Dawson

Winter business.

The words themselves reeked of desperation. From the longest night to first thaw, noblemen took to their estates or they followed the King's Hunt. They took stock of what sort of men their sons were becoming, reacquainted themselves with wives and mistresses, looked over the tax revenue from their holdings. To the highborn, winter meant domesticity and the work of the hearth. Much as he loved Camnipol, passing through the wind-chilled, smoke-stinking streets put Dawson in the company of professional courtiers, merchants, and other men of uncertain status. But his cause was just, and so he bore the insult to his dignity.

Nor was he the only one to suffer it.

"I don't understand why you hate Issandrian so deeply," said Canl Daskellin, Baron of Watermarch, Protector of Northport, and His Majesty's Special Ambassador to Northcoast. "He's entirely too pretty and full of himself, it's true, but if you take being self-impressed and ambitious as sinning, you won't find any saints in this court."

Dawson sat back in his chair. Around them, the Fraternity of the Great Bear seemed almost empty. Seats and cushions upholstered in raw silk or Cabral damask sat empty. Black iron braziers squatted in rooms built to be cool in midsummer. The servant girls, so often hard-pressed to tend the needs of the fraternity members, haunted the shadows and doorways, waiting for a sign that something might be wanted. At summer's height, there might be a hundred men of the best breeding in the empire drinking and smoking and conducting affairs of court in these grand and comfortable rooms. Now, if Dawson spoke too loud, it echoed.

"It isn't the man," Dawson said. "It's the philosophy behind him. Maas and Klin are no better, but Issandrian holds their leashes."

"Philosophical differences hardly seem to justify... What? Conspiracy?"

"Philosophy always becomes action. Issandrian and Maas and the others are willing to play to the lowest kind of man in order to gain power."

"You mean the farmer's council."

"That's one place," Dawson said. "But if they are willing to champion rabble, how long is it before the rabble choose to champion themselves? Already we have restrictions on slavery, on bed servants, on land service. All of that within our lifetimes. And all from men like Issandrian, courting favor from laborers and merchants and whores."

Canl Daskellin gave out a low grunt. Between the thin winter light silhouetting him and the almost Lyoneian darkness of his skin, Dawson could hardly make out his expression. Still, he hadn't disagreed. And if he hadn't had concerns of his own, he wouldn't have come.

"It's time for the true spirit of Antea to put things right," Dawson said. "These hounds think they run the hunt. They must be broken, and if we wait until Prince Aster is living under Issandrian's roof..."

The silence finished his thought more eloquently than any words could. Daskellin shifted forward in his chair, muttering something obscene under his breath.

"You're sure the king intends to take that step?"

"I heard it from his own mouth," Dawson said. "Simeon is a good man, and he could be a good king too, but not without our loyalty. He's waiting for his chance to put Issandrian in his place. And I am going to provide that chance."

Soft voices came from the passage beyond, and then faded again. From the street, the clacking of steel-shod hooves. Canl drew a small clay pipe from his jacket and lifted his hand. A servant girl scurried over with a taper. With the first fragrant blue cloud of smoke, she retreated. Dawson waited.

"How?" Daskellin asked. His voice had taken on the firmness of an interrogator. Dawson smiled. The battle was half won.

"Deny Issandrian his strength," Dawson said. "Recall Alan Klin from Vanai. Alienate Issandrian from the farmers. Shatter his circle."

"Meaning Maas and Klin."

"To start, but he has other adherents as well. But that isn't enough. They gained influence because the men who understand what noble blood means are divided."

Daskellin took a long draw on his pipe, the ember glowing bright and then fading as he exhaled.

"And thus your conspiracy," he said.

"Loyalty to the king is no conspiracy," Dawson said. "It's what we should have been doing all along. But we slept, and the dogs snuck in. And, Canl, you know that."

Daskellin tapped the clay stem against his teeth. His eyes narrowed.

"Whatever it is," Dawson said, "say it."

"Loyalty to King Simeon is one thing. Becoming the tool of House Kalliam is something else. I am... disturbed by the changes Issandrian and his cabal are suggesting. But trading one man of ambition for another is no solution."

"You want me to show I'm not Issandrian?"

"I do."

"What proof do you want?"

"If I help to recall Klin from Vanai, you cannot profit from it. Everyone's quite aware that your son is under Klin's command there. Jorey Kalliam cannot take the protectorship of Vanai."

Dawson blinked, opened his mouth, closed it again.

"Canl," he began, but Daskellin's eyes narrowed. Dawson took a deep breath and let it out slowly. When he spoke, his voice was harder than he'd meant it to be. "I swear before God and the throne of Antea that my son Jorey will not take protectorship of Vanai when Alan Klin is called home. Further, I swear that no one of my house will take profit from Vanai. Now, will you swear the same, old friend?"

"Me?"

"You have a cousin in the city, I think? I'm sure you wouldn't want to give the impression that your own support of the throne is merely self-serving?"

Daskellin's laughter boomed and rolled, a deep sound and warm enough to push back the teeth of winter, if only for a moment.

"God wept, Kalliam. You'll make altruists of us all."

"Will you swear?" Kalliam said. "Will you make common cause with the men who are loyal to King Simeon and to put the restoration of tradition ahead of your own glory?"

"True servants to the throne," Daskellin said, half amused.

"Yes," Dawson said. There was no room for lightness in his voice. He was hard as stone, his intentions fashioned from steel. "True servants to the throne."

Daskellin sobered.

"You mean this," he said.

"I do," Dawson said.

The dark eyes flickered over Dawson's face, as if trying to penetrate a disguise. And then as it had with half a dozen men before him - men whom Dawson had chosen because he knew they were as hungry for it as he himself was - pride bloomed in the dark face. Pride and determination and a sense of becoming part of something greater and good.

"Then yes," Daskellin said softly, "I will."

The Division was the most obvious of the partitions within the city, but it was far from the only one. On both sides of the bridges, nobility held to their mansions and squares while the lesser people lived in smaller, narrower ways. Living north of the Kestrel Square meant you were of high stature. Having your stables by the southern gate meant you had good blood, but a squandered fortune. The city was complex in ways that only her citizens could know. The streets were not the only dimension in which class could be measured. The poorest and most desperate tunneled down to coax new life out of the ruins of previous ages on which the modern city was built, living in darkness and squalor, but saving them at least from the indignities of winter.

Ice and snow turned the dark cobbles white. Carts went slowly, and mules carefully. Horses walked haltingly for fear of slipping, breaking a leg, and being slaughtered on the street where they fell. The Camnipol winter stole even the dignity of a waiting carriage, but the meeting with Daskellin had left Dawson so pleased with himself that he barely minded. He let the servant girl belt on his overcoat of dark leather with silverwork seams and bloodstone hooks, put on the broad-brimmed hat that matched it, and marched himself out into the streets toward his home and Clara.

He'd spent his boyhood in Camnipol, following his father through the rituals of power during the day and then drinking, singing, and carousing with the other highborn boys through the nights. Even now, decades later, the snow-caked stone held memories under it. He passed the thin alley where Eliayzer Breiniako had run naked after losing a bet with him the night they'd both turned fourteen. Then the wide turning that led to the streets where all the Timzinae and Jasuru made their homes: the quarter of bugs and pennies. He passed under Morade's Arch, where the last, mad Dragon Emperor had died in his clutch-mate's talons; the arc of the dragon's jade rose up almost as high as the Kingspire itself and so thin and finely worked it seemed any wind would tip it over. He passed the Chancel of Sorrial, with its soot-blackened southern wall. The cathouse where his father had taken him on his tenth birthday and bought him his first night with a woman.

The single white cloud of the sky glowed beneficently on the city, dispelling shadows. A baker's cart coming back from the market square dropped a crate of almonds, and a dozen children seemed to appear from no place, grabbing at the nuts before the carter could stop them. On the western wall, he could look down over the great plains of Antea like God looking down on the world. The wind through the streets bit and rasped on his lips and cheeks. It was the perfect city. Everything had happened here, from the fall of dragons, to the elevation of the White Prophet, to the slave riots that had brought House Antea to refound a Firstblood empire in the city that dragons built. The stones stood witness to centuries, to ages.

And now, perhaps for the first time, Dawson was taking his place in the city that he loved. He had begun the work for which Camnipol would remember him. Dawson Kalliam, Baron of Osterling Fells, who purified the court and guarded Antea on the right and proper path. Kalliam, who gathered the defenders of righteousness. Who destroyed the agents of chaos and change.

The Undying City invited him to get drunk on his memories and the vision of a future bent to his will - a future where Curtin Issandrian and Feldin Maas were left to scuttle through filthy snow on winter business instead of him - and Dawson succumbed. If there were any warning signs before the attack, he missed them entirely.

The road curved, following the shape of the promontory's edge, and in the triangular park where two wide streets became one, three men in dark wool overcoats and leggings stood together in deep conversation. Their breath came out white as feathers, white as the sky. Dawson strode toward them, expecting them to give way before a Baron of the Court. Hard eyes met his. The men didn't move.

Annoyance intruded on Dawson's revery, then the thought that they might not recognize his rank and station. The nearest of the men opened his coat and drew a wide, curved knife. The others moved to flank. Dawson barked out a short laugh of disdain and disbelief, and the knife man rushed him. Dawson danced back, trying to draw his own sword. Even before he had his blade clear of the scabbard the thug on his left struck his elbow with a weighted club. Dawson's hand went numb and his sword fell silently to the icy ground. The knife man swung, his blade slicing through the leather overcoat and into the flesh of Dawson's chest. Dawson yelped and jumped back.

It was the farthest thing from a duel. There was no beauty in the men's movements or style, no sense of honor. Not even the grace of formal training. The knife man held his blade like a butcher, and his partners with their clubs penned Dawson in as if he might turn and flee, squealing like a frightened sow. Dawson drew himself to his full height, pressing fingers to the torn coat. The fingers of his gloves came away bloody.

"You have just made your last mistake," Dawson said. "You have no idea who you're facing."

The knife man smiled.

"Think I do, m'lord," he said, and struck again. The blade would have sunk deep into Dawson's belly if decades of training hadn't pulled him back and to the side. The club man on the left swung hard, catching him on the shoulder. As Dawson sank to his knees, it occurred to him for the first time that these were not simple street toughs looking for a few coins. It was a trap, and it was meant for him.

The club man on his right danced back and forward and back on the balls of his feet, weapon raised high and ready to come down with a skull-shattering blow. Dawson raised his arm, and the attacker vanished with a grunt. The assassins turned. A new man in grey hunter's wool rolled on the cobbles, locked in the club man's violent embrace. When they broke, the new man leapt up. His clothes were soaked in red, as was the short sword in his hand. The thug didn't rise.

"Lord Kalliam," the new man shouted, and tossed his blade. Dawson watched it arc through the air, blood and steel. Time seemed to slow. The grip was dark leather, well used. The blade itself had a blood channel running down its center. Dawson reached out, plucking the sword from the air. The remaining club man swung at him, and, still on his knees, Dawson parried the attack.

The fallen attacker groaned, lifted himself with one hand, then slipped back into the spreading pool of red.

Dawson rose. The two assassins glanced at each other, and Dawson read the fear in them. True, he was hurt and his rescuer now unarmed. True, the numbers were merely even. And still, to go so suddenly from three men and a victim to an almost equal battle shook their confidence. The club man took a step back, half turning as if he might flee. Dawson felt his lips curl. These men were cowards.

He swung his borrowed sword fast, low, and hard. The man danced back, parrying awkwardly. To Dawson's right, the knife man shouted and leapt for Dawson's unarmed ally. The pain of Dawson's wounds faded, the chill of his own blood freezing on his chest brought a feral grin to his mouth. The club man fell back a step, and Dawson pressed in, his knees bent, his weight low, his body balanced and ready. When the weighted club made its next swing, Dawson pushed inside its arc, taking the blow on his ribs as he thrust the blade forward. The club man's breath went out of him in a white, feathery rush. There was armor under that overcoat. The assassin wasn't dead, but he was staggered. Dawson turned, brought a heel down on the man's instep, swung the pommel of his sword in a short, hard jab at his face. The unmistakable crunch of breaking cartilage transferred itself to Dawson's wrist.

The assassin bent low and rushed him, trying to bowl him over by main force. Dawson slid back, his boots finding little purchase on the icy street. The thug weighed more than him, and he was counting on that to save him in the grapple. He had misjudged Dawson's character.

Dawson dropped the sword, grabbed the thug's dark hair in his left hand, not to pull the man's head away but to steady it. He drove his thumb deep in the man's eye socket, bending at the knuckle. Something soft and terrible happened, and the man shrieked high and pained and frightened. Dawson pushed him away, and the man stumbled to his knees, hands pressed to his ruined eye and shattered nose.

The knife man and Dawson's rescuer were circling one another. The rescuer's arms were spread and weaponless. A cut on his left arm bled, scattering droplets of scarlet on the white ice and black cobbles. A crowd was gathering on the street. Men, women, children with eyes wide and hungry taking in the violence without daring to intervene. Dawson kicked the mewling club man to the pavement and pulled the strap of his club from around his wrist. The knife man's glance spoke panic, and Dawson drew the weighted club whirring through the air, testing its balance and weight.

The knife man bolted, dark boots throwing bits of snow up behind him as he pelted away. The crowd parted, letting the thug escape rather than risk a swing of his little blade. Peasants, commoners, and serfs making way for one of their own. He wanted to feel some outrage that the simple citizens of Camnipol would allow the man to flee, but he didn't. Cowardice and the safety of the herd was the nature of the lowborn. He could as well blame sheep for bleating.

The first assassin to fall lay perfectly still, the blood around him steaming. The second club man was growing quiet too, slipping into shock. Dawson's rescuer squatted on bent ankles, considering his wounded arm. He was young, thick arms and shoulders and rough, knife-cropped hair. The shape of his face was familiar.

"It seems I owe you my thanks," Dawson said. To his surprise, he was out of breath.

The new man shook his head.

"I should have come sooner, my lord," the young man said. "I stayed too far back."

"Too far back?" Dawson said. "You've been tracking me?"

The man nodded and would not meet his eyes.

"Why is that?" Dawson asked.

"Your lady wife, my lord," the man said. "She took me into service after you turned me out. She tasked me with keeping you safe, sir. I'm afraid I've done a poor job."

Of course. The huntsman from the kitchens who'd returned the bit of horn soaked in dog's blood and insult. Vincen Coe, the name had been. He'd never asked Clara what she'd done to see to the boy, but of course she couldn't simply reinstate him over her husband's express words. And certainly it would be beneath him to say he'd been unjust with the boy.

"You're mistaken," Dawson said.

"Lord?"

"I've never seen you before, and I wouldn't have turned a man of your courage and talent out of my service."

"Yes... I mean, no, my lord."

"That's settled, then. Come along with me, we'll get these little scratches daubed."

Coe stood.

"My sword, my lord?"

"Yes. We may have need of that," Dawson said, gesturing to where it lay, grimed with blood and snow and soot. "It seems I'm frightening all the right men."