by Vela Roth
“Don’t instruct me on how to deal with the king.”
He held up his hands. “Not at all. You’re the expert, and I need your help.”
“I will not help you conspire.” Her voice was cold as ice, her spirit afire. “I have a previous commitment to my continued survival.”
“I would never suggest this if I thought we could not do it safely.”
“You should make a greater commitment to your own survival.” She jabbed a finger at him. “Have you no appreciation for how dangerous I am to you? You risk yourself and your entire embassy every time you dare gaze too long upon one of the king’s possessions.”
“I am not afraid, for I know better than to believe he owns you.”
Cassia’s anger took hold of Lio, but he did not pull away. The fierce pulse of her blood exhilarated him. Her fury was a primal, beautiful power trembling on the surface, ready to break free.
“Think of the lives we could save, Cassia.”
“What use is it if one temple in all of Tenebra has enough medicine for one outbreak? What does it matter if we save folk from frost fever, when a bad tooth or bandits or their own king may be the death of them next year?”
“It matters that those people will not die because of something we could have prevented.”
Her arm came up like a weapon, pointing back toward the palace. “Lay the blame at his door. Where it has always been.”
“Where will the mages lay the blame?” he asked. “If they’re anything like the healers I know in Orthros, they’ll take it to heart when so many die under their care. They’ll blame themselves.”
“How dare you try to make me feel guilty enough to help? You won’t endanger your own life by trying to save them.”
A few herbs, a danger to her life. What a broken world she lived in. But Lio had spent too many hours in the king’s presence to question her fears. Tenebra and its king were twisted enough to brand an act of kindness an act of treason.
Lio could see it now. A young woman trying to save children’s lives and bring aid to the devout mages who had placed their trust in her. It would be trivially easy for Lucis to call her instead an ungrateful, undisciplined bastard daughter who flouted his authority and consorted secretly with heretics.
And Lucis would, simply because she dared go against his decision. He dealt swiftly and emphatically with anyone who did not show him absolute obedience. It was the reason why the Tenebrae had become Tenebra and why Cassia’s life had been one long war.
For her to be caught violating any decision of the king’s was enough to bring his punishment down upon her. For her to be involved with a Hesperine would truly be the death of her.
Lio had known this journey would be dangerous, that it would take him from the refuge of Orthros and plunge him into a harsh reality. But even here in Tenebra, he felt confident in his elders’ determination to protect him and in his own power.
He expected to live forever. He had never known what it felt like to fear for his own life until he had felt it with the woman before him.
He had known before he came looking for her tonight there was only one way they could do this.
“Cassia, I would never put you in greater danger than I am willing to face myself. I wouldn’t even suggest this, unless I intended to shoulder my fair share of the risk. I will come with you to the temple.”
She was silent for an instant, but her astonishment was palpable. “Nonsense. That is the least circumspect, most unwise way we could possibly approach this. It would make much more sense if you simply brought me the herbs here and I delivered them to the temple on my next visit.”
“And then you would shoulder all the risk. Where would you hide the herbs in the hours between our meeting and your arrival at the temple? Who might discover them in your possession? How would you explain where you had come up with a shipment of the very rimelace you implored the embassy to provide? I can see that and many other possibilities for failure running through your mind, and I will not stand by while you face them alone.”
Her surprise blossomed into something more powerful that made her look away. He was learning to reach her within her armor. His words had touched her, even though she gave no indication.
“You are right,” she replied. “There are many ways in which we might fail. Too many.”
“We shouldn’t underestimate ourselves. We can accomplish this without the king ever knowing.”
“Arrogance is the surest path to failure.”
“I’m not being arrogant. I’m being realistic.” What would her retaliation be, if he kept using her own words against her like this? He’d best tread carefully. “Make an appraisal of our capabilities and tell me if you think we cannot succeed.”
“The mages will never let you near the temple. What makes you think the Prisma will even agree to deal directly with heretics?”
“Did you not speak for her at the Summit, when you asked us for them outright?”
“The request was hers, yes, but that was when the king would receive the gift on her behalf.”
“Would she not be all the more amenable to Lady Cassia accepting it for her?”
Cassia’s pulse began to pound anew. “They’ll know. The whole temple will know I’ve had contact with you.”
“Certainly not. We will act with perfect discretion. We will go to any lengths necessary to ensure only those whose interests align with yours know you are involved.” Lio leaned forward. “I’ve set out my terms, now you decide yours. Think on it. Take as much time as you need. The herbs aren’t going anywhere.”
The rest remained unspoken between them. The frost fever would not wait. It drew nearer.
Cassia swallowed, and the motion of her throat drew Lio’s gaze to her neck. How sweetly he could drive away her fears, if they had met anywhere else but Tenebra. If they were anyone else but Initiate Ambassador Deukalion and Lady Cassia Basilis. But if that were the case, she would not live with such fears. And he would have tasted that sweetness long since.
“It would be best if no one but the Prisma knew,” Cassia said slowly. “If she would grant us a private audience by night… But how in the world could you accompany me to the temple without raising the alarm? Doesn’t Amachos keep a close eye on the whereabouts of every member of the embassy?”
Lio waved a dismissive hand. “The only methods of detection he will have learned here in Tenebra are unsophisticated and vague. This isn’t the Magelands, where specially trained masters keep watch for Hesperine intrusion every hour of the night.”
“You seemed worried enough when Amachos happened upon us before.”
“That’s because you did not stay put inside my concealment. But you see, I managed to veil you all the way back to the palace without him noticing.”
She went quiet. “You did?”
Lio smiled.
“Oh.” She cleared her throat. “You were worried before I left, though.”
“I was concerned about controlling myself in Amachos’s presence without anyone to help me listen to my conscience.”
Her curiosity was easy to sense. “I did not know you felt such personal antagonism toward him.”
“I try not to. The point is that taking us both to the temple without alerting Amachos is within my abilities. Are you familiar with the basic principles of magical perception?”
“I wasn’t paying attention during that part of my training for entry into the Order of Anthros. Enlighten me.”
“Anyone capable of magery can sense magical power, including an act of power by another mage.” Lio stopped himself before launching into examples of the various forms of magical power that could be sensed in other beings and the natural world. He really was getting better at being concise. “How easily one mage detects another’s spells depends on a number of factors, including their respective levels of skill, experience, training, and familiarity with that particular arcane path. There are as many techniques for detecting magic as there are for concealing one’s magic
from detection.”
“Well, I have seen you have a knack for concealment.”
“Hesperines admittedly devote a great deal of time and study to that in particular.”
“Yes, I suppose being hunted for centuries by the Mage Orders might inspire you to do so.”
“One of the easiest but also most effective ways of hiding your own magic is to allow greater power to hide it for you. A great deal of magic going on at once in close proximity will befuddle the senses of anyone trying to sense you. The more powerful magic will bombard the mage who tries to perceive your working, and if yours is more subtle, it will be lost in the clamor.”
“So it’s as if all the minstrels are playing at once, but different songs. You can only make out the melody of whoever is playing the loudest.”
“Perfect analogy.”
“Is your way of traveling, as you demonstrated with your handkerchief, a very loud song?”
“Not for a Hesperine alone. To step from one place to another is innate magic—very hard for a mage to detect. However, bringing a mortal with me requires an active working.”
“I remember what you said about working with the world rather than against it.” She frowned at him. “I suppose that makes you a fish swimming in the current of a river, and I am a bird you are trying to bring with you.”
Lio laughed. “You will not be in danger of drowning, I assure you, although it may be as uncomfortable as wet feathers.”
“I never imagined magic could make so much sense,” she remarked. “The Orders make it sound like obtuse nonsense.”
“Of course. They guard their knowledge jealously, for their power is built on the ignorance of others.”
“So how would a knowledgeable heretic suggest we obscure the magical working required to get us both to the Temple of Kyria?” Cassia asked.
“Keep in mind the king has lodged the embassy in Solorum Fortress, a site more military than magical. There are no spells on the barracks. It is easy for Amachos to keep watch on us when we’re in our quarters.”
“So that’s why he feels safe letting nothing but human guards patrol the fortress. He’s able to sense any mischief you might get up to from afar.”
“Which is why all our mischief must be committed elsewhere. For example, small spells are quite easy in the palace, because it’s covered in centuries of all sorts of magic Amachos has no hope of scrubbing away. He has also added his own wards and such, but those are painfully obvious and thus easy to avoid.”
Cassia watched Lio keenly, absorbing and gathering all he said to her, as was her way with information that might prove useful to her. Even without delving into her mind, he could feel it at work.
He went on, “Naturally the Temple of Anthros is drenched in magic, although I wouldn’t dare set foot in there, even if I brought nothing more than my innate aura with me. I would be a blatant note of discord in Anthros’s battle music. The Sun Temple is Amachos’s domain, and by now he has surely intertwined his own magic with the spells in the very walls, to the point that my mere presence would alert him.”
The way Cassia pursed her lips when she was concentrating had a charming effect on her mouth. “So if you were to perform some act of magic at the Temple of Kyria, which is the Prisma’s domain, Amachos couldn’t sense it under the Kyrian mages’ own spells. Although the women in the temple would certainty know.”
“Precisely.”
“I think I see. You could step to the temple, and Amachos wouldn’t sense your arrival.”
Lio nodded.
“If the Prisma knew to expect you, do you think she could…I can’t believe I’m volunteering her for this. In theory, could she conceal your arrival from her fellow mages in the temple?”
“That depends on her strength as a mage.”
“I suspect she is powerful,” Cassia ventured. “Not that I am any judge of such things. But I’ve seen her mend skin and bone without a needle and thread.”
“Then her power is considerable,” Lio said with admiration, “and after her many years as Prisma, her temple’s magic will be as close to her as her own. She could certainly cover my step into her domain under one of her workings. Her fellow mages would feel only Kyria’s own magic at work.”
“You are not worried she will expose you?”
Lio leaned his arms on his knees, folding his hands. “When you and I made our pact to speak freely with each other, you pointed out it is in both our best interests to keep each other’s confidences. Doesn’t the same principle apply here? If the Prisma exposed us, she would expose herself.”
“I wasn’t sure that was enough to satisfy you. You seem to value the notion of trust more than I do.”
He knew better than to ask Cassia whether she trusted the Prisma. Trust was always the wrong word to use with Cassia. “What is your opinion of her?”
Cassia hesitated. But Lio knew that had more to do with her hesitation to speak well of anyone than any lack of admiration for the Prisma. Cassia wouldn’t be considering this, if she didn’t trust the mage.
“Since I’ve been here,” Cassia said, “her actions have shown her only goals to be the good of her temple and the welfare of her patients. She cultivates her prestige as a means to promote the well-being of those in her care, rather than for her own benefit. Her idea of pleasing the goddess is helping people, not holding them to precise standards. She has always dealt fairly with me.”
“I have complete confidence in your assessment. For that reason, I trust the Prisma.” Lio hated to go on, but if he withheld anything from Cassia at this point, it would only bring disaster. Above all, she had a right to know everything and weigh her own risks accordingly. “I believe the Prisma’s intentions are pure, and that she has a justifiable motivation for misrepresenting the frost fever to others.”
Cassia took a step back. “What do you mean? What do you know about the fever?”
“I have it on good authority there is no outbreak of frost fever in eastern Tenebra.” Lio wished he could tell her he had it on the authority of the Master Envoys. Rudhira’s people were safe. Lio’s warning had not been necessary. Although it had been appreciated. He wished he could tell Cassia that, too.
“How would you know something like that?” she asked.
“Let’s just say someone like a free lord’s knight’s saddler’s brother told me and leave it at that, shall we?” His humor deserted him as quickly as it had come. “Will you take my word on it?”
“Your people care about children,” she said, as she had before.
The only yes he would hear from her, but a yes nonetheless. “We do, Cassia. And I believe the Prisma does as well. If she has invented this rumor about frost fever in the east, surely she has a good reason.”
Cassia began to pace before the fountain. Knight stood on guard, watching her progress back and forth. “There is simply no harmful reason for her to try to convince the Summit she needs children’s medicine. Rimelace has no dark purposes. What dishonest dealings could the Prisma possibly have in mind? Selling rare medicine to smugglers so she can buy shoes for the orphans?” Cassia snorted.
“What do you think her motivation could be?”
“I can think of only one reason. The same reason she had for telling no one of the fever in the first place.”
“To avoid frightening the people.”
Cassia halted. “Yes. Perhaps people would panic if they knew the truth. For example, if the truth were that the fever is closer than eastern Tenebra.”
She fell silent. Lio waited for her next protest of their plan. But none came. Her expression of concentration turned grave.
She had decided. He had convinced her.
“It won’t work,” she said. “The king won’t miss the herbs, but the other members of your embassy will.”
Lio tried not to let his hopes sink. Just last night she had railed against him at the mere suggestion he might have revealed their encounters to the others. He would lose all the ground he’d gained with
her, if he pointed out his fellow Hesperines would gladly consent to this plan and were perhaps the only people this side of Orthros who would be no danger to her.
He must hide still more from everyone in the embassy. First these meetings with her. Now a plot.
He was going to trust the goodwill of a human mage he had never met without even telling his own people.
Where would the deception stop?
It could stop when no lives were at stake. If his family and the Master Envoys knew what he was considering, they would agree. They would support his decision for the sake of the children who must be protected.
They would understand it was safer for them if they did not know. If Lio misstepped…if he fell…he would take the fall alone.
“I can make sure they don’t notice the herbs are gone,” Lio promised.
Cassia’s eyes narrowed. “They’re all older than you. Even you are sometimes in awe of their power. How can you hide such a thing from them?”
“They don’t expect me to hide anything. It’s easy to keep a secret from others when they believe you have no secrets.”
“You didn’t really answer my question.”
Lio considered his next words. Her pulse sped up, and for once it did not lure his fangs from his gums. It only reminded him he was losing her.
“Your elders must not find out, Lio. No one must find out.” Her heartbeat fluttered into panic again.
He could almost see the terrors that haunted her mind’s eye. A political catastrophe for all Hesperines—but for her, a death sentence.
Involving fewer of Lio’s people might mitigate the damage to their cause. It wouldn’t protect her.
But Lio could protect her.
“No one will find out,” he promised. “My magic will see to that.”
“Forgive me if I do not stake my life on illusions.”
Lio bit his tongue, and not for the first time. This was his one failure to keep their Oath of openness, for it was the one truth that might shatter their promise. Once she knew he was a thelemancer, would she think he had been manipulating her all this time? She did not bat an eye at fangs and blood, but if she believed he had deceived or, worse, controlled her, she would turn against him in a heartbeat.
