The second time Munroe went to meet the Butcher her experience was a lot more pleasant. There was no need for the drunk routine or any form of pretence.
A note had been slipped under her bedroom door with a place to meet him. After a hearty breakfast, and remembering to avoid her old haunts, Munroe took a slightly strangled route down to the docks. If Perizzi was the centre of the west then the port was its beating heart. Rivers of goods and information flowed through the city and a hundred new stories arrived every morning via the ships with their diverse cargo. Merchants bartered with ships’ captains and dockside workers for better deals while exchanging tales and rumours.
In the short time she’d been waiting for the Butcher she’d heard four stories about Garvey. After his latest attack on a village in northern Yerskania he’d vanished for about a week, only to reappear in Zecorria. The Regent’s sudden change of heart and plea for mages made a lot more sense. She would’ve felt more sympathy for him if not for the fact that he’d been the first to bring in a national ban on Seekers.
One rumour about Garvey claimed that a group of Yerskani soldiers had fought the rogue mages somewhere in the north. When Garvey and his followers attacked a town the soldiers had surprised them, succeeding in killing one of their number. A variant of the story from a swarthy captain claimed Garvey himself had been injured. For whatever reason all four stories agreed that he and his group had not been seen for eight days before their sudden appearance over the border. They hadn’t attacked a settlement recently, which was making patrols in both countries increasingly nervous.
Despite spending several years at the Red Tower, Munroe’s first impression of Garvey had not changed. His power and skill as a Sorcerer couldn’t be denied, but he was dangerously unstable. Perhaps that was why when she first heard the stories of his rampage it didn’t surprise her.
Normally Munroe enjoyed the crowds at the docks. Seeing so many people crawling over the ships made her realise she was just one individual among thousands and it put her troubles into perspective. Today she didn’t care about any of them or their problems. Today there was too much noise and too many people for her liking. The only good thing about the crowd was her ability to hide in plain sight. None of Akosh’s people knew she was coming after her, and, if she was half as clever as Munroe imagined, she would have several people working in the port. The only problem was she had no idea who they were. The Butcher probably had his suspicions, but she doubted any of Akosh’s people would betray her. With a glare at the crowd and the unknown agents hiding within, she drained her glass of ale and went inside the drinking hole to fetch another.
A short time later the Butcher came in and sat down at the bar beside her. He ordered an ale and they drank in companionable silence for a while.
“I received some news from Rojenne,” she said, forgoing any of the usual banter. The crushing weight on her heart was a constant reminder of what had been taken from her. The constant effort of holding back her anger left little room for much else. The drink numbed the pain a little, but it always came back, full of razors and claws, ripping her apart on the inside.
She hated standing still and not being out there chasing down people, but had finally accepted her less than subtle approach would not be enough. Not this time.
“Was this your first official report as Dońa Munroe?”
In Perizzi the underworld was controlled by several crime Families, each headed up by a Don or Dońa.
She snorted. “Hardly. They don’t have crime Families down there. The man I left in charge, Tok, found out she has two orphanages in Rojenne. Both of them receive their money once a month from someone here in Perizzi. It always comes in with merchant trains, so it’s well protected. Someone then passes out the gold to the orphanages.”
The Butcher said nothing for a while, mulling it over. “Makes sense. Rojenne is a fairly small city and a little out of the way. I doubt she has many people down there. It also lines up with what I’ve found.”
“Which is?”
“A fat money spider,” said the Butcher, raising one corner of his mouth in a half-smile.
“Where?”
“Right here, in the heart of Perizzi. The money flows in from all over and then goes back out again, to Rojenne and probably other places in Yerskania I’ve not found yet.”
“Then why are we still sitting here?” said Munroe, getting up from her stool. The Butcher just tapped the bar and looked at her expectantly. Taking a deep breath, she sat back down again, swallowing her bitter frustration.
“If we were to grab the bookkeeper, there’s no guarantee he’d know where to find her. However,” said the Butcher, holding up a hand before she interrupted. He waited until Munroe had bitten her lip before continuing. “What he does have is a list of names. People and places. Part of Akosh’s network. What we need is to get hold of that list, then I can have eyes and ears watching for her in all of those places.”
“It’s a good thing I never joined the Silent Order,” said Munroe. “I don’t have the patience for all this crap.”
The Butcher raised an eyebrow. “The Silent Order? Never mind, I probably don’t want to know.”
“So where’s the list? In his office?”
“No, I had someone check and that’s the first problem. The Guardians are investigating Akosh as well, and they had the same idea. They picked up the accountant a few hours ago.”
“What’s the second problem?” asked Munroe through clenched teeth.
“He’s being held at Unity Hall. It would be extremely difficult and costly for me to get one person inside that place. If I tried, the long-term repercussions would severely outweigh the short-term benefit.” The repercussions for breaking into the Guardians’ most secure building would be harsh. It was also not something that they would forget. There would be a lasting shadow hanging over everything the Butcher did while the Watch and every Guardian focused their attention on him. The risk simply wasn’t worth the reward.
“Shit.”
“I had hoped once the Old Man retired the new Khevassar would be more flexible. Sadly, it seems she’s just as implacable as her predecessor.”
“I know her. She’s pretty dangerous.”
“Perhaps you could work with her, and the Guardians, to find Akosh,” suggested the Butcher, but Munroe was already shaking her head before he’d finished talking.
“No. I tried that,” she said, thinking back to her last meeting with Tammy. “They’re too slow and always go by the book. They’ll probably try to imprison Akosh. I’m going to rip off her head with my bare hands and piss on her rotting corpse.”
“Very colourful.”
“So what do we do instead?” asked Munroe. “I swear if you say ‘be patient’ or ‘wait’ I’ll throw you through that wall and drown you in the river,” she said.
The Butcher showed no signs of alarm other than to raise one eyebrow. He considered his answer carefully and Munroe felt herself reaching for the Source. She would throw him through the wall and into the next building and the one after that. There was only so much sitting around and doing nothing she could stomach. She needed answers. She needed an edge. Drawing power into herself she felt it fill her body, making every part of her skin tingle. Her senses were magnified until she could hear the slow and steady heartbeat of the Butcher. It also made her aware of a few other things about him that she’d previously missed.
He smelled of the sea and because he was dressed in a black leather vest she couldn’t miss the heavy muscles across his shoulders and down his arms. His vest hid little and showed off his unique tattoos. It would make him a distinctive figure wherever he went. She’d presumed it was because he liked showing off his body, but now she began to wonder if there was another reason.
Wherever he went, people would immediately recognise him. The woman serving drinks behind the bar had steady hands until she came to serve the Butcher. Munroe had also noticed the worried looks other patrons had been giving him since he sat down. People were petrified of him.
It shouldn’t matter. She’d left all of the mind games and scheming behind to start a new life and yet here she was, back in Perizzi, hip deep in Family business again.
“Follow the money,” said the Butcher.
Munroe eased her grip on the Source, dulling her senses in the process. “What do you mean?”
“A peculiar thing happened in the last few days. All of her orphanages here in the city recently changed patrons. Priests have rededicated them to the Maker, the Blessed Mother or the Lady of Light.”
“Someone else is trying to get rid of her in Yerskania,” said Munroe.
“I suspect those in Rojenne will soon disappear as well. So, if you were one of her followers, and suddenly all of her orphanages in Yerskania are gone, where do you send the money?” asked the Butcher.
“You said she had orphanages in the north. In Zecorria,” said Munroe.
“I have four bookkeepers,” he said. “I’d be an idiot to trust one person with all of my money.”
“She has another money spider in the north,” said Munroe. With the Guardians swarming over Perizzi, and now someone else removing her connection to the orphanages, Akosh would have to be an idiot to return to Yerskania. She still had people in the city, but wouldn’t know if they had been bought. And with so many different parties just waiting for her it would be the same as walking into a bear trap with your eyes open.
At the moment Zecorria was a safe harbour where she was still surrounded by people she could trust. The difficulty for Munroe, without having a network of her own, would be finding reliable information in the north. If she started asking too many questions or used her magic overtly it would draw attention.
“I can see what you’re thinking,” said the Butcher. “Nothing has changed, Munroe. If you go to Herakion, you’ll be on your own, in her city. I have a handful of people there, but they’re just Ears. They never ask questions and you can’t use them for that. Someone might be willing to talk, if you have enough gold, but sifting through the lies will be the challenge.”
He was right. Sometimes people would tell you exactly what you wanted to hear for a bit of money. Once people found out she was after Akosh they would come crawling out of the woodwork to feed her information. And in a city teeming with Akosh’s people it wouldn’t be long before someone tried to cut her throat in the middle of the night. In spite of knowing all of that, she couldn’t sit still any longer. She knew it was rash. Balfruss and Tammy would probably say she was letting her thirst for revenge consume her and they’d be right. It didn’t matter. Her rage was a living thing inside her. Munroe could feel it hammering against the bars of her restraint like a caged bear. It would only remain in check for so long. After that even she was afraid of what might happen.
“It doesn’t matter. I have to go north,” insisted Munroe. “She must pay for what she’s done.”
“There’s also the other thing,” said the Butcher. “The Regent has banned all mages, except those from Zecorria, who are willing to serve him.”
“People in the north don’t know me, or how my magic works. I can use it quietly until I find her. I just need some answers.”
“If you insist on doing this, then at least take someone you can trust. Someone who will watch your back.” Munroe immediately thought of Choss and her heart lurched in her chest again. “You need someone who doesn’t stand out.”
Tok would be the ideal candidate and she knew he would be reliable. On the other hand, she wasn’t sure she could put him at risk. The thought of what it would do to his family if something went wrong was too difficult, and too familiar, to think about. An idea began to form in the back of her mind. People always underestimated her because of her size. She needed someone who could help her who would also go unnoticed.
“I have the perfect person in mind,” said Munroe. “I need you to send a message south to Rojenne.”
Once her new partner arrived she would travel north and begin her hunt. All she needed to do was find the bookkeeper, or, failing that, one person who was loyal to Akosh. Then she would squeeze them for every drop of information. However loyal the person, it would be meaningless in the face of what she could do to them with her magic.