Four of the men put down weapons, but the one slender man, the one Dash had judged dangerous, pulled his. “Run!” he shouted to his companions, and as if to buy them time, he launched a two-weapon attack on Dash.
Dash had practiced against this style of righting before, but diis man was very good at it. One of his constables tried to come to his aid but only managed to almost get Dash killed. “Back off!” Dash commanded after he slipped aside of a dirust, while his constable moved away.
Talwin walked up behind the slender man and slammed him in the back of the head with the hilt of his sword. Dash, frustrated at the long wait, turned to his constable and shouted, “That’s how you do it! You hit them from behind! You don’t leap in and almost get someone killed! Got it?”
The constable nodded, looking embarrassed, and Dash turned to inspect the other prisoners. The fifth man, the one who arrived last, looked familiar to Dash. Dash studied him for a moment, then his eyes widened. “I know you! You’re a clerk from the palace!” The man said nothing, looking terrified.
Talwin said, “Let’s get this bunch to the palace for some questioning . . . if you agree, Sheriff.”
“Good idea, Deputy,” said Dash.
The other members of die constabulary knew something odd was going on with Talwin, but no one had voiced any concerns, or at least not within Dash’s hearing. Dash, Talwin, and the other five constables ordered two of the prisoners to pick up their unconscious comrade and started them on their way to the palace.
“They’re not Keshian,” said Talwin as he closed the door behind them.
“Then who are they working for?” asked Dash.
They were in Dash’s room, unused since he had been given the office of Sheriff. “I think they’re working for the Keshians, but they may not know that.”
Dash had appropriated five rooms in the palace in which each of the prisoners was isolated. He didn’t want them talking to one another before questioning each in turn. Talwin had briefly spoken to each man, before beginning intensive questioning. He said, “We’ve got one interesting case, Pickney, a clerk from the Prince’s office. The rest of them are . . . odd. One vagabond swordsman, one baker, a stablehand, and a journeyman mason.”
Dash said, “Hardly the lot I’d pick for conspiracy.”
Talwin said, “I think they’re dupes. Not one of them has the wits of a bug. Pickney worries me.”
“I’d worry a little about that swordsman—”
“Desgarden,” supplied Talwin, “is the happy blade who tried to kill you.”
“Desgarden,” repeated Dash. “He was willing to try to fight his way out rather than be captured.”
“Either he has an inflated sense of his own ability with a sword, or he’s just as stupid as I think he is.”
“Stupid he may be,” said Dash, “but unlike the other three, he’s not what I would consider a ‘stand-up’ citizen. He has the look of someone who knows his way around the back alleys and sewers. He may be part of those who are causing some troubles in the Poor Quarter.”
Talwin nodded. “Well, let me squeeze them and see what I can find out.”
Dash said, “Good. I think I’m going to sleep in my own bed tonight. It’s been a month.”
Talwin said, “By the way, I should be leaving your service at the end of the week.”
“Oh?” said Dash, with a slight smile. “Have I been that difficult an employer?”
“Duke Rufio arrives.”
“It’s been confirmed he’s to be Duke of Krondor?”
“Not publicly,” said Talwin. “You didn’t hear that from me.”
Dash waved away the man, who closed the door while Dash took off his boots. He lay back on his own bed and marveled at how soft his heavy down mattress was compared to that straw thing in the back of the jail.
He was wondering if he should take this one back with him when he fell asleep.
He came awake suddenly when someone pounded on his door.
“What?” he said sleepily, opening his door.
Talwin said, “We need to talk.”
Dash waved him inside. “How long was I asleep?”
“A few hours.”
“It wasn’t long enough,” said Dash.
“We have a grave problem.”
“What?” asked Dash, coming awake.
“Those five are dupes, as I suspected, but they were working for someone inside the palace, and from what I can tell, he’s an agent for Kesh.”
“Inside the palace?”
Talwin nodded. “The clerk believes him to be someone connected with a business concern—he thinks it might be your old employer, Rupert A very.”
“Hardly,” said Dash. “Whatever Roo needs to know, he simply asks. The crown owes him so much gold, we usually tell him.”
“I know. He’s well connected with you, von Darkmoor, and others. But that’s what Pickney believed. Desgarden on the other hand, thinks he’s working for a band of smugglers from Durbin.”
“Cut to it, what’s going on?”