Power's Shadow

by Richard Parks

  “The bloodshed and destruction would likely turn the other kingdoms even more against the Five Isles. Any chance of agreement would be lost for a generation,” Marta said.

  Callowyn looked somber. “At the very least. Which makes a quick treaty with Conmyre even more crucial. Without their support, I can’t see King Parlys allowing Okandis to attempt something so reckless on his own. I rather think he’d take the opportunity to rein the duke in a bit.”

  “He has been acting a bit too independent lately,” Sela said, and at that, the other two women just looked at her, and Sela shrugged. “Prince Dolan spoke of him a little. Okandis is his uncle, but apparently they’ve butted heads before.”

  “Speaking of whom and which,” Marta said, “I think it’s time you told us what else you found out from Prince Dolan.”

  Sela glanced from Callowyn to Marta, who nodded almost imperceptibly. Sela shrugged. “When we first met, you mentioned that there were three of my father’s swords at the armory in Lyrksa. Apparently, that’s no longer true. Two of them are in Borasur-Morushe in the king’s armory in Mataria. With the one they already had, that makes three.”

  “Which leaves one unaccounted for, but how did they get the other two?” Marta asked.

  “Prince Dolan bought them,” Sela said simply. “He became fascinated with my father’s work when he saw the first one that King Lokan gave to Dolan’s father as a gift. He would have bought all three, except Lokan had already sold the third to a merchant from Amurlee. Apparently that’s one reason Dolan agreed to come to Amurlee as his father’s emissary. He wanted to look for it.”

  “I gather he succeeded?”

  Sela let out her breath in one big gust. “I believe so. He still doesn’t have it, but he thinks he knows where it is. Then he was called away before he could tell me anything else.”

  “You’ll need to talk to him again,” Marta said.

  “He wants me to meet him at the palace archives tomorrow to show me what he’s found,” Sela said, looking a little unhappy.

  “No problem, then. Unless there is?” Marta asked.

  Sela hesitated. “Frankly, he confuses me. First he’s talking about one thing, but then he’s off on something else. Then he ties the new thing to the old in a way I don’t always expect. Oh, I catch up soon enough, and that seemed to surprise him a little. I just don’t have a good grasp on his character, but I do think he can help us, so long as he isn’t deliberately evasive.”

  “Prince Dolan doesn’t strike me as the ‘evasive’ sort,” Marta said. “Deliberately or otherwise. Oblivious, sometimes, and when he isn’t he may not say all he knows, but that’s not the same thing.”

  “I like him, I think, but he’s both a prince and an odd sort,” Sela said. “I asked if you could accompany me, and he said that wasn’t a problem.”

  “Good. I want a closer look at the palace in any case, which brings us back to the more pressing matter of Callowyn’s treaty.”

  “Pressing, certainly, but I admit to being curious,” Callowyn said, “and, while I do appreciate the artistry of the one example I’ve seen and the fact you’re willing to help my father to obtain it, I have to ask--why are these swords so important?”

  Marta sighed. “Now you’ll think me evasive. I will say that there is some significance to both the number of them and the fact that Master Solthyr created them. I know that there is some quality or attribute about them that I need to understand, but as for what that may be, I simply do not know…yet.”

  “Magic?” Callowyn asked.

  Marta thought about that for a moment, then shook her head. “No, I would have recognized that. It’s something deeper than simple magic. And, yes, I realize I am devoting quite a bit of time and effort on what may very well be a waste of time. I do not believe that it will prove so.”

  Callowyn appeared to consider this. “What about you, Sela?”

  “I just want to see them all in one place,” Sela said simply. “So I can finally judge for myself if they are worth what my father sacrificed to make them.”

  “Then good fortune to you both, but now I want to know how matters proceeded on the diplomatic front. It’s like I’m both deaf and blind here, confined to this ship. My men bring some news, but little that I hadn’t already surmised on my own.”

  Marta told Callowyn all that Count Maton had said, and Callowyn finally nodded, looking a little defeated.

  “We had no way of knowing, but Maton is right—it’s the worst possible timing. It’s safe to assume that if Duke Okandis is here he knows something is afoot by now, even if Prince Dolan doesn’t tell him. If he finds out what we’re attempting he’ll scuttle our chances if it’s the last thing he does above ground.”

  “Prince Dolan doesn’t know everything,” Marta said. “And I’m not convinced he would tell Okandis even if he did. Which is a shame, in a way, since now we’ll have to do it.”

  Callowyn just stared at her. “You’re not serious.”

  “Absolutely serious. If the viper’s already in King Elion’s court, then I don’t see how we avoid it. What we can do is dictate where and when it will have to strike. That gives us the advantage.”

  “I like the way you think,” Callowyn said. “I’d like it better if it weren’t my own neck under the snake’s fangs.”

  Marta smiled a grim smile. “If what I have in mind works, you’re going to like it a great deal.”

  “If not?” Callowyn asked.

  Marta sighed. “Do I really need to answer that?”

  “You just did.”

  §

  “I was expecting this reaction,” Kel said.

  Dena paced the small room like a caged wildcat. “Which only means you have more common sense than, frankly, I’d given you credit for. I’m course I’m furious with you! You failed!”

  “Your pardon, mistress, but I would like to respectfully disagree. I discovered where they were going. I determined who they were meeting. If I cannot tell you exactly what was said, well, a good thief knows a bad bet. There was no way I could enter Count Maton’s home without being discovered.”

  “Next time I’ll turn you into a rat and let you take your chances,” she said.

  I wouldn’t have had much of a chance with Aliora in that form, Kel thought, then shrugged slightly, Not that such was an actual possibility in the first place.

  “You must of course do what you feel you must do,” Kel said.

  Dena finally stopped her pacing. “Aren’t you afraid of me? And think very carefully before you answer.”

  Kel frowned. “Of course I’m afraid of you, mistress. I know what you can do to me…short of killing me, of course. While I’m sure you’re tempted now and again, the fact is that a dead man has no debts.”

  “Probably the only thing keeping you alive,” Dena said.

  “No doubt. Yet I do realize how frustrating this must be for you.”

  Dena stopped her pacing long enough to glare at her servant. “Excuse me?”

  “You need the Laws of Power. You know that the witch Marta is on the trail of the same one that you are seeking. And she apparently has some idea of where to look.”

  “Only because she’s touched the Law, somehow. She feels the pull that I do not…yet. I will have the Fifth Law, mark my words.”

  “I have no doubt of it. Yet all we can do—and I do mean ‘we,’ as by my circumstances I am committed to your interests—is tag along behind her and so try to grasp a clue that Black Kath’s daughter already possesses. I know you are a powerful sorceress, Lady Dena, but if you don’t find that frustrating, then you’re not human, and I know better.”

  “You presume too much,” Dena said softly, but she wasn’t looking at him.

  “If I must be a servant because of my debt, then I will be a good one—or at least as good as my nature allows—to discharge that debt. If you are to succeed in your quest, then you need someone to tell you the truth now and again. Especially when you are in danger of losing sight of it.”<
br />
  “You presume too much,” Dena said again, and Kel felt a familiar shiver in his body and a re-orienting of his senses.

  “I’m a gull again,” Kel said, with a tongue not intended for human speech. In his idle moments, he had sometimes wondered how this was possible, but finally decided it didn’t matter. “Am I being punished for my presumption or do you have a task in mind?”

  Dena smiled, and Kel was a little surprised to see that it was not a cruel smile, or anything other than simply what it appeared to be

  “Why can’t it be both?” Dena asked softly. “No matter. Leave, because I don’t want to look at you right now...and while you’re gone, see if you can at least find out where Marta goes next.”

  Kel flew over to the open window. “As my mistress commands,” he said, pausing just that moment on the sill, and then was gone.

  §

  Marta and Sela left the docks again, heading for the center of the city, only this time they did not pause at Count Maton’s residence but continued along the curving street that led to King Elion’s palace. Their goal was not the palace itself, but rather another building nearby that only seemed small in comparison to the palace. The white dome that was the Royal Library of Conmyre could have easily fit most of the lesser kingdom’s palaces within itself, and one passing by would never have noticed any difference.

  The library was guarded, of course, but Marta and Sela were expected, and were quickly ushered inside. The circular walls were lined with shelves. There were mezzanines at regular intervals giving access to the higher shelves, and tables with stools and benches toward the center of the room. Marta had seen royal libraries before, but nothing on this scale. For a moment all she could do was stare.

  I didn’t know there were this many books in the entire world.

  “Over here, Ladies.”

  Prince Dolan was sitting at one of the tables with several volumes open and spread out in front of him. He rose as Marta and Sela approached.

  “It’s good to see you again, Highness,” Sela said.

  “I’m glad of that. Not everyone is so keen,” he said, smiling. “And Lady Marta of course. Yes, I was hoping you’d be here as well.”

  “Very kind of you, Highness,” Marta said. “This library is incredibly impressive.”

  “Second only to the archives of the Kuldun Monastery itself, and even the good monks of the order have no idea what is all there despite the fact that there are those who have spent their entire lives attempting to catalogue it. What you see here is mostly thanks to Elion’s great-grandfather, but he carries on the royal family’s traditional patronage. Our own archive at Mataria is not half so large, and it is rightly quite well regarded.”

  “I had heard of it, even in Lythos. I hope to visit it someday,” Marta said.

  “I am sure that can be arranged. Your mother did so on several occasions, I’m told. I’m sorry I never had the privilege of meeting her.”

  “That’s kind of you to say, Highness,” Marta replied, without so much as a blink. “And also to invite me here, though I do not believe I am the one you wanted to talk to.”

  The fact that Prince Dolan knew who she was did not surprise Marta in the least. He struck her as the sort of person who would find out such things for certain, if he had reason to suspect, and it was her considered opinion that he didn’t miss very much. Marta wasn’t yet certain if that, where it affected her interests, was a good thing or not.

  “Well, the truth is that I did, in fact, want to talk to you. It’s not every day one meets a proper witch—and believe me, I’ve met enough posers and charlatans in my time to understand the difference. But you are right that it was Lady Sela’s attention I most desired today. I think she can help me.”

  Sela blushed slightly. “Perhaps we can help each other, Highness. You said you had information…?”

  “First, and for my own curiosity, I was hoping you might look at something I brought from home….I’ve made detailed drawing of the three swords in my possession. Do you think you could identify them for me?”

  “I’ll try,” Sela said. “I was present when he made each one, but I haven’t seen them in years.”

  You’ve been pretty accurate so far, Marta thought, Though it may depend in part on how good an artist his Highness is.

  Marta stood by Sela’s shoulder as Prince Dolan unrolled a length of parchment, and admitted herself impressed. The drawings were beautifully detailed. It was almost as if she were looking at small versions of the blades themselves.

  “Either you studied under a master or you are quite the prodigy, Highness,” Marta said.

  “Thank you, but it’s mostly due to my teacher. I used to pester father’s old court painter, Toland, until he gave me charcoal and an old brush just to keep me occupied. When he saw some of my scratchings he told me that such pursuits were not suitable for a prince, but he consented to give me private—and secret—lessons nonetheless.”

  “Do you think your father the king would have objected?” Sela asked.

  Dolan smiled a wistful smile. “I’ll just say that he would not have approved, but since I wasn’t the heir I had more leeway than some.” He shook his head, then. “Forgive me. I’m not such a fool as to complain about being born a king’s son. The advantages are obvious. The disadvantages, of course, less so.”

  Marta found her opinion of Dolan rising by the moment, but turned her attention back to the matter at hand. “Sela, what do you see?”

  “Oh….” Sela reddened slightly and turned her attention back to the drawings. “Yes, the first one is definitely Sunrise, and the second one, I believe, is Bonebane. The third….” Sela considered for a moment. “I want to say Part-the-Breeze, but something doesn’t look quite right.”

  “Perhaps I missed something in my rendering of it,” Prince Dolan said. “Can you tell what’s wrong in the drawing?”

  Sela studied the picture for a few more moments. “Ahhhh…I’m such a fool. Of course that’s it.”

  “What is?” Marta asked.

  Sela pointed to the drawing. “See the spiral carving on the pommel? My father worked on that for a long time until he was satisfied. I’m surprised I didn’t notice sooner—it’s wrong. When the blade is sheathed, the spiral makes its first loop top to bottom. It should be bottom to top.”

  Prince Dolan frowned. “Are you sure? I could have sworn the blade was as I drew it. I was very careful.”

  “No doubt, Highness, and if that’s so, then the third blade is not Part-the-Breeze…or any of the seven. I’d have to examine it in person to be absolutely certain, but I’m as sure as I can be.”

  “Well, then…if it is not the sword King Lokan said it was, that raises some interesting questions,” Dolan said.

  Sela reddened slightly. “Surely you don’t think my king tried to trick you?”

  Prince Dolan smiled. “I would not be surprised at that behavior from any king. No, Lady. I may not be anyone’s idea of a soldier, and I’ll admit my knowledge of the swordsmith’s art is far from complete, but I am a good judge of blades and their quality. The commission for the copy—if it is a copy—would have cost nearly as much as the original. It makes no sense that the king would have swapped them. There’s no advantage to him that I can see.”

  “Yet if Lokan didn’t make the substitution, who did?” Marta asked.

  “That is at least one of the interesting questions,” Dolan said thoughtfully. “Lady Sela, you have possibly done me a great service. Yes, of course I would like you to come to Borasur-Morushe—if you are willing—and examine the blade in person. Yet I think the pair of you have some business yet in Amurlee, or am I mistaken?”

  “I think you are very seldom mistaken, Highness,” Marta said.

  Dolan sighed. “Seldom, alas, is not ‘never.’ Yet one does what one can. As I said, I already owe Lady Sela one debt. Before all is done, I may owe her another. So. If I may be of any assistance to either of you in your time in Amurlee, I will do what I can.”


  “That is very kind of you to offer,” Marta said. “We will most certainly keep that in mind. Yet you did mention, did you not, that perhaps you had information on a blade not yet unaccounted for?”

  “So I did. Only now it appears that, perhaps, there yet one more blade unaccounted for. I hope you’ll pardon me if I consider the matter a little further before I burden either of you with it.”

  Prince Dolan had barely finished speaking before a page wearing the livery of Borasur-Morushe hurried up to him and whispered into his ear. Dolan nodded. “It seems I have been called away again. With your permission, I’ll send a messenger to arrange another meeting when it is convenient for the both of you. If you wish to examine the library further I’ll have Abon here remain behind to assist you.”

  “That would be most kind,” Marta said.

  Prince Dolan withdrew, leaving the boy behind. He appeared to be about twelve years old, with dark brown hair and a rather hawkish nose. Marta smiled at him.

  “Young man…Abon, was it?”

  “Yes, Lady.” He said. His voice cracked a little.

  “Lovely. Might I ask how Prince Dolan signaled you?”

  “Signaled?” he asked innocently.

  “Was it that slight nod he gave? That was a rather subtle cue to pick up from the doorway. That is where you were lurking, yes?”

  “Lady, I—“

  Marta smiled again. “Don’t worry—it’ll be our secret.”

  Now Sela and Abon were both staring at her, and Marta nodded to Abon. “Thank you, but I need you to wait by the door now. We’ll call you if we need you, and I promise we won’t be long.”

  The boy gave a quick bow and returned—a bit gratefully, in Marta’s opinion—to the entrance.

  “If he was tired of talking to us he could have just said so,” Sela muttered.

  “If you’re referring to Prince Dolan of course he couldn’t, but I think rather he had told us all that he wished to tell us for now. The matter of Part-the-Breeze, I believe, has surprised him. I don’t think he likes being surprised.”

  “Neither do I. Do you think Prince Dolan knows why we’re here?”