The Broken Eye(338)

Tremblefist looked at him. “Let’s move,” he said.

And move they did. Kip would have died after about two blocks of this pace six months ago, much less a year ago. Ben-hadad couldn’t run with his knee busted up, so Kip and Big Leo—who was injured himself—carried him. And ran.

They ate distance in huge gulps, trading off who was helping carry Ben-hadad. They were aided by the fact that most people were already thronging to the main streets, so the side streets were free of the usual early morning traffic. But then they came across a knot of four running Lightguards.

The squad tore them apart before the Lightguards got off a single shot.

Then they were at the wall. Two blocks of running along the jagged edifice and they came to a small gate, barely big enough for one person to get through. The streets were laid out according to the light beams from the star towers, but the walls were laid out to conform to the shape of Big Jasper. It made for some odd nooks and crannies.

“Throw fire in the air,” Tremblefist said. “Make noise. We want to draw them here.”

Kip donned his red spectacles and threw luxin skyward and lit it. The others threw other colors into the air, too.

On any normal day, it would have drawn a thousand spectators in moments, but today was no normal day. On Sun Day, drafters who specialized in such things came here from all over the Seven Satrapies. Most of those, however, were lining the parade route, hitting up the crowds for thrown coins.

Tremblefist produced a key and opened the little gate. “Breaker, put slow-burning pyrejelly on the lock. Make it look like we burned through.”

Kip did it.

While he was doing so, Tremblefist said, “Narrow path out there, along the cliff face. Used to go down to the water, but the path fell into the sea long ago. It’s a dead end. Any who go that way won’t be on us.”

Then, instead of going through the gate, they sprinted once more along the wall. In another few blocks, they found another gate. Tremblefist produced another key. They ducked through, and he locked it behind them.

After a few hundred paces, this path dead-ended, too, and Tremblefist took them through a gate to get back onto the streets. In only a few minutes, they reached the docks and finally had to slow. The area was crowded with people arriving late for Sun Day and hundreds of merchants offloading and selling every kind of good imaginable—it would quiet at noon, but not until then. More importantly, it looked like no Lightguards were here.

Before they got to the red dock, they saw a luxiat standing, shifting from foot to foot, and Tisis Malargos, beautifully made up and looking like she had been waiting.

“You made it!” she said. “Was that you?” She pointed to sky cable, and Kip just grinned.

But he felt Teia shrinking back.

Tisis looked at Teia, and then at Kip; she didn’t look pleased. “So,” Tisis said. “Are we going to do this?”

“What do we need to do?” Kip asked.

“Sign three copies of the contract and say the words in front of the luxiat. That’s it. He knows he needs to boil it down to the essentials.”

“Give me the contract,” Ben-hadad said. “One of the copies. Quick!”

“You’re not seriously going to read it?” she asked. “Now?”

“Well, no, I’m not. But only because I’m shit at reading. Big Leo, read it to me. Over here.”

“It’s a typical Ruthgari wedding contract,” the luxiat said. But he handed over a copy, and Leo began reading it aloud to Ben-hadad.

“Do we really have time for this?” Winsen asked. He and the others were eyeing the crowd, trying not to look threatening and conspicuous and failing.

“What’s the saying,” Cruxer asked. “‘Marry in haste, repent at leisure’?”

“Hmm,” Teia said.

“Surely this doesn’t count as haste,” Tremblefist said. It was hard to tell whether he was being sarcastic or droll.

“Look, this is my deal,” Kip said.

“Deal?” Big Leo asked, breaking off from his low, murmured reading. “Was part of that deal Andross trying to kill us all?”

It was Aram, Kip thought. Aram had to be working against what Andross wanted. I think. But he said, “My deal isn’t with Andross.” Which was a lie, but Tisis was standing right here. “My deal’s with the only people who can protect me from him: Tisis and the Malargos family.”

“Leo, keep reading!” Ben-hadad said.

“Kip,” Teia said. “Breaker.”

“Oh, shit,” Tremblefist said.

“What?” Kip and Cruxer said at the same time, Kip to Teia and Cruxer to Tremblefist.

“You’re really going to do this?” Teia said.