Брайан Макклеллан - Wrath of Empire

“Dynize society is based around Households,” Tenik explained. “A Household revolves around a Name.” He flipped his coin, caught it, and pointed a finger at Michel. “You are the newest member of Yaret’s Household.”

“Yaret is the Name of the Household?” Michel asked. He kept his attention on the road and the entrance to the tenement across the street, but he listened carefully. He suspected that much of his downtime the next few weeks would be spent learning about Dynize society. He needed to enter and climb it as quickly as possible.

“It is. Ah!” Tenik felt around in his jacket pockets for a moment, then withdrew a card and handed it to Michel. “This belongs to you. It marks you as a member of Yaret’s Household and entitled to the protection of Yaret’s Name. If we are ever separated and you are questioned by soldiers, you can show them this and they will escort you to Yaret’s home.”

Michel took the card and turned it over in his hand. It was on a heavy stock, coated in wax and decorated with a stylized golden trim. There were words in Dynize at the bottom and a red thumbprint in the center. He immediately wondered how hard it would be to counterfeit. If he’d gotten hold of one of these as a Blackhat, doing so would be his first concern.

“Handy,” he said.

“It is, but you should be careful.”

Michel glanced at Tenik sharply. “Of?”

“Remember Forgula? She belongs to a rival Household. Yaret’s protection is meant to be sacred, but in reality it is only as good as the power of his Name. Forgula attempted to snatch you out from under us, and it’s possible that she will do so again if she thinks it’s worth angering Yaret.”

“Her Household Name is stronger than Yaret’s?”

“Her Household is stronger than everyone’s.”

“And whose is that?”

“Sedial.” Tenik’s expression darkened. “Ka-Sedial is the emperor’s appointed ruler on this continent. Be wary of him. Be wary of the bone-eyes.”

“Why?”

“I …” Tenik hesitated, as if remembering that he was talking to someone he shouldn’t completely trust. “Just be wary of them. Prove yourself to Yaret and in return you’ll be taught all you need to know to be a useful member of his Household.”

Michel was surprised to receive such a warning from a Dynize. They seemed so organized and in-step that he had expected the division among them to be minimal. Household rivalries sounded like something he could use. He would have to learn more about them.

“Do people ever change Households?” he asked.

Tenik’s penetrating stare told Michel a great deal. After a moment, Tenik answered, “All the time. Marriages. Trades. Formal requests. Both Household Names must agree for it to be done formally.”

“And informally?”

Tenik’s expression softened and he resumed flipping his coin, as if carefree, but there was a glint in his eye. “Concern yourself with finding this Gold Rose you promised your new master.”

Michel slowly turned back to the curtain. “Right.”

A few minutes later he heard Tenik get up and cross the room, coming to stand just behind Michel and craning his neck to look outside. Michel stepped to one side, allowing him the view.

Tenik asked, “How does starting here help you find the person responsible for the bombings?”

“I thought you worked for the minister of scrolls,” Michel responded, pulling away to get a good look at Tenik’s face.

“I do. What of it?”

“And you don’t know anything about being a spy?”

Tenik let out a soft laugh. “You think Yaret is some kind of spy?”

“That …” Michel hesitated, thinking of his conversation with Emerald. “That’s what I was led to believe. Well, not a spy himself. But a spymaster.”

“I don’t know that word.”

Tenik knew far more Adran and Palo than Michel had expected, and their conversations took place in both those languages as well as Dynize. Michel tried to think of a Palo word for “spymaster,” but settled on “one who commands those who watch your enemies.”

“Ah, I see,” Tenik said. “Yes, I suppose that works. The minister of scrolls traditionally oversees government information – history, census data, that sort of thing – but Yaret wanted to be involved in the invasion. He worked to expand his position so that Sedial didn’t have complete control of the war.”

Census data could be useful, if it included the names of Dynize citizens here in Fatrasta. “The emperor doesn’t have a designated spymaster?”

“I believe he does,” Tenik recalled, “but they only oversee threats against the emperor’s person. Government spies were purged after the end of the civil war, and we needed something new when we turned our eyes outward.”

Michel considered the information. He had a thousand questions about the things he was just told, but he couldn’t risk being too curious. He needed to pick his questions carefully. For now, it was enough to know that Yaret was more akin to a record keeper than a spymaster. Shrewd, perhaps, but not seasoned. “So what are you? A census taker?”

“No, no,” Tenik said, “I am one of Yaret’s cupbearers.”

The term sounded archaic, and it was not the first time Michel had heard a Dynize use it. He seemed to remember that it was an honorarium in the court of Kressian kings. “I’m not familiar with the term. What is your role?”

“I have no role – and I have every role,” Tenik said, spreading his arms. “A cupbearer is a trusted member of the Household who takes on whatever the Name needs doing. I have been many things. For now, I am your bodyguard and assistant.”

“It’s an honored position?”

“Very.”

“Looking after me seems … beneath you.”

“Not at all. You were a high-ranking member of the Blackhats. Your place within the Household has yet to be determined, but you are not a slave.” He paused. “No, what is the word for the lowliest member?” He said something in Dynize, then “commoner? Is that the word?”

“I think I get your meaning,” Michel said.

“Good. By the way, you never answered my question.”

“Which one?”

“How does this help us catch the culprit behind the bombings?”

Michel pulled himself away from his myriad of questions and nodded to the tenement across the street. “I’m waiting for someone.”

“Who?”

“A woman named Hendres. We worked together for a brief time after the war started.”

“How will she be useful?”

“Because she knows that I turned. I’m willing to bet that with me gone, she will have spent the last couple of days tracking down the highest-ranking Blackhat in the city. With any luck, it’s a Gold Rose who, if not personally responsible for the bombings, will probably have a good idea who is.”

“You were friends with this Hendres woman?”

Michel decided not to mention their time as lovers. “Partners. We were trying to figure out how to save the families of Blackhats from your purges.”

“And why did you stop being partners?”

“Because I decided that joining you was more efficient.” Michel didn’t much like this line of questioning, and hoped that it came across in his voice.

Tenik didn’t seem to notice. “How do you know she’ll come here?”

“I don’t,” Michel said. A glance at Tenik’s face revealed the other’s skepticism, and he continued. “Hendres isn’t a spy. She was an enforcer, then a bureaucrat. Everything she knows about sneaking around she learned from me in the last month.”

“And?”

“And we worked from the same list of safe houses. The safe house across the street is one of the few we never discussed using as a backup. Hendres is smart enough to have ditched our backup safe houses and will only use those she thinks I’m less likely to search. If she doesn’t show up at this one tonight, we’ll check one of the others tomorrow.”