The Burning White

by Brent Weeks

  “The gold box,” Andross said to Grinwoody, his voice abruptly cool once more, though he didn’t take his eyes off Kip. “And the Ilytians. And put the decanter on the table.”

  Grinwoody brought a gold card box from the open safe. He put the crystal decanter of amber liquor on the playing table itself. Then he brought out the Ilytian bladed pistols Kip had last seen Gavin wearing. Andross checked them to confirm they were loaded and laid them across his lap, pointed toward Kip.

  “Eighteen-year-old Crag Tooth,” Andross said. “Their very first batch. It’s worth a fortune. I opened it especially for you.” His former savagery had evaporated, but Kip would never forget it. Andross waved Grinwoody away.

  “My lord…” Grinwoody said. “I must protest. This one has shown reckless disregard before. I worry for your safety.”

  Kip was still blinking, trying to recover his breath and his wits.

  Andross said, “Do you know, I paid more for this whiskey than I did for Grinwoody?”

  Trying to repair his façade of calm detachment, Kip said, “The market price of slaves was a sadly overlooked part of my education.”

  “‘Education’?” Grinwoody asked coolly.

  Andross laughed. “His owner noted his intelligence and was training him as a legalist before his ability to draft manifested, and was putting him into Blackguard training. He wasn’t the only dual-use slave I bought, of course. The others were very interested in honor… prestige… making a difference. Grinwoody said only two things to me. Do you remember, Grinwoody?”

  The old slave inclined his head but made no move to finish his master’s story.

  “He asked, ‘Will you beat me if I don’t deserve it?’ I told him no, and I’ve kept my word. I’ve only beaten him twice. Both times for impertinence. Both times in the first year. After he understood the boundaries, we’ve gotten along quite well. And then when I asked if he would die for me if necessary, he said, let’s see, how’d he put it? ‘For you, yes. I’d prefer not to die for a lesser man.’ A lesser man, you understand, Kip? This slave, this nothing, he dared to judge his betters, but not so far that he wouldn’t do his duty. He didn’t really want to be in the Blackguard, because Blackguards have to guard whoever happens to be Prism or on the Spectrum or sits in the White’s High Seat or, horror of horrors, the Black’s Low Seat if necessary. He could tell that some of them were great, whilst some were merely born to a lucky station. He fulfills his duties to the utmost, but he doesn’t step beyond his station. You understand?”

  “Oh, that’s a very subtle lesson, High Lord Promachos,” Kip said. “I won’t forget who’s who here. I guarantee it.”

  Andross lifted the bottom of the box out and revealed two decks. “Look through these while I tell you the stakes.”

  “I’m not going to like this, am I?” Kip asked, accidentally saying it aloud.

  “That depends,” Andross said. “How’s your marriage?”

  Kip’s heart went cold. “What kind of question is that?”

  “You disobeyed me when you went to Blood Forest,” Andross said. “My direct order. Did you think I was going to let that slide?”

  Kip shuddered, and he wasn’t rightly sure if it was from disgust or rage or fear.

  “If I went to Rath, Eirene Malargos would have put me in a cage,” Kip said. “Metaphorically if not literally. She’d never have let me leave the palace.”

  “Much may be accomplished from a single building, if it’s the right one,” Andross said. “I should know.”

  Kip realized the old man had practically ruled the world from the Prism’s Tower, so he couldn’t exactly contradict that. “Only if one’s already established the right contacts out in the world. I’m a young man, not an old one. I don’t have the web you do. What I did was far more valuable to you anyway.”

  “At this point, the outcome is less the issue than your obedience is.”

  “You’re upset because I showed you that you were wrong,” Kip said. “You’re so far removed from every human emotion, you have no idea what loyalty even looks like. I could be the king of Blood Forest right now if I hadn’t decided to come here and save your ass, old man. You want me to leave? I’ll go.”

  “You seem to think I’d give you that option.”

  “You seem to think I couldn’t take it.”

  Andross sighed. Then he lifted the pistols from his lap. He cocked them. One stayed close to his body, a backup, out of reach. The other he extended over the table, the blade under the barrel reaching like an accusing finger. Kip didn’t move back, and Andross tapped that dagger point against his forehead. “Kip, you didn’t come here to save me, and those you came to save can’t leave with you, so we both know you’re not going anywhere. It isn’t in you to run from a fight, not even one you think you’ll lose. You leaving was always a bluff, and I’ve called it.”

  It was true.

  “You’re an asshole.”

  Andross chuckled as if it were a compliment. “A man who’ll never risk being seen as an asshole is a man who doesn’t believe in anything.”

  “You only believe in yourself,” Kip shot back.

  “No,” Andross said. “Not for a long while now.” He set the pistols down on the table between them. He spun one so it pointed toward him.

  Kip realized he might mean a couple different things by it, but he didn’t care to guess. “So what do you believe in?”

  Andross took a sip of his whiskey. “I believe I’ll finish the game.”

  Kip threw his hands up. “Always the game!”

  Andross opened a drawer and pulled out two zigarros. He trimmed one with the dagger pistol’s blade. He looked toward the window and sighed like a cat soaking up the sun, and then touched a sub-red-infused thumb to set the zigarro alight as he puffed at it. He offered the other to Kip, who accepted. He trimmed and lit his own, only then noticing that Andross was glancing at his luxin-reactive Turtle-Bear tattoo as he did so.

  Orholam! Was everything Andross did about gathering intelligence?

  “Look at us, Kip. While others scurry about like ants whose home has been stepped on, we smoke and drink and play cards and decide the fate of the world. What happens to our world for the next century turns on the next twenty minutes here in this room, and none of those below even know it. Doesn’t it make you feel like a god?”

  “I don’t want to feel like a god,” Kip said. But he wasn’t sure that was true. He’d told Tisis he was going to die, and he believed it. But he didn’t want to die.

  He sipped the whiskey, and even he could tell that it was very smooth. It almost didn’t taste like chewing on peat. He sucked on the zigarro, and couldn’t tell much about it except that blowing smoke was itself actually kind of satisfying. “What are the stakes?” he asked, defeated.

  “If you win,” Andross said, “I’ll make you Prism. And I’ll protect you from Zymun, who’s plotting to kill you. There are caveats, though. Not even I can do such a thing instantly. The Spectrum would find its spine and rebel if I forced such a thing through with no notice at all, and we can’t afford that now. But Zymun will be dealt with, and you’d be Prism-elect for the next year. But you’ll have the full force of my powers protecting you during that time. I swear that, should you win this next game, you’ll be the next Prism.”

  Janus Borig had told Kip he wasn’t going to be the next Prism. But she was a Mirror, not a Seer, right?

  But Zymun being dealt with? Kip having the authority to be able to defend these islands, without interference?

  Maybe Janus had meant Kip would die before he became Prism.

  “That’s a… tempting prize,” Kip said. “I’m guessing you have some truly odious stakes you wish me to offer in return.” His chest was tight. He knew this old spider.

  “So suspicious, dear grandson.” Andross puffed on his zigarro, the ash glowing red with each puff like the evil eye winking at him.

  “And…?” Kip said. “What are your stakes?”

  “King Ironfis
t will arrive very soon. He has a young cousin whom he’s going to make the Nuqaba. Maybe already has. She’s eighteen, maybe nineteen years old. Devout, though everyone knows her dear older cuz will be directing her every move.”

  “King Who?” Kip interrupted.

  Andross looked genuinely shocked for a moment. Then a big, toothy-cat grin spread on his face. In the least convincing voice he could probably manage, he said, “Oh, Kip, I’m so sorry. Do you really not know? Have you not heard about it from every tongue in the city? Your old commander’s turned traitor.”

  “Sure. Right. No, he hasn’t. Now, what were you saying?”

  “This actually depends on you accepting the reality of the situation,” Andross said, growing serious.

  “I don’t see what you gain from that kind of lie,” Kip said. “I can check on it in no time, and we’ve both got things to do.”

  Andross said, “Not a lie.”

  “Ironfist wouldn’t betray the Chromeria. His brother died for me.”

  “Yes—because of me, as he sees it. And then his insane, treasonous, drug-addled sister the Nuqaba died under mysterious circumstances—which he also blames the Chromeria for.”

  Rightly, Kip guessed. And just like that, he believed it. He’d changed since he’d left the Chromeria, why wouldn’t Ironfist? Andross had stripped him of his position, and then tried to murder him? Oh God. “So he’s declared himself king?” Kip asked.

  “There are places in this world where one is either at the top or dead. Perhaps he believed Paria was one of those. Regardless, we need to bring Paria back into the fold. For the war, and for all the other wars that will follow if we don’t.”

  “You seriously lost Paria? Brilliant leadership, grandfather!”

  “And you’re going to help me get it back,” Andross said, eyes flashing.

  “What’s this got to do with this girl, Ironfist’s cousin or whatever.”

  “If I win, you marry her.”

  “Wha—I’m already married.”

  “Ah.” Andross gestured with his zigarro as if Kip had a point, as if it were too bad.

  Kip’s brow furrowed. What in nine hells? “Not even a promachos can absolve centuries of Magisterial teachings against polygamy, and I can’t imagine the Parians would countenance having their Nuqaba be the second wife of anyone.”

  “Of course not,” Andross said blandly.

  “You’re not suggesting…”

  “Ruthgar’s fate is tied to ours now. They cannot leave us. Your marriage to Tisis has accomplished what the satrapies required. Now you’ll put her aside. Your marriage will be annulled—you were a minor at the time of your oaths, and you both married against the consent of your families. It will simply be acknowledged not to have happened. Rather than lose face, Eirene Malargos will have to pretend it’s mutual. Marriage dissolved, excused as the passions of youth, and so forth. No problem. Your failure to produce a child will actually be helpful. A child would have been a complication.”

  Orholam’s agonies. It was exactly what Tisis had predicted, only much earlier than even she had guessed.

  “Why would you do this to me?” Kip asked, breath short.

  “The Parians have a fleet and the best mundane fighters in the world. We need both. In fact, with what you’ve told us about the White King’s fleet, we now need them both far more than I thought we did just a week ago. And he and his fleet are almost here. If we are to have any hope of victory, Ironfist must be convinced to join us. A man who’s declared himself king. A traitor, you understand, must be convinced to make common cause with us, or the empire will end.

  “He will demand we recognize him as king. He will want guarantees—and we will be in no position not to give them to him. Naturally, losing Paria would be our fallback position. But better to lose Paria than the whole empire. What I hope to accomplish? Immediate rapprochement with Paria, albeit with special status granted to Ironfist himself for the rest of his life. He will be rewarded with very choice ‘presents’ at your wedding as ‘small symbols of our long love for Paria and its leadership.’ Ironfist will be made very wealthy; he will have enough power and the control of his Nuqaba to make sure he isn’t betrayed or imprisoned in the future; and we will have saved the empire from this immediate crisis. And if I don’t miss my guess, as a wedding gift Ironfist will grant you substantial lands in Paria that the Guiles haven’t owned since my grandfather’s and great-grandfather’s time. You will spend your time between your lands and the major Parian cities, making sure no new rebellion is planned against the empire, and making as much of yourself as you will. When I die, you will take over family Guile, having been given all the advantages I never had.

  “Naturally, that’s only one way the negotiations may go, but I need to know what cards I have in hand so I can do the best for the Seven Satrapies that may be done, and after that the best I can do for the Guile family, and after that the best for my grandson’s oh-so tender feelings.”

  “This is disgusting,” Kip said.

  “This is survival, you preening microcephalic baboon! Exactly which part of survival do you object to? Morality’s a warm blanket, but it’s not worth dying for, and it’s useless to the dead. I have been the one who’s paid the price for our survival until now. I have been the one who killed so that others might live, who took the beating sun on my own shoulders so that others might play in my shadow, safe and ignorant and innocent and carefree. Now it’s your turn. You want the power? You pay the price.”

  Kip tried to keep a level voice, tried to speak to Andross in a way he could understand. “You’re asking me to go back on my oath.”

  “I’m asking you to save a million lives with your semen and your tears—and you’d prefer they die instead?”

  “I swore Tisis a solemn oath. I—”

  “When you swear to do what you don’t have the power to do, that makes you a fool, not a liar.”

  “I swore a hundred times!”

  “You swore a hundred times because you knew the keeping of that oath was out of your control. She asked you to because she knew it, too.”

  Kip’s heart was aching already. He was willing to break Tisis with his death but not with his betrayal.

  Not even if it saves tens of thousands of lives in this battle alone? Hundreds of thousands or a million eventually?

  He said, “You loved Felia, you adored her, she was the heart of your heart. I know she was. Even those who hate you remark that she, she was the one thing in this world you loved. Would you have betrayed her? Would you have betrayed her for all the world?”

  Andross’s face grew still and his eyes, gleaming like iridescent-edged razors, turned inward. “For all the world, Kip, I did.”

  And Kip felt suddenly like a young dandy lecturing an old veteran on the costs of war.

  This was war for the fate of the world. This was war as seen from the vantage of politics, with prices paid in grief and private wounds and terrible compromises and personal failures that could cost the deaths of entire families or entire empires. Andross was the high commander, sacrificing units to gain objectives, sending envoys to their deaths on mere slim chances, and making grand gambles that could cost everything. The currencies were different, but what warrior, having cut down an unarmed, fleeing enemy, could say that his way of fighting was cleaner?

  If anyone should understand Andross Guile now, it was Kip.

  Kip himself had thought Antonius Malargos a limited general for understanding tactics but never strategy. Andross must be looking at him the same way right now.

  The old man spoke again, almost gently. “That bit where we’ll excuse your first marriage as foolish young love isn’t a convenient lie, son. I gave you this year to enjoy life as lesser men may. But this is our yoke. Lesser men give their sweat in labor, give their blood in battle, and give their tears, but their love is their own, if they’re strong enough or lucky enough to claim it. Our duties are different from theirs. Our bodies are pampered, but we pay the price wit
h our souls. We belong not to ourselves. All men are brothers in this, all are captives twisted on the rack until the executioner, Life, has wrung all our vital fluids from us: sweat, and blood, and tears from the commons; and blood, luxin, ink, semen, and tears from us.

  “We need those ships and those men, grandson. Excellent mundane fighters, against the bane? Who else has a chance? Ironfist’s fleet could stop the armada and the bane before they even arrive! And Ironfist likes you. If I tie his family back into ours, we can survive this.

  “I’m getting ahead of myself, but naturally, should we survive, you’ll have to produce an heir immediately, especially after not producing one with your first wife… but even should Ironfist make the marriage contingent upon children being born to our families, it still buys us a fleet for this week. So after the battle, stop drafting sub-red for a while. Impedes fertility.”

  Maybe I could go back to Tisis afterward.

  No. Her sister Eirene would be too insulted to accept that. And not just Eirene. Tisis understood politics, but she wouldn’t understand this. She would never forgive him if he didn’t fight for her to the death. Rightly so.

  But it wasn’t his death he would be fighting to, if he refused this.

  It was death for everyone.

  Without the Parians, the Chromeria was doomed. Maybe they were doomed even with it. But without it, they didn’t have a chance.

  But… Tisis!

  Kip thought he was going to throw up.

  “A wet cloth for your face, my lord?” Grinwoody asked, polite as a handshake from a stable-mucker. Kip hadn’t even noticed his return.

  “But if I win this game,” Kip said, “all those things will still be true. You’ll still need the fleet. You’ll still want everything else long-term, too.”

  “I have another grandson to marry off, worse luck for that poor girl. If you win, I’ll just have to gamble that with time so pressing, Ironfist won’t be able to look too deeply into Zymun’s affairs or his character. I had hoped to spend him elsewhere. But I’ll have you know: if you win—if you become Prism, things might actually be worse for you. Ironfist might already know about Zymun’s character. Then you won’t be able to blame me when you put Tisis aside.”