart.

“You want to go kill him?” I muttered.

“I want to, yes,” Diver asserted. “But if I go into that den, I won’t come out alive, I’m sure of it. I’m not crazy. I’m not going to kill myself. But I want him to know that I hate him to death. So… I bought some red paint. To use on the wall of that house. And I want you to write: ‘you’re going to hell, Black Hawk’. I would to do it myself, but I can’t write. What do you say?”

The idea appealed to me at once. I smiled broadly.

“Fantastic! I’ll add some sign I know, and it’ll come out in the papers and everything… And… oh, blasthell, that’s a great idea!” I enthused, leaping up. “Wait. What if we add a signature? A gwak signature. But one that he can’t understand, of course. Like… a… a…”

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“I’ll take care of that,” Diver decided. And, encouraged by my enthusiasm, he said, “Let’s go.”

We went to retrieve the paint from a cavity and made our way through Estergat, taking the darkest streets. By the time we reached Wheel Road, four o’clock in the night had struck, and although there was still noise in some of the taverns, the street was deserted. We crept under a porch, out of the light. All the way there, we had hardly exchanged a word: I had not stopped to mentally picture all the signs I had to draw. I was still having trouble with some of them, and honest, I told Diver in a whisper in our shelter. He shrugged.

“Who cares, as long as anyone can understand that we’re cursing him.” He pointed to a house, stepped back again, and said, “That’s the one. As far as I know. We have to be quick. If anyone sees us, we leave the paint and run. Ready?”

I nodded. We waited for the watchman to pass, and when he went away, we rushed in with the can of paint. Our brushes were simple sticks with a rag attached to the end. I dipped mine in the bucket and began to write the message, very large, on the front of the gambling house. I did it all with such speed that I almost thought I was a scribe. I added a few random Caeldric signs, and Diver whispered:

“What’s that?”

“Witchcraft,” I replied, stifling a laugh.

I saw that my companion had added with his improvised brush a rather successful drawing of a skull and crossbones. I whistled through my teeth.

“Impressive, Nat.”

“Yours are too,” he acknowledged.

We exchanged a knowing smile, and considering that more embellishing wouldn’t make up for the risk of getting caught, we threw away the pot and the brushes and ran up the hill. We were just reaching the end of the street when we heard a shout behind us and a:

“Hey, you there!”

We accelerated and turned into the Rose Street. We were about halfway down the street when I saw uniformed figures appear at the end, and grabbing Diver, I led us into a dead end and wrapped us in harmonic shadows. I thought of taking refuge at The Serene, but then I told myself that it was one thing for the girls to fondle a gwak and another to hide him from the authorities. Better to get out of there without asking anyone for help.

We saw the patrol pass, and without further ado, we left the dead end and continued our escapade, but this time, it was I who was leading, from corner to corner, from shelter to shelter. I even looked like a real Black Dagger! We avoided all the watchers and finally arrived at the river of Estergat. Once there, we washed our hands and examined ourselves in case we had paint splatters. Comforted by the fact that we saw no stains, we made our way back home, commenting on our hit and laughing out loud. The ash continued to fall, but it wasn’t like snow, and a light breeze was enough to erase our tracks. But it would not be able to erase our fervent curse painted in red. Let that rat Black Hawk know that we, the gwaks of the mine, were still of this world!

Back at the refuge, I slept like a lebrine bear. So much so that, when I woke up, I noticed that most of my companions had already left, including my cronies. Probably gone to beg at the temple. It must have been almost noon already.

“Gosh,” I yawned, sitting up straight. Accomplishing revenge sure disrupted the schedule. I noticed the little ball that had been put in my pocket and swallowed the karuja before throwing out, “Ayo, Little Wolf!”

The mute little one looked up from his doll, and I came up on all fours, asking:

“How is the Master? Where are the bones Manras brought you?”

Little Wolf showed them to me, and I spent a good deal of time hanging them on the miniature nakrus, weaving the stems to use as string. The Little Wolf watched my work with intense attention, and when I gave him the finished doll, he was beaming with happiness, and he began to walk it around the shelter.

“Hey! Don’t break it, eh? It’s fragile,” I warned him. “Well, it’s easy to repair too. There’s no shortage of bones. But that’s no reason to break the Master, eh, shyur? Come on, today we’ll go see someone you already know. The one with the bed and the hot stove, remember? Come on, let’s get a move on, gwak!” I encouraged him.

I took him by the hand, and greeting the gwaks who were still there, I walked away in the direction of The Joyful Spirit. Instead of going through the Labyrinth, I decided to go around it, going up the path of the Timid River. We reached the dead end of the tavern, climbed the wooden stairs, and I knocked on the door of Le Bor.

No one came to open. After a while, I sat down with Little Wolf on a step and sighed. I might wait for him all day in vain. Perhaps he had even changed his residence. Little Wolf and I were in the middle of a contest of faces and grimaces, the ruder the better, when the back door of the tavern opened, and… Le Bor appeared. I smiled broadly and stood up.

“Ayo, sir!”

“Kid,” Le Bor greeted, with a half-smiling, half-strained pout. He glanced toward the entrance to the dead end, met the gaze of a scruffy Cat who was shuffling past, and turned to me. “What about the other boy I sent to get you? I promised him five siatos.”

“Ah, well, fork out, I’ll give them to him for you, he’s a mate of mine,” I assured him. “Well, he said you wouldn’t give them to him, because you thought that the fly who was looking for me was following orders, but in fact it’s not that; he’s my brother for real. If you want, I’ll explain.”

Le Bor looked at me with that owlish expression which frightened me a little. Passing by me, he said:

“Let’s go inside.”

We went in, and I began to tell him in a lively tone:

“See, the thing is, I didn’t know I had a family before. But when I got out of Carnation, I found out I did. They lost me in the Valley—”

“They gave you up for being a pain in the ass, you mean,” Le Bor scoffed as he set two glasses on the table and took out a bottle. “Sit down.”

“Well, they say it was an accident,” I assured him, taking a seat. I accepted the drink he handed me and continued, “And Kakzail, my older brother, well, he was a gladiator in Tassia. He’s a real warrior. That’s why they took him as a fly, I guess… Is that blue wine?”

“Celestial radrasia,” Le Bor declared, raising his own glass. “The finest vintage. Go on.”

I took a sip of the clear blue liquid and nearly spat it out. I swallowed and felt my mouth as if on fire.

“Good mother!” I coughed. “It killed me, Bor—I mean, sir, sorry. By the way, did Frashluc give you back the eight hundred and forty?”

Le Bor’s eyes sparkled.

“As if he’d give them back to me, Four-Hundred. You don’t know Frashluc well. He wouldn’t believe me when I told him that Coldpalm had given them to me… I can be glad he didn’t mistake me for one of Gowbur’s accomplices. I got out of that mess pretty well… and, besides, that way I learned, somewhat by accident, that you are… or rather, that you were a Black Dagger.”

Under his watchful eye, I shrugged and nodded.

“Round.”

“Mm. You didn’t tell me you were one of the kids kidnapped by the Black Hawk either,” Le Bor added calmly.

I looked at him, but I could not make out his thoughts. I repeated:

“Round.”

“And… I understand these kids are very addicted to karuja,” Le Bor completed.

As he took a sip of his drink, his eyes never left me. I grimaced and nodded silently, confirming. A little nervously, I looked away and focused my attention on Little Wolf. The little one had half stuffed himself under the bed with the Master. I saw that he was lifting its two skeletal legs to make it walk on its hands, and I laughed quietly. My nakrus master wouldn’t have been able to clown around like that, that’s for sure, not because he didn’t want to but because he lacked agility.

Le Bor broke the silence.

“If you’ve been a Black Dagger, you must know how to make harmonies.”

I nodded, turning back to him with pride.

“Natural that I know. I’m an expert.”

“Then perhaps we can make a deal,” Le Bor mused. He looked down at my glass and frowned. “Don’t tell me you don’t like celestial radrasia.”

I made an apologetic pout.

“It beastly burns. I prefer normal radrasia.”

“Gwaks,” Le Bor scoffed. “Don’t you know that refusing a host’s drink is an unforgivable offense?” I made a face like no, I didn’t know that, and he sighed, holding out his hand. “Give me that.” He drank it in one gulp, and without showing the slightest sign of inebriation, he resumed, “So, you say, it’s not the flies that are after you, but your family. Tell me, Four-Hundred. Do you know that many fathers wouldn’t pay ten goldies to get a son back? In the Black Quarter, you’d be more likely to find one willing to sell his offspring for that price and less.”

This left me speechless. The night before, I had not seen the matter from that perspective. Finally, I shook my head.

“It’s not the barber who pays, it’s my older brother. He’s the one who knows the whereabouts of the alchemist who’s looking for a cure for sokwata. I don’t know if you know the whole story…”

“I know enough,” Le Bor asserted, thoughtfully. “Mmph. To think you have a brother in the police… I pity you, Four-Hundred, that’s some bad luck you have!”

He laughed mockingly, and I shrugged uncomfortably. I leisurely swung my feet, and after a silence, said:

“Earlier, you said something about a deal.”

Le Bor nodded and leaned over the table confessing:

“I was thinking of making you a partner. But with that brother of yours… it’d be kind of a drag if you couldn’t keep your mouth shut.”

I looked at him, indignant and excited at the same time.

“I can hold my tongue, Bor. Did you say a partner?” I enthused.

Le Bor abruptly hit the table and whistled:

“No Bor, damn you…”

I turned pale as I saw a murderous glint in his eyes.

“Sorry, sir. Sir, sir, sir,” I repeated earnestly as if to burn it into my mind. I bit my lip and smiled again as I repeated, “Partner?”

Le Bor looked at me. Incredibly enough, the radrasia did not seem to affect him much. He motioned for me to come closer. I obeyed.

“First,” he said, “go see that fly brother of yours and solve that matter you have to deal with.” I nodded. “Fine. If you tell him about me, even if it’s under the name of Mr. Asaveo, I’ll kick you in the butt until you don’t feel it anymore.”

I rolled my eyes and nodded again. Suddenly, Le Bor grabbed me by the collar of my coat and hissed through my teeth:

“I mean it, kid.”

I didn’t doubt it. I became exasperated.

“I know, sir. I ain’t no snitch.”

“No? And why wouldn’t you report me to your own brother, Four-Hundred?” Le Bor replied without letting go of me. “Maybe because you helped me escape? Is that what’s keeping you from tattling?”

I looked at him, puzzled and hurt.

“No,” I protested with complete sincerity. “It’s not that. I’d never betray you, Bor. I mean, sir. For real. I swear.”

Le Bor looked me in the eye and let go.

“Then why?” he sighed.

I fidgeted, not knowing what to say. Finally, as Le Bor said nothing, despite the shame I felt in saying so, I stammered:

“B-because you were nice to me and… because I like you.”

Le Bor arched his eyebrows. He pondered my answer for a moment. Then he smiled, his face mocking.

“How much do they pay you to kiss my ass, Four-Hundred?”

If I hadn’t already had a naturally dark complexion, I would have turned red as a tomato. I huffed.

“Go blow yourself up.”

Le Bor laughed, and taking me by the shoulders with a strong arm, shook me, exclaiming:

“The Four-Hundred likes me! For once, I’ll believe you. Listen, go and see that brother, and tomorrow at midnight, come to Fal Bridge, South Bank, without fail. You know where that is, don’t you?”

“Natural,” I whispered. It was near Evening Park, in the Tarmil Quarter. I looked at him, puzzled. “What are we going to do at Fal Bridge?”

“Mm-mm,” Le Bor refused to answer. “No questions asked.”

I jumped up and down excitedly.

“We’re gonna blow up the bridge!”

Le Bor rolled his eyes.

“I said no questions. If you love me so much, make sure it doesn’t change, right? Blow up the bridge,” he repeated, incredulously. “You’ve got some crazy revolutionary ideas, Four-Hundred. And, now, get the hell out and do what you have to do. If anything unexpected happens, let me know. If you can’t let me know or if you’re late, we won’t wait for you. And, of course, you’ll lose your share.”

“My share,” I repeated eloquently.

“Two goldies,” Le Bor clarified. “Without much effort on your part… if it’s true that you can do harmonies.”

I smiled. It was all becoming more and more mysterious.

“I’ll be there,” I promised. “At midnight. Okay. Is the lady coming too?”

“Taka? Of course not,” Le Bor snorted.

“Oh,” I said, a little disappointed. “It’s just that, since you said ‘we won’t wait for you’, I thought—”

“No,” Le Bor cut me off. “She won’t be there. Maybe if you come tomorrow and do everything right, you can see her. You seemed to like her, too, by the way,” he scoffed.

I made a comical pout.

“Yes, but without the soap,” I confessed. “Well. Ayo, sir. Little Wolf!” I called. “Let’s go and see the bearded brother. Stop moving the poor Master around. What, you’ve already messed him up? I mean, when you take your fingers out of your nose, you clean them like this, on the coat, you understand? Not on the Master. That’s gross. If he knew, good mother, if he knew… he’d turn you into a slug! Come on, Little Wolf, hurry up.”

I led him out, closed the door behind me, and we set off in the direction of Tarmil.