by Radu Aldea
In the darkest corner of the tavern stood two cloaked silhouettes who did not attract attention to themselves, but were watching everything. Unbeknownst to the male patrons, who would’ve harassed them otherwise, although it would’ve been a very bad idea, they were women. They were both lithe and of average height, but one was in her late twenties or early thirties and the other was in her mid-thirties. They were also both brunettes.
“The emperor sent his sorceresses to kill those senators in the south because they were a threat to him,” a man who was very drunk shouted and others quickly agreed with him.
The two women cringed. They were not surprised to hear it. The younger one had heard similar comments from different people the last two days. But they didn’t like it being repeated that much. Veneguard was boiling, not that the new emperor could be bothered with it, and was on the brink of revolt. Why the murder of two senators somewhere far to the south had this effect, the two women were not sure. What they did agree on was that killing a senator was a really bad idea and would have dire consequences.
“See what I mean, sister,” the younger woman spoke under her breath.
The older woman nodded. She did believe the younger woman when she told her about the mood in the city and what rumors were spreading like wildfire. What really bothered them was the mention of the sorceresses of the imperial guard. Because one thing they did know for sure was that no sorceress of the imperial guard was involved in killing a senator in the south. There was one very good reason they were certain of that. The women were not sisters in the biological sense, but members of the Conclave, which made them sorceresses. The older one, Yvonne Rosewater, was the commander of the sorceresses in the imperial guard and the younger one, Alexandra Stormayer, was a high ranking member of the guard, which made them very powerful sorceresses. Every member of the sorceress guard was that, but even the Conclave, which was supposed to be made of equals, had hierarchies. And just like in the Senatorial Order, power was one of the most important criteria in establishing rank. Yvonne Rosewater and Alexandra Stormayer were both at the very top. Another thing that bothered them was that someone was spreading rumors sorceresses of the imperial guard were involved in the murder of two senators when they knew none of their sisters in Veneguard had left the city recently. They never did. Which meant someone was playing a very dangerous game.
“Who the hell is spreading these lies?” Yvonne asked angrily.
“I am not sure, but there may be some merit to the rumor,” Alexandra answered calmly.
“What do you mean? You know none of our sisters has left Veneguard.”
“Not one of our sisters here, but I believe sorceresses were involved. When I started tracking the rumor two days ago it was still only a whisper. It has grown since. But I managed to connect it to people who came from Suttland or have received news from there. I think someone down there has proof of sorceress involvement and let the information leak here to create trouble. I don’t think they hoped the rumor would be this successful.”
“You can’t be serious! You know what this means!”
Unfortunately, Alexandra was serious and did know what it meant. The annihilation of the Conclave at worst; a purge, at best. The senators had ruthlessly eliminated the wizards because just one of them was killed, after all, and they were a far more formidable opponent.
“I can’t believe one of our sisters could be this stupid,” Yvonne continued.
Alexandra shared her feelings. The sisters were not stupid enough to poke the sleeping monster. The Order was monstrous in its power and right now it was sleeping. Nobody wanted it to wake, let alone the Conclave. Yet Alexandra could not dismiss those rumors from the south. She knew when a rumor spread on its own or when there was a malevolent intent behind it. And behind this one she could feel the intent. Senators may have not been allowed in Veneguard, but it was crawling with humans under their control. The Order wanted to keep an eye on the emperor, at least on the dead emperor. Alexandra doubted they had much interest in the new one. Anyway, she suspected, although she could not prove it, that some members of the imperial council were under the control of senators. It was conceivable Suttland senators were using the humans they controlled in the capital to ignite the rumor. She could not be sure what their goal was, but they were certainly successful in scaring the sorceresses.
“The new emperor has an alliance with the Cuttland senators and the southern senators are his enemies. He wants to make slaves of all of us and those senators who were killed stood in his way.” The man who said this didn’t seem that drunk, but he didn’t make any sense.
“He’s under the control of Cuttland senators. That’s why he is doing this. They don’t like that we are free here.” This man was drunk, yet there was a twisted logic to what he said.
The fact that senators were at each other’s throats was not exactly surprising. The Order had become too large and powerful to be as monolithic as it claimed. The Conclave, even though much less powerful, was the same. Alexandra, unlike most of her sisters, did come in contact with senators now and then and knew a little about them. She hadn’t met the truly powerful ones, who could control hundreds of people. Those stayed away from her and she avoided them. Senators were notoriously secretive and getting close to any of them was really difficult. She had managed to do that and discover some of their secrets. There was a reason why she could be so daring. Just like all her sisters in the imperial guard, Alexandra was immune to senatorial power. That’s why they were chosen to protect the emperor.
“Do you really think it is true senators have control of the emperor?” Yvonne asked.
“No! They didn’t have the opportunity to get anywhere near him.” Alexandra knew this was true. The emperor had never left the inner city. Veneguard had two concentric stone walls. The first surrounded almost the entire city, although it outgrew the walls and some people lived outside them. The second one separated the inner city, where only few people were allowed, from the outer city. If by some miracle senators managed to enter Veneguard, although Alexandra seriously doubted it, there was no way they got inside the inner city. Sorceresses may not be wizards, but they could still sense senators from a distance.
“What do you know about the senators who were killed?”
Alexandra didn’t exactly know how to answer that. She didn’t have any contact with Suttland senators. She didn’t travel that far south and they didn’t venture north, it seemed. The rumors said they were more lenient and fairer towards humans and more diligent in keeping order. The people in the tavern had probably heard the same things, although Alexandra wasn’t sure it was the truth. They were still senators, no matter where they lived. It might just be a case of grass is greener on the other side. “I don’t know much. They were father and daughter.”
Yvonne nodded. “I heard the man was the head of the family.”
Alexandra had heard that too, but they couldn’t be sure with senators. Nobody outside the Order actually knew how it was structured and who was at its top. It was common knowledge senators were divided by families and those included more than blood relatives. She didn’t know for sure if there was some other structure above families, but reason dictated there was. The Order had proven in the past it was capable of cohesive, coherent action. “I heard the daughter was the real prize, that she is some kind of super senator.”
“What does that even mean? As if isn’t bad enough senators are dead.”
“I have no idea what makes someone a super senator. It might just be some worthless rumor, but I can ask. It guarantees there will be some kind of reaction to the deaths.”
“There already is. Armies from Suttland have already crossed the mountains.”
They weren’t armies, not yet, anyway. They were scouts preparing the terrain for the invasion. If there was going to be an invasion. Alexandra was not sure. All the confusion could mean nobody knew who was responsible for the deaths of the two senators. The only theory she had heard was that sorceresse
s did it. Someone must’ve known more, enough time had passed, but nobody was saying anything. Someone must know something.
A soldier of the imperial guard grabbed one of the barmaids right in front of her. The girl couldn’t have been more than fifteen and tried to get away. She failed. The soldier’s hold was too strong. He pulled the barmaid to him and started kissing her and fondling her breast. The girl was desperately looking around for help. None was coming.
“You had your fun, now let go of her!” Alexandra just couldn’t help herself.
“What do you want, bitch? You angry you are old and ugly and nobody is interested? Don’t worry, after I’m finished with her I’m gonna give you some. I’m man enough for two!”
People were starting to become interested in them and it wasn’t a good thing. The men in the tavern were drunk and stupid enough to try to attack them.
“You can’t do anything for her. It’s either this or she’ll be out on the streets, hungry and cold,” Yvonne tried to calm her but it really wasn’t working.
“I can’t do anything? I can’t stop a rape because the alternative is worse?”
“They are sorceresses, you idiot! Leave the girl and let’s get out of here,” a friend tried to convince him. He didn’t let go of the girl and started grinning. The man was very stupid, very drunk or mad. Personally, Alexandra voted for the last option.
“A sorceress? I’ve never fucked a sorceress! This will be interesting.”
He was mad. In moments like this Alexandra wished she was a senator, because they might be ruthless, brutal thugs, but pathetic creatures like this one in front of her she could barely call human knew to fear them. She wanted to make him fear sorceresses too.
“I think we should leave. They look interested and don’t seem to like us very much. So if you don’t want to burn this tavern to the ground we should return to the palace, Alexandra.”
“Incinerating this place is fine with me. There will be less filth in the city.”
People understood the danger and some were already leaving the tavern. The patrons were not scared enough, but she could deal with them easily. Create a shield of air for protection and then dispatch them with lightning bolts or fireballs. Both would work just fine. They feared senators because they could mess with their minds, but sorceresses could be just as dangerous. They didn’t fear the Conclave enough. His friends seemed to be getting through to the drunken animal because they convinced him to let the girl go and leave the tavern.
“I may not be able to save everyone, but I can save her. Come with us, we need servants too, and we pay far better than the owner of this dump,” Alexandra told the girl and turned to the rest of the patrons. “Sorceresses from Veneguard didn’t murder senators in the south, no matter what you believe. None of us left Veneguard. You might want to share this with your friends and families. Suttland senators are not the enemies of the emperor. That’s like saying a tiger has a fly for an enemy. You will do well to remember that too.”
“That was positively seditious,” Yvonne told her after they left the tavern. There was amusement in her voice. Nobody questioned her decision to take the girl, not the girl herself or the man she thought was the owner of the tavern, although he did look angry.
“It was the truth!”
“Did you just compare our beloved emperor to a tiger?”
Alexandra chuckled. “Why are we here, Yvonne?”
“Where is here? The tavern, Veneguard, the world?”
“Why are we here in this cesspool some mistakenly call city?”
“We are here to protect the emperor, of course!”
“Why?”
“Why do we protect the emperor? It is stipulated in the peace accord!”
“A twenty-year-old peace accord that mentions a different emperor. I am not sure it says we should protect every emperor. Besides, from whom are we protecting him?”
“You may be right, but what do you suggest? Leave the city and let the senators roll in?”
That wouldn’t have been the worst idea. Senators would clean Veneguard or burn it to ashes and salt the ground. Either was fine with Alexandra. She was tired of living here among the worst humanity had to offer and she wanted to return to their beautiful island.
“Do you really think it would be better to give the city to the senators? Our Reverend Mother would disagree. She would hate to abandon the capital.”
The Reverend Mother was the leader of the Conclave and was elected for life. They may be egalitarian, but they did understand the need for one person to decide. Otherwise, they would be stuck in inaction. The current Reverend Mother had been elected ten years ago. Alexandra had not voted for her and they didn’t like each other. Yvonne was right, though, she would never allow the sisters to abandon Veneguard in favor of senators.
“The senators will come and we won’t fight them. What do you think these rumors are all about? They are preparing the attack either by painting us as incapable of controlling the city, which we can’t, or by claiming the emperor is guilty of the murder of two senators. The city is boiling and on the brink of revolt, don’t you feel it? We will be the ones who will have to stop it. We will be bathing in blood.”
Alexandra let Yvonne digest the grim prediction. She wasn’t sure they were in agreement. Yvonne was more optimistic of the future and trusted the emperor more than she did, probably because he was married to a sister. But Alexandra didn’t trust that sister. And the senators were nervous. She knew that much. She just didn’t know what made them nervous.
“Are the sorceresses really going to leave Veneguard?”
They had forgotten they had an audience. “Yes!” “No!” Alexandra and Yvonne answered at the same time. “Well, that settles it,” Yvonne joked. “What is your name?”
“Bryony!”
“Where are you from, Bryony? Were you born in the city?”
“No! I’m from a village south of here. We only moved to Veneguard recently.”
“Why did you?”
“Father thought it best. He thought senators in our area demand too much in taxes. That’s what he said, anyway. But there was a very pretty girl in our village and one day she just disappeared. We looked for her forever. One day, a man from a neighboring village told us he saw her in the villa of a senator. Father always said I am very pretty. He said things would be better here because there aren’t any senators.”
“Are they better?”
“No! We had money, but things are so expensive here. Father couldn’t find a job that paid well enough so I had to work in the tavern. Father feared a senator would take me. Here, many men can do that. If a senator gets me pregnant I will give birth to one and I will have status. Here, if I get pregnant I’m a whore. Besides, the girl in our village had nice clothes and lived in luxury. It is more than other girls in my village get.”
Alexandra was not so sure the girl was right. She knew some male senators who had children. The mother, if she was human, was not around. It was not that hard to guess what happened to them. They weren’t allowed near their senator children, that’s for sure. And the children didn’t seem to miss them. When women senators got pregnant, they probably didn’t even know who the father was, never mind letting him know he had a child.
“How old are you, Bryony?”
“Fourteen!”
“I don’t think being the concubine of a senator is a life you would like. He could subject you to all kinds of humiliation. Losing control of your will can be devastating.”
“It’s still better than here. My will was taken from me by that man in the tavern.”
Alexandra didn’t know what made a young girl so cynical, but she agreed. Being the concubine of a senator was better than being raped by a filthy man.
She felt them. Five men were trying to follow them and thought they hadn’t noticed. How stupid could they be? She was fairly sure one of them was the man from the tavern. Apparently his friends weren’t that persuasive. She saw Yvonne notice they were foll
owed.
“Are they from the tavern?”
“Yes! They don’t fear us enough.” She would make them fear. She would incinerate them until nothing but ashes remained. There was no guilt. After all they were trying to kill them and were probably guilty of much more. A senator would know for sure, but she didn’t have that luxury. Alexandra would just have to be content with the proof she already had.
“He’s a soldier in the imperial guard,” Yvonne tried to calm her. She failed.
“So what?”
“There might be consequences. You can’t just kill people when you feel like it.”
“Why not? Senators do it all the time. And they are trying to kill us. Do you think they are hiding in a dark alley because they want to give us flowers? I don’t see the problem.”
“You don’t know who he is, who his friends are. He could be under the control of a senator. Bryony could be controlled by one, for all you know. Let’s just leave!”
“I’m not under the control of senators, I promise,” Bryony replied.
“How would you know? And if you were, wouldn’t you lie and say you weren’t?”
Alexandra didn’t pay attention to Yvonne’s banter with the girl. She was not one to back down from a confrontation, even if it did involve senators. She did not look for them, she did not provoke them and she was not going to run away. Maybe the wizards thought the same thing and they lost. But this was different. She didn’t think that man was under the control of senators. For one thing, they could’ve found someone who was not such a gigantic waste of their power. And she didn’t care about his friends in the imperial guard.