Ghost in the Throne (Ghost Exile #7)

by Jonathan Moeller

  “Then what are you trying to arrange?” said Caina.

  “Why, precisely the same thing you are,” said Samnirdamnus. “Even if you know it not.”

  ###

  Caina jerked awake.

  She looked around, blinking. It was just about dawn, and the sky to the east had turned a hazy pink, drowning the blue glow from the crystalline pillars in the Desert of Candles. Morgant still stood at the edge of the camp. With the coming of daylight, he had produced his notebook and was sketching in it. Kylon squatted next to the ashes of the fire, frowning as he kindled it for breakfast. His head turned, and his eyes met hers.

  “Bad dreams?” he said.

  That made her smile a little. He could no longer sense her emotions unless they were in physical contact, but he was still pretty good at guessing her thoughts.

  “Oh, yes,” said Caina. “Samnirdamnus had another warning for me.”

  That made Kylon scowl. The last time Samnirdamnus had given them a warning, bad things had happened.

  “What is it this time?” said Kylon. “Trouble?”

  Morgant snorted. “Haven’t you been paying attention, Kyracian? When do we ever have anything else?”

  Chapter 8: Dangerous Patterns

  “You are sure, then, that the circlemaster is dead?” said Agabyzus.

  “I cannot draw any other conclusion,” said Martin.

  Agabyzus sighed and closed his eyes for a moment.

  Claudia sat in one of the guest chairs in Martin’s study. It was the safest place in the Lord Ambassador’s mansion for a conversation. The Imperial Guards watched the gate to the mansion’s courtyard and patrolled the grounds. Claudia had placed warding spells over the main gate, the doors to the mansion’s entry hall, and upon each of the windows. The spells were not powerful, but if a Silent Hunter tried to pass, the ward would collapse his invisibility. The doors to Martin’s study were locked and barred, and a dozen warding plates, lead disks about the size of a dinner plate, encircled the walls. Claudia had enspelled them with specific warding spells. Once again, they were not powerful, but they would keep any divinatory spells from functioning in the study. It would stop someone like Cassander Nilas from listening, but it might not block a sorcerer of Callatas’s prowess.

  Though Callatas seemed strangely indifferent to anything the Empire or the Order might do.

  “Did he have a body?” said Agabyzus.

  “No,” said Martin, pacing back and forth before his desk. “A shadow-cloak and a ghostsilver dagger, though. As far as I know, no one else in Istarinmul possessed a shadow-cloak. I recognized that dagger. She carried it, and I only imagine Cassander could have gotten it if he had killed her.”

  “Callatas said that she is dead,” said Claudia. “I doubt there are many secrets that could hide from his spells.” Though he had not yet found the Staff and Seal of Iramis. “If he is certain that the circlemaster is dead…then it seems Cassander was telling the truth.”

  Agabyzus sighed, his shoulders slumping. “That is grievous news. Grievous.”

  “You knew her long?” said Claudia.

  “She saved my life,” said Agabyzus. “The Teskilati wiped out the city’s previous Ghost circle, and I was a prisoner in the Widow’s Tower when she rescued me. I learned that she had saved my sister’s life as well, and rescued my nephews from slavery. My sister hoped that Cassander’s proclamation was a lie…but it seems it was not.”

  “She saved my life, too,” said Claudia. “I had been turned to stone by an earth elemental, and she found a way to restore me.”

  Agabyzus blinked. “Truly? People can be turned to stone? That sounds like a child’s fable.”

  “It’s not,” said Claudia. “Believe me, I know that first hand.”

  “How curious,” said Agabyzus. “Yet I am not surprised. It is exactly the sort of thing the circlemaster would have found herself doing, I expect.”

  Claudia laughed a little. “It is at that.”

  “Caina Amalas may be dead,” said Martin, “but the best thing we can do now is to carry on her work. You said you had news, Master Agabyzus?”

  “I do,” said Agabyzus. He lifted his satchel. It was made of finely tooled leather, the sort of thing minor magistrates used to carry legal documents to the courts of the wazirs. “If I may, my lord?”

  Martin gestured at the desk. “Please.”

  Agabyzus stood and opened the satchel, bringing out several bundles of documents. Claudia craned her neck, trying to see the papers, and then realized that she could not from the chair. She sighed, grunted, and heaved herself to her feet, a fresh spasm of pain going through her ankles and calves. Thankfully, both Martin and Agabyzus pretended not to notice her ungraceful movements.

  Or maybe they weren’t pretending. The documents seem to have captured Martin’s full attention.

  “Where did you get these?” said Martin.

  The documents seemed innocuous. Claudia had a harder time reading Istarish than she did speaking it, but most of the papers looked like bills of sale for various houses throughout the city. Others were copies of deeds for houses and pieces of land.

  “I have many friends among the scribes of the magistrates, the hakims and the wazirs who govern the city and administer the Padishah’s business,” said Agabyzus. “These are bills of sale for houses in the city, along with copies of the deeds. Under the Padishah’s law, all such sales must be recorded and a copy of the bill of sale deposited in the archives of the Wazir of the Treasury for assessing taxation.”

  “The Emperor employs a similar method,” said Martin, “and I assumed the Padishah would do the same. Yet I fail to see why this is of importance to the Empire.”

  “For two reasons, my lord, my lady,” said Agabyzus. “First, every one of these houses have been purchased by the Umbarian Order.”

  “What?” said Claudia. A flicker of dread went through her. Cassander had seemed so…pleased at the Court of the Fountain, so delighted that Callatas had thrown the bargain back in his face. Had Cassander been preparing a secret plan all this time? “Why?”

  “More to the point,” said Martin, “why would the Padishah’s magistrates allow the Order to purchase property in the city, other than the embassy itself? I know if I tried to buy land in Istarinmul for the Empire, I would be sharply rebuffed.”

  “Because,” said Agabyzus, “all the purchases were made through surrogates or false fronts.” He unrolled a map of the city. “This house first aroused my suspicions.” He pointed at a spot in the Alqaarin Quarter, not far from the Umbarian embassy itself. “A certain pawnbroker purchased a house across the street from his shop.”

  “Why should that be suspicious?” said Martin.

  “Because I knew that pawnbroker, my lord,” said Agabyzus. “He was a sluggard and a drunkard, and had squandered his money in riotous living. In fact, his debts had reached such a severe state that he was in danger of being sold upon the auction block as a slave. Yet suddenly his debts had been paid and he had enough money to buy a house. I investigated, and I found that the money had come from Cassander Nilas and the Umbarian Order.”

  “He must have wanted it as a safe house for his Silent Hunters and his spies,” said Claudia.

  “That was my first thought as well,” said Agabyzus, “so I investigated further. I found numerous buildings purchased throughout the city, all by Istarish merchants or minor nobles. Yet the money had always come from Cassander Nilas.”

  “How many houses?” said Martin.

  “At least a dozen,” said Agabyzus. “It is likely that I have missed some.”

  “A dozen?” said Claudia. “Husband…he must be concealing troops in the houses. Preparing a surprise attack to seize the Towers of the Sea.” The Towers of the Sea guarded the Starfall Straits themselves, north of the Tomb Quarter, and were the most heavily defended fortresses in all of Istarinmul, bristling with siege engines and thousands of jars of Hellfire. If Cassander’s men seized the Towers, they could hold them long
enough to allow the Umbarian fleet to pass with or without the Grand Wazir’s permission.

  “Maybe,” said Martin, rubbing his jaw. “But it would make more sense to conceal a force in the Tomb Quarter. Why buy a dozen houses across the city? Any Umbarian troops would have to fight their way through the streets to reach the Towers of the Sea. Erghulan could easily rally a defense.”

  “Are there troops in the houses?” said Claudia.

  “Aye, my lady,” said Agabyzus. “My informants have kept an eye upon some of the buildings. They have seen Adamant Guards entering the houses, along with several Umbarian magi and men who were likely Silent Hunters. As you said, I first assumed that Cassander wished to obtain safe houses for his spies and Silent Hunters. Yet there were too many houses, and the presence of the Adamant Guards and the lesser magi pointed to a greater danger. I decided to bring my discovery to the circlemaster and seek her guidance.”

  “When did you see Caina?” said Martin.

  “The day before she departed the city with Lord Kylon and Nasser Glasshand,” said Agabyzus.

  “Then Lord Kylon did go with her?” said Claudia. The last time she had seen Caina the circlemaster had mentioned that Kylon had ended up in Istarinmul, though Claudia had yet to see him.

  “He did, my lady,” said Agabyzus.

  “Have you had any word from him?” said Claudia. “Or from Nasser Glasshand?”

  “None,” said Agabyzus. “We must assume they are both dead, along with anyone else who accompanied her. Lord Cassander would not have spared them.”

  “When you spoke with Caina,” said Martin, “what did she make of these purchases?”

  “I suggested to her that the houses were a hiding place for an army or a small assault force,” said Agabyzus. “Instead, she thought the houses would be used in a spell.”

  “A spell?” said Claudia. That made no sense. “Why would she think that?”

  “The location of the houses,” said Agabyzus. “Behold.”

  He ticked them off one by one, pointing to their locations on the map. Claudia stared at the map in puzzlement. And then…

  “A circle?” she said, surprised. “The houses form a circle.”

  “A near-perfect circle, too,” said Agabyzus, “if my efforts at geometry are correct.”

  “And the Golden Palace is at the exact center of the circle,” said Martin.

  “Not quite, my lord,” said Agabyzus. “Both the Golden Palace and the Grand Master’s palace form the center.”

  “You are the magus among us, my wife,” said Martin. “What sort of spell might Cassander be attempting?”

  “I…I do not know,” said Claudia, shaking her head. “I’ve never heard of such a thing. It’s almost like he’s trying to draw a huge summoning circle across Istarinmul.”

  “The Umbarian magi summon elementals to their side in battle,” said Martin, “and some of the Magisterium have begun copying the practice. Could he be trying to summon some…titanic elemental? Like the one that Ranarius tried to awaken in Cyrioch?”

  “Maybe,” said Claudia. “But…it’s not possible.”

  “Could you explain further, my lady?” said Agabyzus. “I fear my knowledge of sorcery is limited.”

  “All right,” said Claudia, trying to gather her scattered thoughts. “There’s our world…the mortal world, the material world. Then there’s the netherworld, the world of sorcery and spirits. Usually you can’t cross from one to the other, but several different kinds of sorcery allow it. The Alchemists can transmute a properly prepared pane of glass into a Mirror of Worlds, allowing physical entry to the netherworld.”

  Agabyzus nodded. “I have seen such mirrors in the Grand Master’s wraithblood laboratories.”

  “Those mirrors allow us to enter the netherworld,” said Claudia, “but it’s harder for spirits to enter our world. They have no physical form, so they need to acquire one. That said, a powerful spirit could create a form for itself, associated with its nature. An earth elemental would appear as a giant of rock and stone, or a fire elemental as a pillar of flame.”

  “Like the earth elemental we fought at Caer Magia,” said Martin.

  “Exactly,” said Claudia, shuddering a little as she remembered that battle. “Sometimes the spirits can possess corpses, or they house themselves in the bodies of living people. Like the Huntress, for example. The nagataaru need physical hosts to come to this world. And it takes power, a lot of arcane power, to summon a spirit from the netherworld to the material world.”

  “Hence the summoning circle,” said Martin.

  “Yes,” said Claudia. “Summoning circles are designed to channel and focus the power of a summoning spell. Except,” she stared at the map for a moment and shook her head, “except this wouldn’t work. It’s too big. The bigger the summoning circle, the more force it needs. The power requirements go up exponentially.”

  “So make the circle twice as big and it takes four times as much arcane power,” said Martin.

  Claudia nodded. “That’s right. Four times as big, and it takes sixteen times as much sorcerous power to function. For a circle this big…if Cassander possessed that kind of power, he would have become the High Provost and conquered the entire Empire by now. He wouldn’t need to bother with Istarinmul.”

  “Could he have used the circle in the casting of some other spell?” said Agabyzus.

  “Probably,” said Claudia. “But the same problems would apply. A circle of that size would require staggering amounts of sorcerous power. It would be like the day of the golden dead all over again.”

  “It is likely that Cassander knows something that we do not,” said Martin. “Before the day of the golden dead, most of the nobles of the Empire and the brothers of the Magisterium assumed that the arcane sciences of pyromancy and necromancy and others had been lost. Then the Umbarian Order emerged from the shadows, and we were proven wrong.”

  “We would be fools to assume otherwise,” said Claudia.

  “May I ask a question, my lord?” said Agabyzus.

  “By all means,” said Martin. “Please, speak freely. We are entering unknown dangers, and we need counsel.”

  “What exactly happened when Cassander met with the Grand Wazir?” said Agabyzus.

  “Cassander said that he had slain Caina Amalas,” said Martin. “He offered both the shadow-cloak and the ghostsilver dagger as proof, and demanded that Erghulan open the Straits to the Umbarian fleet. When Erghulan refused, Cassander insulted both him and the Grand Master, so severely that Erghulan expelled the Umbarian embassy from the city. “

  “He seemed…pleased,” said Claudia. “As if he expected that Callatas would renege on their deal.”

  “As if he had planned for it,” said Martin.

  Agabyzus nodded. “My lord, my lady, I believe this is Cassander’s plan.” He gestured at the table. “We just do not know what it is.”

  “It will be something to force open the Starfall Straits,” said Martin. “That was Cassander’s entire reason for coming to Istarinmul.”

  “And it will have to be soon,” said Claudia. “He only has a week to do it.” She looked at Martin. “Could you go to Erghulan, warn him of this?”

  Martin hesitated, and then shook his head. “I doubt it. Cassander might have made an ass of himself, but Erghulan and Callatas know that the Order shall send another Lord Ambassador. The Grand Wazir will think I am just angling for an advantage. He will do nothing without proof.”

  “Then let us find proof,” said Claudia, gesturing at Agabyzus’s papers. “If we can find something in here that proves he intends to harm Istarinmul, that will force Erghulan to act.”

  Agabyzus shook his head. “This alone is not enough. If pressed, Cassander will claim some innocuous reason for purchasing these houses. Gifts to bestow upon his followers, perhaps. Yet the houses themselves may contain the evidence we need.”

  “You suggest we break in and look around?” said Martin.

  “Yes. An opportunity
to do so has presented itself,” said Agabyzus. “Do you know the name Fariz Terdagan?”

  “It is familiar,” said Martin. “A minor emir, I believe?”

  “He holds some small lands south of Rumarah, near the border with the Alqaarin sultanates,” said Agabyzus. “He has been a loyal supporter of Erghulan for many years, but lately has grown disenchanted with the Grand Wazir’s leadership.”

  “An awakening of conscience?” said Claudia.

  Agabyzus offered a thin smile. “An awakening of avarice, let us say. The emir Fariz feels that Erghulan has not appreciated his years of loyal support. Lord Cassander, by contrast, has been most appreciative…and quite liberal with gifts of coin.”

  “A traitor, then,” said Martin.

  “I suspect the emir Fariz thinks of himself as a friend of the Umbarians,” said Agabyzus. “Before he left the city, Cassander gave Fariz a gift of money, and Fariz used it to purchase himself once of the smaller palaces in the Emirs’ Quarter. He just moved in this week, and the palace is undergoing extensive remodeling.”

  He tapped the map. The palace was in the northeastern portion of the Emirs’ Quarter, which would make it part of Cassander’s giant circle. Whatever Cassander was planning, Fariz Terdagan’s new residence was likely part of it.

  “Then you suggest,” said Martin, “that we infiltrate the palace, perhaps disguised as masons or carpenters, and learn what we might.”

  “I will undertake this task, my lord,” said Agabyzus. “I have some practice at disguise. In addition, there are many people with talents of questionable legality who owe the circlemaster favors. She entrusted me with their contact information before she died, and I think it is time to call in those favors.”

  “Very good,” said Martin. “Proceed, and return to me as soon as you know more.” He hesitated. “And if you need more…direct methods, let me know. If necessary, I will take my Imperial Guards and seize the palace.”

  Claudia frowned. “Won’t that enrage Erghulan?”

  “It will,” said Martin, “but he will forgive us if we find proof of what Cassander plans. The matter is too grave for half-measures, my wife. If Cassander succeeds, the Empire will fall, and he will kill thousands of people in Istarinmul in the process.”