Arch Magos Zhivel nodded stiffly. “Six, Cobalt,” she agreed and stood from her chair, striking a regal pose. “Let us thank Librarian Mikan for his assistance in this historic event,” she said, raising her hands to applaud, prompting the entire room to follow suit.
Librarian Mikan motioned for his servants to collect the pedestal, ledger and orb as he stood. After they had taken the articles from him, he bowed low in a practiced fashion and turned to Arch Magos Zhivel. “I hope that this will broker a greater trust and friendship between the Archives and The Guild,” he said graciously.
“As do I,” replied Zhivel, who never flinched and whose eyes never left him until the Librarian had exited the chamber.
When the Librarian had left, the Arch Magos turned and strode purposefully toward me, stopping less than a foot from my face as she towered over me. I hadn’t exactly expected her to be so forward, so I was a little taken aback.
“It would appear fate has decreed that the interests of House Listoh and House Wiegraf are more deeply intertwined than we had believed,” she said in a voice so low only I could hear her. “House Listoh does not abandon her children, under any circumstances,” she said in a cold, hard tone which became a hiss, “and we will most certainly not abandon little Alistair.”
I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed, so I tilted my head as respectfully as I could. This wasn’t how I had envisioned the evening playing out.
Arch Magos Zhivel snapped her fingers at Marizzi, who was now in barely-controlled tears but kept her face a stoic mask as she clung to her son.
“Give Alistair to his father,” the Matron of House Listoh ordered, “as per the agreement between our Great Houses.” When Marizzi defiantly held her ground, Zhivel moved over to her with a single, sweeping step. “House Listoh keeps her bargains,” she hissed through gritted teeth into her rebellious daughter’s ear, “no matter the price!”
That sounded strangely familiar, but I had to try averting disaster before it was too late. I didn’t have time to think about where I had previously heard that particular line about keeping bargains.
I raised my hands as if in self-defense. “Arch Magos Zhivel,” I said, prompting her to snap her head toward me, and I saw the steely resolve in her eyes which had allowed her to lead her house to the highest level of Veldyrian politics.
She composed herself almost immediately. “Yes, Journeyman?” she asked imperiously.
I stepped toward them, looking down at Alistair, who was clearly confused by what was going on. “I understand that we have an agreement regarding Alistair’s custody,” I began in a low voice, “but there’s really no need to go through with it this very moment. If I understand correctly,” I continued, glad to see the Arch Magos relax, even if just a little, “our Great Houses have reached an accord this very night which, at the very least, allows for whatever transition may have to occur for little Alistair to take place in a more gradual, controlled manner.”
Zhivel was clearly torn between some sense of duty to uphold the letter of the law, and doing what was best for Alistair. The poor boy had essentially become my adopted son on the strength of the night’s Reading, and more than that, his fate had been more or less sealed. There was little possibility he would live to see his teenage years.
Marizzi opened her mouth but I held a hand up to stop her, which she actually did. I leaned close to Zhivel and whispered, “We don’t need to make this little boy’s life any more difficult than it already is, do we?” I urged, feeling a knot form in my stomach as I realized the truth of my words.
The Arch Magos looked in my eyes for a long moment before nodding curtly. “I can see my daughter was mistaken about you,” she said in an overly gracious tone. “Your consideration in this matter will not be forgotten.”
I saw Marizzi unexpectedly mouth ‘thank you’ to me before her Matron turned her attention back to Alistair.
“But House Listoh keeps its bargains,” the Arch Magos reiterated, her voice rising enough for the people around us to hear. “This Reading was an unscheduled event, so it is only proper that House Wiegraf be given time to prepare for Alistair’s inclusion in their ranks.”
I bowed graciously. “The Arch Magos is wise, and House Wiegraf will abide by her decision,” I agreed.
Zhivel tilted her head toward me before turning and making her way toward the door where poor Klauteus had been taken.
A man I didn’t recognize stepped forward, wearing an all-white version of the butler’s uniforms. “That will conclude the evening’s events,” he said in a loud, carrying voice. “House Listoh wishes to thank her guests, and requests that they now depart the grounds.”
And just like that, I had managed to dodge yet another bullet before it turned my grey matter into cheap wall art. Very soon I was going to have to figure out what to do with my new son, but I had other matters to attend to first.
Chapter XXVIII: An Unwanted Ally
Pi’Vari, Dancer and I returned to Wiegraf Estate as soon as we had reunited in front of House Listoh’s Main House. After we had set foot on Wiegraf Estate’s grounds, Pi’Vari broke the silence, “How did House Wiegraf fare in the negotiations?”
I shook my head, images of Klauteus being dragged away burned in my memory. “Better than we could have hoped for,” I replied absently.
“Oh?” he asked before prompting, “Do tell.”
“One third is ours clean, and The Guild agrees to pick up the legal defense, as well as provide a reasonable level of physical defense of the material and the immediate area,” I explained.
Pi’Vari furrowed his brow. “And exactly what does House Listoh consider a ‘reasonable’ measure of defense?” he asked, clearly unhappy with that particular aspect of the agreement.
“Two High Wizards,” I replied, “full-time, stationed on-site and sworn to assist us in any defense that’s considered likely to jeopardize the extraction process.”
Pi’Vari stopped in his tracks and I threw a tired look back at him. “Two?” he confirmed incredulously.
“Yes, Pi’Vari,” I snapped, “two. And frankly, we’re lucky to get that considering the way things could have gone.”
My herald didn’t argue my point, so I considered it a victory and moved on.
When we reached the Main House, Chester was waiting for us in the foyer. “Good evening, Lord,” he said with one of his trademark bows.
I rubbed my eyes as everything looked a little too blurry. “I think it’s a little more like morning, Chester,” I replied.
“Of course, Lord,” he replied without breaking his tone. “Message for you from the Great Tower, sir,” he said, producing a small square of paper. “It bears the seal of the High Magister’s office, if memory serves.”
I shook my head in exasperation. “What now?” I muttered and took the letter, turning it over in my hands a few times before coming to the certain conclusion that Chester was right: this was from Arch Magos Rekir’s office, and that wasn’t a good sign.
“I thought you said the Arch Magos asked you to return the day after tomorrow?” said Pi’Vari with obvious puzzlement.
“He did,” I confirmed. With a sigh, I opened the letter and read its contents, which were a single line, followed by the High Magister’s Seal:
Jezran ‘Cobalt’ Wiegraf
Come to my offices as soon as you receive this message.
High Magister Rekir ‘Crimson’ Tyrdren
I crumpled the paper in my hand as I felt the invisible noose tightening around my neck. It looked like I was going to have to beard the dragon in his lair again, and I doubted this time I could conceal the nature of my meeting with House Listoh.
It seemed that sleep wasn’t in my immediate future after all.
I waited in the lobby of the Magisterial wing of the Great Tower, the same lobby I had followed Pryzius into when first arriving in Veldyrian yesterday.
Then the elevator we had used opened, and out stepped Pryzius with a difficult-to-read expression on
his face. He motioned for me to enter the lift and, acting against the gnawing sensation in my gut, I did.
We wordlessly rode the lift until it opened on the level of Arch Magos Rekir’s offices. After the short walk down the hallway, Pryzius opened the door without knocking. It was noteworthy a change in protocol from the last time I had come into these offices.
Rekir was inside, seated in the same chair he had used during both of my other visits to his private study. “Jezran,” he said, looking up over a pile of papers he looked to have been reading, “thank you for your prompt attendance.”
I was back in the lion’s den and there was no way I could fight my way out, even if I had brought every single scrap of House Wiegraf’s accumulated power to bear on the situation. My only option was to survive until I could escape the clutches of House Tyrdren once and for all—and whatever I had to do in order to accomplish that goal was the only thing on my mind. Well…that and a piece of sage wisdom I’d once heard involving how to find the truth in a politician’s words.
I sat down in what I had oddly enough come to think of as ‘my’ chair, and Pryzius took a bottle of amber-colored liquid from a nearby mini-bar. He filled three glasses before giving one to his father, then offering me my pick of the other two.
I’d seen this movie, so there was no way I would sip even a little bit of the intoxicating stuff. For all I knew these two had developed a natural immunity to some sort of poison they had laced the bottle with, meaning it didn’t matter which glass I chose: I would die either way.
So I took the glass graciously and set it down on the table beside me, toying with it just enough to hopefully allay suspicions.
Rekir put his papers down, and Pryzius sat down in the same chair he had occupied the last time the three of us had shared this room.
“We appear to have a situation,” said the Arch Magos quietly, “and we should all count our good fortune that we were able to detect it before the matter got out of hand.”
That was sufficiently vague and ominous that I had no idea where he was going with it, but it was almost certainly intended to unnerve me, which it naturally did. But I didn’t want either of them seeing me blink, so I furrowed my brow.
“What do you mean, Arch Magos?” I asked, feigning surprise to the best of my ability, hoping my thinly-veneered exterior wouldn’t crack in the opening seconds of the meeting.
Pryzius leaned over and handed me a small folder. I opened it and looked at the contents, my eyebrows going up in genuine surprise as I read.
“Your herald,” said Pryzius, “Pi’Vari, I believe his name is…”
I nodded my agreement as I looked over the manuscript detailing a schedule of meetings between one ‘PW’ and another person, identified with the equivalent of a question mark.
“Pi’Vari,” confirmed Pryzius, “has been in constant contact with agents representing interests opposite our own.” He paused and looked at his father.
Rekir nodded. “Agents belonging to House Listoh, specifically,” the Arch Magos finished. “We believe,” he continued after a pause, “that he has worked to undermine House Wiegraf’s position by feeding sensitive information to The Guild, while simultaneously manipulating the actions of Magos Antolin in order to bring about a set of conditions which will ultimately lead to House Wiegraf’s demise.”
I was stunned at the ramifications of what this meant. I had known that Pi’Vari was less than trustworthy, and Antolin had even warned me about him in the coded message contained in his belongings, but to have narrowed down the list of who might hold his true loyalty to one was a huge relief.
“How?” I whispered, trying not to give anything away.
Rekir shrugged his shoulders, and Pryzius stepped in. “He is House Wiegraf’s chief researcher, is he not?” asked the younger Tyrdren. I nodded, and he continued, “Is it possible that you, or Magos Antolin, have assigned him to research sensitive subjects and depended solely on his conclusions rather than verifying them for yourselves?”
I nodded slowly, remembering just how many times I had done so.
Pryzius sat back slowly. “Then that is how he has achieved such a complete deception,” he declared. “We are almost certain that House Listoh already knows the location of your mythicite store, and will have an ambush waiting for you the moment you set foot in Coldetz.”
Now that was a shocker, and one I hadn’t even remotely expected. I looked at Rekir as something in the back of my mind screamed at me, but I didn’t know what to make of it so I pushed it aside. “You knew?” I asked bluntly.
The Arch Magos chuckled. “Of course, Jezran,” he replied amusedly. “Nothing happens in my city without my knowledge,” he added with that familiar twinkle in his eye.
He was probably right, truth be told, and that was what made this whole scene even harder to understand. “Why the clandestine meeting, then?” I blurted. “If you knew of the mythicite in Coldetz, why didn’t you just take it for yourself?”
Rekir smiled and ran his finger of the rim of his glass. “The mythicite will find its way into Veldyrian, one way or the other,” he explained. “The only question is: how quickly will it flow into the Great Tower’s coffers?”
I leaned forward in defeat and placed my head in my hands. I thought of all the times I had been a fool in my life, and how humiliating it had felt. I let my thoughts turn to the loss of everyone, and everything, I had ever known and loved and tears began to stream down my face. “But if House Listoh gets the mythicite first…” I began, sitting back up with a look of realization as the first tears of shame ran down my cheeks.
“Then the only ones who benefit from its collection are members of The Guild,” finished Pryzius grimly. “Theirs is the sole application for mythicite which permanently removes it from circulation.”
I shook my head defiantly. “That can’t be—” I argued, only to be interrupted by Pryzius.
“My father tells me,” began the younger Tyrdren, “that this Coldetz Castle had been under siege, and that one such siege had claimed the life of your Master?” I nodded slowly, and Pryzius leaned forward. “There are precious few entities capable of defeating an Imperial Magos,” he continued seriously, “and the most likely culprit is always another Magos.”
I blinked disbelievingly, “You mean…House Listoh?”
Pryzius nodded emphatically. “Yes,” he agreed, “and when you consider the nature of the assaults on Coldetz, perhaps they make more sense when viewed in that context?”
Actually, he had a damned good point. Essentially, the attacks had been the type and scale that only The Guild could manage—at least among the Imperial Houses. I hadn’t given Rekir any such details so they were probably just fishing for information, but it still made enough sense that I sat back in disbelief at how I could miss such an obvious—potential—connection.
“Jezran,” interrupted Arch Magos Rekir, his voice full of concern and empathy, “I understand that this is difficult for you. Your Master is gone, your herald and most trusted advisor has been undermining your House for what may have been years, and you find yourself caught between two Great Houses engaged in a centuries-old struggle.”
I tried to stem the flow of my tears as I wiped my face with the sleeve of my robe. “It’s too much,” I agreed pitifully. It wasn’t one of those moments you would want someone to see out of context, that much was certain. At that moment, I wanted nothing but to get out of that room—and I was willing to do anything needed to accomplish that goal.
Rekir nodded gently. “I know it is, Jezran,” he said soothingly. “I know it is. But it is what you must endure, not only for your House, but for yourself.”
“But you need not endure it alone,” added Pryzius. “I know we have had our…differences in the past,” he continued after I looked at him harshly, “but ultimately, what we both want is a bright future for Veldyrian, yes?”
I considered deliberately for a moment before nodding.
Rekir smiled his broad, room-lift
ing smile. “Pryzius will arrange for transport to this ‘Coldetz Castle,’ so that you might secure the area against threats such as those which House Listoh might have arranged,” he concluded.
I nodded graciously. “When will we leave?” I asked, wanting to leave this room as quickly as possible so I could prepare my companions for the trip, which was apparently happening well ahead of schedule.
Rekir stood, prompting both Pryzius and I to follow. “You leave within the hour,” said the Arch Magos. “The trip should take no more than one day using our chosen platform.”
I reached my hand out, and the Arch Magos accepted it, giving new meaning to the term ‘iron fist in a velvet glove.’ He wasn’t wearing any gloves, but the man’s grip was inhumanly hard and strong, which took me by surprise.
“Thank you, Arch Magos,” I gushed as I wiped my face with my free hand. “I’ll go prepare my men for the trip.”
“As will I,” agreed Pryzius. “We will collect you at your estate within the hour.”
I nodded and made my way to the door, feeling like my heart was about to explode out of my chest. I had serious concerns whether or not I would make it to the elevator—let alone all the way to Wiegraf Estate—but I had to try. If I dropped the act before clearing the Great Tower, I probably wouldn’t make it out to the lobby, let alone out of it.
I turned before leaving. “I won’t forget this, Arch Magos,” I said in my most grateful tone.
Rekir nodded. “We are all guided by our pursuit of Enlightenment, Jezran,” he replied sincerely. “I only hope that I may play an instrumental part in your own journey toward that end.”
I really had no idea what that meant, but I needed to get out of there—and fast—so I nodded thankfully before swinging the door open and made my way hastily to the elevator.
I actually did manage to make it out of the lobby without collapsing, and the only question in my mind was whether or not Pryzius would wait until we reached Coldetz before trying to kill me.
Revelation (Seeds of Humanity: The Cobalt Heresy) Page 35
