Empire in Black and Gold

Thirty

Che woke slowly, fearfully. There was the rustle around her of people moving about, a murmur of low voices. She was lying on a hard mat of woven straw and a cloak was laid over her. There was an echo, but not the familiar tight echo of a small cell relieved only by Salma’s close breathing. This was some larger space, amid some multitude. She had no idea where she could be.

And then it came to her with a leap of joy that she only needed to know where she was not.

She was not in her cell. She was not in Thalric’s power.

The pieces were falling into place.

They had come for her. Tynisa and the Moth and the others.

She was free.

At the thought, Che sat bolt upright with a gasp of breath. The darkness around her resolved itself, dimmed into grey shades more penetrable to her eyes. Her Art showed her a vaulted, subterranean roof, other sleeping forms. At the far wall, where her gaze was inevitably drawn, was the robe-wrapped form of Achaeos, with his head slightly bowed. She realized that only she could see his gleaming eyes from within the cowl. To her they almost shone, where there would be darkness for anyone else. A moment ago she had not even recalled his name.

She peered further around the room. There were almost two-score people sleeping here in rough ranks, and half a dozen standing watch, or perhaps just having woken before dawn as she had. Some crumbling cellar, this was. Probably she had seen it before when they came in but she had no memory.

‘Che,’ said a voice, soft from behind her, and she craned back to see Totho. He had been sitting at the head of her mattress almost like Achaeos’s opposite number. Instinctively she reached out to him, grasped his wrist, just to be sure that he was real, that it all was real.

‘I-’

‘You should try to sleep more. There’s a little while till dawn yet,’ he said.

‘I’ve lost all sense of time,’ she told him. ‘Where are we?’

‘Some hideout of the resistance here. They got us into the palace to help you.’ He glanced about, his face darkening. ‘They didn’t do much more than that. They were more keen on finding this leader of theirs.’

‘I don’t care,’ she said. ‘So long as it worked, I don’t care.’ She looked around suddenly, panicking. ‘Where’s Salma? Did he-?’

‘He’s got the sense to still be asleep,’ said Totho pointedly. ‘He’s over there. He looked after you well, then?’

‘We looked after each other. It was complicated. I think it might have gone worse for us but the man who took us prisoner had some other business to deal with and he never quite got around to us.’ Her face hardened, enough to make Totho flinch. ‘Are we going back to Helleron now, Toth?’

‘No idea. Probably.’

‘I’ve got a message for my Uncle Elias.’

He shook his head. ‘No point trying to deliver that. Tisamon killed him, Stenwold told me.’

‘Tisamon? The Mantis?’

Totho nodded soberly. ‘He’s. . To tell the truth he frightens me. Che. .?’

‘Yes?’

‘I. .’ His face, as usual, gave no clue as to his mind. He had grown up with the weight of mixed blood on his shoulders, and he had learned to hide himself deep. ‘I. . I’m glad you’re safe.’

‘Not half as much as I am,’ she replied with feeling. ‘Totho, I want to see the sky again.’

‘The sky?’

‘I’ve been in wagons and in fliers and in cells for days and days now. I don’t care if it’s night. I just want to be outside. Just to stand in the doorway of this place will be enough. I’ll come back in straight away if anyone’s there.’

She stood up awkwardly, stretching, and bundled the dark cloak about her. After a moment he took her hand and guided her around the main body of the sleepers, nodding reassuringly to any Mynans who were already awake, and nervously to Tisamon, who was over in one corner, carefully sharpening and oiling the blade of his claw.

There were a couple of sentries outside, one lounging in the street like a homeless beggar, the other two floors up with a crossbow, watching down over the little square. The night was chill, the sky like pin-studded velvet, untroubled by clouds. They paused in the doorway, looking out, and in halting words Totho did his best to explain what had transpired since that fateful day in Helleron had separated them. He made most of it clear to her: Scuto’s intervention, Stenwold’s interview with Elias and the appearance of Tisamon, the hunt leading to Asta, and from there to the gates of Myna.

And there she stopped him. ‘Tell me. .’ It was a question she could barely believe she was asking, but there was a hook lodged in her mind, and its barbs were troubling her. ‘How did you know? How did you know where we were going?’

Totho looked stubborn. ‘Tisamon and Tynisa went right into the Wasp camp there,’ he said, but he could not hide from his tone that there was rather more to it than that.

She just waited in silence, trusting him to tell her the truth, and confronted with that trust he could do nothing else.

‘The Moth, he. . just knew.’ Totho looked sullen. ‘I still don’t trust him. Either he’s been speaking to the Wasps or else he was just guessing.’

Che shook her head. Her mind swam with the details of that inexplicable half-dream. Inexplicable? That was the very wall she was battering against. There is no way he could have known. There is no way he could have called to me, or that I could have heard. Impossible. Inexplicable. If the sun had been above them she would have shaken it off and found some glib sleight of mind to wish it away, but faced with the immensity of a dark and moonless sky, in this strange and intimidating city, she felt shaken by it, as if on the brink of some great irrational abyss.

In the hold of the heliopter, in her dream, that had been more and less than any dream that had troubled her before, he had asked of her where she was bound, and she had said. She had told him.

She should ask Totho about the precise times. She could then count the days back to that night when Aagen had grounded the flier within sight of Myna’s walls in order to repair it. Surely that would dispel any coincidence.

Or strengthen it. She found now that she did not want to ask him. The possible answers lurked like childhood monsters in the shadows.

‘Totho, I. . need to think. Just a little time to myself.’

He had his stubborn look again. ‘You should go back and try to sleep, really.’

‘I’m as wide awake as I’ve ever been,’ she said, and it was true. ‘Please, Totho.’

Reluctantly he left her, but she heard him murmur to the beggarly sentry to watch over her.

After he had gone, she wondered about him. They had not been apart so very long, but Totho had changed. She supposed they all had. They had been young and naive when they stepped aboard the Sky Without, but they were growing up fast now. It had been a time of harsh lessons. Totho still had that awkwardness about him, that shyness born of a tainted heritage, but beneath it was developing a core of steel. She would never have guessed him for a fighter, but he had been there ready with crossbow in hand when she had needed him, as had they all.

‘Come on,’ she said abruptly. ‘No sense skulking. I know you’re there.’

There was an amused snort, and Achaeos fluttered down from the upper storeys on glimmering wings. Like the Ant- and Beetle-kinden they resembled, the people of Myna had never built for three dimensions. A deft, slight-framed man with Art-born wings had the run of the place.

She looked at him cautiously. He had come down out of arm’s reach, and was regarding her with his arms folded within his robe.

‘Why?’ she asked him.

‘Who can say?’ She imagined there might even be bitterness in his voice. ‘But here I am.’

‘I’m glad of it. You. .’ She could not say it. ‘I had a dream that. . gave me comfort. At that time there wasn’t much comfort for Salma and me.’

‘A dream?’ Noncommittally.

‘Yes. A dream.’ She was defensive about it.

He shrugged. ‘You Beetles,’ he remarked, but did not qualify it. ‘No matter. We’ll be back to Helleron soon enough, and then we two can be enemies again. I assume my debt to you is now paid?’

‘Debt?’ She took a step towards him. ‘The bandage? Those stitches? Your people need to fix a better rate of exchange, if this is all in return for that! You have done for me such. . things that you had no need to do. But you did, and I don’t want to be your enemy ever.’

She wanted to reach out to him, then. Through all his masks, he looked so baffled, so unsure of why he was there. In the cold night he just looked so alone.

‘We should not be enemies,’ she said. ‘If the Wasps come to Helleron, do you think they will not move against your people also? Believe me, their Empire makes no exceptions.’

He said nothing, but she could see he was thinking how his people might rejoice in the fall of Helleron, even if it meant their own homes burned.

‘Take my hand.’ She held it out beneath the moonless sky, her Art-sight, still so new to her, making a dark silver of her skin. ‘Take it now, while you can.’

His own hand seemed only a lighter shade of the same colour when it finally ventured from within his robes. As it hesitated, she reached forward impulsively to grasp it. She had expected to find it cool, but it was surprisingly warm.

‘I am Cheerwell Maker of Collegium. I do not speak for my family. I do not speak for my city or my kinden. I speak for myself, though, and I say that I owe you more than I can ever repay, for in my time of greatest need, you were there for me. I do not know why. I have no answers. Still, you were there, and you came into the place of our enemies and you shed their blood to free me.’ The words were just tumbling out, and she had a strange feeling that they were only partly hers.

Certainly Achaeos’s expression was stricken by them. ‘Do not say such things so lightly,’ he said, for a moment trying to pull away. ‘You do not know how strongly oaths can bind us!’

‘I say nothing lightly,’ she told him, and he ceased resisting, staring into her face.

‘You can see me,’ he said, and she realized that, save for a guttering torch across the square, there was no illumination here but starlight. His blood and kinden gave him the eyes to see her, and her Art the eyes to see him.

‘Yes, I see you,’ she confirmed. ‘I spent so long calling out to the Ancestor Art, but it was only your. . only the dream that woke it in me.’

He did not know what to do with her now she could see. All masks were gone within that moment. She scared him, drew him, shocked him. Realizing that, she became scared herself, acutely aware of the warmth of his hand in hers, of how close he suddenly was to her.

‘I-’ she started, feeling the line between them — the line that had played out its length all the way from Helleron to Myna — draw tight. A moment later she had released his hand and was stumbling back, hurrying inside before whatever words now arising within her could escape.

A few ragged hours of the night were all Thalric was given to sleep in. Once Che and her compatriots had made their escape, there had been order to restore in the palace, and only then had he sought out a field surgeon of the garrison to attend his wounds. He could have summoned a doctor from the city, but Thalric’s experience had led him to rate the hard-won skills of a field surgeon over the most educated physician in the world.

Now it was late after dawn, and the whole palace was up and about. Order, in a greater sense, was being restored to its pedestal. He knew that the Rekef would have things well in hand, that whispered voices would pass throughout the imperial staff in Myna informing them of the true state of things.

He had meanwhile sent for Aagen, and now met the man in a small anteroom set aside for waiting guests.

The artificer gave him a cautious nod. ‘Still alive then.’

‘Only just. Any trouble?’

Aagen shrugged. ‘I heard that some soldiers were looking for her — the Butterfly girl. The locals round here aren’t exactly Empire sympathizers. Odd what counts in your favour, sometimes, isn’t it?’

‘This city is working itself towards revolution,’ Thalric decided. ‘Ulther didn’t see it, he thought it was still tame in the palm of his hand. He’d lost sight of the realities.’

‘Let’s hope we’re both well clear before that happens,’ Aagen said, and Thalric nodded.

‘I’m sorry I had to use you, Aagen. I had nobody else.’

‘Well,’ the artificer said with a sheepish grin, ‘I’m not complaining, you know?’

‘She danced for you?’

Aagen tried to suppress the smile, but it spread regardless. ‘She did, as it happens. Just danced, nothing else, but. .’

‘I know. I’ve seen her.’ Thalric stood, clapped his comrade on the shoulder, feeling glad that here at least was one friend that he had not been forced to turn against. ‘I’m glad you came through this safely. I owe you, as a comrade and as an officer. I’ll remember.’

With dragging footsteps he made his way to the throne room, for he knew there was bound to be a reckoning. The doors were opened for him by fresh-looking soldiers, and closed again as soon as he had gone through. The room itself was almost empty. Much of Ulther’s finery had already been removed.

It did not surprise Thalric at all to see the central throne occupied by the same nameless man who had been at Latvoc’s council. He now regarded Thalric keenly, his thin face creased into calculating lines. Colonel Latvoc was there, too, standing to one side of the throne, a scroll half unfurled in his hands. Odyssa the Spider was absent, but Thalric noticed te Berro lounging to one side, almost hidden behind a pillar.

‘Colonel,’ Thalric managed a salute, ‘you’ve made good time.’

‘I haven’t,’ Latvoc told him with a smile. ‘In fact I haven’t officially arrived yet and, indeed, will not for some time. The handing over of the governor’s power will be as seamless as if Colonel Ulther himself had effected it. However, someone must oversee matters until then — in an unofficial capacity of course.’

‘Of course, sir.’

‘You appear to be one of those rare officers who delight in leading the charge, Major Thalric,’ Latvoc observed. ‘It is a mixed blessing but I can only congratulate you on your work here.’

‘Thank you, sir.’

‘It can’t have been easy for you.’

Thalric blinked once, considering. The wise course was to disavow all personal feelings in this, but they were weighing him so heavily that he did not think he could. Not quite. ‘I am loyal to the Empire, sir. I made my choice.’ But his voice was not as steady as he would have liked.

‘Good man,’ Latvoc said. ‘Of course, this resolution will not be entirely without benefit to yourself and-’

‘That’s not why I did it, sir,’ said Thalric, more firmly than he meant. He was aware that after the previous night he was not as in control of himself as he would prefer.

There was a flicker of annoyance in Colonel Latvoc’s face. ‘I was not suggesting, Major, that you did. However, as far as the records show, you are ranking Rekef officer in this city. If you have any decisions to make, as de facto governor, then make them.’

It was a harsh question to put to a man unprepared for it, but Thalric guessed that he would be given no second chance.

‘The Butterfly slave, Grief in Chains.’ He looked keenly at Latvoc for a reaction.

‘I hear she’s quite the performer,’ the Colonel said mildly.

‘She belonged to Colonel Ulther. I would like to give her to Lieutenant Aagen, who was instrumental in aiding my work here.’

‘Agreed,’ said Colonel Latvoc without even a batted eyelid. ‘Anything else?’

‘Another chattel of the colonel’s, a slave of our own kinden named Hreya, was of some assistance to me. I would like her freed.’

Latvoc coughed into his hand as though Thalric had made some error of etiquette at a social gathering. ‘The Empire does not free its slaves, Major. It may gift them, reward them, treat them finely, bestow responsibilities on them, even suffer them to render advice, but never grant them freedom. What a precedent to set! However, the Empire will gift her to you, Major. If you, as an imperial citizen, wish to free her, well, I’m sure your eccentricity will be overlooked this once. Anything else?’

‘Just that I would also like to mention Lieutenant te Berro’s good work on my behalf.’ Thalric saw the Fly flinch at the mention of his name, but then raise his eyebrows at the compliment.

Latvoc nodded approvingly. ‘Recognizing the worth of subordinates is a good trait in an officer. It breeds loyalty. Duly noted.’ From te Berro’s unguarded expression Thalric had the impression that this was not a trait Latvoc himself possessed. ‘Anything else?’

‘No, sir.’

‘Nothing, Major?’ Latvoc frowned. ‘Colonel Ulther had a great many more chattels than that — a whole palace full of them, in fact.’

‘I leave them in the safe hands of the Empire, sir. I would like only to return to my work in Helleron. The plan must be nearly at fruition now and my agents will need my leadership.’

‘Well.’ Latvoc glanced briefly at the enthroned man. ‘Major, there has been a proposal made concerning your future. General Reiner has noted your abilities and sensibilities and decided that they are just what the Rekef is seeking in its officers.’

Thalric stood quite still because, by the naming of that silent, enthroned officer, he had been admitted to some greater and more secret world. The generals of the Rekef were themselves almost never knowingly seen beyond the imperial court.

‘Sir?’ he said.

‘You have done sterling work for the Rekef Outlander in your time, Major,’ Latvoc said, as the general’s eyes bored into him. ‘However, your skills could also be of use to the Rekef Inlander. The Empire must be constantly guarded from within as well as without.’

This would be more than a promotion, Thalric knew: the Rekef Inlander, the older and more favoured sibling of his own service branch, answered to nobody but the Emperor. They were a law unto themselves. They feared nothing.

Except each other murmured a treacherous thought.

And everyone feared them. They were the shadows within the army. No man knew if his neighbour was writing reports on his ill-chosen words or if his slave had passed on his drunken confessions of the night before. Every man felt the eye of the Rekef on his back, whether he was an enlisted soldier or a great general of the Empire. No man was immune, and anyone could disappear without warning or trace.

This task here, with Ulther, was Inlander work. It had been a test, then? They had set him at his old mentor’s throat to see if he were cold enough for it. He was cold, ice cold.

‘I appreciate the honour, sir, but my plans in Helleron-’

‘Can be completed by another, I am sure. Think it over, Major.’

And in the Rekef Inlander it would always be his own people who were under the knife. He would protect the Empire from treason like a surgeon saving a body from rot, by cutting out the infected part and everything close to it. Every day would be like last night then. And no doubt the call would come, one day, to set him against Aagen or some other loyal man he had once called friend.

‘If the Empire orders it, sir, I will do as I am ordered,’ he said, knowing that these next words could see the fear of the Rekef landing on his shoulders, could see him gone as surely as Ulther was gone. ‘However, if I am merely offered an invitation, I must decline. My work in the Rekef Outlander is precious to me and it will falter without my guidance.’

There was a long silence. Latvoc glanced at General Reiner, and Thalric watched for a message to pass between them, but none came that his eyes could divine.

And at the last, ‘That will be all, Major,’ said Colonel Latvoc, and Thalric turned and left the room still not knowing what their thoughts were.