Steelhands (2011) (48 page)

“Something else you want to say?” Laure asked, even though Toverre tried to hush her seconds later. “I don’t mean it like an insult. You’ve just got a look like you’re not quite telling us everything. One of my cousins used to get it when he was sick—that was how you knew to clear the room before he spewed.”

“Delightful,” Royston said, though he did look a little as though he was going to be ill.

I wished Luvander was with us, so that he might conduct the conversation better than I was currently handling it. But I wouldn’t get very far on simple hopes, or so the proverb about wishing in one hand and shitting in the other went. It was actually a phrase Rook had told me—see which hand fills up first, he’d said—and, like all things Rook had passed on, it had stuck, in its own way.

“There
is
more,” Royston said, after he’d taken a moment to catch his breath. “It’s part of the reason for my delay, actually, and I do ask your forgiveness. It seems you’ve all been very patient in my absence. It’s merely that the route to your apartment took me directly past the Basquiat, and there was a dreadful commotion out front. Wolves, carriages parked all around, and Margraves shouting in the streets. Lady Antoinette was there—it was she who caught my attention, though I’m not certain if she meant to. When a
velikaia
is in great distress, she is able to project her thoughts without intending to, and anyone with a Talent will pick up on it. Her voice—her Talent—is particularly distinctive. It has a signature, if you will.”

“This a story or a history lesson?” Laure interjected.

“Laure,”
Toverre hissed, looking scandalized.

“No, she’s quite right; I talk too much when under stress,” Royston said, taking a moment to collect himself. “I have a habit of getting
caught up in my own words; feeble as far as excuses go, but if you’ll forgive me once more—it’s been an extremely trying day. Shall I get straight to the point?”

“That’d be nice,” Laure said. She’d taken the reins of the conversation in exactly the same way Adamo would’ve done, if he’d been there with us. “Who’s Lady Antoinette?”

“Are you serious?” Royston asked.

“She’s one of the Esar’s closest confidantes in the Basquiat,” I explained, to make the potentially long story short. “Until very recently, their friendship was what allowed him to work closely with the magicians at all.”

“And yet since the end of the war, we’ve been on thinner and thinner ice,” Royston concluded grimly. “What I managed to glean from Antoinette, once I’d calmed her down enough that I could be assured she wasn’t going to injure any of the guards in the middle of the street, was that our Owen wasn’t the
only
man arrested today.”

Abruptly, I felt my heart begin to pound in my chest. Whatever was happening in Thremedon was a threat I’d never been trained to combat. I’d been raised among the country nobility, and though there had certainly been intrigue and politics enough there, the consequences had never been so dire. You’d lose an extra guest at dinner parties—and that was the extent of your punishment for a bit of gossip that reached the wrong ears. I felt as though I’d been dropped into a game where I knew only half the rules and understood none of the consequences of losing.

In the corps, it had always been my duty to scout ahead, so that I could recommend the best angle for my comrades to attack. For the first time in a long time, one of my friends was in hot water, and I hadn’t the faintest idea about how to approach it. I hadn’t even been able to warn him a storm was coming.

“They were arresting Margraves?” I asked finally.

“Two Margraves and a Wildgrave,” Royston confirmed. “Normally I’d make a joke about Margrave Holt being taken in for his unconventional style of dog-breeding, but this hardly seems the time and place. Josette—Margrave Josette; you’d know her as one of the diplomats who got caught up in that mess in Xi’an—told me the Esar’s men have been questioning Lord Temur all morning. They haven’t arrested
him
yet, but I suppose the Esar remembered he was Ke-Han and decided to
take some kind of offense at it. I honestly can’t tell you what’s happening, but I
can
tell you what Antoinette intimated. It’s as though he’s well and truly lost his mind to paranoia.”

“All those people arrested, and us just sitting here,” Laure said, shaking her head. Despite the stern quality of her voice, I could tell from her body language that she was frightened. It didn’t seem fair for her or young Toverre to be caught up in all this when they were barely more than children. I was sorry for them and for myself, but I was sorriest for Adamo, separated from the rest of us, without the consolation of company and no doubt spitting mad about it.

“If you’d like to charge out into the street and get arrested yourself just for acting mad, you’re more than welcome to do so,” Royston said sharply. Then he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry. That tone was uncalled-for. You merely reminded me … Stubborn heroics tend to bring out the worst in me.”

“I don’t suppose you have any suggestions of something we
can
do?” I asked. It wasn’t an entirely unrelated question, since, from what I’d heard, Margrave Royston was considerably more well versed in dealing with the political dangers of being disliked by the Esar.

Then again, the airmen had been in such trouble before. Only then, we’d had the power of the dragons behind us.

“I do, but I’m not particularly fond of any of them,” Royston said, running a hand through his hair. He lowered his voice to barely more than a whisper—reminding me all at once that we
were
in the back of a busy shop, through which all kinds of people passed. Luvander was probably doing his best keeping them away from the door, but with a topic like this one, one could never be too careful. I only hoped some useful gossip was being imparted by his customers. “If it comes to it, I might have to ask
you
to use your position to make a plea with the Arlemagne diplomats, Balfour. I’m sure they’d be only too glad to help us oust our own Esar, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Now
that
is most certainly treason,” Toverre said, looking quite white around the eyes. He’d been silent the whole time, and I realized he’d taken all the silverware out of Luvander’s drawers to polish each piece individually with a napkin. “I may be from the country, but I’m not a total fool.”

“It would be a last resort,” I reasoned, in part to soothe myself as much as Toverre. Nothing could be so dire that it would come to that—
at least, I had to pray it couldn’t. “No one’s going to turn to the Arlemagne to solve our problems just yet. Especially not when we aren’t sure
what
our problems are.”

“
I’m
pretty sure,” Laure said.

“I believe he meant what official reason will be given,” Royston explained.

“Actually, what I’m really wondering is: Why now?” I asked.

No one had an answer for me though everyone was silent for a moment, trying to come up with one.

“Asking the Arlemagne to help would be like sending an invitation to the Ke-Han to march over the mountains and solve our problems for us,” Laure said finally, sounding mutinous. “Bet they’d be pretty eager, now that we’re all so friendly with each other.”

“Here is what I think,” Royston said, knotting his scarf about his neck. “No one should do anything until I get back.”

“That’s funny,” Luvander said, passing into the back room. “I wanted to say that, too, but it seemed selfish. Never you worry, my darlings, only an hour left and I’ll return to you. I’ll see if we have the proper size for you back here!” he added, clearly calling out to one of his customers. “Don’t listen to your friend, either! Large heads are a sign of wisdom and sensuality.”

He popped a funny little shrug in my direction, then he was gone, being sure to shut the door firmly behind him. In his wake, the horrid clock started chiming the hour. But it was as clear a sign as any that we needed to lower our voices.

Luvander was subtle when he wanted to be; it was only surprising because he was so unsubtle the rest of the time.

“You’re leaving?” Laure asked Royston, not allowing herself to be distracted. It seemed to me she hadn’t even noticed the clock. “But we haven’t decided what to do about Adamo yet.”

“That is precisely why I am leaving
now,
” Royston explained, “before we come to a decision and I’m locked into whatever mad course of action two students and two airmen can dream up. An interesting alliance, I must say. Bastion help me, I honestly don’t know which is worse—if you drag me along with you, or if you don’t. I have a few things at home to set in order, no matter what happens. Besides that, I think I can convince someone to throw her lot in with us. Trust me; if things are heading south as quickly as they seem to be, we’ll need her
on our side. I have to get to her before she formulates her
own
plan and does something rash, however.”

“The way you talk, it sounds like everyone you know’s a complete idiot,” Laure said. At her side, Toverre continued polishing away. I was worried for the spoon in his hand, and for his fingers.

“There is a
very
good reason for that,” Royston said.

“Like attracts like, huh?” Laure asked.

“If your friendship with Owen wasn’t proof enough of that …” Royston began.

“Then I suppose we’ll be here,” I said, flexing my hands anxiously. One of the metal knuckles cracked loudly, and everyone looked in my direction. It was obvious—to me, at least—that I couldn’t return to my apartment. I didn’t know why anyone would want to bring the Esar’s men to my shabby little room beneath the elephants; it certainly wouldn’t be for them to get a decent night’s sleep.

My not knowing
why
someone wanted to arrest me, however, wouldn’t make much of a difference when they
did
.

Dear Thom
, I began in my head.
It would seem that I am writing to you from prison …

“We will set this to rights,” Royston said, glancing in Laure’s direction. “I don’t make a habit of promising things I can’t deliver, but Owen’s tough, as I’m sure you know. He’s weathered worse than this before.”

“Just don’t be gone so long this time,” Laure said, pressing her lips together tightly after she’d spoken.

Toverre looked up as though he wanted to say something, then stopped himself.

“I’m going to find out
who
has been taken, and why,” Royston concluded. “And it is going to be enlightening, I’m sure. Then I will—bastion help me—return to you lot and give you what information I’ve managed to gather. That is, unless
I
am arrested first.”

“Sounds like a solid plan,” Laure said. I couldn’t tell if she was joking or not, because her face was so grim.

“I don’t suppose this is a very good introduction to Thremedon,” I said.

“Nonsense,” Royston said, heading in the direction of the back door. He’d left his newly purchased hat behind, but then I supposed he
was
coming back for it later. “The only time Thremedon is truly herself
is when she’s boiling over with political scandal. The two of you are getting the authentic experience. If you live through this, then you can take anything she’ll throw at you.”

“And if we don’t live through it?” Laure asked.

“It will make an excellent story,” Royston replied.

He took the rear exit, not braving the public side of the shop, and though his words were glib, I sensed he was worried.

For a man who’d already been on the wrong side of the Esar’s graces to be so shaken, it was clear everyone else had good reason to watch their backs.

And for a man like Adamo to be arrested, it was clear the whole city had been turned upside down.

There was one thing I was grateful for, and that was: I hadn’t been arrested in front of my students.

It would’ve made their little lives to see the cruel taskmaster, burdening them with questions that couldn’t be answered and battles that couldn’t be won, punished for all his injustices, just like they’d always dreamed of. It’d give ’em a skewed view of the world, too—one in which somebody actually got his just deserts in as grand and embarrassing a way as possible.

The second thing I thought was, didn’t I merit being taken in by Dmitri himself and not some green little squadron?

Then I realized these weren’t the Provost’s Wolves at all.

On the downside of being taken away quiet—followed back to my office like it was a meeting they were after, the enemy let through the gate by my own damned lecturer’s assistant—was not knowing how long it’d take before anyone knew I was missing. And a whole lot of shit could happen to a man in a short amount of time.
Especially
when Dmitri wasn’t involved, because at least I knew
he
was a fair lot who liked to ask a man questions before beating his head in.

But it’d been four and a half full hours—I’d developed a system for telling time in case I was ever taken captive by the enemy, locked up in a dark little cell like this one—and my head was still in the same shape as ever.

No one had even come to see me; I’d just been put out of the way like an out-of-fashion hat, stored somewhere dark until somebody had use for me.

There
was
noise coming from other parts of the prison, which could only mean one thing: I wasn’t the only one who’d been arrested.

I had to hope that they hadn’t taken one of my boys—that they’d gone after me because of all the snooping I’d been doing on my own and not because I was calling secret meetings of the ex–Dragon Corps in Luvander’s hat shop. If the latter was true, then I’d sent one of my students—someone I’d been trying to look after, and keep safe—straight into the eye of the storm. I cursed myself for that misstep, but I hadn’t figured the situation was dire enough.

Yet here I was, suffering the consequences of letting my guard down just because it wasn’t wartime anymore. I had to hope my other inmates were strangers, and that someone’d come along eventually who’d slip up and give me the information I needed to know even though I was likely going to be the man being questioned.