The army stopped a hundred yards from the gates, gathering into ranks and Kallia got her best view yet of the enemy.
Perhaps fifty mammoth trumpeted at the vanguard of the wizard’s army, tusks ringed in iron, ridden by northern soldiers. Several giants milled throughout the group, some more than twice the height of a man. One draped a pole over his shoulder onto which he’d impaled several bodies. Scouts or farmers murdered in their fields, she guessed. The horses shied away from both mammoth and giant, and whinnied in terror whenever the dragon wasps landed or departed from their midst. Kallia’s own men did the same when the wasps swooped low over the walls, dragon kin on their back screaming and shaking spears.
A dragon wasp was not a true dragon. The last dragon died in the Tothian Wars, although farmers still turned up the odd bone in their fields, turned hard as stone by time. A wasp looked more like a flying snake with short, clawed feet and a neck that darted back and forth as it flew.
An oily cloud gathered about a mile behind the army, flickering with lightening. What kind of magic could harness the weather itself?
Three cloud castles gathered overhead, vast windmills churning against the wind to keep them from drifting along with the air currents. She’d heard many ideas of who lived in these castles in the sky, but whoever they were, the affairs of mortals apparently interested them. What did they think would happen today? Perhaps they already knew; maybe they’d gathered to see Balsalom sacked, its people led away in chains. They wouldn’t involve themselves unless the dragon wasps flew too close to their castles.
Where is Omar? she wondered. She feared he would sit out the battle, or worse still, side with Cragyn. And what of the armies of Starnar, Havorn and Saltopolis, ten thousand strong? If Havorn’s Pasha followed plans, he would come up behind Cragyn’s army and take the hill a mile to the north, wedging the wizard’s forces in the valley between the hill and Balsalom. But Pasha Jas Web was a fickle man, prone to changes in mood. He might change plans when he saw the force of the enemy and try to reach the city walls instead.
The powerful army of Darnad, Balsalom’s only real rival in the west, remained on the sidelines for now. The khalif of Darnad wished to marry Kallia to one of his sons and unite the two khalifates, but she had resisted for several years, knowing that as soon as she married she’d lose influence with the other families vying for her hand.
“We found out who tried to burn the city,” Saldibar said, breaking her from her thoughts.
Someone had set fire to the Slaves Quarter last night. The entire quarter might have burned to the ground had not the Eighth Phalanx been marching less than a mile away. As it was, the fire burned a swath two hundred feet wide and a thousand feet long. A pall still hung over the city.
“Have you caught them?” she asked, spirits lifting at the news.
“Not yet, but we will. They posed as three slaves, but when a master torturer came to question them, one cast magic that killed the man and wounded several others. They fled the city, headed west, we believe.”
She couldn’t say she was sorry for the torturer. Of all the guilds, the corrections guild was the worst. She never used them to punish her own prisoners, but many used them to enforce guild law. The power to kill a master torturer meant a powerful wizard indeed.
“Spies,” she said. “But west? They’re not going to the dark wizard. Why?”
Saldibar shrugged. “Undoubtedly they’ve already passed their secrets. Or perhaps they’re from the Free Kingdoms and are fleeing home.”
She immediately discounted this theory. “Setting fire to the city is the act of an enemy. King Daniel is an honorable man.” She considered. “In any event, they must be stopped. Killed, if necessary.”
“I have already ordered it so, my queen.” He hesitated. “I was wrong about Cragyn’s armies.”
“Yes, I know.”
“Do you wish my resignation?” He fingered the amulet around his neck, symbol of his office. The opal pendant had been in his family for three generations.
“Of course not. But we made a careless mistake. You should have sent more spies at once rather than immediately distrust the ones who’d given their lives.”
He bowed his head. “Yes, my queen.”
“Look!” one of the scribes shouted.
A small detachment of men rode forth from Cragyn’s army. Six horse strong, they wore black, flowing robes girded with iron-bound leather armor. They came to the gates and stopped. One man waved an olive branch overhead while the others threw shields and scimitars to the ground, then unbuckled their armor and cast it down as well.
“They seek a parley,” Saldibar said.
“Whatever for? We’ve already said we won’t surrender.”
He shrugged. “Perhaps a final offer now that we’ve seen their army.”
“Maybe,” she said, unconvinced. “Or perhaps Cragyn has discovered the army marching to their rear and wishes to negotiate safe passage west.”
“Unlikely. The army is pitching camp. I can see engineers assembling siege weapons. But it wouldn’t hurt to stall for time, let us get our armies organized, see if we can contact Omar or Pasha Jas Web.”
Saldibar hurried down the tower to consult with the pashas. A few minutes later, the Great Gates drew open just wide enough to let in Cragyn’s men, then closed. Balsalomian soldiers dragged the men from their horses, searching them for weapons, then led them away under guard.
Kallia counted the stone stairs as she descended. Two hundred and fifteen. Ordvan Ter had built a stair for each year since Balsalom’s founding. It had been another hundred and ninety seven since the man’s death. The city was built by survivors of the Tothian Wars: merchants, farmers, soldiers who cast down their weapons and swore they would never fight again. The very word Balsalom meant “peace” in the old tongue.
Before the wars, there had been another city on this site, the Tombs of the King attested to that, but few remembered its name. Syrmarria, her tutor had told her. Capital of Aristonia, which had become the Desolation of Toth. Of its people little trace remained. Is this how it would end for Balsalom?
Kallia took no chances. She brought the six men into the middle of the throne room, surrounded by twenty armed guards. Half a dozen wizards and the three remaining master torturers stood next to her or mingled amidst the guards as she took her seat on the throne, in case one or more of the visitors were wizards. Kallia lifted her scepter and took a closer look at the six men. They looked like ordinary soldiers, stripped of weapons and armor, but the scepter told her otherwise.
Once, during her great grandfather’s reign, a star storm fell, turning the sky as bright as day for three straight nights. On the third evening, a burning fireball blazed across the heavens, striking the ground with a thunderous boom some distance outside the city. The khalif sent his men to retrieve the star stone, a blackened chunk of rock and iron. One of his wizards forged the Scepter of Balsalom from the stone, and since then, the khalifs and khalifas of Balsalom held a gift of discernment that had saved them from many spies and assassins.
The first four men were pashas of the dark wizard, but the last two hid behind a magical disguise that concealed their true nature. The first of these two she didn’t recognize, a wizard of some kind, but the other . . . her brother.
“Omar,” she said, angry. “You betrayed me.”
At once the disguises swept away. The magic fled, either from the scepter’s power or because the wizard no longer wished to maintain the disguise for the others. Angry murmurs circulated through Kallia’s men and some drew swords.
“No, I’ve come to take what is mine.”
She pointed her scepter at him. “Is Ter not enough for you? That you bring slaughter to Balsalom?” Still, his betrayal did not surprise her. “Then you leave Ter undefended. My allies will take your city and you will have nothing.”
A slight smile escaped Omar’s lips. “Pasha Jas Web? Or perhaps you mean those lizard-eaters in Starnar? Poor lands, who grew envious
of Balsalom, apparently. I bought their loyalty with a few thousand dinarii.”
Omar turned to the wizard, “I told you she would see me.”
The wizard chuckled. “And so she has. But khalifa, have you truly recognized me?” He swept back his hood. An iron chain hung around his neck, emblem of the high khalif in Veyre.
“Cragyn.” The name left a bitter taste on her lips.
The wizard had grown in stature since she’d seen him last, if that were possible. She remembered him as short and stooped, not this tall, thickly-built man.
There is something inside him, the scepter whispered in her mind. Indeed, she could see it, rippling beneath the skin, as if something terrible had nested in his belly one night while he slept. Cragyn would soon be too small for such a power and it would stretch his frame until the wizard’s body grew large enough to contain it. The sight fled as soon as it had come; the wizard himself had allowed her to see it.
Kallia turned her attention to Omar. Like Cragyn’s pashas, he stood in awe of the dark wizard. She could see it in the way he held himself, in the vacant gleam in his eyes, like a dog fawning at his master. It sickened her.
“Omar, if you wished to hold the scepter, why ally yourself with this wizard? He can do nothing for you. Or have you simply abandoned Ter and your army?”
Omar smiled, a little too wide. A nervous smile. “Not abandoned them, no, but given them to the service of the high khalif.”
“Fa!” Saldibar said, still standing next to Kallia’s throne. “He’s not the high khalif. And your men don’t fight in the wizard’s army. It’s a lie.”
Kallia nodded her head in agreement. “Perhaps Ter, yes, but the other armies, no. Those cities hate the dark wizard as much as Balsalom does. They would never turn to his side.”
“You don’t believe?” Cragyn asked. He gestured for Omar to stand back. “Send one of your men to see. They gather against the Great Gates.”
Saldibar looked at Kallia, who nodded. The grand vizier sent one of his men. The man returned shortly with the bad news.
“So you see,” Cragyn said. “Your brother speaks the truth.”
Kallia kept her face blank. “Even if it were true, what does that matter?” She gestured around her. “You are surrounded by armed men. And enough wizards to crush your own magic, Cragyn. Your army might fight on while you’re strapped to the torturer’s wheel, but any victory will be a hollow one for yourself. And, I suspect your men will lose some of their will to fight with king and pashas dead. Not to mention my brother, who will certainly die a traitor’s death.”
Omar, poor, foolish brother, paled visibly, but the dark wizard looked unconcerned. “Really, khalifa, did you think I would put myself under your power?”
“Enough of this,” Kallia said. “Take them to the vaults.”
Her men moved immediately. Guards drew weapons, while two wizards made rings of holding between thumbs and forefingers. Another of her wizards cast a blue powder to the floor, which burst into flame and smoke. The torturers chanted an incantation of weakness to throw despair into an enemy. Omar cast himself to the flagstones with a wail, while the wizard’s pashas also quailed under the torturer’s spell.
The dark wizard stood still until the first guards reached him, then he lifted his hand and pushed—that was the only way to describe it—and the guards flew backwards as if struck by a giant fist. Cragyn swept an open palm at the torturers and wizards, who fell backwards screaming. Some clutched at their ears, others threw up on the ground, while one of the wizards staggered around in a circle, groping at the air, blinded.
But while the dark wizard attacked, he didn’t see the two wizards who stood amongst her ministers. They cast spells at Cragyn, and one of these struck the wizard on the side of the head, throwing him backwards. Blood streamed from his nose, his ears, even his head. He vomited blood onto the floor.
Kallia gasped in relief, sure that this had ended Cragyn’s attack. But Cragyn gave a great shiver and the blood spells boiled away from his skin like water hitting a stone in a fire. He clenched one fist and said, “Nach flacem!” Kallia’s wizards collapsed without so much as a sigh.
The grand vizier picked up the sword of a fallen guard and hurled himself at the dark wizard, but two of Cragyn’s pashas wrestled the weapon from his hand.
Some of the guards struggled to their feet, lifting their weapons again. Cragyn made a sweeping motion with the first two fingers on his right hand. A ball of light formed at his fingertips.
“Stop!” Kallia cried. The guards froze, all except the blinded wizard, who kept lurching in a half-circle. One of the others grabbed him by the arm and stopped him. Cragyn put down his hand, the spell dying before it could be cast.
Three torturers and three wizards lay dead, with a fourth wizard blinded and the other two stunned. Several of her guards lay dead or severely wounded as well, while the wizard had shaken off any attacks and waited for her next move.
Her brother Omar climbed slowly to his feet, shaking from the effects of the torturer’s spell. The pashas still held Saldibar, who’d stopped fighting.
Kallia stared at the dark wizard for a moment, unable to believe that she had allowed this man into her presence. She didn’t know the extent of his power, only that it was sufficient to kill everyone in the room.
“You have chosen wisely, khalifa,” Cragyn said. He breathed more heavily than a moment before, but he quickly brought this under control. “Both for yourself and for Balsalom. Even now, wights haunt the catacombs beneath the palace. Should Balsalom resist further, they will pour out tonight and murder every infant in his bed, while giants tear down the Great Gates and my men burn the city until nothing remains but a bed of cold ash.”
Kallia hesitated for a moment, thinking of a hundred and fifty years of Saffa sovereigns. The line would continue after her, if only through her traitorous brother Omar. And even wizards didn’t live forever; someday Balsalom might regain her power.
Kallia stood up and walked to the wizard, scepter cradled in her hands. She handed it to him, then waited for his judgment. He would kill her immediately, she guessed, rather than risk an uprising. And yet, she was strangely calm as she faced death. If she’d had more time she could have questioned her decisions, schemed out ways she could have defeated the wizard if only she’d been a better queen. As it was, she had no time for such thoughts.
“And now,” Cragyn said, handing the scepter to one of his pashas. “There is only one thing left to seal our alliance. We must be married.”
A stunned silence filled the air. Even Omar and Cragyn’s pashas looked shocked. “Never!” Saldibar snarled, fighting at the men who held his arms.
Cragyn pointed a finger at the grand vizier and said, “Silence!”
Saldibar’s mouth clamped shut and he blinked in surprise.
Cragyn lowered his hand and turned back to Kallia. “Khalifa?”
“What kind of man are you?” she asked, dumbfounded by his request. No woman of the Saffa family had ever been forced into marriage, and she swore by the Brothers she would not be the first. These fawning men around her—her own brother!—might obey this monster, but she never would.
“What kind of man am I? I am the man you will grow to love.”
Kallia laughed, not daring to show the fear that tore at her bosom. She’d seen that awful thing twisting inside the dark wizard and it scared her more than death. “You can take my city, but you cannot take my love by force.”
If the wizard was dismayed by her refusal, he didn’t show it. Instead, a slight smile played at his lips. “We will see. Will you marry me, khalifa, and join me on the iron throne?”
“I will not.”
The wizard sighed in an overly dramatic way. “I’m afraid that my men will be disappointed at your refusal. I only hope that they aren’t too disappointed.”
Kallia paled. “What do you mean?”
“My dear, you know how armies are. You march them for weeks, promising pillage, rape
, and murder, and then . . . nothing?” He frowned. “I’d hoped to turn their energy instead to a joyous celebration of marriage. Please, for the sake of your people, reconsider.”
The meaning was clear. Marry me or I’ll turn your city to dust. I’ll murder your men, rape your women, and sell your children on the slave blocks in Veyre. Cragyn needed the marriage, or Balsalom might remain the center of intrigue for years to come. Marriage solidified the legality of Cragyn’s control.
Kallia’s world had become a box, with walls closing tighter every time the wizard opened his mouth. She could throw herself at him, perhaps snatch up one of the guard’s swords and impale herself. But no, then he would simply turn his armies loose in rage. The time to kill herself was later, after the ceremony but before the dark wizard came to consummate the alliance. Let Cragyn claim victory and the rightful control of Balsalom but give him nothing else.
“Will you marry me, then?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“What? What did you say? I don’t think your men could hear you.”
She looked up and met his gaze. “Yes, I will marry you.”
“Good!” he said, clapping his hands. “I am so happy. We marry tomorrow, then.”
Kallia felt weak inside. She returned to the throne where she sat heavily, forgetting until she sat that by naming Cragyn as her master, she had no right to sit on the throne in his presence. He overlooked this error.
Cragyn said, “Watch the khalifa. Perhaps she is not as pleased about her betrothal as I would hope. Search her apartments, and make sure that all food and drink is tasted before she sees it. She is not to leave her rooms.”
“But wait,” Omar said. “I can’t believe you’re going to marry her. Why?” His voice wavered at first, but gained strength as he spoke. “She’s the ugliest sister I have. You could have any of them. And your promise? Why marry Kallia unless you lied to me?”
The wizard contemplated for a moment. “Omar, I had forgotten. I promised you would rule over Balsalom, did I not?”
FIERCE: Sixteen Authors of Fantasy Page 285