by Martha Wells
"You don't want to know," Khat said. Anyone chasing Constans at this point would be lucky indeed not to catch up with him.
Elen said, "I'm a Warder. Which one of you has our book?"
The subcaptain sneered. "You're a thief. When I-"
She was on her feet before he could react, her painrod just lifting his chin. He was a head taller than she, but it didn't seem to matter much. Her voice low and shaking, she said, "I'm not going to tell you again. Give me the book."
Khat stood, slowly so as not to distract her, wondering if the others would try to shoot her and what he could do about it if they did.
But the subcaptain said, "Your pardon, Honored."
After a tense moment, Elen stepped back. One of the other vigils gingerly held out the leather-cased text to her. She tucked it under one arm, and said to Khat, "We've got the book. Are you all right? We should go find the others now."
He nodded. The physical effect of what Constans had done had disappeared completely, though he would certainly remember it for a long time. The vigils were blocking the front of the court, most of them staring as if they were at a theater. "Make them get out of the way," Khat suggested helpfully.
There was a muted scramble in the ranks to clear a path, except for the subcaptain, who stepped out of their way slowly and gave Khat a look that should have melted bone as they went past.
Elen was heading determinedly for Arad's house, and Khat was glad, not knowing if he could talk her out of it if she stormed off somewhere he didn't want to go. They needed to find Sagai again, and if anyone could help them brazen this all out it was going to be Arad-edelk. Because he was curious, and to see if she was in her right mind again, he asked, "Did he set that ghost after us or did he send it away?"
Elen frowned. "I don't know." She sounded more like her normal self, at least. "It did look like he sent it away, didn't it?"
There were now vigils guarding the doorway of Arad's house, and as they went up the steps Khat could hear Scholar Ecazar's voice, the sarcasm in it discernible even at this distance. The vigil subcaptain motioned for the others to clear a path, and moved in front of them to lead the way, though he was careful not to jostle Elen.
There were more vigils in Arad's workroom, and Scholar Ecazar was pacing back and forth, saying, "At the very least you have jeopardized your work. This mural is the most important commission given to any scholar this year, and if you are mixed up in any illegal dealings..."
Sagai stood nearby, composed and watching Ecazar thoughtfully. Arad-edelk was shaking with rage at being accused. Neither looked any the worse for wear for their experience.
When Ecazar paused for breath, Arad said, "Your accusations are ridiculous. I was attacked, in my house, by..." He gestured angrily, obviously buying time. "By..."
"By thieves," Sagai murmured.
"By thieves, and was only saved from death by the presence of my friends here, who came to consult with me on another matter."
"Friends." Ecazar was contemptuous. "You hadn't seen them before today, you said so yourself this afternoon. And what about this?" He shook something under the smaller scholar's nose, and Khat realized with a sinking feeling that it was the little winged plaque that had gone unnoticed by Shiskan and the others. "They accused you of purchasing it from some Fourth Tier thief-"
"Not an accusation, merely a question," Sagai objected.
Ecazar saw Khat and Elen, and shook the plaque in their direction. "I might have known you would have something to do with this when I saw you here again today." It was the first time he had spoken directly to Khat since he had ordered him out of the Academia after Robelin's death. "And you, Warder, what are you scheming with this kris relic thief?"
Elen stalked forward, still clutching the book. "I am on Warder's business, and that is all you need to know."
"What is that book?" Ecazar asked, distracted and frowning. He might be a scornful old pedagogue, but he knew a Survivor text when he saw one. "Where did you get it?" the scholar demanded.
"They had it when we caught them trying to escape," the subcaptain said, watching them carefully. "Tried to get rid of it by throwing it over a wall."
"I was trying to save it from the thieves, who were chasing us," Elen said, looking unconcerned. "Your vigils frightened them away. Better late than never, I suppose," she added, and the subcaptain winced.
Ecazar turned back to Arad. "Did she get this book from you? What is it?"
Arad took a deep breath, obviously at a loss, and Elen said, "It's my book."
"Yes," Sagai said, unruffled. "She brought it to show Scholar Arad, on the Master Warder's orders. It had to be done tonight."
"Exactly what I was about to tell you," Arad added, folding his arms triumphantly.
Ecazar's brows drew together in frustration, and he stared around at them all suspiciously. Khat kept his mouth shut; they had muddied the well enough without his help.
"And what about this?" Ecazar asked finally, holding out the winged relic. "Where did this come from?"
Elen drew breath to claim it, stopped at a warning cough from Sagai. Ecazar smiled. "Of course it can't be yours, Warder. You asked Arad-edelk if he had it today. And Arad denied it."
"I did..." Arad began. "I did deny it, because ..."
"Because the thieves dropped it in their search," Sagai finished for him. "That's how it came here, Master Scholar. Obviously it was stolen from someone else earlier tonight. An astonishing coincidence, since we had looked for it all the day. Better give it to Elen, so the Warders can take it to its rightful owner."
"Yes," Elen agreed. "That would be best."
" 'Best,' " Ecazar sneered. "You're lying. Tell me the truth, Arad. These people broke in here to steal relics from you, relics you bought from some illegal source and were concealing from your brother scholars, and you were interrupted by another group of thieves."
Khat couldn't help himself. "Getting a little complicated, isn't it? Every thief in the city, here on the same night?"
Ecazar's glare was sulfurous.
Arad shook his head stubbornly. "These people are friends, here to consult with me on a matter of importance. The thieves have escaped. That is all I will say."
"If you maintain that lie, then on your head be it. I'll see you lose your charter over this, Arad." Ecazar turned to go.
Elen blocked his path, holding out her hand. "The relic."
"Oh, I think not," Ecazar said, looking down at her. "If it was dropped here by thieves, then indeed it must be stolen, and should be returned to the Trade Inspectors. And you, there is no reason for you to be within our gates, and . . ." He hesitated, and Khat knew he wanted to order Elen to leave, but he had no real authority over her, and she didn't look inclined to forget the fact that she was a Warder simply because he shouted at her. Finally he said, "I suggest you take yourself off, Honored Warder, and be more careful about the company you choose." He glanced at the vigil subcaptain. "Continue the search. And post guards on this house to make sure no more thieves visit here tonight."
He strode for the door, and the vigils trailed out after him, the subcaptain last.
"Impossible man," Arad fumed when they were gone. "Because I was born on the Sixth Tier, he thinks he can get away with this. He's dying with envy because of my mural, that's what it is."
Sagai said softly, "Trade Inspectors. That's all we need now."
"We have to hurry," Khat agreed. "Constans was here himself. That's why Elen threw the book at those vigils." He went to Arad, who was still seething with indignation, muttering to himself about overbearing pedants. "Arad, where is Ecazar taking that relic?" He kept his voice low so as not to be heard by any vigils who might be lingering in the hall.
"I don't know." The scholar shrugged helplessly. "To the Trade Inspectors ... ?"
"No. If he does that, it's over."
"Khat, it's over now," Sagai pointed out reasonably.
"No," Elen said suddenly, her eyes alive again. "He'll want to examine
it first, and he'll have to send a servant to bring the Trade Inspectors."
"To his rooms in the Porta Major, that's where he'll take it," Arad said, perking up. "You're not thinking-"
"If we go there now, I can get inside and steal the relic back before Ecazar even knows what's happened." Khat nodded to himself. "It's a good thing they missed the block; we'd never get that back without help."
"I always knew he was mad, and now I have proof," Sagai muttered.
"We can do this," Khat insisted.
"That's what frightens me the most."
Elen turned toward Sagai. "Please ..."
"Is it worth our lives, Elen?" Sagai asked her, his voice harsh. "The Trade Inspectors will be involved now. You know more than you've told us, and I think the time for secrets is past. Is it worth our lives?"
"I don't really know more," she insisted, and gestured helplessly. "It's only speculation, but it's worth my life, and I'm going, even if I have to go alone."
Sagai cursed, shook his head, and said, "Fine, then, let's hurry off to be killed."
Arad caught up a lamp and led the way out of his workroom and down the steps to the empty square. Two vigils watching the doorway looked up in surprise at their appearance, and one called, "Scholar, where are you going?"
Arad drew himself up, a picture of abused dignity. "I am conducting these people to the gate. I assumed that is what Scholar Ecazar wanted. Why? Am I a prisoner in my own chambers?"
The vigil waved them on, and they heard him mutter to his companion, "I was only asking."
They crossed the empty square, Arad leading them down one of the courts that would take them to the main gate but also to the Porta Major. Down the narrow byways they could see the lamps of the vigils, searching in vain for more thieves. Khat wondered if he was acting the fool, risking everything for no good reason. But whatever he might say to Elen, he knew she wouldn't exaggerate out of hysteria; if she thought the return of the relic was worth her life, then she really believed it to be true.
Behind him, Elen was anxiously asking Sagai, "You didn't tell Miram that we were coming here, did you? Not where anyone could overhear?"
"Am I mad? To tell my wife I was breaking into the Academia? Of course not." Still piqued at having to act against his better judgment, Sagai was making up for it by being as difficult about the whole thing as possible.
"We didn't tell anybody," Khat told her impatiently. "What are you getting at?"
"I told Riathen."
Khat stopped so abruptly Sagai ran into him. They both stared at Elen. Khat said, "You didn't."
Elen stopped too, and nodded. "I did."
Arad-edelk noticed they weren't following and hurried back to them, asking anxiously, "What's wrong?"
Elen motioned at him to wait. She said, "I told him because I wanted protection for us. If we were caught, they might let me go, but they would never . . . And if you both could say you did it with the Master Warder's knowledge . . . But that doesn't matter now. I told Riathen everything. Almost everything. I told him we went to see Radu, before we went back that night, I mean. Don't you see?" She gestured agitatedly. "Constans didn't follow us to Radu's house, no more than he followed us to the Academia. Someone told him. Someone overheard Riathen and me, or Riathen told someone else, someone close to him and trusted, and that person betrayed him to Constans."
Sagai clapped a hand to his forehead. "Oh, that's a relief. We may live after all."
"What?" Past her agitation, Elen looked annoyed that her revelation hadn't been granted more fanfare.
"Stop telling Riathen everything we do, Elen. Dammit, what goes through your mind?" Khat didn't wait for an answer. He stalked off, Arad catching up with him to lead the way.
Following, Sagai said in a low voice, "This is much better. I didn't want to say anything, but I thought this Constans was spying on us with his powers, seeing all our actions in the bones, or some such."
"I did too," Khat agreed, quietly. And he had far more reason to believe that than Sagai did. It would be wonderful if Constans's ability to follow him came only from a spy within Riathen's camp.
Elen caught up with them, fuming. "You don't understand what this could mean to Riathen."
"Who cares?" Khat said, setting off Elen's temper and ending all discussion for the moment.
Chapter Thirteen
They reached the turning where one long passage led to the Academia's outer gate and the other led deeper within the jumbled maze of buildings to the Porta Major. The vigils were still searching the outlying areas, and none were here in the quiet center. Khat stopped Arad when he would have followed them, telling him, "You're in enough trouble with Ecazar as it is."
"But I could be of some use," the little scholar protested. "I could keep watch, or perhaps there would be something where my skills-"
"No, you'd just be risking yourself for no reason." Someone had to stay and protect the block relic, and someone had to finish that mural, and it was better done by Arad than some fumble-fingered crony of Ecazar's.
Elen said, "Yes. If we're caught, go to the Master Warder and tell him everything that happened, everything we said."
"About the traitor in his house," Arad said gravely. "Will he believe me?"
"Just tell him what I said; he'll know you're speaking the truth. Please," she added more softly. "I can't do this with a clear conscience unless I know you'll tell the Master Warder what happened."
"Why is a clear conscience necessary?" Sagai asked, not helpfully. "All it takes is a confused sense of duty and a disregard for personal survival."
"Elen will enjoy herself more with a clear conscience," Khat told him. He asked her, "Are you done? Can we hurry?"
"Just be quiet," Elen snapped. "You two are worse than Gandin, Seul, and Riathen all put together. This is a nightmare." She turned back to Arad. "Will you tell the Master Warder for me?"
"I will, Honored. Have no doubts. But I won't have to, because I'm sure all will go well."
Khat wished he was as sure of that. He let Elen get a little ahead as they went down the long empty passage between the closed, sleeping houses and the open galleries of the teaching forums, and said quietly to Sagai, "Shiskan son Karadon didn't want to kill us."
"I noticed," he answered, frowning. "I wagered my life, and yours, on that supposition at one point. Odd, isn't it? Why such forbearance?"
"They killed Radu, and he didn't even have anything they wanted anymore," Khat pointed out.
"Did they kill Radu?"
"They were there. But so was I, and Elen."
"A point to consider."
"What are you saying?" Elen whispered, pausing to wait for them.
"Nothing."
They came to the open square at the center of the Academia, and paused in the shelter of a columned portico. The Porta Major had been the entrance to the Academia decades ago, when it had been only a small collection of buildings and a tiny garden. The two arches one could pass through into that garden, now an elaborate confection of fountains and rare plants instead of simply a shaded place for teaching, were still there. Above them were two levels of rooms, with a scrollwork parapet on top. To each side was a round tower, one four stories high, the other three, both topped with an onion-shaped dome and a gold spire, with wide arched windows and arcaded passageways on the upper floors open to the evening breeze. The bottom levels were also ornamented with columns and arches, but they had been left walled shut with stone for defense. The remains of the old walls to either side had long since been incorporated into new houses for scholars.
The doors had been shut tightly for the night, except for one at the base of the shorter tower, open and guarded by a circle of lit ghostlamps, ready for the vigils to catch up as they ran out. As Khat watched, one came to the door and looked out, an air gun slung casually over his shoulder, then turned back inside.
The Master Scholar's quarters were on the second level above the arches, between the two towers. As Khat watched, a lamp was
lit behind one of the windows. Yes, Ecazar had returned, given his orders, and taken his find up to his rooms to gloat over in private.
"Are we going to climb up the outside?" Elen whispered.
Khat would have to go up this side to reach Ecazar's room, but the square was too well lit, the Porta's face too exposed. "No, I'm going in through the door. You and Sagai are going to create a diversion."
"Create a diversion?" Sagai objected. "If I'm going to be a criminal, I want to be in the thick of things, not waiting outside. It'll be a fine thing when we're brought before the High Justices and all I can say is 'I created a diversion.' I might as well be at home."
"I wish you were," Khat said. Sneaking into Arad's quarters had been enough of a risk as it was, and they were lucky the scholar had decided to throw in his lot with them. If they were caught now, after Ecazar had ordered them out, it was thievery pure and simple, and no lie of Arad's or political pull from Sonet Riathen would help them. "If you do this right we won't be brought before the High Justices."
Elen asked doubtfully, "What kind of diversion?"
That was a good question. Khat hesitated. The things he could think of-Elen demanding to speak to Ecazar again, Sagai pretending to be a scholar and calling out that there were thieves somewhere- all seemed to be inadequate or to end with it being completely obvious who had taken the relic. And there was the gate problem.
Ecazar had ordered them to leave, and it was only in deference to Elen's standing that he hadn't ordered the vigils to throw them out. Now either Elen and Sagai had to go through the outer gate without him, which would be suspicious to everyone but a simpleton, or all three of them would go out after a long, equally suspicious interval, or they could bypass the gate entirely and go over the wall the way they came in, making the truth still more obvious. And Ecazar was probably waiting, even now, for news that the gate vigil had let them out. It was like the puzzle of the man trying to cross the canyon with the goats and the grain sack. He explained the problem to the others.
Sagai pursed his lips. "It's difficult. We are already under suspicion." That he couldn't see a way around it either was worrisome; he was far better at logic than Khat, who tended to think on the run.