“Certainly.” Garek had the sense far more was going on here than was obvious on the surface. “I have no commitments after my meeting, perhaps we can talk afterward?”
Zek smiled, his teeth showing. “Excellent. We've just been told the liege cannot see us until tomorrow. We were discussing what to do while we wait when you arrived, so that works well for us. Come to the Flinders Tavern just outside the palace gates when you're done. We'll wait for you there.”
Zek put an arm around one of his colleagues, and physically urged him out of the room. The others caught on quickly, making a hasty exit.
Faloni looked after them with a dark look.
“Well, shall we?” Garek asked, indicating the door, and Faloni strode toward it without a word, and rapped sharply on the smooth wood.
He opened it and walked in without waiting for Garek, who gave the aide, who he'd come to know as a gossiping busybody in the few days he'd had to deal with him, a wide smile and then followed. He left the door open behind him, and noticed the aide did not close it completely.
Habred stood by a set of glass-paned doors, looking out into a private, walled garden.
He turned, eyes widening a little at the sight of Garek.
“Liege.” Garek dipped his head, greeting him formally.
Faloni took up position beside a high-backed chair in front of the desk, gripping the backrest with both hands.
“Garek.” Habred cleared his throat, sent a quick look to Faloni, and then crossed his arms over his chest.
“You asked the Garamundo town master to let me know you wished to see me in person?” Garek reminded him.
“Ah. Yes, I regret that was a slight miscommunication. I simply told Kuan Vaar that I was grateful for what you'd done for some of my people, and that you would be welcome in Luf, or anywhere in Harven for that matter, whenever you wished to come.”
“Oh.” Garek rocked back on his heels. It was as good a lie as any, he decided, and said with enough casual arrogance to dissuade anyone from complaining about having to wait three days to hear their journey had all been for nothing, merely the result of a 'miscommunication'.
Given he'd had more than a hand himself in the delay, he simply smiled. “Well, I'm honored to have the keys to Harven extended, of course, and that will only strengthen the friendship between our states. Thank you. I'll relay your words to my liege.”
Habred blinked. He had obviously not considered his words would be interpreted that way. “Well . . .” At a loss, he looked again at Faloni, who gave his liege the same blank stare he'd given Garek earlier.
Garek's smile widened. “I think I speak for my liege in saying it was our pleasure to save our fellow Illy from the sky raiders. We need to stand together in the face of the danger to us all.”
“Quite.” Habred watched him with dislike. “Well, if that's all . . .”
“Yes.” Garek gave a tiny bow. “I have some meetings to attend, but will most likely be gone by tomorrow, so I'll bid you farewell. Perhaps I'll see you in Juli one of these days.”
Habred's eyes widened at the ambiguity of that statement, and Garek turned to walked out.
“Wait.” Faloni spoke for the first time since they'd entered the room.
Garek faced him, waiting patiently.
“Kuan Vaar, he told you my liege wanted to speak with you face to face?”
Garek dipped his head. “Yes. I was on personal business in Garamundo, and spoke to the town master in his chambers.”
“When was this?”
Garek knew why Faloni was asking. The general assumed Vaar had double-crossed them, and he wanted to know the details. “The evening before I arrived here in Luf. I was all over before then, in Juli and . . . elsewhere, so it was the first opportunity he had to give me the message.”
“And the message was incorrect.” Faloni snapped it out.
Garek lifted his hands. “As you said. But no real harm done. Peace and prosperity to you.” He gave the formal Illian farewell, and Habred, probably because of his upbringing and training, answered automatically.
“And to you.”
Faloni said nothing, he turned his head deliberately away.
Garek pushed the door open. As he'd guessed, there were more than a few courtiers 'waiting' in the antechamber, and they would have heard every word.
He nodded to them in greeting, and then left the palace at an even pace.
He'd gotten one up on the man who had plans to invade his state, but he was still no closer to getting Taya back.
He walked to the Flinders Tavern with no real spring in his step. Without Taya, any victory he'd scored over Habred rang hollow.
TWENTY
“So, you're here to back out of your deal with Habred?” Garek looked around the small table tucked into a dark corner of the tavern and the faces of the Dartalian diplomatic team stared back. One of them winced.
“Yes.” Zek was sitting beside him, and he leaned in close. “I swear, Garek, I never knew about the deal when we were on Shadow, and Susa, my liege, told me she was never happy about it in the first place. It was an undertaking not to interfere if Harven, Kadmine and Fabre were to invade West Lathor. Susa agreed to it because of your liege's decline in the last few years. She decided it was inevitable someone would look toward West Lathor with greedy eyes. If Harven, Fabre and Kadmine didn't launch an offensive, someone else would.”
Garek gave a nod. “And now that Aidan is stepping forward as a viable alternative to his father, and we have the sky craft, she's changed her mind.”
There was a hesitation from everyone. Eventually Zek nodded. “You are right, and that embarrasses us. Honor dictates that your rescue of me and my friends, and your kindness in dropping us off at home, should be all that was needed. But the truth is, West Lathor's newfound strength did play a part in the liege and her advisors' decision.”
“Better that we can defend ourselves,” Garek told him. “Dartalia is not in a good position to do it for us.”
Everyone relaxed, and Garek thought with amusement that they had worried he wouldn't understand their liege's strategy.
Zek smiled at him. “It's the way you look,” he said. “So big and strong, so fierce, they don't understand that there is a sharp and focused mind behind those hard eyes.”
Garek ignored that. “So, I could see you were happy I had an audience with Habred. You're hoping to use the publicly friendly relationship between West Lathor and Harven as a way to back out of your agreement?”
“Well,” the woman Zek had introduced to him as Marin said, “it's a bad look for Habred to invite you to Luf and then in secret ask us to support Harven's invasion of West Lathor. Dartalia has never been underhanded in its diplomatic dealings, and our liege doesn't plan to start now. Their friendly overtures to you have voided the agreement between us.” She gave a wicked grin. “Only Zek knew who you were, and why it was our good fortune you arrived when you did. We were just discussing how to get out of the deal without causing offense, and then you arrived. If Habred had given us an audience when he originally agreed to do so, we would have been in a much more difficult position.”
“And that general knew it, too,” Zek said. “That's why I got us out of there, before he could offer to get us in to Habred ahead of Garek as a 'favor'. He didn't want us speaking to Garek. Not at all.” He leaned back in his seat and gave Garek a steady look. “Why are you really here, Garek? You wouldn't come running at Habred's call. So why did you?”
Garek hesitated. If Habred didn't have spies here, he wasn't the liege Garek thought he was, but the tavern was noisy and they were tucked neatly away.
The problem was he didn't want to talk about this to strangers.
He needed to move, to try to dislodge the dread that grew heavier over his heart every day that Taya was in danger, and he didn't know the people at the table well enough to spill all his secrets. He looked over at Zek. “Would you like to take a walk?”
Zek stood straightaway, his gaze on h
is colleagues. “Garek and I will catch up on old times. I'll see you later.”
They all nodded and murmured their goodbyes and best wishes, their eyes full of questions.
As he stepped outside, Garek turned toward Deva's embassy. It wouldn't hurt for Zek to meet her. If he was any judge, there would be a closer relationship between West Lathor and Dartalia in the near future. And Deva and Zek were both experts in the language of trade.
“Habred didn't invite me here.”
Zek looked at him sharply at that, eyebrows raised.
“He made a deal with the town master of Garamundo to have me and Taya abducted and brought here by force.”
Zek inhaled. “How did you find that out?”
“They came for us, but I was in Juli. They took Taya. But they did a bad job of it, and spilled all sorts of secrets. And they also overestimated their support in Gara. Most of the guard are loyal to the liege, and those who caught wind of what Habred was up to were deeply unhappy about it. Unhappy enough to try to interfere, and to send word to the liege. When the guards the town master had sent to take us realized they would most likely be imprisoned if they returned to Gara, not rewarded for abducting a fellow citizen, they decided to come straight here instead.”
“And Garamundo's town master?”
“Arrested. So is the guard master. There is a thorough clean-up happening in Gara right now. Habred has lost one of his advantages.”
“So, you're trying to find Taya, I take it?” Zek put a hand on his arm, and he allowed it, because the merchant and Taya had fought together on the Endless Escarpment, and he knew they liked and respected each other.
He gave a nod. “There's shadow ore in the Dartalian Range. Not a lot, but enough for it to be dangerous to go too low. There was a warning . . . bell, I suppose you'd call it, whenever I dipped down too far.”
“It can't be through the whole Range. I was taken by the sky raiders on my way through the Range to Cassinya,” Zek said, frowning. “Although, we were on the last pass before the foothills. There's a small escarpment that bridges the taller mountains and the last row of smaller peaks that border Harven. The sky raiders took us there. And it is far to the north of the path from West Lathor to Harven.”
Garek gave a nod, storing the information away. “I followed the path as best I could, but I didn't see her, and I couldn't safely go low enough, so I decided to come here and wait.”
Zek stopped. “You knew Habred wanted you abducted, and you came here and offered yourself up to him?” His voice rose a little as he spoke, and he slapped a hand over his mouth.
“I came on official West Lathorian business as instructed by my liege. Responding to a request from Habred to the town master of Garamundo that he needed to speak with me.”
Zek stared at him, and then grinned, a wide, delighted grin. “Of course you did.” He sobered. “No sign of Taya in Luf yet?”
Garek shook his head as he negotiated around a cart pulled by an old man. The streets this close to the city center were narrow and serpentine. “The West Lathorian ambassador here in Luf has been using her contacts to see what she can find out. And I have been talking to the guards. So far, nothing.”
“What does he want with her, though?” Zek shook his head. “I mean, I know what he wants to use her for, but how can he force her to help him?”
“He wanted both of us, remember? Probably, he was hoping to threaten to harm one if the other wouldn't cooperate. My guess is, the guards who took her don't know why he wants her. They're just hoping arriving with her in hand will get them some reward.”
Luf was built on a hill, with the palace and the main center at the very top and the rest of the city built down the slopes until the buildings fetched up against the high wall that surrounded the city about a third of the way up its base.
As he and Zek reached the stairs that led down the hill to Deva's, the Star's light spilled out from behind the clouds that had been blowing across the sky all morning, and Garek took a deep breath at the sight of the jewel colors of the houses set among tall, dark green trees, with the line of gray mountains in the distance. The Baby Teeth, the locals called them. Smaller than the massive giants of the Dartalian Range, they were the clear border into Harven.
The stairs were a steep slash of gray stone against the colorful houses terraced down the hill on either side, and as Garek put a foot on the first step, he sensed movement out of the corner of his eye.
He spun, caught sight of a figure lunging at him from the doorway of the house beside the stairs, and stepped into the inbetween.
He chose to move back down the empty street, not down the stairs, and he stepped out of the inbetween almost as soon as he stepped in, half a block from the stairs.
He would have to be careful. Using the inbetween out in the countryside was one thing, he tended to destroy buildings and gates when he used it in villages and towns.
A little way ahead of him, four guards--three men and a woman--stepped out from the dark alley between two houses, their focus on the top of stairs and the two other guards trying to subdue Zek.
None of them were in uniform, but he recognized one man from the conversations he'd had at the gate the day before, and he guessed from the way they moved and worked together, the others were guards, too.
The man who'd tried to attack him was looking around, confused, a long knife loose in his hand. A second man held Zek, and Garek caught the glint of a knife at the merchant's ribs. Everyone seemed unsure what to do, until his attacker finally saw him.
“How--?” He pointed.
The four guards spun around to face him.
Zek started laughing, and the two attackers beside him stared at him as if he were mad.
Garek felt the first burst of an air attack from one of the group of four guards facing him, a hard slap that pushed him back a few steps.
He smacked back, and three of them went down. The fourth had moved to one side, away from the group, and Garek lifted him up, throwing him high, and then letting him go.
The man fell hard and badly, but Garek heard him groaning, so he was still alive.
The other three had landed close together, and while he'd only ever done it on one person at a time, he tried to pull the air out of all three of their lungs.
From the choking sounds and desperate clutching at their throats, he guessed he'd mostly succeeded.
“Run,” he said to them. “Or I'll keep going.”
One started crawling away, and he loosened his hold, but he must have loosened it on the other two, as well, because they stumbled to their feet and shuffled to the alley they'd come from.
The guard who'd been crawling pulled himself up using a wall and ran after the other two.
The only noise to be heard for a long beat were the sounds of running feet and the groans of the guard he'd tossed up and dropped.
The injured guard stayed where he was, on his side, curled up, so Garek ignored him, and walked forward, toward Zek and the two guards holding him.
He waited for another attack. They were guards, so they could all call a Change. And he had no weapons on him save the ones nature had given him.
“Stay back.” The guard holding a knife to Zek's side pressed it in a little, and Zek gave an involuntary cry.
“You have orders to murder the head of the Dartalian trade delegation?” Garek asked him. “Because that's who you're holding a knife to.”
The man looked over at his accomplice. “What--?”
“Quiet.” The first attacker stared at Garek. “You're strong.”
“Haven't you heard the tales?” Zek asked him, breath coming in quick pants. “He flew to Shadow and rescued your people and my people, as well as his own.”
“We heard them,” the man said. “But stories are often exaggerated, are often embellished.”
Garek wondered why they hadn't tried to call their Change and attack him yet. He decided not to question his luck, called his own Change and tossed the man up into the air
, although he kept his eyes on Zek and the man holding a knife to his ribs.
His victim flailed and screamed as he fell down the stairs with a nasty thud.
“May I ask why you don't call your Change to attack?” Garek asked. “Just curious.”
“We thought we could kill you without it. They didn't want anything to point back to the guard. We were told there would be an investigation when you died, and that it was best if there was no evidence of anyone calling a Change like earth or fire, or even water. Air is the only element that wouldn't leave much of a trace. And only one of us calls the air Change.”
“Your job was to kill me?” He'd thought Habred wanted to abduct him, but it looked like Deva was right. Habred must have decided to cut his losses and make sure Garek wasn't alive to help West Lathor.
The man holding Zek nodded. “You seem fond of your friend, so I'll give you something to do other than come after me.” He slashed across Zek's ribs, shoved him at Garek, and ran to the left.
Garek made it to Zek in a few steps. The merchant lay with his hands pressing against his side, blood darkening his light green jacket. His face was stark with fear.
“I know where we can get help,” Garek said, hoping he was right. He scooped Zek up and ran down the stairs, jumping over the slumped body of their attacker without a second thought.
He couldn't quite believe this was the totality of the attack. It seemed so incompetent. But bumbling or not, Zek was in a serious condition.
Habred had just raised the stakes.
TWENTY-ONE
“He'll live.” Cantra, Deva's physician, washed her hands in a bowl of hot water and dried them on the soft white cloth her assistant handed to her. Garek was just relieved Deva kept a doctor on her staff.
“What would you like to do now?” Deva asked him as she walked over to where Zek lay, and handed him a mug of cool water.
“I don't think Habred intended for Zek to be caught up in that attack.” And he felt a tug of guilt about it. He'd known an attack was a possibility, but his guard had been down after three days of safety. He'd thought Habred would let him go. “Habred won't know what I've told you, Zek, or what you believe and plan to report back to your liege. He may decide it would be easier if you're dead, so we need to consider your life in danger.”
Calling the Change (Sky Raiders Book 2) Page 14
