Those Below by Daniel Polansky

Author:Daniel Polansky [Polansky, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Fiction
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 2016-03-10T00:00:00+00:00

21

Pyre was the first into Isle’s bar that evening, Hammer holding the door for him. Pyre liked to come in first if he could, believing that the shock of his sudden arrival often did more to ensure the outcome of the conflict than even superior numbers. Of course he had those as well, four men, well-trained and specially chosen, Tallow from the Third Rung, dark as burned sugar and very slick with the Salucian-style blade he carried, thick-necked Asp, cruel-eyed Splinter, Harrier who had played in a band near the docks before he had heard the truth, who had sworn never to tune a string save he did it as a free man.

And Hammer of course, Hammer who had not left his side for more than a day since his initiation, Hammer who had once been known as Seed. Against the five of them there was only Spindle, sitting at a table near the bar, too big for his seat as he was for most of the things that surrounded him, a bushy beard covering a mouth that had been known sometimes to smile. He wasn’t smiling now, of course; indeed at the sight of the Dead Pigeons his face seemed distinctly unfriendly.

‘Isle’s is closed,’ Pyre said, loudly enough to wake the drunk dozing in the back of the room. The rest of the crowd didn’t need the announcement, had already realised that Isle’s was no longer a place they wanted to be just then, might have permanently lost that distinction. Half a minute later and there were only Pyre and the men he had brought and the dark-haired giant who obstructed their passage, upright and leaning against the bar.

‘How you been, Spindle?’ Pyre asked.

‘All right before today.’

‘No, in fact you’ve been living a life clouded by sin and foolishness, as I once was.’

‘I’d heard you’d taken up with these fanatics. Couldn’t quite believe it. Do they know what you used to do for us? Do they know what you were? What you are?’

‘These are my brothers, Spindle. There is nothing which I would not share with them, no sin to which I would not admit, openly and with hope of forgiveness. You too might enjoy this camaraderie, were you to consider it. But now is not the time to speak of the truth, though I hope that time comes for us sometime soon. I need to see Rhythm.’

‘You have an appointment?’

‘I’ve had an open invitation for two years now, one I’ve too long delayed.’

‘Rhythm never mentioned that to me,’ Spindle said. There was a moment when Pyre thought things might turn nasty, because while the five of them could take Spindle in the end, he would not go easy; he was a deft hand with the dirk peeking up from his belt and those hands were large as a normal man’s skull, and they led to arms and shoulders that were equally oversized. There would be a great deal of cutting before Spindle went cold.

But then something seemed to leave him, dribble out of his coin-sized nostrils and his mouth full of broken and yellowed teeth.

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