Blood of Dragons

by Jack Campbell

  Kira leaned back, looking up at the stars that had sprung to life as the sky darkened above them. “Besides, Maxim’s plans never would have worked. If he had drugged me and forced himself on me I’d have killed him. Somehow. Maybe I actually would have ripped his throat out with my teeth if I couldn’t find any other way of doing it. Which really would have upset Mother, because it would have made the whole Mara thing look real. And then I would probably have been killed, which would have upset Mother a lot worse, and she and Father would have personally destroyed the Imperial palace and every living thing in it. This is much better, right?”

  “Yeah,” Jason said. “Before I got to know you, and your parents, I would have thought what you just said was an exaggeration. But that’s exactly what you and your parents would have done, wouldn’t you?”

  “Probably,” Kira said.

  “Are you certain that I belong in your family?”

  “Oh, Jason, I’m sure you could destroy lots of things if you put your mind to it,” Kira said. “You helped me destroy that second Imperial ship. And you know how to build stuff. We do that. Remember, Pacta Servanda is the city my mother built.”

  “The Peace of the Daughter,” Jason said. “That’s the biggest thing she built.” He paused. “Those legions coming into these mountains. Does the Peace still exist?”

  “If it’s broken,” Kira said, “Mother will build it again.”

  “Can even she do that?”

  “She won’t be doing it alone,” Kira said, looking up at the stars again. “Father will be with her. And so will I.” She turned her head toward him. “How about you?”

  “Me?” Jason asked.

  “You. Are you going to be part of the family, or not?”

  He smiled at her. “Yes. Right beside you.” Jason’s smile faded into a look of understanding. “I finally get it. People kept asking me if I knew what I was getting into when I was dating you.”

  Kira frowned at him. “They did?”

  Jason nodded. “Your father, and Alli and Calu’s son Gari, and Alli and Calu, and, uh—”

  “I have so many friends in this world,” Kira commented sarcastically.

  “I didn’t realize what they meant,” Jason explained. “I thought it was just about you being, um…”

  “Mother says the polite word for us is ‘difficult,’ ” Kira said.

  “Or about people looking at me differently because I was dating the daughter of the daughter,” Jason said. “No, what they meant was, I’d have to take on a lot if I joined your family. Not…fame. Responsibility.”

  “Mother hates it,” Kira said, remembering late-night talks with her mother. “The daughter thing. She can’t just be herself. She has to be that person. And I have to be the daughter of the daughter, even though I used to hide from it. So how do you feel about all that?”

  “Being with you is worth it,” Jason said.

  “Is it?” She gave him her most serious look. “I meant what I said after we killed those scouts. You can back out of the engagement at any time. Up until the moment that you actually give your promise. You’d better mean it, and it had better last. If you can’t do that, do us both a favor and walk away before then.”

  “Nah.” Jason grinned. “You know what they say. Pacta sunt servanda.”

  Kira sat up, staring at him. “What?”

  “It’s words from an old language,” Jason said. “Latin. It means ‘agreements must be honored.’ ”

  “That’s what Pacta Servanda means?” Kira asked. “The name of the city actually means something?”

  “Yeah. On the way to this world I looked at the information that Earth had been sent by you guys and saw that town name and it looked like Latin so I looked it up and it was. You guys didn’t know that?”

  “How would we know that? Why would a town, because that’s all Pacta was until Mother came along, be named Agreements Must Be Honored?”

  “I don’t know,” Jason said. He turned his head to look south and west as if Tiae would actually be visible from here. “How old is the town?”

  “A lot older than it ought to be, given where it’s located,” Kira said. “Some of the buildings seem to be as old as the oldest structures in Landfall.”

  “Huh. So that town was named by the crew, and dates back as far as the earliest cities on the planet. But there doesn’t seem to be anything special about it.” Jason frowned at her. “That’s weird.”

  “Your mother’s ship was looking for something around there,” Kira said. “Mother and Father commented on it. Before you stole that drive and they started looking for you, those drones were flying over Pacta.”

  “They must have been picking up trace signals of something,” Jason said. “Maybe…maybe that’s where the crew hid the shuttles from the ship. They had to hide them somewhere if they didn’t actually destroy or dismantle them. An underground hangar would have done that.”

  “When we get home,” Kira said. “You tell my parents what Pacta Servanda means. Don’t forget.”

  After Jason had promised and taken on the first watch for danger, Kira settled down to sleep for a few hours, so tired that she could barely wonder about the ‘agreement’ that must have been the foundation for the name of the city she had lived near all of her life.

  The only thing she could be sure of was that if the original crew of the great ship had been involved, it was probably an agreement that had helped them maintain control of this world in the past. She hoped whatever it was wouldn’t pose problems now or in the future.

  * * *

  “Coleen?” Mari stared at the head of the librarians of Altis.

  “May I come in?”

  “Of course. But I'm a little busy with a war at the moment.” Mari watched Coleen enter and then stop in the center of the room as if uncertain. “What brings you to Dorcastle?”

  Coleen looked down, then at Mari. “I have to ask a very large favor of you.”

  “Did I mention there's a war in progress?”

  The librarian began to speak again, but paused as Alain entered the room. Mari didn't have a Mage's skill at spotting hidden feelings, but it was obvious to her that Coleen wasn't happy to have Alain watching her.

  “You're going to hear from Tiae,” Coleen said, her words abrupt. “You must tell them not to proceed. They must forget what they have found.”

  Mari leaned back against the wall, crossing her arms as she studied Coleen. “We've known each other a long time. I've never lied to you. Why do I get the feeling you're leaving out a lot of important details?”

  “It doesn't matter! The consequences could be a disaster for our world!”

  Before Mari could say anything else, a discreet knock announced the arrival of another guest. She opened the door to ask the new arrival to depart, put paused when she saw it was Tresa of Tiaesun. “What's this about?”

  Tresa looked from Mari to Coleen. “I don't mean to interrupt, but Queen Sien wanted you to know as soon as possible about…something I am to discuss only with you.”

  “Something that was found in Tiae?” Mari asked. “Come in.”

  “Yes. At Pacta Servanda,” Tresa said as soon as Mari shut the door.

  “Nothing has been found at Pacta Servanda,” Coleen insisted, looking genuinely frightened.

  “What exactly has been found?” Mari asked Tresa. “I think Coleen of Altis needs to hear this.”

  “We don’t know exactly what it is,” Tresa said. “The report I received under a seal of secrecy says that while excavating to repair a basement, the workers stumbled across a strange gray material. At first they thought it was rock, but it was smooth and uniform and so hard they couldn’t dent it. After consulting just about everyone else, one of the librarians in Minut was called in and identified it as the same material the tower of the librarians at Altis is made of.”

  “It must be something made by the crew of the great ship,” Alain said.

  “Something underground,” Mari said. “All they’ve found is
a layer of that stuff?”

  “Excavations are ongoing around it,” Tresa said. “Whatever it is, it is large. Test shafts dug for hundreds of lances around that spot encountered the same material, as if something as big as the librarian's tower was buried there. I am sorry to bring you news like this when the focus of the daughter must be on preparations to counter Imperial aggression, and on your daughter, but Queen Sien ordered that I inform you.”

  “Does Queen Sien believe it is related to that ancient requirement that the rulers of Tiae must keep Pacta Servanda from falling to an enemy?”

  “Queen Sien does not know, but is concerned that it may be.” Tresa gazed with worry at Mari. “The queen wonders what secret might hide in the heart of her kingdom.”

  “A secret which must be left undisturbed!” Coleen said.

  Mari turned to Coleen, her temper flaring. “Twenty years ago you told Alain and I that you knew nothing about Pacta Servanda!”

  “No,” Coleen said. “I told you there was nothing else I could tell you. I had taken the most solemn oath not to reveal what was known. Not until there was no alternative.”

  Alain nodded. “If I had not been so weakened and distracted, you would not have gotten that deceit past me.”

  “You must not tamper with what has been found,” Coleen insisted. “You must bury it again and forget it is there. Queen Sien might not listen to me. But she will listen to the daughter of Jules.”

  “What’s in there?” Mari demanded. “Why should I tell Queen Sien to forget what has been found? What’s hidden beneath Pacta Servanda? Tell me the truth this time!”

  “What lies beneath Pacta Servanda?” Coleen said. “I don’t know. There may be some documents that speak of it, lost and forgotten in the files of the Mechanics Guild headquarters in Palandur, or in a long-abandoned safe, but if not no one knows.”

  “This time she speaks the truth,” Alain told Mari. “But something has not yet been said.”

  Mari glared at Coleen. “You have no idea what’s there, but you want it buried and left alone. What is it you’re still not telling us?”

  Coleen glanced at Tresa.

  “I’m going to tell Queen Sien whatever you tell me,” Mari said. “Which is exactly what Tresa of Tiaesun will do. So you might as well tell us both.”

  “There is a warning,” Coleen finally said, her voice resigned. “Do not tamper with what lies beneath Pacta Servanda. Do not try to break in, or the consequences would be terrible.”

  “Why?”

  “We don’t know! The leaders of the crew of the great ship made some sort of agreement about what is buried at Pacta Servanda. All that is known to the librarians, and that only to the highest among us, is that whatever is there must not be disturbed or the results would include the total destruction of the tower of the librarians as well as cities such as Landfall.”

  “The crew might have threatened that kind of destruction,” Mari said, “when they had the power to enforce it. But the power they passed down to their descendents in the Mechanics Guild is gone.”

  Coleen sighed. “We know only of the warning. You sent the boy Jason to our tower a few months ago so that he could see if certain devices the great ship should have had were among our collection. We showed him everything we had. He did not find those devices among our holdings.”

  “You think those might be buried at Pacta?” Mari asked. “The, um, beta field generators?”

  “Yes. And perhaps other weapons.”

  “I can see why the crew wouldn’t have wanted anyone messing with them. That would account for the warning. But any device buried there so long ago might have deteriorated into uselessness.” Mari paused as a thought struck. “Or deteriorated to the point where it is dangerously unstable.”

  “The Mechanic devices in the keeping of the librarians have not posed any danger—”

  “They were all deactivated before you were given them! And their batteries have long since lost power. But a weapon could be active, all this time, and whatever power supply it uses could still be functioning.” Mari stopped to think, appalled. “Jason said a beta field generator could make objects for a radius of thousands of lances simply disappear. Something about canceling out the bonds holding atoms themselves together. That's what could be under Pacta?”

  Pacta Servanda. A town that had grown into a city teeming with people.

  “You see why it must not be disturbed,” Coleen said.

  “No! I see why we have to check on it! Coleen, you know that devices like far-talkers can catch fire if the circuits short out. If there is something immensely dangerous under Pacta, or something that used to be dangerous and no longer is, we have to find out. Those weapons could go off at any time!”

  “But the warning,” Coleen pleaded.

  “Is the suppression of knowledge ever a good thing?” Alain asked her.

  “Sometimes,” Coleen said. “Even librarians acknowledge that some things are better not widely known. We kept secret the existence of our tower for centuries, and by doing that ensured the survival of it and everything in it.”

  “You don’t leave weapons unattended!” Mari insisted. “If they're buried under Pacta, we need to do something to ensure they aren't a danger.”

  Coleen paused, glancing at Tresa of Tiaesun, who was listening with growing alarm. “Anyone in possession of such weapons might be tempted to use them.”

  Tresa spoke up before Mari could. “Not Queen Sien! She would never employ such weapons!”

  “Tresa is right,” Mari said. “I know Sien better than anyone else alive. Her sole concern is going to be making sure those weapons, if they are buried under Pacta, are disarmed and disassembled, the parts destroyed.” She paused, rubbing her forehead. “Jason told me that he doesn't know many details of such weapons. Those are kept secret. Coleen, you need to return to the tower and use the Feynman unit to tell Urth what we might have found. Tell them it might contain beta field generators and other weapons left by the original crew of the ship. We need to have whatever information they can give us to allow us to safely deal with and deactivate those weapons.”

  “Urth tells us nothing,” Coleen said, despairing.

  “Even Urth must realize this is different! Tell them we need that information to save countless lives on this world!”

  “What should I tell Queen Sien?” Tresa asked, looking fearful.

  Mari paused to think again. “Tell Queen Sien what we've talked about here. I think she should stop all work on the site for now, to avoid the chance of disturbing anything. Once we've dealt with this war, we can decide how to proceed in the safest way.”

  “Jason will have some ideas,” Alain said. “We need him there.”

  “If he's still alive,” Mari said, the words catching in her throat.

  “Queen Sien must not let anyone know there is anything of importance under Pacta,” Alain told Tresa. “Queen Sien must ensure that no one thinks that artifacts of the past rest under their city. Such knowledge might lead greedy treasure hunters to act foolishly.”

  “Or cause panic,” Mari agreed.

  “Can we not let it rest as it has rested for centuries?” Coleen asked.

  “That may be what we conclude we need to do,” Mari said. “Once we know more about it. Jason told us there was a lot of equipment on the great ship that must have been either destroyed or hidden. Perhaps some of it is down there. Coleen, no decent Mechanic would leave old equipment unexamined, and the ancient tech manuals are full of warnings about the toxic nature of some of the inner workings of their most advanced technology. At this point, neglect could be far more dangerous than trying to learn more.”

  “Since I have no choice, I will return to Altis and speak to Urth,” Coleen said.

  “Why didn't you tell me the truth twenty years ago?” Mari asked.

  Coleen looked down again, refusing to meet Mari's eyes. “You were the leader of a war. If you had known extremely powerful weapons existed at Pacta Servanda, you might hav
e employed them.”

  Mari gazed at the librarian, realizing that her foremost feeling was disappointment. “You really thought I would do that?”

  “I'm sorry. The more someone knows of history, the harder it is to believe in the good nature of human leaders,” Coleen said. “Such knowledge breeds…caution.”

  “What if your suspicions are correct,” Alain said, “that references to what exists under Pacta might still exist in the headquarters of the Mechanics Guild in Palandur? What would the Empire do with such knowledge?”

  “The Empire has been going through those records,” Mari said. “They might already have seen something. And that might mean that the remnants of the Mechanics Guild will learn of it. They might already be planning to try to get into whatever is down there.”

  Coleen stared at her and then Alain. “Can you do anything?”

  And there it was, the plea for the daughter to save the day. Mari sighed and nodded. “I'll do what I can. Once this war is ended. Tresa, don't speak of this to anyone else. Tell only Queen Sien. I'm sure she can come up with some innocent-sounding but plausible reason why the excavations should be temporarily halted. Coleen, try to get Urth to realize they must tell us something about those weapons.”

  “Could Doctor Sino help?” Alain asked.

  “No,” Mari said, shaking her head. “Sino has told me she knows how to use her devices, but she doesn't know how they work. That's not her training.”

  “Isn't there anything else we can do?” Tresa asked.

  “Hope with all your might that, in addition to Kira, Jason of Urth also survives and comes back to us.”

  * * *

  Kira got to her feet, yawning, trusting to the dark night to keep her hidden. She was having too much trouble staying awake while sitting down. Her gaze moved slowly across the landscape as Kira searched for any sign of pursuers. But she saw nothing and heard nothing. That wasn’t entirely reassuring. There should be noises. Animals moving in the night. But the animals had gone to ground, as if sensing the approach of many, many people. The legionaries often marched in step, hundreds of feet hitting the ground as one, creating rhythmic vibrations that could be felt for hundreds of lances. How far off could animals feel those waves of human movement?