Diplomats and Fugitives (The Emperor's Edge Book 9) (6 page)

“Perhaps our people should work together in this matter,” Shukura said. “It sounds like you have—ah, pardon my eavesdropping, please, but it’s a requirement of the job. The triumvirate would have me flayed if I didn’t snoop appropriately while on Turgonian soil.” He spread his hands in innocence, then returned to his original topic. “It sounds like you have a Turgonian, er, Kyattese biologist to go along with you. I believe that’s what Starcrest’s oldest studies, yes? But do you know if she has any experience with the mental sciences?” Shukura asked the question casually, but his eyes were intent as he waited for an answer.

Basilard opted for another shrug, though he knew Mahliki was not a practitioner. Her younger siblings were, but all of her interests were mundane.

“I’ve heard that at least some of his children do,” Shukura mused. “Either way, I can offer you the assistance of someone who is a capable warrior, thus to help in case you encounter trouble along the way. She also grew up in the woods and is an expert in herbal lore. She may even have some skill when it comes to the earth sciences—” Shukura tapped his temple to indicate magic, rather than the Turgonian term for more mundane knowledge. “She makes potions from herbs and flowers and should make an excellent addition to what is sounding like your research team.”

His research team? Basilard wanted to point out that his only official obligation was to return home to ask about trade options, but it was true that he wanted to help with the tree problem if he could. Still, did he need some Kendorian potion maker? A potion maker that would doubtlessly be reporting back to Shukura along the way? The prospect did not sound appealing.

I believe we can handle this problem without Kendorian assistance
, Basilard signed.

“But why turn away that assistance when it could prove useful? Are you suspicious of my motives? If so, that’s certainly understandable. It’s true that I would naturally hope for a favor from you at some future date if my compatriot proves instrumental in helping your people solve your problem. That is how these things work, you understand.”

Basilard nodded. He understood that perfectly.
But you have no reason to want us to solve our food problem. Then we would have no need to trade ore to you or anything else. Quite frankly, I would be a fool to bring along a spy
.

“I’m sorry, my friend.” Shukura clasped Basilard’s shoulder. “But I’m not able to understand all of your signs. I do see that you have trepidations. How about this? I’ll send my potion master with you, and if you don’t find her useful, you can send her back at any time.”

Basilard sighed. There was no point in discussing this if the man couldn’t understand him. He waved in what he hoped was a dismissive manner and headed for the manor.

“Excellent,” Shukura called after him. “I’ll make sure my comrade is ready to depart with you at dawn.”

Basilard gritted his teeth and did not look back. If he was able to round up Maldynado and Mahliki soon enough, he could leave town before dawn. Maybe this Kendorian potion-master/spy would miss them. Problem solved.

Chapter 3

Ashara had not anticipated the long line. She had never seen a train before entering Turgonia, and this was the first time she had gone to a station to purchase a ticket. It had taken her all of the previous day to find a buyer for her potted plants and the small amount of gardening equipment she had acquired. If she hadn’t needed the money for the ticket, she wouldn’t have bothered.

As she shifted from foot to foot in the cavernous lobby, she wondered if she should have abandoned everything and sneaked aboard a train during the night. She had been loath to risk an encounter with the enforcers. Of course, she could have taken her bow and pack and
walked
out of the city, as that had been the way she arrived a year earlier, but the idea of quickly putting hundreds of miles between her and the ambassador had appealed to her.

Now, with sunlight slanting through the massive stained-glass windows on the western side of the building, she worried she had taken too long. It might be weeks before Shukura thought to look for her, but she couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that unfriendly eyes were already upon her. Watching her. In the forest, she could have ferreted out a spy quickly, but here, with hundreds of bodies surrounding her, making her uncomfortable as they bumped and brushed her, she struggled to put her senses to use. Also, she could not draw upon the energy of nature in this cement-walled building. There wasn’t so much as a potted plant adorning the lobby.

“Next,” a bored woman at the counter said.

The person in front of Ashara stepped forward. Maybe she would make it, after all. As soon as she bought the ticket and boarded, she ought to be safe. A pair of security guards stood by the double doors that led out to the train platform, allowing only those who had paid to pass through. Unless Shukura bought a ticket of his own, he shouldn’t be able to reach her.

The woman at the counter pulled out a coin purse and started counting out her fare in thin copper coins, the smallest unit of currency in the republic. Ashara stifled a groan.

The uneasy feeling she had been experiencing all morning increased in intensity. Warily, she turned around. At first, she couldn’t see anyone she recognized past the crowd—even with boots, she wasn’t much over five-foot-three, so seeing over people’s heads was never an option, especially here in this land of over-muscled giants. But she trusted in her senses and was not surprised when a blond man in buckskins stepped past two women and pushed to the front of the line.

Several people frowned at him, and a few reached for weapons, but six gray-uniformed enforcers strode through in his wake. The disgruntled people held their comments and moved off to the side.

“Excellent,” Shukura said, taking in her traveling boots, her buckskin trousers and shirt, her sword, and the rucksack, bow, and quiver on her back. “You’re packed and ready to leave.”

“Yes, I am.”

“Next,” the woman at the counter said.

Ashara took a step in that direction, though she did not truly expect Shukura to let her go. She wasn’t disappointed. He lifted a hand, reaching for her arm. She glared at his hand. He didn’t grab her again, but he did point her to a corner of the crowded station. The notion of punching him in the gut and fleeing came to mind, but the enforcers closed around her, efficiently blocking escape routes. Besides, the station security guards manned the other doors in the building. She doubted she could flee without getting shot.

“Next,” the woman repeated, an irritated note in her voice.

The person in line behind Ashara shuffled around the enforcers, grumbling and pushing to make it up to the counter. Numerous other people were watching the exchange, doubtlessly wondering what excitement they might witness.

“You won’t need to purchase a ticket for where you’re going,” Shukura said.

“And where would that be?”

He flicked his finger. “That corner.”

“Looks like I over packed.”

“Not at all.” Shukura wore that same fake smile as he prodded her in the desired direction—the armed enforcers made the prodding far more effective than it otherwise would have been. “I hear it’s dangerous in Mangdoria these days.”

Ashara kept her chin up and didn’t let her shoulders slump, but she cursed herself on the inside, wishing she had listened to her intuition. Why hadn’t she fled the city in the night, on foot if necessary? Because she hadn’t truly wanted to give up everything she had been working toward this last year, and she had hoped she might come up with some plan to evade Shukura? If that was the reason, she had failed.

“You needn’t look so glum.” Shukura waved for the enforcers to stay back several paces when he joined Ashara in the corner.

The way they glanced at each other, their eyes narrowed slightly, made Ashara wonder what he had said to acquire their assistance. That he intended to arrest a foreign criminal? If so, they must be wondering why he was taking her aside for a chat first.

Shukura tried to maneuver her into the corner, probably so he could keep his back to the enforcers as he spoke, but she didn’t let him. She turned parallel to the wall, so the men would be able to observe the conversation. Whether the small defiance would do any good, she did not know, but his lips did flatten slightly.

Thus far, he had been speaking in Turgonian, but he switched to Kendorian. “I can see from your presence here that you planned to avoid me. Apparently, I wasn’t clear when we spoke yesterday. If you choose
not
to work for me, for your nation, as a good citizen should, I will make sure you never see your children again.
Further
, you may find that they are not as safe where they are as you believed they would be.”

Ashara had been on the verge of saying something defiant, but Shukura’s last sentence chilled her. “You would threaten children? They’re not just mine, you know. They’re Elstark’s too.”

“Lord Elstark is dead.”

It had been three years, but the blunt words still made her wince. “You think I don’t know that?” she snapped before she could think better of it.

“Oh, I’m certain you do. You selected that poison very carefully.”

“I already told you,” she said, enunciating each word slowly and harshly, her jaw aching from the tension, “I did not kill him.”

“I don’t care. The gods have dropped you into my lap, and I would be a fool not to use you.”

“I’m not a tool.”

“No, you’re a weapon. Listen—” Shukura patted the air in a placating manner, as if he hadn’t just threatened to harm her children, “—punishment is not the only option here. Do as I ask—and I assure you it’s a simple task—and you’ll be able to return to the city here in a couple of weeks. Go back to your schooling. Do whatever it is you plan to do here.”

“And you won’t bother me or my children again?” Ashara made herself respond reasonably, as if he was swaying her with his argument. Maybe it would make sense to work with him right now, but she would
never
forgive him for that threat. Threats against herself bothered her little, but against Jiana and Khanrin? That was unacceptable.

“We will see how you perform on this task,” Shukura said. “It would be foolish of me to toss aside a weapon, if it proves itself useful, but I will pay you for your time whenever I offer you a mission. You may even find my missions appealing. Given your background, it’s hard to believe you’re not bored sitting in those classrooms.”

Ashara kept her face neutral, even if the words struck her with their truth. The university—the entire city—was so foreign to her, and she
did
miss traveling across the plains or through the forests, hunting, foraging, and putting her bow to use when needed.

“Once you swore an oath to our people,” Shukura said, “and to the triumvirate. To serve, that others may live in peace. I am offering you the opportunity to work for your people again.”

“Our
people
turned their backs on me.”

“Because you committed a crime.”

“I did not.” She bared her teeth at him. Shouldn’t a diplomat at least pretend to listen to the person he was trying to sway to his side?

“In time, what you do here for me, and through me for our people, would become known back home. I report directly to War Minister Forkasen. Perhaps an understanding might one day be reached, one that would let you return home without being shot.”

Even though the entire conversation had her feeling tense and edgy, she couldn’t deny the lump that swelled in her throat at the idea of being able to walk back into Kendorian territory, not as a criminal but as a free citizen, as someone who could live with her own children again and be trusted to raise them.

“What do you want?” Ashara asked, knowing he was manipulating her but not seeing that she had many other options.

“The Mangdorian ambassador is taking a trip to his homeland with a scientist. There’s a tree blight sweeping across Mangdoria that they intend to investigate and heal if possible. I have arranged for you to go along.”

Ashara was not sure what sort of mission she had expected from him, but this was not it. Since she had spent seven years as a night stalker for the army, and he had made it clear he knew that, she had assumed he wanted her to hunt someone down for an assassination.

“To help investigate the blight?” she asked slowly.

“To make sure they find nothing unnatural about the blight,” Shukura said, looking into her eyes as if to ensure she could not misunderstand. “And to ensure they do not find a way to fix it.”

Ashara shifted her weight, noticing that the enforcers were doing the same. One seemed on the verge of approaching Shukura to ask him something. He smiled pleasantly at them and raised a single finger.

“Ambassador,” Ashara said, “you’re right in that my training has covered a number of subjects, but
healing
the forest is more in line with my abilities than harming it, whether it’s a forest in our country or someone else’s.”

“I’m sure forest healing is not mentioned in your army job description,” Shukura said dryly.

No, the night stalkers had wanted her because she could use the trees and plants to find people and because she had a few other practitioner’s tricks, even if she had never formally trained as a shaman.

“My mother taught me to be a healer, both of the forest and of people. Long before I was ever—” she glanced at the enforcers, “—anything else. I wouldn’t be comfortable encouraging a blight.”

Shukura stepped forward, his face lowering to hers. Her fingers curled into fists, and she prepared to defend herself, but he stopped short of touching her. “When it comes to serving one’s country, what a person is
comfortable
with and what a person must do are not always the same thing. You are not being asked to kill anyone, though a night stalker should not balk at that. All I want is for you to thwart an investigation.”

Ashara almost told him that she would have an easier time killing someone than damaging the wilderness, but she doubted that would reflect well on her. Already, he believed she had been her husband’s murderess. Besides, she knew she would burn a forest if doing so would keep Jiana and Khanrin safe.