The Prophecy Con (Rogues of the Republic)

by Weekes, Patrick

Hessler coughed.

  “Best illusionist boyfriend ever,” Tern added, wrapping her arm around him.

  “Nystin actually only hit you in the shoulder,” Hessler added. “I had to make it look good.”

  “And it did look good,” Veiled Lightning said as she stepped into the clearing. “Had I not known you employed a wide range of thieves and cheats in your gang, I would never have suspected.”

  “You knew?” Pyvic asked.

  “I also knew she had three knaves,” Veiled Lightning said, “but I wasn’t going to beat the elf, and she seemed to know what she was doing.”

  “Really? But . . .” Loch pulled her shirt closed and looked up at Veiled Lightning, trying to get her mind working again. She pushed herself up, and Pyvic helped her to her feet. “I didn’t know. About this. I didn’t . . .” She turned to Pyvic. “You let them let Nystin shoot me?”

  Pyvic shrugged. “My part of the plan was to shout, ‘What the hell are you doing?’ if you tried something noble and self-sacrificial instead of giving the manuscript over. Tern said she’d take care of the rest.”

  Loch looked at Tern.

  “I may have gone through your bags as we were getting ready to ride the Dragon,” she said. “Speaking of which, how are you this morning, Dairy?”

  “Just fine, ma’am,” Dairy said, grinning from ear to ear. Ululenia harrumphed.

  “Good. Anyway, you didn’t have the book, so I told the others that there was a chance you were going to do something stupid, and we all agreed that we’d stop you if that proved to be the case.”

  Loch looked back at Pyvic. “Trying to keep the Republic and the Empire from war is stupid?”

  “I said noble and self-sacrificial,” he said.

  “Drink some juice,” Icy said. “You need to elevate your body’s energies again.”

  “Why? For prison?” Loch gestured at Veiled Lightning.

  “Oh, please,” the princess said, waving absently. “You being dead takes care of everything. As far as the Empire is concerned, you’re one troublesome political prisoner erased. We have the lapiscaelum, so there’s a good chance that we can actually calm down and stop agitating for war now, as long as your side does the same.”

  “The Republic just lost a proud patriot who was preparing to surrender herself to bring about peace,” Pyvic said. “If the voyants can’t work with that, I’ll get us some new ones who can.”

  “So . . .” Loch looked around at all of them slowly. “You all had a plan to take me down?”

  “You’d do the same for us,” Tern said with absolute sincerity, and Loch found herself smiling.

  “Damn right I would.” She put her arm around Pyvic. “So, since you all appear to be a bit ahead of me on this, what’s the plan?”

  Desidora’s face went slightly pale. “Ghylspwr is still missing. I have a number of very firm questions for him.” Kail put his arm around her, and her skin went rosy again. “And I could use some help. It might be dangerous.”

  “I was tired of being a lapitect, anyway,” Hessler said. “This sounds much closer to stealing. Also, Desidora and I have ideas on how to ward you against detection from the daemon carrying Jyelle’s memories and emotional impulses.” He paused. “I understand that it’s natural to think that it actually is Jyelle, but—”

  “I’m just happy we’re presumably stealing something besides the damn book this time,” Tern added.

  “Speaking of which . . .” Dairy coughed. “Mister Dragon has offered to share any information he finds while studying the manuscript.”

  “I’ll keep an ear to the ground up on Heaven’s Spire,” Pyvic said, and nodded to Veiled Lightning. “We’re willing to share information if you are.”

  The princess smiled. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  “I’ll probably need a sword,” Loch added.

  “Don’t push it.” Veiled Lightning sauntered back through the trees, turning to call over her shoulder, “I’ll be in touch.”

  “I should go, too,” Pyvic said. “The rest have already left their positions, but they’re expecting me back up on Heaven’s Spire to help with repairs.”

  “You all left your positions in a single afternoon?” Loch asked.

  Tern coughed.

  “It’s been a week,” Dairy said.

  Loch shut her eyes. “You killed me for a week?”

  “It had to look good!” Tern shouted.

  “It looked wonderful,” Hessler said. “That was my job.”

  Tern glared at him. “How did I know the princess was going to go for it?”

  “In any case,” Loch said, “I believe we have some ancients to locate and thwart.”

  She looked at Pyvic, who smiled sadly.

  “Don’t say it,” he said.

  “You did.”

  “You were dead.”

  “For a week, apparently.”

  He kissed her, and she held him long enough for his warmth to seep in.

  Then she let him leave the clearing and go back to the job, which she knew was where he needed to be to give them the best chance of success.

  Still, though.

  “I’ll miss you,” she said, very, very quietly.

  Then she turned to her gang, who stood waiting for her expectantly.

  “All right, then,” she said. “Let’s get to work.”

  About the Author

  Photo © 2010 Baos

  Patrick Weekes was born in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended Stanford University, where he received both a BA and an MA in English literature.

  In 2005, Patrick joined BioWare’s writing team in Alberta, Canada. Since then, he’s worked on all three games in the Mass Effect trilogy, where he helped write characters like Mordin, Tali, and Samantha Traynor. He is now working with the Dragon Age team on the third game in the critically acclaimed series. He has written tie-in fiction for both series, including Tali’s issue in Dark Horse Comics’ Mass Effect: Homeworlds series and Dragon Age: Masked Empire.

  Patrick lives in Edmonton with his wife, Karin, his two Lego-and-video-game-obsessed sons, and (currently) nine rescued animals. In his spare time, he takes on unrealistic Lego-building projects, practices Kenpo Karate, and embarrasses himself in video games.