You’re a shit friend, Nik.
It didn’t stop the relief, though. I wanted out, and no amount of arguing with myself would change that. This was not my kind of place. It triggered an aversion deep in the beast part of my mind that I couldn’t shake. I wanted nothing to do with the likes of Carnelian Silkstar.
The central courtyard was already packed and the heat of the day was becoming oppressive. The high walls prevented any hint of a breeze. An altar carved from a single block of honey-yellow amber stood at one end. Amber didn’t come in lumps that size, which meant that Silkstar had created it himself with magic. Bloody show-off.
Nobody was paying much attention to the altar, because in the end, an altar was just an altar, no matter how shiny and impressive it was, and whatever else you might say about the citizens of Agatos, they didn’t turn their noses up at a free meal. Tables had been set up around the courtyard, laden with honey-soaked treats. I’d noticed that most of the citizens who’d made their way to Thousand Walls were from the upper end of society, but that wasn’t stopping them stuffing their faces, and there were enough adventurous souls from the Grey City and the Middle City that Benny and I didn’t stand out.
Around the edge of the courtyard, beneath the occasional sneezing fits from the crowd, a constant, low hum rose from dozens of beehives. I could smell lavender and rosemary heavy in the still air. Clouds of bees lifted or settled, bringing nectar from the Missos flowers. Personally, I would have thought twice before covering the tables with honeyed snacks with so many bees around, but that’s religion for you. The crowd jostled around me.
Benny leaned in closer. “Try to look like you fit in.” He grabbed a handful of sticky pastries from the table and shoved them into his mouth. “Like this.”
“You’ve got honey in your beard.”
“Saving it for later.”
I shrugged. “Don’t blame me if you get a face full of bees.”
I still hadn’t eaten today, and my stomach was protesting. I waited until Benny was looking the other way, then scooped up a finger-sized pastry, stuffed it in my mouth, and wiped my fingers on my shirt.
There were guards at all the entrances to the actual house from the courtyard. How Benny thought we were getting past, I didn’t know. I hoped he didn’t have anything too drastic in mind. Drastic things tended to go wrong.
The first time Benny had got me into real trouble, I had been eight years old. There had been nothing mage-y about me then — I had been able to see magic, catch glimpses of it when staring into the distance or daydreaming, but I hadn’t really known what it was, and I couldn’t do anything with it. Benny, though, was already an accomplished thief. Or that’s what he’d told me. Like the idiot I had been, I’d told him to prove it.
This had been back when we had both lived in the Warrens, down by the docks. If the Grey City was the disreputable older brother of the White City, then the Warrens was the uncle that all the kids tried to stay away from during the Ebbtide Vigil.
Benny’s young pride had been hurt, so he’d decided to prove me wrong by breaking into one of the Wren’s warehouses in full daylight. We hadn’t made it five yards inside before we were caught. For some reason, maybe because my mother worked for the Wren, or maybe because he took pity on our absolute incompetence, he didn’t cut off our heads and use them as footballs. We did get a good kicking, though, which soured me to Benny’s schemes, although it didn’t have much effect on him.
“Here he comes,” Benny whispered.
If I hadn’t already known what Carnelian Silkstar looked like, I would have taken him for an apprentice scribe or a bookkeeper. He was a small man with narrow, drawn-in shoulders, skin that was lighter than was common in Agatos, and thin brown hair. I certainly wouldn’t have taken him for one of the three most powerful people in the city. He could scurry past you on the street and you would never notice him.
Everyone noticed him now. He emerged from his palace at the head of a battalion of priests, clerks, black-cloaked mages, and a selection of weak-chinned young men who I assumed were his sons.
“I thought we were going to avoid him,” I hissed at Benny.
I would only have to let slip a trickle of magic and Silkstar would spot me. It was the Feast of Parata, and I was as welcome here today as anyone else, but once Silkstar noticed me, he would put some kind of trace on me. That was just basic common sense when a mage came into your home. I wouldn’t be able to break Benny’s curse without Silkstar coming down on me like a plunging hawk.
This was crazy. How had I let Benny talk me into this?
“Don’t worry, mate. We’re not going anywhere near him. He’s just the distraction.”
“Yeah, well, I’m feeling fucking distracted right now.”
Benny had better be telling me the truth. I didn’t care how much I owed him. I wasn’t going head-to-head with a high mage for any debt or favour. Suicide didn’t look good on me.
Benny was right that Carnelian Silkstar was a distraction, though. The moment he had emerged, heads had turned towards him and conversations around courtyard had died away, leaving only the hum of the bees, rising and falling and shushing like gentle waves on a pebble beach. Everyone was watching the procession towards the altar. The citizens of Agatos might be here for the free snacks, but it was polite to pay attention to the religious bit, particularly when your host could flatten the whole lot of you with a single twitch of his finger.
Benny plucked at my sleeve, drawing me back through the pressing crowd.
As Carnelian Silkstar reached the altar, Benny and I slipped into the shadows beneath the covered walkway that surrounded the courtyard.
Much as I hated to admit it, this plan of Benny’s was probably the best we could have come up with, no matter how crazy it was. Our other option would have been to come under cover of the night and pick the locks. But any mage worth the name would have wards around their house. Depths, I had wards, and there were plenty who would say I was a disgrace to the whole of magedom, the pompous gits. But right now Carnelian Silkstar’s wards were down. Even for a high mage, it would be frowned upon if he accidentally fried any of his guests who had just wandered off looking for a toilet.
Of course, we still had to get past the guards, and that was where partnering someone as fundamentally dodgy as Benny came in handy. Benny knew a good chunk of the other dodgy citizens of Agatos. He wasn’t much use with the criminals and frauds in the upper echelons of society, the likes of Carnelian Silkstar, the various priesthoods, or the Senate, but for your common or garden scumbags, Benny was your man. So I wasn’t at all surprised when Benny sidled up to a couple of the guards with a familiar nod of the head and a whispered, “All right?”
The religious part of the event was getting into full swing. Priests were wandering about, tossing handfuls of flowers into the crowds, which had the dual effect of raising the hum of the bees from the hives and setting at least a dozen people sneezing. I kept one eye on the happenings in the courtyard while watching Benny’s dealings with the other.
In the Warrens, we called a silver coin a ‘watchman’ because it was the traditional amount it took to bribe a member of the City Watch to look the other way. From the clink of the purses Benny slipped to the guards, Silkstar’s men worked to higher standards.