The Queen's Assassin

by William King

  “You are saying these assassins could move through shadows at will.”

  “Not at will, Rik. I am guessing now but I believe that opening such a gate would use up considerable energy even for a Shadowblood. I doubt she could open more than one such gate without resting.”

  A thought occurred to Rik. “Could you not trace where she went by studying the shadowgate? Would they not leave traces?”

  “It’s one of the properties of shadowgates that they fade quickly without leaving such traces. Perhaps if I had been with you and seen the portal before it faded I might have been able to trace it. Now there will not even be the normal residual traces of tau that most magic leaves after it has been used. You can see how such a quality would be useful to an assassin.”

  Indeed Rik could. “This is how she reached Elakar.”

  “That would be my guess.”

  An idea struck Rik with the force of a blow. “No one would be safe from a wizard with such a power. They could come and go as they pleased and no one would ever be able to stop them.”

  “You are very nearly correct, Rik. Fortunately they do have some limits.”

  “I think I would like to know what they are - for my own safety.”

  “The first is that their range is very short. A normal magical portal - at least on Al’Terra could be set up to span continents. A shadowgate can only stretch a few hundred yards.”

  “So Tamara must still have been fairly close to us, even after she used the gate?”

  “Indeed.”

  “What other flaws does this magic have?”

  “You can’t just open them anywhere. You need to have a very clear idea in your mind of the exit point, otherwise the gate simply will not open.”

  “Why?”

  “I do not know. No one does. The theory is that it is a principle of sympathetic magic - you must see the place in your mind in order to be able to go there.”

  A thought struck Rik as she was speaking. “We were close to Tamara’s mansion, easily within a few hundred yards. She would have been able to open a gate into the place.”

  “Yes. If there were shadows in her room or some other location she was familiar with.”

  “Why would there need to be shadows?”

  “It’s one of the conditions of the spell. It can only connect two shadows.”

  “How could she have gotten into Lord Elakar’s chambers?”

  “Perhaps she had been there before.”

  “You mean she had been his lover.”

  “Lord Elakar was a man of great appetite and vanity. It would have flattered that vanity to number the daughter of Lord Malkior among his conquests.”

  “Were they ever seen together?”

  “That can be checked. There are other ways she could have done it. If she was familiar with the Palace - which she was. She had visited it often when it was owned by friends of Khaldarus.”

  “Are we safe from infiltration here?”

  “There’s a reason why I change my room often, Rik, and why I order the furniture moved, and the hangings changed every night.”

  You did not get to reach Asea’s age by not being careful about such things. More ideas flooded into his mind in a torrent.

  “Lord Malkior would have been familiar with the Palace in which the old Queen was assassinated.”

  “Completely familiar.”

  “I can see how all your suspicions fit together, Milady. All except one.”

  “Which is?”

  “How could this spell get past wards?”

  “Wards do not extend into all planes, Rik. That would take too much energy.”

  “Planes?”

  “Think of them as alternate levels of reality, running side by side with our world, like pages lying beside each other in a book.”

  “So the Shadowgate allows you to move between two points in our world by leaving it, and passing through the world of Shadows.”

  “Yes.”

  “Presumably that is why the entrance and exit must be in shadow.”

  “It is as good an explanation as any. I am glad you grasped it so quickly.”

  “That is where my hand went when I put it into the gate.”

  “Yes.”

  “It was cold there.”

  “Quite possibly airless too. The alternate planes are not always friendly to life, at least not as we know it.”

  “So she could not have survived in there for long.”

  “No one could. That is why a shadowgate is a relatively short ranged phenomenon.”

  Excitement filled Rik. “Could I learn to do this?”

  “Given your heritage, it is entirely likely, yes. You have a long way to go before you can weave such complex magic, Rik.”

  “But I will be able to do it?”

  “Perhaps.” A vision of a world in which he possessed great power sprang into Rik’s mind. All he had to do was live long enough to get to it.

  A loud knock sounded on the door. “Who is it?” Asea asked.

  “A messenger from Lord Azaar, Milady,” said Karim. “He says it’s a matter most urgent.”

  “Have you heard the news?” Lieutenant Jazeray asked.

  Sardec looked up from the report he was writing. “News?”

  “It seems Lady Tamara’s coach was attacked by highwaymen last night. Her footmen were all slaughtered. She herself only just managed to escape.”

  Sardec raised an eyebrow. “She was very lucky then.”

  “I don’t know the whole story but it seems she managed to slip out of the other side of the coach while her footmen held the rogues off. She was only a few yards from the door of the Palace when this happened.”

  “The local bandits are getting very enterprising.”

  “Maybe they were not bandits.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The local patriots have been very busy recently. Perhaps they hate the Dark Empire as much as they hate us.”

  “We should be so lucky.”

  “It could be worse. Think of what would have happened if she had been killed.”

  “Would not have reflected very well on our honour, would it? Lady with Ambassador’s portfolio being killed. I have heard Lord Azaar has assigned a team of bodyguards to watch the street outside the mansion. Why are you smiling?”

  “That will let him keep an eye on her and restrict her movements.”

  “You think this was all a ploy to let him do that? You are not as naive as you look, my dear Sardec.”

  “Anything else?” Sardec looked meaningfully back at the pile of paperwork in front of him.

  “Lady Asea is helping the Magisters assigned to look into the matter.”

  “Let’s hope she has more success with this than she had finding Lord Elakar’s butcher.”

  “I thought you were close to her.”

  “I am. My wish is a sincere one.”

  “I don’t know how long she’ll have to make her inquiries.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I hear she is to be dispatched to Harven on a diplomatic mission. To try and get the Sea Devils on our side.”

  “Really?”

  “Indeed. What’s more, I have a pretty good idea who is going to be her bodyguard.”

  “Our young half-breed comrade?”

  Jazeray laughed. “Who commanded her bodyguard at Deep Achenar?”

  Sardec stared at him. “I did.”

  “Colonel Xeno just received a letter bearing her Ladyship’s seal. I left him scowling over it. He said to give him ten minutes and send you in.”

  “Thank the light you did not tell me sooner. I might have worried.”

  “I think you’d better go and see His Nibs right now. Ten minutes must be up.”

  Sardec rose from his chair and made his way to the Colonel’s office.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Harven?” said Rik. “Why are we going to Harven?”

  Asea smiled sourly and put the General’s letter down on her wr
iting table. “Lord Azaar has asked me to go and negotiate a new treaty with the Free Council.”

  “Surely there are other people just as qualified?”

  “According to our new supreme commander I am not only the best qualified, I am the best respected. In Harven it is known that I have the ear of Queen Arielle. That the information is a little out of date has not reached the august council of merchants.”

  He took a deep breath and went through the mystical exercises she had given him, trying to alter the state of his mind along with the state of his body and concentrate on her words at the same time. It was good practise for sorcery apparently.

  “His Lordship had other reasons?”

  “Yes, my apprentice, he has. He suspects I was behind the attack on Tamara. That is why he assigned me to supervise the mages looking into the matter. No one has ever accused my half-brother of being a fool.”

  “Why would he suspect that?”

  “He has a nose for such things.”

  Rik thought he detected a half-truth or an outright evasion there, but he was in no position to call her on it. “Did the mages find out anything?” Rik asked, pausing for a moment. He had a very real interest in this. He, Weasel and the Barbarian could easily end up being hanged for their part in it. If they were lucky they would not be tortured before their death.

  “Nothing remotely interesting. Divination revealed that there were two attackers, which was strange because we found the footprints of three men. The watch are still looking for a missing footman, one who ran away. They think he might have been in collusion with the attackers.”

  “How has Lady Tamara fared after her ordeal?”

  “She is very distressed and will not set foot outside the ambassadorial mansion. She was apparently wounded, and the poor dear is having difficulty recovering despite Lord Jaderac’s patient ministrations.”

  “What are you going to do about that pair?”

  Asea grimaced. “There is nothing I can do now. I have sent her a message offering to bear news of her condition to her father.”

  Rik stared at her. “Her father?”

  “Lord Malkior is leading a Sardean deputation to Harven. We are not the only nation wooing the free city, it seems.”

  Her smile seemed especially cold now. “You expect to meet with him there?”

  “Indeed I do, Rik, indeed I do. It is a thing I most especially desire.”

  “And then what?”

  “We shall see what we shall see.”

  Her smile told him all he needed to know about her reasons for taking this mission. He suspected that if Asea had her way, Lord Malkior would not be leaving the free port alive. He had a good idea who would be expected to do the killing.

  He had barely survived his encounter with the daughter. It gave him no reason to look forward to meeting the father.

  “How long will you be gone?” Rena asked.

  Sardec took her in his arms. “Too long,” he said, and meant it.

  She kissed him and he responded with passion.

  “How long?” Her voice was very small.

  “I don’t know. It will take at least a week to get to Harven, and then however long it takes for Lady Asea to convince the burghers to take our side, or at least not to interfere in the war.”

  “How long might that be?”

  “It might take the whole winter,” he said. “But I hope not. I hope we will be back in time for Kathea’s coronation.”

  “You will have forgotten me by the time winter is over.”

  “I will never forget you,” he said. “Not ever.”

  Privately he wondered whether he might. Not for the reason she feared but because the ghoul disease might overtake him and swallow his sanity. He was still not sure he had a clean bill of health. He was glad he had written her the letter now. She would only get it if something happened to him, but at least she would know how he felt about her, and she would be taken care of in case of his death. He was glad more for his own sake than hers for at least he had finally managed to tell her what he thought about her, although he could never bring himself to say it in speech.

  “Never?” she said.

  “Never.”

  “That’s a long time.”

  “I mean it.”

  “I’m glad.”

  “I had better go and get the men ready,” he said, suddenly embarrassed by his outpouring of emotion. He found it very difficult to let her go. He had a foreboding that he might never see her again, and he took it very seriously.

  Lord Jaderac sat down beside Tamara’s bed. She looked pale. More so than she ought to have, given the slightness of her wound. He had inspected it himself and had found no trace of infection but, it was always possible, although unlikely, he was wrong about it.

  “Are you sure you are all right?” he asked. His concern for her welfare was unfeigned. Her father was his greatest ally among the Sardean nobility and the Brotherhood, and it would not bode well for him if something happened to her while she was in his care.

  “I am well on the way to recovery.”

  “You are sure it was the half-breed who attacked you?”

  She nodded.

  “I should have killed him back at the Serpent Tower,” Jaderac said.

  “I seem to recall you gave it your best effort. The Nerghul was supposed to be invincible, yet somehow he survived it.”

  “It was most likely Ilmarec’s sorcery. It followed him into the Tower after all.” Jaderac realised that somehow Tamara had taken control of the conversation and directed him away from the questions he wanted to ask. He shook his head. He was not going to allow that. He had too many suspicions about his companion. He wanted some answers.

  “Why did he attack you?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I think you do, Tamara. Please don’t take me for one of those foolish young men whose brains turn to jelly when you bat your eyelashes at them.”

  “Then use those brains you boast about. He suspected I was behind the Nerghul’s attack. He told me as much at Elakar’s ball. Perhaps he simply wanted revenge.”

  “He does not seem like a stupid man. And performing such an act without his patron’s blessing would be folly bordering on madness.”

  “Aren’t you the one who is always telling me that humans are driven by their glands? Perhaps he is foolish or mad.”

  Jaderac sat down beside her bed. “Don’t you find it the least bit suspicious that a few days after Lord Elakar passes on to a better world, Asea’s pet attempts to abduct you?”

  “I am not sure I follow you.”

  “Why would she risk a diplomatic incident? Lord Azaar is not a Terrarch who would enjoy having his reputation besmirched. He has always been a stickler about points of honour.”

  “Perhaps she did not expect me to escape.”

  “I admit despite your many talents I am surprised that you managed it as well. By the way, where were you when Lord Elakar was killed?”

  “Surely you do not suspect me of that?” Tamara’s smile had a vicious edge. She was glad he suspected, perhaps even proud of it. Could she really have managed the killing on her own? That particular killing made Jaderac think of sorcery far older and darker than most practised here on Gaeia. He studied her closely, taking in the resemblance to her father. Malkior had taught him many strange and sinister secrets. Perhaps he had passed on a few to his daughter. She had certainly demonstrated an uncanny talent for magic.

  Perhaps she in touch with some of her father’s old allies. That seemed far more likely. Some of them were formidable indeed. Jaderac sensed he was sailing on dark waters here, and every instinct told him to be careful. He had his own plans, and Elakar’s death certainly played well towards those. He did not want anything happen to spoil things.

  She picked one of the roses up from the vase at the side of the bed. “Be a dear and open those curtains. I would like to see sunlight, grey and wintry though it might be.”

  He did so, although the ta
sk was one a menial should have performed. She smiled at him. “How goes your plan?”

  “Very well. The Brotherhood’s lab is most useful. I have drained the ghouls of blood, and begun to work on the serums. My fellow necromancers in the Brotherhood have begun preparing the ground. Kathea’s coronation is going to be a most interesting event.”

  “And you have succeeded in creating another Nerghul?” Jaderac looked at her. Was she mocking him? Did she know about the trouble he was having. He had followed the rituals precisely but the creature did not seem to want to wake. There was some flaw in the matrix. He must have missed something but he could not think what. There was still time, he told himself.

  “It is almost complete. Do you have some special use for it in mind?”

  Tamara looked up at the ceiling and smiled. “I am sure I can think of something,” she said.

  “I see you arranged our getaway vehicle, Halfbreed,” said Weasel. He sat on a crate watching men load supplies on to the huge barge that was to take them to Harven. The rest of the men were in the nearby taverns, saying good-bye to families, sweethearts or favourite whores. It was a cold clear day and Weasel liked to sit outside and smoke his pipe.

  “What do you mean?” Rik asked. He had come over as soon as he had seen the former poacher sitting there.

  “Nothing, nothing at all. If that’s the way you and her Ladyship want it.” So Weasel thought this whole diplomatic mission was just a cover story to get them out of town, did he? Sometimes he was a little too cunning for his own good. Or maybe it was a cover. Rik was in no position to claim he knew all of Asea’s mind.

  “I would not mention that too loudly if I were you.”

  “A nod is as good as a wink.”

  They studied the dockers. Most were short burly men who used hooks to move the supply crates and bales.

  “Did not realise we needed so much cloth,” said Weasel, studying the rolls of fabric being moved aboard.