Fallen Blade 04 - Blade Reforged (16 page)

Triss?
I sent as I released him from the sleeplike state that allowed me to assume full
control of his shadowy substance.
Triss, wake up.

What is it?

What do you make of this?
I placed my palm against the front wall where the patch of shadow flavors lay.

Hmmm.
I could feel his mind going far away as he struggled to identify the trace.
It’s like a Shade’s been here some time ago, but
not
…and the taste…echoes? Yes, it echoes strangely. It’s very muddled and indistinct,
and…Wait, I think I might have it! How did the door open? I mean, how did it feel?
He shifted around to the dumbwaiter’s entrance.

I don’t know, it was very loose and easy, like it had been oiled recently….

Did it hang open, or swing closed by itself?

Hung open. Here, I’ll show you.
I pushed the door loose of its catch, and swung it wide. Swiping a fingertip along
the hinge revealed oil recently applied. I brought it to my nose, but it had almost
no scent, so I touched it to the tip of my tongue. A familiar and deeply bitter taste
greeted me.
Thalis nut oil.

I quickly rubbed a corner of my shirt on my tongue to strip away as much of it as
I could. Even with the tiny amount involved and wiping it away as soon as I recognized
it, a rather unpleasant tingly numbness spread outward from the point of contact.
The combination of that lack of scent and the fact that it could double as a poison
made the oil of the thalis an old favorite with my order despite its great cost. Not
conclusive evidence of the passage of a Blade here, but certainly suggestive.

Let me think,
Triss sent as he examined the patch of shadow residue.
There are cobwebs here, old ones freshly broken by your hand. Where is the window
in the room beyond?
I felt the shadow that had been covering me flow away out through the little door,
and then return to reshroud me, closing the door behind him on the way.
Yes, that makes sense.

What does?
I asked.

I think the trace here is doubled, or quadrupled, really, since each of them both
came and went.

I missed a step there, Triss.

I believe that two different Shades passed through here a few hours apart, going both
up and down. It happened several days ago, maybe as long as a week. It’s more than
dark enough to hold a trace that long. Later, probably some hours later, someone tried
to burn it away by leaving the door open. It didn’t work completely because bounced
sun doesn’t chew as deep and the cobwebs partially protected this patch. Even so,
with your reduced ability to use my senses, you would never have noticed it if they
weren’t familiar traces.

Traces?
I asked.
Two of them, and familiar? Why do I think I’m going to hate where this is going?

Because you’re no fool,
replied Triss,
no matter what I say when I’m angry with you. The only reason you registered the residue
here is because you’ve tasted these shadow trails before, both of them, and spent
time setting them in your mind.

Oh, but I didn’t like where this was going.
That limits things, rather a lot. I presume one belongs to the Blade from the Jade
Council massacre.

It does.

Faran I hope I’d recognize, even as faint as the trace is here.
Though I wasn’t absolutely sure of that.
It’s not her?

No, nor any of Jax’s people, nor Master Kelos.

That only left one choice.
Devin.

Yes.

Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! And he’s been here at least a week?

Maybe. The trace is faint and it’s been sun scrubbed. It could be as recent as a couple
of days old.

But there’s nothing saying the first thing he did when he got in was climb Vyan’s
dumbwaiter. He might have been here much longer. Fuck! I shouldn’t have waited so
long to break free of Maylien. If I’d come back here sooner…

You might have found evidence of Devin’s presence, or you might have found nothing
at all. If not for Fei’s news this afternoon, you wouldn’t be climbing around in Vyan’s
dumbwaiter, you’d have been looking around the royal apartments. We don’t know what
Devin’s here for, so there’s no way to be sure that would have led us to discover
his presence any faster than we already have. Don’t guess at things that might be,
work with what you know. Observe. Assess. Act decisively.

You sounded more than half like Master Kelos there,
I replied.
That was always one of his favorite lessons.

It was a good one. You humans are too prone to acting before you think. It’s kind
of endearing…when it’s not driving us crazy, that is.
I felt his smile.

Then, in the interest of preserving your sanity, I should bring you up to date.
I proceeded to quickly outline the things that had happened while he was asleep,
with a special emphasis on the security arrangements, or lack thereof, for the Lord
Justicer.

Interesting. I wish that we knew who set that up. It would tell us a lot about why
there’s a Blade-shaped hole in things. Does the king want a way to eliminate his Lord
Justicer that doesn’t point back to him? Do Devin or our unknown Blade want a way
to get at Vyan? Or, all of the king’s high officers, if it extends that far? Does
Vyan himself want a Blade ally to be able to visit him easily? Without more information,
there’s no way to know what the answers are.

What now?
I asked.
I’d originally hoped to approach the king’s suites after we finished up here and maybe
take a run at our unknown Blade if I got the chance. But with two involved the risk
goes way up. I’m in much better shape than I was the last time I fought Devin, even
if I’m not yet the Kingslayer again. I’m pretty sure I could take him or all but a
few of the best of the lost Blades in a straight fight now, but there’s no guarantee
I wouldn’t have to face both of them at once. That’s a far chancier proposition.

Especially with the potential for interference by the Elite and the Crown Guard. We
deliver Maylien’s letter first, I
think. We said that we would, and this route has gone unused for some days. I’d say
the odds are with us there. After? Well, let’s talk about that once we finish here.
Do you need me to let you take over again?

Let’s see how things look in Vyan’s rooms first. If arrangements are as lax up there
as they’ve been along the way, I shouldn’t need that fine a control.

I quickly hand-over-handed my way up the dumbwaiter rope, which was both recently
replaced and of a heavier gauge than it really needed to be—more than adequate to
support my weight. The door at the top—the Lord Justicer’s apartments topped the tower—opened
silently on freshly oiled hinges after I’d listened long enough to assure myself of
the emptiness of the room. The dining room—big enough to hold a dozen guests and their
servants—was dark and silent, as was the receiving room beyond. A dim light shone
under the door of the withdrawing room, however, and faint noises from within suggested
some servant or guard remained alert there.

After dropping my shroud and taking on dragon shape, Triss poked his nose underneath.
Two of them, playing cards at a table in front of the door to the Lord Justicer’s
bedroom. Vyan’s personal livery, not Crown Guards.

No surprise.
The Lord Justicer was an earl in his own right, in addition to holding Crown Office.
How do you suppose Devin got past them?

Hang on a beat.
The deep darkness of the receiving room gave Triss the freedom to expand far beyond
his normal area, and he quickly flowed outward, brushing across every available surface.
Secret panel,
he said after a couple of minutes.

Where?

Here.

I felt a gentle tug through the line of shadow that connected us, and the last panel
on an elaborate enameled screen went briefly darker than the others around it. It
was hanging on the wall that separated us from the withdrawing room.

I crossed to the indicated spot and examined the panel.
How did you find it? And how do I open it?

There’s more thalis on the slides at top and bottom as well as on the catch. Whoever
applied it was sloppy and got a bit on the floor in front of the panel or I’d never
have found the seams. The catch is behind the shiny sort of round bit there.
He indicated a stylized tortoise.

Maybe press the head? I did, then twisted when that wasn’t enough. I was rewarded
with a sharp pop as the right side of the panel suddenly sank about an inch into the
wall behind it. Then I was able to slide it behind the next panel over, exposing a
narrow space about the depth of a coffin, with stone walls on three sides. A crude
ladder had been built into the wall opposite the outer one. I slipped sideways into
the gap—there wasn’t enough room for anything else.

That’s when I heard the door to the withdrawing room creak open.

“Is someone in here?” a voice called quietly.

A
s
silently as I could, I slid the hidden panel into place behind me, though I didn’t
yet close it. I didn’t want to run the risk of it popping again.

“You’re imagining things,” a second voice spoke out on the other side of the panel.

“I am not,” replied the first. “Something snapped in here, and it’s not the first
time. I want to check it out.”

Kill them?
asked Triss.

I’d prefer not to. Let’s see if I can…yes.

The panel latched by means of a pair of spring-loaded metal rods at the top and bottom.
Rather than simply pushing the panel in place by means of the handle, I grabbed hold
of the rods and held them while I leaned against the door, then slowly eased them
into place. There was still a faint pop when the latch clicked shut, but this time
I felt it more than heard it.

A moment later, quiet footsteps echoed through the panel as the guard drew close.
The panel creaked, but only briefly, and then the footsteps moved away.

A few minutes later, a voice said, “I told you it was nothing.”

“Maybe, but I still don’t like it.”

“Do you want to wake his lordship up and explain to him that you’ve been hearing things?”

“No, he doesn’t wake friendly.”

“Then you’ll stop stomping about and get back to the game. Don’t think I didn’t notice
that you didn’t get all alert until right when you started losing.”

The door to the withdrawing room creaked shut again, and I found myself silently thanking
whoever had failed to oil it.

The shadow trail is stronger in here, and it’s definitely Devin and the unknown.
Triss drew my attention to the traces as he spoke into my mind—I didn’t have anywhere
near as fine a control over his senses when he remained awake like this.
But it’s still weaker than it ought to be, given the level of darkness and no good
way to sun scrub in here without giving the secret passage away.

Maybe they used a magelight?
I said, proposing one of my own pet ideas.

We’d had a number of discussions about how to get rid of shadow trails since Triss
had shared their existence with me. Back when the temple remained a going concern,
he’d been forbidden from telling me about them. Though all Shades could taste them,
the trails had been an official secret of the order, only ever revealed to its human
members when they joined the shadow council that ruled the temple.

I don’t know,
replied Triss.
You and I never managed to make a bright enough magelight.

I still think that’s because it’s got more to do with the type of light than its intensity.

Maybe.
He sounded dubious, as he had every time I’d tried that argument, but then he sighed.
I don’t know how you would make a magelight with a light all that different from what
we can do. Not safely, but I don’t have a better guess.

I didn’t know how you’d do it either, but then I was never terribly good with spellcraft.
What I really wanted to do was talk it over with Siri. She was far and away the best
mage of my generation among the Blades, but no one knew where she was, or if she was
even still alive. When I was with Jax in Dalridia, she had told me there were rumors
Siri had gone south to the Sylvani Empire after the fall of the temple. They said
she’d vowed to live out her life among the Others and renounce all contact with humanity
forever, but Jax hadn’t put much stock in it.

Never mind,
I sent as I started to climb.
The how’s not really important, and talking about it is burning time. We don’t want
to run into Devin or the unknown, and the longer this takes the greater the chances
one of them will pick up
our
shadow trail.