The Traitor Queen tst-3

by Trudi Canavan

  Achati opened his mouth to reply, but another voice cut him off.

  “Well, well. Ashaki Achati. What brings you to the Guild House at this late hour?”

  Dannyl and Achati turned to see Tayend stroll into the room. The Elyne’s lips thinned in apology as he approached Achati. He glanced at Dannyl. “Merria is helping out,” he added quietly, reassuring Dannyl that Lorkin wasn’t dealing with the slaves alone.

  Achati nodded. “I was sent to make another attempt to persuade Lorkin to talk tomorrow, but...” He repeated his warning about the abductor. “That is my true reason for visiting.”

  “You think Dannyl should interrogate the slaves?”

  “Yes, to find out which is the spy.”

  “Wouldn’t that be dangerous? You said this spy is a magician? How strong is he? Is he a higher magician?”

  “I don’t know,” Achati admitted. “Probably. He has been ordered not to kill anybody. He...” His gaze shifted to the doorway Tayend had entered through. Dannyl followed his gaze and felt a shock of surprise as Lorkin walked into the room.

  The young man’s gaze met Dannyl’s, then slid away. His eyes were very dark and his face pale. Straightening his back, he gave Achati a forced smile.

  “Ashaki Achati. What brings you here so late at night?” Lorkin asked, his tone jovial but strained. “Come to take me back to the palace prison?”

  A strange, pained look crossed Achati’s face, then the man’s expression smoothed. “No, no. I am trying to prevent that.”

  What was that expression? Dannyl asked himself. Then he felt a jolt as he recognised what he had glimpsed: sympathy and sorrow. He felt his recent doubts about Achati weaken a little.

  “Achati has warned us that a spy among the slaves is going to attempt to abduct you soon,” Tayend said.

  Lorkin’s eyes widened and he looked from Tayend to Dannyl. “Really?”

  “Yes,” Dannyl replied. “Tomorrow night, or a following night.”

  Dannyl was relieved to see Lorkin’s eyes narrow as he considered the implications. He looked at Achati again.

  “Why are you helping us?” he asked bluntly.

  “I...” Achati sighed and looked down, then lifted his head to regard Tayend, Lorkin and Dannyl in turn. “I don’t like how the king is treating you. Sachaka may not need Kyralia as an ally, but it also doesn’t need another enemy. We received news a few months ago that has divided our opinion. The...” Achati paused and frowned, then shook his head. “I see no way to explain this without telling you: our spy among the Duna revealed that the Traitors proposed they join forces and attempt to take over Sachaka.”

  Dannyl felt a chill run down his spine. I wonder...

  “Unh?” he asked.

  Achati smiled. “I’m hardly going to tell you who our spies are, Dannyl.”

  “No,” Dannyl agreed. “But Unh’s name did spark some interesting reactions from his people when I mentioned it. If it is him, then I suspect they know he is a spy.”

  “The Duna turned down the Traitors. Many of the Ashaki have concluded that the Traitors would not approach the Duna unless they needed them, and they feel confident the Traitors would not win a confrontation with us.”

  Was this why the Traitors had destroyed the Duna’s stone caves? Was it punishment for refusing to help? Dannyl wondered.

  “The king agrees,” Achati continued. “He does not believe the Guild is to be feared. He says you are a Guild of only two magicians. It is more important to rid Sachaka of the Traitor threat before they become strong enough to beat us than to avoid offending Kyralia and the Allied Lands. Only the voices of Ashaki who do not want to lose trade and peace with the Allied Lands, like myself, prevent him taking the information from Lorkin by force.”

  A tense silence followed Achati’s words. Lorkin was staring at the floor. The young magician sighed and narrowed his eyes at Achati.

  “You wouldn’t have come here if you weren’t willing to work against your king’s orders and wishes,” he said. “How far are you willing to go?”

  The Sachakan stared back at Lorkin. He looked uncertain. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “There’s a big difference between preventing my king doing something foolish, and outright betrayal. What do you have in mind?”

  Lorkin opened his mouth to reply, but did not get to speak.

  “Take the spy away,” Tayend injected. “Make him disappear.”

  Dannyl frowned. Though it was a test of Achati’s trustworthiness, it was not a good one. If Achati took the spy to the king instead, the king would still claim that Lorkin wasn’t safe in the Guild House – and he would find out Savi was a Traitor, too.

  “No,” Lorkin said. “Take me.”

  Dannyl blinked in surprise. Maybe he hasn’t realised this could all be a trick to get us to trust Achati. Tayend shook his head and laid a hand on Lorkin’s arm, but before anyone could speak, Lorkin raised his hands to stall their protests.

  “I’m not stupid. I know it’s a risk.” He looked at Achati levelly. “He could hand me over to the king, but judging by the number of slaves here that aren’t slaves – and I don’t mean they’re Traitors – I’m going to end up back at the palace soon anyway.”

  This time the shiver that travelled down Dannyl’s back sent cold through his whole body. Just how many spies are there? How many of them are magicians?

  “All you need to do is smuggle me out of the Guild House and take me to your mansion,” Lorkin told Achati. “The Traitors will arrange the rest. They will ensure the king does not know your part in my escape. In return, and not until I am sure of my safety and freedom...” Lorkin sighed, then his expression hardened “... I will answer the question your king most wants to ask me. I will tell you where the Traitors’ home is.”

  Achati stared back at Lorkin, his surprise changing to thoughtfulness, then approval. He nodded. “I can do that. It won’t be easy getting you into the carriage unseen but—”

  “Lorkin,” Dannyl interrupted. “You don’t have to betray the trust of—”

  “Let him go,” Tayend said. He met Dannyl’s eyes, his gaze sharp and unwavering, and nodded. Dannyl felt a stab of anger, but it quickly faded.

  Tayend wouldn’t do anything to risk Lorkin’s life unnecessarily. He must think this will work. Or that it is the only chance Lorkin has. Which meant that Tayend thought Achati was telling the truth. How strange that it is Tayend who trusts Achati now, when I’m no longer sure of him.

  Dannyl could believe that Achati didn’t approve of the king’s actions, but it would take a lot to convince him that the man was willing to go against his ruler’s orders, and risk that his actions would be discovered and considered treachery. He would lose not just the king’s trust, but his position, reputation and wealth. And possibly his life.

  But Dannyl couldn’t think of an alternative, so he watched in silence as Achati and Lorkin sealed their agreement with vows. When they were done, Tayend beamed at them all.

  “Perfect! Now all we have to do is figure out how to get Lorkin into Achati’s carriage without any of those pesky watchers noticing.”

  * * *

  Finishing her cup of raka, Lilia sighed with relief. In the last day or so she had begun to feel a bit worn around the edges – like the old clothes Jonna had given her to wear when she visited Anyi, Cery and Gol. Late nights spent underground and early morning lessons with Kallen were starting to take a toll.

  She suppressed a groan at the thought of facing Kallen this morning. Anyi had told her about the cellar she, Cery and Gol had found under the Guild, and the conversation they’d overheard. From the descriptions, she suspected the two magicians were Lady Vinara and the Healer in charge of growing cure ingredients.

  The news that they wanted to grow roet had shocked her at first, but it made sense. She didn’t agree with Cery’s theory that the Guild wanted to grow roet in order to put Skellin out of business – or at least prevent him being the sole supplier of the drug to magicians. It was far more lik
ely that the Guild wanted it to help them find a cure for roet addiction, as well as to explore the plant’s potential as a cure for other maladies. After all, cures for the ill effects of plants were often found in the very plant that caused them.

  But the news that the Guild was seeking roet seeds roused other suspicions, and for that reason she was not looking forward to meeting Kallen. Part of her wanted to confront him with what she’d learned. Is this why he won’t help Cery set a trap for Skellin? Are he, and the other magicians addicted to roet, afraid of removing Skellin in case it cuts off the roet supply?

  Cery had told her to keep what she knew to herself, unless she had good reason to reveal it. She would have to pretend not to know anything while around Kallen, and somehow act as if she didn’t suspect him of having selfish motives for failing to help her friends.

  “You’re lost in thought today,” Jonna noted. She moved to the table and leaned down to pick up the empty dishes from the morning meal. As she did, Lilia caught a strange but pleasant fragrance.

  “Are you wearing perfume, Jonna?” she asked.

  Jonna hesitated and looked a little guilty. “Yes.”

  “What’s wrong?” Lilia frowned. “You don’t usually wear perfume. Are servants not supposed to?”

  “Oh, nobody would be that fussy,” Jonna waved a hand, “but... Sonea doesn’t like this one. It was hers, but after she found out what it was made from she told me to throw it out. I like it and... well you can’t blame the plant for what it is. I don’t wear it when I’ll be around her, of course.”

  “Which is why I haven’t noticed it before.” Lilia nodded. “It is lovely. What’s it made from?”

  Once again, Jonna looked sheepish. “Roet flowers.”

  Surprised, Lilia sniffed the air and tried to find some link between the odour and the smell of roet smoke. “It’s hard to believe the scent comes from the same plant.” Then something else occurred to her. “Where do the perfume makers get roet flowers from?”

  Jonna shrugged. “I suppose from the people who grow it for the drug.”

  Thinking back to Healing lessons on the sources of the Guild’s cures, Lilia considered what she knew about plants. Flowers usually contained a plant’s seeds. The Guild wanted roet seeds. From what Anyi had said, the plants the Guild had grown were not roet. They’d been tricked. Cery didn’t think any roet grower would dare sell seeds to the Guild – though they weren’t averse to cheating the Guild for what would have been a huge profit by substituting some other plant seed. If Skellin found out they had sold anyone roet seed, they wouldn’t live long.

  Cery didn’t think roet was grown in Kyralia at all. He suspected it was cultivated elsewhere, harvested and dried before it was shipped to Imardin. Was the same true of the perfume? Most perfume makers were based in Elyne. Did they need fresh plants, or would dried ones do for making perfume?

  Lilia stood up. “I had better go. Don’t want to be late and make Kallen nervous.”

  Jonna smiled. “See you tonight.”

  As she walked to the Arena, Lilia considered everything she knew and how little she could reveal in order to get answers to her questions. In brief moments of rest during Kallen’s lesson she weighed the risks and benefits. The sooner the Guild gets roet seeds, the sooner Kallen will help Cery. I just need to work out how to tell Kallen that I know the Guild is trying to grow it without revealing how I know...

  She did not head to the University as soon as Kallen said they were done. He already had that distant, distracted manner where he didn’t meet her eyes but gazed into the distance when she approached him. As he saw she wasn’t leaving, he frowned and then his lips thinned.

  “You can go now,” he told her again.

  “I know, but I thought you’d like to know something: word on the street is that the Guild tried to buy roet seeds. Is it true?”

  His gaze snapped to hers. His pupils widened. That got your attention, she thought.

  “You shouldn’t believe everything you hear from your friends,” he told her.

  “But it’s true, isn’t it?” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Is this why you won’t help Cery? Afraid the supply will run out if the supplier is captured?”

  Kallen’s eyes flashed with anger and his jaw tightened. “You have no idea how lucky you are,” he told her.

  She blinked in surprise then felt a flash of anger. “Lucky? Me? My closest friend tricked me into learning black magic to set me up for murdering her father, then tried to kill me. The only people who care about me are far away, or likely to die any day now.”

  His eyes widened, then his expression softened. “I apologise. I only meant...” He looked away, grimacing as if in pain. “You are fortunate to avoid being trapped by roet. There are many, many magicians who wish they had your resistance.”

  Like yourself, she thought. But she found she couldn’t sustain her disgust at him. His reputation as a man whose integrity was infallible was essential to his role as a black magician. To lose his will to a mere pleasure drug must be humiliating, and would have shaken his confidence. The fact that he was a black magician must be making the other magicians who knew of his affliction nervous. Though, it was as frightening to contemplate what could happen if high numbers of ordinary magicians were held hostage by Skellin.

  “How many?” she asked, unable to keep the concern from her voice.

  He frowned. “I can’t tell you that. But... we are doing something about helping them.”

  “By trying to grow it?”

  “To take control of the supply at least. To find a cure or breed a less damaging drug if we can.” Kallen sighed. “You are partly right. We may reduce our chances to acquire seeds if Skellin is killed. We can’t risk attempting to catch him. Yet.” He met her gaze levelly and a fierce determination entered his gaze. “I promise once we have what we need we will find and remove Skellin. That may include accepting your friend’s offer, if he is still willing to take the risk.”

  Lilia nodded. She considered what he had told her. It made sense, and she could see no hint that he was lying. There was no advantage in holding back from telling him her idea.

  “Did you know there’s a new perfume being sold in the city that is made from roet flowers?”

  His eyebrows rose and the spark of interest she had expected flared in his eyes. “No.”

  “They have to get the flowers from somewhere.” She smiled. “Maybe the Guild should investigate. Anyway, I should be getting to the next class.”

  “Yes. Don’t be late...” he said distractedly.

  She left him standing there. When she looked back she saw that, as always, his gaze had fixed on the distance again, but this time he wore an expression of startled realisation.

  * * *

  It was almost unbearably stuffy and hot in the cart, and Lorkin had lost count of the times he’d had to grab his nose to stop sneezing. Like the other slaves in the vehicle, he was covered in a grey powder meant to kill off body lice. For the same reason, his hair had been shaved off. His ankles were chained together and to a metal loop in the centre of the cart’s floor.

  His back itched and burned where he’d been whipped, and he had to resist the constant urge to Heal the welts. There had been no reason for the punishment other than the driver establishing his superiority, after Ashaki Achati’s slave master had warned that “this one is trouble”. He resisted gazing in horror at his fellow passengers and tried to hide the anger he felt at their fate. They were the rejects of the city’s slaves, too old, damaged, ugly or disobedient to be of use to their former owners. As far as they knew, they were being shipped off to work in a mine in the south of the Steelbelt mountains.

  Bartering had been quick and few questions had been asked, to hasten the sale. Apparently some Sachakans believed that a slave who had been born into a household ought to be cared for by that household if he or she had worked hard for their master, or was crippled in their service. Sometimes they followed the mine cart around, calling shame upo
n owners who sold slaves to it. None of these protestors had pursued the cart today. It had trundled to the edge of the city without attracting any attention.

  Now it was rolling slowly out into the countryside. Lorkin closed his eyes and thought back to his escape from the Guild House.

  Tayend had come up with the solution to getting Lorkin out without the watchers noticing. They knew it was likely that the watchers had counted how many slaves Achati had brought with him, so he had gone out to the carriage and told one that he was being loaned to the Guild House to help keep an eye on Lorkin, but in truth to spy on the magicians.

  Once the slave had been accepted with thanks and sent off to join the rest, Lorkin had donned Achati’s clothing, padding his torso by stuffing his clothes with clean rags. Achati had put on a slave’s wrap. It would have been amusing to watch Tayend instructing the dignified Ashaki how to walk with a slave’s hunch, if they hadn’t all been so worried that their plan would fail.

  As always, the courtyard of the Guild House had been lit by one lamp and they had both kept their faces turned from it. At Tayend’s suggestion they had kept their actions simple: Lorkin strode out of the House and into the carriage, Achati had hurried after and climbed onto the back of the carriage. They’d left the Guild House without any interference. All the way to Achati’s home, Lorkin had sat rigid in the carriage, waiting for a call for them to halt, but none came. Once the carriage passed through the gate of Achati’s mansion, the Ashaki climbed inside the carriage and they’d quickly exchanged clothing.

  Lorkin’s rescuer had told him to stay put, then left to have a quiet conversation with a man Lorkin learned later was the household’s slave master. Achati had returned to explain his plan. Once again Lorkin would be disguised as a slave, only this time he must be prepared to endure much harsher treatment – and hope that there were Traitors among Achati’s all-male slaves.

  I also have to hope that they saw and recognised me, found out I’d been put on the cart, were able to pass on messages to other Traitors, and that the Traitors are actually able to catch up with the cart, stop it and free me without revealing their, and my, identities.