by Vela Roth
No chance of stepping quietly back to his rooms and avoiding a confrontation with his elders, not when he must keep the Tenebrans abreast of his movements. The more visible he made himself, the less reason he gave their hosts to imagine he lurked about feasting on beautiful maidens.
Or that he had committed the equally forbidden transgression of having a rational conversation with one.
As he entered the fortress, his heart pounded faster than it should after such an easy run. The portcullis clanged shut at his back, but he could still feel the Temple of Anthros on the next hill and the seven mages within. The magical workings of untold centuries steeped the structure, glaring to Lio’s senses. The temple held far greater power than the men who tended it. He knew Hesperine sucklings back in Orthros who had more powerful magical auras than Amachos and his lot. But Lio didn’t doubt the royal mage would use every rudimentary skill he possessed to keep track of the embassy’s movements.
As for the fortress, no spells augmented its gruesome fortifications. Lio passed through the gauntlet of murder holes and inner gates, down into the lower levels where their hosts had given them quarters. The tomblike barracks said a great deal about the Tenebrans’ understanding of his people—or lack thereof.
No moonlight reached down here. The bare torches that lined the corridor hurt Lio’s eyes. Did the humans plan to use the brands to burn the heretics if things got out of hand?
Stooping so as not to bump his head on the ceiling, Lio headed straight for his own room. He had his hand on the door when a formidable aura intruded on his senses. Someone possessed of true power loomed at the end of the hall.
“Good veil, Uncle.” Lio lifted a hand, then opened his door.
“Good veil?” Uncle Argyros questioned. “On your way to bed already?”
Lio paused with one foot in his room. “The Slumber does catch up to me much faster than it does to the rest of you.”
“You seem awake enough to remain upright through our evening conference. Come.”
Lio looked over his shoulder. Uncle Argyros disappeared through the open doorway to the common room, his pale blond braid swinging at his heels.
Lio let his door shut and followed without protest. He needed sleep, solitude, anything but six elders evaluating whether he would hold up after the night’s shocking events, but there was no point insisting. Uncle Argyros would see through all Lio’s best negotiation tactics, for his uncle had taught him every one.
But it was not the entire embassy who awaited Lio around the table in the common room. Uncle Argyros sat alone, garbed in his veil hours robe. The simple garment of silver silk suggested this was no meeting between the initiate ambassador and his mentor, but between Lio and his uncle.
The table’s scarred surface had clearly seen the wrong end of soldiers’ knives more often than luxuries like the one that occupied it now: Uncle Argyros’s copper coffee service. The fragrance of the finest Midnight Roast filled the room. Lio’s uncle had been waiting for him, brewing the powdery grounds to perfection on the geomagical warming plate.
The familiar scene was enough to bring a slight smile to Lio’s face. “I see the coffee and travel warmer are exempt from your injunctions that we travel as light as possible and employ minimal spells.”
“Of course. We must be prudent, not endure harrowing deprivation.” Uncle Argyros lifted a hand to indicate the empty chair opposite him. “Please, join me. We could do with a taste of home.”
No one but Aunt Lyta could claim to know Uncle Argyros’s mind. No one else could read anything in his stillness. Lio could, however, imagine what might trouble Uncle Argyros’s thoughts on his and Aunt Lyta’s first return to Tenebra in over four hundred years. Memories. Strategies. Human kings who no longer lived and Hesperines who still should.
This was Argyros, the mind mage who had once held off an entire invading army through sheer force of Will. Silvertongue, the ambassador who had dealt with hostile Tenebrans for almost sixteen hundred years. And Lio’s fiercely loving uncle.
Had he called Lio in thinking the youngest among them needed help coming to terms with what had happened tonight? Or because he wanted to have coffee with his nephew?
Lio sat down across from him for their ritual. He watched Uncle Argyros take up the coffee pot by its slender handle and fill two delicate cups. How many times during Lio’s education had they marked the end of the night’s work this way? How many times over these very cups had Lio envisioned their future diplomatic journeys together?
This would not be the night he confessed it was not all he had imagined. Nor would this night, the first real test of his skills, be when he failed.
He could almost hear Xandra. You hate making mistakes even worse than the rest of us, Lio. But you’re always the first one to confess.
He would confess nothing until he was sure his conversation with Cassia Basilis had actually been a mistake.
As Uncle Argyros stirred the rich, dark brew with one filigreed spoon, Lio stirred his Gift within himself. When his uncle slid the cup across the table, Lio took it, while gathering another layer of power beneath the spell that always veiled his person.
It was no easy task to strengthen one’s personal veil under the nose of a Hesperine mind mage, and there were only two thelemancers in existence whose power was thought to compare with Argyros’s. But Lio had the good fortune of being one of them. He had learned both diplomacy and thelemancy well under his uncle’s tutelage.
Uncle Argyros lifted his cup. “To your first embassy.”
“To your return to Tenebra.” Lio raised his own cup. Taking his first sip of coffee, he suppressed a pleasant shudder. “Mercy, this is good. You made it even stronger than usual.”
“The better to melt all other flavors off your tongue. It’s the least I can do to help cleanse the taste of deer blood from your palate.”
Lio lifted his cup once more in gratitude.
Uncle Argyros sat back in his chair. “Company makes resorting to animals less of an ordeal. Javed would go with you, if you wished.”
“Take the family physician with me? So he can keep an eye on how well I fare surviving on deer?”
“Take family with you, to make the time pass more pleasantly.”
Surely his uncle would not press the issue. If anyone had been with Lio tonight, they would have discovered his breach of conduct. Or he might not have been bold enough to reveal himself to Lady Cassia at all. He was not sure which would have been worse. “I appreciate everyone’s concern, sincerely. But you know I don’t mind solitude.”
“You are equally fond of good company.”
Lio put on his most relaxed smile and wove his veil tighter. “But it is so much more enjoyable over coffee than deer.”
“I cannot dispute that.” Uncle Argyros glanced around them at the worn stone walls and a hearth grimy with the soot of long-dead fires. “Does the legendary Solorum look as you imagined?”
“No,” Lio admitted, welcoming the change of subject. “When I read about the Mage King’s complex in the histories, I imagined it…grander, I suppose. And yet the reality of Solorum does impress me in ways I had not expected.” One astonishing mortal here held more power to captivate him than any monument.
“How so?”
Lady Cassia did credit to her ancestors, whom King Lucis shamed. Lucis Basileus. Her father. Whose retribution she dared risk, all so she could speak to a Hesperine…to Lio. “The feats the humans here accomplish are remarkable, given the limitations under which they struggle.”
“Never underestimate humans.”
“I’m not likely to forget that lesson, Uncle.”
Uncle Argyros sighed. “Of course not. Forgive me if my thoughts turn in dire directions.”
“How could they not?” Lio said softly.
Quiet fell between them. A moment of silence for the farmer who had not survived his king’s welcoming ceremony for the embassy.
“This is the first Equinox Summit in nearly four centuries,”
Lio said at last. “Is it not still cause for hope that a king of Tenebra finally wishes to reopen diplomatic relations?”
“I don’t know.”
Lio almost started in his chair. He had never heard his uncle say those words. Not about a matter this significant. “How can we regard this as anything but a hopeful event? Despite what we know of Lucis, he is the first king in generations to honor his obligation to hold the Equinox Summit once in his reign. He has given us our chance to reaffirm the Oath so it once more protects our people who wander in Tenebra to perform the Mercy and give children Solace. If we succeed, we’ll finally be able to continue our sacred practices here without being persecuted—and reassure mortals we respect them in return.”
Uncle Argyros cast Lio a smile. “I rejoice to see your ideals remain unshaken.”
“My convictions would not be very strong if they could not survive a single night in Tenebra. I know how imperative it is to approach this situation without any illusions, but also without sacrificing our ideals.” Even as he said it, Lio felt dishonest. For it was no strength of his own that had revived and bolstered his faith in his people’s cause tonight. It was one woman’s fearless gaze, which she had not turned from him, despite what he was.
There were humans in Tenebra who were not blinded by hate. Lady Cassia was astonishing, living proof there was still hope.
“What is your impression of Lucis?” Uncle Argyros asked. “Is he as you expected?”
“Too much so.” Lio breathed the heat rising from his coffee. “The king has neither ideals nor convictions.”
“What drives him, then?”
“Only motivations, and those are anathema to our own.”
“How so?”
The night Lio had requested to join the embassy, his uncle had grilled him with similar questions. Then it had been a test of his readiness. This time it was surely a test of his fortitude. But tonight had prepared him more thoroughly for this even than his years of study.
“Lucis sees the Summit as only one of many strategic moves,” Lio answered, “no different from ensuring he has a male heir or bringing the feuds between his free lords under control. He has devoted his reign to broadening his own authority within his kingdom and increasing his prestige in the eyes of his neighbors. And besides Orthros, he has only one: the Magelands.” Just saying the name left a bad taste in Lio’s mouth. “The Mage Orders in Cordium have taken notice of his power. That leaves us.”
“How could we possibly benefit his prestige?”
“He wants to be the king who restores the tradition of the Summit in the footsteps of the Mage King, the champion of Anthros who halts the Hesperine encroachment by restoring the Oath.” Lio grimaced. “Lucis is not motivated by respect for our people and certainly not by a love for peace. He does not hate peace, either. He simply has no use for it.”
Uncle Argyros gave a humorless laugh. “So we are here to ensure peace with a man who regards it as useless.”
“Which means the only way we can succeed is to provide him with a use for it. He forged peace between the free lords because it strengthened his reign. It also had the side effect of ending a great deal of suffering. We must show him that peace with us benefits him in order to reap the resulting benefits to us, to which he gives no thought.”
“What advantages could the Oath offer him?”
“Hesperines have a long history of cleaning up the problems Tenebran kings can’t. When the common people cannot provide for their children, we do. When their lords fail to protect them from crime, we keep them safe. When the casualties of Tenebra’s troubles are beyond mortal aid, we can yet help.”
“Do you think Lucis, in his merciless authority and calculated warmongering, has any need of us?”
“Regardless, there could be no peace without conversation, and there could be no conversation without the Summit. Lucis has given us our opportunity.”
“What do you think we will be able to make of this opportunity?”
“It will not be easy, and it may take us many Summits yet, but this can be the beginning of the end—the end of the ambiguity that has ruled our relationship with Tenebrans since their kings ceased to reaffirm the Oath with us. We may yet put this era behind us. No longer will we have to steal like thieves into Tenebra, the ancestral home of many of our own people. Nor will human lords and kings turn a blind eye to whatever violence their subjects and mages wish to perpetrate against us within their borders.” Lio studied his uncle’s face.
Uncle Argyros’s furrowed brow said only that he was worried and grave, not whether Lio’s words met with his mentor’s expectations. “You see the end of an entire era somewhere in this dark pile of stones.”
Stone walls were not deterrent enough for the Goddess’s gaze. Moonlight shone beyond the fortress, out of sight, but not out of reach. Lio could not resist drawing the glow of the two moons near them. He wove red and white light between his fingers, and the room brightened.
“We are Hesperines,” he said. “We cause light to grow.”
The lines on Uncle Argyros’s brow softened. “Hespera’s Solace. What would we do without our young ones to keep us from moldering?”
Lio closed his hands, ending his foolish display. He needn’t show off tricks every newblood light mage knew. He wrapped his fingers around his coffee cup.
Uncle Argyros smiled. “The last time I sat in this fortress, it was clear to me the tide had turned. Little matter negotiations with that king had failed; I knew he would not hold his throne long, and the warlord who supplanted him would be even more preoccupied with conflicts within Tenebra at the cost of maintaining relations with Orthros. I turned to your aunt and said, ‘My Grace, I suspect we shall be at home for the foreseeable future.’ She replied with a smile I understood well. What better time to seek out a child to Solace? The rest of the embassy returned to Orthros ahead of us, and by the time we rejoined them, Kadi was a suckling in her mother’s arms. Now Kadi is old enough to accompany us here for the Summit and nearly as formidable as Lyta. It is good to have both of them at my side this time.”
Lio had heard all his elders’ stories of the past many times before, but he smiled. “The Queens would never have let us set foot over the border without a proper guard.”
“Goddess forbid that we must resort to violence, but I cannot deny we must be prepared for anything.”
Lio strove for a light tone. “Well, it should suffice that between Aunt Lyta and Kadi, we have half of Orthros’s warriors with us. If you count Rudhira as well—”
Uncle Argyros gave a huff. “The First Prince is not to be counted. He is to have no contact with the embassy.”
“I mean only to say he is also this side of the border, and thus three of Orthros’s vast army of five are now Abroad.”
“Don’t you mean three of six, son of Apollon?”
“You of all people know Father doesn’t call himself a warrior anymore. Mak and Lyros must protect the home front all on their own.” The thought of his friends made Lio grin.
Uncle Argyros scowled. “Now of all times, when my son has just avowed his Grace. Mak and Lyros barely finished their vows before half the family had to depart for Tenebra and leave them with the responsibility of Lyta’s command.”
“You might as well call that another avowal gift. You know they’re thrilled at the opportunity. They are ready.” As Lio was ready for the Summit, he liked to think.
“I did not plan to spend the beginning of your cousin’s new life with his Grace in a foreign country. Mak needs me near at such an important time. And what a poor way to welcome Lyros into the family! We have loved him as our own for years, but even so. Now he is officially my Grace-son.”
“Mak and Lyros understand, Uncle, and as I said, they are proud of the trust Aunt Lyta has placed in them.” In the face of his uncle’s disappointment, Lio refrained from pointing out how Mak and Lyros rejoiced to have fewer relatives hovering at a time when they only wanted each other’s company. It was still
strange for Lio to dwell on the fact that he was not there to hover, either. He had always imagined he would be near to lend his Trial brothers a hand as they began their eternity together.
But then, they had imagined supporting him as he embarked on his eternity with Xandra.
He had no word for what he and Xandra were now. He was not yet able to call her a friend. Now she was not even that, when once she had been so much more.
Thank the Goddess for this opportunity to embark on his first journey Abroad instead. He was not fleeing. He wasn’t. He was serving his people and taking an opportunity he would never have wanted to miss, regardless of the circumstances.
But it was a relief to no longer be in Orthros, surrounded by all that had not turned out as he had hoped and planned.
“At least one of my Grace-sons is with us,” Uncle Argyros said. “I am glad indeed for Javed. We are blessed that Kadi’s Grace is a healer of such skill who can act as steward of Orthros’s medicinal gifts to Tenebra.”
“I know how grateful you are Basir and Kumeta also agreed to lend their expertise to this endeavor.”
“As loathe as I am for them to risk direct contact with Tenebrans, we could not enter these negotiations without the insight they can provide into current affairs. The First Prince must do without the Master Envoys for an occasion such as this.”
“Thank you for recommending me to the Queens for inclusion in such a company,” Lio said, not for the first time. “You have my gratitude.”
“Do I still?”
“Of course,” Lio answered in surprise. He hesitated. “Are you still confident in your decision to bring me?”
“I always want you at my side, Nephew.”
Lio relaxed. “You honor me, Uncle.”
“I also want to watch my son and Grace-son establish their residence. I want to convince Kadi and Javed that Lyta and I are ready for grandchildren. I want to spend this season at home and look forward to my next journey to a more hospitable court than Tenebra. But this is not about my wishes.”
