The Seer King: Book One of the Seer King Trilogy (52 page)

“Come, my Damastes,” she said softly. “I don’t know any answers, and neither do you. We have each other, and we can sleep, and it may be less painful in the morning.”

She was right. I took her in my arms and gently stroked the softness of her hair.

From the floor above me, from Tenedos’s rooms, I heard an explosion, a crash. I yanked my sword from its sheath, tore out the door and up the stairs. The bastards had found a way to get at the seer!

I hammered at the door, and Tenedos pulled it open.

“You’re all right?”

“Yes. I’m fine,” he said. He looked over my shoulder and I turned and saw other men crowding the landing, weapons at hand. “An experiment of mine got out of hand,” he explained. “There is nothing to worry about. My apologies.”

There were grumbles, and some laughter about the various stages of undress the rescuers were in, and they filtered away toward their rooms. But I remained behind, looking over his shoulder through the door. His workroom was a shambles, fragments of marble littering every square foot of the floor.

“Great gods,” I said. “What happened?”

“I attempted a certain spell, which in fact didn’t go awry, as I told the others, but quite the contrary. Thank Saionji I gave Rasenna a strong sleeping potion, since I thought there might be some excitement. Not like this, however.”

There was an elongated triangle etched into the top of a round table, with symbols carved around it. In the center of the triangle was a circle, and in that what I thought to be piled gems. I looked more carefully, and saw that the flashing reflections from the fire came from nothing more than shards of broken glass.

“What is it?”

“It is, or rather I think it is, exactly what I have been seeking.”

“Which means?”

“Which means I’m evoking a wizard’s privilege of mystery, and will tell you more when I choose to … or when the spell is put into service, which I hope will be in no more than a day or two.

“Thank you for responding so swiftly, Damastes. Now, good night.”

I shrugged and left. If Tenedos would not tell me, there’d be nothing I could do to cozen anything from him. I told Marán what had happened as I undressed. Then the sight of that boy lying dead in the street came back.

I shuddered, and climbed into bed. Marán looked into my eyes.

“Do you want to make love?”

“No. I don’t think so. I don’t think I could.”

She blew out the lamp.

“Do you want me to hold you?” she whispered in the silence.

“More than anything,” I said. She put her arms around me and her head on my shoulder. I caressed the softness of her cheek. After some time, her breathing gentled and she slept.

I lay for a long time, staring up into the darkness.

• • •

The Tovieti were broken. All districts were secured, although of course no one with any degree of sense traveled by night or in groups of less than a dozen.

The Tovieti were broken, but not destroyed, and so the army and the wardens began drum patrols.

Snares would rattle as a platoon of soldiers, backed by a team of wardens, marched up to an address, generally at dawn. The senior lawman would shout names from his list, and sleepy men and women would stumble out.

These were known Tovieti, on the long lists that Kutulu and his agents had gathered.

A yellow silk cord was tied around their necks, and the death sentence read Kutulu and his wardens had stacks of them, signed by one or another of the Rule of Ten. All that was needed was to fill in the name, toss a rope over a standard or pole, and the sentence was carried out.

It was like currying a horse. The army had been the coarse comb, now the fine-toothed one swept the capital.

Not only the poor died. I saw a face I recognized, blackened as it was. Count Komroff, the man who’d renounced his title and thought everyone should live in poverty and on milk, had evidently found a more dynamic philosophy, since the yellow silk cord dangled from his elongated neck.

Nicias, even in ruins, was close to normal. Only the docks were still deadly. We had not even been able to send full-size units into these warrens without taking heavy casualties. But we — and they — knew the end was only a few days away.

Tenedos summoned me to the tower late one afternoon.

“Tomorrow night we shall end this nightmare,” he announced. “Kutulu’s agents have discovered that the last elements of the Tovieti, their leaders and their most fanatical, plan a last stand, taking down as many soldiers as they can, when we assault the docks. I suppose they think such a blood sacrifice will bring Thak to life.”

“Why hasn’t he already made an appearance? Surely the massacre of his disciples can’t be pleasing.”

“Why shouldn’t it be? He’s but a demon, hardly capable of real reasoning, at least not as we know it. I’d imagine that death, any death, even those of his own people, gives him drink and meat. I doubt if he’d feel any personal threat until the last of his believers faces doom.

“Perhaps he’s even abandoned this city and returned to the Border States, or other places where he’s worshiped. Not that I plan on taking any chances.

“I cast some careful spells, and found that the Tovieti are still using that smuggler’s den you and Kutulu found as their headquarters.”

“I can’t believe that, sir,” I said. “That’s completely foolish. That hideout was exposed. Wouldn’t they find another?”

“I agree they’re hardly showing much intelligence, at least from our viewpoint. Perhaps they think Thak killed the intruders, or perhaps that the invader was nothing but my animunculi, under sorcerous command. Or, just as likely, they’re as arrogant about our faults as the Rule of Ten were about them before the murders started.

“At any rate, I’d like a raiding party made up from your regiment. Perhaps some of those stalwarts who were with us on the retreat from Sayana might wish to put a bit of adventure in their lives.

“No more than twenty men. And yes, I’ll be accompanying the raid, which is an absolute necessity, not adventurism, Domina. Let me show you why.”

He took out a box, and opened it. Inside were the fragments of shattered glass I’d seen a few nights earlier.

“You remember how angry I was trying to get those idiots in the Chare Brethren to work together and produce a single Great Spell? Well, I ran out of time, although I still think it’s a possibility. Instead, I had glass bottles blown from a single vat of molten glass, and given to each member of the brotherhood. I had each of them cast a single, identical spell. When they’d succeeded, I broke the bottles, then took a bit of this glass, which was the results of the spell.

“I already had the Law of Association working for me, and I created another spell, using the Law of Contagion, and overlaid a third incantation on top of that.”

“And the result is?”

“Damastes, I’m a bit ashamed of you. I shall not tell you, not out of any desire to be mysterious, but out of personal pique that you’re not assembling the evidence your own eyes have gathered.

“If you haven’t figured it out by tomorrow night, then perhaps you’ll get a chance to see it being cast for real.”

I had one final question: “What about Kutulu? Will he be coming with us?”

“Why should he?” Tenedos said. “His work will begin after the raid. Until then, there’s no need to risk his abilities.

“Now, go prepare your troops. I’ve several other spells to prepare for emergencies.”

• • •

Of course there were more than twenty men from the Lancers who wished to volunteer — there were twice that many just from the men of Cheetah Troop who’d recovered from their injuries and sicknesses gained in the retreat from Kait and returned to the regiment.

Every officer in the Lancers volunteered, and I’m afraid I made the party rank-heavy, since I took Captain Yonge and Legate Bikaner as well as myself. Captain Petre gave me a dark look when I refused him, but I wanted at least one officer I knew well to remain with the Lancers.

At dusk I kissed Marán good-bye, went upstairs to get Seer Tenedos. I approved of his dress: dark, tight-fitting tunic and pants, a matching watch cap, and boots that laced to midcalf. He had a belt-pouch with magical supplies in it. Like the rest of us, he was armed with a dagger as his primary weapon. He also carried a shallow wooden box about two feet by one foot, closed with a clasp. Fortunately, it weighed less than five pounds. I assumed this contained the elements of this special spell he was so proud of.

He’d also devised a plan on how we would reach the waterfront undetected. It was a bit elaborate, involving a diversion from the ring of soldiers sealing the docks off from the rest of the city and using that excitement to mask our party’s moving through the lines.

“Have you already asked the army for the diversion?”

“I have. It’ll be the Tenth Hussars, and I’ve given the domina a duplicate of this.” He held up a hand, and showed me a rather ugly brass ring. “When I rub it, he’ll feel a tingling on his own ring, and know it’s time to begin his feint. We’ll move forward from the lines of the Humayan Foot.”

“I think I have a better idea … although your idea of the diversionary attack is good.”

“Go ahead,” Tenedos said, with just a bit of frost, “I’m still learning to be a tactician.”

“Sir, I think you missed the easy way.”

“Which is?”

I pointed, and he swore at himself. “Of course! I should have seen it for myself. I’ll summon a courier and tell the Humayan Foot not to expect us.”

• • •

I’d pointed to the Latane River, gleaming in the setting sun, and had already procured five flat-bottomed boats whose sides barely stuck up above the waterline. We loaded into them, untied the moorings, and let the current take us into the heart of the enemy. All of us were dressed in dark clothing, wore daggers on our belts, and carried small packs with the other tools necessary for our strike.

There was enough light so we were never in doubt of where we were. I had the men stay low in the boats. When we neared the Tovieti headquarters, I whispered to Tenedos to rub his ring. In a few moments, I heard the screech of battle as the Hussars launched the diversion, and we brought out oars, rowed to a ramshackle pier, and moored our boats.

We made sure we hadn’t been spotted, then went straight toward the pier. The warehouses around us were fire-blackened, and I could smell the stench of unburied bodies.

The Tovieti may have been foolish about not abandoning their burrow, but at least they’d set human sentries out this time. There were three, and I almost felt sympathy for the poor, untrained fools. One actually whistled to himself in boredom, and the other moved back and forth in a regular manner, and the third stood close to the edge of the dock, staring fixedly across the river.

I touched sleeves — Yonge … Karjan … Svalbard — and they went forward, knives out. All I heard was one quiet splash as the third sentry’s body was dropped into the river. The other two corpses were eased to the wood, and my three assassins were back beside me.

We found the hole where the lever should be inserted. Tenedos held up a hand: Wait. He touched his temples, touched the wood, and nodded. I should proceed. He’d sensed no magical alarms. Once more I felt with the butt of my dagger, found the socket and pried, and the hatch lifted noiselessly.

I still could not believe this wasn’t a trap, but after a few seconds, when nothing happened, I started toward the ramp. Tenedos stopped me, and shook his head. He handed me his case, and went down the ramp first. For a moment I thought this was mere bravado, but then I realized, seeing him move so carefully, arms spread in front of him like a drunk trying to keep the world steady as he walks, that he was the right one to lead, the only one with a counterspell to stop any waiting Tovieti sorcery.

He stopped twice, each time taking something from his pouch and whispering a spell. The first time I saw nothing, but the second time the darkness glowed purple for just an instant, or perhaps it was an illusion.

The Tovieti masters had done a better job of guarding themselves than before.

We moved down the tunnel, then saw light and heard voices. There was no sentry at the mouth as before. Evidently the Tovieti felt that magic was a more reliable guardian than steel. Tenedos took the case, and I crawled forward a few feet until I could peer into the chamber.

I counted seventeen men and women. They were gathered around a sand-table they’d used to model the dockyard area, talking in low tones, and pointing to various locations, obviously laying out the final attack, completely lost in their work. There were maps everywhere. If the seventeen had been in uniform, male, and a bit less disheveled, it would have looked exactly like any army planning session.

I slid back a few feet to my men, and held up a curled forefinger, thumb atop it. Everything was as it should be. The men drew their weapons. In one hand each of us had a knife, in the other a canvas tube full of sand. We’d kill if we must, but had hoped we wouldn’t have to — corpses would be of no use.

We crowded together at the mouth of the tunnel. The men’s eyes were on me. Breathe … breathe … breathe … my hand dropped and we charged into the room!

The Tovieti turned, saw us. There was a scream or two, and then we were on them, sandbags swinging. Only a few of them had time to draw weapons, and they were either cut or clubbed down before making more than a couple of wild slashes. Two women ran for an exit. Accurately thrown sandbags dropped them.

Then there was no one left standing in the room except Lancers. I saw only one of my men down, unconscious or dead; another in trouble, on his knees, gasping for air where a chance kick had winded him. A few others had minor wounds, swiftly bound by their mates.

Scattered around us were the dead, unconscious, or wounded bodies of seventeen Tovieti leaders. We’d been amazingly successful, and so far I hadn’t heard a hue and cry. But we had made some noise, and could have only a few more lucky moments.

The men were already taking precut lengths of rope from their packs, binding the hands and feet and gagging the twelve Tovieti who we thought would live. Of the others two were dead and the other three unlikely to survive. That was as Tenedos had ordered: Kill only if you have to. We wanted as many as possible able to talk.