by Tom Lloyd
‘And Teshen?’
‘Scales the south wall. Might need to pass those who ain’t light on their feet to Safir. Teshen’s team need to climb and run. He goes straight for the kabat – quiet, fast and bloody while you draw all eyes, occupy the office then fight inward as best you can.’
Toil nodded. ‘I like it. How about you?’
‘I’ll hang back with Foren and Paranil. Your boy’s useless outside of a library and Foren can run messages for me. I drop my mage-gun half the time when I’m trying to load it so I’ll be keeping a strategic eye on things with our friend from the Whitesea.’
‘Any contingency?’
‘You assign someone with a burner to guard the gate, Safir does the same with that tower. Any more than that and we risk failing the main job. Whatever troops the Whitesea have got stashed in readiness can follow up and sweep the ground outside the Holding.’
‘Want me to pass all that on?’
He shook his head. ‘You stay here, pick holes in the plan – you’re the one who’s seen inside the place after all. I’ll rally the troops and ferret out the mages. We go once honest folk have gone to bed, assuming we can find any of those in this place.’
‘Your little demonstration has attracted some attention,’ the Shard said with a smile. ‘For the sake of my sanity, I would ask you to spare them an hour or two later, Mistress Ufre. You know what academics are like when something excites their interest.’
Sitain looked back at the heavy doors between them and the clamour outside. The Shard’s steward, Tegir, had been forced to bring an escort to make a path for them. The hallway and Court of the Shard were both full of old men and women – all keen to make their acquaintance and unused to being ignored.
‘I shall try,’ Lastani said, her eyes already on the books. ‘There is much I have to do, however.’
‘There, I think I can help you.’
‘Oh?’
‘Having heard your tale and knowing what I do, I believe I can direct you to some of the more relevant texts. I have explained the matter to our custodian of the books.’ Here she indicated a man in his thirties with a hunched back, dark skin and bright blue eyes who was waiting off to one side. ‘Between us our knowledge is extensive and should narrow your search.’
‘I thank you, ah, Shard Urosesh. However, I’m not yet sure what it is I’m looking for.’
Her words seemed only to amuse the Shard further. ‘Because you’ve not found it yet. But remember, I have read a large proportion of these works already. I can give you a lecture if you prefer – it would save you time – but you would have to take my word for much of it.’
‘Works for me,’ Sitain muttered as she moved around the room.
It wasn’t large, just three bulbous alcoves of mage-carved rock around a central pair of tables that sat beneath a trio of round Duegar spheres. ‘Hey, we’ve got some of those!’ she added, pointing.
‘Do you now?’ the Shard asked, eyes glittering. ‘From the Labyrinth?’
‘Yeah, you should see the Monarch’s throne room now, a copyist’s wet dream it is.’
‘Clearly we know different copyists.’ The Shard cleared her throat and gestured around the clover-shaped library. ‘In any case, acquaint yourselves with this at your leisure. I have business to attend to, but can return in an hour should you want my assistance.’
‘Thank you,’ Lastani said. ‘I, ah, I must admit I am surprised.’
‘That I don’t have better things to do with my time?’ The Shard smiled. ‘Oh I do, but your news was remarkable. It warrants greater attention, I believe, and what would be the point of being in charge if I couldn’t, once in a while, do something I’m interested in? The implications for all mages could be profound, I believe. Something has changed with the flow and availability of magic on Urden, that much cannot be denied. Better to risk wasting my time helping you than ignore the bigger picture for all mages.’
‘You’re taking quite a lot on faith still,’ Atieno said.
The Shard raised an eyebrow. ‘Not as much as you imagine. This is the Mage Islands and I clawed my way to the leadership of its guilds. I’m not an easy person to fool. To do so when I have a greater knowledge of magic than any fraud, the means to verify details and, of course, the means to effect a horrible death to those who cross me … Well, anyone that stupid isn’t the best con artist to start with.’
She gave all three of them a brief beaming smile and headed out, calling over her shoulder, ‘Custodian Surrildir has prepared a selection of works you may like to peruse first. Enjoy.’
Chapter 15
‘Of course I’m not fucking pregnant, you slack-brained Hanese grunt! Have you never had to tell a lie before?’
‘I’m just saying, it’s a weird lie to tell, ain’t it?’
Toil ground her teeth in frustration, anger rendering her momentarily speechless. Finally she exploded again and he felt the full force of her yell from no more than six inches away.
‘No! It’s a fucking easy one to tell. Gods-in-shards, you’re as bad as the rest of these damn fools. Spend five minutes graphically detailing ways you’re going to brutalise each other and you lot just snigger. Mention even the possibility of a baby and the room falls silent while all your balls shrivel up!’
Lynx paused. ‘So that’s a no?’
‘Ask me one more bastard time, I dare you!’ Toil yelled, pulling a mage-pistol and levelling at him. ‘One more gods-burned time!’
‘Okay, okay!’
‘Touchy,’ muttered someone from the safety of the room behind them.
‘Aye, pregnant ones get like that,’ said someone else before Toil whirled around to aim her gun at the other Cards in the room.
She could feel the heat of anger in her cheeks, not least because that last comment had come from a woman. She knew they were gleefully piling on, but restraint wasn’t her finest quality at the best of times.
‘Speak up,’ she commanded. ‘Anyone got something to say, tell it to the whole bastard class.’
None of them spoke, but still it was all she could do not to fire into the crowd on general principle. Deern, Llaith and Varain all wore their best shit-eating grins, while she knew Braqe was always happy to stir the pot in any situation involving Lynx.
The moment she turned her back, however, there was a small cheer from several of them, congratulating Lynx on his lucky escape. He grabbed a tankard and raised it in reply, only to have Toil spin around again and catch him in the act. The urge to throw something was almost overwhelming, despite a loaded mage-pistol being all she had to hand. In the next moment, sense and realisation crashed down like a rattle-cage.
‘Dammit, you got me.’
Half the room fell about with laughter and even Lynx risked a small smile. The clash of emotion on her face was clearly something they were relishing. That only deepened the embarrassment she felt, remembering the last time she’d lost her head. At least she wasn’t in the great hall of Jarrazir’s Bridge Palace now, but in other ways it was worse with all the Cards watching. Toil was a woman who liked to win and be in charge. To find herself suckered in quite so easily left her more than uncomfortable – all the more so for how rarely it happened.
‘Right from the start?’
Lynx hesitated. ‘Well, you ain’t the sort to toss out that piece of news on the job.’
She narrowed her eyes. Nope, not buying it. You panicked, I saw it in your eyes.
‘You realise I’ll have to find some way to exact a terrible revenge for this?’ she said quietly.
The grin on his face faltered a touch. Lynx’s shoulders tightened visibly as his usual hunted air returned. She felt a pang of sympathy for him there, not because of what she’d said but just his instinctive reaction to most things in life.
‘That’s pretty much my life anyway,’ he joked, rallying.
Toil hissed in frustration and grabbed Lynx by the shirt, kissing him hard on the lips.
‘It’s not all there is in your life n
ow,’ she said huskily. ‘And all this baby talk’s reminded me how you make them. We’ve got an hour or two to spare yet.’
Lynx’s eyes widened as she hauled him away in the direction of their room.
‘I just hope the subject doesn’t put you off your stride,’ Toil added as she went. ‘This lot can be so very cruel when they think something’s funny.’
The cheers followed them all the way to their room and, by then, Lynx’s grin was firmly wiped from his face.
‘I hope you have passed a pleasant day?’
Sitain looked up to see the Shard standing in the doorway. She had her hands folded like some sort of damned priest and wore a fittingly smug little smile.
‘Stuck inside with a bunch of books?’ Sitain asked. ‘Turns out even the Cards are better company.’
Lastani dragged herself away from the page she’d been bent over for an hour. Her eyes sparkled.
‘It’s been wonderful!’ Lastani breathed.
Sitain snorted. ‘First bloody thing she’s said since you left.’
‘Yet you stayed?’ the Shard said, gliding into the room. Her coat of ribbons hung almost to the ground, a riot of colour even in this dim library.
‘They reckon I should know more about all this, since I’m tied up in it. I’ve mostly been waiting for you to get back and give us the quick version.’
The Shard inclined her head and swept around one high-sided chair before settling into it. She ran her fingers over her cropped scalp with a faint rasping, but all the while her gaze never left Sitain. Rarely had she felt more like a bug under scrutiny.
‘The quick version is not all that quick, I must admit.’
As she spoke, the Shard reached inside her robes of office and brought out a slim packet of thin cigars. Delicately picking one out with her neatly painted nails, she lit it from the candle that Atieno offered over and sat back again.
‘How quick?’ Sitain asked as the silence stretched on.
The Shard nodded towards Lastani. ‘For you or for her?’
‘What’s the difference?’
She tossed her head back and laughed at that, not some politician’s trill either but a full-throated bark of amusement. ‘We are talking about the most significant event since Jang-Her.’
‘I’ve heard of that one! The conclave of the Militant Orders where all those God Fragments in one place made people dream about the gods and speak Duegar?’
‘The very same. What you did was perhaps only second to that in terms of magic itself. The weaponisation of God Fragments has significance for human history of course, but the results of your little expedition are yet to be fully felt.’
‘What in piss are you on about?’ Sitain said. ‘Significance to human history?’
‘Surely you have felt the change?’
‘To what?’
‘To magic,’ Atieno broke in. ‘To the wind and the sky and the earth itself.’
‘Nope.’
The Shard coughed. ‘Not at all? You are that new to your powers?’
‘It wasn’t exactly something to advertise where I grew up. The only change I’ve felt happened in the Labyrinth.’
‘Very well. The rest of us, your colleagues included, have felt a difference – gradual, but continuing. While you three have become massively more powerful in yourselves – well, put simply, there is more magic available for all of us.’
‘In what way?’ Sitain blinked around at the other mages. ‘That tree created more magic?’
‘Unleashed,’ Lastani corrected. ‘If what I am reading is true.’
‘So far as we know, yes. The clues have been there for decades, but we’ve been unable to do much about it beyond encourage the more relentless academics in Jarrazir.’
‘You knew about Mistress Ishienne’s work?’
‘Of course. She and I corresponded infrequently over the last decade. I believe at least one work was copied from our library for her. Let me be clear, we did not know what lay beneath the labyrinth. It was just one of several likely locations for something we believed to exist.’
‘Which is?’
‘A reservoir of power.’ The Shard gestured in the air with her cigar. ‘I will forego the details – suffice to say that the Banesh Heresy is likely to be broadly correct.’
‘And what’s that then?’
‘Dear me. Do you not even know the myths of the gods?’
Sitain shook her head. ‘I grew up in Knights-Charnel territory. Anything with the word heresy attached got stamped on pretty hard.’
‘Very well. Some believe that Banesh was once a mortal Duegar who became a god with one purpose only – to kill his fellow gods.’
‘Why?’
‘Magic is power. There is a distinct problem with concentrating so much in four individuals. A section of Duegar society reacted against the rise of their gods, as more and more power was drawn to them. Whether they were responding to despotism or a more fundamental problem with the balance of the world remains up for debate, but their answer was two-fold.’
‘Killing the gods wasn’t enough?’
The Shard shook her head. ‘Power finds a way; new gods would rise. The priesthood or secret society or whatever it was, they also created the Labyrinth of Jarrazir – possibly more than one. Within these they drew vast quantities of magic; bottled it and stored it away from those who would be gods.’
Sitain scowled. ‘Until some bunch of idiots came along and pulled the stopper out?’
‘That part was not included in the plan,’ the Shard admitted. ‘Perhaps it was inevitable, but we had hoped to have more time to study the Labyrinth before the tree was accessed.’
‘So this is as much your mess as ours?’
At last Sitain saw a flicker of discomfort on her face. ‘Many of my colleagues would disagree, but yes. It is our mess too.’
‘A mess that makes you all more powerful,’ Atieno pointed out. ‘A mess that makes the mage guilds all the more significant across the continent.’
‘And the woman at the top of that particular tree all the more significant too,’ the Shard added. ‘The self-interest hasn’t gone unnoticed I assure you, but frankly I am powerful enough for my tastes and could do without this.’
‘Do without it?’
‘I am the head of the largest collection of mage guilds in the Riven Kingdom and beyond,’ she said without enthusiasm. ‘I’m pretty powerful already. As much as I would like to improve the lot of all mages everywhere, I prefer not to be looking over my shoulder each and every day.’
‘Tanimbor?’ Atieno asked as Sitain tried to remember the strange guildmaster’s name.
‘Is the greatest of those annoyances,’ the Shard conceded. ‘He has approached you, then?’
‘In a fashion, yes.’
She sighed and took a long pull on her cigar, the smoke curling from one corner of her mouth as she thought. ‘Guildmaster Tanimbor is the most ambitious of my rivals, the most devoted to improving the lot of mages everywhere. He was hungry for this robe long before the state of magic changed across the continent, but as our position improves so more mages become interested in taking my position.’
‘For a leader beset by rivals, you’re remarkably open with us.’
‘As we’ve established, you are a major consideration for me now. I will not hide my interest in having you as allies, what would be the point of doing so? But in the spirit of openness, may I ask you a question?’
‘By all means,’ Lastani said.
The Shard gave her a thoughtful look. ‘Very well. What did you leave out of your story?’
‘Excuse me?’
‘I think you heard,’ she said. ‘I have no doubt you told us the truth when you spoke to the Guild Court. Equally, I have no doubt you held some things back. I have offered you a good measure of hospitality, I hope you would agree. In return I would like to hear some things that the others did not.’
‘I …’ Flustered, Lastani turned to Sitain and Atieno. ‘We have told
you about the tattoos, the tree and the events surrounding it, what else is there to share?’
The Shard’s stare was as hard as granite, though her voice betrayed no anger or hostility. ‘No one gives the full story, by accident or design.’
‘The shields?’ Sitain suggested. ‘Did we mention that? We each held off a volley of gunfire while the Cards did their thing.’
‘A logical conclusion of your increased abilities.’
The Shard rose, grimacing and putting one hand to her hip as she did so.
‘I do not wish for this to be a confrontation. I’m sure we will speak again and soon – at which point perhaps you will recall something further. If not … well, I have already offered my assistance and will remain true to my word.’
She smiled at Sitain. ‘An understanding between us will yet prove valuable in the months and years to come, I believe. I remain a woman of optimism, despite having to deal with men such as Tanimbor. However, for today I think it has grown late and I am tired. Steward Tegir will see you to your escort and welcome you back as you choose. Good evening.’
Chapter 16
Deep into the night, Sitain lingered in the shadow of a pillar somewhere in Nquet Dam. Strips of cloud overlaid the light of the moon and the skyriver, laying slashes of white across the city. The air was blessedly cool after a hot day. Fitful rain scattered across the district while the slim dark shapes of tysarn flashed through the air. Something bit her on the neck while she waited. Sitain slapped her hand hard against it, the sound echoing through the night. She froze, feeling a squirt of blood under her fingertips, but the noise attracted no attention.
The smell of blood brought a pair of small tysarn swirling down from the levels above. She watched them warily, able to pick out almost every detail with her unnaturally good eyesight and wishing she couldn’t. There was an evil look to them, even when just a hand span across. A rapacious tilt to their spear-shaped heads and the strange double movement of their two pairs of wings that unnerved her.
As the tysarn circled, her mage-sight wavered until she blinked it away. For a moment she wondered if the insect had a poison bite, but the warmth in her belly told another story.