image [https://i.imgur.com/PVQZiJI.png]
I tucked the top edge of the coarse cotton sheet up under my pillow, flipped the blanket into place, and stepped back to consider my handiwork. Make your bed, Basil had said, and you’ll cultivate a little Order in no time. Today was my third day of doing so, and I didn’t feel any more ordered than before, certainly not to the point where I’d start manifesting source over it. I had no doubt Basil would roll his eyes and sigh despairingly at my piss-poor attempts to straighten up, but in my defense, I’d only had my own bed for three days.
Harker had dredged up the key to the rooms Ticosi had kept once I leaned on her a little. She was being surprisingly helpful. It made the back of my neck itch, but if I was going to pull off this insane stunt and become the Big Man, sleeping in his bed and walking out his front door in the morning would go a long way toward getting people to accept me. I hoped whatever unhuman craziness the man stewed hadn’t seeped into the walls, and if it had that it wasn’t catching. I really should have washed the bedding. He must have had someone that laundered for him. The thought of Ticosi hunched over a scrubbing board and wash tub in his leather trenchcoat twisting the water out of his smallclothes was too strange to consider.
It was a sparsely-furnished set of rooms with windows that overlooked Maidenhead Square. Looking around, I never would have guessed that the most dangerous man in the Lows lived here. Wherever he kept the wealth he squeezed out of the poor folk of the neighborhood, it wasn’t here. It was yet another thing I’d have to ask Harker about. Not that I trusted the sullen cow, but she looked less likely to stab me at any given moment than the other enforcers. When I’d casually wondered how much the rooms would cost, she looked at me like I’d just stepped in dog shit. It had taken me a moment to realize that nobody charged the Big Man for anything in the Lows, and now the Big Man was me.
I wondered if I’d bitten off more than I could chew by taking control like this. When I’d left Penkmun’s to confront Harker and the others, it had been with nothing more than the vague idea of showing up with a slew of demons and telling them to leave me alone. But as I’d stomped through the streets on my Night Terror’s shoulder, I’d seen old One-Foot Marga cowering on a recessed stoop, knocking desperately on someone’s door to let her in as a massive nightmare strode through her world. No one answered, of course; they weren’t stupid, and they weren’t going to risk themselves on account of an aging, crippled whore who was only allowed to live so that they could remember the cost of crossing the Big Man.
Back during her working days, Marga had arranged for a pimp from outside the Lows to manage her dealings, and Ticosi hadn’t taken it well. Nobody had been able to wash clothes in the Maidenhead Fountain for days after he’d made an example of her. I’d been there. I’d watched from the shadows as the Big Man slung her severed foot out among the gathered crowd and told them over the sound of Marga’s screams to leave it where it landed. He’d liked his reminders, Ticosi had.
Seeing the desperate, aging woman cringe and wonder what fresh hell was about to work its will on her, I’d been suddenly furious at what Ticosi had done to us all. It wasn’t just me he’d kept hungry, ragged, and running; it was all of us. Penkmun had told me to find what mattered, and this was it. The Lows needed to change. I was a selfish little shit, scarred and broken, but whether by Fate’s grace or Fortune’s jests, I held enough power to really make a difference. Didn’t that mean I had to try?
And so I’d made my play, swinging my demons around like a big dick and scaring Ticosi’s old thugs into obedience. They’d kill me if they could, but Ticosi had at least been smart enough to limit them to a few cards each, and weak ones at that. None of them knew their ass from their elbow when it came to dueling, and that meant that I, still half a novice but with a deck of stupidly powerful cards, stood a chance of keeping them in line.
I’d known I would have to break Ticosi’s card from the start. Whether I ended up cultivating Chaos or not, he was too crafty and too mean by half, and I was sure his Soul would betray me out of sheer spite the first time I summoned him. The man simply could not be trusted, and no matter how much the old Tender would have disapproved, the world was a better place without Ticosi’s card in it.
Getting only a single Order and a single Chaos shard of Rare quality out of the breakage had been a gut punch, though. I saw now why Penkmun said nobody broke down their cards using raw source damage. I’d felt even more cheated than when Findek had shortchanged me on that trade for my Life Mythic during the Tournament’s Soiree. I was desperate to find a cardsmith with the moral flexibility to break down Souls and a belligerent mindset toward the law that would let them handle a few Chaos cards and keep their mouth shut about it. Ticosi’s cards were a treasure chest – a way to upgrade all of my best cards and take my dueling to the next level – but for now that chest was still locked. I’d hidden them in the safest place I could – a crevice dug out underneath a tile I’d pried free in the room I’d slept in while staying at Penkmun’s chapel, back in the corner underneath the bed – but the sooner I could turn them into something more useful, the better, especially since I never told the old man about them.
I went to the front door of the flat, finding Harker squatting in the hallway beyond just as she had done every morning since I’d moved in. Her expressionless face looked as cow-like as ever, but she hauled her bulk to her feet and nodded to me with something like grudging respect – or at least tolerance – while I locked the door behind me.
“There was a Relicsmith I used to watch working as a kid –” I started.
She huffed. “As a kid, huh?”
I rounded on her. “Is my age a problem?”
She looked away. “No. Just sounded funny.”
I chewed on the inside of my cheek, trying to decide how big of a deal to make of the passing comment. If I let my underlings disrespect me, I’d be dead by the end of the day. On the other hand, I wanted to get away from scaring everybody into line. Ticosi’s enforcers hadn’t been picked because they wanted to hand out blankets and kiss babies. For the moment, I thought the simple challenge of her words might be enough to let her know that I wouldn’t just ignore slights. I turned my back to her and marched toward the stairs, heading out of the building and expecting her to follow. “His shop closed ages ago, and I never saw him on the streets I stuck to after that. Do you know who I’m talking about – gray hair, scrappy beard, missing a finger at the middle knuckle? Is he still around?”
She did follow, thankfully. “Roshum, you mean. We found him a better spot that’s close enough to the Hillside neighborhood to draw more business. You Hook Street kids never went that far.”
“We weren’t allowed to go that far,” I said dryly. It felt odd to be bossing around this woman who had been one of the major terrors of my life until just a few weeks ago. If Harker or any of the others had caught so much as a sniff of me near Hillside back then, they’d have taken it out of my hide and probably broken a finger or two. Street boys were only suffered to exist in a very narrow stretch of the worst streets. “Let’s go visit him.”
She followed me out into the square. People saw us and very casually went about their business. Well, they saw Harker and looked away. Except for the very few who had seen me tromping through the streets on my Night Terror’s shoulder, nobody had the first clue who I was, especially now that I was dressed in decent clothes. They’d remember that Harker was following me, though, and they’d put two and two together soon enough.
“Roshum’s paid his dues for the fortnight,” she said. “Not a great idea to lean too hard on our only card smith.”
“I’m not going to lean on him,” I sighed. Every conversation with her went this way. “I’m not doing things that way.” I saw her shake her head out of the corner of my eye, so I paused and faced her. “Something to say?”
She shrugged mulishly, not meeting my eyes. “You’re the Big Man.”
“I am, and you’re the Big Man’s second. If there’s something I need to hear, spit it out. I won’t hit you.”
Her lip curled at the idea, but she proved that she had at least two thoughts to rub together by not saying whatever smartass thing she’d just dreamed up. “We keep the peace in the Lows. City Watch won’t step foot past Broad Street.”
I growled and spun around, heading in the direction of Hillside. “I know all about Ticosi’s peace and the kind of protection he provided. You smashed Lorca’s dung cart and broke his leg just a month past.”
She shrugged. “He wouldn’t pay up.”
“Couldn’t pay up,” I countered, “because his little boy caught the blood croup and the only healer cards around are in Skop’s fist, and he charges through the nose.” I’d watched the public scene from the shadows as the poor night soil hauler begged for mercy and got his livelihood smashed instead.
Harker spat. “Kid wasn’t sick.”
“What?”
“I’d seen his little shit of a kid throwing rocks in the canal that same morning. People come up with all kinds of lies to dodge their taxes.”
I hadn’t known that. “Still, I’m not going to burn shops and chop off feet.”
“Fine,” she said. “Folks’ll like that. But if you don’t let us collect dues from the small folk, especially from the shops, Priyam and the others will put a knife in your back and keep stabbing ‘til you drop.”
I gave her a sharp look, but she spread her hands. “Not a threat. I’m just saying how it is. Unless you want to kill all the enforcers and start fresh, you’ll have to allow them to take the dues and keep their share. Do otherwise and you’ll find out just how much shit can get worse around here when us heavies don’t keep the people in line. The people here need a hard hand.”
I chewed on that. Maybe Harker had more going on behind that stupid face than I’d given her credit for; her words made more sense than I liked. I was in over my head trying to take control of the Lows, and I’d be an idiot to move too fast, too far. “I’ll think about it.”
“Think fast,” she advised. “The others are already antsy.”
“Just the others?” I asked, peering at her.
She rolled her shoulders, still avoiding my eyes. “I don’t get antsy. I just get things done.”
I wasn’t sure whether that was a threat or a promise to help me. She’d been useful so far, but I had no doubt she would turn on me if she decided that was the right move. “Speaking of dues and collections, I need to know where Ticosi kept his treasury. Not just coin, either. I know he kept every last damned card that crossed into the Lows, and I need to get my hands on them.”
She snorted. “What you’ve got isn’t enough?”
“It’s not like that and you know it,” I said. “If I don’t take control of them, someone else will, and like you said, the others are already grumbling.”
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Harker pursed her lips and shook her head. “Shoulda squeezed more information out of the old snake before you did for him, or at the very least not broken his card down for shards. That was one of the few things he never let me know.”
I stopped again. “You’re telling me that Ticosi never let his second know where the money is kept? Do you think I’m stupid?”
“No, I know where the money is,” she said, pointing me to the left as she steered us toward the intersection where Hansom Court split off from Derry Lane. I knew these streets less than the area around the canal. “I have to; between Merrun and me we handle most of the actual coin spending for the group. We have a bank of sorts that runs out of Gabbano’s cathouse. Ticosi had his own little stashes, I’m sure, but nothing huge. He didn’t care about money. No, I’m talking about the cards. He never let any of us know where he kept the cards.”
“Shit,” I muttered. It was good to know that I could lay my hands on coin if I needed, but I knew just as well as the last boss of these streets that the cards were the real power. I had to find them. “Did he have a woman? Kids?”
Harker barked a laugh. “Most would have said it was me, but Ticosi wasn’t built for that kind of thing. He kept to himself.”
I thought about how his snake-like, bloodshot eyes had lit up when he talked about my mother and wondered if Harker had known the man as well as she thought. If he had kept some kind of lover or bedwarmer, though, he’d hidden them well enough that even his trusted lieutenants had no idea of it. “Where would he go when he took new cards?”
“Just disappeared,” she sighed, flapping a hand like something flying away. “I kept a close watch on him, but he could lose us in a heartbeat when he felt like it. Wherever he kept the stash, I don’t think it’s in the Lows. Trust me, I’ve looked.”
I didn’t trust her. She sounded honest enough, and I wasn’t sure she was bright enough to spin a yarn like that on the fly, but if anyone knew something about this, it would be Harker. I resolved to keep a close eye on her whenever I could. Which wouldn’t be often enough, given everything else on my plate, but… one thing at a time.
“Here it is,” she said, gesturing to a small shop up the street. “Roshum’s place.”
It was a narrow storefront with folding doors that opened up the entire front to the street. The shutters were painted a cheery blue, and the word CARDSMITH was embossed over the opening in some kind of gold coloring that looked only the slightest bit faded. The folk up on Merchant’s Row might have turned up their nose at a place like this, but for the Lows this was about as respectable as it got. We weren’t even in the Lows proper any more – a few more streets over and we’d be mixing with the honest workers of Hillside.
The old man I remembered from years past sat behind a long counter just inside the shade of the shop, his white head lowered over some bit of work. A tow-headed girl of perhaps ten was sweeping the cobbles out front, wearing a shabby apron. I motioned Harker to stay put and started forward. To my surprise, the girl took immediate notice of me and planted herself in my path, her scraggly broom held in both hands like a quarterstaff.
“The smith’s not to be bothered,” she said, sounding deadly serious. “It’s delicate work.”
I felt a smile creep over my face. She barely came up to my ribcage. “He’ll want to talk to me.”
The kid raised an eyebrow. She was cute in an underfed, elfin kind of way. “He’d have told me if he was expecting someone.”
“What are you, his bodyguard?” I laughed. I dug in my pocket and pulled out a silver clip. “Here, big lady, go get yourself some food before you blow away.”
She glared at me with an anger that felt all too familiar, but she snatched the money quick enough. “Two more bits and I’ll ask him if he’ll see you.”
The cheek of the little waif was as charming as it was annoying. The old man was no more than twenty feet from me; I could have pushed her aside and spoken to him directly in a matter of seconds. That look of anger spoke to me, though. This girl wasn’t from these nicer streets; she was sweeping up for the old man in the hopes of a copper bit or two. Now that I had a little to spare, I wouldn’t keep it from someone like her. I fished out another silver clip and gave it to her. “Tell the smith that the Big Man is here to see him.”
She was entirely unimpressed, but she took the money and scampered over to whisper to the old codger, who looked up from his work in surprise, glanced at me, and motioned me over. The girl went back to her sweeping, but I could tell she was sticking close, whether to protect the old man or to swindle me out of another clip remained to be seen.
“Unless Ticosi’s got himself some fancy illusion card, you’re not him,” Roshum said. “If it weren’t for Harker lurking back there I’d think you were some young fool trying to run a con on me.”
“No con,” I said. “I’m Hull. I’m taking over from Ticosi.”
That gave the old man a moment’s pause. He pulled at his beard and eyed me closely. “I’ve heard some mutterings. You’re awfully young.”
“That’s what they tell me,” I said, trying to keep my temper. Why was that the first thing everyone said? “But Harker, Priyam, Merrun, Skop, and all the rest answer to me now.”
He nodded slowly. “I’ve paid my fees through the new moon.”
“I’m not here for fees,” I said. “Fact is, I’m reducing everyone’s fees by a quarter. Right now.” The words rolled off my tongue before I knew they were there. It was a half-measure, and one that wouldn’t satisfy me or the enforcers, but it was something. Watching the old man’s eyebrows shoot up told me that for good or ill, I’d moved a step toward the right thing.
“That’s not news I expected to hear today,” he said.
“Well, you can tell the others nearby. I’ll be in to visit them sooner or later too.”
“You know how to get a man’s attention, Hull. What can I do for you?”
Carefully, now. “How’s business?”
He gave me a sharp look. “Middling. I report my earnings fair, young man. I know what happens to those that don’t.”
I waved my hands, wiping away the words. “Not what I mean. I just wonder if a Relicsmith has much business to manage in a neighborhood as card-poor as the Lows.”
He heaved a sigh. “Enough folks come down the hill to keep me going. It’s always transport-box cards for freight work or heating Relics, for the most part – the commonest of the Common – but it’s all anyone can afford, even as you move up to Hillside.”
I nodded. I’d have happily killed a man for a card that put off heat when I was sleeping on the streets, and a good portion of Treledyne’s work came from young strivers who saved up to buy a card that could store a heavy load of goods in some magic, weightless space inside itself while they walked to the other side of the city to unpack it all again. I chose my words carefully. “And if someone showed up with a card he needed broken down, something he needed kept quiet, is that the kind of work you could take on?”
The old man’s hands trembled as he arranged his tools aimlessly, avoiding my gaze. “There’s quiet and then there’s quiet, you get me, and I’d need to know which kind a fellow was asking for.”
“The treason kind,” I said very quietly.
He went still. “Twins take me, you’re talking about Chaos cards. You really did kill him, didn’t you?”
I said nothing and kept my gaze steady.
He took a shaky breath. “Don’t get me wrong, young master, I’ll shed no tears for the Big Man, and if you really do mean to lower my rates I’ll send a prayer up to Fate for you. I…” He fiddled with his tools some more. “It’d be good to know whether you’re asking or telling.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “You’re the Relicsmith.”
He chuckled ruefully. “Meaning no disrespect, master Hull, I’m not sure you feel the weight of the boots you’ve stepped into. If I’d had a conversation like this with your predecessor, he wouldn’t have asked. He’d have dropped a card in my lap, told me to take care of it, and if it brought me trouble, well, that was my problem, not his.”
“Are you likely to find trouble for handling Chaos cards?” I asked. “We might not be in the heart of the Lows here, but this is still the Big Man’s neighborhood.”
“The City Watch doesn’t come around, if that’s what you mean,” he said, leaning back in his chair and letting his old spine crack like so many knuckles. “But with Hillside business comes attention from the King’s card-minders, you see. Not official inspections, and the fees are next to nothing, but the secret police will send in customers every great now and then to ask for something they shouldn’t or sneak-spies to check the contents of my safe during the night. I even heard of a shop where they got the head journeyman on the take; he turned over his master for stealing shards and got the whole shop shut down. If you didn’t have Harker with you I’d think you were working for Azure and send you packing with a harsh word, just to be safe.”
I mulled this over. “I had no idea.”
“That’s why I wonder whether you’re asking or telling, see. If it’s a question of broken knees and burning down my store, then it’ll be one answer, but if it’s just a fellow idly wondering about moonshines and fancies, it’ll be another.”
Once again I was faced with the reality that for all my experience on the street, I wasn’t anywhere mean enough to be the Big Man like Ticosi had been. That was the whole point – I wanted to change things – but I was only just beginning to understand the kind of work it would take to wean this neighborhood off violence and fear and put people to work. “I’m asking, not telling.” I didn’t want to make the old man hate me; he was the only Relicsmith I had nearby, and taking it easy on him felt like something that would pay dividends in the long run. Besides, if I forced him to take Chaos cards for breaking down and he got caught with them, I had no doubt that the secret police would hear my name in short order. Hestorus wouldn’t save me if I fell afoul of the law, and trucking in Chaos was a hanging offense.
“In that case, it’s an interesting hypothetical you pose, but I’m afraid I’m the wrong man for the job.” He rubbed a hand through his thinning white hair, his fourth finger missing down to the middle knuckle. “Truth be told, I don’t have the budget for the alchemical solutions I’d need for the best breakdown of high-level cards anyway. It’s pricy stuff, and hard to come by.”
“Any ideas of where else I could go? Safely?”
He blew out his cheeks and shook his head. “I’ll think on it, but no one springs to mind. You need someone the King doesn’t check on, doesn’t know about, but they also need to have good equipment. It’s a puzzle.”
I wanted to laugh, but I kept it to myself. I knew exactly the right person for what he described: the tailor in the Merchant District from whom I’d stolen the Sucking Void. Unfortunately, some idiot had burned down his shop and I had no idea if he was still operating in Treledyne. Even if he were, he’d try to kill me on sight.
I stood. “It was good to meet you, Roshum. I used to watch you sometimes when you worked near Hook Street, and I’m glad you’re doing well here. I’m sure you’ll see me again before too long.”
“This was a far more pleasant chat than I expected,” he said, rising to his feet with a little groan. “If you’re the kind of man you seem to be, may the Twins favor you and keep you wearing the Big Man’s boots for a long time to come.” He gestured out front. “And thanks especially for the coin you gave to Bryll. She’s a fierce little thing, but she doesn’t eat enough, and I can only afford to pay her for odd jobs every now and then. She won’t tell me where she beds down or else I’d try to do more for her.”
I looked around, but the little blonde girl had disappeared during our conversation. “There’s a hundred just like her, but I’ll keep an eye out.” I shook my head. Until a month ago, I was one of those hundreds. Sometimes the amount of change I’d gone through lately caught up with me all at once and left me dizzy.
Back out on the street Harker hefted herself off her haunches where she’d been waiting patiently and joined me. “What now?”
“Now,” I said, striding confidently up the hill I knew would take me to the Merchant District and eventually the Palace, “you’re going to track down the card dealer that worked out of the tailor shop that burned down a few weeks back and see if he’s set up somewhere else. If he’s left the city, I want to know where he went.”
She nodded, expressionless.
“And then,” I continued, “you’re going to track down Priyam and the rest of the enforcers one by one and tell them that protection dues are reduced by a quarter, starting now.”
She sucked air through her teeth, shaking her head. “They’ll fight that. Better if it came from you than me.”
“It would be,” I said, “But I have other work to do, and I can’t skip it. Remind them of our last meeting and tell them I’ll be very unhappy if they disobey.”
“It’ll take more than that,” she warned.
“I know, and I’ll twist whatever arms I have to. My big demon will be happy to help. I just can’t do it today.”
“What’s so important?” she asked, puffing slightly as she tried to keep up with me.
“War Camp starts today, and I have to be there. I was supposed to be at the Palace already.”
She looked at me as if I’d just grown another head. “You’re going to try to run the Lows and be one of the King’s toadies?”
“I have to.” Bringing a better life to the Lows was important to me, but so was advancing my dueling and growing my deck, and there was no better chance for me to do that than by working with the generals and high nobles of the court. Hestorus still needed to be taken down, or else nothing I did in my old neighborhood would amount to anything. “I don’t know when I’ll be back. It might not be until tomorrow sometime. Keep things under control until then, and find out the things I asked for.”
She sighed. “This won’t work, Hull. Even Ticosi knew he had limits.”
“Yeah, well, he’s dead.” I picked up my steps, leaving her behind. “I’ll make it all work or else I’ll join him.”