Power's Shadow

by Richard Parks

  “I dare say. On the other hand, if Duke Okandis had not played his part, the result also would have been very different, dress or no.”

  Sela just stared at Marta for a few moments. “You’re right—I don’t understand.”

  Bonetapper landed on Marta’s shoulder and whispered in her ear.

  Probably the least surprising thing I have heard today, she thought, and nodded at the raven who flew on ahead.

  “I have never met Okandis, but from his pursuit of us on the journey here, two things were clear to me. One, he takes matters personally and two, once he has an idea in his head, there’s no shaking it. That was why I wanted Okandis alerted to Callowyn’s audience with the king. I knew he would do exactly as he did during the court. I was counting on it. What I didn’t know, of course, was that Longfeather had betrayed Callowyn’s location.”

  “You wanted him to be there to oppose negotiations?”

  Marta smiled then. “No. I wanted him to be there to attack Callowyn, building her up into some sort of demonic slavering monster. Once Callowyn glided into the court, that particular image crumbled to dust. It wasn’t the fact that she is a striking woman—although she is—rather it was the contrast between Okandis’ rubbish and the reality in front of them. After that, no one present was inclined to give anything Okandis said any weight at all, even the parts that were true. Callowyn could have been the plainest, mousiest woman in Amurlee and the effect would not have been very different.”

  “So if Okandis had simply remained calm and reminded everyone of the facts of the Five Isles raiding….”

  “Or even if he had been absent altogether, since I have no doubt that others in the Court would have made the same points. But I knew Okandis would not speak reasonably, because it wasn’t in his nature to do so, and before you say it, yes, I could have been wrong. Fortunately for all concerned—except Okandis—I wasn’t. Now let’s get going. I want this other matter settled before nightfall.”

  Okandis’ villa was at the very edge of Amurlee, not far from the western gate. Marta was a little surprised to see a familiar figure there, leaning against the city wall near the guard’s station, just as Bonetapper had said.

  Sela peered ahead. “Is that…?”

  “Prince Dolan, yes. Well, well….”

  The prince detached himself from the wall and walked to meet them. “Ladies, it’s good to see you again.”

  “And you, Prince. Have you come to pay your uncle a visit as well?” Marta asked.

  He smiled then. “Oh, I’m afraid that won’t be possible. I just saw him off toward home not more than an hour gone. He plans to travel swiftly, I gathered.”

  “Indeed?” Marta asked.

  “Indeed. And I think I have you to thank for it, Lady Marta.”

  Marta shrugged. “If Duke Okandis suddenly recalls urgent business back in Borasur-Morushe, I’m sure it has nothing to do with me,” Marta said.

  “As you say. Still, he has been rather a one-note harp lately on the matter of the Five Isles…and a host of other matters. I think my uncle’s return home will do our relationship a mountain of good. With a little time and distance, it’s easier to remember that we are family…ah, Lady Sela. Pardon me, I certainly did not mean to ignore you. It’s very good to see you again. Very good indeed.

  Marta frowned. Did Sela just blush?

  “I am glad to see you also,” Sela said. “I hesitate to ask, but how did negotiations go?”

  He waved his hand. “Oh, that. Nothing’s decided yet, of course, but I think everyone’s finding that our goals and interests are pointing us all in the same direction. We meet again in the morning and I am cautiously optimistic.”

  Marta sighed. “You do realize your uncle will try to turn your father against any bargain?”

  “My own courier left this morning. And I guarantee you, he is faster than my uncle. Nor will he pause in Balanar first to pick up a large armed escort, which I suspect is my uncle’s intention. He seemed somewhat nervous.”

  “Perhaps he has learned caution. Your pardon, Highness, but even with the duke away, I do have some business here. I believe he is harboring my servant.”

  “If I understand correctly what that means, then he’s wiser than he realizes to be gone,” Prince Dolan said. “And I have no doubt you can take care of the matter yourself, but perhaps I can at least minimize the, shall we say, incidental damage?”

  “Thank you, Highness,” Marta said. “I would be glad of your assistance.”

  When Marta and Sela presented themselves at the gate of Duke Okandis’s villa in the company of the duke’s royal nephew, the guard let them in without question. Which, of course, negated the need to collapse the gate on the poor man’s head. Marta wasn’t disappointed, exactly, but she’d been ready to do whatever was necessary. They had no sooner entered the duke’s garden when Bonetapper reappeared and landed again on Marta’s shoulder.

  “He’s in one of the outbuildings,” the raven said. Marta shot him a hard glance, but the raven just raised his wings slightly, a gesture which passed for a shrug. “You think he doesn’t know?”

  Prince Dolan just smiled. “I am fairly certain of where your servant would be kept,” he said. “Follow me.”

  Dolan led them into a walled courtyard and, bypassing the door to the mansion itself, continued through the opposite wall into a well-tended garden, invisible from the street but easily amounting to a quarter acre of land in the midst of the city. Marta found her estimation of Duke Okandis shifting just slightly toward the positive.

  “It’s really quite lovely here,” she said.

  Prince Dolan smiled. “I know it’s hard to imagine at the moment, but my uncle does have his good points. His flexibility of mind, I’m afraid, is not one of them. Once he latches onto an idea, a steel trap is less tenacious by comparison.”

  “Which explains his obsession with pirates,” Sela said.

  “Only one of his fixations. The fact is that he once lost a very expensive statue he had commissioned, taken in a pirate raid. I’m afraid he’s never gotten over it,” Dolan said. “He has a fondness for art.”

  Marta thought about it. “Would it help if Callowyn, as her father’s representative, submitted a formal apology and agreed to compensate him for the loss?” she asked. “I’m completely serious. I know reparations are on the agenda and any agreement will have more chance of succeeding if your uncle doesn’t remain opposed.”

  Marta could almost see the thought swirling in Prince Dolan’s mind, being tested, poked, and examined from every angle. He finally nodded. “You know, it just might, and even if my uncle refuses, that refusal will not reflect well on him and likely lessen his influence in the matter…. Yes, if Callowyn is willing. There will be breaks in the negotiations and I’ll bring up the matter in private and see if she’s agreeable.”

  “Thank you, Highness. I would be in your debt.”

  He smiled then. “I rather think that’s something a witch doesn’t say often.”

  “Nor lightly, Highness.”

  “I dare say…ah, here we are.”

  “Here” was a building nestled into the southeast corner of the garden wall, done in the Amurlean style of white marble with spiral columns and a rounded dome.

  “Rather grand for a jail,” Sela said.

  “Just because a building is utilitarian doesn’t mean it has to look that way, as my uncle often said. I suspect the door is unlocked…yes. You’ll find the keys to the inner cells on a peg within. I’ll wait out here.”

  “I won’t,” Sela said. “I want to see this.”

  “There’s a streak of bloodthirstiness in you, Lady Sela. I think I’d do well to remember that,” Dolan said, though he was smiling as he said it. Sela just shrugged and followed Marta into what, to Duke Okandis, passed for a dungeon.

  Inside they found an antechamber just large enough to contain what looked like a serviceable rack, and a large brazier, with various ugly-looking but suggestive iron implements hang
ing from the walls.

  “Torture?” Sela asked.

  “Duke Okandis was certainly equipped for it. But I daresay everything looks more like it was dusted lately rather than, say, actually used. Even the brazier has had its ashes dumped. Perhaps Okandis views such things as a last resort rather than a first, though he wants his prisoners to know such implements are available.”

  “A point in the duke’s favor, perhaps,” Sela said.

  “I’m willing to concede it. He has so few others. Let’s go.”

  They passed through the antechamber into a larger room lined with three five feet by eight feet cells on each side. Longfeather was in the first one on the right. He appeared to have been napping on an austere but serviceable cot.

  “Hmmm? Oh, about time you brought my dinner, wench, I was beginning to—you? But….”

  Longfeather just stared at Marta as his voice trailed off.

  “Hello, Longfeather.” Marta said.

  “He promised….”

  “Duke Okandis? What did he promise you, Longfeather? Or rather, Kynon of Lyrsa?”

  Sela frowned. “Kynon?”

  “You didn’t think ‘Longfeather’ was the name he was born with, did you?” Marta asked, and Sela blushed slightly.

  “I don’t think I really cared,” she said.

  “No, but I do. Once he entered my service, I knew who he was. It’s part of the debt. Which, by the way, Kynon here has now defaulted.”

  The pirate glared at her. “Longfeather is who I became. I’ll keep that name, if you don’t mind. What have you done with Duke Okandis?”

  “Nothing. He left for home, having urgent business there…or indeed, anywhere else but Amurlee.”

  “I’m…..” Longfeather began, but apparently thought better of it.

  Marta smiled then, or at least she showed her teeth. “I’m guessing you were going to say something foolish about being under Duke Okandis’ protection. Is that what you were going to say, Longfeather?”

  Longfeather backed up a step in his cell. “Lady Marta, I didn’t have a choice! Duke Okandis knew that I was lying. He threatened to torture me if I didn’t tell him your plans. His men were watching the ship. He knew Callowyn wasn’t there—“

  “You really are a fool, you know,” Marta said.

  “I swear—“ Longfeather began, but one glare from Marta and he fell silent.

  “Don’t bother,” Marta said. “You actively worked against my interests, and I know that because the rules that govern the Debt force me to know. That’s not the same as being coerced against your will. So what really happened was that it was you who offered the deal—you said you’d tell Okandis everything you knew provided he protected you from me, because in your complete lack of judgment you thought he could do so. You thought you saw a way to your freedom and you took it, and Duke Okandis saw the opportunity to capture or kill the daughter of his enemy and took that. Now, then—tell me I’m wrong.”

  Longfeather started to say something, then apparently thought better of it. Marta nodded.

  “If you had been paying attention from the start, Longfeather, you would have realized that such a deal was not possible. All the kings of the mainland could have sworn to shield you and it wouldn’t have changed anything because that’s not how the Debt works. Shall I show you?”

  Longfeather turned a little pale. “Mercy….”

  Marta sighed. “That’s probably the most sensible thing you’ve said since you entered into our agreement. It won’t change anything, either—snail.”

  Longfeather was a snail, no more than an inch long, but with a lovely pearlescent shell not unlike many of the buildings of Amurlee. Marta didn’t bother with the keys, she just touched the lock and it cracked and groaned and then fell in pieces to the stone floor. Marta opened the cell door.

  “Now then, Longfeather, I know you can hear and understand me, so listen to this—I’m going to show you what you deserve.”

  She brought her booted foot down on the floor hard, and there was a sharp crack! Sela gasped, and then Marta raised her foot to show pieces of the small stone she’d crushed under heel, no more than an inch from the snail that was Longfeather.

  “I thought you’d done it,” Sela said, shocked.

  “I thought you wanted me to do it,” Marta said.

  Sela’s face reddened. “Well, yes, he deserves it, but….”

  “I’m afraid,” Marta said, “that matters won’t be that simple for him.” She looked at the snail. “Man…of a sort.”

  Longfeather stood trembling before her again, and Marta sighed. “Listen to me very carefully, Longfeather—the Debt cannot be escaped, it can only be repaid…one way or another. The problem is that you are either too stubborn or simply too stupid to accept this simple fact. Therefore as matters stand you are of no use to me. The Debt, however, remains.”

  Sela frowned. “I thought his failure to live up to the terms of his agreement meant the bond was broken.”

  “It’s my end of the deal that matters. If, say, I were to tell Callowyn where to find you, Longfeather...well, then you would be free. But only until Callowyn or Boranac caught up with you. Would you like me to do that?”

  “Of course not, but I don’t understand,” he said. “Aren’t you going to kill me?”

  “Then your Debt would fall on me, and I’m afraid I’m not that merciful. No, Longfeather. You are discharged. Go where you will, do want you want, knowing that nothing is really changed. Your debt service is still due, and at a time and method of my choosing I will collect it.”

  He frowned. “I am free until then?”

  Marta shook her head. “Again, you weren’t listening, which is how we came to this sorry state of affairs. I said the debt bond still exists. Which means I have the same power over you anywhere you happen to be, whatever you happen to be doing. I will turn you into various disgusting creatures as the whim takes me, whenever it takes me, for my own amusement. I will do it at any time of the day or night, and you will never know when it’s going to happen. If that cracked rock of a brain of yours remembers nothing else that I’ve said, remember that. Especially when you’re bragging in a tavern or beguiling some young woman into your bed. Now get out of my sight.”

  “You wouldn’t—“ he began, then apparently thought better of it.

  Marta smiled. “I said get out of my sight. I won’t say it again.”

  Longfeather got out, though not without several nervous glances backward. Then he was out the door and gone. A few moments later Prince Dolan came in.

  “Interesting the way you settled your disputes,” he said.

  “You have no idea,” Marta said.

  He nodded. “Yes, and that’s probably best.”

  Sela looked toward the door. “You know, it might have been kinder to just kill him.”

  Marta said. “Regardless, he’s no longer my burden to bear. Yet I am and will remain his.”

  Prince Dolan looked at Marta. “Am I correct in thinking that the matter that brought you to Amurlee has been settled?”

  Marta frowned. “Almost. There are still one or two items that need attention, but after that, yes, we will be leaving…unless Lady Sela has other plans.”

  Prince Dolan’s expression was unreadable. “So she is not your servant?”

  “No. She is with me of her own choice, and for her own reasons, but she can certainly speak for herself in this matter, or any other.”

  Sela shrugged. “I plan to travel with Lady Marta at least until all my father’s swords are found, though I suppose we will be plain Marta and Sela once we leave Amurlee. Pity, I was just getting used to the title.”

  “You’re going to the Kuldun Monastery, aren’t you?”

  “It is our best—or rather our only, lead at the moment,” Marta said.

  “Ladies, I have a favor, of sorts, to ask—“

  Marta raised a hand to stop him. “It might be best to rephrase that, Prince.”

  He smiled a little wistfully
then. “Quite correct. No, Lady Marta, I am not making a request, but rather offering a proposal, if the two of you are agreeable. I want the same thing you do—to see all seven of Master Solthyr’s blades together. I would love nothing better than to study them, and will forego ownership so long as I have that chance. I don’t know what you desire of them, Lady Marta, but then that’s probably none of my concern. Regardless, I want to travel with you. Partly because I’ve already demonstrated that I need Lady Sela’s expertise to tell a real example of Master Solthyr’s work from a fake, but mostly because I think it is in both our interests to work together in this matter rather than independently.”

  Marta tried not to smile. “I do see your point, Highness. Now tell me why we should allow this, with all due respect to your charming company? What about the negotiations?”

  “They are going even better than expected and will be concluded, I believe, within days, and so will not hamper your departure or mine. As for the rest, there will be safe conducts through the border to arrange, supplies, logistics, and I can help with all of this. I know you are used to travel, but have you ventured into the White Mountains before?”

  “I have not,” Marta admitted.

  “I have,” Prince Dolan said. “On at least three occasions. I know you can take care of yourselves, but I can use a sword at need, plus I will have a bodyguard—Father’s orders—who are much better soldiers than I am, and a well-armed party is better able to deal with wild beasts and bandits—which remain a threat, despite both kingdoms’ best efforts. All of that aside, if you want all the swords, there is the technicality that two of them are in my father’s armory. I can help there, too.”

  Marta saw the apprehension in Sela’s eyes, noted it, and ignored it. “All good points, Highness. Very well, if you’ll agree to grant us access to the two named swords at the king’s armory in Mataria once we’ve located the rest, you are free to accompany us north. Is that fair?”

  “Agreed,” Prince Dolan said, and he bowed to them both.