by Anna Eluvae
"That doesn't make sense," said Nemm. Her eyes scanned the battlements of the castle as well as the window as she tried to catch her breath. She was holding her back with one hand. "A single man with all their combined powers would have been more of a threat. I'm grateful they split their power in separate bodies, but … are they restricted to only two to a person? I'm sure some of those men had only a single domain."
"They don't want to concentrate power," said Dravus. "They don't want a monolithic figure in charge."
Nemm stared at him. She seemed ready to say something, then turned away. "Perhaps you're right. Come on, let's go. No sense giving them too much time to set traps."
Chapter 18
Dravus tried not to watch the lengths of flesh slither back into Wenaru's wrists. Dravus could see a faint impression of coiled flesh within Wenaru's skin, as though the rope of flesh was coiled around the meat of his forearm. When Wenaru was finished, the wounds at his wrists bled slightly.
"It needs refinement," said Wenaru when he caught Dravus's glance.
"Do we need to worry about them getting back up?" asked Nemm. She looked down at the bodies.
"No," replied Wenaru. His voice was hard.
They continued forward, into the interior of Castle Launtine, before Dravus could ask any questions. Wenaru had touched those men and women with his domain. Had he cut the muscles loose from the bones, like he'd done with Wealdwood? Or had he killed them? Dravus wanted to believe that Wenaru wouldn't go from pacifism to murder in a single leap, but it wasn't as though Wenaru had never killed before.
To Dravus's surprise, the first room they came into was a large, cavernous throne room. The throne itself was several feet off the floor, with a series of low steps leading up to it. It was built of braided metals interlaced with other materials, including wood, glass, and rock. There were shapes sculpted into the sides, showing the domain animals and giving representation to the more ephemeral domains. The Iron King had once sat upon the throne. It was enormous, sized for someone eight feet tall then built even higher than that. Dravus couldn't take his eyes off it. The others didn't even seem to notice it.
"We need to track them down," said Nemm. "Wenaru, you probably remember the castle better than I do. Where would the king have been kept for a supposed convalescence?"
"There were grand chambers on the fourth floor," said Wenaru. "If we'd had more time, we might have asked, but in lieu of that, the grand chambers are where we should go."
"Do we think they'll still be there?" asked Dravus. "They know that this is an attack. They retreated."
"The illustrati are immaterial," said Lexari. "The artifact is the prize. Beyond that, we need confirmation that the Iron King is dead, or proof of malfeasance. Even if the remainder of the conspiracy has fled like rats from a sinking ship, they won't have time to destroy all the evidence of their existence. There will be secrets to uncover in their personal effects. Letters signed in the Iron King's name. We'll find out who gives the orders, at the very least. We might be able to unravel the whole of it."
Dravus wondered whether they would find any Harbinger artifacts here. Faye had been holding one, back in the wreckage of Hartwain's manor, but it seemed unlikely that she had made her way to Castle Launtine since then. She hadn't said whether it was a single artifact or multiple. She hadn't told him how it worked. The unmitigated power of the artifact frightened Dravus; as much as he thought Faye's people might have a point, the potential for some villain to become powerful beyond imagining was immense. Lexari had said that they would destroy it — that they must destroy it — and on that Dravus could agree.
"We need to move slowly," said Nemm. "There are going to be choke points. Places where they could set an ambush."
"With the four of us working together, there's little to fear," said Lexari.
"If they can combine their power into a single person, that person could beat us," said Nemm. "Domain immunity for glass, light, shadow, and flesh would leave us fighting bare-knuckled against someone who wasn't under any such constraints."
"Domain immunity doesn't apply to flesh," said Wenaru. "That is, there is an immunity present, but the mechanism of attack is almost always domain alteration or domain kinesis, which are opposed by an equal measure of applied power from an illustrati rather than any innate protection."
"In any case," said Lexari. "Lightscour believes that they have philosophical opposition to such tactics." He nodded in Dravus's direction.
"It's only a guess," said Dravus quickly.
Nemm frowned. She didn't look at Dravus. "If he's right, we have nothing to worry about. If their artifact only provides for giving a second domain but not a third, we'll be perfectly fine. We can't plan on that being the case though. We need to move as though they're immensely powerful and prepared to ambush us."
"Very well," said Lexari with a low bow. "Lead on."
* * *
The castle wasn't built along the same lines as the Ministry of Legends was. The Ministry building had mostly identical floors, laid out through elaborate designs which had gone through the thickets and warrens of its bureaucracy. Castle Launtine predated the age of cannons. It might once have been a simple thing, but it had been created over generations, through a series of architects and construction methods. They took the servants' corridors, the small paths that maids and butlers took to stay out of the way of their master. Nemm said nothing about it, but she seemed to know her way around. They trekked up tight spiral staircases with worn down steps between periods of rushing down the hallways. Twice they had to turn back because part of a wall had collapsed in, or the floor was missing, but Nemm didn't seem too concerned with this. The king's bedroom had been quite far from the gunpowder room. The poles of iron laced through the rock ensured that the whole thing wouldn't come crashing down.
They came out into a hallway sized for a giant. A man in plain clothing was touching the handle of a door. There was a momentary pause before he turned to look at them. In his hand was a Harbinger artifact, its presence written on the mind as soon as it was visible. It was the same as the one Dravus had seen Faye holding. The man bolted; Lexari threw a spear after him, straight and true. When the spear touched the man's back, Dravus was prepared to see blood and viscera as the man toppled to the ground. Instead the spear passed through harmlessly; the man continued running.
Nemm chased after him, running at a dead sprint. She had daggers drawn and ready. One of these she threw in front of her, spinning it so hard that it appeared as a blurred disk. This struck the man in the shoulder, instantly staining his shirt with a blossom of blood, but he continued on and rounded a corner.
"What happened?" asked Dravus. He stood in the hallway with Lexari and Wenaru, looking at the spot where the man had been. "Your spear didn't work."
"Domain immunity," said Lexari. "You've never fought someone with your own domain before, but I'll tell you now that it's rarely a pleasant experience."
"Should we be chasing after him? Or her?" asked Dravus. "It could be a trap." He was ready to follow, despite the sick feeling that was growing in his stomach with every moment they spent in the castle.
Nemm came trotting back only moments later though, with the artifact held in her hand.
"You shouldn't touch it," said Lexari.
"He was touching it," said Nemm. She looked down and turned the artifact around.
"It might still be a trap," said Dravus.
"We won't do anything with it," said Nemm. "But we do need to carry it with us." She tossed it to Wenaru, who fumbled when he caught it. "Come on, the Iron King's bedroom was through there."
They stepped through the large doors and entered a bedroom larger than Dravus had ever seen. Everything in it was sized for a man of immense proportions. It felt slightly grotesque to Dravus. The four-poster bed in the center held a large figure sculpted of iron, which they approached cautiously, weapons drawn.
It was Wenaru who went to the figure first. "It's the Iron King," said W
enaru. He touched the face. "Not a trace of flesh. The likeness is perfect. He only rarely removed his helmet; whoever made this knew him with some intimacy." He ran his fingers along the face. "It's too accurate to have been cast. It was made by an illustrati of iron." He frowned. "Dusty."
"What's the point?" asked Nemm. "If they're pretending that he's not dead, why do something like this? Obviously no one would be allowed in this room anyway. It wouldn't convince anyone. That's if there were still people in this castle who didn't know the truth, which I doubt." She frowned. "We might be looking at his corpse?"
"Try to restrain the next person we find instead of killing them," said Lexari. "We might get answers yet."
"The Iron King had a study he kept for his private contemplations," said Wenaru. He looked down at the artifact in his hands. "We might find some papers there."
They walked slowly, keeping their guard up. Nemm seemed ready to run at a moment's notice; she kept her helm sealed at all times, breathing through the flutes of glass. Dravus covered himself in armor of shadow, though experience had shown him that it wasn't so good at taking a hit as Nemm's was. He kept his sword in front of him, ready to contribute what he could.
They reached another room with a large door. Nemm kicked it down with a single blow. She fell into a fighting stance just afterward, ready to deal with whoever came running out. Yet the room had only a single occupant behind a desk that was too large for him. He didn't seem surprised by the sudden entry.
* * *
He was an older man. Dravus recognized him; it was the same man that had negotiated with the Flower Queen over several long, boring hours. He had gone by Chester Welling then. Now he was dressed in a clerk's outfit. His sleeves were rolled back. A blocky ring sat on one finger, a Harbinger artifact displayed to the world. He had a wry grin that faded when he saw what Wenaru was holding.
"Nemm, don't kill him until we have some answers," said Lexari.
"I'll do my best," said Nemm.
"I had hoped we'd be fast enough," said the man. He seemed unconcerned with the intrusion. "A pity we weren't."
"Who are you really?" asked Lexari. "Not Chester Welling, clearly."
"Names are immaterial," said the old man. Nemm's glass daggers were in front of her, ready and waiting for him to make a move. "Yet they're so important to the illustrati. Very well, if you wish to know a dead man's name, I am Lothaire Corrant. I already know all your names, naturally."
"What happened to the Iron King?" asked Lexari. "We came to his bed and found only a statue."
"It's something of a mystery to us as well," said Lothaire. "He knew he was dying. As much as a decade ago he knew it. There are illnesses and injuries that even an illustrati —"
"He's stalling," said Nemm.
"No, my dear Queen of Blades, I am saying what I know. If I'm taking my time, it's only because I don't expect to live much longer than it takes for this conversation to reach its conclusion." Lothaire spread his hands wide with palms up. "You have me at your mercy."
Lexari dismissed the spear from his hand. "I believe him. If he acts against us, it will be with his wits, nothing more."
Dravus felt his heart beat faster. He'd done nothing wrong, but he hadn't yet told them about his conversations with Faye. He looked at Lothaire, trying to get some sense of what the man's game was. Nemm's nightmare seemed to be of a single man with all of the domains at his disposal, but Dravus didn't think that Lothaire was that sort of man. If he had even a fraction of Charnel's power, why would he still have wrinkled skin? The treacherous part of Dravus's brain answered that Lothaire only wanted to appear weak, but it was hard to believe that it was a bluff.
"As I was saying," continued Lothaire. "There are illnesses and diseases that even the king's illustrati were incapable of curing. I am given to understand that they opened him up with scalpels, trying to find the root of the recurring sicknesses that their powers were keeping at bay. With an illustrati of blood gripping his head and providing him life, they could safely muck about with his innards, opening him wide to look at the places where tumors and polyps kept forming. The Bone Warden was brought in, but she could find nothing wrong in his bones."
"What were the symptoms?" asked Wenaru. "How did the sickness present itself?"
"He asked for you," said Lothaire. "He sent letters in secret, trying to get you back, despite the exile he had imposed on you. From the look on your face I suppose that you never got them?"
"He lies," said Nemm.
Lothaire had eyes for only Wenaru. "Or perhaps you've seen enough of what people think of you that you have someone else sift through whatever letters come your way," said Lothaire. "You travel constantly. If someone sends a letter, your bards will forward it to the next expected port of call, where other bards will hold onto it in anticipation of your arrival. But you never speak with the bards, that's something that Nemm and Lexari do, is it not?"
"You won't drive a wedge between us so easily," said Lexari. "You haven't answered my question either."
"What do I care about the Iron King anyway?" asked Wenaru. "Who was he to me? After what he took from me I owed him nothing."
"Do I have leave to address the question?" asked Lothaire, turning to Lexari. "Or do you wish to silence me in this as well?" Dravus could guess what Lothaire was going to say. Even if Wenaru didn't care about the Iron King, he would care about the respect and acknowledgment. The Iron King could have offered Wenaru a new hospital, new printings of the books he'd written, all manner of things. When Dravus looked at Wenaru, he could see that Wenaru understood this too.
Lexari narrowed his eyes. "Tell us what happened to the Iron King."
"He was dying," said Lothaire. "Yet he was the most powerful illustrati the world had ever known. He had incredible resources at his disposal. As Laith had done before him, the Iron King tried to find a way around it. He sent archaeological teams all across his country and beyond its borders in an effort to learn more about the Harbingers. He diverted resources in order to bring in more illustrati of flesh and blood, hoping that one of them could be crafted into a prodigy that would cure him once and for all. He brought forth scholars to try to delve into the mysteries of his domain. It's that last I believe killed him. The animal illustrati can take on minor changes from their domain when they have enough standing and engage in the proper exercise of will. The best guess is that the Iron King tried to become like iron."
Dravus glanced toward Lexari. The Iron King had tried to become living iron, just as Lexari could become living light.
"When?" asked Nemm.
"He was found in his current state sixteen months ago," said Lothaire.
"You've been running the Iron Kingdom for that long," said Nemm.
"Longer," said Lothaire. "We were his aides and advisers. And who is to be the new king? That's why you've blown a hole in this castle and killed so many people, isn't it? Prove the Iron King dead so that a new king can take his place?"
"Once the corruption has been rooted out, a new seed may be planted in clean soil," said Lexari.
"Rooted out?" asked Lothaire. He gave a humorless laugh. "Oh, did you think that's what you had done?"
"We have the artifact," said Lexari.
"Fruit borne of an expedition to the Highlands," said Lothaire. "Yet it is less of a melon and more of a grape; there were many fruits which came from that particular vine. We found thirty in total, among other things." Lothaire tapped his ring against the table. "All that were in Castle Launtine have been scattered to the winds. I have no idea where my compatriots have taken them, but the corruption you believe you've rooted out has spread so far and wide that it is for practical purposes impervious to defeat."
Nemm swore.
"What is your plan?" asked Lexari. "What is it that you are aiming to do?"
"The elimination of the illustrati," said Lothaire. He said it without so much as raising an eyebrow at the audacity of it.
"Impossible," said Lexari.
"By
now you know what the artifact does," said Lothaire. "You know that it's perfectly possible. The question is whether we can accomplish our goals given this most recent setback. I must admit the prospect looks a bit grim at the moment, especially when you have one of the artifacts in your possession, but there are many men and women much younger than I am, strong in their convictions and not so willing to go toward death."
"How is it activated?" asked Lexari. "How does it accomplish the transfer?"
Lothaire hesitated for the first time since they had come into the room. "If I elect not to answer that question, what happens then? You turn aside while Nemm does her best to torture the information out of me? Or you simply try to work it out by using it on someone expendable? I must admit to some curiosity. How much of a fraud is the Sunhawk? How much of the true core of himself is he going to reveal in his quest for power?"
