Wartorn: Resurrection

AQUINT (4)

THEY HAD MISSED the joyous festival of Lacfoddalmendowl, which was disappointing. But Aquint and Cat were both glad to be back in Callah, even if they were now serving the enemy that had captured the city-state.

Aquint presented his credentials to Colonel Jesile at the Registry. The Felk governor of Callah had cropped hair the color of metal and a face equally hard. Nonetheless, his manner was polite, if somewhat cold.

"I trust you had a pleasant... journey," Jesile said, looking at the scroll Lord Abraxis had given Aquint.

"As pleasant as it could be, I suppose," Aquint said ruefully.

It was the second time he had passed through that weird, milky other-reality, crossing the distance from Sook in a matter of a few dozen steps. The world those portals opened into was so strange and disorienting. He and Cat had been instructed to walk a perfectly straight line, not to dawdle or deviate in any way.

They had done just that, eyes straight ahead. And yet... all the while Aquint had the awful, uneasy feeling that someone or something in that place was watching him and Cat pass.

He shuddered, thinking about it.

Jesile grunted. "Yes. I feel the same way about being Far Moved. I supposed we'll have to get used to it. Once the Isthmus belongs entirely to Felk, we might all be moving around like that."

"You think the wizards will be running everything when the war's over?" Aquint asked.

Jesile was suddenly leery. Aquint didn't understand; it had just been a casual question.

"What can we here in Callah do for Internal Security?" the Felk military governor finally said.

"I've been ordered to investigate local unrest." Next to Aquint, Cat stood silently, eyes moving. 'This is my assistant."

"Very well. How can my garrison assist you?"

Aquint had visited the Registry before, to file the licenses for his old freight hauling business. The building was large.

"I wish to see all your recent reports of arrests and disturbances," Aquint said, adopting a businesslike tone. 'Tell me, do your soldiers arrest people for speaking treason against the empire?"

Jesile pursed his lips a moment, considering. He didn't want to say the wrong thing in front of an agent of the Internal Security Corps, Aquint realized.

"My garrison," Jesile said, carefully, "is instructed to exercise a degree of latitude when dealing with these locals. The aim, I believe, is to win them over as functional citizens of the empire ... not to terrorize them into useless submission."

Aquint nodded. "That's good, Colonel. I agree." He was glad Callah was being governed by someone with some sense.

He requested a set of Callahan clothing for himself and Cat. He also procured a sling for his left arm. That way, if anyone asked why he, someone of qualified age, wasn't with the army, he could say he was on furlough after having been wounded.

He hit the streets eagerly, Cat alongside. He sucked in lungfuls of sweet, cool Callahan air, soaking up the familiar sights around him. There was evidence of the Felk occupation just about everywhere, from the patrols to the fact that there were no civilians of eligible military age around, but it didn't dampen his spirits.

"Wonderful to be home, isn't it?" he said, as they crossed through the marketplace and turned down a street.

"I was getting used to Sook, actually," Cat said.

"That place? Well, I admit I was enjoying that sweet operation we had at that army warehouse. I don't doubt Tyber's cousin Vahnka will keep it running at a profit."

"Do you plan on looking up Tyber while we're here?" Cat said.

Aquint raised his hand. "One racket at a time. Right now, I'm an Internal Security agent. You saw what pull that had just now, with our esteemed governor."

"I saw," Cat said.

"I think the possibilities of lining our pockets with this job are damned near limitless. But first, we've got to prove ourselves. Abraxis is going to want a report."

"Why not just make one up?" Cat suggested blandly.

Aquint wasn't sure if the boy was being facetious or not. "Too risky at the start. I want you to do what you do best, haunt the shadows and hear what people are saying."

"That's not what I do best," Cat said, his hand opening to reveal the brooch he'd snatched off a table in the marketplace.

"Call it one of your many talents, then, lad," Aquint said. "Jesile says people haven't been very happy about the new paper currency they've issued here. We'll start with that. Let's hope there's somebody committing treasonous crimes somewhere here. Otherwise, this Internal Security agent is going to find himself out of a job."

AS PLEASING AS it was to be home again, Aquint was hardly totally relaxed. Thoughts of Abraxis hung over him like a dark cloud. He recalled vividly the sample of his blood the mage had taken in Sook. Abraxis kept those samples on his person at all times, he had said. That meant, if he appeared here in Callah to make a snap inspection, Aquint's sample would be with him, in that small red bag.

Aquint definitely didn't like the idea of Abraxis having the power of life and death over him, which was what possession of his blood sample implied.

Damned wizards.

He avoided revisiting his old warehouse, thinking the sight would probably depress him, but he did reacquaint himself with much of the city.

Inevitably he bumped into people he knew. His "wounded" arm was effective in explaining his presence. It was good to see these old acquaintances, though many had a tired, beaten look about them. Every one of them asked him for news of the outside world. He sidestepped this by claiming he had been wounded shortly after being inducted into the Felk army, the injury serious enough to leave him virtually senseless for the past few lunes.

Jesile had provided him with an apartment in one of Callah's better neighborhoods. Aquint would draw pay from Jesile's coffers of proper coin. However, for walking around money, the Governor's Office had issued him some of the new paper scrip, so he could blend in with the locals.

It was funny-looking stuff, Aquint thought. Green notes, red notes, all stamped with odd designs. The system hadn't yet been introduced in Windal or Sook. Callah, he was told, was the test case.

An anonymous messenger brought Aquint the arrest reports he'd asked for. He studied them in his new rooms. Cat was still out.

There were the expected incidents of drunken behavior. Actually, as far as Lacfoddalmendowl went, there were far fewer than normal. Of course Jesile had only allowed a toned down version of the holiday to be celebrated. But it was better that than nothing, Aquint thought.

Mixed in among the pages, he found several accounts of vandalism. He culled these, curious.

Eventually Cat reappeared, having picked the apartment's lock.

"Well," the boy said, "there's a lot of under-the-counter transactions still being made in coin. I guess when the Felk confiscated everybody's jingle, they didn't get every single coin. You're right about people not liking the paper money. But they're getting used to it anyway."

Aquint nodded. He tossed a scrap of paper to Cat. "What do you make of that?"

The lad's eyes flicked over the paper. After a moment, he said, "I've seen this."

"Where?" Aquint asked, interested. "Around," Cat said. "On walls and doors ... branded there. Just here and there around the city. None of it really registered, until now."

Aquint allowed himself a tight smile. "The Felk police patrols didn't make much of it either. But I think it means something."

Cat handed him back the scrap of paper. "What?" Aquint looked at the design he had drawn, as described in the reports. A circle cut through with a vertical slash.

"I don't know," he said. "But Internal Security is supposed to investigate unrest in Callah. This looks like it might lead somewhere." "And if it doesn't?"

"Then," Aquint smiled wider, "we'll lead it somewhere ourselves."

IT WAS INDEED a luxurious apartment, with kitchens below that served the building's various units. Aquint ordered up hot dinners for him and Cat, plus a bottle of the best wine available. Everything was going to be billed to the Governor's Office, after all.

The next day Aquint prowled Callah's streets once more. Cat was a good eavesdropper, but Aquint was a very capable socializer. He dropped in at various taverns and cafés over the course of the day, being careful not to drink too much. Again he chanced upon old acquaintances and spent some time in casual conversation. Some at first were leery about speaking to a member of the Felk military.

Usually, without much effort, Aquint was able to convince them that despite being conscripted into the army, he was the same old Aquint and, most importantly, a Callahan above all else.

So it was that they divulged to him, often after he'd bought a round or two with the scrip that had been issued to him. It was a surer way to gather information than by simply spying.

Later, he met with Cat at a prearranged site. From there they went to the Registry.

Aquint brought the intelligence he'd garnered to Governor Jesile. Despite his important status as an agent of the Internal Security Corps, Aquint still got nervous in the presence of authority It was probably left over from his days of smuggling and black marketeering.

"It's nonsense," the governor said, resolutely. "Windal is secure. Those Far Speak mages pass messages back and forth all the time. We received one only this morning, relayed from Colonel Palo, the governor. It's business as usual in Windal."

Aquint shrugged.

"I can only tell you what people are mumbling about," he said. "Everybody in Callah is starving for news about the war, about the outside. Without it, people will simply make stories up, and pass them on as fact."

"Then this talk of an uprising in Windal," Jesile said, "the people know it's just a rumor?"

"Some. Maybe. But some believe it. Of that I'm sure."

Colonel Jesile turned his eyes toward Cat. "And you? You've heard the same?"

Cat stood mute.

"My associate is working on other matters," Aquint said.

The governor sighed.

Aquint didn't offer up news of the slashed circle brands that had appeared around Callah, evidently during the Lacfoddalmendowl celebrations. Those had already been reported by the Felk patrols. If the governor didn't understand how widespread they were, or what the brands might indicate, Aquint saw no need to play the hand now.

"Well," Jesile said, "I will not publicly deny the rumors."

"I think that's wise," Aquint said. Callah's citizens had been kept purposely isolated. A lack of knowledge about the Isthmus at large helped keep the people controlled. It would only weaken the Felk hold on the city if Jesile acknowledged the rumor's existence.

The governor gave Aquint a look that made it clear he didn't particularly care what the Internal Security agent thought about the matter.

"There's something else," Jesile continued grudgingly. "Something much more urgent."

The governor produced two notes of Felk scrip. They were the blue ones that represented gold coins. Jesile held them up, side by side.

"One of my off-duty soldiers noticed that an inordinate amount of money seemed to be changing hands in the marketplace right next to this building," Jesile said grimly. "Trade has been suspended for the duration among the city-states. Therefore, Callah is a closed economy. It was odd, then, that simple vendors should be in possession of so much money."

Aquint, confused, was peering at the blue notes the governor was still dangling.

"This is a legitimate gold note, printed by a special mint in Felk." He raised his other hand. "This is an incredibly skillful forgery."

Aquint's eyes widened. "How can you tell?" The notes looked exactly alike to him.

' Jesile sighed again. "I almost hate to admit it, but it was one of the magicians in my garrison who discovered it. She cast some sort of divining spell. Apparently it's very specialized magic."

"So," Aquint said, "if this wizard of yours can weed out the fake notes from the real—"

The governor favored him with a stony glare. "She can't very well examine every single scrip note in Callah to determine its authenticity."

Jesile suddenly crumbled both notes into a blue wad.

"Gods know how much counterfeit money is circulating out there right now," the Felk governor spat. "But I want whoever is responsible/'

Aquint managed to contain his glee until he and Cat were out of the building. It was nearing curfew.

"Well," he said to his young companion, slapping the boy's shoulders, "it looks like there's serious unrest in Callah after all."

"That sounds like work for us," Cat grumbled.

"Yes. It also means job security." Aquint chuckled as they headed along the street. Though he wasn't in the habit of praying, he paused to silently thank the gods for whoever was stirring things up here in his old home city.