Toll the Hounds

He decided to lick his lips again, and somehow the dust suddenly tasted sweeter. ‘Know anything ‘bout property law, any chance?’



‘Sorry, what?’



‘Like, if I was paying on a loan to this man-’



‘No, no idea. Though I imagine if you just sit tight, maybe wait to see if any-body ever shows up to collect, well, that would hardly be considered illegal. Would it now?’



‘No, seems proper enough to me,’ the foreman agreed.



The man worked the knives back out, wiped the blood off on the stained, rum-pled cloak. ‘Did he tell true about Harllo?’



‘What? Oh. He did. The lad tried to escape, and was killed.’



The man sighed, and then straightened. ‘Ah, shit, Murillio,’ he muttered. ‘I’m sorry.’



‘Wait-this Harllo-was he that important? I mean-’ and the foreman gestured, to encompass not only the corpse lying on the road, but the one that had been there the d«y before as well, ‘all this killing. Who was Harllo?’



The man walked to his horse and swung himself into the saddle. He collected the reins. ‘I’m not sure,’ he said after a moment’s consideration. ‘The way it started, well, it seemed…’ he hesitated, and then said, ‘he was a boy nobody loved.’



Bitter and scarred as he was, even the foreman winced at that. ‘Most of ’em are, as end up here. Most of ’em are’



The man studied him from the saddle.



The foreman wondered-he didn’t see much in the way of triumph or satisfac-tion in that face looking down at him. He wasn’t sure what he was seeing, in fact. Whatever it was, it didn’t fit.



Collecting the reins, the stranger drew the horse round and set off up the road. Heading back to the city.



The foreman coughed up a throatful of rank phlegm, then stepped forward and spat down, quite precisely, on to the upturned face of Gorlas Vidikas. Then he turned round. ‘I want three guards and the fastest horses we got!’



He watched the runner scramble.



From the pit below rose the occasional snatch of harsh laughter. The foreman understood that well enough, and so he nodded. ‘Damn and below, I’ll give ’em all an extra flagon of ale anyway.’



Cutter rode for a time as dusk surrendered to darkness. The horse was the first to sense a loss of will, as the rider on its back ceased all efforts at guiding its pace. The beast dropped from a canter to a trot, then a walk, and then it came to rest and stood at the edge of the road, head lowering to snag a tuft of grass.



Cutter stared down at his hands, watched as the reins slithered free. And then he began to weep. For Murillio, for a boy he had never met. But most of all, he wept for himself.



Come to me, my love. Come to me now.



A short time later, three messengers thundered past-paying him no heed at all. The drum of horse hoofs was slow to fade, and the clouds of dust left in their wake hung suspended, lit only by starlight.



Venaz the hero, Venaz who followed orders, and if those meant something vicious, even murderous, then that was how it would be. No questions, no qualms. He had returned up top in grim triumph. Another escape thwarted, the message sweetly delivered. Even so, he liked being thorough. In fact, he’d wanted to make sure.



And so, in keeping with his new privileges as head of the moles, when he col-lected a knotted climbing rope and set off back into the tunnels, he was not ac-costed. He could do as he liked now, couldn’t he? And when he returned, carrying whatever proof he could find of the deaths of Bainisk and Harllo, then Gorlas



Vidikas would see just how valuable he was, and Venaz would find a new life for himself,



Good work led to good rewards. A simple enough truth.



Whatever flood had filled part of the passage deep in the Settle had mostly drained away, easing his trek to the crevasse. When he reached it he crouched at the edge, listening carefully-to make certain that no one was still alive, maybe scuffling about in the pitch blackness down below. Satisfied, he worked Bainisk’s rope off the knob of stone and replaced it with his own, then sent the rest of the coil tumbling over the edge.



Venaz set his lantern to its lowest setting and tied half a body-length of twine to the handle, and the other end to one ankle. He let the lantern down, and then followed with his legs. He brought both feet together, the rope in between, and edged further over until they rested on a knot. Now, so long as the twine didn’t get fouled with the rope, he’d be fine.



Moving with great caution, he began his descent.



Broken, bleeding bodies somewhere below, killed by rocks-not by Venaz, since he’d not even cut the rope. Bainisk had done that, the fool. Still, Venaz could still take the credit-nothing wrong with that.