“I have a question for you,” Adamat said.
“Thought you missed me.”
“You once told me you were part of the street gang Kresimir’s Broken.”
SouSmith froze with the corner of the towel still in one ear. He lowered it slowly. “I did?”
“You were very drunk.”
SouSmith’s movements were suddenly cautious. He glanced toward the stall’s single desk, to a drawer where he no doubt had hidden a pistol. Yet a man his size didn’t need a pistol.
Adamat made a reassuring gesture. “You were very drunk,” Adamat said again. “I didn’t believe you at the time. I was there when they pulled those boys out of the gutter. I didn’t think anyone had escaped what went after them.”
SouSmith examined him for a few moments. “Maybe one didn’t,” he said. “Maybe one did.”
“How?”
SouSmith countered with his own question. “Why?”
“I’m doing an investigation.” Adamat had already decided to tell SouSmith the whole story. “For Field Marshal Tamas. He wants to know what Kresimir’s Promise is.”
SouSmith looked impressed. “One man I’d not cross,” he said.
“Agreed. You have any idea what it means?”
SouSmith returned to cleaning himself up. “Our leader was a royal cabal washout.” SouSmith opened the desk drawer. He removed a grimy old pipe and a tobacco pouch. SouSmith lit up his pipe before he went on. “A loudmouth. A jackass. Wanted attention. Said our name was supposed to remind the royal cabal of their mortality.”
It was the longest sentence Adamat had heard SouSmith utter in years. “Did he tell you what it meant?”
“Break Kresimir’s Promise,” SouSmith said, puffing on his pipe. The smell of pistachio-flavored tobacco filled the tiny room. “And end the world.”
“What’s the promise?” Adamat asked.
SouSmith shrugged.
Adamat tapped the side of his jaw with one finger as SouSmith leaned back. He wasn’t going to say any more. Not about this. Adamat let his thoughts slip toward Palagyi. The twerp of a banker still had men lurking about. He was unpredictable. A man with SouSmith’s size and reputation could keep the idiot in line. At least until Adamat’s loan was due and Palagyi had the law on his side. Besides, SouSmith could be very useful in tight places—such as the Public Archives, behind the royalist barricades.
“Any chance you’re in need of a job?” Adamat asked.
SouSmith examined him through those small eyes. “What kind of a job?”
CHAPTER
9
Taniel found his father’s command post just out of range of the royalist barricades. The empty streets were full of rubbish, the paving stones damp from a brief rain the night before. The city smells threatened to overcome his senses, enhanced from the near-constant powder trance he’d been in for two weeks. The world smelled of shit and fear, of empty piss pots and distrust.
Ka-poel was at his side. Even after all this, she was still mystified by the sight of the city—so many buildings, each one so tall on every side. She didn’t like it. Too many people, she had indicated with a series of gestures. Too many buildings. Taniel sympathized. His real talent as a powder mage was being able to float a bullet for miles—to make long shots across the widest battlefield. What good was that when his view was obstructed on all sides?
Gothen stood on Taniel’s other side. The magebreaker scratched the back of his head where he still had hair. He watched the barricades with a hand on the grip of one of his three pistols.
“Coming in with me?” Taniel asked.
Gothen shook his head. “Your father makes me nervous.”
“You’re not the only one,” Taniel muttered.
Tamas had set up his headquarters in one of the hundreds of abandoned homes near the center of the city. Soldiers milled about outside. They didn’t wear the familiar dark blue of Adran infantry. Their uniforms were red and gold and white, their standard a saint’s halo with gold wings. These were the Wings of Adom. The majority of them were Adran, as it was an Adran-based mercenary company, but one could see all kinds in their ranks. Taniel crossed the street and paused just long enough for one of the guards to get a look at his powder keg pin before heading inside, Ka-poel on his heels.
The salon of the house had the look of a command tent. There were maps on every available surface, gear stacked in the corners, even rifles and ammunition crates. Tamas stood behind a table, examining a map of the city while two of the Wings’ brigadiers—brigade commanders—stood off to one side. Tamas’s bodyguard lounged on a sofa in the corner, smoking.
Tamas didn’t look up when Taniel entered. Taniel cleared his throat. No response. The brigadiers gave him a curious look.
“I want Bo,” Taniel said.
Tamas finally looked up. He had the tense air of someone whose deep thoughts had been interrupted.
“Bo?”
Taniel rolled his eyes. “Borbador. I need his help.”
Tamas scowled. “I don’t want a Privileged anywhere near the city right now.”
“What about that mercenary you saddled me with? Julene?”
“That’s different,” Tamas said. “Privileged Borbador was a member of the king’s royal cabal.”
“Exiled,” Taniel said. “And Bo has no love for the late king. He joined the royal cabal for the money and the brothel girls.”
“And he was exiled because he slept with the royal cabal head’s favorite mistress,” Tamas said. He stepped away from the table and sank into a chair. He rubbed his eyes, as if trying to will away exhaustion. “They almost reinstated him just a few months ago. I arranged for his transfer to the Mountainwatch so that when I slaughtered the royal cabal, he wouldn’t be there. I do pay attention to these things.”
Taniel felt a flicker of gratitude and hated himself for it.
Tamas changed the subject. “How goes the hunt?”
Taniel remained standing to give his report, even when his father gestured to a chair. “The Westeven townhouse has been abandoned. The Privileged is gone, too. She’s covering her tracks well, and Ka-poel’s methods, though accurate, aren’t fast enough to keep up with someone on the move.”
“Julene should be able to track her.”
“Julene is more trouble than she’s worth.”
Tamas sat up straight. “Julene’s well worth the money I pay her. She’s taken care of problems for me in the past. She’s discreet and measured.”
“Problems, eh?” Taniel said. “Like those three Adran Privileged last year that disappeared? That was in the newspapers in Fatrasta. They were getting too vocal in their opposition to your powder cabal, if I remember right.”
“Yes,” Tamas said.
“And you trust her?”
“As long as I keep paying her.”
“Tamas, she’s a powder keg with a short fuse. She went after the Privileged—she and her magebreaker, alone, against my orders. She’s either got a death wish or there’s something personal in all of this.”
“When did I put you in command?” Tamas stood up, crossed to his desk, and poured himself a glass of water.
Taniel stiffened. “That was the implication when you paired me with those two. I am a Marked.”
“Hmm.” Tamas swirled the water in his glass. “Let that Privileged slip through your fingers again and I will put Julene in charge. She’s efficient—brutal when she needs to be, but efficient.”
“Do that and you’ll explain to your council why half the city was destroyed in a full-on melee between two Privileged.” Taniel couldn’t keep the venom out of his voice. Was Tamas being willfully stupid?
“I’ll give you one more chance,” Tamas said.
Taniel ground his teeth together. “You don’t trust me to do my job? You can’t, can you? What will it take for you to put any faith in me? Fifty Privileged notches on my rifle stock? A hundred?”
“I know what you’re capable of, but you’re still young. You have a hot
temper.”
“And you have room to speak?”
“Watch your mouth. You’re going to follow orders or I’ll put someone else on this. Vlora would jump at the chance to get back into my good graces right now.”
“I can do this.” Taniel spoke between clenched teeth.
“Then prove it. Listen to Julene’s advice. She’s a veteran Privileged hunter and a skilled sorceress herself.”
Taniel snorted. “Kresimir above, it’s like you slept with the woman.” There was a brief pause, a flicker of danger in Tamas’s eyes. Taniel felt the grin sprout on his face. He threw his head back and laughed. “You did! You bedded the mercenary!”
“That’s enough, soldier.” That came from Tamas’s new bodyguard. The man sat on the sofa, watching them both through a swirl of cigarette smoke. Taniel glanced at him once, then back at his father. He could see the veins standing out on Tamas’s neck. Tamas’s fists were clenched, his teeth grinding together. Taniel felt his pride warring with the sudden sense of danger in the room. The two brigadiers had their heads together over a map of the Nine, pretending not to hear the conversation between father and son.
Taniel cleared his throat. “Julene can’t track her. She admitted so herself. The Privileged is spreading auras using the rain. I’ve tried my third eye and gotten nowhere. Our only chance is Ka-poel and she’s moving slow. Even then, once we catch her—well, this woman is powerful. Not just magically. I’ve shot her three times. I put my bayonet through her stomach and she destroyed two buildings and disappeared. She’s still on the move after a wound that should have killed her. That’s why I want Bo.”
Tamas seemed to gain control of himself. “Absolutely not. I will not risk a cabal Privileged in the city. Maybe in a few months. You’ll have to make do with the help you have. Ryze,” he said to the older of the two brigadiers in the corner, a veteran with a patch over one eye, “I need a company at the ready for whenever Taniel needs it. Give him an experienced tracker, too. One that’s good in the city.” The old brigadier nodded, and Tamas turned back to Taniel. “Dismissed, soldier.”
Taniel gave a mock salute and spun around, leaving the room. He paused outside the command post to snort another line of powder. The powder trance intensified instantly. He shivered, the world so clear in his vision it caused his eyes to water.
“Stop looking at me like that,” he said to Ka-poel.
The girl mimed his taking a snort of powder and shook her head. Too much powder.
“I’m fine.”
She shook her head again.
“What do you know?”
Ka-poel glared.
Taniel looked away from her. Gothen was still across the street, fiddling with his private armory so that he’d be able to sit down comfortably on a stoop.
“I think one of them is reporting to Tamas,” Taniel said to Ka-poel. “Behind my back. Wouldn’t put it past Tamas. He’s never trusted me.” He rubbed his nose. “Thinks I’m still a kid.”
Ka-poel touched a fist to her heart and pointed at him.
“He loves me? Huh. Maybe he does,” Taniel said. “He’s my father, he’s supposed to—and Tamas always does the right thing. It’d just be nice if he liked me too.” He jerked his head toward Gothen. “I’ve never much liked mercenaries.” He gave a quick glance around to be sure none of the Wings of Adom were within earshot and continued. “They don’t work half as hard for the money you’re paying them and in the end they’d rather save their own skins than finish a job.”
Ka-poel seemed to think on this for a moment. She understood him well enough—when it was convenient for her—but it took her a few moments to catch up when he spoke too quickly.
She made the shape of a woman with her hands.
“Julene?”
She nodded and bared her teeth.
“I don’t like her either. She could have gotten us all killed against that Privileged. Even a Privileged—especially a Privileged—should know you don’t just walk up to one of them and think you’re going to get the drop. She acts like she knows she’s going to win every fight.”
Ka-poel pointed a finger at him.
Taniel chuckled. “Me? I do know I’m going to win every fight.”
He headed across the street and joined Gothen on the stoop.
“Where’s Julene?” he asked.
Gothen shrugged. “She comes and goes. She won’t be gone more than a couple hours, though, with us on a job.”
“Have you worked with her long?”
“Two years.”
“For Tamas?”
“A little over a year.”
“Where were you before that?”
“Kez.”
“Hunting powder mages?”
Gothen shifted uncomfortably. “A Warden that went mad. An ex-cabal Privileged. Mostly that kind of thing.”
“I’d imagine the money is good in Kez.” Taniel decided not to press him on the powder mages.
“Very,” Gothen said. “Things went bad for us working for a duke, though, and we were forced to get out of the country quick.”
Taniel made a mental note that Julene might have a grudge against the Kez. It certainly explained why Tamas liked her. “How does that work out?” he asked. “A magebreaker and a Privileged being partners. She can’t do sorcery anywhere close to you.”
Gothen gave a lopsided smile. “Not as bad as you’d think. I have to touch the Else”—he lifted his hands, though he wasn’t wearing his gloves—“to truly cut off a Privileged’s sorcery. Even then, I have to be within about ten feet of them.”
“Which is quite a task in itself,” Taniel said.
“Yeah.”
Taniel leaned back. “Magebreakers are very rare. I don’t think my father even knows how you work.”
“We are quite rare,” Gothen agreed. “I’ve met only one besides myself. Magebreakers aren’t born this way, not like Privileged or powder mages or Knacked.”
“Then how?”
“A conscious decision,” Gothen said. He had a faraway look in his eyes.
“Simple as that?”
“Simple as that. I reached out, I touched the Else, and I willed away all auras.” He pulled his Privileged gloves out of his pockets and showed them to Taniel. They were dark blue with gold runes—not the usual colored runes on white gloves of a Privileged. “My gloves turned this color instantly. A kind of polarizing, as I understand it. Now, when I touch the Else, the area around me becomes devoid of sorcery. Auras can’t be summoned, created, or manipulated. Even when I’m not touching the Else, auras will not come within about six inches of me.”
“Can it be reversed? If you wanted to be a Privileged again?”
“No.” Gothen returned the gloves to his pocket.
Privileged were the most powerful beings on earth. They threw lightning the way a child might a ball. They commanded the sea and the earth. Taniel couldn’t imagine giving up such power.
“Why?” he asked.
Gothen kicked at a paving stone beneath his boot. “I was a very weak Privileged. Barely strong enough to touch the Else, much less command auras. I failed the test to join the royal cabal. I was angry. I thought, if they wouldn’t take me off the street and share with me their wealth and power, then I would become what they feared most: untouchable by their sorcery.”
“I can respect that.”
Gothen returned the grin. “And now I make a lot of money tracking them down and killing them.”
“Have you killed many?”
Gothen held up five fingers.
Probably powder mages too, if he worked for the Kez. Gothen didn’t carry an air rifle, but a pistol would work if the powder mage was caught unawares. Taniel had heard of bounty hunters who used bullets with gold dust melted into them. Gold in a powder mage’s bloodstream prevented a Marked from sparking powder or entering a powder trance. Luckily, that particular technique was both expensive and unreliable.
“How do you feel about the Privileged we’re after?” Tan
iel asked.
A cloud touched Gothen’s face. “She’s very strong,” he said. “Stronger than any I’ve tracked. Julene says I’m just imagining it.”
“I don’t think so,” Taniel said. “I was there when she wrecked those buildings. Only you standing between us kept me from getting killed. I thank you for that.”
Gothen nodded uncertainly. “I think there’s something you should know.”
“What?”
“When I leapt in front of you, I was touching the Else. I was easily close enough to cut her off. She shouldn’t have been able to reach through. But she did. That’s never happened before.”
Taniel wiped away a bit of sweat beading on his brow. “You’d better warn your partner not to be too confident.”
“As if she’ll listen,” Gothen said. “There’s something almost… personal in this. As if she doesn’t want your help—pit, as if she doesn’t even want my help.”
Taniel snorted. “She’s welcome to go it alone.”
“To go what alone?”
Taniel started. Julene stood over them, a hand on one hip, a frown tugging at the scar on her face. She’d come upon them silently. Only Ka-poel seemed unsurprised by her arrival.
They sat in silence for a moment, Gothen trying to avoid Julene’s glare. He seemed to wither beneath her. Taniel climbed to his feet.
He was thrown down again almost instantly as the ground pitched beneath him.
“Earthquake!” someone shouted.
Tamas was leaning on the edge of his map table when the ground began to buck. He reeled backward, thrown against the wall and then tossed to the floor like he’d been hit by a cavalry charge. Plaster fell from the ceiling, obscuring the room in a haze of dust. Tamas clutched at the floor with both hands, stomach churning as he watched the table thump from side to side until a leg broke. It tumbled askew, jumping like a leaf in the wind. Decorations fell from shelves and furniture upended. Tamas heard panicked shouting out in the streets.
As quickly as it began, the earthquake was over. Tamas climbed to his feet, waving a cloud of plaster dust from his face. The room seemed intact, though most of the furniture was dashed to pieces. He breathed a sigh of relief that the whole house hadn’t caved in on them. Many of the buildings in this part of the city were old and unreliable, and he imagined plenty of people hadn’t been so lucky.
The Powder Mage Trilogy: Promise of Blood, The Crimson Campaign, The Autumn Republic Page 12