The Artifact of Foex (38 page)

They glanced at one another. Rory seemed to
be holding her breath. Clementina looked a little stuffed, but her
eyebrows were starting to descend into their typical, pissed-off
position. Why were they so frightened?

Chet decided to push. “Oh, wait. I know
exactly why you’re here. You’ve got tickets to Allistair, just like
me. A little late off the mark, aren’t you, Rory? You must have
lost us somewhere along the line, I’m thinking.”

Another significant silence, neither denial
nor confirmation of his supposition. Rory seemed to pull herself
together. “Perhaps we should go somewhere more private to
speak.”

Chet had expected Clementina to treat him
like the enemy, but Rory was a different story. Hadn’t she and
Knife decided they were all on the same side? He frowned at her.
“No, I don’t think so. Rory, where’s your Cluster?”

Rory’s expression hardened. She appeared to
be waiting for him to do something. Clementina kept looking at his
knapsack as if waiting for it to explode. Why were they treating
him this way? What would Knife make of their behavior and their
silences? There was certainly a lot of silence here. If he didn’t
speak, no one did. Rory wasn’t a passive individual, yet she was
waiting for him to—what?

Chet understood.
They think I have the
Raptus! They’re waiting for me to issue orders
. No wonder they
were frightened.

“Pardon me, ladies. I think we have a
problem, and I’d prefer to speak more openly. With that in mind,
I’ll take the first step toward trust.”

He slowly took off his knapsack, aware that
they were inching back in their chairs, their eyes hard. Rory had
her hand wrapped around the bracelet on her wrist. Was it something
that could help protect against the Raptus’s influence?
Hmm
. As carefully as he knew how, Chet unzipped and
emptied the knapsack onto the table. Three pairs of men’s
underwear. One paperback novel (historically accurate, Quor had
assured him.) One doedicu-and-processed-cheese sandwich with sliced
radishes, just the way Chet liked it, wrapped in wax paper and
sealed by masking tape. One map of the city-state of Allistair, and
a bag of nuts and dried fruit.

The women seemed to relax as each item
appeared. Chet shook out the empty knapsack. “There. I’m not here
to assault your minds and remove your free will. I’m here to
talk.”

“So it seems,” Clementina murmured.

Chet decided to start with her. He repacked
the knapsack and folded his hands together, feeling like a
character in a spy novel. “Who are you really, Professor? Who are
your people? Why have you been trailing us, and what do you want
with the Raptus?”

“You would not understand.”

“Try me.” Chet spread his hands. “What do you
have to lose? Notice I’m not strangling
you
for the
information.”

She glared at him. “I have a great deal to
lose!”

Rory put a restraining hand on her arm.
“Professor, please. I think Chet has a right to know.”

How long has Rory known—what?
Was
Clementina another Steve, a secret Rory had kept from him?
Clementina sighed, a long and theatrical venting of wind. “This is
confidential information. Not for the ears of the university
administration, Chet Baikson!”

“Mmm.” He wasn’t making any promises, not
with this enemy turned enigma. Then something clicked in his mind.
It was exactly like a riddle: who on Uos moved in groups like
affiliates yet reviled all gods? “You’re an atheist, aren’t you,
Professor Clementina?”

Clementina gaped. He’d never seen her at a
loss for words; she looked rather like a fish. She snapped her
mouth shut. “Yes, my husband’s family and I are atheists.”

“Your family is using its money to fight the
Pantheon?” It seemed a safe bet: Clementina’s wealth, gained
through her husband, was common knowledge at Semaphore
University.

She regarded him with a frown. “Of course.
Unaffiliated people are the vast majority upon Uos—over eighty
percent of the population is not committed to a god—yet we are
treated as second-class citizens. Evil affiliates must make room
for us! We
must
be heard.”

While he agreed with her statistics and
general thrust, he wasn’t sure about the other parts. Evil
affiliates? Chet glanced at Rory and raised an eyebrow.
Nice
ally you have here
, he wanted to say. She seemed to get the
point anyway; she rubbed her face and looked tired, her shoulders
slumped.

Chet turned back to Clementina. “You work
with god affiliates all day, both among your colleagues and
students. Why did you choose to teach at a Literati University when
you hold these political views? You can’t get tenure at Semaphore
anyway.”

“There are more important things in life than
tenure.” Her mouth snapped shut as if she hadn’t intended to say
anything regarding her true purpose.

Chet, however, could make an educated guess.
“You’re a spy for your people. Your family wants to know what’s
going on in the world of Literati.”

Rory shot him an expression of pleased
surprise. “Hanging around Flame has made you smarter, Chet.”

He didn’t like her condescending tone. “Oh,
by the way, Rory, I ran into our mutual friend Steve the other day.
She
told me how loving and caring you’ve been to
her
lately. I’m impressed at your thoughtfulness. There’s
nothing like a well-kept secret between friends, is there?”

Rory folded her arms, looking disgruntled.
“Oak told me not to say anything. You wouldn’t have taken the news
well.”

“Thank you for your vote of confidence.” He
glanced back at Clementina. “So, back on the subject of espionage,
how did you know the Raptus was going to be found at the Lucid Mud
Dig Site?”

“Of
course
I knew. I know everything
there is to know about the Tache royal family.”

Chet grunted. “That’s right, you’re a fan of
Emperor Konstantine.”

This time her glare was especially withering.
“I am
the
world expert on Konstantine. I’ve read every
scroll, every little reference I could find, even traversing
underground tombs in Allistair to discover evidence long buried.
Konstantine wrote in secret about sending two courtiers to fetch
the Raptus, and one disappeared in Wetshul. I followed up, utilized
my own resources to figure out where the courtier had lost it.”

Chet caught his breath. “Did he have special
orders for Fenimore LaDaven, the courtier who disappeared in
Wetshul?”

“How did you know that name?”

“You know Fenimore, Professor. You fought him
on the passenger ship in Plainsdaugheau. He nearly stabbed you with
a three-hundred year old hunting blade.”

Her eyes went wide. “Oh. My. Well, that
answers my main questions. I hadn’t realized the Lucid-Mud Man was
Fenimore LaDaven. No one told me,” she growled, glaring accusingly
at Rory.

“You didn’t ask. I don’t routinely give away
information.”

Chet couldn’t help but smile dourly. Now that
he’d been around Knife a while, Rory’s way of doing things made
much more sense. He had so many questions for her, but Chet turned
back to Clementina.

“
Did
Konstantine write of why he’d
sent Fenimore in the first place?”

She blinked, apparently taken back. “Not that
I found. He wrote that one of the courtiers, whom he called Uncle
Flame—I’ve never been sure if he referred to a real Flame or a
perverted relative
like
a Flame—was suited to find the
Raptus due to cunning and knowledge. He mentioned in passing that
the other courtier, LaDaven, had made a study of the Raptus. Which
I was uncertain how to interpret, since Fenimore LaDaven was a well
known satirist and libertine who’d been sent to a famous gaol
several times due to a variety of transgressions.”

“Ah.” Chet sighed, ignoring the crying baby
at the next table. Konstantine hadn’t known then. It was a point
lost to history. “Do continue, Professor.”

“After purchasing the site, I hosted you
little diums in my house to keep it well contained. My family is
certain that we do not want the Raptus in the hands of god
affiliates. Even Professor Tibbets would not have made a good
guardian. He was too old and would have had a hard time defending
it.”

“What would your people have done with the
Raptus if you had it?”

“Our plan had been to bury it under the
mountains in a place only we know about. We would have kept it
buried. A sacred trust for our grandchildren’s grandchildren. We do
not otherwise have god gifts to otherwise contain such an object.”
She glanced at Rory, who smiled benignly, then back to Chet. “Do
you even know what it does, Baikson? Do you know what you’ve been
harboring?”

“At this point, I know with my entire body
and soul, which was not a fun ex—” Chet paused as the overhead
sputtered to life, announcing that his flight was going to be board
in ten minutes.
At last!
he thought irritably. Rory and
Clementina, also alert, started gathering their carry-on bags. They
were on the same flight after all.

Chet repressed a grin.“I suggest we resume
this conversation at the boarding gate.”

As they were walking, Rory looked him over;
she seemed to be gauging him. Chet wondered whether she noticed how
tired he still was, post fever. “Chet, I am actually glad to see
you.”

“Are you?” Though she was a breath of home in
this strange city-state, he felt decidedly grumpy about the way
she’d frightened him back in Wetshul. She’d had no right to turn
invisible and run through his body like that. That was just
rude
.

“Do you think I wish ill upon you?”

“Honestly, I don’t know what to think.” Chet
studied her right back. She wore neutral taupes and white in the
manner of an Eich Che independent citizen, which she was. The style
looked good on her. “Where
is
your Cluster, anyway? I
thought they were supposed to tail us.”

“They’re elsewhere,” she said evasively. He
shot her a dirty look which she readily ignored. They reached the
gate before she spoke, this time to Clementina. “I believe we all
want to sit together, Professor. Do you mind negotiating with the
airline staff?”

“Not at all,”

Chet refused to be distracted as Clementina
trod off. “Your Cluster lost us, didn't they. When?”

“During the uproar at Semaphore. When... when
Professor Tibbets...”

“I know.” He offered his hand, and she
gripped it tightly. They stood a moment in silence.

“Chet, I really am impressed with you. I
thought you were a...” Rory paused, shamefaced.

“What, that I was an unaffiliated idiot with
my head stuck up my ass? It’s true. Rory, I was stupid as Abyss and
twice as blind. Now I’m playing catch-up and the stakes are
astronomically high. I’ve lost Tibbets, I lost Aureate, now I might
lose... well.”

“Who’s Aureate?”

He ignored the question; she’d learn soon
enough. “When we were at the dig site, you knew about the Raptus,
didn’t you? You were stationed there by your Cluster to watch over
it, right?”

“Of course Rory knew. She took my class on
Konstantine, smart girl that she is,” Professor Clementina said,
straightening her cuffs as she came to a halt beside them. “I cover
the Raptus in the third week.”

Chet’s mouth dropped open. “You’re
kidding
.”

Rory grinned at him. “Don’t look so
surprised. My people knew about the Raptus well in advance of the
good professor’s course. We figured even if Clementina’s people got
hold of it first, we could track them into the mountains.” The
women traded ironic looks.

“Huh. So the dig really
was
an arms
race.”

“Oh, yes.”

Airline officials threw open the outside
doors, and a cool breeze traveled through the terminal as the line
moved forward. Chet could see the plane as they stepped onto the
tarmac.

“Chet?” Rory said as they reached the
rollaway staircase.

“Yeah?” He held his breath, hoping she’d say
how much she missed him. How much she wanted him.

“Back in the terminal, you’d said you knew
what the Raptus did with your whole body and soul. When did you
learn this information, and who used it on you?”

He exhaled, feeling crumpled. Rory was right,
though, it was his turn. In lowered tones, he explained what had
happened after Semaphore while they boarded the plane and settled
into their seats. Chet found that he
couldn’t
describe
Aureate’s death with Clementina sitting in the aisle seat with only
Rory sitting between them.

Clementina seemed to twig to his reluctance.
“Of course we decided to raid your little ship. You were traveling
with Flame, Chet Baikson. Wholly unfit to be guardians of such a
stupendous magical item.”

Chet felt as if his body had turned to ice—he
was numb all over—and his hands curled into fists. “There was no
need to assault us like that.”

Her eyes were cold. “I’ll have you know one
of your friends killed my nephew in the galley. He didn’t survive
the explosion.”

“
You
people struck first.” Chet
glared at Clementina. Though he was fairly certain of the answer,
he had to eliminate his final variable. “Aureate was just pissing
over the balcony. She was no threat to you.”

“Who?” Clementina squinted as if squeezing
her memory. “I do seem to recall some kind of accusation when we
were yelling at one another over the railing, but I honestly don’t
know what it was.”

Rory waved her hands as if trying to clear
the air between them. “Chet, instead of being so cryptic and
passive aggressive, it might help to simply say what you are
accusing Clementina and her people of doing.”

“Fine advice from a spy.” Chet realized his
arms were crossed over his chest. “The fact is, Professor, you had
the opportunity, method and motivation to murder Aureate. My... my
friend. She was pushed into the water just as you were boarding. I
tried to save her, but...” He looked away.