Page 36 of The Malevolent Seven

‘The prince will be displeased,’ the major domo said, his voice quavering. His impeccably manicured nails scratched at the back of his hand, although he seemed unconscious of the gesture, for all he was starting to dig tracks into his own skin.

‘Who’s the victim?’ I asked, standing face to face with the body, which was still upright, stiff as a statue against the oak wall of the hallway between cabins, the skin so pale it might have been sculpted from alabaster.

I’d seen plenty of corpses in my time, but never one so perfectly exsanguinated. Every last drop of blood had fled the portly man’s flesh and was now defying gravity, spreading out along the low ceiling in search of the gaps between the boards to make their escape.

‘Radiance Vejan,’ the major domo answered, shaking his head back and forth like a frightened dog wagging his tail in the hope of soothing his master’s ire.

The situation wasn’t entirely dire, then, for he was a relatively minor noble in these parts, somewhere between a baron and a lesser count. Through the gilded wooden frame of the open doorway of the cabin Galass had been provided, I saw her holding the crying, shivering girl she’d selected, shielding her from the horrific sight of his Radiance’s remains– and possibly also from the fact that Galass’ scarlet hair was still floating about her head, each lock like a snake poised to strike.

A crowd was forming in the narrow passage between the cabins, staring and muttering and doing the things crowds generally do at times like these. Several middle-aged men and women – adorned in jewels so fine they almost,almost,made up for the lack of clothing concealing sagging flesh or the ugliness of their expressions – were demanding to know why the murderess was still living. I counted four of the prince’s wonderists among them, no doubt as anxious as I was about what would happen once somebody commanded them to act. I gave the most eager among them a quick look, just to assure him that any conflict between his crew and mine would end with plenty of dead bodies to go around.

‘This situation is. . . untenable,’ the major domo said, looking at me as if we’d suddenly become lifelong confidants and he figured he could call in the marker on that friendship for me to take care of this mess for him.

I felt like telling him my life story then and there, just so he’d know how very wrong he was.

It took three breaths to take stock of the scene, three more to work out the sequence of events that had led to the radiance’s death. Modesty aside, I’m pretty good at it; this used to be my vocation, after all, and some skills stick with you no matter how long you ignore them– kind of like infected scabs.

‘The door was left unlocked,’ I said, walking over to feel at the latch.

‘We always secure the doors for our clients’ privacy,’ insisted the major domo. ‘Discretion is—’

I stepped into the room and pointed to the crying girl.

‘Leave her alone,’ Galass warned before I could speak, the tips of her floating red tresses darting far too close to my eyes for comfort.

Unfortunately for both of us, I couldn’t allow her tendency to think the worst of me to interfere in my handling of the situation, so I gave herthe glare. I don’t mean some dirty look or disapproving side-eye here, butthe glareI’d learned back in my old job. The one that sometimes comes unbidden when a particular combination of stupidity and injustice conspires to piss me off.

‘Don’t threaten me, girl,’ I warned, employing a calm, effortless grace that made me want to punch myself in the face. ‘This is your fault as much as anyone’s.’ I took the young prostitute by the shoulders and spun her around. ‘Sometimes Radiance Vejan liked to watch.’ I made sure it wasn’t a question.

The girl froze. I shifted my gaze from one which induces hesitancy to one which makes silence distinctly uncomfortable.

‘I. . . He sometimes. . .’ She glanced over at the body pressed up against the wall outside and started crying again.

It would have been easy to dismiss her reaction as a kind of relief over being rid of him, or terror at what might now happen to her. Had my old mentor been here, she would have tapped me on the shoulder and said,‘You see that, Cade? I’ll bet you think those tears are coming from dread or humiliation, don’t you?’

‘What else, Master?’I would have asked right back.‘The radiance forced her to do his bidding, to satisfy his own perverse desires. What else could she do but accede to his demands? She has been released from those demands, yet she still fears the consequences to her own life.’

The old fiend would have shaken her head at me, disappointed as always.‘You can’t do this job if you see others only as better or worse versions of yourself. Human beings are complicated. Nuanced.’

I hated when she talked to me like I was a child.‘I know the world isn’t black and white. I can see shades of grey as well as you or anyone else.’

That’s when she would have slapped the back of my head.‘Colours, boy: it’s the infinite colours, all those wondrous variations of our humanity, that defy our judgement, that challenge the very idea of the law. Those colours will overwhelm your senses, Cade, if you can’t come to grips with them.’

Would she be pleased with me now? Standing amidst all those people, with their manyfold lusts for sex and violence and pain all intertwined like snakes in a pit, I wondered – would she pat me on the shoulder and nod to me, as if I’d finally proven myself to her now that I could see the fondness– perhaps even the love– the girl felt for the overstuffed dead pervert? In her gaze I had discerned that there had been no abuse between them, only a game that in its own strange way had freed them both from their respective lots in life.

‘She unlatched the door for the radiance,’ I informed the major domo. ‘It was. . .’No point in the whole truth. He’s dead and she’s the only one who can suffer now.‘It was something he expected of her– innocent enough in its way, but when he saw my colleague’– I gestured to Galass, still garbed in the simple silver-white gown worn not only by sublimes, but by recently purchased slaves– ‘he mistook her for another of your prince’s employees.’

The major domo’s look of dismay was almost enough to make me pity him. Almost, but not quite. ‘He attempted to force himself on her?’

The easy thing to do would be to say yes, as that would get Galass off the hook completely. But lies, like hubris, are seeds that sprout into weeds whose roots grow in unpredictable ways. ‘Likely he merely assumed she would be willing– eager, even, for his patronage. But when he touched her. . . Major Domo, my colleague is new to her abilities. In the throes of passion, instinct would have caused her spells to ignite, without her intention, to the perceived threat. What happened next was. . .’

I reached for a word I could live with– or at least one my old mentor would have tolerated. But what? That this was all an unfortunateaccident? Ill-fortunedfate?

‘Tragic hubris,’ I said at last.

Relief erupted from the major domo as if I’d just rescued him from falling into a volcano.‘Tragic hubris,’he repeated, trying on the phrase for size. ‘His Radiance, that unfortunate, darling man, was always so beloved of our staff. He mistook your colleague for one of ours, and she, of course, not knowing. . . and really no one is to blame but unhappy destiny.’

Clearly no one had ever taught him the full meaning of the word ‘hubris’.

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