The Empire's Ghost

by Isabelle Steiger

“I am certain,” Morgan said, and Braddock nodded.

  Deinol rolled his eyes so violently at the woman, it was a wonder they didn’t pop out of his skull. “I can’t believe we’re going to—”

  “Hush,” Lucius said. “Wouldn’t be courteous of us to leave the women behind while we made our escape, would it?”

  Deinol sniffed. “Those two want for courtesy as much as a stone wants bread.”

  Lucius glanced at the woman, and she looked up for the first time, meeting his gaze halfway. “Is this all right with you?” he asked.

  She shrugged. “You can settle it whatever way you like.”

  “You see?” Deinol hissed, but Lucius just shook his head again. He looked to Morgan and Braddock.

  “If this goes wrong,” Lucius said, “it’s all on my head. But I don’t imagine that’ll be any comfort to you.”

  “Leave off the sentiment and tell him we’ve decided, will you?” Braddock growled. “If I have to rot in a cell, I’d at least like an emptier one.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  The woman stayed quiet when she was fetched out of the cell with Seth, Lucius, and Deinol, and when their weapons were returned to them and they were escorted, by a dozen guards, out the massive double doors of the Citadel. She looked at the worn paving stones as the group made its way down the path that led from the castle to the walls surrounding it, entirely made of the strange, pitch-black stone that had so awed Seth when he first came to Valyanrend. He’d never been on the other side of them before. As the guards shouted commands to the men on the walls, ordering the gate raised and the drawbridge lowered, he couldn’t resist glancing behind him, even though the dim predawn light made it hard to see. The Citadel itself was the largest castle he had ever seen, studded with more than a dozen tapering towers. The entire edifice was made out of marble that might have been white once, long ago. What Seth could see was a melancholy gray, insubstantial and ghostly beside the dark outer walls. And then he was being shoved forward, a guardsman forcing him through the gate and over the bridge. The guards left them on the other side, retreating back behind the black walls, and they were free to go on their way.

  They weren’t ten steps out of sight of the Citadel when the woman tried to make a run for it, but even Seth had been expecting that. He’d never have caught her himself, but Lucius slipped his fingers around her wrist easily, pulling her up short. She didn’t even try to shake him off; perhaps she’d been expecting that, too.

  “Not so nice of you,” Lucius said, still holding her fast. “The boy did you quite a good turn, as I recall.”

  “I did him one first,” she replied, but when she looked at Seth, her eyes were mild.

  Seth scratched the back of his neck. “I’m sorry. I know I should’ve asked you before I—”

  “Why apologize to her?” Deinol asked. “She’s the one who got helped out of it.”

  “I didn’t ask for any help, and I certainly didn’t need it,” the woman snapped. “I have you to thank only for your unwanted interference, and you have yourself to thank for any misfortune that came of it.”

  “That’s a sour attitude to take, considering we just saved your life,” Deinol protested.

  The woman glared at him. “Don’t be an idiot. If you lot had just stayed wherever you came from, I could’ve had myself out and the boy, too. This is far from the first prison I’ve seen the wrong side of—they never hold me for long.”

  Deinol made her a low, sweeping bow, twirling his wrists outward. “Well, I do beg your pardon. It’s not a mistake I’ll make twice, I assure you.”

  “Easy,” Lucius said. “Don’t forget we’ve far more unfortunate decisions to weigh.”

  “Oh, Morgan’s going to kill us all,” Deinol moaned, clutching his head. “Even if she has to do it from beyond the grave, she won’t let that stop her. Gods, but they’ll never let her out, or Braddock, either.”

  “If they don’t,” Lucius said, “we’ll just have to find some other way.”

  “Hard to do that if they kill you on your return,” the woman said. “And they have every reason to do just that.”

  Lucius glanced over at her. “Did you say you’d bested many prisons, miss? Well, many men have tried to kill me, for more reasons than I care to count. I’m still here.”

  The woman shrugged. “Please yourself. It’s not my business to dissuade people from seeking their deaths.”

  Lucius hardly seemed to be listening, staring at some point beyond her. But finally he turned to her again. “You should come with us,” he said.

  Deinol nearly choked on a mouthful of air. “What?”

  “I rather agree with that sentiment,” the woman said. “I don’t have the time or the inclination for such a jaunt, and I’m surprised you’d even want me.”

  “Why?” Lucius asked. “You’re skilled, aren’t you?”

  She frowned. “What makes you say that? You don’t know anything about me.”

  “I know you got out of that cell on your own. I know that the guards didn’t disarm you when they took that sword away, no matter what they might have thought.” He nodded at the sturdy one-hander she had received when Lucius and Deinol got their own swords back. “You had a knife up your sleeve the whole time—and more than that, I think, if I had to wager on it.”

  Seth remembered that little movement he’d seen her make in the hall, sliding one hand to the opposite wrist. That made sense, if she’d been reaching for a knife. He watched her face, but her continuing frown told him nothing.

  “I don’t doubt you have a smattering of skill yourself,” she said at last, “and I won’t claim to be entirely without some of my own. But I’m not what you would call trustworthy, and I think you know it. Even if you’re fool enough to seek my help, I’m not fool enough to offer it. I told you, I don’t owe you anything.”

  “But we would owe you,” Lucius said.

  “And what use is that to me? I’m not one to go about collecting debts.” She tried to flick her eyes away, but Lucius turned about, keeping himself in her view.

  “Listen,” he said, “I’m not too proud to know my own limits. Deinol and I are good, but the city’s our territory, and out there … I think we’re going to need help, and I know you can provide it. So help us, and any business you’re on, any task you need done…” He stopped, struck by a sudden thought. “Weren’t you looking for someone? A soldier?”

  She shook her head. “If you’re going to offer to help me look for Norse, there’s no need. I know where he is—or at least where he was, and I’ve no need to inquire further.”

  “Then—”

  “Yes,” she said. “I lied. I’m sorry if you’re shocked, but I felt it was the most sensible thing to do, under the circumstances.”

  Deinol started forward. “Then you really are in the—”

  She curled her fingers as if she wished they’d been around his throat. “No, for the gods’ sakes, I’d never even heard of your blasted resistance until they told me I was apparently part of it. I’ve half a mind to join, though, after all this.”

  Lucius spread his hands. “Fine. Forget that. Forget Norse and the resistance and all of it. I won’t ask why you’re here, or what you were doing at the Night Market. But you could get us to Hornoak, couldn’t you? If you were so inclined.”

  “I could, aye,” she said, after only a moment’s hesitation. “I’ve been there before, and to many more dangerous places. But as I’m not so inclined—”

  “Then what would it take to change your mind?”

  She was quiet for a while, her jaw clenching tight as she looked up at the sky. “Any task, you said?” she asked at last. “Even something … dishonorable?”

  Lucius laughed, but it was brittle. “I dishonored myself a long time ago. Another stain or two won’t make much difference.”

  The woman cocked her head, looking back over at him, but this time Lucius avoided her eyes. She shifted her gaze to the ground instead, scuffing the cobbles with the toe of one b
oot. “I’ll help you find this thing Elgar wants, and then you’ll do something for me. Is that the deal?”

  He frowned. “You won’t tell us what it is?”

  “No, I won’t, because I don’t trust you, no matter what you have decided about me. I’m not going to ask you to kill anyone, and you won’t get killed unless you’re stupid—which is as much of a risk as I take going to Hornoak. Beyond that, you’ll have to wait.”

  “Wait until when?” Deinol asked.

  She considered it. “I’ll take you to Hornoak, and if this rock or whatever it is really is there, I’ll help you get it. That should be enough time to make up my mind, one way or another. I’ll either tell you then, or else I’ll decide you’re useless, and we need have no more to do with one another.”

  Lucius hesitated. “We’ll need to bring it back here first to get Morgan and Braddock freed.”

  She shook her head. “My business is in the east. If you think I’m going to stroll to Hornoak and back before I get to it, you greatly underestimate the value of my time. I’m late enough as it is.”

  “Late for what?” Deinol asked, but she ignored him.

  Lucius tapped his palms together, then faced her again. “All right. You help us find it, and then I’ll help you. I don’t suppose Morgan and Braddock will be going anywhere.” When she made no further protest, he continued, “One last thing—if we’re going to be traveling together, shouldn’t we know what to—”

  “Seren,” she said. “Almasy.” Then, when the three of them blinked at her, “My name. That’s what you wanted, right?”

  “It was,” Lucius admitted, “but I’m … surprised. When Oswhent asked—”

  “He had no right to it,” she said. “That’s all.” She walked away from them, moving farther down the street. “There’s something I have to fetch beyond the city walls, but I will not move on from there. I’ll meet you just outside the east gate—you have until then to change your minds.”

  “Are you sure that wasn’t stupid?” Deinol asked, once she was gone. “Because it sure seemed that way from where I was standing.”

  Lucius shrugged. “You’ve never even been outside the city, and I haven’t left it in years. I could wish for a less enigmatic traveling companion, but we’re not like to get one.”

  Deinol rubbed at his face. “I should just let Morgan kill me and be done with it.”

  * * *

  Roger tapped his chin. “You know, I knew an Oswhent once—incredibly dull man, that one was. Married my aunt Rheila after her first husband died, but we never really considered him part of the family—Halfens’ve always lived by their wits, Gran said, and that one couldn’t make up a story if you gave him the words and forged an official document affirming it—”

  “That’s wonderful, Roger,” Lucius said, “and you have successfully proven, once again, that there is no event you cannot tie back to your illustrious family in some way. But I think Morgan would be quite irritated if she were to hear you going on like this while she’s locked up, so let’s try to use some of those Halfen wits, shall we?”

  The Dragon’s Head seemed all wrong without Morgan in it, the space behind the bar dreary and stale instead of welcoming. It was closed until her return, not that that stopped them—it was still the best place for the rest of them to meet, whether Morgan was there or not.

  Roger slouched forward on the bar, resting his chin in his hands. He was acting cheery enough, but Seth thought he must have been worried. They had taken so long that he’d given up waiting for them in the vestry, and they’d had to track him down back in Sheath. Who could say what troubles he must’ve thought had befallen them in that time? “Fine, fine, back to this business about Hornoak. No, I haven’t heard a word about anything of value there. What’s it matter? We’ll find another way to spring them.”

  Lucius shook his head. “Better to follow the rules this once, Roger. I think Elgar means to keep his end of the bargain.”

  “You aren’t even curious about what this object is?”

  “No,” Lucius said. “I figure the less we know about it, the better. Elgar was counting on our not being tempted, and the best way not to be tempted is not to hear anything that might tempt us. I’m not about to play around with Morgan’s and Braddock’s lives.”

  Roger waved him off. “All right, all right. It’s no harm done to me if you go. Just keep your wits about you.” He looked over at Seth. “And as for you, I had no idea you’d pulled off a bit of pilfering of your own! You act like such an upstanding young fellow that even I’d never have suspected. A pity I couldn’t have examined that trinket you nicked.”

  Seth grinned. “You can, if you like.”

  Deinol stared at him. “You said—”

  “That I sold it,” Seth finished. “I lied.”

  That made them all stare at him, until finally Roger broke the silence by laughing. “My boy, I take it all back! Perhaps you’d make a decent apprentice after all. Who knew you had it in you to lie so brazenly to Elgar’s guard?”

  “Not me, I’m sure,” Seth said. “But … well, I couldn’t lead them back to the Dragon’s Head, could I?”

  He fetched the pendant from the little pile that contained all his worldly possessions—it was buried at the bottom, stuffed inside a sock. He still couldn’t figure out what was so special about it—it was just a bit of silver set with a dull gem that might have been an emerald, though it was so small as to hardly matter. It was barely even pretty; he couldn’t imagine it’d be valuable.

  Roger said much the same thing, once he’d gotten a chance to examine it. “My boy, I hate to tell you, but folks’ve dropped more expensive pieces than this in the street and hardly considered it a loss.” He turned it over, running his thumb along the edge. “How did you ever get it in the first place?”

  Seth clasped his hands out in front of him, feeling his shoulders draw together. “It’s from back when I was with the army.”

  “Then that was true too?” Deinol asked, leaning toward him over the bar. “You’re a deserter?”

  Seth shook his head. “No, I wasn’t a soldier; I just hung around the camp because I didn’t know where else to go. They were willing to feed me if I ran messages and things, that’s all. I thought they’d let me fight eventually, when I got older, but I only wanted that at first. I didn’t … realize what it would be like. I thought they’d actually teach us to fight, for one thing, and I haven’t learned anything about that to this day. I never saw any battles or anything, but I saw men killed, bandits and the like, and our own men sometimes, and … well, it wasn’t very long before I’d had enough of that.

  “There was this man there who … I don’t know if he liked me or liked taunting me, but he wanted to have me around, and sometimes he’d make me sit with him while he got drunk and played whatever game of chance he liked best that night. He’s the one who stole it—or else he got it from the one who did; I don’t know. But he never said anything about taking it from Elgar’s men; he just looked hard at me, and talked about how there had been a boy about my age ‘who won’t be needing this anymore,’ he said, and pulled it from his pocket to make sure I could see. That was the night I ran for it—he drank so much he passed out, and I was used to running errands for him, so nobody minded me on his horse until I was well away.”

  Roger gave him a teasing rap on the top of the head. “And here you always said you were no pickpocket.”

  Seth blushed. “I wasn’t. He left it on the table.”

  They all laughed at that, and Seth hardly minded. “So you just kept it all this time?” Lucius asked.

  “I figured I’d save it for a pinch,” Seth said. “I was about to try it when Deinol first found me. When I started working for Morgan I offered it to her, as thanks for taking me in, but she just told me it wasn’t charity, that she intended to work me damned hard, and I should save the thing until I found someone else to give it to. So I meant to do that, but, ah, mostly I just forgot about it.”

&nbs
p; Deinol whistled. “Then Morgan knew you had it the whole time? She never even blinked when you told Oswhent you’d sold it.”

  “She’s a better liar than Seth,” Roger said—this was true. “If he could pull it off, I’m not surprised she could follow.”

  Seth took the pendant from Roger’s open palm, turning it in the light, then set it back down on the bar. “I think … if it’s not too much trouble, I think you should keep it for now, Roger. We shouldn’t bring valuables where we’re going, and maybe you can find out what it is, or why they wanted it so much.” He grinned. “And if it gets too hot for you, I know you know what to do with it.”

  Roger grinned back at him, but Lucius looked pensive. “I won’t stop you from going with us, Seth, but maybe it’d be better if you stayed with Roger. We don’t know what we’ll find out there.”

  Seth shook his head. “I’ve spent more time outside the city walls than Deinol ever did—my whole life, save the last handful of years of it. I haven’t been to Hornoak proper, but I’ve been near it, and much else besides. I may not be able to help much, but I can help.”

  “I don’t see the harm in it,” Deinol said, ruffling Seth’s hair. “If the boy ran with soldiers, a bandit or two on the road shouldn’t scare him.”

  “There’s a bandit or two right in front of me,” Seth pointed out, “and I’m not scared.”

  “True, true.” He yawned. “Gods, I’d love to sleep, but I’d hear Morgan scolding me even in my dreams. Besides, I don’t trust that woman to wait long—what was it, Almasy? Seren Almasy? Don’t trust her to do much of anything, truth be told, but especially not that.”

  “She’s all right,” Seth said. “She did try to help me, and I would only have been more trouble for her.”

  Deinol laughed. “It must’ve been your lovely face that won her over, my boy. Next thing you know, she’ll be sweet on you.”

  Seth hid his red face in his hands, but he doubted any of them were fooled.

  * * *

  Elgar traced a circle around Hornoak with one long finger, pursing his lips absently. “They took the boy?”