Lord of Souls

EIGHT

Colin woke sometime after midnight. At first he thought he was alone, but then he noticed Arese standing at the window. She reminded him of one of the white poplars that grew along streams in the hills outside of Anvil.

She heard him approaching and glanced over her shoulder, but her features were shadowed by the moonlight behind her.

“I shouldn’t still be here,” she said.

“Right,” he replied. “Why are you?”

She shrugged. “I guess I thought we weren’t through.”

She must have seen the expression on his face, because she laughed. “No, I think we’re done with that for the night,” she said. “I mean-you came here for something, right? To tell me something?”

“Yes,” he said, surprised at how unimportant it seemed at the moment. But he explained it anyway-about what Hierem did in Black Marsh.

“That only seems to confirm what we already thought,” she said.

“It’s something,” Colin replied. “The journal is proof, isn’t it?”

“It is proof,” she said. “Just not very good proof.”

“How good does it have to be? The Emperor was suspicious enough to plant you in Hierem’s ministry. Shouldn’t this be enough to convince him?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “What do you know about Hierem?”

“Not much,” Colin admitted.

“He’s been around forever. He had a position in the old Empire-he was an ambassador to Morrowind. He was a minister to Thules the Gibbering, the witch-warrior who ruled what little remained of the Empire before Titus Mede took it from him.”

“I remember. Not a well-liked ruler.”

“Maybe not beloved, but he was Nibenese, and despite his various perversions, many on the council favored him over a Colovian usurper. Hierem is from an old Nibenese family, with a lot of connections. He smoothed over the conquest, helped convince the council to accept Mede as a liberator rather than a conqueror. He’s also extremely influential with the Synod. He’s the second most powerful man in the Empire, despite his servile public appearance, and if Mede were to move against him without an unimpeachable reason, it could lead to civil war.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“Only because you don’t know Hierem. I feel certain that Mede would win any such conflict, but it would be costly.”

“What then?”

She turned back to the window. “Don’t worry about it,” she said. “I’ll work something out.”

“Your life is in danger,” he said. “Go to the Emperor, tell him what you know. Get out.”

“It’s not enough,” she said. “And any cover I might have left-”

“Surely you have some means of communicating with him. Secret means.”

“There is a secret word,” she said. “If it reaches the Emperor’s ear, he will know to go to a certain place. But if I do that, he may do exactly as you say.”

“Would that be so bad?”

“Yes, because we fail to stop Hierem. After ten years-I have to have something.”

“Then let me go,” Colin said. “I’ll speak for you. I’ll explain it all.”

He didn’t hold his breath, but he felt like it.

She saw right through it.

“You don’t believe me,” she said. “You think I’m lying about working for him.”

“I want to believe you,” he said.

She looked back out the window and chewed her lower lip.

“Jasper,” she said. “The word is Jasper.”

The second time Colin met the Emperor it was in a narrow, unfurnished room. He’d been brought there bound and blindfolded, and he didn’t see a door. The stone was the same color as the interior of the White-Gold Tower, but beyond that he had no clues at all as to where he was.

This wasn’t court, and the Emperor wasn’t dressed for it. He wore a plain Colovian soldier’s tunic of dark gray wool and leather breeks. His crown was a plain gold circlet. A broadsword in a battered scabbard hung at his side. Two soldiers stood yards away, but Colin suspected that if he tried anything, he would be dead at Mede’s hand before either of them could move.

“I know you,” the Emperor said. “You’re the young man who told me my Attrebus wasn’t killed when his men were massacred.”

“Yes, sire,” Colin replied.

“You’re an inspector in the Penitus Oculatus.”

“Yes, sire.”

“And yet you’ve come to me over all of your superiors, using a password and sign that only I and one other know.”

“Knew, sire. I know it now, as does the man who brought it to you. It’s as few as I could manage to involve, but more than I would have liked.”

Titus Mede conceded that with a nod. Then he signed for the guards to leave, and Colin was alone with the most powerful man in the world.

“Who sent you?” the Emperor asked.

“Letine Arese, majesty,” Colin said.

“Why didn’t she come herself?”

“Two members of the Dark Brotherhood tried to kill her a few nights ago. She’s afraid that if she came to you herself, she would be followed. She’s in hiding.”

“Who sent the assassins?”

“I wasn’t able to discover that, sire. Both men are dead, and I cannot find any trace of their shades-it’s rumored the brotherhood has ways of ensuring their members don’t leave behind talkative ghosts. Not surprisingly, they had no material evidence to connect them to anyone either.”

“But surely Arese has suspicions about who might try to murder her.”

“She suspects your minister, Hierem, majesty.”

The Emperor nodded. “Of course. How are you mixed up in this, inspector?”

“Arese asked for my help,” he replied. “In finding proof to implicate Hierem in the massacre-in the attempted murder of your son.”

“That’s funny,” the Emperor said. “Hierem has supplied me with some evidence that Arese was behind that herself.”

“She arranged the attack,” Colin said, “but the order came from higher.”

“From Hierem?”

“She believes so.”

“Believes so?” Mede paced, hands clasped behind his back. “Ten years she’s been there,” he muttered. “In all of that time, no proof. Nothing I can use against him.”

“Sire, I don’t understand. If you’re suspicious of the minister…”

“It’s not so simple,” the Emperor said. “I can’t risk an internal conflict-especially when we face this-bonewalker army, if it can be called that.”

“Sire, Arese and I believe that’s no accident,” Colin said. “We believe Hierem is somehow involved in this Umbriel business.”

He outlined what they had learned about Hierem’s trip to Black Marsh. When Colin was done, Mede stood still and silent for a long time, his forehead wrinkled.

“You have the journal?”

“Yes, sire.”

He handed the Emperor the book and waited while he read it.

“Why didn’t you go to your superiors with this?” he asked when he was finished.

“I wasn’t sure I could trust them, majesty,” Colin said. “I really don’t know who to trust anymore.”

“I can see your point. But now I wonder who I should trust. This might all be true, and it might all be some fabrication of Arese’s.” He stroked his chin. “Find me proof,” the Emperor said. “Real proof. Something the council can’t argue with.”

He leaned against the wall.

“You know, we had a letter from Umbriel, delivered by a… rotting thing… to one of my generals.”

“Really, sire? A letter?”

“Yes-very politely written, supposedly from the very hand of the master of that place, who also calls himself Umbriel. They have besieged every path to the Imperial City in the East, and soon enough they will probably hold the West as well. Yet we are told we are free to leave the city unharmed-with all of our arms and possessions. Umbriel wants this city, not its inhabitants. The offer remains good until Umbriel arrives. Doesn’t that seem peculiar?”

“Didn’t your majesty offer the chance of surrender to any city he besieged?”

“Yes. But according to our reports, Umbriel requires the souls of the living to remain aloft-and no defense has been found by either the College or the Synod to prevent its method of slaughter. Why would they allow the fuel that keeps their engines burning to simply walk away?”

“Obviously, majesty, they want something more than fuel. Something here in the city.”

“Or perhaps Umbriel has no interest in the city, but rather is aiding the ally who summoned it here. If I take my army and leave, what will Hierem do? Take possession of the throne and then send Umbriel to destroy my army and me?”

“From what we know, it seems a possibility,” Colin said.

“But not yet enough of one to risk a civil war if I’m wrong. So find out. And involve no one else, other than Arese.”

Mede reached into his pocket and produced a small metallic key.

“Use this carefully,” he said. “It is a key to Hierem’s ministry and rooms. If he finds it on you, he will know it came from me, and things will go bad very quickly. If he is connected to Umbriel, he may know something of its secrets, who commands it, how to stop it. Find these things out for me, and do it quickly. I am not squeamish about methods-you understand? Our time grows short. If you find nothing, he will have to be questioned, no matter the consequences-before the enemy arrives.”

“I understand, majesty.”