The Agent of Xyanwer

Sador patted the pommel of his sword. "At a very fair price." He didn't mention that this was why he had been delayed. He had no wish to hear that tone again.

Darnizhy nodded.

"That's all very well, " she said, "but I meant what do you have for me?"

An agent's commission was usually the pick of the goods their client had brought to Xyanwer, and though Darnizhy had taken slaves from Sador Sal in the past the Jasjani made sure that he carried other goods as well that might be more to her preference if none of his living cargo caught her eye. Since she had barely glanced at the Izani girls -- and they were, thought the slaver, worth more than a glance -- Sador assumed this would be one of those times.

They left the main holds and ascended to an upper deck cabin where his crew had already laid out a selection of his other goods.

"Silk from Kandar Kul and leather from Selen. That ebony box holds powder of Shi from Nidras, and the ivory box beside it contains Luquel Berries from Zal."

"You know my tastes well, Sador."

"After five years of doing business with you I would hope that I do."

Darnizhy opened the ivory box Sador had indicated and took out one of the berries inside, of a purple so dark it was almost black. She took in the scent and the way she closed her eyes and caught her breath gave Sador another second of regret.

"I also have..."

The door to the cabin opened and a girl looked in. Eighteen or nineteen, with dark blue eyes and black hair that framed her face like a raven's wings, dressed in loose cotton and a long travelling coat of dark red that did nothing to hide her figure.

"Captain Sador, has there been any word from the city?" Her voice was soft and polite, educated and well-bred.

Sador had washed the blood of several priests off of his sword blade in his time, and the lack of any divine retribution for these acts, or certain others, had left him with a healthy scepticism regarding the gods. Nonetheless he now cursed several of them inwardly. One more bloody minute and it would have been done...

Darnizhy had turned around, and was looking at the girl with a lot more interest than she had spared for the Izani slaves.

"As a Jasjani his correct title is Sal, " she said with a smile.

The girl blushed. "I stand corrected, my lady. I am not well travelled. This is my first time away from Kandar Kul."

"I'm always happy to correct a young woman. Welcome to Xyanwer." The agent stepped closer and held up the Luquel berry she still held between her fingers. "Try one, " she said casually. "They're excellent."

The square heels of Darnizhy's boots gave her several inches of height on the girl, who looked up at her uncertainly. The agent smiled again and gently, but firmly, pressed the berry to the younger woman's soft, full lips. At the first taste of it those lips parted in a surprised little gasp, and with only the lightest of pressures Darnizhy pushed the full berry into the girl's mouth.

"Darnizhy..."

The agent glanced over at Sador, though her attention was still mostly on the girl, who had closed her eyes and made a little moan as she reflexively sucked on the tip of the finger that had pushed the berry into her mouth, before swallowing it down.

"She's a little over-dressed for one of your slaves, Sador, " said Darnizhy casually, stepping back and watching as the girl reacted to the potent Zalian aphrodisiac she had just swallowed.

"She's not a slave, " said Sador.

"I'm here with my sister, " said the girl, opening her eyes again. "Captain... that is Sador Sal has brought us to Xyanwer at the request of our cousins in Kandar Kul."

"Under a Writ of Passage from the Duke of Klos, " added Sador. "I've been commissioned to deliver them to Betran Roisy."

Darnizhy nodded as she took this in.

The girls were nobility from Kandar Kul, the City of the Hundred Families. Betran Roisy, known as the Banker of Kandar Kul, provided a kind of sanctuary for members of the Families who, for one reason or another, needed to escape the blood feuds of the Grand City, for a time. The Writ of Passage, signed by one of the most powerful men in the Nine Cities, ensured that Sador would complete his commission rather than sell them along the way, which, he would not deny, he would otherwise have done. They'd have fetched a superb price.

She turned back to the girl.

"Did you say your sister?"

"Yes, my lady, " said the girl. "We're twins."

Sador saw the way the agent smiled at that, and cursed a few more gods, wondering if perhaps he was receiving some divine retribution at last.

= = =

There were a lot of rules involved in any dealings in Xyanwer, and to break any of those rules was often fatal. Sometimes the consequences were far worse than that.

Xyanwer lay at a the tip of a peninsula that stretched far up into the north. How far Sador did not know, nor did he want to. He did not know that caravans came from those dark lands, and it was for the goods those caravans carried that he and other merchants came to trade.

To do so it was necessary to deal with the Houses of Xyanwer, and to do that it was wise to retain the services of an agent like Darnizhy. It was possible to do without, as traders had until perhaps fifty years ago when the first agents had been appointed.

Sador knew, from stories that were part truth and part legend but most of all warnings, that back then perhaps two or three out of any ten ships that docked in Xyanwer would sail back to the other cities, and it was best not to think about what happened to the others.

Nevertheless the fortunes that those skilled or fortunate few who did return made meant that there would always be more merchants who would risk all to trade in the City of Nightmares.

That was then. It was safer now. The agents, as the representatives of the true power in Xyanwer, could act as intermediaries between the merchants and the Houses, secure in the knowledge that their persons were utterly inviolate. Sador didn't know what They got out of this arrangement, though he assumed that They took something from the Houses in return for allowing them to trade in the city.

That was why Darnizhy, who wore Their wards and signet, could walk the streets of the most dreadful city in the world alone and unarmed. Even the most debased, deranged or desperate inhabitant of Xyanwer understood that to offer harm to an agent would result in immediate and absolute destruction. If they were lucky they would die quickly. If they were not lucky they might never die at all, no matter how much they begged. That the retribution of Those Who Reign was often as indiscriminate as it was absolute only added to the terror which They, and the agents, inspired.

Sador had met with Darnizhy the first time he came to the city, and on each subsequent occasion. Agents did not compete with one another and if, for any reason, he failed to come to an agreement with Darnizhy then he would be unable to return to Xyanwer.

Each time required a new agreement. The first had been a long negotiation, but they were friends now, and the wealth of gifts he offered the agent were almost a formality. He had never reached an impasse in his negotation with Darnizhy, but then he had never had something in his possession that she wanted but which he could not give.

Until now.

Fortunately for him the same rules that governed all other aspects of trade in Xyanwer prohibited Darnizhy from simply taking what she wanted, but if she felt at all slighted then she could simply refuse to act for him this time, and his journey would have been for nothing. Worse yet it might also put his future dealings with the city at risk.

= = =

"I hope I did not interrupt anything important, " said Betran Roisy, chuckling at his own jest as he helped himself to some of Sador's wine and picked fussily at the delicacies on the table.

"A little, " said Darnizhy, leaning back in her chair and looking across at Sador. "Actually we were just discussing you when you arrived."

"How nice, " said Roisy, and beamed like a cherub. An elderly and debauched cherub, draped in multi-layered white robes and curiously geometric gold chains.

Roisy had arrived not long after Darnizhy, though unlike the agent he had been escorted by several armed men in the white and black cloaks of his Sanctuary Guard. They waited outside now, for the Banker had invited himself to lunch.

He sat at one end of the table in the main cabin, with Sador at the other end. Darnizhy sat in the middle, with the twins opposite her. At the agent's insistence the second girl had also tried one of the Luqel berries and they now leaned into one another, whispering to each other and casting looks around at the others, most often at Darnizhy.

"Perhaps we should conclude our business first, " Sador said to Roisy.

"Oh, I'm in no hurry." Roisy's little eyes strayed from Darnizhy to the twins and back again.

Sador grunted. He didn't resent the agent's all too obvious desire for his noble-born passengers, despite the problems it might cause. Darnizhy had made him a very rich man, dealing directly on his behalf with things he barely liked to think about, let alone meet with, and for all that she was warded by Them he could tell how much it took out of her.

By the end of his week here, Sador knew, the agent would be sleepless, exhausted, sustaining herself on wine and narcotics compared to which the Luqel berries that had left the twins in a bright eyed, excited haze were nothing. There was a cost to everything in Xyanwer, and Sador didn't like to think what her position cost Darnizhy.

Roisy he did resent. The so-called Banker of Kandar Kul was, in Sador's opinion, an unctuous little bastard who he would, had he met him on the open sea, cheerfully have fed to the sharks, one piece at a time.

The slaver stood and reached across the length of the table, holding the Writ he had been given in Kandar Kul, along with a packet of letters also addressed to the Banker. Roisy chewed over his food for a carefully studied time, just short of long enough to give actual offence, before taking the papers from the Jasjani.

Sador had killed men for less, but Roisy's position in Xyanwer was almost as secure as Darnizhy's, albeit for different reasons.

"Thank you, Sador Sal. The Duke of Klos, I understand, has paid you already."

Sador nodded. "He has."

"Then our business is complete." He rose from the table and beckoned to the two girls. "I will take you now, to the Santuary..." His little eyes looked over to Darnizhy. "Unless there's anything else, Lady Darnizhy?"

Sador was almost impressed. The agent could end Roisy's life with less effort than it took for her to lift her wine cup. Yet here he was, almost taunting her as he prepared to take the twins away. He'd saw how she looked at them. He knew she wanted them.

The agent stood and walked over to the two girls, brushing past Roisy as if he wasn't there.

"I hope we will meet again, " she said with a short formal bow, "But in case we do not..." She reached up and stroked the cheek of the first girl, then slid her hand around to bury her fingers in her glossy dark hair and pull her into a kiss. The girl -- who had undoubtedly never kissed another woman before -- made a small, startled sound that rapidly turned into a soft, eager whimper.

Darnizhy leaned back after a long moment and, without taking her hand from the back of the girl's head, turned to her twin and took hold of her in the same manner. Another kiss, another shiver of surprise, another whimper.

Sador watched, and felt more than a stirring in his groin. Thankfully he wouldn't be selling his Izani girls just yet. He'd be wanting one of them that night.

Probably two actually.

Roisy watched as well, a small smile on his puffy little lips.

Darnizhy leaned back again, still stroking her fingers through the twins' hair. "Perhaps you can practice with each other, " she said with a smile, provoking matching gasps followed by wary, curious looks from one to the other. She then stepped back and allowed the girls to be ushered out of the cabin by the Banker.

Sador watched them go, then opened a new bottle and poured wine for himself and for Darnizhy.

"Tell me, Darnizhy, how does that little fucker survive in this place?"

Darnizhy licked her lips and looked thoughtfully at the door the twins had just left from, then turned back to the slaver.

"He is extremely careful, " she said, accepting the newly filled wine cup. "He seldom strays far from the Sanctuary, he never deals with the Houses directly, and he's rich enough to buy whatever other friends he requires to keep himself safe from lesser threats."

"Aye, he's rich, " said Sador. "With half the Families of Kandar Kul paying him well to take their inconvenient relatives out of the Grand City."

"And the other half paying just as well to ensure that they don't come back."

Sador snorted.

"True." He was more relaxed now. The twins were no longer his responsibility, and Darnizhy was at ease again. "Does he ever deal with you or the other agents?"

Darnizhy sat back down and put her booted feet up on the table. "Rarely. I've never dealt with him before." She grinned. "But I might be."

The slaver laughed. "I won't ask what that will involve. More than a few throws of dice I imagine."

The agent nodded. "That was a good night."

"Good for you, expensive for me." Sador chuckled. On his previous venture to the city Darnizhy had, on a whim, waived their usual negotiation in favour of a long night of drinking and dice that had ended with the agent winning three Izani girls from him. "I assume from your interest in the twins that you finally tired of those girls."

Darnizhy waved the comment aside. "Back to business, Sador."

Sador nodded. He gestured casually to the goods he had been showing the agent before. "All as discussed, plus incense and oils from Canarwys, " he lifted a small but heavy velvet bag from behind his chair and placed it on the table, "and gold from me. That wine you are drinking is from Sothe."

"It's excellent."

"I have six cases of it in my hold." Sador stood up and extended his hand. "Do we have an agreement?"

Darnizhy stood and took his hand. "We do, Sador Sal, " she said.

= = = = = = = = =

THREE : The Banker of Kandar Kul

The Sanctuary was located in one of the newest residences in Xyanwer. It had been built only a century before, by a sorceror from Nidras, and followed the fashion of that city in that the several two or three-storey buildings that comprised it formed a square around large central gardens, and all of the windows of those buildings faced inward toward the gardens.

It was ideal for Roisy, for his guests -- he spoke of them as guests -- were rarely reminded of where they were. They could take their leisure in the gardens and, if they did not look up into the night sky when the lights from the high towers were bright, think fondly, or otherwise, of the cities from which they had come.

Most were from the Grand City, hence his sardonically given title of the Banker of Kandar Kul, but some hailed from the other cities as well. There were always those looking to evade one intrigue or another, and in Xyanwer they would be safe.

Safer, at least.

Roisy was careful to maintain the security of the Sanctuary. The gates were well guarded and his guards were wel paid. Permission to enter and leave was given only to his most trusted servants, and his own people collected the food, wine, new slaves and other comforts he regularly brought in. Roisy did well by his guests. He did not encourage visitors.

That morning he had one, uninvited but not unwelcome.

"Lady Darnizhy. You look well. May I offer you some wine?"

In truth she looked anything but well. Darnizhy was a striking looking young woman, and if her slender, small breasted figure and short dark hair gave her the look at times of a beautiful boy she was still undeniably an alluring woman. Beautiful boy or beautiful woman, either worked for Roisy, though he wouldn't dream of acting on any such impulse toward her.

Today, however, she looked tired, accepting the offered cup of wine from one of his slaves with a nod and draining it quickly. They were sitting in Roisy's chambers, and though the lights were low Darnizhy kept on her dark lensed glasses -- an affectation common in several of the Nine Cities but rare in Xyanwer, where the sun was often shrouded by cloud or fog.

"You know why I'm here, Betran."

All business today, he thought, and with a voice like rusted daggers scraped together. Roisy wondered when she had last slept at all.

"The twins."

Darnizhy nodded and accepted more wine from the attending slave. "What do you want for them?"

"What makes you think they are for sale?"

"Remember where you are, Betran. Everything is for sale in Xyanwer." She drank more wine and cleared her throat. "I've spent three days acting for Sador Sal with the Houses, so I'd appreciate a direct conversation."

Roisy nodded and sipped from his own cup -- freshy squeezed fruit juice, not wine for him so early in the day. The Houses of Xyanwer were notoriously baroque in their dealings, which was part of why the agents existed. A merchant could try to deal with the Houses directly, but the delegates were capricious and unpredictable. They did not speak, think or act as mortal men did, for the very good reason that many of them were not.

No wonder she looked tired. By comparison any negotiation she might make with him might almost be a relaxation, though she did not look relaxed.

"The twins were sent to me under a Writ of Passage, granted by the Duke of Klos. They were sent to me, " he allowed himself a light emphasis on that word. "For safekeeping." Roisy raised a hand to politely forestall the agent's likely response. "I do not raise this as an obstacle, merely to establish that I have certain responsibiities and commitments of my own to take into consideration. Also, " he smiled apologetically, "they are not slaves."

Darnizhy put down her wine cup and leaned back in her chair, interlocking her fingers in front of her.

"The Duke of Klos will have been well paid by whomever saw fit to send them here, and they will be as safe as my slaves as they would be as your... guests."

"For how long?" Roisy softened his question with a cherubic, if insincere, smile. "You are not known for your constancy, Lady Darnizhy."

The agent gave a low, rather unpleasant, laugh. "I imagine they'll hold my attention for a season at least."

"And then?"

Darnizhy shrugged and looked at her hands. Though it was hard to tell through the dark lenses she appeared to be looking at the ring on her forefinger.

"What do you want, Betran?"

Roisy had his reply ready, had done since he'd seen the way the agent had looked at his newest charges on the slaver's ship three days earlier. "Niklos Kosmoskalis, " he said simply.

Darnizhy appeared to frown behind her dark glasses. "The sculptor?"

"The sculptor, and a senior member of the Kosmoskolis line." Roisy indicated one of the open letters on his desk. "Very senior now. The last, in fact."

"So now there are ninety nine Families in Kandar Kul."

"Still one hundred. For now."

"Kosmoskolis spent ten years in Canarwys before he came here. He has been in Xyanwer for five years, and I doubt he's so much as set foot outside the Gallery for four. I hardly think he intends to ever return to Kandar Kul."

"You know that. I know that. My friends do not know that, and they would like to know it. For certain."

"You have friends?"

Roisy chuckled. "About as many as you do, I think."

Darnizhy gestured to the waiting slave to pour more wine. She took a drink before responding, though just a sip now.

"Assassins are easy to find in Kandar Kul."