* * *
Ho was releaved to find that the newcomers to the Pit intended to keep a low profile. Thinking it over for a time, however, he realized that this worried him just as much. The two were acting less like the potential tyrants he feared, but more like the suspected spies he feared even more. Yet it all seemed too preposterous; an insignificant detail no doubt buried among the chaos and smoke of the uprising: why did Pit not rise in rebellion? Even after guards were pulled away to help pacify Skullcap, Pit remained a model of quiet. Why should this be? What could over a hundred mages, warlocks, seers, thaumaturgs and assorted talents possibly be up to? Not a thing, certainly, sir. No, nothing at all.
A council meeting would have been called to settle upon a course of action but the problem was the two would be sure to hear every word of the screaming matches yammering down the tunnels. And so Yath and his people kept watch; especially that eerie shadow of his, Sessin.
On his way to the minehead, Ho scratched the patches of dry raw skin on his arms and legs that so cursed all inhabitants of the Pit. They all had more than enough to keep themselves busy in any case. There was the question of what to do with Iffin; just two weeks ago the fellow was walking down a tunnel when he meets Sulp ‘Ul – a man he'd worked beside peaceably enough for nearly ten years – when suddenly Iffin reaches over and jabs a sharpened stick through Sulp's throat. Sulp dies choking on his own blood. We confine Iffin to a barred cave and question him. Turns out it was a family vendetta from the old Cawn-Itko Kan border wars from before the Empire. And Iffin wasn't even old enough to remember those days!
Hopping to scratch one ankle, Ho had to shake his head. He'd thought those old rivalries and hatreds had all gone the way of the Jaghut. But now, with rumours arriving of nations seceding from the Empire – Quon, Dal Hon, Gris – and every week the list seeming to grow longer, old, long-quiescent hatreds and rivalries were now raising their noses and sniffing the wind. All the old festering slights that only the heel of the emperor manged to quell. Ho could only dread what was to come if the continent returned to its old destructive ways of shifting alliances and the never-ending feud for dominance.
At the great round of the mine-head he spotted the two newcomers silently staring upwards at the circle of clear blue sky overhead. Or so it seemed to any casual observer – to Ho it looked more like they were studying the crumbling, rotten stone of the walls searching for a way up. He came up behind them. ‘Those walls won't support the weight of a man.’
The one who gave his name as Grief slowly turned his head to give Ho a long hard stare. ‘Looks that way.’
‘If I were you I wouldn't waste my time trying to scare up an escape plan. Escape attempts only bring reprisals for the rest of us.’
The one named Treat turned around fully. ‘You warnin’ us? Gonna turn us in?’
The Napan, Grief, briefly rested a hand on the arm of Treat who eased back a step. So, not equals. This Grief – what a ridiculous name to give! – seemed to outrank his companion. Ho shook his head. ‘No. You'll notice there's no one to turn you in to. I'm just asking that you try to keep the welfare of everyone here in mind.’
A broad secretive smile lifted Grief's lips and he bowed his assent to Ho. ‘Good idea. We'll try to do just that.’ He patted his companion on the arm and they walked off leaving Ho to watch them go, wondering, what did the fellow mean by that – if anything?
Turning away, Ho walked straight into the lean but dense form of Sessin. The tanned Seven Cities native glowered down at him. ‘What did he say?’ he demanded in thickly accented Talian.
‘Nothing significant.’ Ho scratched at his scalp. Gods, here he was answering to the man as if he were an Official Inquisitor. ‘Listen, do you do this all day? Just follow them around? Aren't they suspicious?’
The scowl edged into a sneer. ‘Where would they go?’
OK. The man had a point there. So, they know, he knows, and they know he knows.
‘Yath has judged. If they find out anything we will kill them.’
Yath has judged that, has he? Well, he'd have to have a word with the man about that. As for killing those two, something told Ho they could take a whole lot of killing.