Frank Tuttle - All the Paths of Shadow

And argue they did. A bevy of retired army officers, the king’s new Protocol Corps, was engaged in a round of bellowing and finger pointing with the tall, ancient palace butler known simply as Carter.

“You can’t seat an Alon clan chief next to a Phendelit Silver Circle Guardsman,” bellowed the tallest of the Protocol Corps officers. “The Silver will call the Alon a copperhead and the Alon will cut off the Silver’s nose and we’ll be at war before brunch, you imbecile!”

Carter lifted an eyebrow in mild disdain, straightened the gilt-edged placard bearing an ornate Alon clan sigil, and moved on to the next seat.

Meralda laughed behind her hand. Elsewhere, carts of chairs were being hauled in and unloaded, a small army of florists was filling the room with fresh-cut Phendelit greenrose, and scowling floorsweeps followed everyone about in a vain attempt to keep the wide, worn flagstones free of trash and debris.

A few other minor court figures were scattered about, waiting as Meralda was. There was Martin Flea, official chronicler to the court, who had plopped into his chair, waved at Meralda, and promptly gone to sleep. Cheslin Frempt, the People’s Advocate, sat a few seats away, looking bored and humming to himself. White-haired Elton Flynnedge, heir to the Flynnedge cobblestone empire, was scribbling away in a notebook by the north door.

Meralda looked up at the square-faced old clock above the portrait of King Ponnyamp IV. Eight and half-past?

“Oh, no,” she said, softly. An hour and a half of this?

The west doors flew open with a bang. Meralda whirled, her hand on her staff, but the open doors revealed only a battered chair-moving cart and a pair of red-faced roustabouts.

Behind them, though, came the captain. “Thaumaturge,” he said, hurrying past the cart. “What are you doing here so early?”

Meralda stood and shrugged. “Urgent summons,” she said. “Be in the Gold Room at eight of the clock. Bring your staff.”

The captain dodged chairs. “Ah, well,” he said. “Someone probably got a bit free with the summonses up on the second floor. Yvin just wanted you to check the wards, and I’ll bet you’ve already done that.”

“I have,” said Meralda. “All quiet.”

The captain smiled. “Good,” he said. “But as long as you’re here, Thaumaturge, might I have a word?”

Meralda shrugged again. “Only if it’s over coffee,” she said.

The captain grinned. “That, I can do. You there!” he bellowed.

A dozen servitors froze. “Bring a pot of coffee and a pair of mugs,” said the captain, fixing his gaze on a skinny youth struggling with a stack of chairs taller than himself. “Go to the kitchen. Tell them the captain wants coffee, mugs, and a plate of biscuits, and he wants them now. Go.”

The boy scuttled off.

The captain pulled back a chair and sat. Meralda did the same, leaning close when she saw the captain glance furtively about and motion her near.

“The Hang dock tonight,” he said, in a whisper. “They’ll be escorted to the docks by a pilot boat and then brought to the palace. Yvin’s cleared out half the north wing upper floors.”

Meralda nodded. “Has the army had any contact with them?” she asked.

The captain glanced about again. “We have,” he said. “Had to send a boat in close and ask what kind of draft their ships drew. Didn’t want them to run aground in the shallows outside Defton.” The captain chuckled. “The college sent over a pair of linguists and a professor who claimed he could write some Hang. They spent two hours jabbering at the Hang fleet master until the Hang broke down and asked the professors, in New Kingdom, if they needed directions to Tirlin.”

Meralda’s eyes widened.

“Oh, they speak New Kingdom quite well,” said the captain. “Like natives, one of the linguists said. Natives.” The captain sighed. “But that’s a matter for another time,” he said, as the serving boy trotted up with a tray of coffee and biscuits. “Have you moved the Tower’s shadow yet?”

Meralda scowled and took up a cup of coffee. “Why, certainly,” she said. “I had nearly twenty uninterrupted minutes just yesterday to work on it.”

The captain, his face blank, swallowed, took up a coffee mug, and waved the lad away. “Really,” he said. “Have you seen any papers today, Thaumaturge?”

Meralda froze in mid-sip. “Papers,” she said.

“The Times , in particular,” said the captain. “I thought the likeness of you was quite good. Most flattering, in fact. Though I did wonder if you really called the Tower ‘the lair of dread Otrinvion’.”

“I never said any such thing.”

“Of course not,” said the captain. He frowned. “But you’ll want to look at the story, anyway. Your shadow moving assignment is there, along with a lot of nonsense about lights seen again in the Wizard’s Flat.”

Meralda shook her head. “Oh, no.”

“Oh, yes,” said the captain. He glared at Martin Flea, who had stopped snoring, and then he lowered his face and whispered. “I’ve ordered the Tower sealed for the duration of the Accords, but you and I both know that won’t stop the foolishness.”

Oh, no, thought Meralda. That’ll only make it worse.Before the Accords are done the Tower will be mobbed each night, as the entire populace makes a hobby of mistaking crows for dead wizards and reflections in the window glass as portents of doom, and I’ll have to shoulder my way past each and every one of them.

“Marvelous,” she said.

“I’ve told the guards to keep the tourists at bay while you’re working,” said the captain. “Is there anything else I can do?”

Meralda shook her head.

“Then go,” said the captain. “You’ve checked the wards. Why don’t I tell Yvin you had to leave to cast certain spells before the sun reached its zenith?”

Meralda stood. “That’s absurd,” she said. “Do keep a straight face, won’t you?”

“Always,” said the captain, from above his cup. “Mind the haunts, Thaumaturge.”

Meralda put her back to the throne and left the Gold Room to the captain and the chairs.

“Here we go again,” whispered Kervis.

Meralda urged her magelamp brighter and mounted the first of the Tower’s winding stairs.

Behind her, the Bellringers followed, boots scraping on the stone with measured, careful steps. Meralda thought about all the novels she’d read, in which princes, queens, or spies, who invariably bore a single guttering candle, charged up the Tower stair, or leaped fearlessly from tread to tread. Leapt, indeed, mused Meralda. No one, no matter the provocation, would dare take these stairs at a brisk walk, much less a headlong dash.

And candles? Impossible. Her own magelamp, bright though it was, cast a cone of light just wide enough at its base to illuminate three pairs of feet. Above, the magelamp lit only a tall, narrow swatch of the Tower wall.

The rest of the Tower remained cloaked in darkness. Darkness, and the faint sensation of constant movement at the edge of the light, as if Meralda’s magelamp alone kept something darker than the shadows barely at bay.

Tervis halted long enough to shift Meralda’s bag from one hand to the other. “I’m coming,” he said, at Kervis’ unspoken question. “Don’t stop.”

The trio resumed their climb. Meralda strained her ears for any hint of sound from the park. But again, not even a hundred paces up the stair, all the sounds of the world beyond were gone, shut away behind walls thicker than Meralda was tall.

“What was that game the Alons were playing?” asked Tervis, his voice echoing faintly. “It looked like fun.”