Kingmaker
Page 50
CHAPTER 50
How did he sneak up on us?
Blay held his sword at the ready as he stalked closer. “Consorting with the enemy is a very serious crime, Butu.” He turned his attention to Amber. “And using magic in war is a capital one.”
He must have been hiding around a corner. The stone walls block my magic senses.
“Another interrogation?” Amber rolled her eyes. “I thought you’d be bored of this game by now.”
“If she’d wanted Pisor, corporal, we couldn’t have stopped her from taking it,” Butu said, trying to sound calm and reasonable.
“You still can’t,” Amber muttered.
Blay’s sword moved to her neck. “Watch me.”
She flinched but didn’t back down. “If you kill me, you won’t find Pisor before those Akdren sordenu reach you.”
Blay turned his attention to Butu fractionally. “Do you still think she’s an innocent girl who doesn’t mean us any harm?”
Innocent, no. And a good thing for us, too, or Philquek would be king already, Butu thought, but instead he said, “She has a point, Blay.”
Blay nodded once, but his sword didn’t move. “Show us where to find Pisor, and we’ll let you return to your clan.”
It’s nearly the same offer Philqueck made Lujo and me.
Amber didn’t seem taken in by it, either. “No, I don’t trust you,” she told Blay flatly. “You’ll just kill me as soon as you know where Pisor is.”
“If you don’t, we’ll kill you before the Akdren take us.”
“Put up your sword, Blay,” Butu said, patience taxed too far. “No one is killing anyone, here.”
Blay’s eyes bulged. “You don’t give the orders.”
“No,” Butu said, “but I remember the ones we have, and if you kill Amber, our mission will certainly fail.”
I really wish she’d stop smiling when I say things like that, Butu thought when he caught Amber’s smirk and Blay’s answering sneer. She has the brain of an envoy but the face of the worst gambler in Turuna.
“Corporal, please,” Butu pleaded.
Blay slammed his sword into its sheath with a growl. His hand never left the hilt.
Butu turned his attention to Amber. “How do you want to do this?”
“I trust you to keep your word. I’ll whisper Pisor’s location to you, and you won’t reveal it to anyone else in your squad until I’m gone.”
“We’ll wait until we’re alone at the entrance,” Butu told her. He glanced at Blay, whose scowl deepened. “That way I can guarantee your safety.”
A grin spread across her face. “You’ll make a pretty good kingmaker.”
“He’s not a kingmaker,” Blay said.
Amber regarded him levelly. “Then you’d better choose another kingmaker from the rest of your squad before the Akdren find you. It seems like you don’t have many choices there.” She returned her attention to Butu, looking brighter. “I’m ready when you are.”
Butu looked to Blay, who nodded. They left the corporal behind. Butu and Amber walked past the frozen terror of the Urgarun children until they reached the entry room.
Tirud still stood watch. He turned when he heard them. His eyes widened slightly when he saw Amber. “Flag of truce?” he asked.
“Something like that,” Amber said.
“Your clansmen are looking for you.”
“I’ll try to get rid of them for you,” Amber assured him.
“Could you leave us alone for a few minutes, Tirud?” Butu asked. “We need to talk privately.”
“Blay knows, doesn’t he?” Tirud asked.
Butu nodded.
“Very well. I’ll keep the others from overhearing.”
Amber watched Tirud leave. When he was out of earshot, she stared hard at Butu. “I want you to promise me you’ll make a king who won’t just kill everyone who came here for Pisor.”
Butu cocked his head but didn’t say anything.
“I knew I couldn’t keep that promise anymore,” she explained. “That’s why I decided not to be kingmaker.”
Butu thought about that in silence for a moment.
“Well? Do I have your word?” She sounded more earnest than impatient, but only just barely.
“You meant to give Pisor to Beker, didn’t you? You weren’t actually lying to us.”
“Yes,” Amber said in a voice choked with suppressed tears. “We worked it out together. Anyone who kills for Pisor will kill with it. He’s going to want a kingmaker loyal only to him.”
Butu nodded. “The king stays king as long as his kingmaker doesn’t think he’s a tyrant.”
“No.” Amber shook her head vigorously. “The king stays king until the kingmaker stops being kingmaker. Why take Pisor from a kingmaker who has already unmade the last king he made?”
“Better to replace him with your own kingmaker.”
“Exactly. The king almost always chooses the kingmaker. But what happens when the kingmaker actually chooses the king because the king can’t pick and choose his kingmaker?”
“Such as when he’s surrounded by enemies with no way out and few children within reach,” Butu supplied.
“Something like that,” she said with a small smile. She sobered, then. “But then it works the other way. What if it isn’t the king who is the tyrant? What if it’s the kingmaker?”
Butu hadn’t quite considered that, but it fit with some of the other things he had been thinking about Pisor while they were in the shanjin. “The king still gets the blame.”
“Even though it’s the kingmaker’s fault.”
“If either of them is a tyrant, you have tyranny. And from what we know of the Time of Kings, that’s usually how it turns out.”
“Not always, though. Sometimes they both had enough wisdom to rule well. Your eyes are open. If you can find someone in your squad you can trust to see like you do, maybe the first king in centuries won’t be like the last one Turuna saw.”
Who of the squad would make a good king?
“What if they won’t let me be kingmaker?”
Amber gave a small laugh. “Don’t give them a choice. Once you’ve touched Pisor, they can either let you make a king or kill you.”
“Right.” Butu didn’t think his squad would kill him for touching Pisor. He had some doubts about Blay, maybe, but not many.
“It’s a promise, then?”
“What is?”
“Any king you make won’t kill everyone who came here for Pisor.”
“Oh that. Yes, of course.” Butu thought about the wording of that. “I don’t want anyone to get killed, really. If we can find a peaceful end, we’ll take it.”
“I knew I could trust you.” She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, and then she told him where to find Pisor. “Good luck, Butu.”
“Wait,” he said as she turned to go. When she looked at him, he pressed the miraman marble into her hand. “Next time, I’ll find you.”
She blushed. “Aren’t we getting a little old for hide-and-seek?” she asked, but she clasped her hand around the token. Moments later, she was gone.