Chapter 22: The Fire and the Bucket

Lord Draven wanted a more civilized setting for his conversation, and the officers’ mess hall seemed to fit the bill. Fresh candles had been lit, and four black knights stood at the door and in the corners, motionless as statues.

Draven sat in Brekk’s chair at the head of the table, with Kai on his left and Mira sitting next to Kai. Mira’s hood was down, and her fingers were clenched together on the table so hard that her knuckles had turned white. Elowen stood behind them with her sword out and the tip planted on the floor.

Draven filled two glasses of wine from a silver carafe and handed one to Kai.

"No, thank you," Kai said. "I’ve been having some issues with wine lately."

"Ah, I see," Draven said, glancing towards the hallway where Brekk was waiting. "Your captain has an egg-sized lump on his head." He took a drink of his wine. "Let’s not waste each other’s time, Mr. Mercer. You and I do the same job."

"I don’t deal in monsters," Kai said.

"I don’t deal in monsters either," Draven said. "I deal in what people need. Iron, land, and protection." He set his glass down on the table. "But more than anything else, they need faith, and they pay the Radiant Church’s extortionate rates for it because they have no other option."

"Until now," Kai said.

"Until now," Draven said with a nod. He leaned towards Kai, and his rings sparkled in the candlelight. "I’ve read all of the reports on you. A fool who fell through a dock and saved a town. A god who can’t hit anything he aims at, but always hits something better than what he was aiming for." He chuckled. "I’ve been doing this for a long time, Mr. Mercer. I can recognize a pattern."

[He knows more about what you can do than you do]

Kai stayed silent, because he had sat across from plenty of men like Draven before, and they always talked first, and if you let them talk long enough, they always told you what they wanted.

"Here’s my offer," Draven said. "I’ll build you temples of stone and gold in every town from here to the coastline. Your priests will be paid and your followers will be fed, and any village that stops paying its tithe to the Radiant Church will pay it to you instead. In five years, you will be the wealthiest god in Veyrath, and the Radiant Mother will be eating out of the gutter."

Kai leaned back in his chair and thought about it. He needed a hundred true believers, he had less than a year to find them, and so far he had almost nothing to show for it. It was by far the best offer anyone had ever made him, and he knew it.

[You would have many believers]

"I know," Kai whispered.

[But would they be true believers?]

Kai didn’t answer her, because he couldn’t.

"They will need to be saved, of course," Draven said. "After all, that’s what gods are for, and I will make sure there is plenty for you to save them from."

"What do you mean by that?" Mira asked, her eyes shooting up.

Draven didn’t even look at her, and he kept his eyes fixed on Kai.

"I have forty young maws on eight barges," Draven said. "One for every village from here to the coast. When they arrive, we set them loose, and a week later, when those villages start disappearing, a fool with a crooked halo falls through a dock and saves them." He spread his arms wide, like a man offering a gift. "The villages are saved, you get your believers, and I get the land and a church that will do anything I ask. Everyone wins."

Nobody at the table said a word.

"You want to start the fires," Kai said, "and sell me the bucket."

"I want to be your fire, and you will be my bucket," Draven said. "You know how this works. You create the problem, and you sell the solution." He smirked at Kai across the table. "You’ve probably done this to someone before. I can see it on your face."

He had, many times, because Kai had put fake viruses on old women’s computers and then called them pretending to be tech support, and he had invented debts and hired fake lawyers to collect on them. He had just never had to see the fire up close.

Mira was shaking so hard that Kai could feel it through the table, and there were tears in her eyes and anger burning right behind them.

"You already did this to my father," Mira said. "When he discovered what you were doing, you created a problem and sold the king the solution. You made him a traitor, and they hanged him."

Draven finally turned to look at her with a warm smile on his face.

"Your father was a good man, my dear," Draven said. "Good men are bad for business."

Mira lunged across the table, but Kai grabbed her wrist before she could reach the silver carafe. All four knights advanced, but Draven didn’t move an inch.

"Mira," Kai said. "Not yet."

She stared at him with her arm still shaking in his hand, and then she slowly sat back down.

"Not yet," Mira said.

"Good girl," Draven said, pulling a folded piece of parchment and a small inkwell from his coat. "I had this written up on my way here. I like to be prepared."

He unfolded the contract and laid it across the table, and while Kai had read plenty of contracts looking for loopholes, this one didn’t have any, and it didn’t mention the maws at all.

Draven dipped his pen and signed his name at the bottom of the page.

"Just a gesture of good faith," Draven said. "I signed first, and you can sign whenever you’re ready."

Mira let out a small whimper, and when Kai looked at her, she wasn’t reading the words, but staring at the signature, at the shape of the letters themselves.

"The V," Mira whispered.

"What?" Kai asked.

"His V," Mira said, her voice shaking. "The V in Draven curls at the bottom like a fishhook. My father never wrote his V like that, not once. But every letter they presented at his trial was signed Aldric Vallen, and every one of them had that fishhook at the bottom of the V."

Draven kept the smile on his face, but for the first time since he had ridden through the gate, he didn’t say a word.

[You told me that in Garrick’s shop. Every con has a flaw]

"Usually the paperwork," Kai whispered.

"You have no evidence," Draven finally said. "Those letters were burned after the trial. It’s your word against mine."

"Conveniently, I have your word," Kai said.

Draven looked down at the table in confusion, but the contract was gone. He looked at Kai’s empty hands and then at the biggest smile a scammer could make. Kai had been stealing wallets since he was eleven, and while everyone was focused on a single letter, the contract had found its way neatly inside his fisherman’s vest.

"Give that back," Draven said.

"Nope," Kai said.

"Let me make this simple, Mr. Mercer," Draven said, standing up as all four knights closed in around him. "You can sign that piece of paper and become the richest god in the world, or you can die a heretic in my mines, and I will find someone stupider to take your place."

Kai thought about those temples and how high the number in his head could climb, and about never having to crawl out of another window.

Then he thought about Dagna holding Tam in the Black Seam, and about Tobin, who was probably painting a crooked halo somewhere right now. And he thought about Mira, who had never believed any of his lies but had stuck by him anyway.

"I’m a bad person," Kai said. "I’ve lied to dentists and sold old ladies fake crypto. I’ve started fires and sold buckets more times than I can count, and I never felt any remorse for it." He rose from his chair to face Draven. "But I have never burned down a village, and I don’t plan on starting now."

He glanced back at Elowen, and her sword was completely dark.

[Faith gained. Mira Vallen: +6%. Status: Proud.]

[Faith gained. Elowen Ashgrave: +5%. Status: Certain.]

[You told the truth]

"Don’t tell anyone," Kai whispered.

Draven sighed like a man whose favorite horse had just gone lame.

"What a waste," Draven said. "Kill him. Keep the girl. I can sell her again."

All four knights drew their swords, and Elowen stepped in front of Kai with her blade raised, and Mira held the silver carafe up in the air like a weapon.

"Kai," Elowen said. "There are four of them in this room and forty-six more outside."

"I know," Kai said.

"Do you have a plan?" Mira asked.

"I have a bad plan," Kai said.

[You are going to use Minor Voice on purpose]

"Yes," Kai whispered.

[You have never failed on purpose before]

"Everything has a first time," Kai whispered.

He closed his eyes, and this time he didn’t try to aim his voice at anyone. He just let it out as loud as he could.

(Help me, please)

Three days downriver, old Tobin fell out of bed and started screaming prayers at the sky for the fourth time since midnight. In the hallway, Captain Brekk drew his sword. And at the bottom of the Black Seam, a sixty-foot nun raised her head from the spot where the little light had died.

The candles started to shake, then the glasses, then the table, until the stone floor itself was shaking violently as something enormous climbed up towards them from below.

For the first time since he had ridden through the gate, Lord Castor Draven’s smile faded.

"What is that?" Draven asked.

Kai opened his eyes and gave Draven his biggest smile.

"That," Kai said, "is my bucket."