Fragile Empire

by Christopher Mitchell

  He glanced around the table. No one seemed to be listening, but his fear of Sable kept his tongue in check.

  ‘Just meet me tomorrow at dawn,’ he said.

  ‘Dawn? No way, I was going to sleep in tomorrow, maybe get up about noon.’

  He frowned, then leaned in close to her. ‘Promise me. It’s important. I might have found someone who can help get our family out of Arakhanah.’

  The colour drained from Yanin’s face, and she seemed to sober up in seconds.

  He stood. ‘Out here at dawn, okay?’

  She nodded, staring at him as he turned to walk away. He reached into the pouch inside his pocket and threw a handful of gold coins onto the table. ‘Happy birthday, sis.’

  ‘Where are we going?’ yawned Kerri as she, Ravi and Yanin walked by a canal. Behind them, the sky was rosy-pink, and the sun was rising over the low hills.

  ‘You’ll see,’ he said.

  Yanin grunted. She looked rough, Ravi thought, suffering a wine-induced hangover. He was exhausted himself, having spent most of the night awake, his head buzzing.

  ‘A job?’ Kerri said.

  ‘Yeah.’

  He had bought them all coffee and breakfast in the hostelry before they had gathered their meagre possessions and left. They had both looked surprised that Ravi had any money, and he had treated them to whatever they had wanted from the menu.

  ‘What kind of job?’

  ‘Better than working in the fields,’ he said. ‘Something actually worthwhile.’

  Yanin frowned at him. ‘And our family?’

  ‘That’s part of the deal I made,’ he said. ‘The money’s not important next to that, though I admit it’ll come in handy.’

  ‘How much money?’ Kerri said, her nose crinkling in suspicion.

  ‘A fair amount for the work,’ he shrugged.

  They left the last streets behind them and entered the field where the caravans were parked. The western exit was busy with queues of wagons lining up, ready to depart for Stretton Sands and Rainsby. By the river bank, barges were taking on passengers and cargo, and the entire field bustled with life. Ravi led Yanin and Kerri through the crowds, until they reached the wagon with red and yellow wheels.

  ‘Here we are,’ he said.

  Sable walked round from the front of the wagon.

  ‘What?’ cried Kerri. ‘Her?’

  ‘Nothing’s going on between me and Ravi,’ the Holdings woman said, wiping axle grease from her hands with a rag. ‘You can be assured of that. I’m Sable. What has Ravi told you?’

  ‘I don’t believe this,’ Kerri said, glaring at Ravi. ‘Are you telling me that you’ve accepted a job working for this woman? I’ve seen the way you leer at her. Do you expect me to believe that you’re not just trying to get her into bed?’

  Sable laughed.

  ‘Can you get our family out of Arakhanah?’ said Yanin.

  ‘You have my word that I’ll do everything in my power to see it happen,’ Sable said. ‘Get in the wagon, it’s time to leave.’

  ‘Leave?’ Yanin said. ‘Now? I can’t just leave. Dana’s waiting for me at the hostelry. We’re supposed to be going to see her boss later today.’

  ‘Out of the question,’ Sable said. ‘I mean to join the crowds departing along the western road this morning. I’ll not wait.’

  ‘Who are you to order us about?’ Kerri said. ‘We don’t know the first thing about you. What job have you offered Ravi, and where are you going?’

  Sable shook her head and glanced at Ravi. ‘I told you it would be simpler without them. I think it’s safe to leave them here, though. You don’t seem to have told them much. Climb aboard.’

  ‘You’re not getting rid of us that easily,’ Kerri said.

  ‘What do you want with my brother?’ Yanin said.

  ‘Get in the wagon and you’ll find out,’ she said. ‘Or not. Frankly this is starting to be more trouble than it’s worth. If you don’t want help getting your family out of Arakhanah, and don’t want to earn two hundred thousand in gold, and are not interesting in doing your patriotic duty, then fine. Good bye.’

  Sable turned to go.

  Ravi glared at his sister. ‘This is our only chance,’ he said. ‘Think of what it could mean. We could get our family back, and pay off all our debts.’ He turned to Kerri. ‘Is the fact that I want you to come with me not enough to prove I’m not having an affair?’

  ‘The two women glanced at each other.

  ‘Wait!’ Ravi cried to Sable. ‘I’m coming.’

  ‘Good,’ she called back from where she was climbing the drivers’ bench. ‘Jump in the back. There’s food and wine to get you settled.’

  He began to stride towards the wagon.

  ‘I’m coming too,’ said Kerri.

  ‘Shit,’ muttered Yanin, then followed.

  Ravi smiled as he helped them climb up the wooden steps and through the hatch.

  ‘You’d better be right about this, brother,’ Yanin said, as they found seats in the cramped rear of the wagon.

  ‘Don’t worry, sis. I know what I’m doing.’

  Chapter 16

  Blood on the Cobbles

  Plateau City, Imperial Plateau – 3rd Day, Last Third Spring 524

  Nyane sat in her study’s comfortable armchair, sipping her coffee and watching Karalyn. The young mage had arranged all of the Institute’s papers and battered scrolls into untidy piles, and was sorting through them as she sat cross-legged on the floor.

  ‘Making sense of it all?’ she asked.

  ‘I think so,’ Karalyn said, glancing up. ‘There’s the early stage, before they realised they needed mages from every people for it to work.’ She gestured to a pile. ‘That’s this lot. They killed several mages, mainly from Rahain, trying to combine vision and stone powers. Then the Creator ordered them to add more…’

  ‘The Lord Vicar, you mean?’ Nyane said. ‘Presumably it was he who was giving the orders, or maybe the Emperor.’

  Karalyn said nothing.

  ‘So, they added more mages…?’ Nyane went on.

  ‘Aye,’ Karalyn said, pointing to a second pile, ‘and these papers cover the next stage, when they built up the numbers of mages until they had at least one of each type. The next experiment killed dozens – five in the ritual, and more in the earthquake it caused.’

  Nyane shook her head. ‘And what did it achieve? Nothing. Senseless.’

  ‘This third pile,’ Karalyn said, ‘is about the preparations for the last ritual to be held in the Institute; there are no documents relating to the Emperor’s final attempts in the Great Fortress. Keira had destroyed the Institute by then, and the deacon who wrote all this was probably dead.’

  ‘And that was the ritual that gave the Emperor his powers?’

  ‘Aye.’

  Nyane sighed. ‘My thanks for sorting through all this for me, Karalyn, you’ve been a great help. I admit the timelines had me confused, due to the fact, I think, that there is no mention of any purpose to it all; no over-arching plan. I have to assume then that the Emperor was trying to gain mage powers, and to that end he was successful.’

  Karalyn sat in silence, her eyes lowered.

  ‘You know more, don’t you?’ Nyane said. ‘Are you forbidden from telling me?’

  ‘No,’ Karalyn said, ‘not directly. I’m more worried that you won’t believe me if I tell you the truth.’

  Nyane leaned forwards. ‘Why would I disbelieve you?’

  ‘Because I barely believe it myself. My parents told me stories when I was little, and I believed them in a childish sort of way. But Laodoc confirmed it all when we lived in the desert together, and I’ve no reason to think he was lying to me.’

  ‘I greatly admire Lord Laodoc,’ Nyane said. ‘If he vouched for the truth of something, then at the least I would keep an open mind.’

  Karalyn smiled. ‘Alright. The Holdings religion is correct.’

  Nyane’s tongue flickered before she could stop herself.


  ‘I thought that might be your reaction,’ Karalyn said.

  ‘The creator-faith?’ Nyane said, her voice high. ‘The poisonous creed that has so corrupted and ruined my homeland? Are you telling me you believe it’s true?’

  Karalyn shrugged. ‘Aye, I suppose. Or rather, it was true.’

  ‘I beg your pardon? It “was” true? I’m sorry, you’ve lost me.’

  ‘Here goes,’ said Karalyn. ‘In the last ritual held in the Institute, the Creator himself took over the body of the Emperor. It was the Creator that rampaged through Arakhanah and the Holdings, and it was the Creator’s head that Auntie Keira hacked off with a knife.’

  Nyane said nothing, her eyes wide.

  ‘I’ll give you a moment to digest all that,’ Karalyn said, getting up and walking to the window. She opened it and lit a cigarette.

  ‘Does the Empress know this?’ Nyane said.

  ‘Aye,’ Karalyn said, blowing smoke out into the morning skies.

  Nyane closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. If all that was true, she wondered, then why did many among the Holdings still attend church services?

  ‘Because,’ Karalyn said, ‘Bridget and the others decided that it would be best not to announce what had actually happened. Laodoc advised that they would be mocked and disbelieved. He said it didn’t matter if some people kept their faith in a dead creator. Without prophets, the religion would die off on its own.’

  Nyane snorted. ‘As it has in Rahain?’

  ‘He got that wrong,’ Karalyn said. ‘I don’t think they anticipated what Ghorley would do. Or maybe they did but were powerless to prevent it.’

  ‘All right,’ Nyane said. ‘Let’s say for the moment that this is true. Why would the Creator, a god, descend to our world? And if he was a god, how could he be killed?’

  ‘It was a mistake. As I told you before, he was trying to destroy the world, not become part of it.’

  ‘But why would he want to destroy his own creation?’

  ‘So he could return to wherever he came from, or at least that’s what I was told. My mother heard him say it.’

  Nyane got to her feet, and began pacing up and down the carpet of the study. She had no doubt that Karalyn was speaking the truth to her, or thought she was. But how could it be true?

  ‘All my life,’ she said, ‘I’ve been taught that there are no gods; that’s it’s all foolishness and wishful thinking. And now I have to learn that there is a god, or was, as he’s dead? Why does Dean know nothing of this?’

  Karalyn shrugged. ‘He was only sixteen at the time. I think the adults kept it from him. He knew I was involved, and had to swear an oath about that, but he wasn’t told about the Creator.’

  ‘So Ghorley and the Rahain are both right and wrong,’ Nyane said.

  ‘It seems so.’

  ‘Thank you for being so forthright with me today, Karalyn,’ Nyane said. ‘I hope you don’t get into trouble for it.’

  ‘I don’t see why.’ Karalyn said. ‘You’re in the Empress’s inner council. She trusts you.’

  ‘But this is the largest conspiracy of silence I could imagine,’ Nyane said.

  ‘What would you have done differently?’

  Nyane hesitated, and stopped pacing. She gazed out of the open window over the city. What would she have done?

  ‘A good question, my young friend. I don’t know. I’m glad it wasn’t a decision I had to make. I’ll have to give the matter some thought.’

  In silence the two women stood side by side at the window. Karalyn smoked another cigarette as Nyane stared at the city.

  ‘I’d best be going,’ Karalyn said after a while. ‘I have work to do.’

  Nyane smiled. ‘Ah yes. May I ask how you’re doing in your new role? Assistant to the Imperial Herald sounds like it could be a little demanding now and again. Herald Dyam is an honourable and loyal servant of the throne, but she is known to ensure her staff work very hard indeed.’

  Karalyn smiled. ‘I’m enjoying it, thanks.’

  ‘And have you bumped into a certain unpleasant young man?’

  ‘Aye,’ Karalyn said, frowning. ‘He glanced at me as I passed him, but everyone does, and I knew from his eyes that he thought he had never seen me before. He introduced himself, and I was polite.’

  ‘Well at least that’s out of the way.’

  ‘Aye.’

  ‘And I noticed you weren’t hungover when you arrived this morning.’

  ‘As you said, Dyam’s my boss now. She doesn’t like it if I’m late for work.’

  ‘I’d better let you get away, then. Thank you for visiting. It’s been rather enlightening.’

  Karalyn smiled. ‘See you, then.’

  Nyane nodded and watched the young mage leave the study. A moment later she heard the front door open then close and Nyane sat in her armchair.

  The Creator was real. The Creator was dead.

  She tidied away the coffee cups and placed the piles of documents and papers back onto the desk, keeping them in the same order as Karalyn had sorted them. She made a mental list of questions she would like to ask Lord Laodoc. She knew he was living with Karalyn in the Holdfast townhouse, a twenty minute walk from the university, and wondered if she should pay him a visit. Maybe, she thought, after she had been to see her father.

  Her carriage bore her through the streets of the New Town, and into the Old. They went through the arched opening that led into the Kellach quarter, then turned right and crossed the river on one of the city’s seven bridges. The enormous cavalry compound was on her right, housing the empire’s main garrison, and the military academy. They turned left again, and entered the Rahain quarter, at the opposite end of the city from the Empress’ palace. The entire quarter had been erected in the previous decade and was home to nearly twenty thousand of her kinsfolk. Like her family, they had fled the revolution in Rahain that had seen Ghorley take over, first as Imperial Governor, and then as Lord Protector of the republic.

  The streets were narrow, with the buildings on either side almost overhanging the road. In some places, trellises and awnings covered the street, giving areas a familiar, cavern-like atmosphere that reminded the exiles of home. Nyane stepped down from the carriage in front of the sprawling market. It extended through a dozen covered streets, and was filled with noise and people. Her nose wrinkled at the smells coming from the butchers and coffee shops within. Oil lamps were burning under the eaves of storefronts, illuminating the twisting alleyways where old Rahain folk sat out on chairs, playing card games and drinking coffee.

  A few nodded their greetings to her as she walked through the market. In the Rahain quarter, she was known more as the daughter of one of its richest bankers, rather than the chief engineer of the empire. Her father had an office at the other end of the market, where the narrow lanes opened out into a compact, but beautiful square, with a sparkling fountain in its centre, made from a smooth melding of a dozen different rock types, created by a renowned old stone mage. Its angles and colours caught the fusion of sunlight and water, and gave the appearance of the square being filled with rainbows when the sun was at a certain height.

  She entered the office and nodded to the receptionist.

  ‘Good afternoon, ma’am,’ he said. ‘Is your father expecting you?’

  ‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘We have a lunch appointment.’

  ‘Ahh, lovely. Going anywhere in particular?’

  ‘My father has made the reservations.’

  The receptionist nodded. ‘It’ll probably be Foryun’s establishment, then. That’s his latest favourite. Excellent pork, but I’d avoid the fish if I were you.’

  She smiled. ‘I always do.’

  ‘Daughter,’ she heard behind her. She turned to see her father approach, dressed in his fine banking robes, looking the very image of a respectable leader of the community.

  ‘Father,’ she said, and they embraced.

  ‘Wonderful to see you, my girl,’ he said. ‘Did you come alone thi
s time?’

  ‘I did, father.’

  He nodded, and she bit her tongue.

  He gazed at her. ‘Am I to infer anything by his absence today?’

  ‘Only that it’s better to leave Dean at home,’ she said. ‘I’d rather not sit through you arguing with him again.’

  ‘So you’re still…?’

  She sighed. ‘We’ve been partners for years, father. When will you stop asking me if we’ve split up?’

  ‘I can’t help it, my little flower,’ he said as they made for the door. ‘I worry about you.’

  ‘You needn’t,’ she said, holding the door open for him.

  They stepped out onto the street.

  ‘This way,’ he said. ‘I’ve discovered a new place for lunch. The owner came round looking for a loan, and so I went along to see the operation for myself. Has the makings of a successful business, I thought.’

  She smiled. ‘Sounds nice. Is the food any good?’

  He glanced back at her as they walked. ‘Stay clear of the fish.’

  Several locals nodded to them, some even stepping aside and offering short bows as they walked through the quarter. All the faces were Rahain, with not a single person from one of the others peoples in sight. It was sometimes easy to forget, she thought, that the quarter was only a small part of the massive, sprawling imperial capital.

  They turned down a narrow, covered alleyway.

  ‘Here we are,’ her father said.

  A waiter opened the door, bowed, and let them into the front room of the dining establishment. Deep booths lined the walls, and the waiter led them to a cosy alcove.

  ‘Shall I bring you the menu, sir?’

  ‘No, thanks,’ her father said as they sat. ‘I want the same as last time. Roast pork in red wine, and a bottle of decent red to wash it down.’ He nodded towards his daughter. ‘She’ll have the same.’

  ‘Certainly, sir,’ the waiter said, bowing again.

  ‘Now,’ her father said to Nyane, ‘where were we? Oh yes, I believe you were attempting to tell a father not to worry about his daughter. Hmm.’

  ‘But I suspect that it’s not worry you’re feeling, father,’ she said, ‘but disappointment.’