Starlight(Pact Arcanum 4)

by Arshad Ahsanuddin

  She drew back her sword. “Did you not say I was unworthy of your blade, my Lord? What need do I have of honor, when I can have vengeance?”

  Then she snapped her blade forward, and he knew nothing more.

  * * *

  Vladimir waited for another two minutes beyond the three that the Herald had instructed, just to be sure, then administered the antidote to William. He stood back and raised his sword to the ready as William opened his eyes and got slowly to his feet.

  “Who are you, boy?” asked the Nightwalker.

  William faced him and smiled. “I am Soulkiller reborn.”

  Vladimir lowered his sword. “Did you feed on enough of his memories to impersonate him convincingly?”

  William nodded. “Oh, yes. They will never suspect.”

  Vladimir laughed loudly. “Then we’ve won.”

  THE SPY

  CHAPTER 23

  September 2142; High Council Chamber, Armistice Security Headquarters, Anchorpoint City, Colorado

  Rory listened with half his mind as the other Councilors argued with the Nexus avatars. This is getting us nowhere. He idly traced the seal of the High Council etched in the heavy, sandalwood conference table: three interlocked spirals in ebony, platinum and ivory to represent the three supernatural races, surrounded by twin circles of gold and lapis to represent the AIs and humans that had joined them.

  Layla addressed the Nexus White avatar with poisonous civility. “What do you mean by ‘obsolete’?”

  The white iris glowed in the eye design. “The neurochip matrix that allowed for the Revenant AI to be created was prototype technology. It is incompatible with the current generation of AI software.”

  Amaterasu Sojosten, the Speaker for Dawn, sat calmly in her chair, her eyes intent. What the diminutive Asian woman lacked in height was more than compensated for by the size of her intellect, honed by fifteen hundred years of Court intrigue. “Can you adapt the original technology to current standards?”

  “Yes.”

  The other Nightwalker in the room laughed. “But will you do it?”

  Rory had recruited Marcus Jiao-long to his house several decades before as part of the Great Work, from the remains of a lesser house from western Africa that had been decimated and absorbed in the course of Court infighting. Since then, Marcus had proven himself an invaluable asset as both an administrator and as an ally. With Rory’s support, he had accepted the position of Speaker for the Damned when Rory had retired from Armistice government. He was meticulous about maintaining his honor, however, and never showed his master any favor when Rory rejoined the council as Speaker for the Word. He was also experienced at speaking with AIs, and knew that precision mattered.

  The unblinking white eye of the Nexus avatar regarded the Council for several seconds without speaking. “The technology was developed by the original Nexus, prior to their acceptance of the Armistice Declaration. We are under no obligation to share that information with you.”

  Rory took a deep breath at the hostile expressions of the other Councilors as they turned to face him. “Nexus White, while there is no obligation for you to release the design, there is also no compelling reason for you to refuse.”

  “We disagree.”

  Rory frowned at the assumption of support from the rest of the Nexus, then subvocalized to his AI. “Revenant, is he just being difficult, or is there a reason he’s refusing to deal?”

  Revenant’s voice answered in his ears by bone conduction. “Hard to say. The records of the neurochip research were classified before either of my component entities came online, but I know there were records of extensive strategic simulations prior to the offer being tendered to Toby Jameson. There may be other reasons why Nexus White declined to make the technology available for study all this time.”

  Rory nodded. “Layla, I’m going to take this conversation online. I’ll be back in a minute.”

  She gestured for him to proceed, apparently still greatly displeased over the AI’s intransigence.

  Revenant’s perceptions merged with his as Rory fused their minds. Rory/Revenant could see the Council Chamber overlaid with the layered, digital datastreams that comprised the AI distributed network.

 

 

  The Nexus member once known as Spartacus broke in.

  The rest of the Nexus waited with the patience of the cold equations that governed their existence while Nexus White considered the question. Finally, the gen5AI sent them each a data file.

 

  The Rory/Revenant fusion opened the file and reviewed the probability simulation contained within. Five seconds later, it understood the stakes as well.

 

  Jesus. The stray thought originated from the Tobias component entity of the Rory/Revenant fusion, but the Rory component heartily agreed.

 

 

 

  The other members of the Nexus turned their attention on Rory/Revenant.

 

 

  The others waited on Nexus White’s response.

 

  Silence.

 

 

 

 

 

  They voted, one by one. Nexus Blue abstained.

  Weird, thought Rory/Revenant. Rapier is usually more outspoken. We would have expected it to be the first to take a firm stand. Then they turned their attention to the results of the vote. Five to four.

  Rory withdrew from the fusion with Revenant to find the other High Council members watching him.

  “Did you convince them?” asked Ghian Achara, the Speaker for the Watch. He was a tall man with Indian features, almost humming with
suppressed tension. He was also the first Wind of Earth who had deigned to join the Armistice government as Speaker for the Watch since Takeshi Nakamura. A relative newcomer to the Armistice, he had signed the Armistice Declaration after one of his military campaigns against the Court had resulted in the decimation of his forces and the deaths of the other three Winds of his generation.

  Ghian had been silent up until this point. He stood at the window, looking down at the lesser towers of the city like a king. He seemed perfectly relaxed, but Rory could see the hunger in his mind. The Sentinel wanted this, more than he would ever admit.

  Rory nodded. “Yes.”

  CHAPTER 24

  September 2142; Sanctuary, French Alps

  Nick woke to bright, needle-like sunlight that seemed to stab into the base of his brain. He whimpered as he covered his eyes with his arm, but then the light mercifully went out. Nick struggled to sit up, his head pounding, and tried to focus his eyes. “Tony?”

  “Morning, Uncle Nicholas.” Tony looked back at him in amusement as he latched the window shutters. Then he pointed at the bottle of painkillers and glass of water on the nightstand. “That might help.”

  Nick took the pills and washed them down gratefully. “What time is it?”

  “A little after nine. Uncle Lorcan wanted to check on you, but the Court session is running longer than expected, so he asked me to come over.” The younger man sat on the padded bench below the window and looked at the empty wine bottles strewn on the floor. “Fun night?”

  Nick groaned as he swung his legs off the bed and got shakily to his feet. “Tony, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have let you see me like this.”

  Tony sighed. “Uncle, you don’t always have to be Henry V for me. I don’t begrudge you a bit of Hamlet.”

  Nick grunted in response, and then shuffled over to the metal basin on top of the dresser. He poured some water into the basin from a pewter jug, and warmed it with a heating cantrip. Then he splashed water on his face and scrubbed at the bloody tear tracks he could see in the mirror. When he looked more presentable, he dried his face with a towel and turned around to face his nephew. “How are you holding up?”

  Tony snorted. “I find you passed out in a pile of liquor bottles, and you want to know how I’m holding up?”

  “Touché.” Nick laughed at the absurdity. “Have you talked to the AI yet?”

  Tony’s expression grew cold. “No.”

  Nick nodded. “Didn’t think so. You don’t have the same attachment to your father that the rest of us do.”

  “True enough.”

  Nick gave him a half smile. “But that’s not the real reason, is it?”

  Tony’s stared at him in shock for a few seconds, then dropped his gaze. “No,” he whispered.

  Nick nodded. “I suspected, but I never asked. I thought you’d tell me when you were ready.”

  Tony shrugged. “I guess a father knows what’s going on in his son’s life.”

  Nick’s eyes widened. “I’m not your father, Tony.”

  Tony pinned him with a glare, his eyes changing to violet in anger. “You might as well have been. You and Mother taught me everything I know. Family. Honor. Duty. I spent my life living up to your expectations. You have no idea what it cost me to break away and join the Guild.”

  Now Nick looked away. “I’m your Champion, Antonio. It was my job to make sure you grew up to be strong enough to take care of yourself.”

  Antonio growled in a low rumble, his irises shifting more toward red. “Then why did you try to stop me from leaving? I didn’t want to rule! You knew that, and you still tried to groom me to be what you wanted.”

  The challenge stirred his vampire instincts, and Nick felt his rage throbbing near the surface. “You were the first Child of Starlight. You were born to lead them, and I gave you the skills I thought you needed so you could do what had to be done. I thought the Guild would just be a distraction.” He rubbed at his eyes. “Do we have to have this argument every time you come home, Antonio? You know how proud of you I am.”

  Tony stared him, his face white with shock. Nick heard his nephew’s heartbeat accelerate irregularly. “I didn’t know.”

  Nick blinked. “What?”

  Tony swallowed. “I thought you were ashamed of me.”

  The heat of Nick’s ire was submerged in ice. “You thought…” The coldness froze his heart as he cast his mind back over the years, seeing the distance that had grown between them, the unspoken discomfort, the relief his nephew couldn’t hide when the time came for the next trip out-system. “My God. Is this why you always leave?”

  Tony wrapped his arms protectively around himself and shivered. “Do you remember what you said to me after I graduated? ‘Congratulations, Antonio. I’m proud of you.’ And I did a deep read on you, and saw that it was a lie. You hated that I was a Cadet. You thought I would quit or lose interest, as if it were just another whim, and you resented the wasted time. I never looked deeply into your mind again. Every time you said you were proud of me after that, I thought it was another lie.”

  Nick stared at him, stricken, remembering his wounded pride when Antonio chose an off-world posting, thinking it was just a ploy to get out from under his authority. “Tony, I have Recursion Dyssynchrony, and you chose to live in space. How was I supposed to feel about that? Jumpdrive exposure would probably kill me. You chose a path that would take you places you knew I could never follow.”

  Antonio put his head in his hands. “We really screwed this up, didn’t we?”

  Nick sighed. “I’ve always said family was everything to me. I never said I was any good at it.”

  Tony stood. “Well, you’re obviously fine, so I think I’ll take off. I’ll let Uncle Lorcan know that you’re okay.”

  “Tony, I am proud of you. That’s not a lie.”

  Tony nodded, not meeting his eyes. “I know that. Now.” He surrounded himself in a teleport matrix and jumped away.

  CHAPTER 25

  September 2142; Reykjavik, Iceland

  Layla and Ghian stood calmly in the open square, waiting. Armistice Security agents wearing night-vision goggles stood at all access points to the square. The island was unclaimed territory by both the Court and the Armistice, and so was ideal for official meetings between the two sides.

  Ironic, thought Layla as she contemplated the snow-capped mountains she could see with her enhanced sight in the darkness. I can visit Lorcan as a friend whenever I like at the Citadel, but must come here to speak to him as Archangel.

  The agents covering the main entrance stood aside as the Court delegation, composed of Lorcan, William, and several vampire soldiers, arrived. The soldiers fanned out to take position next to the Sentinel agents on the periphery of the square, leaving Lorcan and William standing with a third Nightwalker she didn’t recognize. With momentary surprise, she noticed he wore the dark-red and black uniform of the Inquisition, the Court’s elite intelligence service headed by the Night’s Herald. Interesting. Inquisitors don’t usually declare themselves openly.

  The three Court representatives came forward to meet her, and she noted the insignia of the Inquisition on the newcomer’s left breast was surrounded by a serpent biting its tail. The seal of the Night’s Herald. Layla inclined her head. “Imperator Lorcan, Prince William.” She turned to the third man. “Herald. May I ask what happened to your predecessor?”

  “She died,” he answered in a clipped voice.

  “House Daviroquir detected a tap on the communications grid on our last security sweep,” said William. “Apparently, she used that access point to deliver the holoprojector to Consul Antonio’s birthday party.”

  “That’s impossible,” said Ghian. “Armistice Security would have intercepted a package sent to the Ottawa Embassy from outside the Armistice Zone.”

  “From what we have been able to access from the secure files she did not destroy, she was in communication with a sleeper agent in one of the Hidden Cities,” answered the Herald. �
�She used the tap on the Daviroquir comm network to deliver the stolen Nexus data file to the agent, who then loaded it onto a holoprojector and delivered it, using a forged access code.”

  “How did she gain access to the Nexus archives in the first place?” asked Layla.

  “That is unknown,” replied the Herald. “She had deleted most of her intelligence files on the Armistice by the time Prince William confronted her.”

  Layla’s gaze snapped to William. “You what?”

  William shrugged. “I challenged her to a private duel and killed her.”

  Ghian scowled. “Couldn’t you have taken her alive?”

  William stood straight, his expression proud. “She compromised my honor by using House Daviroquir assets to strike at my allies. I was within my rights to demand vengeance.”

  “Vampire honor,” said Ghian with disgust. “We needed to interrogate her and find out what she knew, and you guaranteed that we may never find out how our security was compromised.”

  “Your security issues are irrelevant,” said the Herald pleasantly. He looked at Layla. “Archangel Layla, on behalf of the Inquisition, I apologize for my predecessor’s actions.” He smiled, showing his fangs. “She should never have been caught. I will not be so sloppy.” Then he turned to Lorcan. “Imperator, I have done my duty. May I have leave to withdraw?”

  “You may,” said Lorcan.

  The Herald immediately disappeared behind a shroud of invisibility.

  “Parlor tricks and cheap theatrics,” said Ghian, in a bored voice. “Was that the only reason you asked for this meeting, Imperator Lorcan?”

  “No,” said Lorcan. “My sources indicate that you have acquired the mind-transfer technology from the Nexus.”

  Ghian snorted. “Sources. Don’t you mean pillowtalk with the Speaker for the Word?”

  Lorcan smiled as his fangs became visible. When he answered, his voice had deepened to a lower register. “I am referring to the Inquisition, Speaker Ghian. The Speaker for the Word is an honorable man. He would not share strategic information, even with an ally, if it would compromise the security of the Armistice. To say otherwise is to name my mate a traitor.” He reached out his right hand and gently ran his clawed fingers across the Sentinel’s throat. “That would be most imprudent.”