"Come on lad!"
Jarno opened his eyes and immediately began to retch and hack, doubling over on the quayside. Someone slapped him hard on the back and he vomited up what felt like an entire ocean.
"Thought we'd lost you there." Haskel stood over him with another man Jarno didn't recognise.
"Serice?" he coughed.
"She's fine," Haskel said. "Wasn't sure of your intentions when you turned up, but looks like you did us all a favour."
"Yes, well done Watchman," said another familiar voice. Jarno look around to see the fat and bruised face of Grett who was kneeling next to him.
"What're you doing here?"
Grett gave him a broad smile. "By coincidence, I happened to be in the tavern when you made your entrance."
"Coincidence eh?"
"Yes, absolutely," Grett got up. "Excuse me gentlemen, pressing business."
"Let's get you inside," Haskel said, helping Jarno to his feet. Together they walked back into the Finchers' common room. To Jarno's surprise, it was empty, apart from Serice and Leyla sat in a corner. They stopped talking as he entered the room.
"Take a seat," Haskel said, all but dropping him into a wooden chair. "Leyla, build up the hearth, Watchman'll be staying here again tonight."
Jarno started to shiver in the chair; his body only now remembering the cold. "B-blanket?"
"Of course," Serice said and disappeared up stairs. Haskel put a tankard in front of him. "Drink."
"No, I can't—"
"It's hot eastern tea, drink it and hold the cup."
"Where's—"
"No sign. Must have drowned in that armour, good job you let him go."
Exhausted, Jarno closed his eyes for a moment, trying to let the metal cup in his hands and Leyla's efforts with the fire warm him. "You need to call the patrol," he mumbled. "They'll dredge the berth and find him."
"Can't see them doing that tonight," the other man who'd been with Haskel said pulling up a chair beside him. Jarno opened one eye and got a decent look at him. Sour faced and with greasy black hair tied back in a ponytail.
"Who're you?" Jarno asked.
"Evisan, I help Haskel sometimes with the ale barrels," the man said. "Couldn't seem them girls' hurt."
"No, of course," Jarno said, "thanks for your help. You see us fall?"
"Yeah, I ran to the window, was first to get to you when you surfaced."
"You see his face?"
"No."
"I did," said Leyla.
Jarno glanced up. The girl had finished the fire. She was pale and frightened. Her slight figure wrapped in a woollen blanket and her hands shook on the poker as she placed it back in the stand.
"And what did you see?" Jarno asked softly.
"A dead man," she replied.
"Good then it wasn't just me." Jarno turned to Evisan. "Can you leave us alone for a minute?"
Evisan scowled, but got up all the same. "Shouldn't get lonely tonight, best we all look out for each other. I'll go check the dock and round the back again, just to be sure."
"Thank you."
When he'd gone, Jarno patted the vacated chair and Leyla came over.
"How long?"
"What?"
"You know what I'm asking. How long has Haskel had you whoring here?"
Leyla smiled faintly. "Why, you going to defend my honour?"
"That's not what I meant." Jarno clenched his teeth. "You know who the man in your bed was?"
"Yes, he's been here a few times."
"Where'd he go?"
"Out of here as quickly as possible." She turned away to look at the fire. "I doubt he wanted to wait to talk to you."
"Most people don't."
"You think you were protecting a pair of poor virgins?" said another voice. Jarno looked up to see Serice coming down with a blanket for him. Jarno accepted it gratefully, stripping off his sodden tunic, shirt and breeches.
"Haskel has nothing to do with her arrangements," Serice said "Leyla works her keep and has done ever since I got put inside."
Jarno decided it was a point best not to push. "You saw the man's face too?" he asked.
Serice nodded. "What did he want?"
"You."
"The Magister?"
"I would guess so."
Serice bit her lip. "Not the first walking corpse I've seen."
"No?"
"No. In the vaults I saw others like this. They're taken from their cells and return with that same dead eyed look." She shuddered. "We're kept in the dark down there, but your eyes adjust a bit; makes it worse."
"You think he's gone?" Leyla asked.
"I doubt it," Jarno said.
"How'd you know I was here?" Serice said.
"Before I came here, I went to see the Minister. He told me how he was hiding you from the Magister," Jarno explained. "I guessed after you'd fled his office, you'd come back here."
"Glad you guessed right," Leyla said. "We'd have—"
"Don't think about it," Jarno answered. "The question is, what are you going to do?"
"The Lynchpin can hide us," Leyla said. "That's why Grett was here; to tell us he'd keep us safe."
"Or we leave," Serice added.
Jarno shook his head. "They put a curfew up once, they'll do it again. One of Leel's apprentice's touches your hand and you're finished."
"So it's the Lynchpin then?"
"I wouldn't suggest it, but you don't have many options. Hopefully it'll only be short term."
Serice frowned. "Then the real question is, what are you going to do?"
Jarno smiled. "Right now? Get some sleep in front of the fire and hope your friend Evisan has good eyes, a loud voice, and doesn't fall asleep."
---
Urin returned to his office, noticing the clerk's desk at his door was empty. He lit the candles in his room and picked up the broken knife, holding it in his hands, staring at the polished blade.
The door opened quietly and a robed figure moved silently into the room.
"I've been expecting someone," Urin said. "Here to finish me off?"
"I'm afraid you have stopped being an asset," – a woman's voice. The hood drew back; short blonde hair, Kathryn the Magister's apprentice.
Urin was a little surprised. "Could he not do his own dirty work?"
"The Magister is currently working on another spell," Kathryn replied. "So your transgression came to me instead. You were warned of the consequences?"
Urin drew back the sleeve of his robe. A long bruise now ran from the wound between his fingers to the middle of his forearm.
"You spoke to someone." Kathryn said. Urin nodded in reply. "It will kill you eventually," she told him.
"Aren't you here to do that anyway?" Urin asked.
Kathryn smiled. "You are very privileged. You now understand what it is to be one of us." She drew her hood down further, revealing a dark bruising scar of her own at her neck. "Each mage is under a Geas, placed by their master."
Urin stared at the scar. "So from this, you learn everything I do and say?"
"Not quite," Kathryn said, "those who are a part of the spell can feel when it changes. I know you did something that you were warned not to do."
"And the Magister knows the same?"
"Thankfully, no," she replied. "But he will expect me to inform him and will ask you when he sees the wound."
They remained in silence for several moments as Urin digested this. Only moments before, he'd been prepared to stab the rest of the broken knife into his own heart.
"You wouldn't be here if you were going to kill me," he realised aloud.
"Quite so," Kathryn stepped into the room, letting the door close. "But you must understand what you are now."
"Where is my clerk? Did you kill him?"
"No, he will be back shortly. Currently he has become fascinated by something in the furthest part of the library and gone to retrieve it."
Urin looked at the mark on her neck again. "How long?" he asked.
"It was placed upon me when I apprenticed," Kathryn said. "If you mean, how long do I have left? The parameters of such a spell upon us are different to yours. Apprentices are considered dangerous to a Master Wizard. The knife beneath my skin is three inches from the main carotid artery. One single act of defiance and it may end my life."
Urin took a deep breath. "So what should I do?" he asked.
"As I mentioned before, you are no longer an asset. You must become one again. Find a way to return to the Magister's good graces."
Urin sighed. "That may be difficult."
"But not impossible," Kathryn said. "The Geas limits us all in what we can say or do. You must find a way to work within its confines."
"As you do?"
"As we all do. There are many things I wish for in life, but to reveal them too early would stop them from happening. The Geas is a tool, designed by the greatest wizards to teach patience." Kathryn smiled again, but this time the expression was bitter. "Of course, it has its other uses as well."
"You're all slaves," Urin realised.
She shrugged. "That's one way of looking at it."
"I suppose that was what your friend was trying to tell me as well then," Urin said.
Kathryn's smile disappeared. "What other friend?"
"The Magister's other apprentice who I met at the courthouse," Urin explained. "He said his name was Sejel."
The answer hung in the air between them and Urin cursed himself inwardly for saying too much.
"The Magister has no apprentice called Sejel," Kathryn replied.
---
A bright flame in the darkness, chains, shackles and pain as fire mixed with magic brought steel from slumber into the world. A glimpse of the beast that forged him; monstrous eyes, dying even as the creature drew breath. Then the hammer, to sculpt and shape a weapon given form by that he was made to kill.
A darkened tunnel, deep beneath the city. Within it, hardened men, made so by the horrors of war carrying him further and further through passage after passage. Then, the light, the sky and a ruined city also aflame. Amongst the clouds, winged creatures, circling the ruins, feasting on human flesh.
Hands wielding him, set him to purpose as a creature swept towards the little company; shouts, screams and fire. Flesh bubbled and ran, the grip gone. He fell from lifeless fingers, back to the dirt of the ground.
---
Jack woke up.
The room was pitch black and for a moment, he forgot where he was, thinking he might be back at the Bell and Horse before he remembered. Do I wish to be back there? He wondered. Perhaps a little bit.
As he lay in the bed, he fumbled around on the floor until his hand found the hilt of the sword. The reassuring touch calmed him and he turned over, settling back to sleep.