Warbreaker Part 25

"How did you know I was here?"

"The Idrians in T'Telir," the man said. "They say... you've come to take the throne back. We've been oppressed here for so long... I thought people were just making up stories. But it's true! You're here!"

Denth glanced at her, then at Garble's restaurant, which was still close behind them. He nodded to Tonk Fah. "Grab him, search him, and we'll talk somewhere else."

The 'somewhere else' turned out to be a ragged dump of a building in a poor section of town about a fifteen minutes from the restaurant.

Vivenna found the slums of T'Telir to be very interesting, on an intellectual level at least. Even here, there was color. People wore faded clothing. Bright strips of cloth hung from windows, crossed overhangs, and even sat in puddles on the street. Colors, muted or dirty. Like a carnival that had been hit by a mudslide.

Vivenna stood outside the shack with Jewels, Parlin, and the Idrian, waiting as Denth and Tonk Fah made certain the building wasn't hiding any unseen threats. She wrapped her arms about herself, feeling an odd sense of despair. The faded colors in the alley-like street felt wrong. They were dead things. Like a beautiful bird that had fallen motionless to the ground, its shape intact, but the magic somehow gone.

Ruined reds, stained yellows, broken greens. In T'Telir, even simple things-like chair legs and storage sacks-were dyed bright colors. How much must the people of the city spend on dyes and inks? If it hadn't been for the Tears of Edgli, the vibrant flowers that grew only in the T'Telir climate, it would have been impossible. Hallandren had made an entire economy out of growing, harvesting, and producing dyes from the majestic flowers.

Vivenna wrinkled her nose at the smell of refuse. Scents were more vibrant to her now, much like colors. It wasn't that her ability to smell was any better, the things that she smelled just seemed more rich. She shivered. Even still, weeks after the infusion of Breath, she didn't feel normal. She could sense the teeming people of the city, could sense Parlin beside her, watching the alleys nearby with suspicion. He could sense Denth and Tonk Fah inside-one of them appeared to be inspecting the bas.e.m.e.nt.

She could...

She froze. She couldn't feel Jewels. She glanced to the side, but the shorter woman was there, hands on hips, muttering to herself at being left with the 'kids.' Her Lifeless abomination was beside her; Vivenna hadn't expected to be able to feel it. Why couldn't she feel Jewels? Vivenna had a sharp moment of panic, thinking that Jewels might be some twisted Lifeless creation. Then, however, she realized that there was a simple explanation.

Jewels had no Breath. She was a Drab.

Now that Vivenna knew what to look for, it seemed obvious. She should have seen it earlier; she had the BioChroma. Even without the Breath, Vivenna thought she might have been able to tell. There wasn't as much of a sparkle of life in Jewels' eyes. She seemed more grumpy, less pleasant. She seemed to put others on edge.

Plus Jewels never noticed that Vivenna was watching her. Whatever sense it was that made others glance about if they were watched for too long, Jewels didn't have it. Vivenna turned away, and found herself blushing. Seeing a person without Breath... it felt like looking at someone when they were changing. Seeing them exposed.

Poor woman, she thought. I wonder how it happened. Had she sold it herself? Or had it been taken from her? Suddenly, Vivenna felt awkward. Why should I have so much, when she has such little? It seemed so ostentatious.

She felt Denth approach before he actually pushed the door open. It looked ready to fall off its hinges. "Safe," he said. Then he eyed Vivenna. "You don't have to be involved with this, if you don't want to waste your time, Princess. Jewels can take you back to the house. We'll question the man and bring you word."

She shook her head. "No. I want to hear what he has to say."

"I figured as much," Denth said. "We'll want to cancel our next appointment, though. Jewels, you-"

"I'll do it," Parlin said.

Denth paused, glancing at Vivenna.

"Look, I may not understand everything going on in this city," Parlin said, sighing, "but I can deliver a simple message. I'm not an idiot."

"Let him go," Vivenna said. "I trust him."

Denth shrugged, but gave Parlin a set of instructions and sent him off. Then Denth waved for Vivenna and the others to enter the building. The nervous Idrian man-Thame-went first. Vivenna followed him in, and was surprised to find the inside of the building looked quite a bit more st.u.r.dy than the outside had indicated.

Tonk Fah found a stool, and he placed it down in the center of the room.

"Have a seat, friend," Denth said, gesturing.

Thame nervously settled down on the stool.

"Now," Denth said, "why don't you tell us how you found out that the princess was going to be in that particular restaurant today?"

Thame glanced from side to side. "I just happened to be walking in the area and I-"

Tonk Fah cracked his knuckles. Vivenna glanced at him, suddenly noticing that Tonk Fah seemed more... dangerous. The idle, overweight man who liked to nap seemed to have vanished. In his place was a thug with sleeves rolled up, showing off muscles that bulged beneath his girth.

Thame was sweating. To the side, Clod the Lifeless stepped into the room, his inhuman eyes falling into shadow, his face looking like something crafted from wax. An impersonation of a human.

"I... run jobs for one of the bosses in the city," Thame said. "Little things. Nothing big. When you're one of us, you take the jobs you can get."

"One of us?" Denth asked, resting his hand on the pommel of his sword.

"Idrian."

"I've seen Idrians in good positions in the city, friend," Denth said. "Merchants. Moneylenders."

"The lucky ones, sir," Thame said, gulping. "They have their own money. People will work with anyone who has money. If you're just a regular man, things are different. People look at your clothing, listen to your accent, and they find others to do their work. Say we're not trustworthy. Or that we're boring. Or that we steal."

"And do you?" Vivenna found herself asking.

Thame looked at her, then glanced down at the building's dirt floor. "Sometimes," he said. "But not at first. I only do it now, when my boss asks me to."

"That still doesn't answer how you knew where to find us, Friend," Denth said quietly. His inviting use of the word 'friend,' when contrasted with Tonk Fah on one side and the Lifeless on the other, made Vivenna shiver.

"My boss talks too much," Thame said. "He knew what was happening at that restaurant-he sold the information to a couple of people. I heard for free."

Denth glanced at Tonk Fah.

"Everyone knows she's in the city," Thame said quickly. "We've all heard the rumors. It's no coincidence. Things are bad for us. Worse than they've ever been. The princess came to help, right?"

"Friend," Denth said. "I think it's best that you forget this entire meeting. I realize that there will be temptation to sell information. I promise you, we can find out if you did that. And, we can-"

"Denth, that's enough," Vivenna said. "Stop scaring the man."

The mercenary glanced at her, causing Thame to jump.

"Oh, for the Colors sake," she said walking forward, kneeling beside Thame's stool. "No harm will come to you, Thame. You have done well in seeking me out, and I trust you to keep news of our meeting quiet. But, tell me, if things are so bad in T'Telir, why not return to Idris?"

"Travel costs money, your highness," he said. "You have to buy food for the weeks it takes to climb to the highlands. I can't afford it-most of us can't."

"Are there many of you here?" Vivenna asked.

"Yes, your highness."

Vivenna nodded. "I want to meet with the others."

"Princess-" Denth said, but she shot him a glance.

"I can gather some together," Thame said, nodding eagerly. "I promise. I'm known to a lot of the Idrians."

"Good," Vivenna said. "Because I have come to help. How shall we contact you?"

"Ask around for Yeg," he said. "That's my boss."

Vivenna rose then gestured toward the doorway. Thame fled without needing any further prompting. Jewels, who stood guarding the doorway, reluctantly stepped aside and let the man scuttle away.

The room was silent for a moment.

"Jewels," Denth said. "Follow him."

She nodded and was gone.

Vivenna glanced back at the two mercenaries, expecting to find them angry at her.

"Aw, did you have to let him go so fast?" Tonk Fah said, sitting down on the floor, looking morose. Whatever he'd done to look dangerous was gone, evaporating faster than water on metal in the sun.

"There, now you've done it," Denth said. "He'll be sullen for the rest of the day."

"I never get to be the bad guy any more," Tonk Fah said, falling back and staring up at the ceiling. His monkey wandered over and sat on the top of his ample stomach.

"You'll get over it," Vivenna said, rolling her eyes. "Why were you so hard on him, anyway?"

Denth shrugged. "You know what I like least about being a mercenary?"

"I suspect that you're going to tell me," Vivenna said, tapping her foot.

"People are always trying to fool you," he said, sitting down on the floor beside Tonk Fah. "They all think that, because you're hired muscle, you're an idiot."

He paused, as if expecting Tonk Fah to give his usual counterpoint. Instead, however, the bulky mercenary just continued to stare at the ceiling. "Arsteel always got to be the mean one," he said.

Denth sighed, shooting her a "This is your fault" look. "Anyway," he continued. "I couldn't be sure that our friend there wasn't a plant arranged by Garble. He could have pretended to be a loyal subject, gotten inside our defenses, then knifed you in the back. Best to be safe, princess."

She sat down on the stool, and was tempted to say that he was over-reacting, but... well, she had just seen him kill two men in her defense. I'm paying them, she thought. I should probably just let them do their job. "Tonk Fah," she said. "You can be the mean one next time."

He looked up. "You promise?"

"Yes," she said.

"Can I yell at the person we are interrogating?"

"Sure," she said.

"Can I growl at him?" he asked.

"I... guess," she said.

"Can I break his fingers?"

She frowned. "No!"

"Not even the unimportant ones?" Tonk Fah asked. "I mean, people have five after all. The little ones don't even do that much."

Vivenna paused, then Tonk Fah and Denth started laughing.

"Oh, honestly," she said, turning away. "I can never tell when you move from being serious to being ridiculous."

"That's what makes it so funny," Tonk Fah said, still chuckling.

"Are we leaving, then?" Vivenna said, rising.

"Nah," Denth said. "Let's wait a bit. I'm still not sure that Garble isn't looking for us. Best to lay low for a few hours."

She frowned, glancing at Denth. Tonk Fah, amazingly, was already snoring softly.

"I thought you said that Garble would let us go," she said. "That he was just testing us-that he wanted to see how good you were."

"It's likely," Denth said. "But I've been known to be wrong. He might have let us go because he was worried about my sword being so close to him. He could be having second thoughts. We'll give it a few hours, then head back and ask my watchers if anyone has been poking around the house."

"Watchers?" Vivenna asked. "You have people watching our house?"

"Of course," Denth said. "Kids work cheap in the city. Worth the coin, even when you're not protecting a princess from a rival kingdom."

She folded her arms, standing. She didn't feel like sitting, so she began to pace.

"I wouldn't worry too much about Garble," Denth said, eyes closed as he sat back, leaning against the wall. "This is just a precaution."

She shook her head. "It makes sense that he'd want revenge, Denth," she said. "You killed two of his men."

"Men can be cheap in this city too, Princess."

"You say he was testing you," Vivenna said. "But what would be the point of that? Provoking you to action just to let you go?"

"To see how much of a threat I was," Denth said, shrugging, eyes still closed. "Or, more likely, to see if I was worth the pay I usually demand. Again, I wouldn't worry so much."

She sighed, then wandered over to the window so she could watch the street.

"You should probably stay away from the window," Denth said. "Just to be safe."

First he tells me not to worry, then he tells me not to let myself be seen, she thought with frustration, walking toward the back of the room, moving toward the door down to the cellar.

"I wouldn't do that, either," Denth noted. "Stairs are broken in a few places. Not much to see, anyway. Dirt floor. Dirt walls. Dirt ceiling."

She sighed again, turning away from the door.

"What is with you, anyway?" he asked, still not opening his eyes. "You're not usually this nervous."

"I don't know," she said. "Being locked in like this makes me anxious."