Academs Fury

by Jim Butcher

Chapter 24

  Tavi paused outside Lord Kalare's manor on Garden Lane and studied it for a long moment, frowning. If he had not spent so much time in the First Lord's palace in the Citadel, Kalare's manor would have impressed him. The place was ridiculously large, Tavi thought. The whole of Bernardholt-Isanaholt now, he reminded himself-could have fit inside the manor, and there still would have been enough room to provide a pasture for the sheep. The place was richly appointed, lit, gardened, landscaped, and decorated, and Tavi could not help but be uncomfortably reminded of the harlots down near the river, with painted faces, gaudy clothes, and false smiles that never reached jaded eyes.

  He took a deep breath and started toward the house down its double lines of statuary. Four men in plain, common clothing walked by him. They had hard faces, wary eyes, and Tavi saw the hilt of a sword beneath the cloak of the third man. He kept an eye on them as he approached the manor, and saw a harried-looking servant come running to meet them at the street, drawing four saddled horses with him.

  "You see that?" Max murmured.

  Tavi nodded. "They don't look much like visiting dignitaries, do they. "

  "They look like hired help," Max said.

  "But there's a valet rushing to bring them horses," Tavi murmured. "Cutters?"

  "Probably. "

  The men mounted up, and at a quiet word from one of them, they kicked their horses into an immediate run.

  "And in a hurry," Max said.

  "Probably running off to wish someone a happy Wintersend," Tavi said.

  Max snorted quietly.

  The doorman stepped forward to meet them, his chin uplifted. "Excuse me, young masters. This is a private gathering. "

  Tavi nodded, and said, "Of course, sir. " Then he held up the dispatch pouch he normally carried documents in, a fine piece of blue-and-scarlet leather bearing the golden image of the royal eagle. "I'm bearing dispatches on behalf of His Majesty. "

  The doorman relaxed his arrogant posture a bit, and said, "Of course, sir. I shall be pleased to deliver them on your behalf. "

  Tavi smiled at him and shrugged. "I'm sorry," he said, "but my orders are to place my charge directly into the hands of its recipient. " He gestured back at Max. "I think it must be something sensitive. Captain Miles even sent a guard with me. "

  The doorman frowned at both of them, then said, "Of course, young sir. If you will come with me, I will take you to the garden while your escort waits. "

  Max said, in a voice of flat, absolute certainty, "I stay with him. Orders. "

  The doorman licked his lips and nodded. "Ah. Yes. This way please, gentlemen. "

  He led them through more of the same lavish decadence to the gardens at the center of the manor. Tavi walked along behind the man, trying to look bored. Max's boots hit the floor with the steady, disciplined cadence of a marching legionare.

  The doorman-or rather, majordomo, Tavi supposed-paused at the entrance to the garden and turned to Tavi. Shifting colored lights flickered and flashed behind the man, and the garden buzzed with conversation and music. The aroma of food, wine, and perfume drifted through Tavi's breath. "If you will tell me the name of your party, sir, I will invite them to come receive your letter. "

  "Certainly," Tavi said. "If you would invite Steadholder Isana here, I would be most grateful. "

  The majordomo hesitated, and Tavi saw something shift uncertainly in his eyes. "The Steadholder is no longer here, young sir," the man said. "She departed not a quarter hour ago. "

  Tavi frowned and exchanged a glance with Max. "Indeed? For what reason?"

  "I'm sure I could not say, young sir," the man replied.

  Max gave Tavi the slightest nod, then rumbled, "The second missive is for High Lady Placida. Bring her. "

  The majordomo eyed Max suspiciously and glanced at Tavi. Tavi gave the man a between-us-servants roll of his eyes, and said, "Please invite her, sir. "

  The man pursed his lips in thought and shrugged. "As you wish, young sir. A moment. " He vanished into the garden.

  "Lady Placida?" Tavi muttered to Max.

  "I know her," Max replied. "She'll know what is going on. "

  "We'll need some privacy," Tavi said.

  Max nodded, then frowned in concentration and waved a hand vaguely at the air. Tavi felt a sudden pressure on his ears, sharp at first, but it subsided. "Done," Max said.

  "Thank you," Tavi said. In only a moment, a tall woman with severe, distant features approached, wearing simple, elegant jewelry and a rich gown of a deep, compelling green, the majordomo at her elbow. She paused, studying them, and Tavi felt the weight of her gaze as palpably as the touch of a gentle hand. She frowned at him, and then frowned more deeply upon seeing Max. She dismissed the majordomo with a word and a curt flick of her wrist, and approached them.

  She stepped into the area Max had protected from eavesdropping via wind furies and arched her eyebrow. Then she walked forward to stand over Tavi and murmur, "This isn't a missive from the First Lord, is it?"

  Tavi opened the pouch and passed her a folded piece of paper. There was nothing written on it, but Tavi went through the motions for the benefit of those watching. "No, Your Grace. I'm afraid not. "

  She accepted the paper and opened it, glancing at it as if to read. "Oh how I love Wintersend in the capital. Good evening, Maximus. "

  "Good evening, my lady. Your gown is lovely. "

  One corner of her mouth quirked into a tiny smile. "It's nice to see you took my advice about offering compliments to ladies. "

  "I have found it to be a most effective tactic, my lady," Max replied.

  Lady Placida arched an eyebrow, and said, "I've created a monster. "

  "Ladies sometimes scream," Max said loftily. "But other than that, I would hardly say that I was a monster. "

  Her eyes hardened. "Which is something of a miracle. I know your father is on the Wall, but I expected to see your stepmother here. "

  "She was forbidden," Max said. "Or that's what I hear on the grapevine. "

  "They don't write," Lady Placida said, more than asked. "I suppose they wouldn't, though. " She folded up the letter, and offered Max a brief smile. "It's nice to see you, Maximus. But would you very much mind telling me why you've very publicly associated me with the First Lord in front of half of the Lords Council and members of the Senate?"

  "Your Grace," Tavi said. "I came here to speak to my aunt Isana. I think she's in some kind of trouble, and I want to help her. "

  "So you are he," Lady Placida murmured, and narrowed her eyes in thought.

  "Tavi of the Calderon Valley, Your Grace," Max said.

  "Please, lady," Tavi said. "Can you tell us anything you know of her. "

  "I would take it as a favor, lady," Max added, and put a solid hand on Tavi's shoulder.

  Lady Placida's eyebrows rose sharply at the gesture. Then she studied Tavi again, and more intently. "She was here, along with the Amaranth Courtesan, Serai. They spoke to several different people. "

  "Who?" Tavi asked.

  "Myself, Lady Aquitaine, any number of nobles and dignitaries. And Lord Kalare. "

  "Kalare?" Tavi said, frowning.

  A strident male voice boomed in the garden, and was followed by a polite round of cheering and applause.

  "Well," Lady Placida said. "It would seem that Brencis has won his due) to claim Citizenship. What a surprise. "

  "Brencis couldn't duel his way through a herd of sheep," Max snorted. "I hate show duels. "

  "Lady, please," Tavi said. "Do you know why she left early?"

  Lady Placida shook her head. "Not for certain. But they had a less than pleasant discussion with Lord Kalare immediately prior to their departure. "

  Tavi glanced aside in the passageway as he felt a sudden attention on him. Two young men stood not ten feet from him, and Tavi recognized them both. They were dressed in their nicest clothes, but blond and watery-eyed Varien and the hul
king Renzo could not be mistaken for anyone else.

  Varien blinked at Tavi for a second, then at Max. Then he muttered something to Renzo, and the two of them hurried away into the garden. Tavi's heart pounded. There was about to be trouble.

  "How unpleasant a discussion?" Max asked.

  "He struck Serai, openly. " Lady Placida's lips pressed into a firm line. "I've little use for a man who strikes a woman simply because he knows he can. "

  "I can think of one or two things," Max growled.

  "Be careful, Maximus," Lady Placida said in instant warning. "Guard your words. "

  "Crows," Tavi spat.

  Both of them stopped to stare at Tavi.

  "You say they left in a rush, Your Grace?" he asked.

  "Very much so," Lady Placida answered.

  "Max," Tavi said, his heart pounding, "those cutters we saw on the way in. They're going after my aunt. "

  "Bloody crows," Max said. "Aria, please excuse us?"

  Lady Placida nodded once, and said, "Be careful, Maximus. I owe you my son's life, and I would hate to miss the chance to repay the debt. "

  "You know me, Your Grace. "

  "Indeed," Lady Placida said. She inclined her head to Tavi, smiled again at Max, then turned back to the garden, dismissing them with the same flick of her hand she'd used for the majordomo.

  "Come on," Tavi said, his voice tense, and started trotting back through the house. "We have to hurry. Can you get us there any faster?"

  Max hesitated for a second, then said, "Not in quarters this close. If I tried to windcraft us both there, I'd fly us into a building for sure. " His face flushed with color. "It, uh, isn't my strong suit. "

  "Crows," Tavi spat. "But you could take yourself?"

  "Yes. "

  "Go. Warn them. I'll catch up whenever I can. "

  "Tavi, we don't know that those cutters were after her," Max pointed out.

  "We don't know that they weren't. She's my family. If I'm wrong, and she's safe, you can make fun of me for a year. "

  Max nodded sharply as they emerged from the front door. "What does she look like?"

  "Long hair, dark with some grey, very thin, looks early twenties in the face. "

  Max paused. "Pretty?"

  "Max," Tavi snarled.

  "Right, right," Max said. "I'll see you there. " The young man took a pair of long steps and flung himself into a leap, bounding straight up into the air as sudden wind rose in a roar to carry him into the night sky, his hand on his sword the whole way.

  Tavi stared bitterly after Max for a second, his emotions in a wash of fear, worry, and the raw and seething jealousy he rarely let himself feel. Of all the people of the Realm, comparatively few of them commanded enough power with wind furies to take flight. More young people were killed in windcrafting accidents than any other form of furycrafting as they attempted to push the limits of their skills and emulate those who could take to the skies. Tavi was hardly alone in his jealousy. But the possible danger to Aunt Isana made it a particularly bitter realization of his lack of power.

  Tavi didn't let the sudden surge of emotion keep him from breaking into a dead run toward Nedus's house. He could not possibly match Max's time back to it, but he couldn't do less than his utmost, either. Not when it was Aunt Isana. He had never been a slow runner, and the years he'd spent in the capital had given him inches of height and pounds of muscle, all of it lean and hardened by his constant duties to the First Lord. There might have been a dozen men in the city who could have matched his pace without furycrafting, but no more. The boy all but flew down the festively lit and decorated Garden Lane.

  If the cutters were there, they would almost certainly be skilled swordsmen, most likely metalcrafters, who tended to outshine all but the deadliest and most talented of swordsmen with no metalcrafting of their own. From the hard-bitten look of them, they were experienced, and that meant that they would work together well. Were it only one such man, Tavi might be able to steal upon him or arrange to bluff his way close enough to attempt some sort of surprise attack. But with four men, that would not be an option-and simply assaulting them, even had he been armed with more than the knife at his hip, would have been suicide.

  Max, Tavi knew from experience in the training hall, was the kind of swordsman that might become a fencer of song and legend-or who might be killed by foolish overconfidence before he had the chance. Max was an absolutely deadly blade, but the training hall was far different than the street, and fencing partners were not likely to behave in the same way as professional killers. Even Max's experience in the Legions might not have prepared him for the kind of nasty fighting that might be used on the streets of the capital. Max had more confidence than any three or four other people Tavi knew, except perhaps for the First Lord, but Tavi was frightened for his friend.

  "Even so, he was more frightened for his aunt. Isana had, Tavi knew, spent her entire life in steadholts, and she had little idea of how treacherous the capital could be. He could not imagine that she would be keeping company with a courtesan if she knew the woman's profession. Tavi also could not imagine his aunt coming to the capital without some kind of guardian or escort, especially if she was here at Gaius's invitation. Surely she would have had the company of her younger brother Bernard at the very least. For that matter, why in the world hadn't the First Lord assigned Amara or one of the Cursors to accompany her while she guested in the palace"? Gaius would have no reason at all to bring her to the capital only to allow her to be harmed. She was too much a symbol of his authority.

  All of which meant that communications had to have broken down somewhere. Isana was vulnerable, perhaps unguarded, perhaps under the guidance of someone who would lead her into danger. Once Tavi found her, he would get her to the safety of the palace immediately. Even if he could tell her nothing of what was happening with the First Lord, it was in Gaius's best interests to protect her, and Tavi was sure that he could talk Killian into putting her into guest chambers where the presence of the Royal Guard would cover her from mortal danger.

  Assuming that she was all right.

  Cold fear ran through him, and lent still more speed to his limbs as he ran, tireless and focused and terrified for the woman who had raised him as if he had been her own.

  When Renzo stepped out from behind a parked, riderless coach, Tavi barely had time to register it before the hulking boy struck him with a sweep of one enormous arm. Tavi twisted and caught the blow on both of his own arms, but the larger boy's fury-assisted strength was vicious, and sent Tavi into a running stumble that fetched him up hard against the stone wall surrounding the environs of another enormous manor.

  He managed to avoid slamming his head or breaking his shoulder in the impact, but beyond that, Tavi did little more than fall to the ground. He could taste blood in his mouth. Renzo stood over him in his brown tunic, pig eyes narrowed, both hands clenched into fists the size of hams.

  Someone let out a tittering laugh, and Tavi turned his head to see Varien approaching him from the same hiding place. "Good one," Varien said. "Look at him. I think he's going to cry. "

  Tavi tested his arms and legs, then pushed his hands down to rise from the ground. As he did, his fear and worry and humiliation coalesced into something made of nothing but hard edges and serrated blades. His aunt was in danger. The Realm could be in danger. And these two arrogant idiots had chosen now, of all times, to interfere.

  "Varien," Tavi said, quietly. "I don't have time for this. "

  "You won't have to wait long," Varien told him, his tone taunting. "I flew the two of us in front of you, but Brencis will be along shortly to talk to you about your rudeness in coming to his party uninvited. "

  Tavi straightened and faced Varien and Renzo. When he spoke, a strangers voice came from his lips, the tone hard, cold, ringing with command. "Get out of my way. Both of you. "

  Varien's sneer wavered and his watery blue eyes blinked several t
imes as he stared at Tavi. After an uncertain pause, he began to speak.

  "Open your mouth again," Tavi said, in that same, cold voice, "and I will break your jaw. Stand aside. "

  Varien's face flickered with fear, then with sudden anger. "You can't speak to me li-"

  Tavi snapped his boot up into Varien's belly and the blow struck home, hard. The taller boy doubled over with a gasp, clasping at his stomach. Without pausing, Tavi seized him by the hair, and with all the weight of his body forced the boy down to the stones of the street, so that their combined weight landed at an oblique angle to Varien's chin. There was a sickly cracking sound, and Varien let out a wailing shriek of agony.

  Tavi bounced back to his feet as a surge of exultation and savage joy flooded through him. Renzo rolled forward and slammed his arm at Tavi in another broad, sweeping blow. Tavi stepped under it and came up with his fist moving in a short, vertical blow, his arm and elbow in a single line with his forward leg. Every ounce of power in Tavi's body thudded into the tip of Renzo's jaw. The larger boy's head snapped back and up, but he didn't drop. He wobbled on his feet, eyes blinking in startled confusion, and drew back his huge fist to swing again.

  Tavi gritted his teeth, took a step to one side, and kicked straight down and into the side of the larger boy's knee. With its crackling pop, Renzo let out a bellow and fell, roaring and cursing and clutching both hands at his wounded knee.

  Tavi rose to his feet and stared down at the boys who had tormented him as they writhed and screamed in pain. Their yelling had already begun to attract attention from the nearby manor and from passersby on the street. Someone had already raised a cry for the civic legionares, and Tavi knew that they would arrive momentarily.

  Varien's screams had subsided to wracking, moaning sobs of pain. Renzo wasn't in much better shape, but he managed to clench his teeth over the sounds of agony, so that they came out like the cries of a wounded beast.

  Tavi stared down at them.

  He had seen horrible things during the Second Rattle of Calderon. He had looked down as Doroga rode his enormous bull through a sea of burned and bleeding Marat corpses, while the wounded screamed their agony to the uncaring sky. He had seen the battle-wise crows of Alera descending in clouds to feast upon the eyes and tongue of the dead and the dying, Marat and Aleran alike, with a gruesome lack of preference between corpse and casualty. Tavi had seen the walls of Garrison almost literally painted in blood. He had seen men and women die crushed, slashed, pierced, and strangled while they fought for their lives, and he had splashed through puddles of still-hot blood as he ran through the carnage.

  For a time, nightmares had haunted him. They had become less frequent, but the details had not faded from his memory. Too often, he found himself looking back at them, staring in a kind of fascinated revulsion.

  He had seen terrible things. He had faced them. He hated them, and they terrified him still, but he had faced the simple existence of such hideous destruction without letting it control his life.

  Rut this was different.

  Tavi had harmed no one during Second Calderon-but the pain Renzo and Varien now suffered had been dealt to them by his own hands, his own will, his own choice.

  There was no dignity in what he had done to them. There was nothing in which to take pride. The abrupt joy that had sung through his body during the swift, brutal fighting faded and vanished. He had looked forward to this moment, in some ways-to a time when he could put his skills to use against those who had always made him feel so helpless and small. He had expected to feel satisfaction, triumph. But in its place, he felt only an emptiness that filled with a sudden and sickening nausea. He had never hurt anyone so badly before. He felt stained, somehow, as if he had lost something valuable that he hadn't known he had possessed.

  He had hurt the other boys, and hurt them terribly. It was the only way he could have beaten them. Anything less than a disabling injury would have left them able to employ their furies against him, and there would have been nothing he could have done but suffered whatever they intended for him. So he had hurt them. Badly. In the space of a few seconds, he had visited back all the misery and pain they had inflicted on him over two years twice over.

  It had been necessary.

  But that did not mean that it was right.

  "I'm sorry," Tavi said quietly, though the ice in his voice yet filled the words. "I'm sorry I had to do that. " He began to say more, but then shook his head, turned away, to resume running toward Sir Nedus's manor. He could sort out charges and legal problems with the civic legion once he was sure his aunt was safe.

  But before he had gone more than a few steps, the stones beneath his feet heaved and flung him hard into the nearest stone wall. He had no warning of it at all, and his head smacked solidly against the rock, a flash of phantom light blinding him. He felt himself fall, and tried to rise, but a rough hand gripped him and threw him with a terrible, casual ease. He sailed through the air and landed on stones, and by the time he finished tumbling the stars had begun to clear from his eyes.

  He looked up in time to see that he was in a darkened, blind alleyway between an expensive little wine shop and a goldsmith's. Inexplicably, a fog had risen, and as he blinked it built up, covering his face. Tavi pushed himself up to his knees to see Kalarus Brencis Minoris standing over him, dressed in a magnificent doublet of grey and green, a circlet of iron set with a green stone on his brow, and formal jewelry glittering on his fingers and throat. Brencis's hair had been drawn back into the braid the long-haired southern cities employed in their fighting men, and he wore a sword and dagger upon his belt. His eyes were narrow and cruel, and burned with something feral and unpleasant that Tavi could not begin to give a name.

  "So," Brencis said quietly, as the fog continued to rise. "You thought it would be amusing to mock me by sneaking into my father's party? Perhaps drinking his wine? Pilfering a few valuables?"

  "I was delivering a missive from the First Lord," Tavi managed to say.

  He might as well not have spoken. "And now you have attacked and injured my friends and boon companions. Though I suppose you will claim that the First Lord instructed you to do so, eh coward?"

  "Brencis," Tavi said through clenched teeth, "this isn't about you. "

  "The crows it isn't," Brencis snarled. By then, the mist had risen in a thick blanket around them, and Tavi could see little more than a pair of running paces through the fog. "I've endured your insolence for the last time. " Brencis casually drew the sword at his side, then took his dagger into his left hand. "No more. "

  Tavi stared at that disquieting light dancing behind Brencis's eyes and forced himself back to his feet. "Don't do this, Brencis. Don't be a fool. "

  "I will not be spoken to that way by a furyless freak!" Brencis snarled, and lunged at Tavi, sword extending into a clean thrust for Tavi's belly.

  Tavi drew his own knife, managed to catch the thrust on it, and slide it away so that the tip of Brencis's sword went cleanly past him. But it had been a lucky parry, and Tavi knew it. Once Brencis began slashing, there was no way his little blade could help, and Tavi sprang back from his attacker, desperately looking for a way out of the alley. There was none.

  "Stupid pagunus," Brencis said, smiling. "I've always known you were a gutless, stinking little pig. "

  "The civic legionares are already on the way," Tavi responded. His voice shook.

  "There's time enough," Brencis said. "No one will see through the fog. " His eyes glittered with an ugly amusement. "What an odd coincidence that it came up just now. "

  He came in again, the bright steel of his blade darting toward Tavi's throat. Tavi ducked under it, but Brencis's boot swept up to meet his head. Tavi managed to take part of the kick on his shoulder, but Brencis's fury-assisted strength was at least a match for Renzo's, and Tavi staggered to one side. Only the wall of the goldsmith's kept him from falling, and the world spun rapidly around him as Brencis rais
ed his sword for a powerful, down-sweeping death blow.

  Tavi's instincts screamed at him, and he some how managed to stagger back as the sword came down. He felt a hot flash of pain on his left arm. He swept his dagger in a cut at Brencis's sword hand, but the taller boy avoided it with contemptuous ease. Then Brencis lifted a hand and flicked his wrist, and a blast of sudden wind threw Tavi bodily to the ground. It drove him back down the alley to the wall at its end. He fought his way back his feet, only to have the wind flatten his back to the wall, where ugly, misshapen hands emerged smoothly from the stone and caught his wrists and legs in a crushing grip.

  Brencis paced calmly down the alley and stared at Tavi, his expression smug. He sheathed his dagger and casually slapped Tavi across the face, then on the other side with his backhand swing. The blows, even delivered with an open hand, hit him like heavy fists, and the entire world narrowed down into a tunnel filled by the lean, arrogant shape of Kalarus Brencis Minoris.

  "I can't believe how stupid you are. Did you think you could insult and defy me over and over again? Did you think that you could possibly survive such a thing? You're nothing, Tavi. You're no one. Not a crafter. Not even a Citizen. Just a favored pet dog of a senile old man. " Brencis pressed the tip of his sword against Tavi's cheek. Tavi felt another sting of pain, and felt blood trail down over his jawline. Brencis stared into Tavi's eyes. The young noble's eyes were. . . strange. His pupils were far too wide, and his face shone with a sheen of perspiration. His breath reeked of wine.

  Tavi swallowed and struggled to focus his thoughts clearly. "Brencis," he said quietly. "You're drunk. Intoxicated. You've taken drugs. You aren't in control of yourself. "

  Brencis slapped him twice more, contemptuous little blows. "I beg to differ. "

  Tavi reeled with disorientation, his stomach turning and twisting within him. "Brencis, you have to stop and think. If you-"

  This time Brencis drove his fist into Tavi's belly, and though the boy managed to tighten his abdomen and let out a harsh breath in time with the blow, lessening its impact, it landed with more power than Tavi had ever felt before. It drove the breath from him.

  "You don't tell me what I must do!" Brencis shrieked, his face white with fury. "You do as I will it. You die as I will it. " He licked his lips and tightened his grip on the sword in his hand. "You have no idea for how long I've been looking forward to this. "

  Somewhere in the mist behind Brencis, there was the rasp of steel as a sword was drawn from its scabbard.

  "Funny," Max said, and Tavi's friend stepped forward from the mist, legionare's blade in hand. "I was just thinking that very thing. "

  Brencis went rigid, and though he did not take the sword's tip from Tavi's cheek, he looked over his shoulder.

  "Get away from him, Brencis," Max said.

  Brencis's lip twisted up into a sneer. "The bastard. No, Antillar. You get away. Walk away now, or I'll kill your little paganus friend. "

  "You just said that you intend to kill him anyway," Max said. "How stupid do I look to you?"

  "Back off!" Brencis screamed. "I'll kill him! Right now!"

  "I'm sure you would," Max said, his expression empty. "But then I would kill you. You know it. I know it. Be smart, Brencis. Leave. "

  Tavi saw Brencis's body start to quiver, and he looked swiftly back and forth between Tavi and Max. His eyes, too wide, too bloodshot, burned with desperate, alien fire, then abruptly narrowed.

  "Max!" Tavi shouted, struggling to warn his friend.

  At the same instant, Brencis turned from Tavi, his hand extended, and fire filled the narrow alley in a sudden and deadly storm that came from nowhere and howled down upon Max.

  For a second, Tavi could see nothing, but then a shadow resolved within the flame, a dark shape dropped into a crouch, one arm up as though to shield his eyes. The flame abruptly vanished, and left Max crouched on one knee, his left forearm up to shield his eyes, his blade still in hand. The tip of the sword glowed cherry red, and Max's clothing had been blackened and burned away in places, but he came to his feet again, apparently unharmed, and started walking toward Brencis. "You'll have to do better than that," Max said quietly.

  Brencis turned his back on Tavi and faced Max with a snarl. He gestured, and cobblestones before his feet tore themselves free of the ground and flew at Max in a heavy, deadly cloud.

  Max lifted his left hand and clenched it into a fist, his expression grim. One of the stone walls of the alley abruptly flowed like water, stretching out between Max and the oncoming stones. They slammed into the sheet of stone before Max, shattering into gravel as they struck. A second later, the wall snapped back into its original position. Max lowered his arm and kept walking forward.

  Brencis snarled again, and a larger patch of stones began to rip their way from the ground, but Max gestured sharply at an almost-depleted pile of firewood stacked neatly against one wall, and a dozen logs, each the size of Tavi's thigh, suddenly flexed and bounded toward Brencis.

  Brencis released the stones he had begun to raise, and his sword blurred into a web of steel that intercepted each log and cleanly severed it, sending the pieces spinning harmlessly away. Max charged forward, sword in hand, and with a cry of frustrated anger and fear, Brencis advanced to meet him. Blades rang harshly in the alley, steel chiming, sparks flowering into drizzling clouds of fiery rain where blade met blade. The two clashed and flowed past one another, then turned to do it again and again, their movements as graceful and smooth as any pair of dancers.

  Tavi saw startled shock on Max's face for a second, after their third pass. He was a skilled fencer, Tavi knew, but he had evidently underestimated Kalare Brencis. The other boy was his match, and another pair of passes resulted in more ringing steel and no blood.

  And then Brencis, facing toward Tavi, gave Max an ugly smile, lifted a hand, and cast it at Tavi. Fire lanced from his fingertips and screamed toward the helpless boy.

  "No!" Max cried. He turned with a flick of his hand, and a wave of raw wind rose up before Tavi, holding the flames at bay, shielding Tavi from the fire, though the air grew hot enough to sear his lungs.

  "Max!" Tavi screamed.

  Brencis drove his glittering sword into Max's back. Its tip emerged from Max's belly.

  Max's face went white, his eyes wide in shock.

  Brencis twisted the blade once, twice, and then whipped it clear.

  Max exhaled slowly, and crumpled to his hands and knees. Sudden silence filled the alley.

  "Yes," Brencis said, panting, his eyes bright. "Yes. Finally. " He gestured sharply, and a vicious lash of wind landed across Max's back in a line so fine that it sliced through his shirt and opened a long, bloody furrow in his skin. "Bastard. So smug. So sure of yourself. " Brencis flicked his wrist again and again, opening the horrible scars on Max's back into fresh agonies and blood.

  Max let out a groan, each blow driving him farther down. But when he looked up at Tavi, there was defiant determination in his face as well as agony and fear. Tavi felt the bonds on his wrists and ankles suddenly begin to loosen, and his frustrated fear and rage surged to new heights as he understood Max's intention.

  Brencis paid Tavi no attention at all, utterly focused upon continuing to lash at Max, snarling and cursing at him the entire while. Max let out a harsh groan and sagged almost completely to the ground, and Tavi was abruptly free of the stone.

  He set his feet, flicked his knife's handle, caught the flat of its blade between his fingers, and with a practiced, instinctive motion, threw the knife at Brencis's throat. It spun end over end through the air, and Brencis didn't know it was coming until the last instant. He flinched from the knife, and its blade struck home hard, drawing blood from one of Brencis's cheeks and sinking entirely through the boy's ear. Brencis screamed in sudden pain.

  Tavi knew he had only seconds, if that, before Brencis recovered and killed them both. He launched himself forward, leaping over Max a
nd driving his shoulder into Brencis's chest. They both went down. Brencis reached for his dagger, but Tavi drove his thumb into the other boy's eye with vicious desperation, and Brencis screamed.

  There was no time for thought, for technique, for complex tactics. The struggle was too ugly, elemental, brutal. Brencis got his free hand on Tavi's throat and started to squeeze, trying to crush Tavi's windpipe with fury-born strength, but Tavi countered by getting his teeth into Brencis's forearm and biting down until blood filled his mouth. Brencis screamed. Tavi started hitting the other boy, pounding his fists down like clumsy sledgehammers while Brencis tried uselessly to bring his sword to bear in the close quarters of their grapple.

  Tavi screamed and did not relent, terror and fury lending him more strength. Brencis tried to crawl away, but Tavi seized him by his braid and started slamming the other boy's face down onto the stones. Again and again he drove Brencis's face into the cobblestones, his weight on the other boy's back, until the body underneath him suddenly went limp and loose.

  And then a hammer slammed into the top of his head and threw him back and away from Brencis.

  Tavi landed in a heap, hardly able to see. But he looked up, his head pounding with nauseating throbs, and saw a man emerge from the mist, dressed in green and grey. Tavi dimly recognized him as High Lord Kalare.

  The man stared contemptuously at Tavi, then walked over to Brencis. He prodded his son with the tip of his boot.

  "Get up," said Kalare, his voice seething with bitter anger. Behind him, Tavi saw the pathetic, hunched forms of Varien and Renzo, leaning on one another to keep from falling.

  Brencis stirred, then slowly lifted his head. He sat up, his face a mass of cuts, blood, and bruises. His bloodied mouth hung open, and Tavi could see broken teeth.

  "You are pathetic," Kalare said. There was neither compassion nor concern for his son in his voice. "You had them. And you allowed this. . . freakish little nothing to overcome you. "

  Brencis tried to say something, but it came out as a mush of sounds and sobs that meant nothing.

  "There is no excuse," Kalare said. "None. " He looked up at the two boys at the back of the alley. "No one can ever know that you, my son, were bested by this paganus. Never. We cannot allow word of this humiliation to leave this alley. "

  Tavi's heart lurched. Max, though breathing, was not moving, and he lay in a welter of his own blood. Tavi tried to gain his feet, but it was all he could do to keep from throwing up, and he knew High Lord Kalare was about to kill them. He watched helplessly as Kalare raised one hand and the earth began to shake around him.

  But then light flooded the alley, a searing, golden light that burned away the mist and fog as swiftly as though the sun itself had come to Alera Imperia. The light stabbed at Tavi's eyes, and he lifted his hand to shield them against it.

  Placida Aria, High Lady of Placida, stood at the other end of the alley with half a century of the civic Legion behind her. One slender arm was lifted, wrist parallel to the ground, and upon it perched the form of a hunting falcon made of pure, golden fire. That light fell onto the alley, illuminating everything there.

  "Your Grace," Lady Placida said, her voice ringing with the clarity of a silver trumpet, calm and unmistakably strong. "What passes here?"

  The tremors in the ground abruptly ceased. Kalare stared at Tavi for a moment with empty eyes, and then turned to face Lady Placida and the legionares. "An assault, Your Grace. Antillar Maximus has attacked and badly injured my son and his companions from the Academy. "

  Lady Placida narrowed her eyes. "Indeed?" She looked from Kalare to the boys on the ground, to Brencis, Renzo, and Varien. "And you observed this assault?"

  "The last of it," Kalare said. "Swords were drawn. Antillar was trying to murder my son after badly beating these other boys. My son and his friends can all testify to the facts. "

  "N-no," Tavi stammered. "That isn't what happened. "

  "Boy," Kalare snapped, fury in his voice. "This is Citizens' business. Hold your tongue. "

  "No! You aren't-" The air suddenly tightened in Tavi's throat, choking him to silence. He looked up to see Kalare frowning faintly.

  "Boy," Lady Placida said in a cold voice. "You will hold your tongue. The High Lord is quite correct. This is Citizens' business. " She stared at Tavi for a second, and Tavi thought he saw some expression flicker in her face, one of apology. Her next words were quieter, less frozen. "You must be silent here. Do you understand?"

  The pressure in his throat eased, and Tavi could breathe again. He stared at Lady Placida for a moment, then nodded.

  Lady Placida nodded back at him, then turned to the man next to him. "Captain, with your permission, I will see to the immediate wounds of those involved, before you take the accused into custody. "

  The legionare beside her said, "Of course, lady, and we are grateful for your assistance. "

  "Thank you," she told him, and started down the alley toward Tavi and Max.

  As she did, Kalare turned to face her, clearly standing in her way.

  Placida was inches taller than Kalare. She looked down at him with a serene, unreadable expression. The fire falcon on her wrist, still very much present, fluttered its wings restlessly, sending campfire sparks drifting to the ground. "Yes, Your Grace?"

  Kalare spoke very quietly. "You do not wish me as an enemy, woman. "

  "Given what I know of you, Your Grace, I don't see how you could be anything else. "

  "Leave," he told her, his voice ringing with command.

  Lady Placida laughed at him. It was a sound both merry and scornful. "How odd that Antillar Maximus inflicted all of these injuries with his hands. He does, you know, have considerable strength available to him at furycrafting. "

  "He is the bastard son of a stinking barbarian. It is to be expected," Kalare replied.

  "As would be injuries to his knuckles after such barbarity. But his hands are unwounded. And what injuries Antillar does have are all upon his back. "

  Kalare stared at her in silent fury.

  "Strange that the hands of the other boy are a frightful mess, Your Grace. Split knuckles on either hand. It seems odd, does it not? It is almost enough to make one think that the boy from Calderon overcame not only your son, but his companions as well. " She pursed her lips in mock thought. "Is not the boy from Calderon the one with no ability whatsoever at furycraft?"

  Kalare's eyes blazed. "You arrogant bitch. I will-"

  Lady Placida's grey eyes remained as calm and as hard as distant mountains. "You will what, Your Grace. Challenge me to the juris macto?"

  "You would only hide behind your husband," Kalare sneered.

  "On the contrary," Lady Placida replied. "I will meet you here and now if that is Your Grace's desire. I am hardly a stranger to duels. As you remember from my own duel for Citizenship. "

  Kalare's cheek started a steady twitch.

  "Yes," Lady Placida noted. "You do remember. " She glanced at Brencis and his companions. "See to your son, Your Grace. This round is over. So if you would please stand aside and let me assist the wounded. . . ?" The question was a polite one, but her eyes never wavered from Kalare's.

  "I will remember this," Kalare murmured, as he stepped aside. "I promise you that. "

  "You would hardly believe how little that matters to me," Lady Placida responded, and walked past him without another glance, the fire falcon trailing falling sparks behind them.

  She came to Tavi and Max and placed the falcon on the ground beside her, her expression businesslike. Tavi watched as Kalare helped his son to his feet and led him and his companions away and out of sight.

  Tavi exhaled slowly, and said, "They're gone, Your Grace. "

  Lady Placida nodded calmly. Her eyes went flat for a moment as they saw the reopened scars on Max's back. She found the sword thrust through his lower back and winced.

  "Will he live?" Tavi asked quietly.

  "
I think so," she replied. "He managed to close the worst of it on his own. But he isn't out of danger. It's fortunate that I followed Kalare when he left. " She moved a hand, laying it across the wound, then slipped her other hand beneath Max, covering the wound where the sword had emerged on that side. She closed her eyes for two or three silent moments, then carefully drew her hands back. The sword wound had been closed, heavy with pink skin and scar tissue.

  Tavi blinked slowly at it, and said, "You didn't even use a bath. "

  Lady Placida smiled slightly. "I didn't have one handy. " She glanced back at the legionares, and asked, "What really happened?"

  Tavi told her about the fight itself, as quietly and succinctly as he could. "Your Grace," he said, "it's important that Max return to the Citadel with me. Please, he cannot be arrested tonight. "

  She shook her head. "I am afraid that is impossible, young man. Maximus has been accused of a crime by a High Lord and three Citizens. I am sure that any reasonable court will acquit him, but there is no avoiding the process of a trial. "

  "But he can't. Not right now. "

  "And why not?" Lady Placida asked.

  Tavi stared at her in helpless frustration.

  "You'll be quite safe, at least from legal accusation," Lady Placida said. "There's no chance at all that Kalare would let his son accuse you of half-killing him. "

  "That isn't what I'm worried about," Tavi said.

  "Then what is?"

  Tavi felt his face flush, and he looked away from Lady Placida.

  She sighed. "I suggest you be grateful that you are both alive," Lady Placida said. "It's something of a miracle that you are. "

  "Tavi?" asked Max. His voice was weak, thready.

  Tavi turned to his friend immediately. "I'm here. Are you all right?"

  "Had worse," Max murmured.

  "Maximus," Lady Placida said firmly. "You must be silent until we can get you to a proper bed. Even if it is in a cell. You're badly hurt. "

  Max shook his head a little. "Need to tell him, Your Grace. Please. Alone. "

  Lady Placida arched a brow at Max, but then nodded and rose. At her gesture, the fire falcon took wing toward her, vanishing into nothingness as it did. She walked calmly back to the legionares and began speaking with them.

  "Tavi," Max said. "Went to Sir Nedus's. "

  "Yeah?" Tavi leaned closer, his heart pounding in time with his head.

  "Attacked outside his house. Sir Nedus is dead. So are the coachmen. The courtesan. So are the cutters. "

  The bottom fell out of Tavi's stomach. "Aunt Isana?"

  "Never saw her, Tavi. She's gone. There was a blood trail. Probably took her somewhere. " He started to say something else, but then his eyes rolled back into his head and closed.

  Tavi stared numbly at his friend as the legionares gathered around him and carried him away to imprisonment. Afterward, he went to Sir Nedus's manor, to find the civic legion already moving over the grisly scene there. The bodies had all been laid out in a line. None of them were his aunt.

  She was gone. Probably taken. She might already be dead.

  Max, the only person who could maintain the illusion of Gaius's strength, was in jail. Without his presence as Gaius's double, the Realm might already be destined for a civil war that would let its enemies destroy them entirely. And it was Tavi's decision that had led to it.

  Tavi turned and began to walk, slowly and painfully up the streets to the Citadel. He had to tell Killian what had happened.

  Because there was nothing else that he could do for either his family, his friend, or his lord.