Vengeance ttr-1

by Ian Irvine

  Tali could not make out Rix’s reply.

  ‘I’ll deal with this,’ said the chancellor. It sounded as though they were sitting in Rix’s salon, next door. Tali pressed her ear to the tiny gap at the top of the tile. ‘I want Thalalie vi Torgrist, and I want her now.’

  ‘She hasn’t been here,’ said Tobry.

  They were protecting her, at great risk to themselves, and it brought tears to Tali’s eyes. How could she have doubted them?

  The silence lasted for a full minute. ‘Tobry Lagger,’ said the chancellor. ‘The last disreputable scion of a depraved and fallen house. But you can fall further, sir.’

  ‘I plan to,’ Tobry said lazily, and Tali was amazed at his self-possession. She was close to wetting herself. ‘I’m going to leave no depth unplumbed before I go.’

  ‘That might be sooner than you think.’

  ‘I’ve been expecting it since the terrible choice I had to make when I was thirteen. You can’t frighten me.’

  ‘But I can threaten you, sir. A word from me and you’ll be in the front lines.’

  ‘I have no fear of death. I stand ready to serve my country.’

  ‘Death isn’t the only thing to fear in the front lines. Life there will soon curb your insolence. But I did not come here to bandy words with a penniless layabout. Get out, Lagger. And you too, Lady Ricinus — if you would be so kind,’ he ended mockingly.

  ‘The heir to House Ricinus is not yet of age, Chancellor,’ said Lady Ricinus. ‘It is my right and duty to represent him.’

  ‘This is not a trial,’ barked the chancellor. ‘And in time of war, when the enemy is within the city walls, all rights are bestowed, and taken away, at my discretion.’

  ‘They’re in Caulderon?’ cried Lady Ricinus, shrilly. ‘Who allowed the savages in? The general in charge should hang.’

  ‘They swarmed up into Tumulus Town an hour ago, through rat holes we did not know were there. I dare say they’re attacking other suburbs as well. I received the news on your very doorstep, Madam. Go! Close the door behind you, and look to the defences of the palace — if it’s not too late. You should have listened to your son when he pleaded to defend it.’

  ‘How — how did you know that?’

  ‘My spies tell me everything. Go!’

  She went. No one spoke for some time, then the chancellor said, quietly, ‘Lord Rixium, great challenges lie ahead. I need the best men in the land at my side, and I’ve had my eye on you for some time. We greatly appreciated your news about the caverns at Precipitous Crag and the mysterious activities at the Rat Hole the other day, not to mention your insights into the enemy’s new weaponry and tactics. Few men could have done what you did, nor rescued the Pale girl in the face of such odds, then gained her confidence.’

  Rix gave no audible answer and the chancellor continued.

  ‘Your deeds do you honour, and House Ricinus too. They will not be soon forgotten, but …’ He paused, then went on. ‘This house stands in grave need of honour, after the depraved antics of your father which have caused so much offence.’

  ‘Father is not … not a well man,’ said Rix hoarsely.

  Tali imagined sweat running down his handsome face.

  ‘I know more than I care to about Lord Ricinus,’ growled the chancellor. ‘Don’t apologise for the scoundrel.’

  ‘I do not. But I do owe Father a duty of respect.’

  ‘Quite so. Your mother, however, is in full command of herself.’ The chancellor finished with a whip crack.

  ‘I don’t take your meaning, Lord Chancellor,’ said Rix.

  ‘She has given mortal offence.’

  ‘I cannot see that, sir,’ Rix said weakly, ‘and I must defend her.’

  ‘That is your duty as a loyal son, but do so judiciously or you too may be tainted. I’m a realistic man — I allow for a degree of favours and douceurs. Many of the lesser hangers-on at court would be bankrupt were it not for their bribes, extortions and petty monopolies. But your mother, sir, assumes that everything is for sale — and everyone. She has gone too far and, should House Ricinus fall, it will be she who has brought it down.’

  ‘She can be a trifle abrasive, Lord Chancellor,’ said Rix, and Tali could hear the strain in his voice, the conflict. ‘Sometimes she strives too hard in her quest to serve our house, but — ’

  ‘Ricinus hangs by a thread, Lord Rixium. Were it not for your own valiant deeds, and your father’s prodigious and sorely needed gift of the Third Army, I would have nudged your house off the precipice myself.

  ‘But the gift has been made, gratitude is due and in war we need unity, not discord. Give me the girl and your house will survive. It may even rise to the absurd heights of Lady Ricinus’s ambition. Who knows? In the past, equally villainous rogues have clawed their way to the top, loudly pronounced themselves noble, and even become noble, in time.’

  ‘Why do you want Tali?’ said Rix.

  ‘Her knowledge of the enemy, and Cython, could win the war for us.’

  ‘But you already have Rannilt,’ cried Rix.

  ‘Who told you that?’ snapped the chancellor.

  ‘I too have my spies.’

  ‘No matter. Her knowledge of Cython was certainly useful, but full of gaps, and she sees things through a child’s eyes. Besides, she’s proven obdurate of late.’

  Tali smiled at that. How she missed the child.

  The chancellor dropped his voice. Now she had to strain to hear what he was saying, but the power of his voice was all the greater.

  ‘I want Tali, and I’m going to have her. Satisfy me on this and you will realise your dreams.’ He paused for a full minute. ‘But if you fail me, Lord Rixium, if Thalalie vi Torgrist is not delivered to me by the night of the Honouring, I swear that I will cast House Ricinus so low that a thousand years will pass before you can aspire to shovelling muck. From tonight, you have three days.’

  Rix did not reply. Tali would not have been able to. Such a threat to her own house would have stopped her heart.

  ‘I find myself desperately conflicted, Chancellor,’ Rix said, his deep voice even lower than normal. ‘I love my House, and I have always done my duty to it, but I love honour too — my personal honour.’

  ‘Then look to the hierarchy, boy,’ growled the chancellor. ‘Your country comes first, always. Where your country is not under threat your House comes first, always. Next is family, always. Only then do you count friendship and lesser liaisons. You have until the Honouring.’

  Hard heels tapped across the floor. The entrance door clicked open, clicked closed. He was gone.

  Tali felt sure that Rix would bow to the chancellor’s threat. He must, as she would have done in the same position. Would she put an acquaintance, or even a dear friend, before the survival of her House and all the members of her family? How could she? How could anyone? Rix knew she was hiding here somewhere and, for the sake of his country, house and family, he would have to turn her in.

  The door reopened. ‘Rixium?’ said Lady Ricinus. Her voice had a quaver.

  ‘The chancellor is displeased, Mother,’ said Rix.

  Her voice firmed. ‘And so am I. I told you to find her — ’

  ‘It’s you!’ Rix said, choking on the words. ‘He’s displeased with you, Mother.’

  ‘That’s absurd. I’m the very model of propriety …’

  ‘He’s taken grave offence at all your bribing, conniving and manipulating.’

  ‘It’s nothing that any other House has not been doing for generations. At least, any House with the least ambition — ’

  ‘If it’s nothing, how come our treasury is so bankrupt that the palace army hasn’t been paid?’

  ‘How dare you question me!’ she cried. ‘You are not — ’

  ‘Not of age,’ Rix snapped. ‘I soon will be, Mother, and if House Ricinus survives that long, I swear — ’

  ‘You don’t get the keys to the treasury until you become Lord Ricinus.’

  ‘And that’s unlikel
y to happen now, is it?’

  ‘What are you talking about?’ The uncertainty was creeping into her voice again.

  ‘If Tali isn’t produced by the Honouring, the chancellor is going to grind our House so low it will never rise again. And all because you tried to bribe him, Mother. The chancellor!’

  When she finally spoke, her voice was low and savage.

  ‘Then maybe it’s time to ensure that he can’t bring us down.’

  ‘Mother, that’s treason!’ cried Rix. ‘We’re at war — the chancellor is a strong, capable leader, the only one we’ve got …’

  ‘I spoke in haste,’ she hissed. ‘Erase my words from your memory. I never said them. Now get the damned portrait finished — and find that treacherous Pale.’

  Tali was trembling, shocked to her core. Taking her hand off the panel in case she made it rattle, she leaned back, thinking furiously. Rix had three days to save her, three days to betray her! And what if Lady Ricinus did carry out her threat?

  If she did cast the chancellor down, Tali did not see how Hightspall could survive.

  CHAPTER 68

  A t last, said the wrythen, the host is where I want her. I have the alkoyl and everything is in place. Now to pull the pieces together.Why the Solaces? clamoured the ancestor kings and queens. Why did you remake our people in a new image?

  He did not reply. Even if he had blundered there, he could not turn now. His next task was to complete the last leaf of The Consolation of Vengeance then, via the heatstone, wake the embedded command in Rixium. He was close to breaking point and the wrythen was confident that tonight he could tip Rixium over the edge. If necessary, he would take control of Tobry as well. It would be so much easier in the palace, where both men were bathed in the emanations from that enormous heatstone.

  Yes, tonight Rixium would take Tali down and do the deed, and once the wrythen had the master nuclix he would use Tobry to dispose of the thieving magian, Deroe. Then the wrythen would kill Tobry from within, Rixium from without, and all five nuclixes would be his.

  But he still had that niggling worry about the Herovians rising again. The wrythen had enlisted the intellects of all one hundred and seven ancestors in a collective mind-search for the Immortal Text but they had not found a trace of it. Surely it must have been destroyed.

  CHAPTER 69

  Rix dared not tell Tobry about his mother’s threat. Not only was it high treason to threaten the chancellor at a time of war, it was high treason to know about the plot and not inform him. My country first,always. So why was he keeping silent and praying that Lady Ricinus did not act on her threat? If Rix said nothing, and the threat was discovered, he would also be found guilty of high treason. But informing on his mother would destroy him.

  He turned away from the malignly twinkling heatstone. ‘Tobe, what am I to do about Tali? The chancellor’s left me no choice.’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Tobry heavily.

  ‘If he makes a threat, he carries it out. I can’t pretend to look for Tali. I can’t let her escape, and I can’t allow you to smuggle her away. Only one thing will satisfy him — that I deliver Tali to him by the night of the Honouring. If I don’t, he’s going to bring House Ricinus down.’

  ‘You have no choice. And neither do I.’

  Rix did Tobry the honour of not asking what his choice would be. It was better that he did not know. ‘How can I give her up? She saved our lives.’

  ‘I don’t suppose he’ll do her any real harm,’ said Tobry, over-casually. ‘And he does need to know about Cython.’

  Rix was never sure what Tobry was thinking, as when he had counselled Rix to leave Tali in the enemy’s hands but had actually been provoking him to ride to her rescue.

  ‘The chancellor is a vindictive swine. He’ll torture it out of her. He’ll break her.’

  ‘Tali wants to help her country, and a willing prisoner gives far more useful information than can be extracted by torture. She’ll be well taken care of, so where’s the harm in giving her up?’

  ‘Dammit, I like her.’

  ‘So … so do I,’ said Tobry. ‘But no friendship between you and Tali can equal the bonds of House and family.’

  ‘If she were to agree to it there’d be no difficulty,’ said Rix.

  ‘It would be a neat way out of your moral dilemma.’

  ‘Would you give her up — if you were me, I mean?’

  Again that little pause. ‘The question isn’t relevant. I’ve no House to protect, nor any family. Why are you so worried about this?’

  ‘The chancellor is a man of his word, but I never said he was a man of honour. It’s common knowledge that he despises the Pale.’

  Tobry sighed. ‘It’s worse than that. I did some checking in the archives yesterday. After House vi Torgrist died out, his ancestors seized most of its estates on a dubious legal claim. They have them still.’

  ‘So he has good reason to want her out of the way. If I give her up, I could be collaborating in the doom I divined for her.’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ said Tobry.

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Murder in the dark isn’t the chancellor’s style. Anyway, since we don’t have the faintest idea where Tali’s got to, the question is academic.’

  ‘There’s another thing,’ said Rix.

  ‘From the grim expression you’re wearing, I thought there must have been.’

  ‘I lay down a while ago and immediately had another of those ice leviathan nightmares.’

  ‘I’m not surprised. The polar ice spreads further north each day, and every day is colder than the one before.’

  ‘An early winter is a bitter winter. This nightmare was the strongest I’ve ever had, as if it had been building up all week, waiting for the right time to get to me.’ He paused, walked back and forth. ‘And the voice was back in my head.’

  ‘What voice?’ said Tobry sharply. ‘You’ve never mentioned a voice before.’

  ‘Too ashamed,’ said Rix quietly. ‘And too afraid.’

  ‘That noble Tobry, fresh from presiding over the ruination of his own house, would judge you?’

  Rix flushed. ‘It seems stupid now, but at the time … last week seems like half a lifetime ago.’

  ‘How long have you been hearing the voice?’

  ‘Years and years, and it’s getting stronger all the time.’

  ‘What does it say?’

  ‘I can never remember the words. But …’ The shame was burning him. And the terror that it might come true. Rix choked, then gasped out, ‘It’s always got to do with taking her down and cutting it out.’

  ‘Taking who down?’

  ‘Her. Just her. But it’s obvious, isn’t it?’

  ‘It’s beginning to look that way,’ Tobry said grimly. ‘Cutting what out?’

  ‘I’m not sure it’s ever been specified.’ Rix looked down at his big hands as if expecting to see blood there. ‘I feel sick.’

  He brought out the whited-out sketch and perched it on its easel.

  ‘I can see every line and dab in my mind’s eye,’ said Tobry. ‘I dare say you can, too.’

  They stared at the blank surface.

  ‘I can’t stop seeing it,’ said Rix. ‘No need to wonder who the faceless man is at the end of the bench, then.’

  Tobry attempted to speak but nothing came out.

  ‘It’s me,’ said Rix. ‘I’ve divined myself murdering Tali.’

  Tobry stirred, as though to deny it, but again failed to speak.

  ‘Do you wonder that I think I’m going mad?’ said Rix.

  ‘You’re not going mad.’

  ‘But you can’t gainsay what I’ve divined, can you?’

  ‘It’s just a bloody sketch, Rix!’ snapped Tobry. ‘We all think bad thoughts from time to time, but we don’t carry them out.’

  ‘Then why do I feel so sick inside? Every nightmare tells me that I’ve committed some atrocity and I’m going to do it again.’

  ‘Have you committed any a
trocities lately?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Rix cried out. ‘But I’ve felt this way for years, and it’s getting worse. It can’t come out of nowhere, can it?’

  Tobry shrugged and avoided his eye. ‘You wouldn’t hurt Tali, or any woman. You’ve always looked after the small and the unfortunate. It’s preposterous.’

  ‘I think so too,’ said Rix. ‘There’s just one problem.’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘In my nightmares, the voice always beats me.’

  ‘It must be the wrythen.’

  ‘And it always forces me to do what it wants.’

  ‘Then you’d better do the sketch again,’ said Tobry. ‘But this time, don’t let the divination control you — you’ve got to control it.’

  ‘What if I can’t?’

  CHAPTER 70

  The boy’s memories hidden inside Rix were Tali’s most important line of evidence. She remembered the horror in his eyes and the vomit splattered down his front. He might have followed the killers to the cellar in innocent curiosity. Then, when they began their terrible work, he would have been afraid to move in case they killed him too. No wonder he had blocked everything out.

  After groping her way around under the tub she discovered rungs running down a round shaft. Should she go down, or back? She needed to question Rix before it was too late, but the chancellor’s searchers could still be here. Tali went down.

  After descending twenty-four rungs she came to a side passage that smelled of stale sweat, bad food and damp bedding. Thinking that it probably led to servant’s quarters, she continued past and shortly encountered a cross tunnel. To the right, an air current carried a hint of cinnamon and musk that reminded her of the chancellor. Not that way.

  The other direction smelled of mouldering stone. No glimmer of light penetrated these spaces but Tali’s nose and fingers could read stone in ways no one from the surface could understand, and this stone spoke of great age. She must be in the ancient, inner section of the palace, perhaps within one of its walls.

  She climbed several steps, went along a horizontal passage and after some minutes caught a strong, ointment odour mixed with the reek of spilled wine and spirits — Lord Ricinus. She was feeling along the wall when her fingers encountered a small round plug standing proud of the surface. She wiggled it out and a thread-like beam shone onto her forehead — a peephole.