“This way, Esteemed Bridge,” Ulai said, leading me out of the candlelit entrance and towards a more brightly lit chamber beyond.
We walked through a circular opening cut into dark wood.
I blinked into the light as we entered the high-ceilinged room, scanning in reflex.
While my living light told me little, my physical eyes told me plenty. The very first face my eyes found made me jump back in shock. I bumped into Ulai behind me, causing a plume of alarm to come off the tall seer.
I barely noticed.
I couldn’t tear my eyes off the seer kneeling on the other side of the room.
That seer was Wreg.
47
PAYMENT
WREG STARED AT me with equal surprise.
Then his expression hardened into a mask.
That mask projected so much hatred I looked away before I’d fully taken it in.
Even so, seeing him was more than a small shock, and not only because of how I’d left him on that plane. After all that time in the Barrier with Revik, I felt like I knew him––really knew him, not like how I had while staying with the Rebels. Some of that knowing made me like him more, some less, but the level of intimacy in my light was disconcerting.
My eyes found Voi Pai a second later.
She sat on a chair that resembled a throne, but a significantly less ornate one than what lived in the remnants of the old human audience chambers of the outer hall. Voi Pai’s seat stood on a platform at least five feet above the lower floor of the room. Made of padded silk cushions and hand sewn round pillows, it looked like a Chinese version of a divan.
I studied her face long enough to remember its details.
Those strange, yellow eyes with the vertical, cat-like pupils stared right back at me, as if she were doing a similar inventory. Just like before, her sleek, black hair stood in a high, traditional bun, adorned with jeweled combs. Two long, curved pieces of hair like bangs framed her oval face, accenting her high cheekbones while seeming to point to her blood-red mouth.
I glanced around the rest of the room, and realized it was almost full.
I flinched again when I saw Garensche and Holo, standing not far from me, wearing the servant caste clothing of the City.
Frowning when I saw the two of them standing in a slight alcove, Garensche nearly crouched due to his enormous height next to what looked like a small cooking area, I glanced away, taking in the rest of the room if only to keep the reaction off my face.
Most of the seers lining the walls were Lao Hu, and infiltrators from the black sashes they wore. I also saw Cass and Baguen on a bench to the left of Voi Pai’s elevated couch-throne. Next to them stood Jax and Mila, two more infiltrators who had worked for Revik.
Along with Wreg, five other seers knelt at the edge of the lower floor. I recognized Loki, Raddi and Neela among them. I noticed only then that they were bound, and collared. Garensche, Holo, Jax and Mila wore collars as well.
Feeling my jaw harden, I looked back at Voi Pai.
“I am here,” I said, throwing out every word of my carefully-rehearsed formal greeting. “You wished me to come in person, did you not? Here I am.”
Her red lips quirked in the ghost of a smile. She raised one penciled eyebrow.
“Is that how we shall greet one another, Esteemed Bridge?” she said. Despite her chiding tone, I heard a faint gloat of satisfaction in her softly clicking tongue. “Sister, your words wound me.”
“As clearly this display is meant to do for me,” I said.
I knew she’d only get off on my anger, but I couldn’t quite keep it out of my light. Gesturing around the room, I avoided looking at Wreg as I let my hand shift from his team to Garensche and Holo, finishing on Jax and Mila where they stood next to Cass and Baguen.
“What is the point of this, otherwise? Treating our brothers and sisters in this manner?”
“I treat then as is appropriate to their status.”
“Which is what? Slaves to the Lao Hu?”
“Those whose lives belong to our people, yes.”
Folding my arms, I forced my light to retract, to go still. I couldn’t shield in here, so all I could do is stop reacting, make my mind calm. I already knew she’d done this on purpose, to rattle me, and it had worked. Truthfully, I didn’t care––not about that part, at least––but if she was enjoying herself too much, she’d likely only prolong things more.
I glanced at Ulai, who remained standing beside me.
I could see from his face that the tone of our exchange distressed him. I also realized for the first time how tall he was. He had maybe an inch on Revik.
Sighing in a clicking kind of purr, I looked back at Voi Pai, bowing as graciously as I could.
“I apologize, most respected Voi Pai, leader of the Lao Hu,” I said, holding my hand up in the polite manner. “Perhaps we could start again. I was told you wished to speak to me?”
The female seer smiled, but it did not reach her eyes.
“Yes, Esteemed Bridge.”
“Would it be possible for us to continue this conversation in private?” I said, aware of Wreg’s eyes on me. I gestured around vaguely. “This hardly seems a conducive environment for a civil negotiation.”
“I disagree, Esteemed Bridge,” Voi Pai returned smoothly. She smiled. “I prefer to negotiate openly. Where the parties retaining an interest are able to hear the discussion of their own worth.”
“Is this what you meant in inviting me here, as well?” I said, quirking an eyebrow in return. “When you insisted I come in person? Because I seem to remember your letter saying something about apologizing to your intermediaries. I would hate to think you were insincere in that, Voi Pai, or duplicitous in your invitation.”
“No, Esteemed Bridge. Of course that is not what is meant.”
“Then perhaps,” I continued evenly. “We could begin there. Since you wish this to be publicly aired, please do share with me whatever words could not be communicated through my emissaries. Then, I also,” I added. “Would like to hear your thoughts about the request I sent, for which I have still heard no reply, as to terms you would find acceptable… despite the long stay of my two friends.”
Briefly, I considered raising the issue of the human-killing disease, then dismissed it from my mind. I’d let her bring that up. I had no advantage in doing so, and anyway, it wasn’t why I was there.
Still watching me narrowly, Voi Pai adjusted herself on the silk-pillowed divan.
I felt my patience ebbing as she leaned over a small table, pouring herself a cup of tea from a clay pot etched with Chinese dragons. Setting the pot down on a brightly lacquered tray, she leaned back on her couch, pausing to sniff her cup before taking a gentle series of sips.
I bit my lip, but didn't move.
“I wished only to apologize first, Most Holy Sister,” the Lao Hu leader said, smiling at me silkily. “I wished things to be cordial between the two of us once more. So much so, I risked your displeasure at my lack of reply.”
“A rather flawed approach,” I said sourly.
“Perhaps. And yet, my regrets are very real.”
“Of that I have little doubt. Are you ready to talk business, respected Voi Pai?”
“I have not yet apologized, Beloved Intermediary.”
I waved away her words, using every effort to keep the gesture polite, even as I bit my lip.
“Kindly spare me the ceremony of empty words, Most Venerable Voi Pai,” I said. “An answer to my request is all I require of you, if you would like to restore friendliness between us. Without those matters addressed, any apology, no matter how pretty, is worthless to me.”
She leaned back on her couch and lit a hiri, one of the black-skinned, Chinese ones I remembered her smoking when I stayed here before. I watched her fit the hiri’s end into a filter of what looked like real ivory.
“Perhaps you could remind me of the exact nature of your request?” she said, exhaling a plume of dark smoke. “The details
of this note have escaped me, I confess.” Smiling, she added, “My attention on this day has been taken up almost entirely by the difficulties we experienced, warding off yet another attack by these ‘Rebels’ with whom you are suddenly so enamored. Those same Rebels you continually assure me are not a threat to the Lao Hu.”
I glanced at Wreg, almost before I could stop myself.
Letting my gaze drop down his body, I realized he was wearing full body armor, and that two holsters around his person were empty. His long hair was tied back, and he wore boots on his feet with spikes at the edges for climbing.
The seers with him were all dressed similarly, all without the external armor coats I remembered, but clearly disarmed recently and dressed for a military operation. I found myself thinking only Wreg would be crazy enough to climb the walls of the Forbidden City, especially the newer ones, which stood over a hundred feet high.
Still avoiding Wreg’s eyes, I looked back at Voi Pai.
“You would call them dangerous,” I said, letting a faint derision touch my voice. “For doing what any of us would do in their position? Trying to free their brothers and sisters from this illegal ‘ownership’ you claim?”
I glanced at Cass, who smiled at me faintly. She looked angry, too. So did Baguen, which made me like him a lot more for some reason.
Voi Pai’s voice pulled my eyes off their faces.
“There is nothing illegal about it.” Her voice changed, and I heard an open warning in it that time, what sounded like real anger. “Moreover, I would bid you caution, Esteemed Bridge. We honor you, but you are still a guest in my home––”
“––A guest who has been repeatedly insulted, lied to, and dishonored, well before I arrived in your home.” I gestured towards Cass and Baguen, my face hard. “What crime have I committed, that you see fit to imprison my friends? These are not servants, Voi Pai. They are dear friends of mine––the dearest. They came here as a favor to me, to act on my behalf to request an honest parlay on a matter I made clear was of importance to me.”
“I told you, Esteemed Bridge,” Voi Pai warned. “I wished only to speak to you in person––”
“So you say,” I cut in. “But I would have responded much more favorably to that request had it come without the illegal detention of my people. You could have requested the same, and returned my friends to me… along with an answer to my request that you name whatever price the respected Voi Pai would like for the purchase of her ‘legitimately owned’ seers.”
I felt Wreg turn, staring at me.
I did my best to ignore it.
Voi Pai only smiled at my words, exhaling a perfect ring of smoke.
“I have heard no price quoted,” she said, draping an arm over the back of the couch.
“I quoted one before,” I returned, more sharply than I intended. “Instead of refusing this price, or bargaining for one that was acceptable to us both, you simply pretended to agree and then extracted your own price, one that is clearly not acceptable to me.” My jaw hardened. “How is that friendly, Voi Pai?”
She shrugged, gesturing vaguely with the hand that held the hiri.
“I was not aware these Rebels were so precious to you. You seemed less interested in their welfare before––”
“Bullshit!” I snapped, before I could stop myself. “I was crystal clear about the stipulations of this little ‘partnership.’ I said no fucking hostages, Voi Pai. Apart from Salinse.”
“I could not find Salinse.”
“So you take every other goddamned seer in the compound?”
As I bit back my fury, I heard the silence in the room.
I felt Wreg’s eyes on me, along with Loki’s and Jax’s.
Really, every seer in there was looking at me now, but those were the eyes I felt the most. I avoided Cass’s face as well, knowing I would only get angrier if I dwelled on the fact that Voi Pai had been holding her captive, too. I already felt Baguen hovering over her protectively, enough that I knew they’d likely been separated.
Right then, that was more than enough to piss me off.
Voi Pai smiled again, letting her eyes drift over the length of my body. She was enjoying my anger, of course. She was enjoying the conversation in general, I suspected.
Remembering this, I looked away, clicking sharply under my breath.
“I would have thought the respected Voi Pai had more pressing things to fill her time,” I said, looking back at her. “I sincerely hope you are not so bored, Voi Pai, as to risk a war with me, simply for the purpose of amusing yourself on my displeasure.”
Voi Pai smiled wider, inclining her head.
“I still have not yet heard an offer as to price,” she purred.
“I have put that ball in your court, respected Voi Pai,” I said flatly. “As you surely must know by now. Since you have a tendency to say ‘yes’ when you mean ‘no,’ I thought it more likely I’d get a real quote if you named it yourself.”
Biting my lip, I gestured towards her sharply.
“…Clearly you have something in mind. Name it.”
Voi Pai’s smile turned predatory.
“I would like the Sword,” she said.
“Fucking bitch,” Wreg snarled.
Before I could turn my head, he got cuffed, hard, by the guard standing behind him. I glanced at him just long enough to see him recover, kneeling once more at the edge of the square carpet. Seeing the mark forming on his face, I bit my tongue.
I returned my eyes to Voi Pai, my voice cold.
“He’s not for sale,” I said. “That is non-negotiable.”
“Then we have no deal, Esteemed Bridge.”
“I find that hard to believe,” I said. “That you would ask for what is so clearly unreasonable, expecting anything but a ‘no’ in response. Clearly, you want war with me.”
“But you are wrong, Esteemed Bridge,” she said, her eyes serious. “I do not wish war. I wish a fair price, in exchange for what I would be giving up.”
“Why do you want him?” I said, blunt.
For a moment she only looked at me, yellow eyes unmoving. Then she smiled, taking another drag of the hiri before exhaling another perfect ring.
“Why do you think?” She smiled wider at whatever look must have come to my face. “He is of value to me. He can work off the debt of these other seers you wish to rid me of. Far faster than anything you can offer. And I do not like trading in gold.”
“So you would not take market price for these seers?”
“I would not. And you could not afford it… Esteemed Bridge.”
I felt my jaw harden, but mostly I tried to think through this.
There was something she wasn’t saying. I could feel it, but I couldn’t quite grasp what it was. She’d known I wouldn’t give her Revik. She hadn’t shown a flicker of surprise when I said no––and yet, I could tell the door wasn’t closed on our negotiation. Her price of Revik wasn’t as firm as she pretended.
But if she wouldn’t take money, I didn’t know what she was angling for.
Weapons? Did she still want Balidor, or something to do with the Adhipan?
“Why him?” I said again. “You must know he would never work for you in a military capacity… certainly not against his own people. He would die first.” I grunted, folding my arms. “Or kill all of you.”
“He is an intermediary,” she said, gesturing as if this were obvious.
I felt my jaw harden. Suddenly, I knew exactly what she wanted, and why she’d insisted I come here in person. Shaking my head, I gave a low laugh.
I looked up, meeting her gaze directly.
“I, too, am an intermediary,” I said. “…most venerable Voi Pai.”
She froze, hand poised with the hiri not far from her mouth. I didn’t know how much of it was pure bullshit theatrics, but the effect worked well enough. It also left time for every seer in the room to swallow what I’d said.
After that pause, a smile slid carefully over Voi Pai’s red mouth.
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I knew I’d been right when I saw that covetousness I’d seen in her before, what seemed like a million years ago now, while we stood in that square in the spring sun. She stared at me like I was an exotic bug she wanted for her collection.
“He is not for sale,” she purred. “But you are, Esteemed Bridge?”
My jaw hardened, even as every eye in the room seemed to bore into me. I avoided all of them, focusing only on the seer on the divan.
“Can we finish this discussion alone, Voi Pai?”
“No,” she said, her eyes still on mine. “I wish an answer to my question, Esteemed Bridge.”
I glanced at Cass, almost without my willing it. Seeing her staring at me, shaking her head vehemently, I looked away.
A kind of tiredness came over me as I thought about Voi Pai’s offer.
I remembered what I’d said to Balidor, to Vash––what I’d written to Revik. Did it really matter what I did for the next however-many months? I had nowhere to go. Chances were, I’d stay alive with the Lao Hu, at least.
Looking back at Voi Pai, I gestured in a conciliatory way.
“I am willing to discuss a possible term of repayment,” I said, deliberately avoiding Cass’s eyes, as well as those of the other seers. “You must know that security is a concern for me of late, and that my effectiveness as a leader is hampered as a result.”
I saw that look of greed rise more prominently to her eyes.
“As you say,” she said softly. “I am open to negotiation on that point.”
“Then tell me what terms you would be willing to accept,” I said.
She paused for a moment, looking up at the ceiling, as though thinking. I felt every seer in the room hold their breath, watching her. I felt Cass looking at her, too.
Voi Pai’s eyes narrowed slightly as she stared upwards, just before she glanced at an older seer to her right, who appeared to be an advisor of some kind. Whatever she thought at him, he raised his eyebrows slightly, then bowed in acquiescence, as though he approved of whatever she’d sent.
“Eighteen million,” she said, looking at me. “That’s half a million for each infiltrator ranked above a six. Plus a quarter million for those who are ranked less. That is fair market price.” She gave a conciliatory bow. “…It is also rounded in your favor.”
Shadow (Bridge & Sword: Awakenings #4): Bridge & Sword World Page 46