The Palace Job Read online

  The boot slammed into the wall a fraction of a second after Loch darted to the side, and Akus staggered. Loch's kick snapped into the back of his leg, and Akus crashed to his knees.

  "And sometimes," Kail added, "the slender reed kicks the crap out of the mighty oak."

  Loch slammed the heel of her palm into Akus's jaw with a crack that silenced the room, then hammered Akus's temple with an elbow. An uppercut snapped his head back up and sprayed blood across the room, and Loch grabbed a fistful of his hair and finished it by pulling him into a knee to the face.

  Jeridan closed his mouth and looked at Kail.

  Kail nodded thoughtfully. "So, about the one-twenty-five you owe me, and those items I wanted to buy..."

  Akus wasn't moving. Loch pulled her blood-spattered gray worksuit back into place. She looked to the doorway, staring at Orris for a long moment. Then she sniffed, picked up her dining tray, and returned to the serving line.

  Loch's silence since arriving at the Cleaners wasn't uncommon. The criminals who believed that the lapiscaela would catch the words and steal their souls often didn't talk for the first few weeks, until fear and loneliness and grim acceptance broke the barriers down.

  In the small cell she shared with Kail, Loch kept her silence, saying not a single word.

  Not aloud, anyway.

  Are we clear? she signed to Kail. He had top bunk—Loch hated hearing him snore beneath her—and had swung his upper body down over the edge to look at her from above.

  "Jeridan will get us the goods tomorrow," he said quietly. "You okay?"

  Fine, she signed. Hurry. Not much time.

  "You think the warden will move that soon?" Kail frowned. "Seems fast after sending the thug at you today."

  Tomorrow. The sign-language she and Kail had learned as scouts didn't allow for nuance, but she put a fierce snap into each gesture. He killed before.

  "I'm sorry about Soggs." Kail sighed, then shrugged. "Did give you a chance to piss off the warden even more, though."

  After a moment of silence, Kail's large eyes closed, two points of white blinking shut in the dim light. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that."

  Soggs was a civilian.

  "I know, Loch. I'm sorry."

  Fight the enemy, not their people. When Kail had joined her unit, that was the first thing she'd taught him. It was the first thing she'd learned herself when she'd joined, years before that. Every scout in the Republic's army learned that phrase, signed or spoke it before every mission. They were soldiers, not thieves, not murderers.

  "I know." Kail sighed. "Tomorrow, then. Assuming the warden is as blood-crazy as he seems."

  Tomorrow. Follow the plan. It will be okay.

  "Where have I heard that before?" Kail shook his head and pulled himself back up onto the top bunk.

  She'd caught the brief flash of his white teeth in the darkness, though, and the smile meant a lot that night.

  When the prisoners lined up at the supply station desk that morning, Warden Orris was there alongside Tawyer. The change in routine had the prisoners nervously murmuring to each other. The warden greeted each prisoner as Tawyer switched the shackles for the leg-chain, handed them their broom, and called out their assignment.

  "Morning, Rastik. How's block C treating you? Lewerryn, you take it easy today, you hear? Haha!"

  "Got it?" Kail murmured to Jeridan as they neared the desk. Loch was in front of them.

  "Of course." Jeridan rocked gently and bumped into Kail, who staggered and pushed him back into place. A small, cloth-covered bundle disappeared into the sleeves of Kail's worksuit.

  "Morning, Loch!" Orris said jovially. "Let's hope you run into less trouble today than yesterday! Haha!"

  Loch stepped up to Tawyer and wordlessly held out her shackled arms.

  "Not today, I think," Warden Orris said easily. "The lady lost a broom, nearly fell, got into a fight. She can keep the arm shackles on today. Hell, those Urujar are more comfortable in chains anyway, right?"

  Tawyer chuckled weakly. "I have to sign off for each pair of shackles—"

  "Just mark it down, Tawyer. Here, let me put my initials by it." Orris grabbed the pen. "There. Take her legs, though. Can't wear your leg shackles and the leg-chain."

  "Right, sir." Tawyer didn't meet Loch's stare as she stepped onto the stand to have her leg shackles removed. "Here, I'll just—"

  "No, no, Tawyer. Give her this leg-chain, here." Orris produced one with a smile. "Fasten it good and tight, too. I'd be real sad if anything should happen to her."

  Tawyer fastened the leg-chain. "Where would you like—"

  "The Tooth, I think." Warden Orris nodded thoughtfully. "She was so eager to get there yesterday, after all. Put them on the lower grid. In fact, why don't you go ahead and walk them there yourself?" He gave Loch a wide smile. "You take care now, girl."

  Tawyer did Kail's shackles and leg-chain in silence, then snapped a single-use flying charm secure on his shoulder and followed them to the hatch nearest the Tooth. He carefully fastened each of their leg-chains to one of several vertical pipes labeled with different grid sections. They climbed down a short metal pipe along a rusted iron ladder, their leg-chains squeaking and rattling beside them.

  At the bottom, Tawyer had to float a bit to get around them. "Go on," he muttered. "You know which way it is."

  "He's gonna kill her," Kail said conversationally.

  "That kind of talk gets a man a night dangling down under, Uru."

  They started moving, Loch in the lead since her chain was connected to the pipe ahead of Kail's. They followed the pipe along the narrow walkway, the cold morning air still tasting of the metal of the grid.

  "You think the warden can kill two prisoners in one week and not be investigated?" Kail asked. "When the heat comes down on the warden, who do you think he'll blame?"

  "You just stay careful." Tawyer prodded Kail with his truncheon. "Can't blame the warden for getting angry. Bynkodar's hell, all she had to do was show a little respect!"

  "Oh, damn, Tawyer, you're right," Kail said as he and Loch turned a corner on the pipe, their leg-chains protesting the uneven fittings with shrill screeches. "I guess she has to die. What was I thinking?"

  They reached the Tooth. From the upper grid, standing level with the top, it was a violet jewel. The sun hadn't risen above the rim of the city yet, and the Tooth shone with a clear brilliance as the sun's light caught it directly.

  "Lower grid," Tawyer said sharply.

  Loch and Kail moved to the junction where the upper grid linked to the special frame that locked the Tooth into place on all four sides. A vertical pipe led down to the lower grid, which connected to the frame below as well.

  "You think about what you did to make the warden so mad." Tawyer gestured for them to head down. "Maybe he'll change his mind."

  "See," Kail said thoughtfully, "I don't know what I did to make him so mad. I know it wasn't sleepin' with his mama, because I was sleeping with your mama last night."

  "Shut your fat mouth!"

  "That's not what your mama said. Man, she couldn't get enough of my mouth. And your mama's a screamer, too—"

  The truncheon came whistling down at Kail's head, and Kail dove back. The truncheon clanged off of the pipes instead, and then Loch's shackled arms crashed down on Tawyer's wrist.

  As the truncheon clattered on the pipes, Loch's palms slammed into Tawyer's temples. Then she looped her shackles over the back of his neck, yanked down hard, and brought her knee up.

  "So, today it is," Kail said as Tawyer hit the ground. He pulled a small bundle out of his sleeve, passed Loch what looked like a pair of thick cloth slippers, and produced another pair for himself.

  Loch shot him a look and pulled on the cloth slippers.

  "Yes, I always use it," Kail said, "every time. Because it always works."

  Loch raised an eyebrow as she got to her feet.

  "Swear to Gedesar, if I run into a guard who doesn't fall for it, I'll find a new one.
" Kail reached into his sleeve again, produced a thin metal wire, and bent down to work on the leg-chain. A moment later, it snapped free. "Here, let me see yours."

  With a wry smile, she reached down and yanked hard, and the special leg-chain Warden Orris had saved for her snapped clean away.

  "Or that," Kail allowed, and then, grinning, reached into the bundle to produce a pair of pipefitter's tools. "Shall we?"

  Orris pounded the desk so hard that his hand throbbed. "Guards! Guards, get in here!"

  As warden, he had access to several powerful artifacts. He'd taken a vicious pleasure in pulling out the flat disc of polished ivory, laying it flat on the table, breaking a vision charm over the artifact, and watching as the dust sprinkled down and the pale ivory surface resolved into a view of the grids. He shifted through the divining crystals set throughout the Cleaners until he found the perfect view of the Tooth, complete with Tawyer, Kail, and Loch herself.

  Then he watched in helpless rage as she took down Tawyer with brutal efficiency, broke the chain he'd prepared for her, and got to her feet. She and Kail began to do something with metal tools on the pipes of the grid. His grid.

  But he was still master of the grid, and he had a few surprises of his own. It had been awhile since the Cleaners had seen real discipline.

  Orris reached into his desk and drew out a narrow wand of polished glass. At its tip was set a single gem, a muddy green-black whose whirling pattern constantly shifted.

  A pair of guards came into the room, and one of them asked him what he needed. He ignored them.

  Instead, he looked down into the polished ivory surface at Loch. "Time to dance, little princess." Then he touched his personal signet ring to the wand.

  The screams that echoed up from the grid made the whole office vibrate, or perhaps it was the magic itself that shook the very underside of Heaven's Spire. Orris felt a lustful rush as he stared into the ivory, watched the writhing tendrils of scarlet fire snake across every metal surface on the grid. Every prisoner at work would curl up in helpless torment or fall screaming from the pipes until their metal leg-chains caught them. Then they would dangle, twitching in agony while the pain raced down their chains.

  Loch and Kail flinched, and waited.

  After half a minute, the scarlet flames flickered and died.

  Loch grinned, turned to the divining crystal that she had to know he was using to watch her, and waved.

  The nurse sighed as the vibrations ran through the clinic. The containment magic was wonderful for neutralizing prisoners, but there were always injuries. He was going to have prisoners complaining of all sorts of aches and pains for the rest of the day, and the warden hated it when the nurse used supplies.

  He looked down at his only overnight prisoner, a man who'd lost a fight in the dining hall and was shackled to the bed for treatment. "Count yourself lucky," the nurse said conversationally, leaning in to check the unconscious man's pulse. "Better to be in here than down there this—"

  The man's shackled hand shot up, closed around the nurse's throat before he could pull back out of reach, and yanked him down toward the bed.

  "Key," the prisoner growled.

  The nurse tried to pull back, realized that that wasn't going to help his breathing, and sputtered frantically. "Can't escape!" he gasped. "They'll kill you as soon as you go up!"

  The prisoner grinned horribly. "Not going up."

  Orris watched helplessly as Loch and Kail started working on the pipes again.

  It can't be," he murmured again. "She played me. She played me!" He thrust the crystal wand at the ivory plate and focused his will again, but the magic required time to gather its strength. Orris hurled the wand and spun away as it shattered against the wall. "Get down there and... No!" With sheer force of will, he lowered his voice. "No. Tend to the prisoners." He pulled his grandfather's saber from the wall, unsheathed it, and tossed the scabbard aside.

  "I'll deal with Loch myself."

  His pronouncement was ruined when another guard burst into the room. "Sir! Sir!"

  "You don't get paid to run around screaming, guard!" Orris barked, brandishing the saber. The intruding guard flinched back, sputtering. "I know damn well the security wards were activated!"

  "That's not why I'm here, sir," the guard cut in, still eyeing Orris's saber nervously.

  "Well, why the hell are you here?" Orris shouted, bustling forward and urging the guards out of his way with flourishes of his grandfather's saber.

  "It's, well, it's about the prisoner who got beaten in the dining hall yesterday." The guard stepped back at Orris's stare. "He was at the clinic when the wards were activated, but it appears that in all the excitement..."

  "Where is he now?" Orris asked, biting off each word.

  "He, er..." The guard winced. "He subdued the orderly treating his injuries and told the man that he intended to settle a score with the woman."

  Orris laughed. "Well, now, that's not bad news at all!" he declared grandly, heading for the drop-hatches with a jaunty step. "I just hope I get to see him do it!"

  "Done." Kail stepped back from the upper grid. They'd worked fast since Orris had activated the wards, and had gotten through most of the frame holding the Tooth in place. If not for the insulation slippers Kail had scrounged up, they'd likely have been dead already. "Want me to head down?"

  Loch turned and nodded shortly, then jerked her head back to the eastern walkway where footsteps clanged in sharp contrast to the groans of shaken prisoners. Then came a roar of sheer hatred that could have been the war trumpet of Esa-jolar herself. "LLLLLOCCCCH!"

  Akus came around the corner, a massive figure of battered flesh and rippling muscle. His nose was broken, and one eye was swollen nearly shut. He wore no worksuit, only boots and a clinic blanket wrapped around his waist several times like a kilt. His broad chest was covered with hair, knife scars, and purple-green bruises. She threw a punch, but he ignored it in his rage, slamming her against the pipes and driving the breath from her lungs.

  "Get off her!" Kail shouted, leaping at the enormous man. His punch glanced harmlessly off Akus's shoulder, and with a grunt, Akus grabbed hold of Kail's worksuit with thick, knotted hands and lifted Kail off the ground.

  "No leg-chain, little Urujar?" Akus growled. "That's gonna cost you." As Kail struggled helplessly, Akus walked to the edge of the upper grid. Then, with a smile, he flung Kail off the edge, laughed harshly, and turned back to Loch. "Hope your friend has a nice—"

  Her elbow caught him in the gut. Her kick caught him in the groin. The open palms of her shackled hands smashed into his already-broken nose. And as he howled and lashed out blindly, her shoulder, with the full power of her lunging body behind it, caught him in the midsection, knocking him back a full three steps.

  He'd only been two steps from the edge.

  He screamed as he fell, and Loch spun away, not wanting to see it.

  Instead, she saw Warden Orris himself, standing at the edge of the walkway with his saber raised in a mocking salute.

  "That poor dumb brute was never in your league, Loch," the warden said conversationally, "but then, I guess your little friend Kail was never in his league."

  Loch spread her arms as far apart as they could go, shackled as they were, and set herself in an unarmed fighting stance.

  "What, nothing?" Orris shook his head. "You stupid girl, you know you're not leaving the Cleaners alive. You thought you could play me, do something to my grid, but I caught you. And still you cling to that stubborn pride?" His face reddened at her silence, and sweat began to bead on the thick jowls of his neck. "Or maybe you're too stupid to talk. Is that it? You too stupid to spit out any last words, you Uru?"

  Loch walked forward, her padded feet nearly silent on the metal of the grid.

  "Fine!" Orris shouted, raising his saber. "Die like the—"

  Loch kicked Orris in the shin. As he howled and brought the saber down, she raised her shackled arms, caught the saber on the shackles, crossed her
wrists to trap the blade, and spun away, yanking the sword from his grasp. With practiced ease, she flipped the blade free of the chains and caught it with one hand.

  Then she turned away from Orris and walked to the edge of the upper grid, her new sword held high to keep it clear of the shackles.

  "I'll see you scream before you die, you..." Orris stammered to a halt. "Where are you going?"

  Loch tapped the sword twice on the edge of the grid, looked down for a moment, and then strode to one of the corners. From the lower grid below, Kail's voice clearly called up, "Ready when you are, Captain!"

  Orris dashed to the edge and stared down at the lower grid in dumbfounded shock. He'd clearly seen Kail thrown from the upper grid by Akus, who had then been knocked off by Loch.

  Kail and Akus were working side by side. Akus was naked except for his boots, and the large blanket Akus had worn wrapped around his waist was now wrapped around the Tooth, covering the vast majority of its lower surface like a massive stocking.

  Blocking it from the light of the sun.

  Orris was not a stupid man. The Tooth was so irregular and so large that it required a special frame to connect it to the grid. His gaping stare took in the missing screws and broken pins on that frame, both on the upper grid and the lower grid.

  There was only one major support pipe still connected to the Tooth's harness, and it was creaking ominously, metal whining in protest as Loch approached it.

  "You can't!" Orris blurted, then felt himself reddening as Loch turned and raised an eyebrow. "You'll be... That's... You're a madwoman!"

  Loch smiled, and it was that more than anything that made him backpedal frantically. She raised the sword in her shackled arms, her whole body bending like a fully stretched bow, and then she brought the blade down on the last junction holding the entire Tooth and its frame in place.

  There was a sharp metallic crack, followed an interminable moment later by a low creak that built rapidly in pitch and volume as the entire structure of the grid around the Tooth began to sink. Small pipes twisted, bent, and snapped under the weight of the great stone, and as Orris scrambled back, the entire section of scaffolding sheared away in a screaming crescendo of tearing metal.