“Cancel the meetings,” Gifford ordered. “They aren’t very important.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. And the wine?”
After a long pause, he said, “Yes. We’ll take it in Our chambers.”
“Very good, Your Majesty.”
Gifford rose from his chair. I closed my eyes in relief. This was why I didn’t see him shove the chair back under the desk. It hit my elbow, hard, and I let out an, “Eep!”
I clapped my hand over my mouth. Damn, hell, Zaire.
The chair was yanked out again. “Let me, Your Majesty.” Green knelt on the floor.
She didn’t really spend more than a moment looking right at me, it just felt like half an hour. Then she replaced the chair, fast and hard. I was half-expecting that, so I was able to keep the yip of pain behind my teeth.
I heard her cross the room and yank open the drapes.
Gifford walked out of the room without another word. I heard Green moving around a bit, but eventually she left, too, locking the door behind her.
It was far too late and bright, but it wasn’t as though we could linger in the office until night. We put the last of the pots back into the cabinet and locked it.
Taro had to unlock the office door to let us out and lock it again after. Thankfully, the greater light allowed him to make short work of it and no Guards walked by. Thoroughly worn out, we snuck back to our suite.
Because Taro and I were so exhausted, our lessons that day were disastrous, but we blamed it on the students and they seemed to accept it. At least, they didn’t dispute it. To our faces.
That night, I used the unseeable cast again, and we slipped notes under the doors of those four people who had been chosen for execution, warning them of the Emperor’s plans. We had to knock on the doors to wake the occupants so they would see the notes before they were found by the maids entering their rooms in the morning. It would have reminded me of pranks immature students played in the Academy, if it hadn’t been so terrifying.
The next day, everyone to whom we’d given a note was gone. I expected an uproar. I expected to be closely questioned by someone. But there was nothing.
That made me wonder if Gifford had no knowedge of that list, despite the fact that it was in his desk, and that Green couldn’t move without attracting his ire.
Taro and I decided we couldn’t get involved in any more escapades for the time being. Green didn’t trust me, and further strange occurances would likely bring dangerous attention to us. We would have to wait, pretend to be submissive, and let things calm down a little.
Chapter Eighteen
It was a week later, and my casting lessons were proceeding exactly as I had wished. Which was not at all.
Caster Laing’s casting assignment was to lift a candlestick off the floor. She’d been working on it for several moments. The candlestick vibrated, but it didn’t rise.
That was because Hallstrom was, under his breath, casting a spell meant to fix items to a surface. As Hallstrom was a little stronger, his cast prevailed.
Laing broke off and glowered at Hallstrom. “Do you want a pounding?”
Hallstrom tried to look innocent. “I don’t understand.”
“You’re stopping my cast!”
“How could I do that?” He showed her his empty hands. “I don’t have any ingredients.”
But he had had ingredients. While Laing and everyone else had been focusing on the candlestick, Hallstrom’s hands had been busy behind his back, and he had clearly rubbed the components for his cast off his hands.
Laing whirled towards me. “Are you going to let him do this?”
“I have no reason to believe he’s interfering,” I said.
“He clearly was!”
I shrugged. What was she going to do if no one would support her claim?
And no one would. No one helped anyone else, if they could avoid it.
One of the things that undermined the group as a whole was that they were viciously competitive. There had been a desire to be the best among the Triple S casters, of course, as there was in any group of people, but they hadn’t gone out of their way to sabotage each other.
The Emperor’s casters did, and I thought this was all down to uncertainty. Being branded the least talented might bring serious punishments. Those who did best might end up with an estate. So far, none of them had been granted the land the Triple S council had claimed they had been promised, but no one had expressed any doubts that some would, at some point, not in my hearing.
I didn’t know if fear and uncertainty was the best way to motivate people. In theory, they could leave, but I had no doubt that any who chose that option would find themselves convicted of treason and sentenced to death.
The Pairs weren’t doing well, either. Ogawa and Tenneson, who appeared to be the most talented of the lot, didn’t even work well with each other. I wondered if, over the years, Tenneson had come to resent Ogawa for getting them pulled from the High Scape roster and preventing them from being granted another post. That could make even the most reasonable of people bitter.
Others simply refused to learn by observing other Pairs. It was stupid and short-sighted, but their pride was stronger than their sense. Yes, Taro and I did all we could to avoid teaching them anything, but the students did as much damage as we did.
“You have little skill,” I said to Laing. “I was surprised to hear that you were promised an estate and a title in exchange for your participation.”
I’d found throwing that sort of allegation about had a tendency to infuriate the students, both those I claimed had been given such favour and those I didn’t. I was never told anything of the sort, and I never named the source of my information. If they wanted confirmation, they would have to consult either Gifford or Green on the matter, and I doubted they were prepared to do that.
Laing’s face flushed. “I received no such offer.”
“I can only speak as I’ve heard.”
“Someone’s lying.”
“All right. If that’s the story you want to go with. It has nothing to do with me. Do the cast again. And try to do it right this time.”
She scowled, but she didn’t feel confident enough to object.
Laing tried again, and Hallstrom interfered again, and no one said anything.
And then, without warning, Green walked through the door accompanied by two Imperial Guards. I stared at her, shocked and outright horrified, because this could not be good.
We all bowed.
“Erstwhile Shield Mallorough,” she greeted me abruptly. “I have been told you are refusing to teach our casters the black cloud spell.”
Well, that had come out of nowhere.
“Not refusing, my lady,” I said quickly. “It would be dangerous to have casters of this level of –”
Green interrupted me. “You were instructing the casters in the Triple S in the use of this spell. Are you claiming the casters there are somehow superior?”
Every time I received another hint that there was someone within the Triple S company that was reporting back to Green, I felt queasy.
“No, my lady.”
“Then what is your difficulty?”
“I truly don’t know, my lady.”
“Forgive my impertinence, my lady,” said Dench. “Perhaps it would be beneficial for Erstwhile Shield Mallorough to perform the cast, so everyone might see how it’s done.”
Green reacted as though she thought this suggestion was surprising. “You haven’t demonstrated the cast?” she demanded of me.
“I had understood everyone had already seen it. I was told there had been casters who’d been able to perform the spells, but that they had died in the prison riot. I thought attempts to learn had been made and put aside until everyone’s abilities had sufficiently advanced.”
“But their abilities aren’t advancing at all.”
“I haven’t been working with them long. Less than two weeks.”
“So you offer excuses.”
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There was no good way to respond to that.
“You can perform this cast?” Green asked.
“Yes, my lady.”
“Then show us.”
I could think of no way to refuse or stall. I sat on the ground and pulled out the tools and ingredients I needed.
“Fetch a chair,” Green ordered one of the casters, who quickly ran from the room and returned with a light wooden chair.
With a butcher knife, I carved into the floor an almond, a symbol of an eye. The target of the cast needed to be seen by the caster, requiring sufficient light and proximity to discern the details.
“An object to our gaze revealed.”
Below the almond, I drew a triangle with the powder from the wing of a rikkor butterfly, and then a wavy horizontal line just under the tip.
“Around the object air defined.”
I sprinkled along the outside of the triangle lines of ground limestone.
“Around the air a barrier holds.”
Under the horizontal line, I drew three jagged lines with ground flint.
“The lightning built by air within.”
With my eye on the chair, I used the knife to drow a small circle under the jagged lines.
“The target by the lightning torn asunder.”
With the tip of the knife I slashed a vertical line from the top of the triangle to its base.
“Tear asunder.”
The chair was surrounded by the black cloud and attacked by blue lightning. After several moments, it exploded.
We were lucky none of the flying chunks of wood hit anyone.
Green didn’t hesitate. She nodded at Dench. “Can you do this?”
“Yes, my lady,” Dench promptly answered.
I looked at the floor so I wouldn’t stare at Dench in shock.
“Kindly demonstrate,” Green ordered.
Another caster ran from the room for another chair.
Dench easily performed the cast and the chair was destroyed.
Why hadn’t he told me he could perform that cast?
Unless….
Had he been deliberately undermining me, as I’d been undermining everyone else? The Emperor favoured me, sort of, but Green didn’t. Had Dench known that? Had he chosen to be loyal to Green?
“Mallorough,” said Green. “Given your consistent incompetence, I feel your services as our instructor of the casters are no longer needed. You will, of course, continue to assist Erstwhile Source Karish with his lessons, but you will have no further contact with any other caster. Is that understood?”
“Yes, my lady.”
Many of the casters were smirking. They were enjoying my fall from grace.
Green had more to say. “To assist you in resisting any temptation to speak to other casters, you will be honoured with escorts who will attend to your every need. Night and day.”
Son of a bitch.
“You may return to your chambers. Aside from your work with the Pairs, there is no reason for you to leave them.”
Hadn’t I messed up everything beautifully?
“Dismissed.”
I bowed and left.
I couldn’t learn anything if I was watched every moment.
But more important, I’d made it impossible for Taro and me to leave.
Chapter Nineteen
Tenneson, Shielded by Ogawa, squished out of existence the cyclone created by Taro, Shielded by me.
Ogawa cackled. “We defeated the Stallion of the Triple S,” she boasted. “Imagine that.”
Taro bowed his head. “Imagine that.”
I was so so tempted to walk over to Ogawa and slap her for demeaning Taro. It alarmed me, how badly I wanted to do it, but I’d been having a lot of violent thoughts, slowly increasing over time.
My existence over the past five weeks had been as bad as I’d feared it would be. Since I had been removed from my duties as a casting instructor, a series of Imperial Guards were with me every moment I was out of my chambers, and two of them stood immediately outside the door when I was within them. Even during the night. There would be no more unseeable adventures. There was no way we could sneak through the door unnoticed. We’d tried, but doors made noise when they were opened, even when they didn’t creak, and that noise made the Guards straighten to attention and look about.
I spent most of my time trying to remove the bars from the window in our bedchamber, with both casts and knives. All I managed to do was blunt the blades and create a bunch of suspicious-looking scrapes and gouges. Fortunately, the Guards never entered our bedchamber.
Taro was the only one I talked to. He brought depressing news of great improvement among the casters under Dench’s instruction.
I wondered if they had all hidden what they could do to make me look incompetent. If so, it had been a gamble, as the casters who appeared incompetent courted punishment, but the gamble had paid off. I was disgraced.
I hadn’t seen the Emperor at all since Green had banished me to our chambers, and Taro, while still used as a messenger and general servant, saw Gifford only rarely and briefly. I’d come to believe that Green encouraged Gifford to forget about us.
Taro had been left in charge of the instruction of the Pairs. We couldn’t continue to make them appear incompetent. If Taro was also perceived to be useless, we might end up in an even worse situation. So we changed our strategy and made them feel they were stronger than they were, hoping it would make them unrealistically confident in their abilities.
We’d chosen Tenneson as the Source to ‘improve’ the most, because pretty much everyone else despised his Shield on account of her acerbic personality. Ogawa didn’t spare anyone her sharp words and jeers.
It was disheartening to see what she had turned into. When we had met in High Scape, I had liked and admired her so much.
“We’re going to be the next Erstwhile Pair,” Ogawa taunted. “We already are, in all but name.”
I believed they would be, and I was surprised there had not yet been an official announcement.
“I’m sure you’ll do an excellent job,” Taro said calmly.
His manner irritated Ogawa, as pretty much everything did. “Don’t try to charm me, Karish.”
“Will you shut up?” Source Peche snapped. “You waste time every single lesson with all of your whining.”
Ogawa didn’t appear chastened. “Watch yourself, Peche. You can’t afford to make an enemy of me.”
“Fascinating as this speculation is,” Taro drawled, “no one is going to realise any of their ambitions without discipline. Shall we resume our lesson? Source Niam, Shield Parrion, you’re next.”
I wondered how the Triple S Pairs and casters were doing. I’d heard nothing of them, of anyone outside Erstwhile. I hated it. I felt like I was living some unreal, suspended existence, disconnected from everything and everyone else.
Day after day, Taro and I tried to figure out a way to escape. As part of the wardrobe Gifford had ordered we be given, we’d accumulated a cache of expensive items, including hideous thick jewellery, so we’d considered bribery. As delicately as possible, Taro tested the potential for trading luxuries for information or assistance, but everyone was unusually resistant to his allure.
We searched every fraction of every wall in our chambers, hoping there was some form of secret passage, as there had been in Fiona’s manor, but there was nothing to find.
Nothing nothing nothing.
What were we supposed to do? Just continue existing, floating in helplessness? We might was well be in prison.
“Seriously,” I said one morning, “just sink the whole building. We can get out in the chaos.”
“I’d have to sink the whole city,” Taro responded in a flat tone.
“So sink the whole city.”
“All of the Pairs would be fighting me the whole way.”
“You can handle them. You’re Karish.”
He glared at me.
We were pretty much always in a bad mood.
There was a sudden pounding on the door that startled me so much I almost fell out of the settee.
Taro didn’t bother to stand from his chair and open the door. “What?” he shouted.
Our manners had gone by the wayside, too.
One of the Guards pushed open the door. “Get dressed.”
We weren’t naked, but I entertained the idea of showing up in that state. It was the only act of defiance I could think of.
She nodded at me. “And do something with your hair.”
I rolled my eyes. She left, slamming the door behind her.
Once we’d dressed in our ridiculously expensive clothes, Taro knocked on the door and the Imperial Guards let us out.
When they took us to one of the Imperial stables, my heart started racing in excitement. We were to be given horses. We could try to escape once we were released onto the streets. I had no idea how we’d get through the city gate, but we’d figure something out.
And then my stomach felt like it plummeted to my feet as Taro and I were ordered into a carriage, which was immediately surrounded by mounted Imperial Guards. We wouldn’t be given a chance to move from supervision.
I wanted to cry.
Once we were settled, we were driven off the grounds. We hadn’t travelled far before I noticed a dense crowd of people moving about the streets, all of them walking in the same direction. As we drove on and the mass grew, I felt a strange sort of intensity in the air.
Something significant was happening. Probably nothing good.
The destination for all of us was Statue Park, where a platform had been constructed. It was very tall and wide, with a canopy and two thrones. I caught myself wondering if people threw together a new platform for each occasion or if there were a bunch of platforms of different sizes and levels of ostentation stored somewhere.
What a trivial matter to cross my thoughts. Was I losing my mind?
The Emperor’s herald stood beside Gifford’s throne.
Our Guards dismounted. “Up, you two,” one of them ordered. Taro and I were escorted out of the carriage and up the stairs of the platform. We were directed to stand on one side of Gifford’s gilded throne. So we hadn’t yet been replaced as the Erstwhile Pair.
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