At the Sign of Triumph (Safehold)

.IV.

Merlin Athrawes’ Chamber,

Siddarmarkian Embassy,

and

Cayleb Ahrmahk’s Study,

Charisian Embassy,

Siddar City,

Republic of Siddarmark.

“Merlin? Merlin!”

Sapphire eyes popped open. A PICA had no real need for sleep in the biological sense of the word, but Cayleb Ahrmahk had been right when he’d insisted, years ago, that Merlin get at least six hours of “downtime” every night.

It wasn’t quite like biological sleep, although he and Owl had worked out a subprogram which actually gave him the equivalent of REM sleep. And there were times when he simply ignored Cayleb’s orders and capitalized on the ability of a PICA to remain alert, active, and deadly for days on end.

In this case, however.…

“This had better be really important, Nahrmahn,” he subvocalized over his built-in com link, glaring at the image Owl projected into his vision and very careful not to disturb the head resting peacefully on his shoulder or the body nestled close against him.

“I never realized Nynian snored,” Nahrmahn replied with a twinkle. “That’s actually sort of reassuring. I mean, she’s so formidable in so many ways.”

“You may already be dead,” Merlin told him, “but I don’t think you’d like what a good, strong power spike would do to you.”

“Point taken.” Nahrmahn chuckled, but then his smile faded. “And I’m sorry to disturb you, but there’s something we need to discuss. And it’s a good thing Nynian’s here, because we definitely need her input on this one.”

* * *

“So this fellow just walked into Mahkbyth’s shop?” Cayleb Ahrmahk said skeptically, gazing at Merlin and a silken-robed Nynian across the chocolate cup in his hands. “Why does that make me feel all suspicious?”

“Because paranoia is a survival tool,” Sharleyan said tartly from her own bedchamber. Dawn was just gilding the sky over Tellesberg, and she sat before her mirror, brushing her hair.

“All of our sources—everything we’ve gotten from the SNARCs, and everything Helm Cleaver and the Sisters have reported—underline how tense the situation in Zion’s gotten,” Nynian pointed out. “I don’t find it difficult to believe it’s going from tense to critical very quickly, Sharley. Especially not in the wake of what happened to Trynair!”

“I just don’t like the way this ‘opportunity’ has dropped onto us out of the clear blue sky,” Cayleb said. “It’s got ‘trap’ written all over it.”

“I don’t think so,” Merlin said thoughtfully, leaning back in an overstuffed armchair. “For it to be a trap, the Inquisition would have to know who Ahrloh is—or what he is, at least—and we know from what happened to Zhorzhet and Marzho exactly what they’d do in that case. Do you really think Rayno or Clyntahn would mount some sort of elaborate ploy at this point instead of producing a real, live terrorist for the Punishment?”

“And there’s always the question of just who they could plan on trapping,” Nynian added. “They’ve obviously figured out our communications loop lets us turn messages around at least as quickly as their own semaphore, so I don’t doubt they expect Ahrloh to be able to pass the message on to us quickly, assuming he really is one of our people. But I doubt they could expect anyone from outside Zion to just … appear in Ahrloh’s shop tomorrow. So the only people they could logically try to ‘trap’ would have to be already in Zion, or at least very close to the city. And if whoever they’re after is that close, the Inquisition’s typical thinking would be to grab Ahrloh and torture his superior’s location out of him. Rayno might be more subtle under some circumstances, but not under the current ones.” She shook her head. “No, at this point, Clyntahn would want fast results. He’d settle for whatever he could get quickly, and he definitely wouldn’t take a chance on a fish like Ahrloh wiggling out of the net.”

“What I find most interesting,” Maikel Staynair said slowly, “is the use of the Seijin Kohdy code phrase. That suggests at least some knowledge of Helm Cleaver and the Sisters.”

“Which could simply mean they managed to torture at least some information out of Zhorzhet and Marzho before they died,” Cayleb said harshly, his eyes grim.

“True.” Staynair nodded in his archbishop’s palace’s bedchamber, sitting up in bed while he scratched the belly fur of the purring cat-lizard luxuriating across his lap. “And I suppose they’re really simply attempting to bait Ahrloh into confirming his own membership in Helm Cleaver by responding to the code phrase. But I have to agree with Nynian. It doesn’t have that sort of feel to me.”

“And whether it’s a trap or not, it has to be explored,” Wave Thunder said. “The possibility of making a contact at that level simply can’t be ignored.”

“Well, that leaves us in a bit of a quandary,” Nahrmahn pointed out. “Owl and I picked up on this as soon as Ahrloh put the message into the system, but if we want to explore this—in time for it to do any good, at least—we can’t wait for that message to reach us. Besides, most of Nynian’s conduits are down now. Nobody’s passing any semaphore messages or couriers across the front lines at the moment. In fact, the only conduit that’s still up is the messenger wyvern route through Dohlar and the South March, and they’re running out of wyverns. We won’t be able to get them replacements anytime soon, either.”

“Then there’s really only one way to do it,” Merlin said calmly.

“You’d be in awfully close proximity to the Temple if something goes wrong!” Duke Delthak said sharply. “Ahrloh’s shop’s well inside the safety margin you set for any active use of Federation technology. If this is a trap, you couldn’t get the recon skimmer in close enough to pull you out of it.”

“I don’t see that as a deal breaker,” Nimue said from the late-afternoon Manchyr. “Maybe the skimmer couldn’t pull us out, but having a pair of seijins cut their way out of the city on foot against everything the Guard could throw at them couldn’t exactly help Clyntahn’s position!”

“Perhaps not,” Nynian said, “but I’m afraid there is no ‘us’ in this for you, Nimue.”

“I beg your pardon?” Nimue’s tone was on the sharp side, Nynian only shook her head with a thin smile.

Either it’s possible for a PICA to get out of Zion even if something under the Temple wakes up, or it’s not. If it is, we don’t need two PICAs. If it isn’t, we can’t afford to lose both the PICAs we have. That means only one of you is going. Since Ahrloh’s met Seijin Zoshua, Merlin’s the logical choice instead of you. And if Merlin’s going, so am I.”

There was a moment of profound silence over the com link, and Nynian turned her head to meet Merlin Athrawes’ cybernetic eyes. Their gazes locked, and he saw the unyielding steel behind her eyes.

“I’m not sure that’s necessary,” he said, after a moment.

“I am.”

Her voice was flat, as unyielding as her expression, and he sat back in his chair. He doubted she could have fully analyzed her own reasoning, but that didn’t really matter. Everything within him wanted to argue, to tell her no, to refuse to take her … and he couldn’t. She’d given too much, risked too much, lost too much getting to this point for him to even try to protect her against her will.

“Then that’s good enough for me,” he said simply instead. “Owl, we’ll need the recon skimmer.”