“As you have probably guessed,” said Basarab, “I am Basarab, High Brother of Vagraastrad, and a drunkard, a glutton, a wastrel, and a coward.” He smiled. “Or so I have gone to great lengths to convince Voivode Gregor. I…”
The door opened, and Caina turned, fingers tightening against her valikon’s hilt.
But it was only Calugar, who looked grim and watchful as ever.
He stopped at the edge of the stage and looked at Basarab. “It will be done in another hour. Our friends are disposing of the corpses. I don’t think we’ll need to bribe or bully that innkeeper. He knows those reveniri would have killed him and his family.” His eyes turned to Caina. “Though I don’t think he’s realized who the reveniri were after.”
“Who’s your friend?” said Caina.
“This is Calugar,” said Basarab, and Calugar made a bow that managed to be both technically correct while holding a bit of mockery. “A witchfinder of the Temple, and a man of numerous useful skills. I have many questions for you…”
“I’m sure you do,” said Caina. “But before we begin, I’d like you to tell me about Teodor Valcezak. You said you knew him.”
“Yes,” said Basarab. “I do. Quite well.”
“Please, High Brother,” said Teodor, his voice quiet and grave. “My memories are muddled. I can recall things, but only when urgent. I had forgotten how to fight until I saw the reveniri pour through the shutters at the Szlacht’s Sword. I have to find my daughter…but beyond that, I can remember little.”
“I see,” said Basarab, and he glanced at Calugar. “Well, Lady Kardamnos, where did you find him?”
“A few miles north of the city,” said Caina. “A group of reveniri were about to kill him. We fought them off. I suspected that Teodor’s mind had been damaged by a spell, and he could tell us nothing save his name and that he was looking for his daughter Svetlana. We decided to bring him with us until we could find someone who could help him.”
“Then I thank you,” said Basarab. “I have lost many friends since the civil war began, and you have kept me from losing one more.” He rubbed his face. “Teodor, you are a witchfinder of the Temple of Risiviri. We knew each other as young men when we would hunt the devils of the forest and the petty Temnoti necromancers. Later, we took different paths. I became a Brother of the Temple, and you married and had a daughter.”
“Svetlana,” said Teodor. “I can almost remember now.”
“I suspect that if you find her, most of your memory will return,” said Basarab. “The sort of damage to your memory can be partially reversed by finding familiar objects or people with a strong emotional association.”
A thought occurred to Caina.
“Wait,” she said. “Teodor’s daughter. Svetlana. Is she in Lady Libavya Jordizi’s sanitarium?”
“What makes you say that?” said Basarab.
“We tried to take Teodor to the sanitarium for lack of any better options,” said Caina. “It got the strongest reaction out of him yet. He refused to go anywhere near it, so we brought him with us to the Szlacht’s Sword.” The delay had also meant that they had seen the Voivode and his party, and had that disturbing, threatening conversation with Antonin Crailov.
By the Divine, but it had been a long day.
Basarab and Calugar looked at each other but said nothing. Caina had the impression that the two men knew each other well enough that they could communicate a great deal without speaking.
“You’re seriously thinking about taking her into your confidence, sir?” said Calugar. “You’ve heard the stories about the Balarigar. If this Caina Kardamnos is the same person…”
“She is an Arvaltyr,” said Teodor. “And she and her husband are a man and a woman of honor. They are like the Arvaltyri of old returned to walk the world once more.”
“High Brother,” said Theodosia, “perhaps we can help each other. Lady Caina and I have known each other quite a long time…and we both have experience dealing with your sort of problem.”
“And what manner of problem is that?” said Basarab. “I expect a theater company and a High Brother of the Temple do not often have the same problems.”
Theodosia smiled. “Why, but you are not the usual sort of High Brother, are you? You’re fighting a war from the shadows and using a false front as a mask. Caina and I have done that before.”
“Who are your enemies then, Lady Caina?” said Basarab.
She met his eye. “The Umbarians. And, it would seem, the Temnoti.”
“So be it,” said Basarab. “If you are an agent of the Umbarian Order or of the Temnoti, you are certainly presenting the best front I have ever seen. Is Svetlana in Lady Libavya’s sanitarium? Probably, and if she is, she is in grave danger. But I should start from the beginning.”
“Please do,” said Caina.
“Gregor Vagastru is a follower of Temnuzash,” said Basarab. “So are many of the chief nobles of Vagraastrad, including Lady Libavya Jordizi.” Both Seb and Ilona muttered a curse, and then glanced at each other. “Obviously, the nobles have been forced to keep their devotion to Temnuzash secret, lest all Ulkaar turn against them in wrath. The Temnoti cults are powerful, but they still must keep underground. That is why the Voivode has chosen to ally himself with the Umbarian Order. The Empire and the Magisterium supported the Temple’s efforts to suppress the cult of Temnuzash and put an end to the petty necromancy that infests our land. The Umbarians do not care, or actively seek to encourage the cults of Temnuzash and learn their necromantic secrets.”
“Oh,” said Caina, a sick feeling going over her.
“You sound as if you have just had a realization,” said Seb.
“I did. If Lady Libavya is one of the Temnoti,” said Caina, “then that’s why she turned her mansion into a sanitarium, isn’t it? The necromantic sciences draw their power from blood and torment and death, and if she has a sanitarium, then a constant stream of ill and insane and weak people come to her doorstep. The sort of people she can kill, and no one would miss.”
“That…is precisely correct,” said Basarab. “How did you know?”
“I’ve seen it before,” said Caina. Her voice was calm, but she felt the old anger stirring in her. She had seen it before again and again and again. Maglarion, Agria Palaegus, the Alchemist Sinan, and Grand Master Callatas had all preyed upon people who were unable to fight back to fuel their sorcery. Even Kylon’s sister Andromache had done the same thing during the battle of Marsis, though Kylon had refused to believe Caina.
Andromache’s terrible death in the Tomb of Scorikhon had proved the point.
“Yes, the legend of the Balarigar,” said Basarab, and Caina forced aside her anger. If she let it dominate her thinking it would get her into trouble, which had happened more often than she liked to remember. “I suppose you’ve seen all manner of necromancers and renegade sorcerers.”
“Listing them all would take too long right now,” said Caina. “And I do have experience with such things.” She gestured with the valikon. “Where do you think I found this sword?”
“Indeed,” said Basarab.
“But, please, continue,” said Caina.
“I didn’t realize what was happening for the first year of the civil war,” said Basarab. “I knew the Temnoti cults were gaining strength and adherents among the nobles and wealthier men of Vagraastrad, but I didn’t realize how bad it had gotten. I started investigating, and I covertly observed a gathering…”
“Spied on,” said Calugar in a dry voice.
“Covertly observed a gathering at Lady Libavya’s sanitarium,” said Basarab. “The Syvashar, the high priest of the Temnoti, was there. I watched as Lady Libavya killed several of her sanitarium’s patients and raised them as reveniri. Calugar and I were fortunate to escape with our lives.” He spread his hands. “I didn’t know what to do. The Voivode is the most powerful man in northern Ulkaar, and he had given the Temnoti his protection. The Voivode and the nobles still have to put on public masks of piety to t
he Temple, but if I made too much trouble for them, I would be killed.”
“So, you did the only sensible thing you could,” said Theodosia. “You launched a war from the shadows while putting on a harmless public persona. I thought the tales of the drunken, debauched High Brother all seemed a bit…cliched.”
“Cliched?” said Basarab. “I put a lot of work into that, madam. I haven’t gotten drunk in twenty-five years, but I thought I put on a good performance. It was good enough to fool the Voivode and Lady Libavya. They and the people of the city regard me with disdainful contempt.”
“And contempt is dangerous,” said Caina, “because it prevents them from seeing their enemy clearly. Which has given you cover to act against Lady Libavya and the Temnoti, since they hold you in contempt and do not consider you a threat.”
“You say it rightly, Lady Caina,” said Basarab. “In recent months Lady Libavya has sent her reveniri to kidnap people from their homes and from the streets. The Divine have mercy on anyone caught outside after dark. I have done what I can to protect the people of Vagraastrad,” he sighed and shook his head, “but perhaps Lady Libavya and Voivode Gregor are right to hold me in contempt. There is only so much I can do, and the Voivode is a powerful man. The Emperor and the Magisterium are far away, and the Voivode and Lady Libavya are friends of the Umbarian provost Talmania Scorneus. Against such powerful enemies, there is only so much I can do. So, I wrote letters and sought allies.”
Caina nodded. “Which is how Teodor Valcezak ended up here.”
“Yes,” said Basarab. “I wrote to Mircea Bravlin, the Boyar of Risiviri, and the Highest Brother at the Great Temple. I thought they would be willing to help. You see, Lady Caina…you are not Ulkaari, are you?”
Caina shook her head. “Until a few weeks ago I had never even visited Ulkaar.”
“You see, we are all Ulkaari,” said Basarab, “but the men of the north and the men of the south disagree about what that means. In the south, the men of Risiviri look to the Empire and see many worthy things to emulate and copy. In the north, the men of Vagraastrad and the smaller towns wish to keep to the old ways, the ways of the Temnoti and the worship of Temnuzash, and some of them even claim that the Iron King shall rise again and the Ulkaari will conquer the world in his name. Boyar Mircea understands the danger that the Temnoti and the Umbarians pose to Ulkaar. Just because necromancy is a tradition in Ulkaar does not mean that it should continue.”
“And the Boyar was willing to help?” said Caina.
“He was,” said Basarab. “He prevailed on his allies in the Temple and the Magisterium to send aid, and they sent a party of witchfinders assisted by a sister of the Imperial Magisterium. The witchfinders were led by Teodor Valcezak, one of the most experienced witchfinders in all Ulkaar.” He sighed. “The magus was his daughter Svetlana Valcezak.”
“My daughter,” said Teodor, blinking. “Yes. Yes…I remember now. Svetlana. She was a sister of the Magisterium. When she manifested her power, I feared that she would fall to the Temnoti, so we went to the chapterhouse of the Magisterium in Risiviri. They trained her well, and she was a good girl. She loathed the Umbarians for what they had done and the Temnoti for their necromancy. She was eager to confront them. Too eager…” Teodor shook his head.
“I can guess what happened next,” said Caina, keeping her voice gentle. “You and Svetlana went to Lady Libavya’s sanitarium to stop whatever she was planning.”
“Yes,” said Basarab. “I tried to talk you out of it, but I’m afraid Svetlana also inherited your self-confidence, my friend. You were both certain that you would be able to overpower her, arrest her, and take her back to Risiviri for trial, no matter what the Voivode thought.”
“It seems that I was wrong,” said Teodor.
“Do you know what happened?” said Basarab.
“I cannot remember,” said Teodor. “I…can remember entering the sanitarium a little. Then everything becomes hazy and misty. I don’t remember anything after that. At least, the next thing I remember clearly is running through the forest with Lady Libavya’s reveniri chasing me. I was exhausted, and I couldn’t remember my own name. I would have died, but the Arvaltyr and her friends found me.” He shook his head with irritation. “It does not make sense. Why would Libavya try to wipe my memory? Why not just kill me?”
Caina and Seb shared a look.
“I think,” said Seb, “that the memory loss was accidental. I don’t think Lady Libavya or one of the Temnoti tried to erase your memory. Likely they were trying to interrogate you, to use sorcery to break into your mind and read your thoughts. That kind of spell can cause tremendous damage to the mind if mishandled, and I doubt any of the Temnoti cultists have great skill. For that matter, your tattoos give you some resistance to sorcery, and possibly that warped the spell.”
“What probably happened,” said Caina, “is that they tried to break into your mind with sorcery, failed, and you escaped. Libavya sent her reveniri after you, and then you crossed our path.”
“My daughter,” said Teodor. He closed his eyes, his gaunt face tight with pain. “The Divine forgive me, I may have led my daughter to her death.”
“Can you remember anything from inside the sanitarium, my friend?” said Basarab. “Anything at all? Even the smallest scrap of information might help us save your daughter if she is still alive.”
“I…” Teodor opened his eyes and stared at the shadowy rafters of the ceiling for a while. “Glass.”
Caina felt a chill. “Glass?” She remembered the vision the pyrikon had shown her, the vision of the strange coffin of rough green glass holding the dark figure.
“Yes,” said Teodor. “Green glass. A box, I think? Beyond that, I can remember nothing else.”
They stood in silence.
“I think the most pertinent question,” said Theodosia at last, “is what are we going to do next?”
Caina considered that. She had the Ring of Rasarion Yagar in a pouch at her belt, and she was certain that letting the Ring fall into the hands of Lady Libavya Jordizi would be disastrous. If she took the Ring, almost certainly the Umbarians would claim it, and they would unlock whatever dark powers the Ring held.
Did that mean Caina had a responsibility to leave Vagraastrad at once, to take the Ring to Iramis where it would be safe? The cold part of her mind, the part that Halfdan had trained, the part that in the last few years sometimes spoke in the voice of Morgant the Razor, said that she ought to leave at once and keep the Ring from falling into the hands of the Umbarians or the Temnoti.
Yet she remembered the reveniri rushing towards the prostitutes and the stagehands, remembered a bewildered, terrified Teodor fleeing through the forest, and rage shivered through Caina. She had seen this so many damned times, seen sorcerers preying upon those weaker than themselves simply because they could. Caina had almost taken Teodor to the sanitarium, and if she had, he would have died. She wondered how many men and women and children Libavya had murdered at the sanitarium after accepting them as patients.
Caina could not let that pass. Cold reason told her to leave Vagraastrad for Risiviri at once, but she could not let that pass.
And then cold reason agreed with her angry heart.
Why had the reveniri attacked the Szlacht’s Sword? To get at Teodor? That was a possibility, but it seemed unlikely. His memory was scrambled, and while he might have recovered his courage to fight the reveniri, he posed no serious threat to Libavya or the Temnoti.
It was possible that the reveniri had been at the inn to kill Caina and claim the Ring.
She considered the facts coldly, without the rage of her heart coloring her judgment. After Kostiv and the death of Razdan Nagrach, after the death of the Umbarians in Sigilsoara, both the Temnoti and the Umbarians might have realized that Caina had the Iron King’s Ring. Crailov had puzzled it out. Why not the Temnoti? Had Libavya sent the reveniri after Caina herself?
If they left Vagraastrad in two days as planned, Libavya might send mor
e reveniri after them. For that matter, if the reveniri attacked while they were on the road, the creatures might kill the men and women of Theodosia’s theater company. Or Libavya might have time to summon more powerful allies, like the misshapen priests that Caina had seen within Sigilsoara.
Or the Umbarians, for that matter. Fighting off the reveniri was bad enough. Fighting off the reveniri when they had the help of the Adamant Guards, the Silent Hunters, and perhaps a few Umbarian magi would be far harder.
“I think,” said Caina, “there is only one logical course of action for all of us.”
Everyone in the theater looked at her.
“And what is that, pray?” said Basarab.
“We work together to stop Libavya Jordizi,” said Caina.
Basarab blinked, incredulity going over his face.
###
Kylon frowned as he watched his wife.
He couldn’t sense her emotions without touching her, but he could sense the emotions of the others just fine. Basarab was incredulous and disbelieving, Calugar wary and watchful. Both Seb and Theodosia seemed amused, likely because Seb had seen Caina do this kind of thing at Kostiv, and Theodosia had likely seen Caina do it many times before. Kylon also sensed a surge of hope from Ilona, though the young woman kept her face controlled.
Kylon felt only alarm. Confronting Lady Libavya might be a mistake. This wasn’t their fight. Perhaps the smartest thing to do would be to leave Vagraastrad at once.
And yet…
He knew how Caina thought, and she had likely asked the obvious question.
Why had the reveniri attacked the Szlacht’s Sword? If Libavya wanted Teodor dead, sending a mob of reveniri to attack an inn was a clumsy way to go about. Had Libavya learned about the Ring of Rasarion Yagar? Had her masters in the Temnoti told her to claim the Ring?
“That is ridiculous,” said Basarab.
“No, it’s not,” said Kylon. Caina flashed him a grateful look. “The best defense is a sure sword stroke, High Brother. And you wanted help? You have help.” He pointed at Caina. “You have the first new Arvaltyr in centuries. You have a Kyracian stormdancer with a valikon. You have an Imperial battle magus, and you have the help of Theodosia, who has experience with this kind of fight.”
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