‘This is all business,’ Tehol assured him. ‘You’re safe here. Isn’t he, Shand?’
‘Of course,’ she murmured.
‘Cut that out. Or I’ll hire a bodyguard for our bodyguard.’
‘Maybe Ublala has a brother.’
Tehol gestured for Bugg to follow as he headed for the door. ‘I suppose meetings like this are useful. Every now and then.’
‘No doubt,’ Bugg replied.
They emerged onto the street. The night crowd was bustling. Shops stayed open late in the summer, to take advantage of the season’s frenzy. Heat made for restlessness, which made for a certain insatiability. Later in the season, when the temperatures became unbearable, there would be enervation, and debt.
Tehol and Bugg left the high street fronting the canal and made their way down various alleys, gradually leaving the spending crowds behind and finding themselves among the destitute. Voices called out from shadows. Dishevelled children followed the two men, a few reaching out grubby hands to pluck at Tehol’s skirt before running away laughing. Before long, they too were gone, and the way ahead was empty.
‘Ah, the welcoming silence of our neighbourhood,’ Tehol said as they walked towards their house. ‘It’s the headlong rush that always troubles me. As if the present is unending.’
‘Is this your contemplative moment?’ Bugg asked.
‘It was. Now over, thankfully.’
They entered and Tehol strode straight for the ladder. ‘Clean the place up tomorrow morning.’
‘Remember, you’ll have a visitor tonight.’
‘Not just in my dreams?’
Tehol clambered onto the roof. He closed the hatch then stood and studied the stars overhead until she emerged from the darkness to one side and spoke. ‘You’re late.’
‘No, I’m not. Midnight. Still a quarter off.’
‘Is it? Oh.’
‘And how’s life, Shurq? Sorry, I couldn’t resist.’
‘And I’ve never heard that particular quip before. It’s a miserable existence. Day after day, night after night. One step in front of the other, on and on to nowhere in particular.’
‘And being dead has changed all that?’
‘Don’t make me laugh, Tehol Beddict. I cough up stuff when I laugh. You want to offer me a contract. To do what?’
‘Well, a retainer, actually.’
‘Ongoing employment. I refused all retainers when I was alive; why should I do anything else now?’
‘Job security, of course. You’re not young any more.’ He walked over to his bed and sat down, facing her. ‘All right. Consider the challenges I offer. I have targets in mind that not a thief alive today would touch. In fact, only a high mage or someone who’s dead could defeat the wards and leave no trail. I don’t trust high mages, leaving only you.’
‘There are others.’
‘Two others, to be precise. And neither one a professional thief.’
‘How did you know there were two others?’
‘I know lots of things, Shurq. One is a woman who cheated on her husband, who in turn spent his life savings on the curse against her. The other is a child, origin of curse unknown, who dwells in the grounds of the old tower behind the palace.’
‘Yes. I visit her on occasion. She doesn’t know who cursed her. In fact, the child has no memory of her life at all.’
‘Probably an addition to the original curse,’ Tehol mused. ‘But that is curious indeed.’
‘It is. Half a peak was the going price. How much for sorcery to steal her memories?’
‘Half as much again, I’d think. That’s a lot to do to a ten-year-old child. Why not just kill her and bury her in some out of the way place, or dump her in the canal?’ He sat forward. ‘Tell you what, Shurq, we’ll include the pursuit of that mystery – I suspect it interests you in spite of yourself.’
‘I would not mind sticking a knife in the eye of whoever cursed the child. But I have no leads.’
‘Ah, so you’ve not been entirely apathetic, then.’
‘Never said I was, Tehol. But, finding no trail at all, I admit to a diminishment in motivation.’
‘I’ll see what I can do.’
The dead woman cocked her head and regarded him in silence for a moment. ‘You were a genius once.’
‘Very true.’
‘Then you lost everything.’
‘That’s right.’
‘And with that, presumably, a similar loss in confidence.’