The Lost Puzzler by Eyal Kless

Author:Eyal Kless
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2019-01-07T16:00:00+00:00

36

The four of us stopped at the entrance to the Keenan compound. “What was the nightmare about?” I asked.

“Tell me what we’re doing here and I might answer your question.” Vincha looked around suspiciously.

I couldn’t blame her. The Guilds Plateau was once where the most powerful guild houses were located and no doubt used to be the most popular area of the city, with some of the best taverns and definitely the best brothel, but no more. The last guild war and the mountain of shit that erupted in Tarakan Valley took care of that.

The Plateau was now practically deserted. The once famous steel gates to the Keenan compound were missing, taken down long ago for their metal. My vision made it easier for me to see the scorch marks and bullet holes that bruised its walls. After the massacre in the Valley the guilds began to lose power, and it took very little time for their weakness to turn into aggression. Accusations flew back and forth, delicate alliances were broken, and even more delicate egos were bruised. Assassination attempts followed. Some succeeded, others failed, and in the blink of an eye the City of Towers was in the midst of the last, and bloodiest, guild war ever. It decimated the entire Plateau and drove half the population away from the city.

It was then that Sirbin Sammuel, the rubber stamp Council leader, finally grew a pair. He allegedly offed the former head of Sabarra, Mauricious Altenna, then took charge and restored order to the city, using the troops given to him by the guilds themselves. The majority of the ShieldGuards held their vow to the Council and took hold of the city when the surviving guilds were too weak to pose a threat anymore. The guild leaders were forced to bow their heads to the Council and never regained their former status. When the guards were called back from the fields to fight the war, it took the farmers only a week to stage a revolt. Weakened as it was, the Council had to sign an agreement with the farmers that gave them freedom and rights and also made it impossible for any guild to completely control the food supply. By then the Keenan guild was already decimated. Lord Keenan himself died from a lethal poison dart as he dined, as the rumours go, with several of his concubines.

After the onslaught no one bothered to try and rebuild the Guilds Plateau. It was too far up from the city centre, and the guilds that survived the war were ordered to move to the Upper Towers, where they could be better protected—or, in other words, easier to watch.

By the following season, even the vagrants had left the ruins. There was simply nothing to steal and no one left to rob.

River busied himself with one of his gadgets, and the area lit up so suddenly I was momentarily blinded. I blinked and looked away from the light as he busied himself scanning the area ahead.

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