by Ari Marmell
In the end-for the Guildmasters and for Meddiras himself, if not for his city-it was, every last bit of it, a wasted effort.
In an inner room of a large stone house, a faint breeze kicked up where no breeze could possibly blow. The dust and dead beetles accumulated over years of neglect danced across the carpet, fetching up against the walls, and the flimsy wooden door whistled in its uneven frame. Had anyone been present within the room, and had he possessed a remarkably acute nose, he might have noted the faintest humid odor, rather akin to mildewed parchment.
The impossible wind ceased as swiftly as it appeared, and then there was someone in the room, standing at the heart of the miniature storm. One hand clutching the bridge of his nose, the other outstretched to prop himself against the nearest wall, the wizard Nenavar took deep, deliberate breaths, trying to allay the quivering of his muscles.
Teleportation was so much easier when I was younger…
It would pass quickly enough; it always did. While he waited, he placed his back against the wall and allowed himself to slide. There he sat on his haunches, the overly large sleeves of his fine tunic dragging in the dust. He found himself, for lack of anything better to do, staring at the floor.
"I really must remember," he muttered to himself, "to hire someone to tidy up while I'm away."
After a few moments, Nenavar felt his strength (such as it was) returning, and he rose. Night had fallen outside, and no lamps burned within the house, but the old man had little trouble finding his way. This was but one of several abodes he owned throughout Imphallion's major cities, and all had been built to his specifications, identical to one another in every particular. Such intimate familiarity with one's destination made teleportation easier-not to mention rather less prone to catastrophic accident-and exhausting as it was, Nenavar far preferred it to weeks on horseback.
He felt a few startled glances from neighborhood folk who knew the house to be empty, but otherwise attracted little attention as he shut the door behind him and stepped into Denathere's streets. The throng bustled around him, jostling and deafening even at this hour, and he felt himself cringing, his skin threatening to unwrap itself from his body and go hide in a corner. Gods, he hated being touched!
Or spoken to. Or looked at. It was one of the reasons he'd taken up his studies in the first place: lots and lots of blessedly peaceful solitude.
Nenavar gritted his teeth into a cage to imprison the various snarls, imprecations, and occasional pestilential spells that sought to hurl themselves from his throat at anyone who drew too near, and continued on his way.
There was, at least, no danger of becoming lost. He'd made certain he could always find the man he now sought before he first let him out of his sight.
The unseen path led him, after twenty minutes that weren't doing his elderly knees any good, to a house not much larger-though certainly far nicer-than that in which he'd appeared. Two stories overlooked a modest property, complete with flower garden and a stable large enough for only a single horse. Despite his confidence in his magics, Nenavar couldn't help but wonder if he'd come to the right place. He'd expected-well, more.
Then he spotted a quartet of burly figures loitering in the street nearby, laughable in their efforts to remain inconspicuous, and he recognized the sentries for what they were. This was, indeed, the right place.
Nenavar mumbled into his beard as he approached, tongue and cracked lips forming sounds that scarcely qualified as words. He walked right past the guards and up the path toward the house, and none made so much as a move in his direction. He wasn't invisible, precisely; the spell simply rendered him unworthy of attention. One of the men even nodded politely in his direction before dismissing him as a random passerby and forgetting his presence entirely.
The wizard swallowed a delighted cackle, shaking his head at the feebleness of the average mind, and pushed through the entryway.
And practically toppled backward, overpowered by the scent that had lurked in ambush behind that door. Heavy smoke in the air stung his eyes, and he gagged on the metallic miasma of blood and other humors. He gulped twice, fighting the urge to spit and clear what felt like a clinging film on his tongue and throat.
The interior of the house had been transformed into the fever dream of a demented cannibal. Corpses and bits of corpses formed a layer of carpeting. Mail rings lay scattered across the floor, and several bodiless hands still clutched weapons. So widely strewn were the remains, Nenavar couldn't guess how many guards had actually stood post within the house.
Grimacing, he picked his way carefully through the carnage, his steps mincing as he focused on keeping the worst of the sludge from his shoes. The room's far door revealed a dining nook, and here the scene was even worse. What had once been a woman-a serving girl, to judge by what remained of her clothes-lay facedown in the fireplace; fluids leaking through blackened skin had smothered the last burning embers. Beside her, an old cook hung from the wall, held by a torch sconce protruding all the way through muscle and bone. Around the table-some slumped forward in their chairs, others sprawled on the floor-were half a dozen more, their bodies in various stages of mangling or incineration.
And sitting in one of those chairs-atop a fallen corpse, the weight of his armor slowly crushing the body beneath him-was Kaleb. He had removed the skull helm that completed his disguise, and kicked his feet up on the table. He waved Nenavar over with one hand, the other clutching a chicken leg from which he was taking great, tearing mouthfuls.
"How in the gods' names can you eat?" the wizard choked as he entered.
Kaleb shrugged. "It's good. You want some?"
"I'll pass."
"So will the chicken, once you've eaten it."
For some time, Nenavar just glared. Then, "Was all this truly necessary, Kaleb?"
"You wanted it, Master. You wanted horror, and fear, and panic. Well, here are the seeds. Now we just let them grow."
The wizard sighed, but nodded. "The guards outside?"
"Didn't hear a thing. They'll be my witnesses. I'm planning to make a suitably dramatic exit, make sure they all see 'Rebaine,' maybe even kill a few before I disappear." Kaleb grinned. "I already got Duke Meddiras and his people in the keep. This was my second stop. Three Guildmasters and their families. They were here because one of their assistants was throwing a dinner to celebrate his daughter's coming out next week." He gestured with the greasy drumstick at the headless corpse of a teenage girl.
Nenavar swallowed the vomit rising in his gullet.
"Don't go soft on me now," Kaleb said. "You knew what you were getting us into, and you know what's at stake."
"I… Yes, I know. Don't think you have to lecture me!"
"I don't have to. I just like to."
"I want you to do Braetlyn next. Say, five nights from now."
Kaleb tossed the remains of the chicken leg to the floor, where they landed with a wet squelch, and rose, stretching. "That's a bit fruitless, isn't it? We sort of know Jassion's not there."
"I know. But I want to keep driving him, keep him too furious to think of anything else. Do his staff and servants. It'll take a bit of time for the news to catch up to you, but sooner or later he'll hear rumors of it in some town or other."
"I think you're wasting my time. He's already committed."
"Perhaps. But never forget, Kaleb, that your time is mine to waste."
Nenavar spun on his heel, heading once more for the door, again muttering the incantation to keep the guards from noticing him. He didn't particularly care to be present to witness Kaleb's "dramatic exit." THE TUMULT THAT SHOOK the council chambers of Mecepheum's grand Hall of Meeting probably wasn't as deafening as an earthquake's birthing pains, but it wouldn't have been a safe bet. Eddies of hot breath whirled, flinging angry words hither and yon, threatening to fill the room until surely either the walls, or the people within, must burst.
Above them, disapproving eyes stared down from the many carvings, paintings, and reliefs that adorned
almost every inch of ceiling-an array of symbols to be found not only here, but also in the lesser meeting halls throughout the city, duplicated over and over as a sign of Guild unity. Heroes of legend and mighty archangels made up the bulk, but some boasted the symbols, or even the stylized faces, of the divine: Ulan the Judge, Daltheos the Maker, and so many others. Only in one shadowed corner was the stone rough and pitted, vacant of embellishment. Once the terrible visages of Maukra and Mimgol, the Children of Apocalypse, had loomed within, but after the events of six years prior, those images had been chiseled away.
From the great horseshoe-shaped table at the head of the room, Salia Mavere, priestess of Verelian and current Speaker for the Blacksmiths' Guild, could only roll her own eyes upward toward those remaining stony countenances, and wish she possessed their patience.
One of her neighbors at the table, a spindly scarecrow representing the Tanners' Guild, leaned toward her-the acrid scent of his trade washing over her, making her tear up a bit-and shouted in her ear to be heard over the tumult. "Are you going to do something about this?"
Salia, saving her breath, just shrugged. Still gazing at the images above, she remembered similar meetings during the Serpent's War, recalled how the sorceress Rheah Vhoune had easily silenced the screaming factions. She wished now that her own priestly studies included the practice of magic, rather than merely its philosophies and histories.
For minutes the shouting and arguments continued, until Salia had to acknowledge that her companion had a point. She reached behind, striking a small hammer on the hanging gong, calling the chamber to order. And then again, harder. But if any of the shrieking nobles, Guildmasters, priests, and other leading citizens heard, they didn't seem inclined to obey.
Grinning without mirth, Salia rose, unfastened the brass circle from its hooks, and hurled it like a discus over the heads of the assembly. Startled gasps presaged the sudden press of bodies struggling to clear out as it fell, and every face in the crowd had donned an expression of anger.
But it was, for the moment, a silent anger, and that made all the difference.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this cannot continue. We're all exhausted…"
This understatement was being met with a chorus of derisive snorts. Custom dictated that these meetings end by sundown, but just as they had every night for the past few weeks, they'd already progressed well into the nighttime hours.
"We're all exhausted," she said again, "and there's still much work ahead of us. My tenure as Overseer ends in two nights, and I'd like to have accomplished something during my week with the hammer. So perhaps whoever follows me will put up with this, but I won't any longer. The next time you choose to ignore the gong-and Erland, would you be kind enough to bring it back up here? Thank you-the next time you choose to ignore the gong, I'll be throwing it at you, not over you, and anyone who has a problem with that is welcome to seek satisfaction."
An array of murderous glares threatened to knock her clean over, but everyone present knew her reputation, could plainly see the large hammer hanging at her side-far larger and more brutal than the ceremonial mallet that marked her status as current assembly Overseer-and none of those glares transformed into spoken protest.
"Good. Then the issue up for vote…" As it has been every night since before I took the damn hammer, she added silently, though everyone heard it anyway, "… is one of military command. To wit, are we agreed to unite the various armies of Imphallion under a single command in order to-"
"No!" This from Sathan, the young and newly ascended Duke of Orthessis, dressed in mourning black for his mother, the Duchess Anneth. "We'll not be handing any more of our power over to you!"
"Then you'll soon not have it at all!" Caryna, Assistant Guildmaster of the Masons' Guild, yelled back. "Cephira's already taken most of our eastern territories!" She pointed to one of several empty chairs, ceremonially left vacant to account for those nobles and Guildmasters who could not attend, or those who had died and whose successors had not yet been named. "How long before they advance farther, Your Grace? We've invaders on Imphallian soil, and your damn mule-headedness has prevented us-"
"My mule-headedness? We-"
"It's not mule-headedness, it's self-preservation!" The third speaker-third shouter, really-was Bennek III, Earl of Prace. "If Rebaine's slaughtering us one by one, I'm sure as Vantares's deepest hell not putting all my men under someone else's command!"
The tanner beside Salia stood, leaning over the table. "Only a unified force can stand against either Cephira or Rebaine! Did we learn nothing from the Serpent? Have we all so quickly forgotten our inability to cooperate then?"
"Audriss was one of us!" Duke Sathan reminded him. "He's precisely the reason we cannot turn over complete command of our forces to anyone we don't implicitly trust!"
"And do you not trust the Guilds?"
His snort was answer enough. "We can repulse Cephira, but we'll do it with our own forces, not by giving them to you!"
"Cephira's forces are too large and too disciplined. If we go in piecemeal, we'll be slaughtered!"
"If we don't stop Rebaine," Bennek muttered, "Cephira won't need to slaughter us."
"Why has Rebaine returned now?" Salia couldn't see who spoke; someone toward the rear of the chamber. "Perhaps he's trying to take advantage of the Cephiran attack."
"Do we even know he's not cooperating with Cephira?" Caryna asked.
"We-"
"Enough!" Salia rose and struck the gong, not with her ceremonial mallet but with the brutal hammer at her waist. The chime was surprisingly quiet-primarily because the blow cracked the gong straight down the center-but it shut everyone up.
"I called for a vote," she reminded them darkly. "And that means no debate or argument until the vote is cast. So… All in favor of uniting our forces, that we may repel the threats both at and within our borders?" A pause. "All opposed?"
She sighed, slumping back in her chair. She didn't need the chamberlain's official tally to know the vote had split exactly as it had each previous night. The bulk of the Guildmasters wanted unification, as did a few younger nobles whose predecessors were recently slain. The majority of the aristocracy did not, at least not unless the overseer was another noble rather than a Guild appointee; a concession the Guilds-presumably fearful of losing their stranglehold over the aristocracy-were unwilling to make.
And so, for another night, what had once been the greatest nation on the continent huddled impotently, allowing the Cephiran invaders to dig in more deeply, and the murderer of nobles and Guildmasters to advance his current scheme, whatever it might be.
It was, indeed, an unpleasant, dream-like echo of the Serpent's War.
The Guildmasters almost had enough votes to carry the necessary majority-thanks be, though she felt ashamed to admit it, to the recent spate of murders, which had claimed more nobles than Guildmasters. Almost, but not quite. And even if they had, would the nobles accede as the law required, or would the Guilds be compelled to take their armies by force? Salia shivered at the realization that the problems they faced might only be leading them to the brink of civil war.
Furrowing her brow against an incipient headache, Salia Mavere called a recess until the following day and dejectedly trudged from the assembly chamber, praying that she had the strength to see everything through, to do what must be done.
And that, in the end, it would all prove worthwhile. BESIDE A SMALL COPSE OF TREES, abutting the slope of a rocky hill, a stone-lined pit held grey ash and bits of charcoal that were the cadaver of a cooking fire. A faint breeze wafted through the night, rustling branches and cooling the skin of the man who lay slumbering by the fire pit, twisting and muttering in the grasp of rapacious dreams.
Much as it had in the center of Nenavar's house in Denathere, the wind picked up, lifting loose leaves skyward, clashing and swirling against the natural currents in the air. Sticks crunched into the soil as a massive weight appeared atop them, and then Corvis Rebaine, the Terror of the Ea
st, stood beside the sleeping Baron of Braetlyn, the blood of Jassion's servants dripping from his gauntlets.
Or at least Rebaine's armor did.
The image wavered, and then that armor-and the blood-were gone. Kaleb stood in their place, clad in his mundane cloak and leathers. A quick look around, just to ensure that nothing had disturbed the camp in his absence, and then he knelt beside his supposed ally. Without ever quite touching him, Kaleb ran a hand over Jassion's face, removing a phantom film of magic that had kept the man in deep slumber. Jassion snored once and rolled over, unaware that anything was amiss.
Exactly how Kaleb wanted him. Suppressing a grin, he reached out and shook Jassion's shoulder, waking him for his turn on watch.
Chapter Eight
THE ROYAL SOLDIERS of the Black Gryphon of Cephira never did learn precisely what happened on that muggy summer night. Or rather, they ascertained most of what happened, but never why.
The blush of dawn hadn't fully covered the face of the eastern sky, and the nighttime breezes had faded into sputtering, wheezing breaths. Pre-morning dew was swiftly coalescing on the grasses, the leaves, and the eaves of Rahariem's homes, courteously making room in the air for the new day's coming humidity. The soldiers on night duty stifled their yawns, struggling to keep alert or maintain proper cadence, grateful that the rising sun would soon signal the end of shift and the opportunity to get breakfast, get drunk, and get to bed-probably in that order.
Until a scream of inchoate rage shattered the calm, a rock rudely hurled through the brittle glass of silence. From atop one of the engine platforms, a Cephiran guard leapt upon a passing patrol, naked sword in hand. Maddened spittle spattered the shocked soldiers, followed immediately by the warm blood of their commanding officer. The crazed attacker was already lunging at his next target before the officer's head fetched up against a wall, and two more men were down before the remainder had so much as pulled steel.
