Moon's Artifice

by Tom Lloyd

‘It is not evidence enough to make arrests,’ Sorote warned him. ‘Whether or not some have committed treasonous acts, proving so will be difficult in the extreme.’

  ‘We’ll find a way to make use of it,’ Narin promised him, turning towards the exit. ‘Stopping them is our first priority – there are hundreds who’ve been taken by this fever already. Whatever the goshe have planned, we’re going to disrupt it.’ His face went stony. ‘Once that’s over, we can worry about arresting whoever’s left.’

  *

  Between drifting drapes that hung floor to ceiling, Synter stared out across the city. Her Blessed eyes could make out the lines of the districts in the darkness, but from the upper room of her canalside eatery, Kayme Warrant was too far to make out. Still she stared, unblinking, as the cold sun of rage continued to burn inside.

  ‘Orders ?’ said a soft voice behind her.

  Synter didn’t move. She had known before he even spoke that it was Kodeh.

  ‘I don’t know,’ she admitted at last. With an effort she pulled her gaze away and turned to face the dark-skinned goshe. ‘I expected us to all be dead by evening.’

  ‘What’re they waiting for ?’ Kodeh asked, his enormous arms tensing and flexing in anticipation.

  Synter laughed bitterly. ‘Seems I’m wrong again,’ she said eventually. ‘Been a lot of that recently.’

  ‘Now ain’t the time to blame yourself. Was no way you could’ve known that damn Investigator had a team of Astaren following him.’

  Synter glowered. ‘Blaming myself ? No. Doesn’t stop me feeling their deaths on my account, though – nor wondering why they gave us time to interrogate him first.’

  ‘Disinformation ?’

  ‘If he’d been lying about Irato’s memory,’ she argued, ‘they’d have taken the artefact by now. Our wards were to keep the foxes out, not resist an assault. What sort of long game would possibly match taking possession of it ?’

  ‘What else is there ?’

  ‘Could he be caught up in something else ? They were hunting him, not watching his back ? Might explain the delay.’

  Kodeh’s great shoulders rose as he shrugged. ‘Could be they’re bluffing – Astaren got Irato, but his memory really is wiped. So they let the Investigator tell us all he knows and make it look like they allowed it to happen. We assume they know everything and shit ourselves.’

  Synter ran her fingers through her hair, scratching at her scalp in an irritated gesture. ‘We could go mad trying to work it out, but that won’t help us. They’re in play somehow – that’s all we can be sure of.’

  ‘So what now ?’

  She patted a pouch on her hip, the contents tightly packed. ‘We get ready for them. I want all the Detenii on the island as fast as we can manage, armed with our special crossbow bolts. We’ve been holding on to them for years now, time to break out the stock.’

  ‘You sure the firepowder heads will work against Astaren armour ?’ Despite his concern, Kodeh’s whole demeanour brightened as he imagined using the weapons at long last.

  ‘I’m sure of nothing, but if they come I mean to be ready for them. Tell the Elders nothing, they’ll just panic and we need them ready for the ritual.’

  ‘They have enough to do,’ Kodeh agreed. ‘Near as much every ship in the city’s going to be pressed into service tomorrow – each one filled with fever-struck citizens to bind to the artefact. By this time tomorrow, the moon rises.’

  ‘I got to admit it,’ Enchei said, puffing out his cheeks and looking from Irato to Kesh. ‘You surprised me with this one !’

  The tattooist didn’t look entirely happy at the revelation that Irato’s head contained a handful of demons, but made no actual complaint. Other than briefly tightening his fingers around his baton, he did nothing as he absorbed the information.

  ‘Am I, ah, talking to a demon now ?’ Narin hazarded.

  The four of them sat in the smokehouse, the lamps turned low in deference to the late hour. Pirish had retired once Narin and Enchei had arrived, taking a pewter mug of rum up to her bed. She’d left a thick stew bubbling on the stove, but in their determination to get their news out, no one had yet touched the food.

  Irato shook his head. ‘They can hear you, but it’s me in here.’

  ‘And you think this is what the goshe’re about ?’ Enchei added.

  ‘Don’t you ?’ said Kesh. ‘It has to be, doesn’t it ?’

  ‘Depends what you think it is – this means nothing by itself.’

  Kesh waved a hand at Irato in frustration. ‘There’s a bloody demon in his mind – a few of them !’

  ‘Aye, but that’s not a plan. From what you said the demons are riding him, rather than being passengers under Irato’s control.’

  ‘But the fox-spirits aren’t the only sort of demon out there. What did you call those demon princes ? Apkai ? What if one of them was behind the goshe, controlling them all ? What if it’s building itself an army it can command, every soldier in the army working to one single purpose, each one knowing their place and knowing no fear ?’

  Enchei looked far from convinced. ‘The demons told you this ?’

  ‘No,’ Kesh said with a shake of the head, ‘but they told me the object stolen from them could link up the paths between their minds and there are thousands of goshe out there. What human could control so many people ? Perhaps one could give orders to a few linked to it, but an entire army ?’

  ‘But why mess up Irato’s head to make so much space ? Space for three demons in each goshe mind at least ?’

  ‘You said the Apkai were like Gods to the fox-spirits – could be one’s using them as weapons,’ Kesh persisted. ‘One of them could be strong enough to keep them under control.’

  ‘There are Shure in two dozen cities across the central isles,’ Enchei argued, ‘let alone those further afield in the merchant domains and in House-ruled lands, that’s tens of thousands of goshe outside of the Imperial City. Ask Irato’s new demon friend how many of its kind there are – I doubt there’s nearly enough for each goshe, quite aside from how they would catch half the demons in the world. You can’t exactly breed them like sheep.’

  ‘So what’s your explanation, then ?’ Kesh demanded, not intending to sound petulant but the exertions of the day were catching up with her at last.

  As Narin winced and shifted in his seat, Enchei stood. The former Astaren went over to look Irato closely in the eye. ‘Come out to play, little demon,’ he said, ‘I’ve got some questions for you.’

  A flicker went across Irato’s eyes, the dart of mist on the wind that was gone in the blink of an eye.

  ‘We hear you,’ Irato intoned.

  ‘Good. Now – Kesh says you can use Irato’s body, how about his brain ?’

  ‘The host is open to us, nothing is hidden.’

  Enchei nodded grimly. ‘These paths – once they’re opened you could reach out to control another goshe ?’

  ‘No. We could communicate with our kin, no more.’

  ‘But if you were stronger, you could ?’

  ‘Only from within, the paths do not extend to our animal hosts.’

  ‘Has any of your kind been hunted ? Imprisoned ?’

  ‘No, the packs tell of no such losses.’

  ‘What if it was the Apkai doing it ?’

  ‘Their presence is like the noonday sun to mortals. We have sensed no such being in our pursuit of the goshe else we would have abandoned it.’

  ‘And the goshe weapons ain’t exactly God-like,’ Enchei added. Abruptly he turned to face Narin. ‘Remember that question you were asked by Lord Shield ? “Who is the Moon ?”’

  Narin nodded. ‘You know who it is ?’

  ‘Most likely this Father Jehq,’ Enchei said carelessly, as though the answer didn’t matter at all. ‘My point is, he must’ve asked you the question for a reason, must have got the name from somewhere. So how about Irato’s mind ? Moon’s Artifice takes effect while people sleep and you knocking Irato out was what inconvenien
ced him, no ?’

  Narin was hesitant now. His entire body ached in a distant way, like a fire blazing on the far side of the room. He was aware of it, but not yet close enough to properly feel its prickle on his skin. Even so the constant presence was exhausting, and following Enchei’s train of thought was beyond him so he just grunted to acknowledge the man’s words.

  ‘Asleep or unconscious, that’s when Moon’s Artifice gets to work. Lord Shield grabbed a fragment from Irato’s mind, the name of what he’d just poisoned himself with or something else about the moon, but not enough to make sense of. I’m thinking the who doesn’t matter so much as the what.’

  ‘What ?’ Kesh echoed. ‘That makes even less sense ! How does that help us ?’

  ‘Be more literal,’ Enchei commanded both of them. ‘What is the moon ?’

  ‘A rock in the sky, isn’t it ?’ Narin said.

  Enchei pointed straight at him with the wooden baton in his hand. ‘Exactly.’

  ‘Eh ?’

  ‘Be literal ?’ Kesh asked hesitantly.

  ‘Aye – look at the whole sky and tell me what the moon is.’

  ‘It’s …’ She glanced up at the ceiling out of habit, then looked down in momentary embarrassment. ‘It’s what lights the night, alongside the Constellations of the Gods.’ She gasped and turned wide-eyed to Enchei. ‘Oh, Hammer of Smith !’

  ‘There she blows.’

  ‘What ?’ Narin demanded.

  ‘It’s a light in the sky – it’s what the Gods share the night sky with. By comparison the lesser stars are just tiny pinpricks of light. The moon is the only equal of the Gods at night !’

  Narin still looked blank.

  ‘It’s a rival to the Gods !’ Kesh said, almost shouting before she caught herself and lowered her voice. ‘They’re going to raise themselves a God of their own ! Whoever this moon is, the important bit is that they’re planning on becoming a God.’

  ‘On the moon ?’ Narin asked, feeling increasingly dazed.

  Kesh clouted him around the head before she could even stop to think. ‘No you fool, it’s just a symbol ! All this linked space in the minds of others – that’s where the God will live, actually in the heads of its followers !’

  ‘But how do you create a God ?’ Narin asked, scowling and rubbing the top of his head.

  It was Kesh’s turn to hesitate now. She opened her mouth, ready to continue her tirade at Narin, then realised she didn’t have the answer and had to turn to Enchei. The tattooist shrugged at them, again unconcerned.

  ‘Whatever was stolen from the fox-demons can open paths up between minds. Father Jehq and his cronies have most likely got a way to send their minds inside from the same source. Their combined intellects, magnified by the brain-power of a few thousand minds, living for ever as pure energy inside the minds of their minions – sounds like a God to me.’

  ‘Combined ?’

  ‘Why not ? Without bodies or any mortal concerns, why not link your mind to others ? For safety, if nothing else – the more of you there are, the stronger you all are. Probably they’ll end up fighting for supremacy at some point, but until then they’ll link their minds and use their mortal vessels to elevate their intellects to a level closer to the Gods than the mortals they once were.’

  ‘And their bodies will die ?’

  ‘The ones they’ve left, most likely not. The others have been stripped of memories, but not the unconscious parts that remember to breathe and keep the heart beating. Stars in heaven – even if the Astaren did then step in, there are Shure across the entire Empire, a thousand miles away and all open to be touched by the new God. The Astaren would never catch them all, never kill enough to murder this new God even if the Ascendants would permit such a thing !’

  Narin tried to shake the muzzy confusion from his mind and sat up a little straighter. ‘What do they need for all this ?’

  ‘How should I know ?’ Enchei asked. ‘This is all just informed guesswork right now.’

  ‘Enchei, you’re as close to an expert as we’ve got here. Is this what you think they’re up to ?’

  Narin struggled to his feet, wincing as he stretched the bruised muscles and scorched patches of flesh. Right now he didn’t mind it. A sense of renewed purpose flooded through him, washing away the faint helplessness that had been seeping in over the past few days.

  ‘Aye,’ the tattooist confirmed. ‘I reckon so, and if I’m wrong I’m not far off. The crux of any plan like this has to be how to get away with it once the Astaren find out. The goshe’s answer is simple : to have so many host bodies the ringleaders can’t ever be caught. I might not have the details quite right but not so much as will matter. If you’re just looking to mess their plans up because whatever it is, it’s a threat to the Empire, I’m right enough.’

  ‘Good enough for me.’ Narin looked around the faces of his three companions just as Irato gave a shudder and a gasp of shock, the demon receding from control of his body once more. ‘I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m not going to wait for these bastards to be rewarded for stealing the minds of a few thousand innocents. I don’t know what Lord Shield will do, but I don’t intend to wait around for the Gods to decide.’

  ‘You think they’d allow it ?’ Kesh said, startled.

  ‘I don’t know, but Shield’s not exactly been keen to get involved yet. All of a sudden I don’t think their interests are the same as mine. I hope I’m wrong, but you fancy telling Lawbringer Rhe we’re just going to stop and sit back ? There’s a crime and I want to find those who deserve to be punished.’

  ‘Got a plan ?’ Enchei asked quietly.

  Narin shook his head. ‘Not yet, but they’ll start transporting the sick to Confessor’s Island at first light. Some of the fever victims have already died ; they won’t want to wait for the rest. You said there were hundreds afflicted already, more by the morning I’m guessing. If they’ve got goshe from all across the city helping to move the sick they’ll have at least a thousand minds to play with when they are ready, maybe two thousand. Would that be enough ?’

  Enchei gave a snort. ‘How’m I supposed to know ?’ he protested. ‘I’ve only just come up with the idea !’

  ‘Well, think about it.’

  ‘I, ah … I don’t know. Maybe – they’ve got more members than that spread across the Empire, but might be they need enough together in one place to start the whole thing off – souls to sacrifice for their new God while still keeping enough goshe abroad to hide the God once the Stone Dragons turn up to slaughter every still-breathing body on Confessor’s Island.

  ‘O’ course, if you’ve got a variant that removes everything but what’s needed to breathe, eat and sleep, could be you’ve halved the number right there. Moon’s Artifice allows you to build sleeper agents over the decades, quiet enough that no one notices, but you keep this nastier one in hand for your endgame.’

  ‘More importantly,’ Kesh broke in quietly, ‘they’re not running and hiding.’

  They all turned to look at her, realisation setting in for each of them at the same time as she continued.

  ‘They’ve risked exposure and are still going. They wouldn’t do that if they weren’t ready – or at least close enough to be willing to risk it. We either stop them tomorrow or we’re too late.’

  Her mouth was an angry, bloodless line as they all contemplated the goshe succeeding in their scheme.

  ‘So how are we going to do it ?’

  Chapter 25

  The powers that be are more than capable of defending the system they rule – one epitomised for many by the caste structure. Direct attempts to overturn this have ended catastrophically – from the Ebalee Trading Company to the Famine War that crossed the Wolf-Redearth border and Leviathan’s shadow war. One cannot help but wonder if change will only come as a consequence of something else entirely.

  From A History by Ayel Sorote

  ‘I don’t want you to come back.’

  The words continued to e
cho through Kesh’s head. As she walked through the thinning mist of dawn she barely noticed the furtive ghosts of other travellers passing. The jangle of emotion inside her was so insistent she only distantly realised many were fleeing the fever, heading east on foot to the city wall. Enchei’s parting words had felt like a punch, unexpected and frightening, and before she’d recovered herself to reply the man had shut the door on her.

  Do I want to go back ?

  She felt a traitor for even asking herself the question, but Enchei had forced it on her. He’d sowed the seed earlier, but this time had been almost cruel in his words. The suggestion wasn’t her own, but the decision would be – whether or not he’d sparked it.

  You’re not a soldier, came a treacherous voice at the back of her mind. Your place is at your mother’s side, not trying to stop the birth of some murderous God.

  She kept to the main streets, crossing the Tier Bridge without noticing the wind whip through its twisting, bone-white struts or the choppy waters below. Once on the Imperial Island she hurried through its orderly streets, just one grey-coated figure among many, and at last found herself on the paved expanse of Lawbringer’s Square.

  As she approached the Palace of Law, Kesh stopped before the statue of Lord Lawbringer, one that stood a little out from the entrance as though forever on guard. Head bowed, stave-tip touched to the ground at his feet, the God looked both humble and threatening to Kesh – his intentions hidden by a stone hood pulled low.

  She stood almost directly underneath the statue, staring up at the looming stone figure to look at its cold, expressionless features. It had been carved with great skill. The wide face and small features more than hinted towards the Ascendant God’s heritage, for all that the white marble could hardly be more different to the near-black skin that had been Toro Dragon’s in life.

  The statue’s presence was oppressive when viewed from there. Leaning forward, the statue looked as if it was about to topple onto her, but Kesh stayed in its lee as she let the questions run through her mind, unable to go inside yet.

  Do I leave them ? Enchei didn’t give me time to argue – but why ? To absolve me of guilt ? Because he doesn’t want me on his conscience ? Does he truly not want me there ? Would I be a liability ? The boat must be easy enough to pilot, they don’t actually need me. Do I risk breaking mother’s heart out of rage – out of grief ?