The Warlock Senator (Book 2) (11 page)

“Forgive me
, Ancient One,” Marlin apologized, using the human title instead of the proper name, Hiasyntar’Kulai

The dragon slowly closed his eyes and emitted a deep, throaty rumble. “My time must be short, lest the power of
the book overpower my defenses. Even here, inside this blessed chamber and protected by spells, I can feel its power trying to claw its way in.”

“I have a candidate for the Exalted Test of Aroph
im,” Marlin said. He frowned and knit his brow. “I am worried that this may be the wrong candidate. I have uncovered prophecies that point to a false champion. Before I continue with his training, I wanted to speak with you and seek your guidance.”

The dragon o
pened his eyes. Hiasyntar’Kulai nodded slightly. “The books of prophecy are difficult to decipher, even for those who are well versed in the ways of the mystics.” A slim tendril of smoke slithered out from the dragon’s nostrils. “I presume you still have faith in the candidate, otherwise you would dismiss him yourself.”

“That is correct, Ancient One
,” Marlin replied.

Hiasyntar’Kulai
nodded. “Ultimately, the Exalted Test of Arophim will decide whether he is the true champion. My advice would be to continue with his training and present him before me as soon as you believe him ready.”

Marlin bowed his head.

“Trust your instincts,” Hiasyntar’Kulai added. “If you believe in the candidate, then follow your faith.” The great dragon slowly dropped his head to rest on his extended foreleg. “I must return to my slumber, to keep the power of Nagar’s Secret at bay. Allow me to sleep until you are ready to present him before me, so I may be strong enough to perform the test.”

“As you wish,” Marlin answered.

Hiasyntar’Kulai closed his eyes and emitted a throaty rumble as he sighed.

Lady Arkyn slithered out the window and delicately pressed the stained glass window, spinning it back into place. She inched along the four inch ledge, keeping her back flat against the exterior wall and using her hands to steady herself. Her green, half-elf eyes amplified the sparse starlight and allowed her to see everything easily.

She paused. Thirty feet below her a guard stepped around the corner. She held her breath and remained perfectly still until he walked past and disappeared around the next corner. Arkyn exhaled and sped along the ledge to the large oak tree near the rear of the senate building, which was positioned adjacent to the king’s tower. She pivoted on the ball of her right foot and leapt to the nearest branch. As she gracefully descended she pulled her bow from her hiding place near an abandoned nest and dropped to the ground as silent as a cat in the night.

By the time the guard made his next round she was already over the fence and stalking the shadows in an alley that would lead her to Senator Bracken’s house. Having found nothing in his writing chamber at the senate hall, she hoped there would be more clues at his home.

A pair of men stumbled into the alley ahead of her. Her keen eyes quickly spotted the large, brown bottle the two of them were sharing. She slid up next to a protruding chimney. Rather than risk a confrontation, she decided to wait for the drunk men to pass her by. It took much longer than she would have liked. She rolled her eyes as one of the men tripped and nearly went headlong into the building opposite her. Luckily his friend caught him and the two zig-zagged on without spotting her.

Arkyn peeled away from the wall and went to the end of the alley. She glanced do
wn both sides of the street, gaging the chance of her being seen by the few people still outside. To her left was an old man sitting on the front steps of an upscale tavern. He wore a long, red jacket over a neatly tailored ruffle-shirt. To her right were two senators, still dressed in their white robes, conversing about something. The temptation was too great. Arkyn scrambled up the building to her right and leaned over the front of it just enough to eavesdrop on the senators.

“You heard me,” one of them said. “Bracken is offering fifty gold for your vote.”

“Preposterous,” the other said. “I lose more than that when I play cards. If Bracken wants my vote, he will have to pay me what it’s actually worth.”

Arkyn peered over the edge of the building. She could only see the tops of their heads, so there was no way for her to identify them unless they used their names. She moved back and continued to listen.

“He isn’t trying to buy your vote for the verdict,” the first senator said. “He just wants us to hold the tribunal a day earlier.”

“Bah,” the second man scoffed. “I suppose it doesn’t make much difference anyway. From what I hear the case is very simple.”

“That’s right,” the first agreed. “There is more than enough evidence to convict Lokton.”

“Seems a shame for House Lokton to fall this way,” the second said.

“So, what do you say, will fifty gold persuade you to vote for an earlier tribunal?”

There was silence below. Arkyn restrained herself from leaning over to watch them again.
Finally, she heard the second man speak.

“Tell Bracken that fifty gold is too cheap, but I would consider skipping breakfast for one hundred.”

The first senator laughed. “Come, let’s go back inside. Lord Robair is waiting for us.”

Lady Arkyn leaned over the edge, watching them leave. Unfortunately they never turned back so she could only see their backs. At least she had some evidence that Bracken was dealing dirty with
Lokton. She looked through the night air toward Bracken’s house, glancing between it and the tavern where the two senators joined up with the old man who had been sitting on the steps. The three of them walked inside, laughing boisterously and entering into a raucous cheer from inside.

She weighed her options. Following them inside could give her more direct information, but she would surely be seen. On the other hand, going to Bracken’s house might yield as little as visiting the senator’s office in the senate hall, but she would remain a shadow. Arkyn rolled to her right and quickly picked her way down the right side of the building before dashing across the street while it was still empty.

A dog barked as she ran by the back of a large manor. The barking grew louder and closer, becoming angrier with each moment. She turned and saw a medium-sized black dog squeeze under a hole in the bottom of its fence and head straight for her.

Lady Arkyn turned and knelt down as the dog charge
d. She waved a hand in front of her face and whispered to the dog. “Be quiet, my friend.”

The dog stopped instantly, panting heavily but no longer angry. It cocked its head to the side and studied her carefully.

“Go home,” she whispered, pointing to the hole under the fence. The dog turned around and obeyed. Lady Arkyn sighed and brushed the dirt from the front of her pants as she stood back up. Not wanting to waste any more time she turned and quickly made her way to the back of Senator Bracken’s manor.

Crouched at the edge of the back yard her heart slowed along with her breath.
She scanned the area. A hand went to her bow and she almost smiled as she spied a globe willow tree growing near a second floor window on the south side. Her hands gripped the iron rod and steadied her ascent while her feet propelled her up and over the barrier in a single leap. She tucked her head and rolled into a flip over the fence, landing silently on the balls of her feet inside the yard.

A nearby hedge would provide perfect cover for her bow. She slid the weapon in at the base of the hedge, careful not to scratch herself on the plant’s thorns. Then, she was up and off to the willow tree. Running forward, she leapt up and planted her right foot halfway up the trunk and then pushed off forcefully to launch herself up and backward to a thick branch. Her arms caught the limb and easily swung her around to perch atop the branch, hidden from view by the drooping smaller branches farther out with their veil of leaves.

She jumped straight up and caught onto another branch, this one much smaller than the first. It bent under her weight, but did not crack. She quickly ran to the middle of the branch and leapt out to her left, swinging from another branch and then executing a reverse flip to land on the wall next to the window. Where a thief may have been clumsy and loud, she was effortlessly silent. Her body made no sound against the wall as her knees bent to absorb the force of her body just as soon as her toes touched the wall and her fingers worked like spider’s legs gripping the grooves in between the brick and stone.

Arkyn slowly arched her back and leaned to her right, allowing her to see into the room through the window. No lamps burned, but a quick glance with her half-elf eyes allowed her to see the chest of drawers against the north wall, a door in the western wall, and a bed against the southern wall. The bed was empty. She pulled a pin from her braided hair and
tapped on one of the four inch square panes of glass in the window, searching for signs of magical enchantments or barriers.

Satisfied that there were none, she used the same pin to dig the wood away from the four inch pane. It took her several minutes, but she preferred silence to speed. Once the pane was loose she slid it out with her left hand and tucked the glass under her belt for safekeeping. She snaked her right arm through the hole until her elbow passed through, then she bent her arm up so she could disengage the lock. Silently her thumb and forefinger gripped the flat lever and pulled it open. She retracted her arm
and then slid the whole window up enough to allow her to slip in. Once inside she closed the window and replaced the pane of glass she had removed.

Keeping to the balls of her feet she stalked across the room and put her ear to the door. She didn’t hear anything. She then went flat on the floor, peering under the door with her left eye. There was a hallway beyond the door, as she had expected. It was lit and a red runner covered the middle of the hall, leaving only a few inches on either side exposed so that the wood was visible.

She slowly opened the door and leaned to the side to afford herself a better view. The hallway was clear. She stepped out, looking to her right. As was typical of the few senate houses she had been inside before, she saw several white marble busts of previous family patriarchs. Between these busts were various portraits and tapestries, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The hallway ended in grand double doors of mahogany with two brass rings under lion heads.

“That’s the bedchamber,”
she whispered to herself. Footsteps echoed from the stairway to her left. She glanced over and the light from below increased. Someone was coming, probably carrying a candlestick or a lamp.

“Gildrin,” a voice called out. The footsteps stopped and the growing light shifted.

“Yes, master,” another man, presumably Gildrin, replied from farther away.

“I am going into the library for the night. I do not wish to be disturbed, do you understand?”

“Yes, master,” Gildrin said. “I will ensure you are left in peace.”

The light shifted back and the footsteps resumed ascending the stairs. Lady Arkyn shrank back into the room and gently closed the door most of the way. She left only a sliver of a crack so she could watch which way Senator Bracken would go.

As Bracken came up to the top, she saw him holding a small box in one hand. He wore long, black velvet robes and by the stern look on his face there must have been a lot on his mind. She watched him turn the opposite way and pause before a door. He said a few things to the door that she could not quite make out, but it was obvious he was unlocking magical barriers. Then he disappeared through the doorway and the door clicked shut behind him.

Lady
Arkyn wasted no time slipping out toward the bedchamber. She stuck to the wall, just in case she needed to crouch behind one of the many pasty busts. She stopped in front of the double doors and waved her hand in front of her. A pale green shimmer appeared on the doors. They were sealed by magic as well. She inched closer, inspecting the vague pattern of green lines and circles on the doors. She tapped a fingernail to her teeth a few times as she traced the design with her eyes. She shook her head and sighed. There was no way for her to defeat the barrier. She didn’t recognize the pattern, or even the style of magic it might have come from.

She looked over her shoulder at the other end of the hallway. The corner of her mouth turned up into a sly smile. In a moment she was up and darting down the hallway on her soft, silent feet. She slowed and crouched in front of the door she had seen him go in and pressed her ear to it.

At first all she could make out was a muffled voice. It sounded like chanting of some sort, but she couldn’t be sure. Under the door she could see a shifting shadow, then a flash of purple light and the chanting stopped. She backed away from the door momentarily as a bit of thin, gray smoke slid under the door.

A low, throaty voice ripped through the air. “Gondok’hr, what news do you have for me?”

Fear gripped Lady Arkyn’s spine. It was as if the voice itself had coursed through her body and uncovered her. She wasn’t sure what it was, but the voice did not come from any human. She pressed farther away from the door.

“Master,” another voice said from within. “There have been some very exciting developments.”
This voice was human, and sounded a lot like Senator Bracken, but something was amiss. Lady Arkyn knit her brow and pressed her ear back to the door.

“Then tell me, Gondok’hr, how does Lord Lokton fare? Will he join with us?”

Clanking metal down the hall made Lady Arkyn jump back. She caught sight of a silver tray holding a tea pot emerging from the stairs. Her heart raced and her adrenaline spiked. A man stepped up to the landing, holding the tray. A flanged mace hung from the man’s belt, pulling the leather down a bit under his waist. How had she not heard him coming up the stairs? She held her breath. If the man looked down her way, she would be discovered.

*****

Al and Erik entered Buktah from the southern gate and directed their horses through the streets. People looked up from the street and parted when they saw the two on horseback.

“Seems different,” Erik commented quietly.

Al nodded. “Things are always different in Buktah, that’s one of the reasons I set up shop here. If you are gone for a week you can miss the whole transformation.”

“Still smells like spices and sweat though,” Erik said dryly.

Al smirked. “Yeah, that doesn’t really change, until winter time,” he said. “Even then the spices just increase with the mulled wines they sell along the streets and the cinnamon cakes. The sweat is still there though.” Al pulled his horse in close to Erik. “I forgot to mention, but Master Lepkin’s sword only bursts into flame for him, so let’s try to keep things quiet while we are here.”

Erik glanced down to the cold, black telarian steel. “No, I have used it before without problems,” Erik corrected.

Al raised his bushy eyebrow and tugged gently at his beard. “When?” he asked.

“When the wizard attacked Valtuu Temple. I used the flaming sword to slay him.”