Highlords of Phaer (Empire of Masks Book 1)

by Brock Deskins

  Auberon’s eyes flicked to Jareen. “No, he did not.”

  Lynette bowed. “Thank you, Sah Auberon. May I return if I have any other questions?”

  “Of course, Inquisitor. I desire the apprehension of this criminal as much as anyone.”

  Jareen showed Lynette to the door and returned. “An unfortunate turn of events, sah. I had hoped to put this all behind us.”

  Auberon nodded slowly. “As had I. You should get to the factory. One of us must be there to ensure that production continues as planned. The emperor is counting on me, and I must not disappoint him.”

  Jareen bowed without a word and departed. Auberon reached for his tray but withdrew his hand. He drummed his fingers on his chest as he stared up at the ceiling.

  CHAPTER 30

  Weeks rolled into months, and each new day brought with it the very real risk of the rebellion imploding upon itself. There was somewhere in the order of a hundred dissident cells operating just in Velaroth, each with its own leader who had his or her own ideas on how they should strike and when. Messages from the other cities came in sporadically, often weeks apart and usually speaking of some near fatal calamity or other less dire problems that occurred that were usually rectified before they proved disastrous. It was a good thing as there was nothing Jareen could do to ease their woes or resolve their difficulties.

  Even if he could, he barely had the time to continue playing the dutiful slave to Auberon during the day and keep the other cells from going rogue and destroying the entire operation. But he managed it. By some miracle, he was able to prevent the frequent bickering and infighting from revealing them, and the day to act had finally arrived.

  Jareen bowed deeply as he moved away from the door to allow Overlord Alexis, Sah Driscoll, Sah Jerald, and a pair of physicians to pass. Auberon’s health had been in steady decline for the past several months, taking a sharp turn for the worse in recent days.

  Alexis turned to Jareen when she stepped into the hall outside Auberon’s rooms. “He is asking for you, Jareen. He is very week. The physicians think it is only a matter of days now unless something miraculous happens.”

  “Thank you, Overlord. I will see to his comfort.”

  Jareen waited for the physicians and the noble family to depart before entering Auberon’s chambers. Auberon lay in the bed where he had been confined for more than a week. His skin was pale and clammy, his black hair plastered to his scalp with sweat.

  Auberon’s sunken eyes tracked Jareen as he entered the room. “Jareen,” Auberon said, his voice barely a whisper, “come close.”

  Jareen sat next to the bed and leaned forward to hear him.

  “I know not the extent of what you have done, but know that I forgive you. My final act in this world is to free you from servitude. I give you your freedom. All I ask is that you put whatever thoughts of vengeance and hatred you may still possess behind you. Let it go, and I will give you the greatest gift I can bestow.”

  Whatever pity or remorse Jareen felt for his former master vanished in the raging fire of his anger. “I do not need your gifts, Sah Auberon, and I do not need you to give me my freedom. In my mind, I have been a free man since the day your people murdered my family, the day I took control of my life and dedicated it to the destruction of your kind.”

  A tight smile curled the edges of Jareen’s lips. “I am grateful for your consideration, for the…affection you think you have for me. It was the gap in your armor that allowed me to kill Quinlan—just as I have killed you. Me, your slave, your pet, outsmarted the powerful and brilliant Auberon Victore as I plotted treachery right beneath your nose. You and Quinlan came close, I know you suspected me, but I managed to stay one step ahead of you the entire time, even if just barely. Once I leave here, I depart for Vulcrad to lead an army, equipped with the weapons you made possible, against the highlords. I will present the emperor with a tribute no one will ever forget.”

  Auberon tried to laugh but it came out as a wracking cough. He cleared his throat and smiled. “You are not so far ahead as you think, clever Jareen.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Your son.”

  Jareen’s smile fell. “What about my son?”

  “That was the gift I was going to give you. He is alive.”

  “You lie.”

  “I am a dying man. I have no need for lies, especially when the truth suits me so much better. I did not kill him as I told you. I hid him away, from the vengeful highlord and you, just as you did my child from me.”

  “How…?”

  “Did you really think that I would not know that a child of my blood was still alive? I know precisely where the slave girl and the son she birthed are.”

  “Why have you let her be?”

  Auberon tried to shrug but he lacked the strength. “Curiosity, another experiment. I wanted to see what would happen to a child of mine raised as a lowborn.”

  Jareen’s body shook as he tried to deny Auberon’s words as a lie but could not. “Why would you take my son from me?”

  “He was a distraction, and I needed your entire attention to complete my work. Ironic in hindsight, but I suppose the greatest tales are built on a foundation of irony.”

  “Tell me where my son is!”

  “Or what, you will kill me? I think not, but I am sure you can find him if you look. You are such a clever man. It should not take more than a few days, a week at most.”

  Jareen’s mind raced. His son was alive and likely somewhere in the city. All he had to do was find him. Auberon would have left him with someone he trusted, surely another highborn unless he hid him away in one of the lowborn districts. That would make it much harder to find him. He shook away the thought. It did not matter. If he took the time to find Tyler now, he would miss the opportunity Tribute Day provided him and his people to get close enough to the emperor to strike him down. He would have to search for him when he returned.

  “You have underestimated me again, Sah Auberon. I will not let you distract me from my cause. It is greater than I am, greater even than my son. I will find him when I return and give him a life I never had. A life of freedom.”

  “I don’t think you people understand the meaning of the word. What your kind view as freedom is nothing but organized anarchy. So go, enjoy the freedom you create and watch it rot and consume everything around you, just like in your forefathers’ time.”

  “You know nothing of freedom, only how to strip it away from others. I am on a path of destiny, and you cannot stand that it is one that leaves you by the wayside, alone and forgotten.”

  “As I die, I see that I am not the man of destiny I thought I was, but maybe I am the one who facilitates it. Perhaps one of my descendants will kill yours. Wouldn’t that be ironic?"

  Jareen took a small vial of liquid from his pocket and held it to Auberon’s chapped lips. “Whatever the future holds, I have seen to it that you will have no part in it.”

  ***

  Jareen hurried from the palace to the mooring yards. The poison he had given Auberon would not kill him, but it would put him in a coma long enough for the toxin-assisted disease to kill him naturally, or at least appear that way. He fled the cabriolet and sprinted up the cradle stairs.

  “Are we ready to depart?” he gasped as he took his place at Irna’s side.

  The pilot nodded. “We have a full complement aboard and are prepared to cast off on your order. Are you sure you don’t want to bring men from the city with us?”

  Jareen shook his head. “No, Atin said his miners will constitute the bulk of our ground forces. They are better trained, and every man I have in the city is needed here. Besides, it saves a lot of uncomfortable travel for them.”

  Jareen flinched when he felt a hand caress the back of his neck.

  Nimat seemed to materialize out of the darkness and stepped to his side. “You were not going to leave without saying goodbye, were you?”

  “I had not expected you to be here,” Jareen replied.
“Are your people ready? They understand the timetable?”

  “They are and they do. We are nothing if not precise. When you return, we shall both be rulers of our prospective realms…as long as you do not do anything to upset our plans.”

  “I will stick to our bargain, however, I do need something from you—a favor.”

  Nimat tilted her head to one side. “You mean other than help you overthrow the overlord and install you as the city’s ruler? Of course, I was doing so little that I was beginning to feel bad.”

  “I need you to find my son. His name is Tyler and he is blind. Sah Auberon took him from me and has hidden him somewhere in the city. I would be very grateful if you could locate him and keep him safe until I return.”

  “A usurper and a babysitter, my list of credentials grows by the minute. If he is in the city, I will find him. If he is not, it will take me a little longer, but it shall be done.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I wish you a good voyage and happy hunting.”

  Nimat slinked back into the shadows and disappeared below decks, making her way into the undercity by way of the smuggler’s hole. It took a few minutes to release and coil the mooring lines, more than enough time for the mysterious and frightening thief to get clear of the airship. Irna lifted the Voulge clear of the cradle, pointed it toward Vulcrad, and set it underway.

  ***

  Auberon languished in a world of darkness, floating in the ether without form or substance. Jareen may have stolen his body, but his mind and magic were still his to command—of a sort. He had been foolish to put so much trust in Jareen, even more so in believing that his slave would redeem himself after he suspected him of treachery. But if Jareen thought he would give up now, he was mistaken.

  “Driscoll,” Auberon called out into the blackness with his mind. “Brother, if you can hear me, you must come to me. Make yourself known.”

  “Who is there?” a voice answered an unknowable time later. “Show yourself!”

  Auberon willed himself to take on an ethereal shape and moved toward the echoing call. “Driscoll, is that you?”

  “No, my name is Quinlan. Who are you? Where are you?”

  Auberon spotted a dim form in the distance and floated toward it. As he drew near, he could clearly make out the inquisitor’s ghostly image. “Quinlan, are you alive?”

  “Sah Auberon? No, I do not think so. Jareen used his weapon on me and I have known nothing but darkness ever since. Where are we? How did you get here?”

  Auberon considered their surroundings. “My guess is that we are in a place between life and death. Jareen’s treachery finally reached me as well, and now he means to destroy the empire.”

  “Can he do that? Surely the highlords will crush him.”

  “We both know what kind of man Jareen is. He would not make the attempt if he did not think he could succeed. I need you to stop him.”

  “How?”

  “You must wake up and inform my brother of Jareen’s plot. Driscoll must mobilize his fleet and destroy him before he reaches Phaer.”

  Quinlan frowned. “I do not know how long I have been here, but I do not think I am leaving anytime soon.”

  “I will help you wake up.”

  “Can you do that?”

  Auberon smiled. “I am a sorcerer with few peers and even fewer betters. Of course I can. My body is lost to me, but yours should still suit our needs. I am going to give you the last of my life force. I hope it is enough to wake you from your slumber and give you the strength you need to reach my brother.”

  “Will that not kill you, Sah Auberon?”

  “I am already dead in all but name. At least this way my death might have meaning.”

  Auberon touched his spectral fingers to Quinlan’s brow and forced his life energy into him. The inquisitor’s form took on a look of solidity before both men disappeared.

  Quinlan awoke with a gasp and found himself in a dim room. His hands went to his face and found his left eye covered in a bandage. He saw that he was lying on a bed in a sickroom. He lifted himself from the bed, found his clothes, and stripped out of the thin nightshirt.

  Gazing at his emaciated form, Quinlan wondered how long he had been asleep and was amazed that he could move at all upon waking. Without Auberon’s sacrifice, he was certain that such a feat would have been impossible. Donning his uniform, which someone had considerately laundered and placed in a wardrobe should he finally wake, he bolted from the room and nearly knocked over a nurse who must have heard him rummaging about.

  “Inquisitor, you must return to your bed while I fetch a physician!”

  “There is no time. Stand aside!”

  Quinlan raced from the hospice home and flagged down a coach. Hospice homes were all located in the highborn districts for the convenience of those who could afford quality care, so the trip to the palace was not a long one. He ran down the halls as fast as his weakened body allowed and headed straight for Sah Auberon’s apartments. If Auberon had died giving Quinlan the gift of life, that was where he was most likely to find Driscoll or even the overlord herself. His hunch paid off and he found both the overlord and Driscoll in Auberon’s rooms along with their personal physicians.

  “Overlord, Sah Driscoll, thank the twin gods I have found you,” Quinlan gasped.

  Alexis turned at his entrance and scowled. “You intrude at a very inappropriate time.”

  “Forgive me, Overlord, but it is critical I speak with you and Sah Driscoll at once.”

  Driscoll looked Quinlan up and down. “Chief Inquisitor Quinlan, is it not?”

  “It is, sah.”

  “I had not heard you had recovered.”

  “It just occurred thanks to Sah Auberon.”

  “My brother?”

  Quinlan nodded. “His servant, Jareen Velarius; I believe he poisoned him.”

  “Jareen did this?” Driscoll asked. “That is hard to imagine.”

  “But true nonetheless. Your brother and I were both stuck in a place of darkness, but Sah Auberon gifted me with the last of his life so that I might wake and warn you.”

  Being a premier sorcerer herself, Alexis understood what her son must have done. “Warn us of what?”

  “Jareen’s treachery. He is the one who nearly killed me. He has devised a weapon—weapons most likely—of significant power. Sah Auberon believes he is taking an army equipped with such weapons to Phaer in hopes of killing the emperor and highlords. He beseeched me to come to you so that you could rally your ships and army to stop him.”

  Driscoll ran a hand through his hair and thought. “Jareen left on the Voulge days ago. He is in Vulcrad now or near to it, if that is where he was going.”

  “Why would he go to Vulcrad if he meant to attack Phaer?” Alexis asked.

  “Vulcrad’s miners are mostly slaves, criminals at that. It would be the opportune place to rally an army willing to fight the highlords. Jareen has also been doing a great deal of business in Auberon’s name with one of the mines.”

  Quinlan nodded. “That is where he first put his new powder to use, which these weapons use. Where better to make them than where they gather and smelt iron and steel?”

  “Can you catch them before they reach the capital?” Alexis asked.

  “If I leave now, plot a course straight for Phaer, and run under power the entire way, I should be able to intercept them two or three days before they reach Phaer, but I will need every innervator I can get my hands on to do it.”

  “Go, use my name to conscript every sorcerer and innervator you can find,” the overlord ordered.

  Quinlan said, “Sah, their weapons are very strong. Jareen’s punched through my ward as if it was made of shimmersilk. If he sets down and forces you to battle him on the ground, you will need a substantial army to beat him.”

  Driscoll smiled. “Then it is a good thing that I have such an army at my command.”

  The warlord swept from the room and ordered any guards he saw to go to the barracks,
roust every man they could find, and order them to the ships. He took half of the house guard while Quinlan bolstered his numbers with the gendarmes. It took hours to make ready, but when they cast off, the airships were overflowing with men eager to kill the traitors.

  CHAPTER 31

  Jareen looked down into the old pit mine and saw it bustling with activity. Three other airships, along with the great black beast Bastion, sat moored within the artificial crater with workers crawling over them like ants on dead skitter lizard carcasses. The Bastion lay docked in its cradle while the other three airships were tethered to the ground. A signaler flagged down the Voulge to occupy the only other cradle constructed within the pit.

  Atin met Jareen and Irna at the base of the stairs. “Jareen, it is good to see you. I got the messages you sent with the powder deliveries, but it is much better to finally talk in person again.”

  Jareen took Atin’s offered hand and shook it. “I feel the same. There was much to do, and trying to return here would have raised too much suspicion.”

  “Tell me about it. It was all I could do to convince Overlord Caelen that he and his retinue would be far more comfortable traveling to Phaer on his yacht rather than aboard the Bastion.”

  Jareen’s face twitched. “Overlord Caelen is going with us?”

  “Certainly. He would not miss bestowing upon the emperor the greatest feat of naval engineering in history.”

  “But he is going to miss it, is he not?”

  “Of course he is. Do not look so concerned. It is a blessing in disguise.”

  “How is that?”

  Atin grinned. “It will give our gunnery crews some much-needed practice.” He placed a hand on Jareen’s back and guided him toward one of the other airships. “Come see what I have done. We are almost finished outfitting the other ships, and we can give the Voulge our full attention.”

  Jareen looked back and saw men from the mines already swarming up the ramp and onto the Voulge. She would need a great deal of refitting to accommodate the cannons and additional ground troops.