Masters of Deception

by J C Kang

  Jie’s head spun. The last she’d seen these humanoids, they’d chased her in Cathay’s imperial palace. What were they doing in Tokahia?

  De Lucca’s eyes met hers. "Sister! Did Father send you to set the capstone? I am capable of doing it myself."

  Sister? Apparently, his vision was just as bad in the bright bauble lights as in the darkness of his secret room last night.

  The Altivorc Prince spun and met her gaze. Pointing, he snarled something in a guttural language. His minions turned from Cassius and looked at her.

  De Lucca’s eyes widened. With a stammer, he growled out syllables that sounded similar to the Altivorcs.

  All four Altivorcs, with their prince in the lead, left Cassius staring as they moved toward Jie.

  “Teleri are marching on the pyramid.” Cassius pointed in the wrong direction. “De Lucca plans on capping it.”

  Not that such things mattered to her. Especially not with four Altivorcs loping toward her, fangs bared and broadswords raised. They charged past Brehane and right at Jie, as if she’d shaved their mother’s butt at one time or another.

  Her pitiful little dagger might as well have been a sewing needle, for all the help it would be against swords. She ducked under the first hack, but the prince’s stab kept her from closing. The third’s chop sent her scuttling back several steps toward the door. The fourth tried to flank her, but she sidestepped low with an arcing slash to the inner wrist, in the gap of his bracer, and to the back of his knee, in the opening between his boot and his chain tunic.

  He bellowed. His broadsword slipped from lifeless fingers, and she caught it as her body twisted.

  Heavy, it forced her to hold it two-handed, and set the dagger between clenched teeth. She lifted it against another attack, only to have the clashing reverberation send it flying from her grip.

  She jumped back from the prince’s slash, which pushed her to huddle against the wall. The two others hacked down at her, and there was nothing she could do.

  This was it. An inglorious end to an orphan half-elf. She’d die, without a clueless spy ever knowing she was gone. She closed her eyes.

  Metal clanged above her.

  She opened her eyes and looked to see Sameer’s faintly glowing naga between her and what should’ve been her death. In a blur, he beheaded one and lopped off another’s leg. Black blood sprayed every which way.

  Only the prince remained uninjured. The one she’d maimed huddled on the ground, holding his wrist. One, missing a leg from the knee down, writhed on the floor. Jie slipped under the prince’s chop, rolling to the dead Altivorc, snatching up his knife, and bouncing back to her feet.

  The prince jumped to the right, putting her between him and Sameer.

  “Go.” She gestured toward De Lucca. “Help Cassius.”

  Brandishing his sword in tight circles, the prince studied her. He must’ve really cared about his underlings, given all the hate burning in his gaze.

  Jie flipped the orc’s knife into an underhanded grip, but then paused. She examined it. Its form was exactly the same as De Lucca’s, though it wasn’t as light and balanced.

  The leader surged forward with hacks and slashes. Jie bobbed and weaved, avoiding the attacks as she closed in. Reaching the prince’s flank, she seized his sword arm in the crook of her elbow. She swept a foot to the back of his ankle, while scissoring her free arm in the opposite direction, knife blade-first.

  The knife didn’t cut through his tunic, but his shoulder dislocated with a pop. He fell backward, head slamming into the floor. Jie finished her spin, dislodging his sword. Dropping down, she plunged the knife into his throat.

  She looked up to reevaluate.

  All the Altivorcs were dead or incapacitated. De Lucca was on his feet, hand on the metal box on his desk. Cassius held back, while Sameer advanced with his naga.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Sameer held his naga at the ready, but there was no reason to harm Signore De Lucca. Though he’d treated with Prince Dhananad, he’d actually hidden Sohini from Master Anish. Maybe…

  “Where are you sending Prince Dhananad? To Arkos? Tell me, and I’ll let you live.”

  “Is that the Paladin way? Would you kill me?” De Lucca laughed. “Could you? Let’s find out.”

  Time slowed as Sameer sidestepped De Lucca’s stab. Even though all of Master Anish’s cuts still burned, the pain had subsided. The Vibrations surged through him.

  De Lucca moved so slow, it was too easy. Sameer avoided all of his attacks, finally sending the signore sprawling with a shoulder-butt. He raised his naga. “Tell me, where is Prince Dhananad going?”

  On his rear, De Lucca backed out of reach. His eyes betrayed no fear, despite his inability to match the Paladin’s speed. He scrambled to his feet next to his desk.

  Sameer advanced on him. “Answer me!”

  De Lucca opened the lid to the metal box, then reached in and withdrew the spherical crystal with the grey bottom half from the night before. Cold swept out from it like a wave, stilling the Vibrations.

  No matter—even without the Vibrations, Sameer had survived against a Golden Scorpion.

  “The Whispers of the Gods,” Cassius said from where he knelt by Brehane. “They’re silent.”

  Eyes wide, hand in the fold of her robe, she nodded.

  Ignoring the pain from Anish’s cuts, Sameer swung his naga.

  De Lucca ducked under it, then sidestepped the follow-up stab, grinning the whole time.

  “The crystal.” Sameer stepped back to catch his breath. “It’s blocking my power.”

  Cassius nodded. “That’s what he will use to cap the pyramid.”

  De Lucca laughed his obnoxious laugh. “You don’t have to be a Golden Scorpion to slow a Paladin down. Or to neutralize a Diviner who might try to get the upper hand in negotiations. You—”

  Jie materialized from under the desk and swiped the sphere out of his hand. Slipping away from his grab, she snatched up the box and ran.

  The Vibrations flooded back into Sameer’s limbs. He raised his naga.

  De Lucca wiggled the grey metal ring off his finger and cast it to the side. He lunged forward with a stab.

  Time didn’t slow…or did it? De Lucca attacked at the same speed as a Paladin student, while Cassius moved as if swimming through honey. Turning his body, Sameer avoided the attack, and nicked De Lucca’s forearm. Sameer’s downstroke dragged a shallow wound across his thigh.

  De Lucca grimaced. His knife met Sameer’s naga, leaving a notch in the blade, and his backstroke sliced through Sameer’s sleeve without a sound.

  Sameer disengaged and assumed a defensive position. He studied his weapon. Made from an alloy of istrium fused with steel, it was the hardest substance short of a diamond. And yet, De Lucca’s knife had left a rent. It wasn’t severe damage, but enough that the dwarf smiths in Ayudra would have to repair it.

  “Be careful, Sameer.” Cassius held up his severed rapier. “His knife can shear metal.”

  “Thanks for the forewarning,” Sameer muttered.

  De Lucca surged forward in a whirlwind of attacks. With their speeds near even, it forced Sameer back into Cassius.

  Sameer tackled the Diviner, pushing him out of harm’s way, and popped back up to his feet. He waved away Jie who’d come back without the box, and now was helping a groaning Brehane gain her feet. “Stay away! He’s too dangerous.”

  Too dangerous, even for all four of them, working together…

  De Lucca lunged in again. His knife zigged and zagged, pushing Sameer back.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  A Dragonstone! No sooner than De Lucca had opened the box and revealed the orb, than Kirala’s book in Brehane’s inner pocket buzzed. The Resonance around them had gone silent, only to return when Jie swiped the box and ran off with it.

  Now, exhausted as she was, Brehane’s head spun from trying to keep track of the duel between De Lucca and Sameer. As soon as the signore had slipped off the ring, the Resonance shifted yet agai
n. It coursed through him, just like it did the Paladins when they fought.

  Even though he wasn’t Ayuri, and only Ayuri could channel magic into fighting.

  His speed surged, as if energized by lightning, and the slashes and stabs of his knife became blurs. Even Sameer with his superhuman speed barely kept pace.

  The ring.

  It had protected him from magic, but had prevented him from drawing on what Sameer called the Vibrations. Now he could fight like Paladin, despite not being Ayuri. The Resonance danced between and through him and Sameer, their interaction a symphony. Was De Lucca combining magic, like she did?

  If only she had enough energy to cast a spell, to…

  She sucked in a sharp breath. There was a chance; she just had to get close enough to the circling duelists without getting dissected by De Lucca’s knife.

  For a split second, De Lucca’s back was to her.

  She shot out her hand, only to miss.

  “Get back!” Sameer said, deflecting a stab at her with his naga, and spinning between them.

  Cassius pulled her back, but she wriggled out of his grasp. She swatted at his grabby hand, all the while trying to time how De Lucca and Cassius were darting, stabbing, slashing, and sidestepping.

  Whatever happened, it was too fast to see, but their effect on the Resonance fell into a predictable pattern. Sameer slammed backward into the window, shattering the glass. He was holding a spot on his belly, where a splotch of red grew.

  De Lucca paused, his back again to her.

  She lunged at him.

  He spun so fast it didn’t seem possible.

  Still, she careened into him. They tumbled to the ground. Though it hadn’t happened as she’d planned or hoped, she was straddling him, his right wrist caught in her hands. His knife…

  She stared at it. He wasn’t as strong as say, Cassius, but even with her two hands against De Lucca’s one, the blade edged closer and closer to her.

  This was it.

  The Resonance of his fighting magic reached a crescendo, its pattern prickling her nerves. The words of Biomancy and Electromancy surged through her. She arched her spine and let go of his wrist.

  The knife plunged into her flank. Pain seared through her…

  But so did his energy. Flooding from the wound, through her core and into her limbs, it felt like the result of a good night’s rest.

  The luster in his eyes faded; the sheen of his skin dulled. He shoved her off, but he struggled to rise. When he finally gained his feet, he hunched over, hands on his knees.

  Brehane gasped. Despite the vitality flowing through her, his knife had cut into her side. Blood stained her robe in an ever-growing crimson stain.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Cassius looked from Sameer to Brehane to De Lucca. The young Paladin slumped in the window frame, leaning against the bars. Brehane lay on the floor, holding her side and panting.

  De Lucca stood straight and flipped his blood-stained knife into a reverse grip. Gone was the luster of his skin. White now streaked his mane of black hair. When he spoke, his voice sounded weaker. “Well, Signore Larusso. It is just you and me, and you don’t have the skill to beat me. My secret will die with you.”

  Secret.

  Secrets. The Gods’ Whispers swirled around them, having shifted as soon as De Lucca had removed his grey metal ring. It was as if they wanted to reveal even more about the upstart signore, after all these years of being pent up.

  All Cassius had to do was ask. He closed his eyes and sucked in the Whispers. What little of his energy he’d regained from the Divining last night yielded a myriad of images.

  A pitiful existence, trapping rabbits. Disdainful whispers among peasants. And then, an impossibly handsome Altivorc Prince coming to deliver the gemstone that Jie had run off with.

  “Divining, are you?” De Lucca lunged forward with a slash.

  The attack came fast, but not Paladin fast. Cassius jumped back to avoid it, even as images blurred over his normal vision.

  De Lucca was looking himself over, but a future image of him stabbing, feinting, and jabbing again overlapped the present reality. Behind him, a certain half-elf was concealed by the window’s curtain.

  To change the future would cost some of Cassius’ soul, but it was better than dying here and now.

  The stab came, and Cassius blocked it with his broken rapier. When De Lucca feinted, Cassius jumped in and pressed De Lucca to the window.

  Jie pounced from behind the curtain. With three swift motions, her knife jabbed into the base of De Lucca’s skull, slid by the side of his neck, then raked across his throat.

  De Lucca’s eyes widened as the pupils rolled up into his head. His strangled gasp choked out blood. His body crumpled to the floor. The Gods’ Whispers around him quieted.

  In three long strides, Cassius went to Brehane and knelt by her. He tried to pull her hand away so he could inspect the wound. “Are you all right?”

  Brehane gave a curt nod.

  Jie batted his hand away. “Stick to conning the unwary, and leave the surgery to someone who knows what they are doing. Go get some of the booze from the side table.”

  Growling, Cassius did as told. He checked Sameer on the way, and was relieved to find him breathing. He returned with some expensive brandy.

  Chapter 30:

  Unfinished Business

  Cassius sat alone at De Lucca’s desk, flipping through several documents. He ignored De Lucca’s body, which lay draped with a cloak where he’d fallen, alongside the dead Altivorcs. Sameer and Brehane were being treated by a physician at a clinic several blocks away, while Jie had gone to fetch De Lucca’s sister, Lucia.

  Before she’d left, though, she’d disappeared into De Lucca’s library and returned with the contracts he was perusing now. No doubt she’d pocketed any number of trinkets along the way, but what she’d unearthed would keep the pyramid safe from Altivorc machinations.

  “Signore Larusso,” a throaty male voice said. “What happened? And what are you doing here?”

  Cassius jerked his head from the papers and looked around. Nobody was there, but the voice… “Master Phobos.”

  “At your service.” The small Bovyan materialized out of nowhere, his hand leaving the pocket of a formal black tunic emblazoned with the nine-pointed star of the Teleri Empire.

  “To answer your question, the Signores are on their way over here to discuss him…” Cassius pointed his chin at De Lucca’s body. “…and the orders he gave the Bovyans to attack the pyramid and frame the Mafia.”

  “We execute the stipulations of our contract. It’s just business.” Face impassive, Phobos strode over and lifted the cloak, then looked back. “So, De Lucca is dead.”

  “Yes.” Cassius shook his head in contrived dismay. “Slain by Altivorcs. A pity.”

  Snorting, Phobos searched Cassius’ expression. “Right.”

  Cassius flipped through a sheaf of documents. “It appears that four hundred of Captain Baros’ Bovyans have contracted with De Lucca Enterprises for at least a year.”

  “And?”

  Cassius held up a single sheet, the one Jie had given him first. “It appears his sister, Lucia De Lucca, is now the owner.”

  “She is a vapid girl, with no idea how to run the late Signore De Lucca’s business.”

  “The Gods’ Whispers…” or Brehane… “tell me that Miss De Lucca will place the businesses’ operations in a trust, governed by the Signores. We command you to help maintain order in our fair city’s new, post-Mafia status quo. You will report to the head of the watch immediately.”

  Phobos snorted again. “You will, of course, maintain the terms De Lucca established? Maintenance of our compound, food, and salary?”

  It felt as if a stone hung in Cassius’ gut. The Bovyans here, with women provided as breeders. But there was no way around it, without risking an attack. “Of course. A contract is a contract.”

  “Well, you will have to summon Captain Robas.” Phobos shru
gged. “I am just a businessman.”

  “Riiiight.”

  Phobos grinned. “Speaking of business, what about the deal we made the other day? When can we expect you to deliver the Aksumi girl to us?”

  Cassius studied his nails. “You presented the terms, but we never agreed. I do appreciate you eradicating the Mafia, but you really should have confirmed it. I am a man of honor, and a handshake would have sufficed.”

  “Again, your reputation proceeds you.” Phobos leaned over the table. “How about another deal, then. Take the Aksumi girl to Arkos. If you reach there before her masters bring her friend, then my country will deliver a letter of credit for a million drakas to your bank.”

  A million. How many zeroes were in that number? Six? Seven? Even at six, he could live in luxury for the rest of his life. Indeed, this must be the wealth that the Divination at their first meeting hinted at.

  And the risk of death, as well.

  “That’s a long way to go.” Cassius’ lips pursed.

  “That’s why we are paying a million.”

  “My family is entrusted with watching over the pyramid here.”

  Phobos grinned. “It won’t go anywhere while you’re gone.”

  Was it worth it, to go into the Teleri heartland? His brother Marcus would meet his demise in the frigid Northwest in two years—there was no way to avoid it without Cassius dying himself—bringing the profitable relationship with the Pirate Queen to an end. Working for the Teleri this once would help allay the loss of that revenue stream. All he had to do was turn Brehane over.

  His gut twisted for a split second, before other memories surfaced. If he wasn’t careful, Brehane would be his next Julia; only this time, instead of losing money, he could very well lose his life.

  Phobos extended his hand. “How about that handshake?”

  Cassius stared at it. “What happens if the Aksumi deliver Makeda first?”

  “Then the reward will be two hundred and fifty thousand.”

  Still a sizeable amount. And of course, Brehane planned on going to Arkos, anyway. Phobos named the terms as taking her, not delivering her into the hands of the Bovyans. There’d be plenty of time to decide what to do. Cassius took Phobos’ hand and shook it.