“Two.”
No, fleeing would only get me cut down in the street like a mad dog. So could I bluff? Should I plead innocence? Perhaps blame someone else? Hadn’t I once pretended to be my own brother, and now that I considered it, hadn’t it worked?
“Three…”
Of course, had I really been thinking, I’d have realised there was no way I’d get to do or say anything before the situation was taken from my hands. “My name is Marina Estrada,” said Estrada, stepping forward, “Mayor elect of the town of Muena Palaiya. On behalf of myself and my associates, I welcome you to Altapasaeda.”
If Estrada was staring down a force of heavily armed savages, if she had nothing except audacity and the shirt on her back to bargain with, if her eyes were locked with those of the most singularly dangerous woman she was ever likely to meet, you would never have guessed it from her tone. And if nothing else, she seemed to have Kalyxis’s attention. As long as it was off me, I was willing to count that a success.
“You’ve arrived in the middle of a conflict between the King of Ans Pasaeda and the people of this city,” continued Estrada, “here representing the rights of the Castoval entire. The events of today will have immeasurable consequences for both nations… and, as I’m sure you must realise, for your own land of Shoan as well.”
Kalyxis had been watching her all the while — and just as when I’d first met her, her stare brought to mind images of a raptor scrutinising some distant prey. Might it be too big to carry off? Might it have teeth? Might it have claws? And I supposed that for Kalyxis there was one question that no eagle had ever had to worry about: might it be an ally, now that I’ve found myself far from home and in the middle of someone else’s war?
However, if the possibility had so much as crossed her mind, the toneless chill of her voice hinted none of it. “My name is Kalyxis of Shoan. My grandson has been kidnapped and this degenerate knows where he is. The time he has left to convey that information to me is dwindling rapidly.”
“I believe there’s been a misunderstanding,” replied Estrada, calm as ever. “I swear to you, if it’s within my power, I’ll make certain it’s resolved to your satisfaction.”
“Your word means nothing to me,” said Kalyxis. “And neither do you. I’ve made my terms abundantly clear.”
“You and your men must be tired and hungry. Come with us now, and we’ll discuss this in more comfortable surroundings.”
Estrada’s poise in the face of provocation was astonishing; almost as remarkable was the fact that it seemed to be having no effect on Kalyxis whatsoever. “My men are warriors of Shoan,” she said. “They’ve endured far worse with far less cause. We’ll rest when we’ve left this barbarous land behind with my grandson in tow.”
Had she really just called us barbarous? I was surprised by how much my blood rose at that, when all I’d felt until that point was fear.
Even Estrada seemed finally to be losing a little of her patience. “Kalyxis,” she said, “through no misdoing of your own, you’ve placed yourself and your men in grave danger. I know you’re no friend of the King, and he may well be marching through these streets before the day is out. When circumstances have made us allies, what can you hope to gain with threats?”
The way Estrada talked, you’d think she actually had something to bargain with; that it was she who had the entourage of armed men and not Kalyxis. More than anything she’d said, it was that inexplicable bravado that made me open my mouth when every shred of sense told me to keep it shut.
“The fact is,” I said, before Kalyxis could deliver whatever scathing rebuttal was working towards her tongue, “that you asked Navare here for a truce. Well I’ll tell you now, here in Altapasaeda, truces don’t involve threatening to have people flayed. Like Estrada said, the best course of action here is that we get together, without quite so many swords on display, and have a civilised discussion about how we find your missing grandson.”
Kalyxis turned her aquiline glare on me. “Missing?”
The way she pronounced that one word made my heart want to stop for sheer terror. Yet I knew that if I didn’t press on now, I was done for, and Estrada and Navare too. “Exactly, missing. And not likely to get any less so unless we all calm down.”
By we I’d meant you, but I assumed that years of politicking would have prepared her for such linguistic niceties. Which meant I’d effectively just told a terrifying barbarian queen to get a hold of herself; suddenly, keeping quiet seemed as if it would have been by far the better option.
Then again, wasn’t reason on my side? However limited Kalyxis’s knowledge of the Castoval might be, she had to realise that the chances of finding one wayward youth, in the middle of a war no less, were just below the odds of finding one lost eyelash in a brothel.
Still, the woman had failed to show much in the way of common sense so far. Her approach had been more along the lines of execute now and work out what the question was later. It would be a mistake to expect her to reach the same inescapably rational conclusion I had.
Thus, I was as surprised as I expected Kalyxis herself was when she said, “You have until sunset. Tell me by then how my grandson will be returned to me or, so help me, this city will find itself losing a war on two fronts.”
Estrada had failed to take into account one thing: organising meetings, food, shelter or anything else in a city that had suddenly — and for the majority of its self-absorbed citizenry, unexpectedly — found itself under attack was a lot like trying to organise an archery contest aboard a sinking ship. No one was interested in the tasks Estrada wanted to set them; for some reason, they were far more eager to get distracted or fly into panics instead.
Estrada had decided to commandeer the Dancing Cat, the inn that had served as Mounteban’s headquarters and afterwards his prison. Her reasoning was sound: there was food and drink there, ample space even for a force of irate Shoanish, and since the Cat had gained such significance lately in the city’s affairs, it had become an unofficial meeting point for the remains of the guard and other factions in the defence effort.
As it turned out, however, it was for exactly that last reason that no one was willing to do what Estrada wanted them to. I watched and tried to find some amusement in the sight of her commandeering passing guardsmen and members of Mounteban’s hotchpotch army, who feigned attention only to rush off on their original errands the moment she let them out of her sight.
Throughout, I kept expecting Kalyxis to run out of whatever passed in the far north for patience. Yet as minutes turned to hours, she only waited with her rough companions, sometimes speaking in muted tones to them, more often observing the commotion unfolding around her as if it were the sort of entertainment always put on for visiting dignitaries. Innumerable as her other flaws of character might be, it appeared that once given, she kept her word.
All the while, I dithered over the prospect of getting out of there to try to find Saltlick. A dozen times I told myself I would, Kalyxis, Estrada and everyone else be damned; I wouldn’t be kept hostage just because I’d had the misfortune of making Malekrin’s acquaintance. Though I’d quickly realised that a couple of the Shoanish were always watching me, I had no doubt I could elude them once the right diversion presented itself.
Yet diversions came and went, one opportunity after another arose for me to duck out of sight, and all I did was stand there, lost in my thoughts. Each time it became harder to deny that what was keeping me in place wasn’t a sense of responsibility, or any faith in Estrada’s attempts at peacemaking. No, it was fear that rooted me, and not just of Kalyxis or her men. What terrified me was the prospect of succeeding, of managing to get away and track down Saltlick — and of what I’d find if I did.