Imager's challenge ip-2

by L. E. Modesitt

  I winced. While I knew her family could afford it, the loss of more than I’d make in two years wasn’t something to dismiss lightly. “Are you sure Ryel was involved?”

  “Some of their lands adjoin, and Tierchyl had refused to sell certain properties to Ryel. That’s the rumor anyway.”

  And Ryel had declared me his enemy. I glanced toward the chair. “It is beautiful.”

  “The design is unique. If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to use it as a model for someone else in the future.”

  “If not, it makes a lovely addition here.”

  “An expensive addition.”

  Within a few moments and before anyone thumped the big brass knocker on the main door, I heard another set of footsteps, slower but lighter, coming down the steps.

  Without thinking I said, “That’s your Grandmama Diestra. She wants a few moments with us before dinner.”

  Seliora looked at me, then at the archway, where Grandmama Diestra emerged, glancing at Seliora.

  Seliora shook her head. “I don’t care what your mother thinks. There has to be Pharsi in your background. You didn’t even think about it, did you?”

  “No,” I admitted, somewhat sheepishly, before standing to welcome Seliora’s grandmother. “Good afternoon.”

  Seliora rose and stood beside me.

  “The same to you, Rhenn.”

  Seliora just said, “He knew you were coming before he saw you, and he knew what you had in mind. I hadn’t said a word.”

  “You’re surprised, granddaughter?” Grandmama Diestra chuckled.

  I grinned, then gestured to the settee. While they settled themselves, I retrieved the chair I’d admired and set it down on the rich gold-green border of the magnificent maroon carpet that covered much of the parquet floor of the entry hall, then sat down facing them.

  “Seliora tells me that you’re working with the patrollers now. Which senior patrollers have you met?” asked Grandmama Diestra.

  “Except in passing, just the commander and subcommander-and a first patroller named Gulyart.”

  “Do not trust Artois. He is not corrupt, but he would sacrifice his first-born son to preserve the honor of the Patrol.” She laughed softly. “Since it has no honor, there is no point in being sacrificed. Cydarth will do what he must, but there are rumors . . . I have heard nothing bad about Gulyart. Be most careful with Lieutenant Mardoyt or Captain Harraf. Neither is even honestly corrupt.”

  “ ‘Honestly corrupt’?”

  “They don’t stay bought,” was her dry response. “What are you doing now?”

  “I’ve been observing the charging desk. I’m supposed to do that for another week.” Since she offered nothing else, I asked, “Do you know of a taudischef named Horazt?”

  “He’s one of the new ones, grandson of Chorazt.” Diestra snorted. “I haven’t heard anything bad about him. Why?”

  “He brought a boy to the Collegium. The boy’s named Shault. He’s a beginning imager. I was wondering if there were any way to learn if the mother got the gold she was supposed to. Her name is . . . Chelya.” I’d had to think a moment to call it up. “I think she’s a cousin of Horazt’s.”

  “Chelya . . . she’s Mhyala’s daughter, or one of them.” She smiled, and a glint appeared in her eyes. “I’ll find out, and I’ll make sure that Horazt understands that you know. Might scare the little bastard. It won’t hurt you.” Her eyebrows lifted. “You have something else?”

  I slipped the envelope I’d received on Jeudi out of the inside pocket of my gray wool imager’s waistcoat and handed it to Seliora. “Open it . . . both of you should see it.”

  She deftly extracted the card. Both sets of black eyes-so alike were they-narrowed as they beheld the silver ribbon knot.

  “Ryel . . .” murmured Seliora.

  “As soon as he discovered I’d been made a master imager,” I said.

  “That way he loses no prestige among the other High Holders,” added Grandmama Diestra. “Prestige is another form of power.”

  “A master imager of twenty-five is a worthy foe?” My words came out sardonically as I reclaimed the card and envelope and tucked them inside my waistcoat.

  “There are far fewer master imagers than High Holders,” Diestra said.

  “There are far fewer total imagers.” By that standard, poor scared Shault was a worthy opponent. I didn’t like either of Ryel’s sons, and from what I’d experienced, his daughter was just as cutthroat-all of which confirmed that they took after their father.

  The knocker thumped loudly.

  Both Seliora and I stood immediately, and she headed for the steps down to the entry. I let her lead the way.

  Once on the street level, Seliora glanced out the side window. “It’s Aunt Staelia and Uncle Clyenn.” She opened the heavy polished oak door. “Do come in!” Her voice and posture were warm and welcoming.

  “Every time I see you,” replied Clyenn, stepping into the small foyer at the base of the steps, “you’ve gotten more beautiful.” He turned to me. “You must be Rhennthyl. You’re a most fortunate man.”

  “I am, indeed,” I replied, keeping a smile on my face. I couldn’t say that I disliked Clyenn on sight, but I would not have trusted him any farther than I had Johanyr. I didn’t wonder that he had a scar that ran from below his left earlobe almost to the corner of his mouth.

  Staelia was statuesque, more like Odelia and Aegina, but not so attractive, just tall, plain, and graying, but she had a radiant smile, bestowed primarily on Seliora.

  “Aunt Staelia,” Seliora said, “this is Rhenn. I didn’t have a chance to tell you, but he’s been made a master imager.”

  Staelia looked me over-our eyes were close to level-and smiled again, not quite so radiantly, but certainly warmly. “You two suit each other, I think.”

  Seliora led the way up to the main foyer.

  Seliora’s parents must have heard the knocker or the greetings, or been watching the lane from the third floor . . . or Bhenyt had told them. The possibilities were numerous, but Shelim and Betara moved to join us within moments of the time that Seliora and I had escorted Staelia and Clyenn up to the entry hall. In that short time, various servants had appeared, and a sideboard with wines had been opened. Shomyr-Seliora’s older brother-brought out several bottles of wine. He was followed by Methyr, her younger brother.

  “I see you’ve met Rhenn,” said Betara, her voice and expressions so much like Seliora’s that mother and daughter looked like sisters.

  “We have indeed,” boomed Clyenn. “Yes, indeed.”

  “Indeed,” said Staelia. “Clyenn . . . if you wouldn’t mind getting me a white Cambrisio.”

  “I can do that.” He turned and started for the sideboard.

  “You’re one of the younger master imagers, I’d imagine,” Staelia said.

  “Yes, madame.”

  “Staelia, please.” An amused smile appeared. “Save the ‘madame’ for Betara or Grandmama. Perhaps one of the youngest master imagers ever?”

  “One of the younger ones,” I admitted. “Not the youngest ever.”

  “Polite and modest, too. Dangerous, as well. I’ve seen that with the patrollers. The most deadly ones are the most courteous.”

  The instant assessments by Seliora’s family-or by the women in the family-were both amusing as well as unsettling. I inclined my head. “And I believe no one is ever disorderly in your establishment.”

  Both Staelia and Betara laughed.

  “A point to you. With Taelia and Sartan running it tonight, I hope it stays orderly.” The last words combined dryness and worry.

  Another series of thumps issued from below.

  “That must be Duerl and Aesthya,” offered Betara. “I’ll greet them.”

  Shelim, who had said nothing, departed with his wife, leaving Seliora and me with Staelia.

  “You must come and eat lunch or dinner at the bistro with us when you can.”

  “I’d like to, but it might be a while. I’m still le
arning my way around headquarters.”

  “It won’t take you long,” she predicted. “But don’t order the baked pastry sausages. They’re the one thing that Clyenn does that aren’t that good-but people don’t want them good. They want them soft and slathered with greasy white gravy.” She shrugged. “So that’s the way we fix them.”

  Betara and Shelim reappeared with another couple, guiding them toward us.

  “Aesthya, Duerl, this is Rhenn.”

  “Ah, yes,” offered the slightly plump but still sprightly Aesthya. “We have heard so much about you, and”-she looked to Seliora-“learned so little . . . other than you’re a master imager.”

  “Very recently, I must confess,” I replied. “I’m pleased to meet you both.”

  After that, there were goblets of wine in everyone’s hands, and many pleasantries, and a few more questions about what I’d done. Before long, a set of chimes rang, and we all repaired to the dining chamber, through the recessed doors at the end of the foyer that the serving girls began to open as the sound of the chimes died away.

  The dining chamber held a table set for eleven, but I could tell that the long cherry table could have taken leaves enough to seat twice that many, and the unused chairs set against the walls at the sides of the china cabinets and sideboards reinforced that impression. The chamber was illuminated by wall lamps set in polished bronze sconces with reflectors, as well as by three sets of candelabra on the table itself. The cutlery was all silver, and the porcelain chargers were gold rimmed with the NordEste design in the center.

  Seliora offered the grace, and then we all took our seats. She and I had been placed in the middle of the table, with Shelim at one end and Betara at the other. I was flanked by Aesthya on my right, and Staelia on my left, with Seliora across the table-sort of, because with four on her side and five on mine, I was actually across from the space between her and Clyenn.

  The meal began with a light red wine I didn’t recognize and a cream of gourd soup with wild mushrooms, followed by sweet and bitter greens with vinegar and nuts, and then by what I could only have called a Pharsi ragout in flaky pastry.

  The entire time the conversation varied from topic to topic, but never touched on any form of business.

  “. . . people fleeing here from everywhere . . . causes problems and unrest in taudis, especially in the hellhole.”

  “. . . hasn’t been this bad since the troubles years back . . .”

  “Mama Diestra . . . she has fewer connections there . . . or in the south . . .”

  “Capolito is bringing back the traditional Pharsi singers to sing . . .”

  “. . . won’t draw diners . . . people want to eat and talk . . .”

  “. . . factors, maybe, they only talk about business anyway.”

  “. . . wager it’ll be less than three weeks before Stakanar and Tiempre are inside Caenen.”

  “. . . couldn’t believe that a high factor’s wife would wear pink after the end of harvest . . .”

  I ate sparingly, but I still took in more than I should have, and that was before dessert, which was a pastry tart with jelled and sweetened lime glaze over apples.

  There was more conversation over dessert, and over the tiny goblets of warm brandy that followed, and it was approaching ninth glass before people began to drift away, although Grandmama Diestra had slipped out before dessert.

  In the end, Seliora and I found ourselves sitting in the dim light of a single lamp, back on the same settee as where we had started, seemingly alone in the entry foyer.

  “What did you think of the rest of the family?” asked Seliora.

  “I like Duerl and Aesthya, and I really enjoyed meeting Staelia.”

  “Your feelings are much like everyone else’s.”

  “What does Clyenn do?”

  “You know Staelia runs a small bistro. It’s only about two blocks from the Patrol headquarters. It’s east of there and a half block off Fedre on Pousaint. Clyenn isn’t too bad a cook, and he does exactly what Staelia tells him to. He’s only strayed once.”

  “The scar?”

  “The second one will be across his throat . . . not that anyone would find his body.” Seliora’s words were absolutely matter-of-fact.

  “Pharsi treatment of infidelity?”

  She shook her head. “Stealing of funds. You don’t steal from family, ever. Infidelity can happen. It’s frowned on, but people are people. Theft is deliberate. You have to think it out, and that’s betrayal.”

  Put that way, I definitely understood. I also realized that I didn’t understand Seliora’s family quite so well as I’d thought I did. I smiled wryly.

  “Why the smile?” Curiosity and worry lay behind her question.

  “I was thinking of Rousel, and how it’s a good thing he’s operating a factorage for my family, rather than a spice brokerage for Remaya’s family.”

  “They don’t hold the Pharsi traditions as strongly,” she said.

  “I wouldn’t know.”

  She smiled, slightly possessively, I thought. “I’m glad.”

  I thought about saying something about how she was so much more than Remaya, but decided against it, because the words would have implied the comparison, and comparisons are always odious, especially to a beautiful woman who loved me.

  “You should stop by Staelia’s. It’s called Chaelia.”

  We talked a bit more, and I could see her yawning. “I should go.”

  Abruptly she straightened. “There’s someone outside.”

  “We should go down and look.”

  Arm in arm, we did, and I looked through the small window to the left of the door casement. “I don’t see anyone, but there’s a hack there.”

  “Mother paid him to wait for you.”

  “I shouldn’t keep him waiting, then. I’ll be very careful.” I raised my shields even before Seliora opened the door.

  The muffled crack of a weapon and the impact against my shields were almost simultaneous, and I couldn’t help but stagger back into Seliora.

  “Namer-damned . . .” Who could have been shooting at me? Straight assassination wasn’t what High Holder Ryel would have done. At least, I didn’t think so.

  In the distance, I could hear footsteps. Much as I was tempted to give chase, the shooter had too much of a head start, and it could also have been a trap.

  “They’ve gone,” Seliora said.

  The hacker was looking around.

  “I’ll be right there!” I called.

  I wasn’t right there, because Seliora and I did need a little time to say good night and good-bye, but the hacker did wait. Betara had obviously paid him well, for which I was glad.

  On the drive back to the Bridge of Hopes, I couldn’t help but wonder if High Holder Ryel had changed his mind . . . or if I’d become someone else’s enemy. But whose? I hadn’t done anything to anyone at the Civic Patrol, and all the Ferrans had been taken care of . . . hadn’t they?

  Yet whoever it had been had known exactly where I’d be. I frowned. It couldn’t be Ryel. He would have known I had shields. But who?

  7

  Tired as I was, I woke up on Solayi early enough to see both Artiema and Erion in a semidark sky before I trudged down to shower and shave. I took my time before heading off to the dining hall for breakfast. Even so, the only master there was Heisbyl, another senior and graying Maitre D’Aspect. Caliostrus had done a portrait of his daughter, and from what I recalled, the daughter did not look much like her father, except for the hazel eyes. Caliostrus had painted her eyes as warm, but Heisbyl’s were flat. Given the tendency of my late portraiturist master to flatter his subjects, I would have wagered that her eyes were like her father’s.

  “Good morning, Rhenn.” He shook his head. “To be young again, like you, and able to greet gray mornings early and cheerfully.”

  “Early,” I replied. “Not always cheerfully.”

  “When you get to be my age, you’ll look back on them and think they were cheerfu
l.”

  That was a truly frightening thought, but I didn’t say so. Instead, I just smiled and passed the teapot to him. “You have the duty today.”

  “Why else would I be here? And you?”

  “I discovered I had a few things on my mind.”

  “Most of you who report to Dichartyn seem to. It’s not something I’d wish to do. Running the armory workshops is far more to my taste.”

  “To each his own.” I took a swallow of the tea before I started eating, but I couldn’t see why supervising the armory production was any less disturbing than covert operations, except that we occasionally had to kill people directly, and what he did resulted in killing far greater numbers of people-just far less directly.

  After breakfast I went to the library once more. I had another set of ideas I wanted to try out. Rather than look directly for High Holder Ryel or for books on High Holders, I decided to see what there was on laws dealing with land transfers, or anything on land holdings, or material on the original compact.

  All in all, I spent more than two glasses tracking down one piece of information and then another. I did discover that a High Holder had to pass a minimum of four-fifths of his holdings on to his heir-unless the total of the lands to be received were greater in size than the average of all High Holdings, in which case the inheritance merely had to exceed the average. I supposed that meant a truly massive High Holding could actually be split among two or three heirs. The heir was first the oldest son, then other sons in birth order-but could be a nephew or a grandson. The only way a woman could inherit was if there were no male descendants, and no blood nephews, and her husband had to take the family name. That did create some interesting speculation about Junaie D’Shendael. If the four-fifths requirement could not be met from the estate itself, unless the putative heir could purchase or otherwise provide evidence of lands and assets sufficient to add to the inherited holding to meet that requirement, the High Holding was registered as dissolved.

  The last point was that any High Holder had the right to override a purchase agreement for lands sold to a non-High Holder by registering such an override, but the High Holder undertaking the override had to pay fifteen percent above the original purchase price, and one-third of the fifteen percent went to whoever had contracted to buy the lands, and ten percent went to the seller, usually to the heirs who were no longer High Holders.