A Discourse in Steel by Paul S. Kemp Page B

won’t,” Egil said, grabbing the man by his shirt and jerking him to his feet. “Because we’re coming for them. You boys fakked up, crossing us.”
    The man grinned darkly, his teeth stained with blood. “You go at the guildhouse, you die. You won’t come back from that.”
    Nix said, “I was just telling someone the other day that our lot in life seems to be to go where others say we shouldn’t.”
    Egil’s first punch put a few teeth and a lot of blood on the cellar floor. His second cracked ribs and left the guildsman crumpled on the floor, moaning.
    Nix watched the rest of it unfold, knowing they were both giving themselves more to regret, more they’d someday have to look back on and face squarely.
    He thought of what could have happened—Rose and Tesha and Mere and Kiir burned in a fire—and decided he could live with it.

“Pigs?” Gadd asked, when they brought the broken, bloodied form of the guildsman out of the cellar.
    Instead Egil and Nix armed Gadd with enough silver terns to make a suitable donation, then had him drop the unconscious guildsman at the temple of Orella. Nix figured if the healer saints of Orella asked any questions, they’d get about as clear an answer out of Gadd as Nix usually got. And the beaten guildsman wouldn’t be talking for at least a day, maybe two, if he lived. Egil hadn’t been gentle. They’d earned themselves some time, but not much.
    He and Egil sat the bar, the smell of the fire still heavy in the air. Egil rattled his bone dice in his fist. Both of them understood the weight of their situation.
    “The sun’ll be up soon,” Nix said, for no reason in particular.
    “Aye.”
    “They must think Rose saw something. Or maybe they know she read the clicked Upright’s mind. Either way…”
    “Either way,” Egil said, nodding. “The guild’ll keep coming. Especially now. They got one burned dead and one in the temple.”
    “Aye,” Nix agreed. “Limits our play. We could try a sit-down with the new Upright Man. Explain the situation. Get them to back off.”
    Egil was already shaking his head. “They tried to burn down the inn, Nix. There were twenty people in here, including Kiir and Rose and Mere and Lis. And they won’t let up on Rose if they think she knows guild business.”
    Tesha came down the stairs and they fell silent. She wore a nightdress and no makeup and her hair was mussed and she looked more vulnerable than Nix ever wanted to see her again. She slipped onto the stool between them.
    “How are you doing?” Nix asked her.
    “Fine,” she said. “Merelda finally fell asleep. Will we have trouble with the Watch?”
    Nix shrugged. “Doubtful. No bodies and a fire that was quickly contained. They’ll come tomorrow. Maybe. If so, just tell them it was an accident.”
    She nodded, ran a hand through her thick black hair. She looked like she wished she had her pipe. “What do we do now?”
    “Huh? We have the damage repaired. It’s not that bad. Then we—”
    “That’s not what I mean, Nix.”
    “Ah,” Nix said. “I forgot I was talking to you. Well, Egil and I were just talking about that.”
    “Mere said this was the guild.”
    “It was.”
    “That’s not good. They won’t come back tonight?”
    “Not how they are,” Nix said. “Word won’t even get back until later this morning probably. They’ll plan, consider, then come again.”
    “Shite,” she said. “And that man you two brought in?”
    Nix nodded. “Guild.”
    “Shite,” she said again.
    “We have two days,” Egil said. “Maybe three.”
    “They want Rose?” Tesha asked.
    Nix nodded.
    “I’m not even going to ask why,” she said. “But they can’t have her.”
    “Aye, that,” Nix said.
    For a time the three of them sat at the bar in silence. Nix knew what they had to do, but he didn’t want to say it aloud.
    “We’ll have to go at the guildhouse,” Egil said, saying it for him. “Tonight, I’d say. This new Upright Man must have ordered the