by Sam Hawke
“What do you mean, it’s not safe?”
“Uncle!”
“What exactly is going on?”
They peppered us with questions with varying degrees of fury; the boys howling their displeasure at being confined, and Dija staring at me with such intensity from behind her glasses that had she been able to use magic I might have been seriously concerned.
“Don’t let anyone in, all right?” I instructed Sjease and our houseguards, the latter of whom looked more alarmed than the former, and more inclined to argue. “No one goes in, no one goes out.”
I hesitated as I looked over at the doorway to my room, through which Kalina could be just seen, packing clothing with our various substances. Since the siege, since proving how stupidly, insultingly foolish I’d been for obsessing over her health, I had resolved never to be the overprotective, overbearing brother who had not listened to her. But, honor-down, the conflict inside me was intense. I didn’t know what exactly we were going to face at the ceremony. For all her determination and skills, she still could not run or fight if she was in danger, and the thought of losing her—again—made me want to throw up. On the other hand, there was no one in the world I trusted more, no one I’d rather have with me in this. Especially when the two other people I thought I could count on had been keeping secrets.
“Let’s go,” she said, emerging from the room. She wore one of my palumas as her own lacked the pockets that concealed my potions and chemicals. I didn’t like using them offensively and liked even less the idea of Kalina being forced to do so when she was less familiar with their individual effects, but if it came to it, she had a better shot defeating an attacker with poison than with a knife. She handed me the small vial of darpar I’d asked for, and I swallowed its contents quickly and with a twist of distaste. I needed the pain relief and the energy for this if I was going to be of any use, but it felt wrong to take it all the same. Hadn’t I railed on Tain for the same thing, in similar circumstances? I shook off that thought. For whatever reasons, Tain didn’t believe he could abandon this event, and we would do everything we could to protect him, even if it went against my preferences.
Our path to the front door was blocked by a small figure. Dija raised her chin and looked at each of us, resolute. “I could help.”
Behind me, Ana made a strangled, furious noise of protest, and I held up a hand to quiet her. “No,” I said flatly. Dija was a good apprentice, a hard worker, and she’d already shown herself to be clever and brave and resilient. But I’d put her in harm’s way too much already. “The only way you can help right now is to stay here, out of danger. If—” I cleared my throat, looked over the rest of the family, a small clot of staring, fearful faces, and dropped my voice down so only Dija could hear. “If something goes wrong, you’re my backup. You understand? You’re the only one who’s going to be able to step up and look after Tain and Merenda. I can’t control what’s going to happen tonight, but I can at least make sure I have someone to carry on if the worst happens, all right?”
“But—”
“I’m the teacher. You’re the apprentice. You do what I say. I told you that when you agreed to come to Silasta, Dija. I say you stay here and you stay safe. You follow me this time and you’re out, forever, whatever happens. Do you understand?” I knew it was coming across too harshly, I could see myself, a cold and emotionless thing, in the reflection before me, in the sudden wetness in her eyes, the quiver in her chin. But I didn’t have time to coddle her, not now. “Well?”
“Yes, Uncle,” she whispered, and fled back into the apartments.
For once, Kalina didn’t chide me for it. She squeezed my hand, and without a further word, we left.
We didn’t have a clear plan. We couldn’t know from where the attack would come—an Order Guard? Some other Hands in the crowd? A foreign official? We had the Captain’s concession that every country’s delegation was being watched by double the men as previously planned. The blackstripes would protect Tain from a close-range attack, and the Captain had been right in one respect: if the blackstripes had turned, my proximity wouldn’t save him. All we could do was split up and search, and keep our eyes open.
“Want to get a good seat,” I told the official at the gate, trying to sound excited. They had done a cursory check for weapons, but it had not been thorough enough to find the pouches under my clothes.
“Enjoy the festival,” the official said, sounding bored, their attention already on the next person trickling in.
By my reckoning there was little time until people started turning up in earnest. Officials were still undertaking last-minute preparation and maintenance in the center of the arena, one performer practiced swinging one-handed on a bar at the far end, and some of the general public seats were filling with early entries. Several Order Guards walked a slow perimeter of the field, staggered at intervals, surveying both the seating and the grounds.
I kept well clear of them. We had no way of knowing which Order Guards we could trust. Sukseno might not be on official duty tonight, and Chen had been informed about his betrayal, but I didn’t believe for a second he was the only one. And Guards in Hands’ pay, or under Aven’s instructions, meant they knew where our security was focused. Which meant whatever they planned, it wasn’t what we were ready to defend.
I started my search in the lavish section equipped for the comfort of the Council and international guests. Not precisely sure what to look for but hoping I’d know it when I saw it, I ran my hands under the bench seating, squashed cushions, checked vantage points across the arena … nothing. No hidden weapons or assassins. I squinted, trying to identify the best position from which to attack with a range weapon.
“Hey!” A woman in an official’s sash approached from below, gesturing. “You! Yes, you. You can’t be up there.”
“Sorry,” I called, and climbed down into the regular seating, heading for the other side of the arena. The diligence and the speed with which I’d been spotted was something of a relief; it meant Chen must have at least ordered the Guards to watch for people who didn’t belong or were acting strangely.
“Stop!” I froze. “What do you think you’re playing at, up there, mate?” a Guard asked.
“Just seeing what the best views look like,” I replied, keeping my face turned away. My heart beat hard, and one of my hands slipped inside my paluma. “Wasn’t going to sit there or anything. Sorry, I’ll move on.”
“Mmm.” The official looked me over, then glanced at the Guard. “What do you think?”
“Been told not to take any chances,” the Guard said shortly. “Let’s see what the Captain thinks. Come with me, please.”
Chen. Relieved, I followed meekly along, and when Chen strode up, eyes widening as she recognized me, I had pulled my hat off and was speaking before she could say anything. “Captain, I need to call in a favor.”
She looked at me with a sharp, penetrating stare, one hand resting on her belt. “Your sister’s at the gate, talking about an attack. You’re here for the same thing, I assume?” She glanced back over her shoulder. “Bring the Credola out, would you?”
Kalina, a flush to her cheeks, was led out. Chen looked over the two of us and took a breath; for a moment it seemed she might call for someone to escort us out, but instead, she dismissed the other Guard and gestured at us to walk with her. There was no time to dance around it. “Chen, tell me what you think. If you wanted to attack Tain or disrupt the ceremony, but you knew everything about our security, where all our guards would be and who they’d be watching, how would you do it?”
“Jovan, I know you mean well, but—”
“How would you do it?”
She sighed again, louder, but then her lips thinned as she considered. “We talked about this. I s’pose I’d want range weapons, assuming I managed to get them into the city somehow, and in the hands of people I knew you weren’t watching. I’d wait till the targets were somewhere predictable and stationary—sitting in their seats—and
then cause a distraction—a fire, a riot—then shoot them down. You could hide a few different bowmen in the crowd and they could get lost in the commotion and we’d have no way of identifying them on the way out, even with limited exits.
“But Jovan, even if you’re right and there are Hands out there, that plan wouldn’t work. Everyone’s getting searched on the way in, they can’t bring bows in. Not even my Order Guards—and we’ll talk later about Sukseno, don’t worry, I’m not ignoring that. Though I find it hard to believe anyone in my Order Guards—” she began hotly, but I shook my head.
“You know the Guards aren’t immune from infiltration. We found one, and there’s likely more—either Aven loyalists from the army, or disgruntled Darfri she’s riled up again, or foreign agents—you’ve had a massive influx of new people since the siege and no way to be certain of every single person who’s been hired.”
I checked over my shoulder. We were almost in hearing range of the solo athlete swinging between bars, but they were completely focused on their task and no one else was close.
“You’re searching people on the way in,” Kalina said, “but you’ve had Order Guards and officials coming and going all day. What if there are weapons in here already, hidden earlier? Bows, for example? What if you fixed some to the bottom of a bench?”
Chen paused in her stride. “My Guards don’t carry bows, and nor do anyone else’s,” she said. “No one can even bring ranged weapons into the city.”
I snorted. “And who does the weapons searches and confiscations at the gates of the city? Order Guards. Who can access those stores anytime they want? Order Guards.
“Look. There’ll be people pouring in here shortly. If we’re wrong and there’s nothing here, nothing happens, all we’ve wasted is a bit of time and effort. I’ll look like a fool and I’ll never have been so happy to be one.”
There was a long silence as the Captain regarded me, her expression inscrutable. Then she nodded. “I haven’t forgotten how I got this position,” she said at last. “I know you two trusted me at a time when maybe not everyone around you earned that trust. You always asked people with more experience or knowledge when you didn’t know something. I respect that about you both.” She looked off into the distance for so long I feared she wasn’t going to return, but eventually she looked me in the eye. “I don’t believe you’d be here to waste my time or anything of the sort.” She squinted up at the sky and then blew her whistle twice, hard. The other Guards in the arena responded smoothly, jogging up toward us. Some of the tightness in my chest eased.
“We’re going to do a last-minute search of the arena,” she told them briskly. “Checking the seats, every row, anything out of the ordinary. A section each. And you three, go do a sweep under the tiers to make sure no one’s hidden down there. Take a lantern, it’s dark under there.” She ignored the quizzical looks from the Guards and barked, “Get on it! Methodical, thorough. Let’s get this done before the seats start filling.”
We split up and started. Bench after bench, pace by pace, until my back was screaming from the effort and my ankle burned. Nothing. People had started to file in; several performers began their warm-ups. Sweat dripped down the back of my neck and down my forehead into my eyes as I tried to cover more ground. Nothing, nothing, nothing but splinters, and a growing feeling of despair. I was losing confidence. I glanced over at Kalina, one section over. She was moving much slower than me, and bending awkwardly.
More and more people streamed in and our search continued, row by row. Time seemed both to drag and to speed by. The Order Guards were probably furious by now at this seemingly pointless task. Eventually I stood and caught Chen’s eye from a distance; she shrugged one shoulder and shook her head. We’d run out of time; she would need to send her Guards back to their assigned duties. Sure enough, she blew her whistle to attract the others. My breath came quicker than ever. Down to me and Kalina now. I bitterly regretted, now, the heated confrontation with Hadrea; for all that I was furious with her for lying to me, for concealing key information, we had needed her here, and if I could find her I would tell her so. We could quarrel about the Darfri later.
I looked over at the private entranceway through which the access to the upper tiers for the important guests was granted. The Doranite party entered in a large bloc through that reserved entrance and filed along to their seats. The King was dressed in leather and fur, his long, thick hair worn in a heavily decorated topknot. He carried a massive scepter with a gleaming opal at the center, so he was easy to identify. His assorted Chieftains accompanied him, all muscular and powerful figures.
I climbed up to the next row and bent again. The arena was filling fast, and people had started sitting in the area I was searching; I didn’t attempt to explain myself and endured their stares and affronted noises. A number of officials were down on the grounds now, talking to the gathered athletes and performers in preparation for the final events, and other important guests were coming in, too. The Costkati Grand Emissary and the Tocatican Prince filed in with their respective parties, and a noisy group of Silastians took seats nearest the box. Then there was the Talafan group, proceeding slowly to the far side of the box, their servants hurrying ahead of the Crown Prince, who was bedecked spectacularly with clothes like an armor of wealth gleaming in the afternoon sunshine.
The noise was building; when had it become so loud? A Marutian Duke whose name I couldn’t remember and a huge cast of servants and attendants swept in. Their hats were so tall they obscured the people behind them. More Councilors. Attentive blackstripes were positioned around the foreign parties, ostensibly for their protection but also to monitor them.
I straightened to stretch out my back and neck with a crack. More and more blackstripes were visible in positions at the ends of rows and moving around in the enclosed box, so Tain must be on his way. I was nearly at the top now. Around me, oblivious people swapped bets and bought snacks from innovative—and likely un-Guilded—vendors, chatting and laughing and speculating in a hodgepodge of languages. The noise and confusion would have made me anxious at the best of times.
Panting, Kalina joined me from the next stand. “Have you found anything?” She moved aside to make way for an elaborately dressed juggler who was readying himself to perform for the amusement of the crowd. I ducked, only just avoiding a faceful of pink silk hat, and shook my head; Kalina rubbed her eyes. “What are we supposed to do now, then?”
I hesitated. Our first guess had been wrong; whatever was planned, if indeed there was anything, we weren’t going to find it hidden in the seats. At least the Guards were on alert, and at least some of them were on our side. “We keep looking. Stay out of sight if we can.”
We fell in behind another set of performers, this one an acrobat on the shoulders of another, underneath a single dress so they appeared to be a giant woman. She waved and bowed as she moved along the path at the base of the seats, throwing sweets to the children in the crowd, and we kept our heads down and followed in her wake. No one paid us any heed.
We tracked around the arena as quickly as we could without attracting too much attention; most people were in their seats now, and a massive cheer signaled the entry of the first performance. We kept wending our way around, past where a huge contingent of Doranite spectators were sitting, roaring their approval as one of the demonstration athletes from Doran flew through the obstacles with great skill. The noise as we passed their section was so deafening we could not even hear the singer who was attempting to perform in the stairway. Over the course of the Games, Sjon athletes had excelled in the team sports, the hurdling, hoop and print, and high jump, but Doran had dominated in anything resembling the everyday activities of their culture, which was heavily physical: the log toss, all of the climbing events, wrestling, and of course the obstacle course, which required dexterous and bold leaping and climbing through an impressive range of structures. The Doranite Chieftain had been right to question why many of our traditional games and sports were
ill-suited to our own landscape; I could only assume many traditions had been carried in with the refugees or imported from settlers from elsewhere over the years.
We stopped behind a ropy-armed elderly woman manning a Guild-flagged small cart selling dried figs stuffed with white cheese and meat-and-bean balls on sticks. Kalina pretended to muse over which dip she wanted while I surreptitiously checked the position of the Order Guards and blackstripes; there were at least twice as many here as in any of the other sections, probably because it was where many of the most powerful Sjon families had seats. The next section along contained the viewing box for the Council. I kept my head averted in case someone who knew us happened to look down.
“I searched up here first,” I told Kalina in a low voice. We had covered the whole perimeter, and nothing.
“So what do you want to do now?”
We looked at each other a long while. “Find Tain and stick by him. I’ll do a loop outside.”
I contented myself and calmed some of my rising panic by pacing around the edges of the arena fencing, squeezing my fingers and toes as I walked. Nothing suspicious caught my eye as I circled around; there were more street performers amusing the waiting crowds as they queued to get inside, a few Darfri preachers calling blessings, various vendors with prominently displayed official Guild markings, and down alleyways more portable stands with no Guild markings and vendors with darting eyes and charming quick tongues. Once I thought I saw the girl who had sent me into the Hands’ den, but when I stepped closer it was a little boy. On a few occasions I briefly went on alert, but the incidents were nothing more than alcohol- and excitement-fueled scuffles. Pacing suited both my state of anxiety and my task in any case, so I continued walking around and around, watching and waiting for something to happen. I heard the bellows of the crowd, the announcements, gasps and cries of delight at the demonstration events.
