Shadowmaster

“No,” Drakon said. “People haven’t changed. Only the circumstances.”

“The entire human race never had to fight for its very survival before.”

“And now the Opir race does the same.”

“You’re defending them?”

Drakon knew he’d almost revealed too much. There was something about this woman that threw him so far off balance that he thought he could actually confide in her. Let her see something of himself that he’d shown no one else since he’d been with Lord Julius. Explain why he had to...

“I’ll have a tray brought to you,” he said, turning to leave.

“Wait,” she said, swinging her legs over the side of the bed.

He turned halfway, his hand on the doorknob.

“Don’t you want the test information?”

“Tell me,” he said.

She did, in brisk detail, as if he were a military commander and she a soldier making a formal report. Drakon could find nothing suspicious in what she said, but that meant nothing at all.

“You’ll remain here for the day,” he said. “You may not see me again for some time, but my lieutenant, Brita, will see to your needs.”

“And will you keep me chained while you’re away?”

“Should I?”

Her direct gaze met his. “I promise to be good,” she said with a wry half smile.

Instinct—blind, animal instinct—almost drove Drakon to join Lark on the bed and take her up on her earlier offer. But once again he controlled himself, remembering that they had nothing in common except that she was human, and he had once been.

“Keep your promise, Lark,” he said, striding to the door. “Be very, very good.”

Chapter 5

“He’s crazy.”

The woman with the short black hair and nose ring took the chair, folded her arms and stared at Phoenix balefully. Phoenix had seen Sammael’s lieutenant when she’d run into his meeting with The Preacher, but hadn’t really met Brita until she had brought a breakfast tray bearing an odd combination of nutrient bars and surprisingly fresh vegetables, along with a change of clothing. She came again at lunchtime, when she’d escorted Phoenix to one of the shared bathrooms to clean up.

Phoenix had seen and heard enough to know that Sammael and Brita didn’t always see eye to eye. But Phoenix had no idea where Sammael had gone, and Brita hadn’t enlightened her. In fact, the woman had barely spoken, and on the third visit, when she’d brought a sparse dinner, she’d left Phoenix alone for well over eight hours.

By Phoenix’s estimation, it was probably about four in the morning...an odd time for Sammael’s second-in-command to come calling.

“Why?” Phoenix asked. “Because he believes me? Or has he done something else you don’t approve of?”

Brita scowled. “I got a message from one of the crew,” she said. “I guess your information must have panned out.”

That didn’t sound right to Phoenix. Sammael hadn’t said he planned to check on it when he’d left. And even if he had, it wouldn’t have been possible for him to act on what he’d learned either last night or this morning.

Studying the woman’s grim face, Phoenix pretended to be relieved...which wasn’t so far from the truth.

“Then I guess he’s not so crazy after all,” she said. “Maybe it’s time you started to trust me, as he does.”

“Not likely. I’m just following orders.”

“It sounds as if you don’t trust Sammael’s judgment.”

“I was against keeping you here,” Brita said, the words sounding almost bitter. “If I were him, I’d have killed you on sight.”

Phoenix sat very lightly on the edge of the bed, her feet planted firmly on the floor. “Really?” she said. “It seems to me that your obvious dislike of me isn’t just concern over who I am and what I may be doing here. You’re personally worried about Sammael, aren’t you?” She smiled. “Afraid that I might have some...undue influence over him?”

“You?” Brita snorted. “I know you’ve been offering him every asset you have, but he hasn’t taken you up on your offer, has he?”

Phoenix clenched her jaw, wondering exactly how much Sammael had told Brita. “All I want to do is get out of San Francisco,” she said.

“And you think he sees you as anything but a tool? He’s had better than you a hundred times.”

That was just the kind of reaction that told Phoenix she had to keep pushing. She knew next to nothing about this woman, who clearly had almost as much authority over the crew as Sammael did.

She had to uncover Brita’s motives, decipher her relationship with Sammael, and learn just how much of an obstruction she might be to Phoenix’s mission.

There was no sign that Brita had any idea what Sammael really was. But what if she did? If she was as close to him as she seemed...

Surely not. No free human would aid an Opir spy, even assuming she also knew nothing of what Erebus intended for the mayor.

Still, this was the Fringe, where anything was possible and hostility against the government was rampant. Phoenix had to be certain. She had to risk asking questions of a woman who obviously despised her.

Even if she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answers.

“Are you his lover?” she asked bluntly.

Brita’s muscles tensed as if she were about to fling herself on Phoenix. Phoenix braced herself for attack.

“His lover?” Brita spat, visibly struggling to get her anger under control. “Neither one of us has time for that.”

Phoenix released her breath slowly. At least she wasn’t dealing with jealousy, which was a very dangerous and irrational emotion.

What troubled Phoenix was that her relief wasn’t in the least objective. It was uncomfortably personal, as if she couldn’t bear the thought that—

“By the way,” Brita said, abruptly derailing Phoenix’s uneasy train of thought. “Sammael said to move you to a new room of your own.”

Phoenix stared at the Fringer woman in surprise, noting that her body had relaxed as if there had never been any tension between her and the prisoner.

And that made Phoenix very, very suspicious.

“I don’t understand,” Phoenix said. “I thought Sammael wanted me to stay here.”

Brita stretched out her long legs and crossed her ankles. “He doesn’t want you to leave the premises, but you may be staying here for a while, and you can’t spend all your time locked up in this room.”

“Sammael’s orders?” Phoenix asked.

Brita didn’t answer. She rose and jerked her head toward the door. “Come on. I’ll show you to your new digs.”

She strode through the door without once looking back. Phoenix followed slowly, half-expecting an ambush.

The corridor outside was damp and cold. The only light came from Brita’s headlamp, which she turned on as soon as they left Sammael’s room, and a few flickering lights spaced several yards apart. Phoenix assumed they conserved energy whenever possible, since the Fringe’s access to the city’s power grid was strictly limited.

Brita escorted Phoenix along several corridors and stopped before a warped door. “About as good as any room you’ll find here,” she said, “and it has a decent bed.”

She led Phoenix inside. “If you need anything,” she said, “bang on the door. This place gave up being soundproof a long time ago, if it ever was. But you wouldn’t be very smart to try and leave this room without an escort. Every exit from this building is guarded by a whole network of booby traps and alarms, and they have to be disarmed very carefully.”

“How many prisoners do you have here, anyway?” Phoenix asked.

“Just do as I tell you.” Brita closed the door, locking it from the outside. Phoenix listened for a while after Brita’s footsteps had receded into the distance.

This was obviously some kind of test...or a trap. And Phoenix was by no means sure that it was Sammael’s idea. She would certainly learn the truth when Sammael and his crew returned. Since they worked at night, they’d be finishing up their current “business” by dawn or soon after...only a couple of hours away.

Brita had told her not to leave the room, and Phoenix knew it would be dangerous to try. On the other hand, she might never have a better shot at looking for evidence that Sammael was in direct communication with Drakon, and how he might lead her to the assassin. The odds that anything obvious would turn up were probably thousands to one, but the odds weren’t her concern. The looking was.

Still, she didn’t attempt to leave until she heard voices that seemed to be coming from outside the building, too indistinct for her to decipher the words but clear enough for her to identify one of the speakers as Brita.

After a few moments’ careful consideration, Phoenix decided to take the risk. She tested the door and quickly discovered that the lock was broken—more proof that this might very well be a trap. She paused outside, listening again.

Brita definitely wasn’t in the building, and Phoenix was finally able to pinpoint the direction of the voices. Before she did anything else, she had to know what Sammael’s lieutenant was up to.

Still, she hesitated, sensing something out of kilter besides the obviously ineffective lock. It took her a few minutes to find the webwork of nearly invisible wires stretched between floor and ceiling on each side of the door, clearly meant to trigger an alarm on contact. Or perhaps do something much worse.

But Brita clearly didn’t know that this govrat’s training had included such esoteric skills as disarming bombs and alarm systems.

In five minutes, Phoenix had found the trigger and disabled it. She used every one of her half-dhampir skills to make her way through the maze of corridors while avoiding the surveillance cameras she spotted at each end of every hall or corridor. She found a rear exit and searched the area for the “booby traps” Brita had mentioned.

As she’d suspected, there didn’t seem to be any safeguards to prevent escape, only to keep potential enemies out. If Sammael’s crew did take prisoners or hostages, they certainly weren’t confined in rooms with half-broken locks.

Once she was certain she wasn’t going to trip any alarms, Phoenix carefully moved through the outer door. It was hidden from the view of outside observers by the strategic placement of old crates and pieces of discarded metal and wood, but the voices grew more distinct, and soon she could make out the words.

“I told you I’m happy where I am,” Brita said. “I don’t care what you offer me. I’m not switching crews now.”

“Even though everyone in the Fringe knows that Sammael’s crew is getting restless because he gives half your booty away?” the man’s voice asked.

“He gives a shit about the people who live here. And you’re wrong about his crew. I grew up in the Fringe. I know what it’s like, and I know how to survive here. Sammael’s no weakling, and you’re never getting to him through me.”

“We can always find someone else.”

“You don’t think Sammael’s watching? You think he’s so soft that he’d let some traitor go over to your Boss?”

There was a long silence, and Phoenix could almost hear the man’s shrug.

“Your funeral,” he said. “But The Preacher’s gonna come for Sammael’s turf sooner or later, and it’s gonna be a nasty war. Whoever loses is gonna take his crew down with him, so you better make sure you’re on the right side.”

“And you better make sure you don’t come here again, or I’ll kill you myself.”

The man laughed. “You can try.”

The sound of his footsteps receded, and then there was only the darkness and silence.

Phoenix retreated just inside the door and waited until Brita returned, disarmed the alarms and stepped into the Hold. Her pupils were huge in the darkness, and when she saw Phoenix she stopped in apparent shock.

“You were talking to someone from The Preacher’s crew,” Phoenix said, leaning against the wall.

Brita’s eyes narrowed. “You got past the web.”

“You were laying a trap for me,” Phoenix said, dodging the question. “Why?”

“Because you’re not who you say you are.”

As you are not, Phoenix thought. “You’ve obviously believed that from the beginning,” she said aloud, taking a step toward Sammael’s lieutenant. “Who do you think I am, Brita?”

“You’re not human.”

Phoenix wasn’t shocked. If she recognized Brita, then it was bound to work the other way. But she had to be sure. “Why would you think that?” she asked calmly.

“Maybe Sammael is blind, but I’m not.”

“And what do you see so clearly that he doesn’t?”

“Things like how easily you move in the dark. And other—” She cut the air with her hand. “I don’t have to explain myself to you. I just know.”

“Do I look inhuman?”

“Looks can deceive.”

Indeed they can, Phoenix thought. “If what you believe is true,” she said, preparing herself for a fight she didn’t want, “why didn’t you tell Sammael at the beginning?”

Brita turned on Phoenix again, ignoring her question. “If you’re not human, you have to be with Aegis,” she said. “You’re here to find and expose Sammael, and whatever Bosses you can take down with him.”

“You’re Sammael’s lieutenant,” Phoenix said. “If you’re so sure about this, you have an obligation to tell him, don’t you?”

“Why are you so eager for him to find out?” Brita asked.

“Why are you so willing to keep it from him?”

“Because...” Brita nearly trembled with anger. “You know why.”

“Could it be that you think I might let him know about enemy Bosses sending envoys to his lieutenant? He might wonder how often you’ve done this before.”

“You have nothing on me,” Brita snarled.

“Does he know you’re not quite human, either?”

Brita froze. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You were out there with no light, and it’s dark as pitch in here. You aren’t wearing a headlamp, but you saw me as soon as you walked through the door.”

Lips pressed tightly together, Brita rearmed the alarm system. “You’re wrong.”

“I doubt it. It’s true that you don’t look like a dhampir, and you aren’t a Daysider if you can see so well in the dark, but—”

“A Daysider?” Brita raised a clenched fist. “You’re calling me one of them? Is that what you’re saying?”

Brita did an excellent job of feigning rage, Phoenix thought. A reaction like that couldn’t easily be faked.

But why would someone neither human nor dhampir nor Daysider, evidently unknown to Aegis, be in the Fringe working for a Boss who happened to be an Opir agent?

It couldn’t be a coincidence. She and Sammael had worked too closely together to hide from each other. No...Brita knew what Sammael was, and she was working with him...working to help the assassin prepare for his strike.

Phoenix knew he had to be a Daysider, and that Brita was just as potentially dangerous as Sammael. He was still almost certainly the one in charge, but that was little comfort under the circumstances.

But what was she? She had human coloring and seemed to lack the sharp incisors, but she could easily be hiding her teeth under caps. She could be a blood-drinker.

Or was she, like Phoenix, more human than Opir? She obviously wasn’t a serf. Why would the Opiri, who despised humans, use someone like her to forward their designs? “I’m not calling you one of ‘them,’” Phoenix said.

“But I’m calling you an Aegis operative,” Brita said.

“Now you’re the crazy one,” Phoenix said. “Sure, I’m not completely human. But some of us don’t want to work for Aegis, and the only way to avoid that is to get out of the city.” She met Brita’s gaze. “I’d guess it’s the same with you, isn’t it?”

“I saw you run right toward the fire, right into danger, when you were supposedly trying to escape the Enforcers,” Brita said, jerking up her chin. “I know you’re in the Fringe to locate Bosses and turn them over to the government.”

“You know?” Phoenix asked mockingly. “Sammael has harbored the same suspicions, hasn’t he? Why hasn’t he taken action?”

“Because...because you...”

“Have him under my spell?” She snorted. “If I were after the Bosses, I’d have had two of them right where the Enforcers could find them. You’ll notice I didn’t alert them.”

“Because maybe you wanted to catch more than two fish.”

“But I haven’t tried to escape, and by now—if you were right about me—I’d have realized that my odds of exposing any of the other Bosses would be just about impossible. Maybe we should just agree that you aren’t ready to defect to another crew and I’m not here to betray Sammael, and go on about our business as if nothing has changed.”

“No deal.”

“Even if I tell him what you were doing out there with one of The Preacher’s crew?” Phoenix sighed. “Look, I’m not asking you to trust me. Just let me get out of the city.”

“Not good enough.”

“What do you want, Brita? I was right before, wasn’t I? It’s not just a matter of your own survival and freedom. You may not be Sammael’s lover, but you’re more than merely his lieutenant.”

Brita seemed ready to object, but suddenly her shoulders sagged and she looked away.

“I owe him a lot,” she said. Most Bosses use people who aren’t members of their crews like disposable objects. The Scrappers, everyone who tries to survive here in the Fringe, don’t matter except when they can be useful. And since Bosses only recruit the strongest and meanest people in the Fringe, it’s always the weakest who end up being victims.”

“And you used to be one of the victims, even though you’re more than human? You must have grown up having to hide what you are.” Phoenix rubbed her lower lip. “What is that, anyway? Not Opir, not dhampir, not Daysider....what are you?”

They stared at each other. Brita finally broke the impasse.

“Sammael took chances on a lot of us,” she said. “But we learned fast, and pretty soon we were as good as the other crews. Maybe better, because we didn’t take anything for granted.” She ran her hands through her spiked hair. “If it matters to you at all, Sammael gets food and other necessities to the Scrappers, keeps the worst-off from starving. He holds back some of our booty just for that, even if it comes out of his share.”

“You make him sound like a paragon of virtue.”

“He can be as ruthless as any of the others if he’s riled enough. I’ve seen him take down two Bosses, which is why not even The Preacher messes with him, big as he talks. But he’s one of the good guys, if someone like you can see anything past what you’re taught by your government masters.”

“Not my masters.”

“So you keep saying. But now your excuse is that you just want to get out of working for Aegis. It’s all lies.”

“It doesn’t matter what I’ve done or who I am. I’m not here to expose anyone. Sammael will sell me what I need because he can use what I’ll pay him. And once I’m outside the city, you won’t have to worry about my motives, will you?”

“If you even plan to leave the city.”

“We’re talking in circles now, Brita,” Phoenix said. “But tell me...does Sammael know what you are?”

She waited for a tense, extended moment for Brita to inadvertently betray her true relationship with the Daysider. But Brita’s answer was firm and simple.

“No,” she said. “And I will kill you if you tell him.”

“Then we do understand each other.”

Brita stared at Phoenix for a long time. “I’m going to show you something,” she said. “I want you to see this before you go back and betray him to the Enforcers.”

“I told you I’m not—”

“I’ll have to take you outside the Hold.”

“I don’t think Sammael will like that, do you?”

“This won’t be a trap, if that’s what you’re worried about. I know you want to know more about him, and I’m going to give you that chance.”

The other woman’s sudden change of attitude both worried and intrigued Phoenix. She couldn’t very well turn down any chance to see more of the Hold or anything else Brita was willing to show her, even though Brita was almost certainly lying about her own motives. “So will you try to slit my throat as soon as we’re outside?” Phoenix asked.

“I’ll give you fair warning when I’m ready,” Brita said.

“That’s very kind of you.”

Brita shrugged. “You stay here.” She strode off, leaving Phoenix right in front of the armed entrance. She returned a few minutes later with the blindfold in her hand.

“What’s the point in taking me to see something if I can’t see it?” Phoenix asked. “Or are you going to put me up in front of a firing squad?”

“It’s only until we get there,” Brita said, moving behind Phoenix to tie the cloth around her head. “Then you’ll see everything, I promise.”

Possibly even my own death, Phoenix thought. But she was still ready to fight, and she wasn’t going down without one.

Chapter 6

Brita took Phoenix’s arm, and then they were outside in the damp coolness of early morning, the smell of the bay carried on a chill predawn breeze from the east. Phoenix took particular care to note and memorize the various small changes in scent along their path, the many turns and double-backs, everything that might help her find this way again.

After a very short while, Phoenix realized they were heading south, toward the Wall. Her heart jumped in her chest. Was Brita going to let Phoenix out of the city without Sammael’s knowledge?

Soon enough, Phoenix realized her guess was wrong. Brita removed her blindfold and Phoenix saw that they were near the corner of one of the countless decrepit buildings that provided such unreliable shelter for the “citizens” of the Fringe. Brita gestured for Phoenix to stay where she was.

From her position, Phoenix could see the Wall rising up above the shorter buildings, separated from them by an empty lot. The barrier was studded with thick shards of glass and every other conceivable sharp surface, capable of stopping a would-be human escapee or slowing a Nightsider invader. The top of the Wall was crowned by coil after coil of razor and barbed wire, extending the barrier’s height by another good twenty feet.

But there were clearly weaker spots in the Wall—small cracks deepened by time and changes in weather, crumbling concrete here and there, evidence of efforts to file down the sharp points that made even touching the Wall so deadly. And along the base, stretching to either side as far as Phoenix could see, were mountains of boxes and metal scraps and every kind of abandoned appliance and machine, arranged in such a way as to appear like garbage thrown against the Wall. It was exactly the deceptive kind of barrier used to block the entrances to Sammael’s Hold.

A concentrated effort by Aegis or the Enforcers could clear it away in a matter of days, exposing the hidden passages the Bosses kept finding...or creating. But there were never enough Enforcers to waste on patrolling the south Wall and preventing a handful of lawbreakers from escaping every few weeks.

Phoenix was about to ask what she should be looking for when the faint beam of a headlamp pierced the darkness and a small group of people—men, women and children—crept out of the shadows. Two of Sammael’s crew seemed to be leading them, while several others, armed with stolen Enforcer rifles, followed behind, walking backward to watch for any pursuers.

Sammael came last. His headlamp was barely bright enough to extend a few inches beyond his face, but he moved easily, as if this place was very familiar to him. He spoke to his crew in a voice too low for Phoenix to hear, and then joined the emigrants.

There were about a dozen of them, huddled together with their meager belongings. Meager, in some cases, because their owners could only carry so much out of the city. It was evident that one family was from the Mids, another couple almost certainly from the Nobs. But the mingled fear and hope was the same on every face.

These were people condemned for deportation for minor crimes such as shoplifting or running a red light—foolish little infractions that showed how desperate the government was becoming in its search for convicts to send to Erebus as blood serfs. Some were accompanied by family members who would give up everything to remain with their loved ones, even brave the dangers of the southern Zone and risk their own very possible deaths.