Ichor Well
Page 35
“Away from the club… I have no place in the Ruby Club anymore, Tender. That place is reserved for visionaries and luminaries. I am undeserving of its hallowed halls.”
“It’s a place for louts and has-beens, Alabaster. You’ll fit in just as before.”
Alabaster continued, the words not having penetrated his self-pity. “Why didn’t they kill me, Tender? That at least would have been a fitting end for one who had come so near to greatness. Let me live on as one of the titans of the fug that those ‘heroes’ of the surface have had to slay along their journey. Don’t leave me to fester within the walls of a hole in the ground. I cannot even have the dignity of a berth within Skykeep because the blasted Wind Breaker snatched it from the sky!”
Tender tossed the envelopes through the bars and leaned his back against them, drawing his pocket watch to check the time.
“You’re right, of course. They should have killed you. Keeping the location of the ichor well a secret would have served them quite well.”
“The ichor well… What do you know about that?”
“But then, it’s only natural they would have assumed you’d spread the word about it. It seems the only things you’re good at are being the center of attention and running your mouth. Killing you wouldn’t have solved anything in that case. Maybe it would have made them feel better, but that captain of theirs is a shrewd fellow. I’d wager he knew the worst thing he could do to you is leave you to rot and fade, alone and forgotten. Maybe with a bit of torture from Mayor Ebonwhite thrown in. He’s on the way, by the way. And none too happy you’ve not told him all the details of that ‘plan’ of yours yet.”
“I don’t know who you are, but I don’t like your tone. That plan you dismiss held the very world at its mercy. And it is for that reason that I’ve kept the details a secret. It should be revealed a triumph or not at all! I would have surpassed even the great Ferris Tusk in my infamy.”
“Ferris Tusk…” Tender said, shaking his head. “If you are going to idolize a man, at least do it for the proper reasons. ‘He destroyed Rigel Tower’ and ‘He bested Admiral Maxwell.’ Those were the least of his achievements. The coarsest, most ham-handed events in an otherwise remarkable campaign. Do you honestly believe the achievement was knocking down a stronghold? The achievement was stripping the surface of the confidence and infrastructure to make its own equipment. The achievement was bribing, negotiating, and manipulating the proper figures to keep the damage from being repaired. You want to run the world, Alabaster? The word is subtlety. Learn it.”
“You aren’t… you couldn’t possibly be…”
“One thing you managed, though, is to bring to light something that had concerned me for some time. The Wind Breaker is a capable crew, certainly. But they were toeing the line just as carefully as the rest of the surface until one little change. Amanita Graus. The Calderan. As far as my machinations reached, I could never solve the Calderan Problem. Foolish me, I honestly thought after all this time they would remain content, tucked away in their little paradise without any notion to tinker with the balance I’d so carefully installed. But obviously that was flawed thinking. And so we must solve the Calderan Problem.”
“We?”
“Yes. As I’ve said. Running your mouth and being the center of attention are your primary skills. Misdirection appeals to me. So Lucius P. Alabaster shall remain at large. The Well Diggers can continue their endeavor undisturbed, at least until Ebonwhite’s blind probing can stumble upon them again. For what I’ve got in mind, a well-equipped Wind Breaker shall serve as a valuable piece in the game.”
“The Well Diggers won’t remain undisturbed. Though I’ve not spoken of the place, surely Mallow or one of the other survivors will have told of the location by now.”
“There were no other survivors. I saw to that. Mallow is in my employ now. He’s a fine employee, and quite able to remain silent for the proper price, it turns out.”
A brief cry of pain and a sickening thud echoed down the hall. Tender—or more accurately Tusk—snapped his watch shut.
“Punctual as always. That is my signal to take my leave. It seems the incomparable Lucius P. Alabaster is about to escape. We’ll be in touch, Lucius, just as soon as I’ve worked out how best to deal with that pesky Calderan Problem…”
From The Author
Thank you for reading! If you liked this story, or perhaps if you found it lacking, I’d love to hear from you. Below are links to some of the places you can find me online, and if you’d like to be kept in the loop with important new developments and releases, consider joining my newsletter.
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Discover other titles by Joseph R. Lallo:
The Book of Deacon Series:
Book 1: The Book of Deacon
Book 2: The Great Convergence
Book 3: The Battle of Verril
Book 4: The D’Karon Apprentice
Other stories in the same setting:
Jade
The Rise of the Red Shadow
The Redemption of Desmeres
The Big Sigma Series:
Book 1: Bypass Gemini
Book 2: Unstable Prototypes
Book 3: Artificial Evolution
Book 4: Temporal Contingency
The Free-Wrench Series:
Book 1: Free-Wrench
Book 2: Skykeep
Book 3: Ichor Well
Collections:
The Book of Deacon Anthology
NaNoWriMo Projects:
The Other Eight