Брайан Макклеллан - Sins of Empire

The fort had survived a withering bombardment by the Kez fleet during the Fatrastan Revolution. It would, she assured herself, hold up again.

A messenger touched her arm. “Lady Flint, Colonel Olem says to tell you that the Dynize ambassador has returned to his ship.”

“Right,” Vlora said, jogging up the steps to the easternmost star on the fortress and standing on her tiptoes to look out to sea. She took a hit of powder, relishing the brief rush of sorcery and adrenaline before focusing on the ships. Sailors and soldiers stood stoically at attention. She was able to pick out Ka-sedial up on the forecastle of the flagship, speaking to what looked to be the captain. “I’d give my left arm to know what that asshole is saying right now.”

“No,” a voice said over her shoulder. “Maybe a little finger. Never an arm.”

After everything that had happened, Vlora was still surprised to find Taniel standing behind her. Not Tampo the lawyer, but Taniel himself in the flesh. He wore a demure black coat and hat, his collar high. Just behind him stood a Palo woman, shorter even than Vlora and still as slight as she’d been ten years ago. She wore a black duster, her hands buried in the sleeves, and when Vlora locked eyes with her she winked.

“Hello, Ka-poel. Good to see you.” Which might have been a stretch. Vlora had discovered long ago that being warm to the woman who wound up with her ex-fiancé was decidedly difficult, even if she did save Adro from a mad god.

Ka-poel dipped her head, giving a little wave.

“Still haven’t figured out a way to talk with your sorcery?”

Ka-poel gave a tiny shrug, hands open, as if to say “what can I do?”

“She’s experimented,” Taniel said. “It’s not easy to do, and even harder to sustain.”

Vlora gave an involuntary shudder, wondering what “experimentation” entailed for a blood sorcerer, then looked around, suddenly alarmed. “You know, my men here were the core of the Seventh and Ninth, Tamas’s own. There’s a good bet plenty of them remember what you look like – and you’re not the most inconspicuous pair.”

“When people think that you’re dead,” Taniel said, “their eyes walk right past you. At least in my experience. Besides, Ka-poel’s too tired to give me a new face on such short notice and it’s worth the risk of being recognized. We have to talk.”

Vlora growled under her breath. “I thought we already did that.”

“Yeah, well, things have changed. I was hoping you’d reconsider my offer.”

“It’s a bit late,” Vlora said. “The moment the Dynize arrived Lindet offered me a king’s ransom to become defender of Landfall. I’m in command of the entire garrison.”

Taniel glanced out to sea nervously. “Yes, I saw that.”

“And I’m a bit busy.” She stopped, squinting at Ka-poel. “I met my second bone-eye today. Cold bastard by the name of Ka-sedial. Stared down Lindet like she was a common strumpet. Do you know anything about him? Does he have the same kind of power you do?”

A short, silent communication passed between Ka-poel and Taniel before her hands began to move, firing off a rapid series of gestures that Vlora couldn’t even hope to follow. Taniel watched them carefully before translating: “Ka-sedial isn’t nearly as powerful as she is, but he’s in Lindet’s class of cunning and ruthless. He’s not to be trusted.”

“I hadn’t planned on it.” Vlora wasn’t particularly surprised that Ka-poel already knew who Ka-sedial was, but she made a mental note to ask later exactly how she knew. Taniel and Ka-poel were just a whole box full of useful information. If they bothered to share it.

The hand gestures, and the translation, continued. “Ka-sedial knows there’s a bone-eye in the city. He’s been trying to suss her out since the moment he landed. He’s more experienced than she is, and it’s taking all of her power to hide.”

That, more than anything else, alarmed Vlora. Ka-poel was the strongest mortal sorcerer Vlora had ever encountered and she was hiding from Ka-sedial? Perhaps it was out of expedience more than anything else, but the fact that Ka-sedial was making it difficult on her did not reassure. “Is he going to cause problems?”

“Now?” Taniel said. “Bone-eyes are not Privileged. They don’t have access to fire and lightning. Their sorcery is a slow burn, a patient gathering of resources. If it’s a fight he wants, he won’t be any real threat today. If he remains in the city, he will be an immense pain in the ass.”

“So what you’re saying is that even if we avoid a fight, and have some peace talks with the Dynize, he could eventually do some serious damage without his army?”

“Pretty much.”

“Can you counter him?” she asked Ka-poel.

Ka-poel gave another one of those shrugs. “She’ll try,” Taniel said, “but she’s self-taught. Ka-sedial is a trained bone-eye with sixty years of experience in blood sorcery.”

Vlora rubbed her temples. None of this was information she wanted to hear. But, she reflected, important intelligence doesn’t always come in the form of good news. She opened her mouth, only to have Taniel cut her off. “We’re not just here about hiring you,” he said, “or to feed you bits about the Dynize. We need information. What happened with the delegation?”

Vlora was half-tempted not to tell him. He’d made it clear before that he had his own agenda, and it was directly opposed to Lindet – who was, once again, Vlora’s employer. “I should probably arrest you,” Vlora said.

Ka-poel pointed at her and waved her hands flat in front of her as if to say “no.”

“You’re not going to,” Taniel translated.

“Yeah, I picked up on that.” He was right. She saw what he did to those dragonmen. She should be trying to get him on her side, just like she did with Styke – the Dynize might be a problem for both Lindet and the Palo, and she needed assets against a possible invasion – but a stubborn part of her whispered that she didn’t need his help. She forced herself to look past her annoyance. “It didn’t go well. Ka-sedial came in alone and as much as told Lindet that he wanted Dynize property back or he was going to take it by force.”

“What kind of property?”

“Something called the godstones. Lindet wouldn’t tell me what they are, but they sound like some kind of sorcerous artifact.”

Taniel inhaled sharply, and Ka-poel pulled her top lip back. They exchanged a long look, before Taniel uttered one, drawn-out word. “Shit.”

Vlora turned her attention briefly to the soldiers scurrying around in the fort yard below them, and the gun crews bringing powder and cannonballs up to the fixed guns, before turning back to Taniel. “What do you mean, shit?”

“You remember those theories I told you about – why the Dynize are here?”

“Yeah, I remember you wouldn’t tell me about them,” Vlora snapped.

“This is one of those theories,” Taniel said with a grimace. “What did Lindet say?”

“She told him no, but that she’d think about it.”

Ka-poel tapped her temple with one finger, shook her head, then made an expansive gesture. Taniel translated: “She’s not going to give them to Ka-sedial. She’s just buying time.”

“For what?” Vlora demanded.

“For you to prepare for the invasion.”

As much as Vlora had been fearing a Dynize landing, she didn’t honestly believe that they’d actually do it. There were a thousand reasons, foremost among them that Fatrasta was still closely tied with the Nine. The fortunes of entire royal families were tied up in Fatrastan businesses and any war would bring the Nine into it in short order. “If the Dynize invade, they’ll bring the Nine down on them. Surely their spies will have told them that.”