Stephen Deas - The adamantine palace

Where are the alchemists? The thought hit Kailin like a hammer. Where are they? Burn them! I will burn them all!

Don't know! Don't know! Inside, Kailin curled up into a little ball and just waited to die.

Where are the others?Where are they?

'I know where they are!' shouted the man with the knife. 'I know how to find them.'

The fire in Snow's eyes died. She snarled and dangled the man held in her tail close. Kailin could see him clearly now, and he was one of the knight-marshal's sell-swords. Sollos. He couldn't remember the name of the other one.

Tell me!

Kailin blinked. High up in the sky he thought he could see a dark speck or two moving against the clouds.

Jehal's Cure

There were seven or eight of them, all wearing veils to hide their faces. They dragged him out of bed and away through the palace. He shouted and screamed but they ignored him. When he struggled, one of them hit him hard enough to split his lip and knock loose a tooth. They took him out into the courtyard, across to the Glass Cathedral and to a hidden staircase behind the altar. Far underground, they hauled him through dim passageways murky with smoke and into a gloomy cavern of a room. A scattering of torches shed enough light for him to see the torture machines lining the walls. Hyram was sitting in the middle of the chamber, a small brazier glowing beside him.

'Are you mad, old man?' shouted Jehal. 'Have you completely lost your mind?'

Hyram didn't say anything, only watching as the veiled guardsmen chained Jehal to a wheel.

'No one will stand for this – Narghon, Silvallan, Zafir, even Queen Shezira and King Valgar. Even the Syuss will rise out of the sand to shake their fists at you.'

Hyram simply watched, trembling slightly. The veiled guardsmen finished their work and slipped away into the shadows. Jehal and Hyram were alone.

'Y-You missed someone.'

'Yes, even the King of the Crags might swoop from his lofty throne if he ever finds out that you've imprisoned a dragon-prince.'

Y-You know, I simply d-didn't think you'd come.' Hyram rose painfully to his feet and snapped his fingers. 'I-I am not imprisoning you, Jehal. I'm t-torturing you. When I'm done, you can g-go.' Another pair of veiled men emerged from the shadows in the corners of the room. 'I have h-had letters from Queen Zafir. She says that you and Queen Aliphera were lovers.' Jehal's heart skipped a beat. Letters from Zafir? Ancestors! What's she done?

Hyram was pacing up and down. The two men with veils were standing patiently, waiting. 'Z-Zafir blames you. She thinks that her m-mother killed herself because you were about to marry s-someone else. Were you lovers?'

Jehal spat at him. 'Does your interest in my bed stem from the emptiness of your own, old man?'

'Were you 1-lovers, Jehal?'

'None of your concern, Speaker, but yes, I fucked her every way you can think of. She couldn't get enough of it.' Even in the gloom he could see Hyram's face tighten. The speaker gave a little nod, and the two torturers set to work. One pulled his head back so he couldn't see what the other was doing. He could feel it, though, the waves of agony they sent through him.

'No!' he shrieked. 'No, we weren't lovers!'

Hyram gave another nod, and the torturers let go and stepped away. Jehal hung his head, slowly catching his breath as the pain faded away. Sweat dripped down his face. He didn't even know what the second torturer had done. Have they marked me? Scarred me? If they have, I will return the favour a thousand times.

'No. Q-Queen Aliphera was t-too wise not to see through you, Prince V-Viper. I want to k-know why you had her k-killed. And how.'

'I didn't.'

The torturers reached for him again. This time they didn't stop for a long time. Jehal gritted his teeth, but in the end he screamed and sobbed like everyone else. There was only one thing he could cling on to: I didn't have her killed.

Eventually it stopped. Jehal slumped, exhausted. Hyram looked him up and down.

'C-Can you still hear me, Viper?'

Jehal made no response. Best to pretend he'd passed out. Then Hyram slapped him.

'Don't p-play coy with me, boy. My man knows h-his work. I know you can h-hear me. Would you like a r-rest, Jehal?' Hyram dragged the brazier closer. His hands were shaking.

'You should get some help with that, old man,' breathed Jehal. 'Before you hurt yourself.'

'M-Master Bellepheros gave everyone in y-your eyrie the truth-smoke.'

'Master Bellepheros stood up in front of my father's court, in front of King Silvallan, Queen Shezira, King-'

'Yes, yes. He found n-nothing. Q-Queen Shezira found nothing. She even s-sent her daughter to ask you while y-you were reeling with M-Maiden's Regret and f-found nothing.'

Ah. So that's what that was about. 'Because there is nothing to find, old man.'

Hyram finished moving the brazier closer to Jehal and sprinkled dust over the coals. Wisps of white smoke coiled up into the air. 'I will show them h-how it is done. Master Bellepheros could not bring his s-smoke to you. N-Not allowed. But I can. Breathe deep, Prince V-Viper. The torture was only a b-bit of fun for me. Now you'll c-confess it all and be hanged. I w-win.' Hyram began to totter away.

'This is a war you're starting, Speaker. Everyone will turn on you. Everyone!'

'N-No they won't.' Hyram almost seemed to smile, but the twitching muscles in his face twisted it into a sneer. 'Even if I'm wrong. N-No one cares, Jehal. Why b-bother? In a few months I'll b-be gone anyway, one way o-or another.'

'If that's truth-smoke, old man, then ask me about the potion I brought with me. The one that eases my father's pain. The one that might cure your symptoms. Ask me about that, you old cripple, and then ask me what it would take from you to ever, ever get your hands on any of it. Ask what you'd have to give me. You're sick. You're dying, and it's the slowest, most degrading death you can imagine. I will relish every day of watching you ebb away. Ask me, Hyram!'

Hyram seemed to chuckle. 'W What makes you think I would have to g-give you anything at all?' He walked away and Jehal was left alone. The smoke risking from the brazier grew thicker and thicker. He could smell a sweet aroma with a strange sickly perfume. Truth-smoke.

Now what? Truth-smoke wasn't perfect. The alchemists liked to pretend that it was, but a clever and determined man could still fool an inept interrogator. Or do the alchemists spread that rumour too, so that we always pay them to do our truth-seeking instead of doing it ourselves? Never mind. I'm clever. I'm determined. Is Hyram inept? No. He's clever too. But what if… I have to make him stupid. How? Can I do that? We'll have to see.

The smoke was getting to him. His head was light and he was starting to lose track of where he was. I didn't have Aliphera killed. She fell off her dragon. It was an accident. I wasn't there. I was sick in bed. He stopped. He couldn't remember what he was thinking about. There was someone else in the room. He couldn't move and he wasn't sure why. And he was hurt. He couldn't remember how that had happened either.

'You were m-mumbling to yourself,' said the voice. Jehal forced his eyes to focus properly. Ah yes. Hyram.

'You're old.' He giggled.

'They say that the w-words a man mumbles to himself as the s-smoke takes him are the lies he wants to tell. What do you think about that?'

Jehal grinned. 'I think that sounds very clever.' A very distant part of him, he realised, did know where he was and what was happening to him. It was as though that part had been locked away in a faraway place. It was jumping up and down and shouting at him, trying to tell him things, but he couldn't hear it.

'So. L-Let's start with what you said. You didn't have Aliphera killed. I-Is that true?'