The Silver Spike

XXXIX

Every day more people came into Oar, and nobody left. A pigeon could not get out. Several had died trying.

Some elements of the population were growing restless. There were more fights than usual. More people ended up on the labor gangs. The searches went on and on and on. There was not a building in Oar that had not been tossed at least twice, not a citizen who had not been rousted. There were rumors of big tension in high places. Brigadier Wildbrand did not think she owed Gossamer and Spidersilk anything and resented having her Nightstalkers used as bullies for their personal benefit. They were elite troops, not political gangsters.

The nature of the people entering the city changed with time. Fewer were farmers or traders. More and more were dire characters with no obvious trade.

The news about the silver spike was spreading.

Smeds did not like it. It meant big trouble. How did Gossamer and Spidersilk expect to control all those witches and wizards, some of whom might be much more potent than they suspected? And the bullies they brought with them?

Chaos threatened.

Smeds understood the strategy. The twins meant to up the heat and pressure till the spike popped to the surface. If it came up in hands other than their own they were confident they could take it away.

Could they?

Every witch and wizard in town knew that, too. But they had come hunting anyway.

Only Tully was pleased. He thought the situation perfect for the auction he wanted to run. "We got to get the word out," he told the others, over supper.

"Keep your voice down," Fish said. "Anybody in here could be a spy. And we don't get any word out. You heard of anybody offering to buy anything?"

"No," Tully admitted. "But that's because—"

"Because most of them know they can be outbid. You notice the twins aren't offering anything. They figure they can get what they want by divine right, or something."

"Yeah, but—"

"You have no grasp of the situation, Tully. Let me offer you a challenge.…"

"I'm fed up with your shit, Fish."

"Indulge me in an experiment. If I'm wrong I'll shout it from the rooftops. If I'm right, you win anyway."

"Yeah? Let's hear it."

Sucked him up again, Smeds thought. His opinion of his cousin declined by the hour.

"Here's two coppers. Go find a kid somewhere away from here. One who don't know you. Pay him to go to the Toad and Rose and tell the bullies there that the wizard Nathan is looking to hire a couple men to help him sneak out of the city tomorrow morning."

"I don't get it."

Smeds said, "Gods, Tully, couldn't you just once do something without arguing about it first?"

Fish said, "The experiment will be more instructive if it simply unfolds, explaining itself as it goes."

"Why should I do that asshole Nathan any favors?"

Smeds stood up. "I'll do it. Otherwise we'll be here till the middle of next week."

"I want Tully to do it. I want him to see that there can be a direct connection between his saying something and what happens in the real world."

"You're putting me down again, ain'tcha?"

"Tully," Smeds said, "shut the fuck up or I'm going to brain you. Pick up the goddamned money, hit the goddamned street, find a kid, and pay him to deliver the goddamned message. Now."

Tully went. Smeds had gotten pretty intense.

"He's going to get us all killed," Timmy said as soon as he was gone.

"How's your hand coming?" Smeds asked.

"Real good. Don't try to distract me, Smeds."

"Easy, Timmy," Fish said. "I think there's a chance this trick will get through to him."

"Want to bet?"

"No."

Smeds would not have taken the bet either.

The wizard Nathan and his four men had rented rooms just up the street from the Skull and Crossbones. The grays came there shortly before dawn. They found five dead men and two rooms torn to shreds. They sealed the area, searched it again, asked a lot of questions. Fish made sure they all got a good look at the mess. He asked Tully, "You starting to catch on?"

"Who would do something like that, man? Why?"

"Nathan was a wizard. If he was going to sneak, that meant he'd found the spike and wanted to make a run for it."

"But he wasn't going to leave town."

"No. He wasn't, Tully. But you said he was."

Tully started to be Tully and argue, but he bit down on it and through for a moment before he said, "Oh."

"Next time you say something without thinking first or checking to see who's listening, that could be us all carved up."

Smeds said, "You maybe went too far to make your point, Fish."

"Why?"

"This ain't over yet. Those soldiers didn't find anything but a mess. They're going to figure whoever made the mess got the spike."

"Yeah. And maybe everybody else will think so, too. Maybe even the guys who actually did it. The next few days ought to be interesting. And part of the ongoing lesson."

"What're you blathering now?" Tully demanded.

"That was a big gang in that place, eh? Five pro thugs and a sorcerer. Nobody would try to take them alone. I figure there was at least three guys did it. Probably more. Unless they're a bunch that really trust each other they're going to have trouble. Every one of them is going to know he didn't get the spike, but he isn't going to be sure about the others."

Tully said, "Oh," again, and after a while, "This shit is getting scary. I never thought it would get this hairy."

"Your problem is you never thought," Timmy muttered, but Tully did not hear him.

Fish said, "It's just starting, Tully. It's going to get hairier. And if we want to come out of it with our skins on we're going to have to be very damned careful. These aren't nice or reasonable people. They aren't going to be interested in dealing till they got no other choice."

It got hairier fast, as more, and more powerful, thauma-turgic treasure hunters poured into the city. Old feuds having nothing to do with the spike flared. The citizenry, pressed from all sides, responded by rioting on a small scale. The twins presided smugly, doing nothing to retard the escalating violence.

Smeds spent a lot of time being sorry he had let Tully get him into this in the first place. Because of the other treasure they had brought home, the living was good, but not good enough, given that he had to watch his every word every minute and spent half his time looking over his shoulder to make sure disaster was not gaining on him.