by Sharon Green
Delin blamed Kambil for that particular mess, and stared at the man's back as he followed the others into a fairly ornate interview room. If he had been in charge the way he should have been, those responsible for keeping the five peasants alive would have paid for the incredible stupidity with their own lives. It was only fitting, but Kambil was too soft to do what was proper. He would be their downfall, Delin knew it with utter certainty, but as long as the man had control of the rest of their Five—which he obviously still did—Delin's hands were chained rather than simply tied.
"As soon as we're seated, you may bring in Captain Al-thers," Kambil said to the servant who awaited them in the room. "You're to stay just outside while we interview him, and when we're done you'll show in the next person we wish to speak to. Is that clear?"
"Completely, Your Excellency," the servant acknowledged with a bow as Delin and the others took their places on the two-stepped dais holding their chairs. Delin's place became the end one on the extreme left, and his humiliation over that was very painful. The last time an interview was conducted like that, his place had been the one Kambil now occupied in the very center....
"Your Excellencies, Captain Althers," the servant announced after he'd gone to the far door of the room and gestured to someone in the room beyond. The man who entered was stocky and older than Delin and the others, but not as much older as the Advisors were. The newcomer bowed while the servant silently left the room and closed the door behind him, and Kambil gestured the man closer.
"Tell us what you've learned, Captain Althers," he said. "You have word from the command sent after the escaped criminals?"
"A number of pigeons flew in together, Excellency," the man replied after having walked nearer. "Considering the weather and how long it took to get them on the road, they made very good time. It wasn't good enough, however, as they reached the convoy far too late for them to prevent the escape of those criminals as well. The ones the command is following somehow ambushed the convoy and made prisoners of the guard members and drivers, and escaped into the countryside. The guardsmen and drivers were all asleep when the command reached them, so they were unable to say whether the criminals left together or separately."
"What about the spy in their midst?" Selendi demanded. "Surely he found a way to leave word as to where they were all going?"
"Unfortunately, Excellency, he was found among the sleeping guardsmen," Captain Althers admitted with reluctance. "He was furious over having been discovered, as now there's no one left to keep track of the criminals and pass on their whereabouts."
"This is worse than simply not good," Kambil said in a tone that made the nervous Captain Althers even more nervous. "What does the command intend to do next? Return here with nothing to show for their efforts?''
"Not at all, Excellency," the captain protested, beads of sweat clear on his brow. "Wagons and horses were taken from the convoy, so they mean to cast about for a trail to follow. They won't return empty-handed as long as there's the slightest chance of finding those miscreants."
"Let's hope for all our sakes that they're successful," Kambil said, the frigid words adding a tremor to the captain's hands. "You're able to send a message by pigeon to them as well?"
"Not directly to them, Excellency," Althers corrected carefully. "The town of Quellin, not too far ahead of them, has a facility for receiving pigeon messages, and they'll send someone ahead to see what your orders are now."
"Our orders are what they were to begin with," Kambil said in the same chilly tones. "Those people are to be found and executed, since criminals of their sort always make people regret any leniency they've shown. Once executed, the bodies are to be brought back here to Gan Garee, or the heads alone if the rest is too unwieldy to handle. That command is not to return without the results we demand, be sure you make that clear to them. If they do... we'll be extremely unhappy."
Delin saw Althers swallow hard before bowing in preparation to take his leave, but there was still quite a lot which hadn't been said. If the man knew the exact fate he and the others faced he would be a good deal more earnest in his efforts, so Delin meant to add to what Althers had been told. He started to open his mouth . . . tried to open his mouth ... sat there silently struggling while the man backed away toward the door ...
"Don't bother, Delin," Bron, who sat next to him, said in a very soft voice. "No one is interested in anything you might have to say, so you've been ordered not to say it. Just sit there and listen and think about the freedom your stupidity has cost you."
Delin would have snarled and screamed if he'd been able to, but even that had been denied him. Rather than do anything which might draw attention to him, he had no choice but to simply sit there and accept that raging horror. Kambil chuckled and leaned forward to glance at him briefly, the glance saying Kambil knew exactly how Delin felt and was glad of it. That made it worse, of course, but in a strange, distant way it also made things better. Delin's father had
always ruled him with a hand of iron, never allowing him to speak of or show any evidence of what was being done to him. This was a familiar situation, then, and one he had managed to get around ... in a way ...
"Excellencies, Lady Hallina Mardimil," the servant announced, then stepped out of the way of the woman. She stalked in with blood in her eye, as far from the fear of the previous interviewee as it's possible to get, and her tirade barely waited until the servant had closed the door again.
"How dare you send guardsmen to drag me back here to Gan Garee?" she demanded as she advanced on them, her tone nearly a growl. "Have you any idea of what my standing truly is, that you dare to treat me as though I were a common peasant? You're all mere children, and I know well enough how thoughtless children usually are—and how insolent they can be with their elders. You will immediately give orders to—"
"That's enough!" Kambil snapped, interrupting the fool of a woman as the other three on the dais stirred with annoyance. "If you think we don't know that you were related to three members of the previous Five, you ridiculous harridan, you're actually as stupid as you behave. What you seem to be overlooking is the fact that it was the previous Five you had connections to. To the people who have taken their place, you're less than nothing. Am I speaking slowly and clearly enough for your limited intelligence to take it all in?"
The woman's face had first gone crimson with anger and humiliation, but then it had paled with the realization that she was far from being untouchable in their eyes. Delin could see that although she really was a rather stupid woman—as everyone who had ever come across her knew— she was intelligent enough to be aware of where the true power lay. She'd seemed ready to add to what she'd already said, but instead simply raised her chin in silent defiance of Kambil's tongue-lashing.
"Well, at least we've achieved a somewhat polite silence from you," Kambil observed, leaning back in his chair again, the words just as hard as his previous ones. "Now that we have, we can get to the purpose of this interview. You were stupid enough to flex your influence and reclaim that ridiculous son of yours, and then you were incompetent enough to lose him again. For that, Madam, you will pay hard, because if he isn't recaptured it will be you who gives up her life in his place. Are you willing to do that to protect him?"
"Give up my life for that ingrate?" she demanded, her skin now pale as milk. "Surely you're joking. He threw my love and concern back in my face, and I'll never forgive him for that. If it's my permission you want—"
"Wake up, Lady Fool!" Selendi took her turn to interrupt, the words dripping with scathing contempt. "No one needs your permission for anything, least of all us. Keep your mouth closed unless you're answering a question you've been asked, and listen to what you're about to be told."
"I couldn't have put that better myself," Kambil added with an approving smile for Selendi, then the smile died when he turned his attention back to the Mardimil woman. "What we want from you is an expenditure of gold and effort, a
private attempt to locate what was lost because of your negligence. We have our own people out searching, but we want yours added to them—and we want daily reports on what your people are doing and what they're finding out. If you manage to recover your son and hand him— or his body—over to us, you'll be allowed to keep most of what you have. If you leave it to us to find him... Does the word 'pauper' paint any pictures for you?"
The woman's shock caused her mouth to drop open, and for a moment Delin thought she would fall in a faint. If her skin had been pale before, now it was chalk white. It took her a long moment to recover herself, but then she nodded jerkily. She understood perfectly what had been told to her, and now would surely spare no effort to repair the error she'd made. She curtsied low—and shakily—before beginning to back to the door, not at all the same person who had entered. Delin found that to be very much a relief, and then the servant was entering the room again in her place.
"Lady Eltrina Razas," the servant announced, but it wasn't a woman alone who entered. A square-faced, middle-aged man came in with her, a man whose skin was ruddy with embarrassment. Delin didn't know why that was, but once the servant was gone and the two people had bowed, he quickly found out.
"Lady Eltrina Razas and the man she's supposed to be married to," Kambil drawled as he gestured for the two to come closer. "You may be wondering why only your wife was announced, Lord Grail, but that's easily explained. You've made a habit of allowing the female to run around doing as she pleased, just as though she had no husband to teach her better. With that in mind, we had you treated as the nonentity you've chosen to be."
The man's jaw clenched hard as he gave the trembling woman a long glance, but he made no effort to deny the charge leveled against him. Delin knew Lord Grail was a man who had fingers in a large number of pies, and was also the sort who had to preside over his holdings and business interests himself. That was why his wife had been free to do as she pleased, but chances were excellent that that would no longer be the case.
"Your lack of puerile excuses impresses us, Lord Grail," Kambil said after a moment, the words sounding sincere. "There are too few people in this empire who take responsibility for the things they should, and I, personally, am pleased that we seem to have found one. You've been informed of what that female has caused to happen?''
"Yes, Your Excellency," the man replied in a deep and gravelly voice. "Her itch to squirm made her claim the use of a condemned criminal, which gave his accomplices the chance to free him. What may I do to help repair that disgusting situation?"
"I'm afraid we'll have to insist that you finance a private search for the criminal, to add to the resources already expended by our own people," Kambil responded with a small nod of approval. "If your forces succeed before our own, you'll find yourself rewarded in a way that should please you. If you fail, well, it's my sad duty to inform you that your wife's life will be forfeit. And that will be so even if you haven't decided to repudiate your marriage and toss her out into the street."
"Those terms are completely acceptable, Excellency," Lord Grail responded, again looking at the trembling woman who now stood with her eyes closed and her face as chalk white as the previous woman's had been. "Although I should say that I've decided against throwing her out for the moment. I haven't had nearly as much use from her as I should have had, but she'll make that up to me while she still lives. It would be unfair to other men if I let her go off on her own to find a fool she can manipulate into acting on her behalf."
"A decision I quite agree with, Lord Grail," Kambil said, again sounding very approving. "We'll expect daily reports on the progress—or lack thereof—of your searchers, and we'll have our own people coordinate with yours to save the duplication of effort. You and your property are now excused."
A grimly satisfied look briefly touched Lord Grail's face at that, and the woman began to sob soundlessly. Kambil had just declared Eltrina a slave where Lord Grail was concerned, and chances were excellent that he would treat her as one from now on. The man took the woman's arm and bowed his way out dragging her along, and Kambil took the opportunity to glance at those sitting around him.
"He wasn't putting on a charade for our benefit," he murmured to his groupmates. "He meant everything he said, so we'd do well to keep him in mind. There are any number of places where he'll be more than useful to us."
Bron and the other two nodded, but Delin didn't bother. He wasn't one of those Kambil had been speaking to, a truth he had no trouble keeping in mind. Lord Grail pulled Eltrina out of the room with a jerk, and the servant appeared again with another bow.
"High Lord Embisson Ruhl," the servant announced this time, then stepped aside to hold the door wide, something he hadn't done the previous times. The reason for that became clear in a moment, when four men carried in a litter which contained Lord Embisson. The High Lord was so clearly in pain that Delin had no trouble noticing—although, come to think of it, Delin hadn't been noticing much at all with his talent lately....
"Set the litter down there and then leave us," Kambil ordered the bearers, pointing to a spot only a few feet from the dais. "You'll be sent for again when the time comes for Lord Embisson to depart."
The four men did as they were told, and once the door closed behind them Delin gave his full attention to Lord Embisson. The man was propped up a bit on pillows, and lingering bruises on his face suggested why he'd had to be carried in. An accident of some sort had obviously befallen the man, and he hadn't yet recovered from it.
"I find myself surprised at your appearance, Lord Embisson," Kambil said in a musing tone. "I'd heard that you were set upon by thieves and beaten, but I thought you would surely be over the thing by now."
"I'm told ... I won't be over it... for some time," Ruhl forced himself to say, his face nearly as pale as those of the two previous women. "More than ... casual damage was ... done to me, and ... my innards ... require more healing time ... than my outer self."
"That's interesting," Kambil said, still in that musing tone. "If I were into speculating, I would guess that the thieves were more interested in hurting you than in robbing you. But there's no point in building guesswork in a matter that will never see it proved or disproved, not when the guilty haven't yet been caught. Tell me, Lord Embisson, do you enjoy being a High Lord?"
"I... beg your pardon?" Ruhl forced out, confusion now clearly touching him. "Certainly I... enjoy my position. Have I... misheard or misunderstood your question, Excellency?"
"Not at all," Kambil denied with a small headshake as he sat back in his chair. "I asked simply because I wanted to gauge your reaction more accurately when you learned that you will no longer have the privilege of calling yourself High Lord. Ah, the news is devastating to you, so you did more than simply enjoy your position. It was your greatest delight, which means your punishment is completely appropriate."
"Punishment... for what?" Ruhl came close to demanding, the shock holding him so strongly. "What have I done ... to merit such a terrible fate?"
"We've learned that it was your orders which kept our former opponents alive," Kambil answered, no longer laconic. "It was you, you fool, who also allowed the late Lord Lanir to take the girl of Fire magic for his own purposes!
Hasn't anyone told you that Lanir had to be put down after he burned himself out? Circumstances would suggest that he did that trying to match the girl's strength when he discovered that she was no longer under his control. The incompetent idiot couldn't match her, of course, and after she dealt with him she left his house and promptly freed two others of her Blending. After that the three of them went after the convoy containing the last two members, and now the five are together again!"
"No!" Ruhl whispered, horror twisting his features. "That can't be true! ... They can't be free ... and together again!"
"But they are, and all of that is thanks to you," Kambil contradicted, his tone cold and unforgiving. "Right now we've simply taken away the privilege of c
alling yourself High Lord. For every three days they remain uncaught, another level of nobility will be stripped from you. If they continue uncaught long enough, you'll find yourself lower than the lowliest peasant. At that point you'll be thrown into the street to beg for whatever you need to keep yourself alive, and the district you'll be begging in will be one of the ones which were part of your former holdings. Your people will be called to carry you out again now, but you'll return here in three days to find out just what your new status is. Do you understand me?"
Ruhl's nod was as jerky as the Mardimil woman's had been, but it was a good deal more brief. The man now looked devastated, and when Kambil rang for his bearers he just lay on the litter without moving. Once he was removed Delin expected the next person to be brought in, but the servant didn't reappear and Kambil and the others stood and stretched.
"That's it for now, but we'll have to discuss possible future moves in addition to those already set in motion," Kambil said to the three people near him. "You, Delin, aren't included in that, so you have my permission to return to your wing. When we want you again we'll send for you."
The others smiled with clear amusement as Delin obediently got to his feet and headed out of the room, going back to his wing as he'd been ordered to do. His inside self raged with impotent anger over being treated like this, but that was perfectly all right. Kambil would expect him to react that way, and above all else he needed to act the way he was expected to.
Just as he had when he'd been in his father's complete power. He'd always acted just the way he was supposed to, and his father had never discovered the tiny, private part of his mind that planned and plotted a fitting revenge. That tiny part was now alive again, and somehow, some way, it would find the path to freedom for him just as it had before. And, as he had with his father, Delin now lived for the time when vengeance would be his....