What does she want with me?
“I am to escort you to Lady Callista.” The servant studied her simple undertunic and bare feet. “Allow me to help you prepare yourself.”
Issa blinked, but quickly shoved down her surprise and set about donning her armor. The black Shalandran steel was made of segmented plates fitted together with breathtaking skill, and it offered both near-impenetrable protection and supreme freedom of movement. Donning the suit of plate mail, however, proved a complex task, given the numerous fastenings required to buckle, strap, and cinch everything securely in place. Even after nearly two weeks of practice and with the servant’s help, it still took more than a quarter of an hour.
Finally, the last belt was tightened, the last strap fastened. The servant stepped back, looked her up and down, then nodded. “That will do.”
“Let’s go,” Issa said.
“This way, if you please.” The serving woman gestured for her to follow, then set off at a pace that Issa could only describe as a demure scurry, eyes downcast, sandaled feet shuffling quickly. Issa had no problem matching her pace, her long legs eating up the ground.
Issa glanced out the window; the sun had nearly risen over the eastern cliff face, which meant she’d managed two, maybe three hours of sleep. Definitely more than Tannard wanted me to have. She hadn’t seen the Invictus since he stormed out of the library last night. If the Keeper smiles on me, I’ll never see him again.
Her hopes were dashed a moment later as she caught a glimpse of him striding across the training yard in their direction. They met him climbing the stairs on the western end of the Citadel’s north wing.
Tannard’s eyes narrowed as he caught sight of Issa and the servant. “Where is she going?”
“She has been summoned by Lady Callista, Invictus,” the woman replied in a respectful tone.
“For what purpose?”
“My Lady of Blades did not see fit to confide in me.”
Issa hid a grin at the hint of scorn in the woman’s voice. Evidently being a servant in the palace could make even a Zadii feel brazen in the stone-hard face of Invictus Tannard.
“However,” continued the woman, “she said nothing about discouraging you from accompanying me. I’m certain she will give you the answers to your questions that she sees fit to.”
Tannard’s expression grew impassive. “So be it.” He fell into step beside Issa. “Let us see what the Lady of Blades desires.”
They descended the stairs, their steps leading in the direction of the stone tunnel that connected the Citadel of Stone with the western end of the Palace of Golden Eternity. Once inside the palace, the servant led them along a plain corridor that ran westward, in the direction Issa knew lay Hallar’s Tomb, the final resting place of Shalandra’s founder and greatest hero.
A huge stone door stood at the end of the corridor, flanked by a pair of Keeper’s Blades in full black armor and lowered war masks. However, the servant led them down a smaller adjoining corridor and stopped at a doorway that looked as plain and innocuous as all the others along the hall, save for the two Blades standing guard outside the door. Both bore the three gold bands of an Ypertatos, ten-year veterans, around the rim of their lion-fanged helms. They stepped aside for the servant and Issa, but held up a hand to stop Tannard.
“Lay a finger on me and you lose the arm,” Tannard growled. His helmet bore a fourth gold band, his rank as their superior clearly visible. Even without it, his broad shoulders and hard face made him an imposing figure.
The Blade’s expression revealed an internal war: determination to carry out his orders to protect Lady Callista, and instinctive fear of the hulking Invictus threatening him. Finally, he stepped aside to let Invictus Tannard pass.
The servant pushed the door open and led them into what turned out to be an office. Shelves laden with books, scrolls, and stacks of loose parchments lined the northern and eastern walls, and an assortment of bladed and blunt weapons hung on the western wall. The remaining wall bore no decoration, simply a small hanging shelf that was empty save for what looked like a bundle of sky blue cloth.
The room’s furnishings were simple: a pair of comfortable armchairs off to one side of the room, with a broad desk and a solid wooden chair in which Callista Vinaus sat. The Lady of Blades wore full armor, though her lion-fanged helmet sat on the desk beside her elbow. Her two-handed flammard rested against the wall behind her, well within arm’s reach.
Lady Callista looked up as they entered and she smiled at the sight of Issa. Her expression tightened as Tannard shouldered through the door behind her.
“Thank you, Ivita.”
“Of course, my lady.” With a bow, the servant Ivita retreated from the room.
Lady Callista’s eyes went to Tannard. “You may leave us as well.”
“Proxenos, Issa is my trainee, and as such—”
“The matter I intend to discuss with your prototopoi has nothing to do with her training.” Lady Callista’s voice held a commanding tone. “You may leave.”
Tannard’s expression stiffened, the lines around his eyes growing tight. Yet he simply nodded and gave a stiff-spined bow. “Yes, Proxenos.”
Issa stifled a delighted grin. Tannard had humiliated and derided her for so long, it felt wonderful to see him receive even a fraction of his own treatment.
The Lady of Blades sat back in her chair and fixed a pensive frown on Issa as she waited for Tannard to leave. Even after the door had clicked shut behind the departing Invictus, Callista Vinaus remained silent. Once again, there was incomprehensible meaning in the way she studied Issa from head to toe, as if searching for something…but what?
Issa swallowed her instinctive surge of anxiety. She stood before one of the most powerful people in Shalandra and her direct superior, commander of the Keeper’s Blades. The broad-shouldered woman in the chair had the power to determine her fate.
“I have spoken with the Elders of the Blades about you,” Lady Callista spoke in an impassive tone. “They all agree that you deserted your post in the Palace of Golden Eternity.”
Issa’s gut tightened. The night of the assassination attempt on the Pharus, she’d left her standing vigil to patrol the grounds, mostly out of a desire to remain awake after nearly two days without sleep. Yet that would serve as pitiful defense against the accusation of desertion.
“And yet, they have decided to forego consequences on this occasion,” Lady Callista continued. “The Long Keeper smiled on you and placed you in a position to sound the alarm and save the lives of your fellow Blades.” A hint of approval cracked her stony expression. “While the Elders and I have centuries of experience combined, we feel it is not our place to question the Long Keeper’s wisdom.”
Relief washed over Issa like a cool breeze in a Shalandran summer, and her heart started beating again.
“Yet I did not summon you here just to tell you of your fate,” Lady Callista’s strong fingers toyed with a long, slim dagger that lay on her desk. “The Pharus, in his infinite wisdom—” A half-grimace, half-sneer twisted her upper lip. “—saw fit to bring you into his confidences. As his loyal servant, I have no choice but to obey his commands.”
Issa struggled to keep her confusion from showing. She had no idea what the Pharus had commanded, but judging by the look on Lady Callista’s face, it wasn’t something the Lady of Blades agreed with.
“Come.” Lady Callista beckoned.
Issa obeyed, crossing the distance to the desk in three short strides.
“Our interrogation of the captured assassins yielded little information of use.” A scowl twisted her face. “Despite our…persistence, the Gatherers would not break under questioning. Indeed, it seemed they had taken some sort of poison that killed them slowly enough that they could attack, yet silenced them before we could break them. But our search of the palace grounds proved far more informative.”
Issa raised an eyebrow as Lady Callista drew out a large vellum scroll from within her desk and sp
read it out on the table. She recognized a map of the palace—the same map she’d been shown as Tannard had detailed her guard position on the night of the assassination.
“As we suspected, the assassins did not enter through the front gate. The Indomitables stationed there remain loyal to the Pharus. However, someone else within the palace opened a way for them to enter here.” Lady Callista’s finger traced along the southeastern edge of the palace grounds. “In the Terrestra.”
Issa’s eyebrows shot up. “Aren’t those gardens under heavy guard?”
“They are.” Lady Callista nodded. “A full company of Indomitables are patrolling at any given time. But the Terrestra is so vast that it would take two full companies to watch every square foot. The Gatherers proved themselves resourceful enough to evade the patrols and slip into the palace unseen, through here.” She tapped a finger against the map.
Issa stared down at the room. “The kitchens?”
“Specifically, rooms used to store dry goods—flour, barley, rice, and the like.” Lady Callista leaned back in her chair. “We only discovered that connection because one of the Gatherers was foolish enough to track flour into the palace halls on the bottom of his boots. Otherwise, we’d never have known how they got from the gardens into the palace itself.”
Issa tried to figure the route the assassins had taken. The gardens stood on the southeastern edge of the palace, while the kitchens were located farther west, only accessible by a tradesman’s entrance. Her brow furrowed. The assassins would have had to cross the plaza in front of the palace. Not the most practical route if they wanted to remain invisible.
“I see you’ve discovered the same problem with that plan as I did.” Lady Callista’s lip quirked into a small smile of approval. “It could be that the connection to the kitchens was used as nothing more than a ruse to throw us off their true entrance. Either that, or the same person that opened the way for them to enter the Terrestra also gave them a secret way to enter the palace unseen.”
Issa frowned down at the first place Lady Callista had indicated. “There is a way to enter the gardens?” A sixty-foot wall of solid sandstone ringed the entire tier upon which the palace sat and separated it from the Keeper’s Tier below.
“Yes.” The Lady of Blades’ face tightened. “A secret tunnel that runs beneath the wall and allows access to the gardens from precise locations in the Keeper’s Tier. The way is known only to a select few among the Keeper’s Council and the Necroseti.”
Issa’s mouth went suddenly dry. “You believe the Keeper’s Priests had a hand in the attempt? Didn’t the Gatherers try to kill them as well?”
“Again, you reach the same conclusion as I.” Lady Callista inclined her head. “It is well known that the Gatherers were once Keeper’s Priests serving in the Hall of the Beyond. My belief—and that of the Pharus—is that the secret way was known to at least one of the Necroseti that split off from the priesthood to become a Gatherer. A high-ranking Necroseti is their leader. Perhaps someone known to the Keeper’s Council.”
Issa raised an eyebrow. “Why not ask them? Surely they have to know which of their priests have gone missing to join the Gatherers.”
“They refuse to give answers.” Lady Callista’s face creased into a scowl. “They consider themselves above all laws but those given to them by the Long Keeper himself through Hallar.”
“Could the Pharus not simply command them to obey?” Issa asked. “He is the Revered Servant of the Long Keeper on Einan, is he not?”
“So they say, when it suits them.” Her scowl deepened, and for a moment Issa caught a glimpse of the Lady of Blades’ true feelings. Lady Callista loathed the priests, and it showed in the fire that burned in her eyes, the snarl that twisted her strong face.
“You mentioned that someone within the palace was working with them,” Issa said, eyes narrowing. “Does that mean you suspect one of the Keeper’s Council of colluding with the Gatherers?”
“The evidence is hard to ignore.” Lady Callista inclined her head. “If not them, then someone within their retinue. Someone that none of the Indomitables or Keeper’s Blades on patrol would think to question.”
“That’s a long list of people.” Issa frowned. The Keeper’s Council rarely left the Hall of the Beyond without attendants, scribes, and lower-ranked Necroseti—between sixty and eighty at any given time.
“Yes, it is.” Lady Callista nodded. “And the Gatherers went to their graves without incriminating which of the Necroseti were complicit in this attempt. Which means we must take a closer look at each person in the palace on that night in order to determine who was in the Terrestra.”
“Very well.” Issa straightened. “Tell me who you want me to—”
“No, that is not why I summoned you here.”
Issa’s brow furrowed, but she stood straight and tall.
“The Pharus ordered you to protect Briana, formerly of the Dhukari, daughter of Arch-Guardian Suroth. That is precisely what you will do.”
Again, confusion raced through Issa. “Then why tell me all this if I am to have no part in it?”
“That is your part.” Lady Callista leaned forward. “It has come to the Pharus’ attention that Lady Briana shares our suspicions of the Necroseti’s complicity in her father’s death. She intends to go to war against not only the Gatherers, but the Keeper’s Priests and the Council itself.”
Issa’s eyebrows shot up. “What?”
Lady Callista nodded. “And the Pharus intends to lend what aid he can.” She gestured at Issa. “You. You, and Archateros Hykos with you, are to be my eyes and ears beside Suroth’s daughter. You are to protect her, but listen and watch her and her companions as well. If she is anything like her father, there is no doubt that she will uncover things that may prove useful against the Keeper’s Council. Things that you will report to me.”
Understanding dawned on Issa. “You want me to play spy.” She struggled to keep a disgusted grimace from her face.
“Yes,” Lady Callista replied, without a hint of emotion in her voice. “For the young woman’s own good. Without her father’s wealth and position as a Councilor, she will find herself in serious danger going up against the Keeper’s Council. But I believe she has value, and thus it is in the best interests of Shalandra that she remains alive and unharmed. A job that falls to you and your Archateros.”
Issa nodded. “I understand.” The image of a cold, hard face flashed through her mind. “And what of Invictus Tannard? If he tries to pull me away from this duty once more—”
“As Invictus, Tannard has the latitude to take a direct hand in your training as a Keeper’s Blade.” Lady Callista’s jaw muscles worked. “I will speak to him of this matter, ensure that he knows what I expect from you. But if he gives you a command, you must follow it.”
Issa opened her mouth to argue—protecting Briana would prove a full-time task, one she couldn’t carry out if she had to worry about Tannard’s cruelty—but the Lady of Blades held up a hand.
“Everything you are asked to do, it is all part of your training. No matter how distasteful or daunting.” Lady Callista pursed her lips. “The chosen of the Long Keeper must be adept not only in the ways of battle, but all the tools of war at our disposal. We fight for the future of Shalandra against enemies that will not hesitate to crush us at the first chance they have.”
“Yes, Lady Callista.” Issa bowed. The burden of her new duty sat heavy on her shoulders.
“Then go, return to Briana and send Archateros Hykos to me at once. I will see that he is briefed as well. But first…”
Lady Callista reached for a small silver bell on her desk and rang it. Before the high tinkling sound faded away, the door opened and Ivita entered the room.
“My lady?” the servant asked.
Callista Vinaus ignored the question. “If you ever need to speak with me, deliver this to any of the servants in the palace that wear a headband like Ivita’s.”
Issa studied the white-and-go
ld-braided band. It was made from real gold cloth and fine white silk, but upon closer inspection, she found a single thread of silver running between the two. That was something she’d never noticed before…and wouldn’t have if Lady Callista hadn’t pointed it out.
The Lady of Blades tossed Issa a silver coin. “They will see that it reaches me and I will find a way to make contact in secret.”
The silver coin bore the Pharus’ face on one side, but on the reverse, a small “X” like crossed swords had been etched into the smooth metal. With a nod, Issa slipped the coin into a pocket. “I understand, Lady Callista.”
The Lady of Blades dismissed her with a nod. Issa turned on her heel and marched out of the room. Yet, as she cast one last glance over her shoulder, she found Lady Callista’s eyes fixed on her, that strange expression once more on her face.
Chapter Twenty
Even the presence of the black-armored Keeper’s Blade opposite her didn’t soothe the nervous tension roiling within Aisha. She’d contemplated leaving her armor and weapons back at the house to avoid drawing attention, but Hykos’ two-handed sword and black plate mail made it impossible for them to blend into the crowds on the Artisan’s Tier.
Thankfully, the journey to the Temple District was a short one. They would have reached the Temple of Whispers well before the sun had fully risen, were it not for Nessa. The Steward—she still insisted on her title, even though she no longer served in a Dhukari household—had foisted a hearty breakfast on them, whipped up with surprising skillfulness by Leya, the Earaqi cook that had remained loyal to Briana.
Aisha had to admit that things looked much better under the bright morning sun and with a full belly. The golden sandstone glowed in the dazzling sunlight, letting off a warm radiance that helped to drive back the night’s chill. The early crowds had begun to flow along the Artificer’s Courseway, filling the air with the low hum and chatter of a busy city.
Crucible of Fortune: An Epic Fantasy Young Adult Adventure (Heirs of Destiny Book 2) Page 16