The Palace Job

by Patrick Weekes

  "Kun-kabynalti osufuir'is."

  Elkinsair chuckled. "How very true. The great and eloquent speech began to falter, the words growing simpler each time the prince was healed, until finally the ancients erected their barrier, and—as the story goes—the prince, struck with one last mortal wound, flung the hammer away, crying 'Father, it is enough. Let me go.' And he died just as the barrier sprang to life and drove the Glimmering Folk away, banning them from touching the ground of this world until they possessed a true soul."

  "Besyn larveth'is."

  "When one of the few mortals to witness this great battle and survive picked up the great hammer, its eloquence was gone, and it could only say a few phrases. The great king had bled away his very essence to save his son... who then died anyway." Elkinsair shook his head. "Such a tragedy."

  "Kutesosh gajair'is." It was a bare whisper.

  "Such simple phrases. I destroy the enemy. I protect life. And my personal favorite—"

  "Kun-kabynalti osufuir'is."

  "None shall die while I watch over them. The irony is so beautiful." Elkinsair wiped at his eyes. "But do you know what fascinates me?" He leaned forward. "The notion that magic of the soul may be drained to grant power to another."

  Ghylspwr went suddenly still.

  "Oh," Elkinsair said in surprise, "did you think I had just come to tell a story? Oh, no, dear weapon." He pressed another crystal, and the light changed. "If your pathetic faculties can sense me, you know that I am born of the stray magic your people left behind. I enjoy my life, and I enjoy the power your lost magic gives me. I think it only natural that I wonder how much more powerful I might become if I could steal a bit more for myself."

  Ghylspwr thrashed in the shimmering curtain of light. "Kutesosh—"

  "Gajair'is, yes, I know." Elkinsair pressed a few more crystals. "Hence my voluntary servitude of that fool Silestin, which lets me work around all this lovely magic. Sadly, the power here on the Spire is too pure for me—poison in my veins if I try to siphon it away. You, however, already gave your magic away once. It stands to reason that you can do it again." He pressed one last button, and the shimmering curtain began to flicker into random patterns. "With the proper encouragement." He stood, letting his robe fall open, and his horn flared a blinding white as he smiled in naked lust at Ghylspwr, who continued to struggle uselessly.

  "Do you always talk to your toys?" came a voice from behind Elkinsair. He turned in irritation, then paled.

  Ambassador Bi'ul raised an eyebrow, a dark slash over his shining eyes.

  Elkinsair pulled his robe shut. "The Archvoyant has asked—"

  "I thought you too intelligent to lie to me," Bi'ul said, ignoring Elkinsair and looking at Ghylspwr. "Leave us. I would speak with the trinket alone. We have..." Bi'ul paused, then smiled. "...unfinished business."

  "You... you know—"

  "Leave us," Bi'ul said, sparing Elkinsair a glance, "now. Any threat I make is infinitesimal compared to what I would actually do should you disobey my wishes."

  Elkinsair nodded quickly and darted out of the room, looking back longingly at Ghylspwr before he shut the door.

  Bi'ul smiled slowly. "At last."

  "You stupid girl," Silestin sneered above her. "Did you think you could play me?"

  Kail knelt on her back. One hand clutched a fistful of her hair and yanked her head back so that the other hand could hold the knife to her throat. Her sword was in the grass a few yards away.

  "You were a captain," Silestin went on, "when I was a colonel. Did you think I didn't know about scout-sign? Did you think that when I closed my fist around your man's soul, I'd tell him not to betray you by saying or writing anything and forget about your little hand signals?" He spat on the ground near her head.

  "It was a risk," Loch gasped. "He told me it was the ring. I could free him, bring the Voyancy on you..."

  "You got greedy," Silestin said, leaning down enough so that she could see his smile. "That's why I beat you, Isafesira. If you hadn't thought you could take me down with some elaborate double-cross, you'd be free right now. All you had to do was run." He glanced up, then made a gesture Loch couldn't see before turning his smile back her way. "I'm so glad you decided not to."

  The soulless men approached, and at a gesture from Silestin, Kail dragged Loch back to her knees, though the knife remained pressed against her throat. "Here," Silestin said, "take a look."

  Most of the soulless men moved into protective positions around Silestin or close guard positions around Ululenia and Dairy, while a pair marched up into the elven ship and came back with the real elf. He was a thin creature with pale green skin, and he wore green and brown clothing that looked to be woven from plants. Crystals of lavender and light blue were set into his face like tattoos, glowing softly. He was bound with iron shackles, and his face was tight with pain.

  "You did all this to get the buyer?" Loch asked in disbelief, her voice still tight as the knife threatened to draw blood.

  Silestin sniffed. "Greedy and shortsighted." He gestured, and the soulless men dragged the elf closer. "Do you know what's going to happen today?" He pointed at the ruby lying on the ground. "Every Voyant just got an emergency summons indicating a threat to the Republic. When they get to the Hall of the Voyancy, they're going to learn that the Empire is preparing to launch a devastating attack, and that they've already tortured one of the elves to death in order to gain ancient magic to use against us." He grinned. "I didn't anticipate you activating the weapon I've had Elkinsair and Bi'ul working on, but that plays well as Imperial sabotage that luckily revealed a failsafe weapon left by the ancients."

  "You bastard." Loch shut her eyes for a long moment. "You're going to start a war."

  "Actually," Silestin chuckled, "you are. The elves only deal with those they trust. In order to lure one of them out of hiding, I needed someone to steal that book and then try to sell it in good faith. You think I couldn't have locked down my palace to stop you from escaping once I learned about the breach?"

  "We escaped." Loch's voice broke.

  "You were allowed to escape. That ring you just broke? It only sends the emergency message if the user believes in the rightness of his cause with the utmost conviction, and Elkinsair never managed to crack that for me. But you believed that what you were doing was for the best, didn't you? When the elves find one of their own killed and mutilated with Imperial soldiers dead nearby as well, they'll unleash the power of the forests on the Empire. When the Voyancy gets this message, they'll believe anything I tell them." He shook his head, frowning as he thought it over. "A loyal soldier who deserted during the war, then spent all these years planning an act of sabotage as the first strike in the Empire's attack upon the Republic. So sad. I doubt the history books will be kind."

  He broke into a smile again, a boyish grin. "You know what the best part is? You didn't even steal the real manuscript." He picked up the book again. "I had a forgery placed in my vault, just to be safe. The real elven manuscript is in my library." He tossed the book aside. "After all, young lady, that's where books go. "

  There was no cure," Loch said softly. "There was no way to save Kail."

  Silestin snorted. "Not that he could tell you about." Stepping back carefully, he removed a red crystal wand from a jacket pocket. "This is what you should have been after. Sadly, it's a little too late—"

  "Finally," Loch snapped. "Pyvic?"

  "With pleasure," said the cloaked man next to Silestin, and knocked the crystal from Silestin's grasp with a sharp blow.

  Twenty-Five

  "Just get it over with," Tern said quietly. The interrogation room was built to muffle the screams of its victims, and the walls seemed to soak up the words.

  "It's not going to happen." Desidora lay still, trying to stay relaxed.

  "Of course it is." Tern struggled for a moment, then lay back in defeat. "The gods slapped their big death priestess thing on you. The only reason you signed on with us was to get a shot at Bi'ul. T
he freaky little satyr is right. If you believe in what you're doing..."

  "It's not about whether I believe it," Desidora said, keeping her voice steady. "It's about not playing the satyr's game. Death magic is too dangerous to be toyed with by someone like him."

  Tern sighed. "That's a really great justification, and if I hadn't heard Loch's little talk with Hessler by the vault, I'd be coming up with a whole collection of reasons for you not to kill me. But it's important, Diz. It really is fate-of-the-world stuff you're dealing with. It's worth killing me for."

  "That's not what I was taught." Desidora grit her teeth. She could feel cold blossoming deep in the pit of her soul.

  "Damn it, Diz!" Tern's voice broke. "Let it be me deciding, okay? Just do it." She was crying. "That way I'm a hero, and not just some... thief you killed because she stood between you and the quest. Let me have that much."

  "If I do it..." Desidora felt her skin inching toward white, her hair darkening. "I don't know if I'll come back."

  "Well, as the person who'd be dead, that breaks my heart," Tern said acidly, sniffling.

  "I nearly killed Kail," Desidora said softly. "Back in the control room, and then again with you. I just reached out and started tearing at his soul. I don't want to be that person. The auras, the zombies... that's just a trick. It's an ugly trick, but... I was one of Tasheveth's, Tern. I was love."

  "And I was a moderately wealthy girl who was more interested in science than arranged marriages." Tern rolled her eyes. "And yet, here we are."

  "I don't want to be what the gods are trying to make me, Tern." The leather of Desidora's restraints was black, and the bindings were silver. Her own voice was cold, and the reasons for her words hard to remember. "Do you know how that feels?"

  "Like I said: arranged marriage."

  The unyielding light of logic cut through everything else. "The gods were either wrong or right, Tern. If they were wrong, then letting it take me over again could release an insane death priest."

  Tern coughed. "I thought, uh, priests weren't supposed to go around saying things like, 'if the gods were wrong'."

  "And if they were right," Desidora continued coldly, "then I'm no good as a tool unless I serve in the capacity for which I was designed. In which case, I must trust my own intuition, flawed as it is. And my flawed intuition says..."

  It came at her, tore through her self, wrenched at her very being. It could not be stopped, could not be reasoned with. It was need, the survival instinct of the gods themselves, the sheer ferocity of absolute imperative action.

  And there in the darkness, the one-time priestess of Tasheveth clung to a fragment, tattered and shunted aside, of the feelings that Ululenia had given to her.

  A long moment passed.

  "...no." And when Desidora, shivering and sweating, weakly opened her eyes, her skin had a healthy flush.

  "Disappointing," came Elkinsair's voice from the doorway. "Your faith lasts only as long as you are not asked to do something unpleasant. Fine." He shut the door, shrugged out of his robes, and stood before them, his vile horn glowing. "I see that the death-magic wants to come through. You're using... ah, you used love to hold it back." He sneered. "Charming. I wonder if I could help you out with that?"

  He stepped up to the table and placed his hands on Desidora's legs.

  "Get the hell away from her!" Tern shouted.

  "Be at peace," Elkinsair crooned. "You'll have your chance. At least, you will if the priestess here doesn't give in and kill you. Being a love priestess, she should be ideally suited to enjoy what's about to happen to her." He turned back to Desidora. "I can do things to you that you've never even imagined. I can make you beg for it. I can make you die from it." His smile was hard and ugly. "And it's been too long since I've passed time with an unsuspecting maiden in the woods."

  Desidora shut her eyes, tried to relax. He would only enjoy it more if she struggled.

  It was coiling inside her again, and she tried to keep it locked down, but the fear was there, human and mortal, and now the fear wanted it to come help. His hands pulled at her robes.

  There was a flash of silver at her hand, and then her hand tore free of its bonds with inhuman strength, guided by another.

  "Kutesosh gajair'is!"

  Constrained as he was by Desidora's imprisoned state, Ghylspwr could only swing in a limited area, down and about at the height of the table. Nevertheless, he had at least one good target.

  When all you are is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a nail.

  Desidora heard the impact, which sounded like a flare of powerful magic followed by someone hitting the wall. A moment later, Ghylspwr twisted in her grasp and began smashing things nearby. A moment later, the restraints fell away, and she sat up to see most of the table smashed.

  "Ghyl!" Tern shouted. "I am so glad I didn't talk Desidora into killing me!"

  "Besyn larveth'isr

  "You too! Hey, any chance you could destroy this damn table I'm strapped to?"

  "I think I can just undo the straps," Desidora suggested, and went to work. In a few short moments, Tern was free, rubbing at her chafed wrists and flexing her legs.

  What was left of Elkinsair was crumpled in the corner. His glowing horn had vanished, and his skin had already turned a dull gray.

  "You okay?" Tern asked, and put a hand on Desidora's shoulder.

  "I will be," Desidora said, and gave Tern a ragged smile. "Come on. Let's find our clothes and get out of here. When we get back to Loch and the others, I'll tell you how to get Hessler into bed."

  "What?"

  Ambassador Bi'ul was standing in the doorway.

  It coiled inside her again, and this time there was no reason to hold it back, for the final fight was upon her, and—

  "Get me into bed?"

  "Besyn larveth'is!" Ghylspwr said happily.

  "I was coming to help, although it looks you had the situation under control."

  Desidora checked Bi'ul's aura. "Hessler, could you please avoid impersonating my nemesis without telling me about it first?"

  "Ah. Sorry." In a flash, the rainbow faded around him, and the wizard's features shifted back to normal, although he had a nasty black eye. "I was attempting to infiltrate the palace. Appearing as the ambassador provided me with enough leeway to free Ghylspwr." He blinked. "What were you two talking about when I arrived?"

  "What happened to your face?" Tern asked very quickly. "Oh." He touched it and winced. "I was fighting men like the guards on the airship. They're under some sort of—"

  "We know," Desidora said.

  "Ah. In any event, they had me captured, and Justicar Pyvic arrived just in time to help me. He knocked me unconscious so that they wouldn't see me as a threat."

  Tern pursed her lips. "Can't argue with that. So, Diz, ready to go?"

  Desidora hefted Ghylspwr. "Let's see what we can find."

  The wand tumbled end over end, its angry red light searing in the gray pre-dawn sky.

  It landed next to Ululenia, who raised a hoof and brought it down hard.

  Kail dropped his knife and fell down behind Loch, retching. "What in Byn-kodar's—"

  Loch's uppercut caught Silestin square in the jaw and knocked him flat on his ass.

  "Did you think," she said dryly, "that I wouldn't recognize one of my men betraying me? I spent years behind enemy lines with Kail. I spent leave-time dragging him out of taverns. He can lie to a lot of people, but not me."

  Around the garden, the soulless men crumpled slowly to the ground. Some of them were crying. Some of them were still.

  Three cloaked figures stayed on their feet and drew back their hoods.

  "Isafesira," Pyvic said with a brisk nod, "this is Voyant Bertram, Learned Party Leader, and this is Voyant DeVieux, Skilled Party Leader." He gestured to two middle-aged white men who held their crossbows with undisguised distaste. Bertram was a big man who'd gone fat and bald later in life, while DeVieux looked like a former dock worker in an expensive ou
tfit. "Gentlemen, I believe that the admissions we all just heard constitute reasonable cause for a recall hearing."

  "The Learned do not condone this behavior." Voyant Bertram nodded grimly. "We had no idea that the Archvoyant had such designs, and we fully support any investigation."

  "After passing every bit of legislation he put in front of you," Voyant DeVieux said dryly, "you're willing to turn on him now?"

  "We're not going to let this turn into a political nightmare." Pyvic glared at DeVieux, then turned to Silestin. "Archvoyant, Sir, I'm arresting you under suspicion of treason, murder, corruption, and about a dozen other charges. We'll let the judges figure out the specifics."

  Silestin rubbed his jaw. "When did she turn you, Captain?"

  "Last night." Pyvic smiled. "I did indeed encounter her, but... statements I had received from both you and Prisoner Loch led me to conduct my own investigation. What I discovered raised some questions."

  "I talked with one of my girls." Silestin turned to Loch. "You took her down, but she heard your conversation."

  "Justicar Pyvic led a scouting unit during the war." Loch raised a hand. "Your girl doesn't fake unconsciousness very well, and Pyvic and I both kept in practice on those scout-signs you were so proud of knowing about earlier."

  "You set me up." Silestin was almost saying it to himself. "You were out to take me down from the beginning." He looked up at her suddenly, and his gaze was almost desperate. "Did you even care about the manuscript?"

  Loch grinned. "As a matter of fact, yes." She reached into the leather satchel and withdrew another book. "It belonged to my father. And I thought you might try something clever with a decoy, so I made certain I checked the library. After all, that's where books go."