Heirs of the Blade_ Shadows of the Apt_ Book Seven - Adiran Tchaikovsky [120]
‘Well then,’ Dal Arche declared, in the silence that followed, ‘they could have left well alone, and in ten years, perhaps, this place would become so tame I’d need to go rob some prince or other just to keep me from going mad with boredom. I thank the Salmae that they spared me the wait. They have food, north of the province border, and I see no better option than to take it, and spill what blood needs shedding.’
The other two brigand chiefs eyed him suspiciously, as though he was spinning them some particularly self-serving lie, but at last Pirett said wonderingly, ‘Well, I wish you luck. Give my regards to Mother Salme when she has you hanged.’
Angry said nothing, but he nodded grudgingly.
Outside, with the other chieftains heading off to mobilize their followers, Dal Arche sought out his own three lieutenants. There was more in his mind than he had let on to the others, for his profession was never one to breed trust. He needed to steal a march on his rivals.
They were waiting for him, his most valued followers, his brothers of the wilds: a Wasp, a Scorpion and a gaunt and spindly Grasshopper passing a jug of beer between them as they waited for his return.
‘We’re moving out,’ he told them, after dropping down beside them. They were the only occupants of what had once been a popular drinking den. Even the proprietor had gathered up what he could and fled. All the villains and renegades who had been concentrated in Siriell’s Town were dispersing across Rhael Province and beyond.
‘What’s the plan, Dala?’ the Wasp-kinden asked.
‘I’m taking most of our lot north, like we discussed. I’ll be raiding the borders in a tenday, strike and flight, like the old days. Always one step ahead of the Mercers. You three, though . . .’ He looked them over: Mordrec, Barad Ygor and Soul Je. The four of them had been through a lot together since the Wasp had sprung Dal Arche from a Mynan prison. ‘I want you to make a circle south and east. Go play the recruiting sergeant. Pick up every malcontent you can get who has a will to carve a piece of something better. You’ll need to dodge Pirett and Angry’s mobs, though. She’s just heading to the border, but Angry will be after the same pickings, maybe, so you’re best to keep ahead of him. Round up a whole new mob, get them fired up, bring them to me. We’re going to teach the honest folk of Elas Mar Province how to piss themselves in fright.’
They stared at him, and he knew that these three, of all his followers, would not simply do what he said without question. They would be wondering how much of this plan was reason, how much rage. And how close had he been to Siriell, indeed, before she was killed?
‘We’ve been a lot of things in our time,’ he told them softly, ‘but right now we’re thieves, and there’s only one direction we can go to find someone worth robbing.’
It seemed only minutes before she was seated astride Lycene, clinging to Alain’s waist as the swift insect hurtled through the air. Tynisa could only huddle up against the prince’s back and stare down, beyond the blurring wings, at the Commonweal countryside fleeting past. She thought she saw the lake, down there, that Gaved and Sef lived alongside, but then it was gone: her journey of several days to Lowre Cean’s compound undone in hours only.
She had assumed that the dragonfly would bear them all the way to Leose before dark. Indeed, such was its speed that it seemed possible for the insect to take them anywhere, alighting in Collegium or in the Empire, or encircling the entire world. As night grew in the east, though, Lycene