Pathway - Chapter 214

The cluster of beggars, stirred to wakefulness by their argument, sprang into frightened motion at the shot. Filthy bodies crowded toward the ladder.

“Stay down!”

Another bolt stuck in the wood above the ladder. The beggars fell back, knocking each other aside in their haste to get away.

Chang Chang took an elbow to the ribs. Her feet and arms were jammed in the press of bodies. She tried to look up, but the sky spun wildly as she was pulled in one direction or another. She crouched down, trying not to be hit by the bolts she knew were meant for her.

Ju Feng slammed into Chang Chang from the side, knocking her to the ground. Her breath whooshed from her chest, and she lay, gasping, staring up at the sky. She tried to roll onto her back, but Ju Feng was suddenly on top of her. He threw his disguise cloak over both their bodies. Darkness closed in on her completely.

“Stop! Ju Feng, we have to get out—”

“Quiet!” he said in her ear. “He can’t know which one you are, not after all that uproar.”

Their attacker must have come to the same conclusion. The firing stopped, and the beggars gradually wore out their frenzy. Chang Chang could feel them pressing together and against her. They protected themselves by sheer numbers, blending into one form.

“Come out, come out.” The voice, mocking and deep, rang out again. “I’ve already seen your pretty face. You look much better without the sores, Chang Chang Tearn.”

“Gods, I’m a fool,” Chang Chang whispered.

Ju Feng put a finger to his lips and listened. “He’s pacing the dock,” he said. “I can hear his bootsteps. I think he’s alone.”

“He’s had plenty of time to reload,” Chang Chang said. “If you try to reach the ladder, he’ll put a bolt in your head.”

“I’m not convinced he’s that good of a shot,” Ju Feng said. He pitched his voice louder. “Name yourself, friend, and we might invite you down to Eveningfeast. We’re having stew and apples with the cores plucked out. Are you coming to us from the Watch?”

“I am. Tarvin is my name, and I won’t be sharing your table, Ju Feng Morleth,” the man said. “I’m here for the woman, but I’d just as happily bury a bolt in your eye, if you don’t hand her over.”

“I would happily oblige you,” Ju Feng said, “but I’m afraid she doesn’t want to go with you. She’s a stubborn, difficult creature. I’ve almost drowned her a time or two.”

“You’re a smooth liar, but in this I believe you. What of the rest of you, then?” he said, his voice rolling over the heads of the beggars. “You willing to give your lives to protect a fugitive? She’s not one of you. I saw her. She wears a mask of disease. She mocks you and your suffering.”

“She’s fresh air to your foul breath,” Hatsolm said, and the crowd laughed, tentatively. “If she wants to stay in WaterWay and deigns to walk among us, she’s welcome. She’s a lot braver than your Watch friends, who won’t come to WaterWay at all.”

There was a collective murmur of agreement from the crowd. Chang Chang closed her eyes. Gods, he wouldn’t kill them, would he? Not for hatred of me.

The crowd tensed, waiting. Chang Chang couldn’t breathe.

“Ju Feng—”

“Don’t,” Ju Feng said. He tightened his grip on her. “He’s bluffing.”

He was right. There must have been a spark of decency in Tarvin, for in the end he only laughed. “You’re truly a wonder, lady. You’ve got the freaks lapping at your hand.”

“Be silent!” The words burst from her before she could stop them.

“She speaks,” Tarvin cried, and his voice moved past them. “Sing out again, lovely one, and show yourself.”

“Tell your friends to leave WaterWay,” Chang Chang said. “I’d rather die here than be taken and tried for what’s in the past. Your bitterness makes my choice for me, Tarvin.”

“How long do you think you can survive here?” Chang Chang could hear him toying with the crossbow string. “We’ll drag you and your friends out of there one by one. Is that what you want for them?”

Ju Feng shifted, alert again. “Now that’s an odd statement,” he said. “You haven’t yet mentioned your friends. Hard to believe they’d be waiting in the shadows while you have your tantrum. Hardly professional conduct for a Watchman. No, I think you’re alone up there, and you can’t quite figure out what to do about it. If you leave for help, we escape; and if you stay, you’re outnumbered. I don’t envy you, truly.”

“Shut up,” Tarvin snarled. “I can wait you out well enough. How would that be? A tenday with no food, no water, and no one to clean your filth—how friendly will you be to the pretty bitch then?”

“Maybe he’s right,” Chang Chang whispered. “If he keeps us here, people could get hurt. You said yourself I should turn myself in.”

“Not to him,” Ju Feng said. “Not to that one. He’s no Watchman.”

“I killed his friend,” Chang Chang said. “He has reason to despise me.”

“The beggars have done nothing to him,” Ju Feng said. “No Watchman is so cowardly as to threaten the weak.” He didn’t realize his voice was rising.

“He thinks he knows so much about us,” Tarvin said. “Don’t you wonder why that is? You want to stake your chances with Feng, Maybe you’d be grateful to hear some truth about him, eh?”

“Don’t listen to him,” Ju Feng said. There was a note of panic in his voice Chang Chang had never heard before. Dread stirred in her belly.

“Is she too shy to ask? Are you keeping her silent, Feng, with the weight of your eyes? If you’re innocent, what could you possibly have to fear?”

“What truth is he talking about, Ju Feng?” Chang Chang said. His body was rigid. He could have been carved of stone.

“Did you ever ask him how he escaped Waterdeep’s dungeons?” Tarvin asked. “It must have been a marvelous feat. I’m shocked he hasn’t bragged of it up and down WaterWay. Didn’t you ever think it strange that a man like him, a thief, would risk his life to aid you?” Tarvin was pacing again. His voice came from directly above them. “Such men work only in exchange for wealth you’ve never possessed, my lady. Of course it was easy enough for Morleth to steal the treasure he wanted. He lived like a king, with Hawlace’s collection to sell off piece by piece. You get used to that kind of lifestyle, well then you can’t stand being put in a cage. Makes a man do things. Maybe make bargains he’ll come to regret later.”

Chang Chang twisted, trying to look into Ju Feng’s face, but he pressed her down.

J

“Don’t move,” Ju Feng said tersely. “He wants you panicked. As soon as you throw the cloak off, you’ll be staring down his crossbow. Don’t be stupid!”

“Let me go,” Chang Chang said. She pushed against Ju Feng’s chest, but she couldn’t move him. The cloak and his body were suffocating her. Smells of sweat and fear and sickness mingled together in her nostrils.

“Or maybe,” Tarvin said, “the question you should be asking yourself is why a master thief turned Watch agent can’t deliver one murdering wench to his betters?”

The strength left Chang Chang’s body. She stopped struggling and lay still on the cold floor.

“Chang Chang,” Ju Feng said. The guilt in his voice sealed everything. “Listen to me. He’s baiting you. He knows your temper; he’s using it to paw at you.”

“Deny it,” Chang Chang said. “Tell me he’s not speaking the truth.”

At last, he looked at her. Was it any harder for him now than it had ever been? His red eyes betrayed no expression, as always. Somehow that made it worse.

“What can I tell you that you will want to hear, Chang Chang?” Ju Feng said. “That I’m not a Watchman—with fervor I tell you I’m not.”

“Are you working with them?” Chang Chang said.

“Yes.”

Unexpectedly, Chang Chang had the urge to laugh. “It might have been easier if you’d tried a denial,” she said. “At least then I would know you regretted it.”

He clenched his jaw. “You’ll never know how much. There were reasons.”

“So many things make sense now,” Chang Chang said. “It’s very freeing, you know. You risking your life for so little payment, how easy it was to find you—I should have known my tracking prowess left too much to be desired. I suppose Fannie was in on everything? I probably had that one coming, though, since I almost got her killed. You should pay her extra for that.”

“It was never about coin,” Ju Feng said.

“Actually, that might have made things turn out differently,” Chang Chang said. “On the raft, I should have offered up my virtue after all. It might have been inducement enough for you not to betray me.”

“Spew venom at me later,” Ju Feng said. “We don’t have time for this.”

‘

“You’re right,” Chang Chang said. “Don’t worry. You thought I should go to the Watch, and now the Watch has come to me. I’m going to give everyone what they want.”

“I won’t let you,” Ju Feng said when she tried to push against him. “We’ve danced this dance before. You won’t move me.”

“Probably not,” Chang Chang said, “but I have other weapons now.”

She lifted her head and put her lips against his mouth. It wasn’t a kiss, and not remotely romantic. But it was skin to skin contact, and that was all she needed.

For Ju Feng’s part, she might have hit him with a lightning bolt and evoked a similar reaction. He recoiled so fast that, for just an instant, he lost his balance.

Chang Chang shoved him with all her strength. She couldn’t roll him off her. He locked his legs around her knees, but she managed to get one hand free. She ripped the cloak from her body.