Perhaps not Cat, she thought. That might end badly.
“This way,” Void said, quietly.
Emily felt tired, tired and old, as she followed them down a corridor and into a brightly-lit sitting room. Alassa sat on the sofa, Jade beside her. They looked very much in love... Emily felt a sudden twang of jealously, mingled with a grim awareness that it might be a long time before she was free to find love herself. Jade and Alassa had always had a hard core of pragmatism, of practical understanding, that Emily knew she lacked. They could be cold-blooded about love and marriage. She found the thought of being so calculating hard to take.
“I’m sorry I didn’t come earlier,” Alassa said. She squeezed Emily’s hand in a gentle display of affection. “This caught me by surprise.”
“Me, too.” Emily sat on an armchair and gingerly reached out with her senses. The wards didn’t seem designed to spy on them, but it was impossible to be sure. The walls were covered in carvings so pointless she was certain they were designed to conceal peepholes. There could be a dozen people spying on them in a dozen different ways. “What happened?”
“I didn’t hear anything about this, not even a hint,” Alassa said. Her lips twisted. “I’m going to have words with my ambassador. He should have informed me that something like this was in the works. Even if he didn’t know the target...”
She leaned against Jade, her eyes grim. “They should have sought my permission before arresting you,” she said. “That they didn’t...”
Emily nodded, silently, as Lady Barb passed her a mug of Kava. Master Lucknow hadn’t expected her to come quietly. He’d brought a small army of sorcerers with him, enough trained magicians to wear down her defenses and take her alive. She’d been holding back, but she had the feeling they’d been holding back, too. Had he wanted to provoke an incident, then claim she’d been killed resisting arrest? It would certainly save him from having to justify the arrest to a hostile council.
“What now?” Emily wanted to ask Void to do something for Jan, but she didn’t quite dare in front of everyone else. She had a feeling Alassa was going to ask her about Jan, the moment they were alone. Her friend had offered good advice when she’d been dating Caleb. “If the trial is over...”
“Now?” Alassa shrugged. “They’ll try to make a deal.”
Chapter Six
“THERE’S NO ROOM FOR A DEAL,” Lady Barb said, crossly. “These proceedings are blatantly illegal.”
Alassa shrugged, again. “Master Lucknow wouldn’t have gotten as far as he did without some support,” she said. “He’d need several powerful figures on his side. They’ll want to climb down, now the trial turned into a farce, but that won’t be easy if they stand to lose face. They’ll want something before they fold their cards, a fig leaf to conceal the collapse of their case. And... whatever they said the case was about, I highly doubt it was the truth. Or the complete truth.”
Void leaned against the stone wall, casting privacy spells with his fingers. “I imagine they blame you for a great many things,” he said. “And they went along with the trial in hopes of punishing you.”
Emily looked down at her hands. “And they really thought it would get them somewhere?”
Alassa let out a heavy sigh. “A couple of years ago, everyone knew the rules. They lived and died within a framework that everyone understood. It was both good and bad... depending, I suppose, on who you were. A person born into a community would be bound by the rules of that community... whatever they happened to be. There were even ways for individualists to leave the community and strike out for themselves.”
She looked up. “You’ve changed all that, for better or worse. My father went mad because he couldn’t handle the world you created... no, the world the innovations you introduced created. All of a sudden, things are different. Everyone is feeling unsure of themselves. And the events in Alluvia might have pushed them into doing something desperate...”
Emily stared at her. “What happened in Alluvia?”
“We’ll discuss it later.” Alassa stood, brushing down her dress. “Right now, I have to go argue your case.”
“An uprising,” Jade said, as Alassa left the room. “And it’s being blamed on you.”
“It is not your fault,” Lady Barb said, tartly. “There were cracks in society long before you came along. The problems sweeping over the Allied Lands existed well before anyone so much as knew your name. Prince Jock of Hazendel wouldn’t have been targeted for assassination if he hadn’t been a complete asshole to each and every person he met - the fact he was killed by a pistol-wielding commoner is beside the point. The demands for better treatment and even a say in how taxes are spent aren’t new either.”
“Prince Jock was a right little...” Jade cleared his throat. “I have never met anyone viler and I’ve come face to face with necromancers.”
Emily blinked. “When did you do that?”
“Apart from Randor?” Jade smiled. “Master Grey thought that poking the necromantic hive was a good way to get experience. It also nearly got me killed.”
“Master Grey was pretty vile himself,” Emily muttered. “I...”
She looked at Void. “Thank you for coming...”
“You’re welcome,” Void said. “I couldn’t let him condemn you without a fight. If he’d held a proper hearing...”
“It wouldn’t have worked,” Lady Barb said. “There just weren’t any legal grounds to condemn her.”
“They could have tried for a Bill of Attainder,” Void said. “The council itself might have gone along with it. Legally, it would be fine. Practically...”
Jade winked at Emily. “You’re not alone,” he said. “You’ll always have a place with us.”
Lady Barb cleared her throat. “And while we’re waiting,” she said, “you can tell us what happened at Laughter.”
Emily gave her a sharp look - she could tell when someone was trying to distract her - but she knew she’d have to talk about it sooner or later. It had been Lady Barb who’d asked her to go to Laughter, in the hopes Emily might be able to determine what was going wrong at the school. Emily composed herself, then started to talk. She still didn’t know who’d been behind Simon. Someone powerful, clearly. And, perhaps, someone with a grudge against her.
Nanette is the most logical suspect, Emily thought. She hadn’t seen anything of Nanette since the brief encounter in Zangaria, when Alassa’s wedding day had nearly ended in her death. What has she been doing all this time?
The thought mocked her. Nanette was dangerous. And yet, where was she? It wasn’t like the girl Emily had met to let the grass grow under her feet. Was she training with dark wizards? Was she working for her enemies... Emily wondered, suddenly, if Nanette was working for Master Lucknow. Or had she given up the feud entirely? It wasn’t impossible. Nanette could have taken ship to the Southern Continent or simply travelled into the former Blighted Lands. Cat wasn’t the only one setting up a kingdom of his own. There were hundreds of others trying to settle the unclaimed territory.
“Interesting,” Lady Barb said, when she’d finished. “The plot was underway a long time before the end of the war.”
“Yes.” Emily had wondered about the timing. The unknown person or persons behind Simon could not have known what was going to happen. She wondered, idly, if they’d changed their plans when the war came to an end. And yet... it seemed as if they’d thrown away their best chance to take the school to ensure the conference went off the rails. “I don’t understand it.”
“Not everything involves you, whatever Master Lucknow may say,” Void said. “That you were there, in place to stop the plot, might just be bad luck.”
Emily nodded. Given time, the plotters could have claimed the entire school. They could have hacked their way into everyone’s mind, twisting their perceptions until they became unwitting slaves. And yet, they’d thrown the opportunity away. It nagged at her mind. What had they been thinking?
She glanced at her master. “Ho
w long do we have to wait?”
“As long as it takes,” Void said. There was a hint of irritation in his voice. “Alassa is a formidable negotiator. It may not take that long.”
Jade cleared his throat. “I have a question,” he said to Void. “You have enough power to make them back down. Why did you ask Alassa to take the lead?”
Void showed no sign of being surprised by the question. “I could have intimidated them,” he said. “I could have cowed them. I could have called on favors from a hundred councilors and had the proceedings brought to a halt. It would have worked, in the short term. But in the long term it would have been utterly disastrous.
“Combat sorcerers have egos. Big egos. They would have hated and resented me if I’d crushed them. They would have told themselves that they were still in the right, that they still had right even though I had might. They would have convinced themselves, eventually, that I was just a father defending his daughter, that I was acting out of emotion rather than cold reason. They would have felt so humiliated that they would have refused to consider, let alone accept, that I might have been right. They would certainly never have forgiven me for pushing them around.”
He smiled. “Alassa, on the other hand, is a ruling monarch. She can speak for an entire kingdom. Her mere presence is a sign that not every aristocrat is going to go along with the council. She can present them with an argument they cannot ignore so easily, an argument that warns them that vast numbers of people, powerful people, will stand against them. And it is easier for them to back down in the face of such opposition. They can present it as a rethink, rather than a complete surrender.”
“Alassa is also Emily’s friend,” Jade pointed out.
“It doesn’t matter,” Void said. “Alassa wields a very different power than I do. And it is a power that is far harder to... ignore, once you take precautions. They’d have to convince a vast number of councilors to vote against their best interests, if they want to ignore Alassa.”
“Which is pretty much impossible,” Lady Barb said.
“Correct,” Void said.
Lady Barb snorted. Emily rubbed her forehead. Void and Lady Barb had never gotten along, ever since Lady Barb’s apprenticeship with Void had ended disastrously. Emily wished her adoptive mother and father would get on a little better, although she doubted either of them would ever unbend enough to accept the other. They’d both had good reasons, or thought they had, for doing what they’d done. And yet, it had resulted in a lifelong feud.
The door opened. Alassa stepped into the room. Her face was a blank mask, suggesting she was annoyed and yet unwilling to show it. Emily wished, suddenly, that she’d been the one to handle the negotiations. She trusted Alassa, but she would have been happier being the one making the deal. Alassa might get the blame if the deal fell through. Emily wasn’t blind to the price Alassa had paid, challenging the committee in their castle. It might come back to haunt her.
“Emily,” Alassa said. She sat next to Jade. “They’ve agreed to back down.”
“Really?” Jade glanced at her. “What was the price?”
Alassa elbowed him, hard. “Two things,” she said. “First, the conference is back on. They want to hold it at Whitehall now, rather than Laughter. I guess that explains the Grandmaster’s interest in the whole affair. They want you to stay well away from the school and its lands during the conference.”
“That’s... odd,” Emily said. She hadn’t been planning to attend the conference at Laughter, before it had been cancelled. She’d certainly never been invited. “Why do they want that?”
“I don’t know,” Alassa said. “But it isn’t all they want.”
Emily tensed. “What else do they want?”
Alassa sighed. “They want you to mediate the situation in Alluvia, on the grounds you might be the only one everyone involved will listen to.”
“I...” Emily stared at her. “What situation in Alluvia?”
“You don’t know?” Alassa leaned against Jade. “You really don’t know?”
Emily looked from one to the other. “No,” she said. She’d heard vague rumors, while she’d been at Laughter, but none had really caught her attention. “What happened?”
“There was an uprising,” Alassa said. “A big one. A bad one.”
“And...?” Emily was sure she was missing something. “I haven’t been to Alluvia for... months. Not since the end of the war.”
“They’re blaming the rebellion on you,” Alassa said, quietly. “I think - I don’t know - that some of Master Lucknow’s backers believe it.”
“I didn’t,” Emily said. She stared at her friend. “I’ve been in the tower, then Laughter...”
“I know,” Alassa said. “But how many people do believe it?”
Emily made a face. “What do they want me to do? And what’s actually happening?”
Alassa leaned back against the sofa. “According to Prince Hedrick, my spies and a handful of reports that have been passed down to me, the kingdom has been suffering severe social unrest since the end of the war. A lot of tiny riots, a handful of manors being attacked and burnt... matters weren’t helped, apparently, by a major crop failure. The country has been dangerously dry, on the verge of famine. And then there was a bread riot in the capital that turned into a full-scale revolution.”
She took a breath. “The king, the queen and a handful of courtiers attempted to escape. They were caught and, apparently, taken prisoner by the rebels. This sparked off additional riots, with the net result that most of the country - including all the major cities - are in rebel hands. Crown Prince Dater - I believe you know him - has taken command of what remains of the army, but it isn’t clear if he can actually retake the capital and save his family. Prince Hedrick” - her lips twisted in distaste - “asked for my help personally.”
Emily blinked. “Your help?”
“Mine,” Alassa confirmed. “Hedrick was the one who informed me that you were being blamed. He appears to believe it.”
“I see.” Emily vaguely recalled the younger prince, but her memories weren’t very clear. He’d tried to court Alassa... then nothing. He hadn’t taken part in the war. “And what do they expect me to do?”
“I don’t know,” Alassa said. “I don’t think they know.”
“They’re setting you up for failure,” Void said. His voice was cold and hard. “Whatever you do, whatever the outcome, you’ll be blamed. You shouldn’t agree to these terms.”
Emily suspected he was right. The rebels would be foolish to just back down and return to... to whatever they’d been doing before the revolution. There was no shortage of horror stories about monarchs making tactical compromises, perhaps sending a handful of unpopular advisors to the gallows, while preparing the force to crush the rebels, hang the leaders and make it brutally clear to everyone else that rebellion was not going to be tolerated. They were committed now. They’d laid hands on a monarch, his wife, and a bunch of noble hangers-on. Emily knew Dater personally. She highly doubted he’d let that pass.
Her mind raced. There was little hope of brokering a compromise that would please everyone - or even a majority. Neither side could surrender... she wondered, suddenly, if she should advise Dater to go into exile. But she knew he wouldn’t listen. And even if he did... the other monarchs would not be pleased. Even Alassa would have her doubts about a land that had overthrown the king. There were plenty of people who’d take note if the revolution led to a better world.
She felt her heart sink. There were no good answers. Void was right. Whatever she did, whatever happened, there was going to be blood. The neighboring kingdoms would move to crush the rebellion, if Dater and his men couldn’t do it for themselves. They wouldn’t want to let such a precedent stand. And even if they didn’t give a damn about the king, the opportunity to lay claim to disputed borderlands would be irresistible. The southern border of Alluvia pressed against the Craggy Mountains. The remainder of the borderlands would be up for grabs if the k
ing’s power evaporated.
“Ask them for something else,” Lady Barb said. “They don’t need Emily to sort out the mess in Alluvia.”
“We need a solution before all hell breaks loose,” Alassa said. There was a hint of desperation in her voice. “The remaining monarchs are already considering their options.”
“Then they can do it without Emily,” Void said, sharply. “Tell them she’s going back to my tower to complete her apprenticeship. She’ll stay out of the way of the world...”
Emily felt a hot flash of anger, mingled with a trace of resentment. She was his apprentice. God knew she’d pushed the limits as far as they would go, when Lady Barb had asked her to go to Laughter. He was quite within his rights to demand she return to the tower and complete her apprenticeship, before leaving to strike out on her own. And yet...
She looked at Alassa. Her friend was worried, deeply so. She’d always been more plugged into the surrounding world than Emily herself, honing her talents at Whitehall before deploying them in the service of her kingdom. If Alassa was concerned... she must have reason. Zangaria might have found a precarious stability in the wake of the civil war, but the rest of the Allied Lands hadn’t gone through the fire. And if a general revolution - or even a war - broke out... she thought, suddenly, of everything she’d founded over the last seven years. She couldn’t risk watching helplessly as it died in fire.
“I have to try,” she said, bluntly. She knew better than to disagree with her master in public, but there was no choice. “If the revolution turns into an all-out war...”
The Right Side of History (Schooled In Magic Book 22) Page 7