Shadowblade by Tom Bielawski

and Dragons take over the other guilds by force.”
    “Exactly so, Levi.”
    “But why are they after me?”
    “You are treading on dangerous ground, Levi,” she warned. “I can find out, but it will cost you more. My girls won’t have anything to do with those disgusting monks, and that’s the only way to get the info you need.”
    Zach handed her five more gold crowns without hesitation. Five crowns was a fortune to a dockside prostitute, even one in an upscale establishment like The Siren’s Call. Siren accepted the money.
    “Come back in two days,” she said as she stood up. “One of the monks is a regular here. I expect him back any day, and he is a talker.”
    “If I were interested in finding a guild house, where would I look?”
    “That depends on the guild,” she replied, craftily. Zach couldn’t think of a way to ask without telling her which guild he sought. In the end, it seemed he had to trust her.
    “Assassins. Not the Dragons, the top assassins in the city.”
    “That would be the Nyzyr .”
    “The Nyzyr, ” he repeated, nodding.
    “You don’t aim low, do you?” she whispered. “They are the hardest and vilest sect of the Assassins Order! I don’t want to know what your intentions are.” She sat back down, looking at her hands. Zach saw they were trembling and he realized that he was beginning to feel affection for this woman. He approached her as if to place his hand on her shoulder, but something in her eye stopped him.
    This woman was whore and a snitch and not to be trusted except to do as she was paid to do. This time the voice was definitely in his head, and the woman had not heard. Zach understood the wisdom of those words, as good as law for those who worked for the Spiders, but he was having trouble accepting it.
    “If this is too-” he began, but she interrupted him.
    “Five more crowns,” she said. Zach nodded and handed her more money. It stung him to give up so much money in so short of a time. But his purpose was greater. He felt driven, in a very overwhelming way, to find the power structure of the assassins in Powyss.
    “You tell me if you even think the Nyzyr are going to give you trouble,” he said.
    “That’s a very cavalier thing to say about the Nyzyr, suicidal even.” She looked at him hard, measuring his character. “You know a lot about them, I can tell. And you aren’t boasting, either.”
    Zach said nothing, he just looked her in the eyes and nodded.
    “Well, I hope you can back that claim up. Because I have a feeling they might just make trouble for me if they think I told you where to find them, but that’s what you’re paying me for. And I’ll do it.”
    “It’s what I am paying you for,” he replied.
    “I don’t need to tell you-”
    “I didn’t hear this from you,” he finished her sentence.
    “You didn’t hear this from me,” she affirmed. “I don’t know where their guild house is, but I do know where many of the Nyzyr go to meet clients. It is a place called The Sultan Khel.”
    Zach nodded and squeezed Siren’s shoulder as he left the Call. He thought a lot about what he was doing, and why. And for once the voice-companion did not interrupt his thought process. He hoped sincerely, and that surprised him, that nothing ill would befall Siren or her workers. He was fond of her and he knew that fondness for anyone could be dangerous, a liability even. He shook his head and steeled his resolve; if the woman died, so be it.
    Finding the Nyzyr was now his priority.
     

C H A P T E R
    5

    Qra’zim.
     
    “What happened?” shouted the bishop, frantically. “What did you do, Cjii?”
    The shade stood there, hands on his hips, his translucent face smirking at the mortal.
    “You are fortunate to be one of the few mortals who are Qra’ z im , Revered Bishop,” said the Cjii with a calm smirk. “Else, I would remove your tongue from your squirming mouth and burn it before your eyes.” The elderly bishop scowled at the shade of