by Cindy Dees
Selea chimed in, “And as he was the duly appointed representative of the Emperor, this could not be tolerated.”
Aurelius nodded. “He ordered us to leave the Forest of Thorns alone and, furthermore, set his first advisor, Anton, to keep an eye on us. But of course, what poor Volen didn’t count on was Anton starting a war with the Boki.”
“One that conveniently killed Volen,” Selea commented wryly. “You’ve proof that Anton engineered the Boki incursion?”
Aurelius pulled a face. “Anton’s too smart for that. But why else would the Boki come roaring out of their trees, kill the governor and most of the landsgraves who were giving Anton trouble, and then pull back into the Forest of Thorns? The Boki had no argument with the colonists. Their paths had never even crossed for the most part. There’s no question in my mind but Anton hired them to do his dirty work.”
Selea nodded slowly. “I have long thought his violent campaign to avenge the death of Volen seemed … contrived.”
“Not only did it make him look good to the Emperor and emphasize his innocence in knocking off old Volen, but it also gave him a perfect excuse to poke around the Forest of Thorns for whatever secret treasure Tiberius had stumbled across.”
“Was there a treasure?” Selea asked quietly.
“Still is one. And to anticipate your next question, no, I do not know what the Boki guard so fiercely. But they are willing to die to the last man, woman, and child to protect it.”
“You’re sure Anton did not find it?”
“Positive. He was chased out of that grove before we were. He never even made it into the cave. I’m convinced the Boki moved whatever it was they hid soon after that debacle, anyway. Even if Anton returned to the spot later, the treasure was long gone before he came back.”
“Any idea what the treasure is?” Selea asked casually.
A little too casually. Aurelius looked his old friend directly in the eye and answered honestly, “I do not know.”
“Any guesses?”
Aurelius laughed. “I’ve got plenty of those. I’ve had many years to come up with a long list of possibilities.” And because he was not eager to elaborate upon that list, he asked in a diversionary feint, “I never did understand why you were sent to accompany me on that original expedition.”
Selea leaned forward. “Since we are sharing confidences today, I suppose it does no harm to tell you. I was sent along to investigate a request for an assassination writ on you. The evidence presented to the guildmaster was … questionable … and I was sent to see if the charges had merit. Should you show anything other than utmost loyalty to the Empire, a writ would have been issued for your death.”
Aurelius stared, stunned. “Who tried to buy the writ?”
“Who else?” Selea answered elliptically.
Of course. Anton. The whoreson. Aurelius looked at the assassin quizzically. “Then why am I not dead?”
Selea’s gaze went blacker than his skin. “The First Rule. I cannot say more.”
Aurelius was shocked. He had in no way demonstrated utmost loyalty to the Empire in that grove. By all rights, he should have been dead in short order. Behind his back, Selea was called the killer who never failed. Aurelius silently blessed whatever quirk of nulvari honor that had interfered with Selea making a report that would have resulted in a writ of execution on him all those years ago.
The only person to suffer out of that’s day’s work was … of course. An explosion of understanding detonated in his head. Tiberius. Despite his own glowing reports on how Tiberius had conducted himself in the Forest of Thorns, the knight had inexplicably been stripped of his title, charged with a host of crimes, and sentenced to death.
“Did you divert attention away from me and onto Tiberius instead?” he blurted.
“Not I,” Selea answered blandly.
Who then? An image of another nulvari came to him, one close enough to Anton to whisper in his ear. Ceridwyn Nightshade. Selea’s cousin and both of them from House Bat. Did she and the assassin seated beside him conspire together from time to time? Blood was particularly thick among the nulvari, even more so than most elves.
All these years later, he did not know whether to thank the nulvari or curse them. Ah, Tiberius. Ever the loyal soldier. They’d all used him ill, and he was no exception to that. The knight had silently accepted disgrace and become a fugitive to protect his adopted father and his guild. Pain and pride sluiced through him in equal measures. Tiberius was surely worthy of his family’s name.
“What more can you tell me of that odd fellow who helped us escape the forest?” Selea was asking.
“That nature guardian? What did he call himself?”
“Greenbeard,” Selea supplied.
Aurelius would never forget the shock of seeing the forester. Ostensibly human, the fellow had actually had moss growing in his beard and veins colored green beneath his skin. He had seemed part plant and part human, and he had not been much more civilized than a forest creature. But he had called off the guardians of the grove and guided their little party clear of the remnants of battle. Or, by that time, the remnants of slaughter. The Boki had utterly destroyed Anton’s army and not been merciful in the doing of it. They did not appreciate their lands being invaded and had let it be known in no uncertain terms.
“I know nothing more than you, Selea. He appeared out of the trees, led us out of the forest, and then disappeared back into the woods. Strange fellow, to say the least.”
“Tell me more of this political stink over your researching the grove,” Selea murmured.
Aurelius gave himself a mental shake. “The Forester’s Guild claimed the grove, as all forests fell under their control. Never mind that not one of their loggers would set foot in the Forest of Thorns for fear of dying a swift and terrible death at the hands of the orcs there. Then the Miner’s Guild got into the fray. They claimed to be in charge of harvesting all magical components. If there were any magical properties to the place, they wanted to go in first and gather whatever was to be had.”
“I’m surprised the Heart didn’t find a way to throw its hat into the fight,” Selea commented dryly.
Equally dryly, Aurelius replied, “Oh, they did. They claimed they ought to go in first and be allowed to convert the residents of the Forest of Thorns to the Heartstones. Once the natives were properly civilized, then the rest of us could go in and engage in peaceful trade with the forest’s inhabitants.”
Selea rolled his eyes. Aurelius thought he heard his companion mutter under his breath in nulvari, “Self-righteous do-gooders.”
Aurelius echoed the sentiment. His guild was forever competing with the Heart over who would control the magics, scrolls, potions, and magical components so necessary to both of their crafts. He picked up the thread of his story again. “At any rate, representatives of various guilds went en masse on Anton’s expedition to see this magic grove. They treated it like some sort of glorified picnic outing.”
“And conveniently forgot about the magical constructs and talking trees?” Selea asked wryly.
“Not to mention the army of orcs,” Aurelius added while he pondered how to gloss over the next part. He’d been ordered in secret by his Mage’s Guild superiors to lead the expedition astray, not to reveal to the group where the actual magical site was located. But such an order was strictly the private business of the guild, even after all these years. Revealing that communiqué skirted the very edge of outright disobedience to the Empire.
He spoke carefully. “As we drew closer to the grove, resistance by its defenders grew steadily more determined and dangerous. It was decided that it would not be in the general interest to make a direct approach to the area. After the battle of the plant-men and the were-bears—” He broke off. “Were you present for that?”
Selea nodded, his expression grim enough that he could indeed have been there. It had been a massacre. Nearly half the expeditionary force had been killed in that one brief, bloody battle.
&n
bsp; Aurelius continued, “After that, a panicked retreat was called. Parties got separated from the main force. Skirmishes further scattered our troops throughout the woods. It was chaos.”
“I remember it well.”
Time for another delicate evasion. “Tiberius and I fought as a team that day. Eventually, we found ourselves alone. He recognized a landmark and informed me that we must be all but upon the site we sought.”
“How convenient,” Selea murmured.
Not surprisingly, the nulvari didn’t buy the half-truth for a minute. But, thankfully, neither did he press the issue. It went without saying that Tiberius and he had intentionally left the main force of Anton’s soldiers to seek out the grove in the midst of the mess.
Aurelius continued grimly, “We made our way into the grove, the two of us. Just as we reached the clearing, a skirmish broke out on the other side of it. It did not go well for the colonial troops. A cadre of orcs—I found out later it was Boki Blood Lords led by Ki’Raiden—rolled through the squad like they were raw recruits. Hyland was the lone survivor of that fight. When he realized he was the only man alive, he fled and ended up with Tiberius and me. We three hid. The Boki elite guard was drawn to another fight on the other side of the grove, and we were not found.”
Selea grinned. “So. It was not superior skill over the Boki Blood Lords that gained you entrance to the grove, but rather dumb luck.”
Aurelius grinned. “Aye.”
“How did you get past the tree guardians and plant-men?”
“I do not know. Maybe because we were so few and so weak by then, they did not see us as a threat. Speaking of which, how did you gain entrance to the grove?”
Selea smiled. “I, too,… evaded … the Boki. As for the plant guardians, I captured a dryad and threatened to kill her if they did not let me pass. Lady Elysia was none too amused to have my blade at her throat, I might add.”
“How did you resist her charms?” Aurelius burst out in disbelief.
Selea pursed his lips. “Trade secret. Sorry.”
Another time, Aurelius might have argued strenuously that this knowledge was of utmost importance to the Mage’s Guild. They’d been trying for decades to come up with some defense against the devastatingly effective gaze attacks of the dryads. But today he let it go.
“How did you kidnap a dryad, then?”
Selea shrugged. “It was not my first time to work in the Forest of Thorns.”
Aurelius stared, stunned. To work? Selea had been there before to assassinate someone? But who? The only known dwellers of the place were Boki—
“You assassinated a Boki?” Aurelius blurted.
Selea frowned sharply as if to say that Aurelius knew better than to ask such a thing directly. And indeed he did. His solinari mind raced. Who among the Boki would rate an Imperial assassination other than a thane, and a high-ranking one at that? Who on Urth would contract and pay good gold to see a thane killed? Who could use internal strife among the Boki to his or her advantage—
Anton.
If he asked any more questions, Selea might very well get up and leave, and Aurelius desperately needed Selea to agree to help him. Instead, he commented lightly, “You have known for a long time, then, the true nature of our governor.”
Selea said not a word, but very slowly, very subtly, nodded his head in the affirmative.
Unbelievable. Anton had assassinated one of the thanes, either to sow discord among the Boki or to make way for a thane he supported. Was it possible that the governor had been in collusion with the Boki for all these years? How was any other conclusion possible? But, of course, there was not a shred of proof. Writs of assassination were strictly secret and stayed secret even after their execution. The guild would never cough up the writ, even to prove Anton’s complicity with the Boki.
Aurelius’s mind whirled over the scale and audacity of Anton’s corruption. And Selea had known about it all this time. No wonder the nulvari had bent his ironclad rules of honor to protect Aurelius and to hang Aurelius’s knight out to dry instead. Selea must have sensed Aurelius’s deep disapproval of Anton right from the beginning and decided a Mage’s Guildmaster who disliked Anton and would thwart him at every turn was more important than sacrificing a bit of his honor … and a knight. Aurelius, frankly, was humbled. He knew just how seriously the nulvari took their honor.
“You are silent a long time, my old friend,” Selea said gently.
Aurelius took a moment to trace back the thread of the conversation. They’d been talking about how they each gained entrance to the closely guarded Boki grove. He shrugged, “And then you joined us in the clearing. You know the rest.”
Selea wasn’t about to let Aurelius get away with that. “Actually, I would like to hear your version of ‘the rest.’ I saw several things I did not understand that day. I have wondered much about them.”
Rather than tell all, Aurelius took instead the tack of asking, “What didn’t you understand?”
“We found the underground chamber and went in. What were those creatures that attacked us?”
Aurelius closed his eyes and saw the beasts as clearly as if it had been yesterday. Some resembled mythic creatures, but most were simply grotesque. He answered honestly, “I do not know what they were. The stuff of our worst nightmares.”
Selea frowned. “When we cut them down, they transformed into those ghost-like things.”
Aurelius winced. Here went another guild secret. But he could probably justify it to his superiors as the sort of information a top-flight assassin could conceivably need someday. “I believe those were phantasms. They took the shape of our worst nightmares and when they neared death, they reverted to their natural forms.”
“Dream creatures?”
Aurelius nodded reluctantly. Thankfully, Selea pressed no more on that subject. Instead, he asked, “They were calm at first, but then raged all of a sudden. What set them off?”
“We must have touched some trigger or set off some sort of trap.”
“What was that door on the far side of the room? I thought I saw writing upon it.”
Aurelius exhaled carefully. “Neither I nor Tiberius ever made it across the room to take a close look at it.”
“What did those creatures guard, then?”
“I do not know.” Another half-truth. The door—or more accurately the place it led to—was undoubtedly the thing they guarded. He changed the subject smoothly. “As you well know, the phantasms chased us out of there before we could do much besides fight, and then run, for our lives.”
Aurelius schooled his face to its most passive, relaxed, open expression. He dared not make eye contact with the oh-so-perceptive assassin, and stared into the fire instead. Please, by the Lady, let him not ask any more questions. The door might have been across the room, but the writing upon it had been large and clear. Only he and Tiberius out of the four men in the room had the skill to read the magical writing, and read it they had.
The door was definitely extra-planar in nature and involved transporting people to someplace … else. He and Tiberius had talked and talked about it on the return journey to Dupree. Their best guess was that the place behind the door was not the treasure itself. Rather, whatever—or whoever—was in that place beyond the door was the great and closely guarded secret of the grove.
And now, all these years later, every portent the fates could throw in his path pointed back at the grove.
“What do you propose to do, Aurelius? Broach the guardians and attempt to gain entrance to the grove once more?”
He leaned forward, looking intently at his companion. “We know what we’re up against, now. Why not try it?”
“I am thinking of retiring, not embarking on heroic quests.”
Aurelius made a face at him. “Your skills have not diminished an iota. On that I would bet my life. You are not called the Emperor’s Blade for nothing.”
Selea rolled his eyes. “I assure you, the greater part of my reputation is specul
ation and rumor.”
“Which makes your work that much easier.”
“I repeat. I am retiring.”
Aurelius leaned back, commenting sardonically, “Of course you are. Assassins are always left to their old ages in peace. Once you declare yourself out of the game, no old vendettas will come looking for you. You can let down your guard and relax. Why, I wager you won’t even bother to carry a dagger, will you?”
Selea came as close to a glare as he ever did to any real expression.
Aurelius grinned unrepentantly. “As I was saying. You and I could do it. We could get into that grove again and discover its secret. Furthermore, I think we’re supposed to. The hand of some greater power is clearly at work here.”
“And perhaps we are a couple of vain old fools, wishing to be in the thick of events once more, manufacturing portents and signs that tell us what we wish to hear.”
Aurelius huffed. “I’ll grant you that we may both be vain, but when did you become old or a fool? The last time I checked, I was neither.”
Selea shook his head. “We were lucky last time to escape with our lives. Very lucky. Do you not remember the Boki guards ringing the grove? Or those trees snapping their branches back and forth like giant whips? How are we to defeat them? And once past them, how are we to vanquish the nightmares and phantasms?”
“I believe they will make way for us. I think they want us to find whatever’s in that chamber.”
Selea exclaimed, “And now you are mad in addition to old and foolish!”
“Mayhap I am. But do you not wish to know the secret? To give it one last try?”
Selea shook his head. “No. I wish to live out a long and quiet retirement.”
In desperation, Aurelius threw his final argument at Selea’s feet. “I may not know what is in that grove, but I know this. It is extremely valuable and powerful, else it would not be defended thus. Do you really want it to fall into the hands of Anton Constantine?”
