The Palace Job (42 page)

"...and then he spits out whatever the unicorn gave him all over Tern's lighter, and it sets the whole damn room on fire!" Hessler finished grandly.

"Hah!" Silestin Senior had learned to cover his mouth to avoid spitting out teeth when he laughed.

"The unicorn conjures up a rainstorm, so we're safe, but sopping wet. Everyone has to run off and gather towels, and... well, that was when the justicar showed up. Not that
that
was the kid's fault."

The zombie shook his head. "At fifteen summers, I tripped over my own damn feet every five minutes unless I was in the field with some bastard trying to kill me."

"He has no place here," Hessler said, frustrated. "I can't send him away—he'd be hopeless on his own. And I promised Loch I'd finish this job."

"Man's got to stick to his word," said the zombie. A pair of servants came around the corner, and Hessler turned himself and Silestin Senior invisible. When the servants were gone, Silestin Senior said, "So how'd an academic end up walking a zombie through a palace on a heist job?"

"Whatever do you mean?" Hessler asked sharply. "It is a paying function. Wizards need money like anyone else."

"Fine," said the zombie, "don't tell me."

They walked for a moment in silence.

"I was in jail," Hessler finally said. "I'd been expelled from school, went to see an old advisor to petition for my reinstatement, and I ran afoul of some caravan guards I'd cheated at cards."

"Only cheat men you're sure you'll never see again," said the zombie. "Learned that one the hard way myself. Why'd they throw you out? You're good academic material." At Hessler's raised eyebrow, the zombie smiled. It wasn't pretty, but Hessler appreciated the attempt. "I was a general, Magister. I know a good soldier when I see one, good thief, good tactician... You can't put a use to a man in ten heartbeats, you've got no  business commanding men in battle. You're a book man, through and through."

Hessler let out a long breath. "It was my father."

The zombie waited, shuffling amiably while Hessler thought.

"My father died ten years ago and was buried in a pretty park outside the city," Hessler said, "near a great oak tree where he'd first seen my mother. That was his dying wish."

"Can't fault a man for that."

"When my mother died
this
year, she wished to be buried with him." Hessler grimaced. "However, since the time of my father's death, the park had become listed as a historical site, and it was forbidden to alter it without an official permit. The processing fee was more than I could save in a year." He sighed. "So I sold a few unlicensed magical artifacts on the side. One of the damn professors caught me and threw me out about a month after my mother was safely in the ground."

There was another long silence from the dead man beside him.

"Know what the worst part about coming back is?" Silestin Senior finally asked.

"What's that, sir?"

"Finding out that the men who held the power fifty years ago—ambitious, yes, but you've got to be ambitious to make any mark on the world—have been replaced by pampered toads who make laws to stay busy."

"Hard for me to say, sir," Hessler said a bit bitterly. "It's all pampered toads since I've been around."

"Wasn't always," said Silestin Senior, and as guards came around the corner and Hessler cloaked them both, he added in a tired voice, "Wasn't a damn golden age, but it wasn't like this."

"I'm so glad that Archvoyant Silestin isn't prejudging after that nasty incident a few days ago," an old woman in an ugly dress told Loch with a fond smile.

"As am I," Loch said, taking a drink from a passing waiter without looking his way and giving the old woman a wide-eyed smile. "It's such a
scandal!"
Off behind the old woman, Ululenia made her way through the crowd. She looked pale, but then, she always did.

"We'd heard rumors that Silestin would rescind the invitations of..." The old woman sputtered to a halt, evidently worried that "Urujar" might be an insult, and settled for, "I think little Naria must have talked him out of it." Ululenia caught Loch's eye, gave a quick nod, and headed off toward the control room.

"She must have," Loch agreed, tossing back the drink in a single gulp. "She wouldn't see us shut out! Why, we're like
sisters,
all of us."

The old woman smiled and went off to hunt down an
h'ors d'oeuvres
tray, and Loch rolled her eyes and kept going. She had forgotten just how damn
easy
it all was.

"Were you at Voyant Kyndrik's party last spring?" a middle-aged rich man asked with a sleazy smile.

"I go to so many parties," Loch said with a sultry smile, "that it's hard to keep track."

"I'd have sworn I remember that lovely dress." His eyes were indeed looking at particular parts of the dress, even while he continued to talk. "Would you by any chance be interested in a cup of kahva?" He finally met her stare and grinned. "I like my kahva the way I like my women... hot and black."

"I like my kahva the way I like my men," she replied, her eyes half-lidded. "Ground up into tiny pieces and stored in a bag." As the man sputtered, Loch laughed in delight and moved on, tossing a friendly goodbye over her shoulder. Dairy followed, wide-eyed.

She'd hated these things as a child. Little Isafesira had wanted to swing wooden swords at the straw dummies in the courtyards. Little Isafesira had wanted to
do
things.

She was doing things tonight. Her father would have been proud of her. Scandalized by the dress, though.

And there was Naria, just now entering to a round of applause and joining Archvoyant Silestin in the middle of the room.

She hadn't grown as much as Loch would have thought. She was still slender. The smoked band of crystal she wore over her eyes had been magically transformed to a ruby red that matched her long, elegant dress and elbow-length gloves.

She hugged Silestin the way she'd hugged her father, and she smiled and waved at everyone.

Loch turned away. "Come on, kid."

"Loch, is that—"

"It doesn't matter."

As she turned to leave the room, the crowd ahead of her parted, and Ambassador Bi'ul of the Glimmering Folk appeared. His head was cocked, and he squinted as he looked her way.

"Miss Loch, I feel that tingle again, and..." Dairy took a step toward the Glimmering Man and bumped into Loch. "I think..." His skin was hot to the touch. "I think I'm..."

In the safety of her mind, Loch damned herself for a fool.

Then, without pause, she grabbed Dairy and hauled him into a crowd, ignoring the searing heat of his skin. "Boy!" she said loudly, and slapped him on the cheek. "What has gotten into you?"

Dairy shook his head and seemed to come back to himself. "I, er—"

"You've obviously become overexcited," Loch went on as the onlookers smiled and shook their heads and provided her with lots of cover. "I
knew
you were not ready for such an event."

The kid finally figured it out. "I'm sorry, my lady," he said contritely.

"You're no use to me this evening. Run back to my wizard and tell him you've need of a poultice." She looked at Dairy hard. "You
do
know where he is, boy?"

Dairy thought. "Yes, my lady."

"Good. Go now." She patted him fondly on the cheek. "Take care of yourself, boy."

Dairy nodded, smiled, and left in a hurry. Some of the nobles muttered about an Urujar woman having a white servant. Loch looked down at her hand. No blisters, but it had been like thrusting her hand into a fire.

A few heartbeats later, Ambassador Bi'ul walked by, looking quizzical. Loch took up a conversation with an elderly earl who complimented her dress and said that she was a good example for her people, and the Glimmering Man eventually straightened and walked away.

She mingled for a bit longer, to satisfy appearances, and then, with a confident smile, she headed for Archvoyant Silestin's personal rooms.

Ululenia quickly found the control chamber, which Kail had already unlocked for her. The room was a dark, unadorned cavern with a massive glowing control crystal-hub in its center. Across the floor, rune-traced crystals were laid out at regular intervals. Beyond the crystal hub, the ground fell away—the far half of the room was a great chasm.

"I don't know," Kail answered her unspoken question. He was sitting at the crystal-hub, twirling his lockpick between two fingers. "I have no idea why you'd have a giant magical cliff in the middle of a
floating
city. That makes less sense than
most
magical things. No offense."

Ululenia smiled. "None is taken. It may simply be as the blowhole for the great leviathan that is the control-hub, a means of venting that which is no longer needed."

"You're kind of reaching on the nature references," Kail said without rancor. "Got in without trouble?"

"The hunter found me." Ululenia shivered. "But Desidora was able to assist. And you?"

"Took off the helmet and guard's tabard and became a servant, and they never looked twice." He frowned. "Where's Desidora? I figured you'd both be here by the time Iofecyl and I got the lock opened."

"You named your lockpick?" Ululenia asked.

Kail opened his mouth to respond indignantly, and the door opened again.

It wasn't Desidora.

"I sensed an unusual flow of magical energies," said Hunter Mirrkir as he stepped inside. "I had hoped to find you here."

Icy took a deep focusing breath, and then did a one-handed pull-up, spun to face the other way, and swung back and forth before launching himself through the air and catching hold of another spur of crystal.

"That would be so much more impressive if you weren't, you know, going backwards," Tern called helpfully.

"A minor setback," Icy said. "I believe that if I swing several times to build momentum on
this
grip, then swing to the other handhold and immediately continue with a leaping swing, I should be able to reach the
next
useable grip."

"I didn't really understand that, but sure," Tern called. "Your arms aren't getting tired or anything, are they?"

"I have trained for much more arduous exercises, Tern."

"Because it would be bad if your arms got tired and you lost your grip or didn't jump far enough and fell onto the horrible magical floor," Tern said by way of encouragement.

"I shall endeavor to remember that, Tern."

Icy spun back around, pumped his legs to build momentum, then leaped. He grabbed, felt the spur of crystal crack under his weight as he pulled himself into the next leap, reached out as he swung, and caught the next crystal spur with his fingertips. As he swung back and forth, strengthening his grip, the crystal that had cracked finally fell behind him, exploding in a messy shower of heat and sparks as it hit the floor.

"Not a problem," Icy called calmly. "Now, if you fire another grapple, I can catch it, and you can swing across to the platform."

"Okay," Tern said doubtfully, "if you're sure I can swing across. I mean, you know I'm not
you,
right?"

"That thought is emblazoned upon my mind every waking moment, Tern."