Sea of Ghosts - Alan Campbell [72]
Briana cast her mind out, but failed to sense the fisherman at all. He was no more psychic than a sewer rat, and therefore just as invisible to her from here. She took the letter and opened it.
To Sister Briana Marks:
My name is not important. I am a jailer in Ethugra who has recently, and legally, been granted incarceration rights to a powerful psychic. Given this person’s value to your Guild, I would be glad to hand them over in return for a finder’s fee of two hundred thousand gilders. If this is agreeable, please have a Guild representative (yellow-grade only) meet me at Averley Plaza on the 30th HR. I will find her.
Faithfully,
A Friend
‘Oh, this is extortion,’ she said. ‘Two hundred thousand gilders!’ She looked up at the girl. ‘How much did we pay for you?’
‘Nothing, Sister.’
‘Nothing,’ Briana confirmed. ‘You see how good we are at putting a precise value on talent?’
‘My parents thought it a great honour—’
‘Oh shut up,’ Briana said. ‘Your parents were lucky we didn’t have them executed for foisting you upon us. But this Ethugran jailer . . .’ she shook the letter in Mara’s face ‘. . . . has the audacity to demand a fortune for a potential.’
‘Such is the world we live in,’ Mara said wearily.
‘We will war upon the Haurstaf,’ the Unmer patient added.
Briana growled. ‘Snip something, Torturer, please.’ Did they have any representatives in Ethugra? She broadcast the question to every psychic in the palace, and they answer came back at once: No.
She’d have to send someone.
But who?
As she gazed at the letter, thinking, she noticed something else. Somebody had scrawled something, very faintly, across the bottom margin. At first she’d taken the scribble to be a stain, but now that she looked closer she could definitely make out the words. They looked like they had been written in brine. There was a date, and a name. And she recognized the name.
Briana smiled. Hu would recognize that name too and pay the Guild a considerable sum to learn of its owner’s whereabouts. Prepare a carriage for me, she said to the girl. I’m leaving the palace at once.
‘Yes, sister.’
‘Wait,’ Briana added. ‘On second thoughts, I’ll arrange it myself.’ She gave the girl a long, clinical look and then turned to Mara. ‘Torturer, I was just thinking. Is it really necessary to let the emperor know the results of this anatomical exploration? I mean, aren’t we just fuelling his prejudices? Wouldn’t he be happier, deep down, if he believed that the Haurstaf – and by extension all humans – are completely unrelated to the Unmer?’
The Torturer made a gesture of non-committal. ‘He’s not convinced the Haurstaf are human. I believe his favoured term is brine mutants, although he has been known to use the phrase inhuman parasites. Of course, when he’s really angry he—’
‘Yes, yes,’ Briana said. ‘But look at that pretty little creature at the door. Does she look like a mutant to you?’
‘Of course not,’ Mara replied.
‘Then you agree. Keeping Hu in the dark would be beneficial for all concerned. Think of it as propagating peace and harmony between our communities.’
Mara grunted. ‘I’d be risking my position in his court.’
‘We’d compensate you for that.’ Briana inclined her head towards the young girl in the doorway. ‘I could offer you the opportunity to do a little more anatomical research?’
The girl glanced from the torturer to Briana. ‘Sister?’
Mara looked the young witch up and down, stroking his chin.
‘In more comfortable surroundings,’ Briana added. ‘You must stay as our guest for a few more nights. I insist.’
‘Hu’s gone to Lorimare for the summer,’ Mara said. ‘I could actually delay my return by several weeks.’
‘Take months if you like.’
The girl was turning red. ‘I will not,’ she said.
‘You absolutely will,’ Briana said.
The girl burst into tears and ran from the room, slamming the door behind her.
A moment of silence passed before Briana said, ‘So ungrateful. We take them from the fields and slums,