The Palace Job (51 page)

"Screw you," Loch muttered, coughing. Guards had appeared from the trees, and stood in a loose semicircle around her team, crossbows raised. They were cloaked as well, but there was no mistaking the identical postures of the soulless creatures.

Dairy was holding very still, tears of frustration filling his eyes. Ululenia had a light scratch across her throat and a blade still pressed there to discourage tricks.

The man Loch had trained, the man she'd trusted with her life dozens of times, was holding the knife.

"Kail?" Loch coughed again, then saw the look in his eyes, the soulless snarl. She turned back to Silestin. "You bastard."

Silestin chuckled. "You remember all those stories about the
lapiscaela,
what they do to the prisoners? Turns out there's a grain of truth in there." He smiled at Kail. "And a man with time and resources can make use of that truth."

"You've got to be running low," Loch said, forcing herself back to her feet. "The ones you lost on the airship, the ones we cut down during the job..."

Silestin's glanced at the men with the crossbows, then shrugged. "I can always get more. A transfer here, a disappearance there... nobody ever misses a prisoner."

"You're tampering with their
sou/s,
" Loch said slowly. "What if the Voyancy found out about this?"

Silestin laughed. "The Voyancy? I
own
the Voyancy, thanks to you. You came along at
just
the right time. A little scare with the Imperials," he said in a singsong voice, gesturing at Icy, who returned his stare evenly, "a tragic betrayal that
proves
that Urujar like your Voyant Cevirt just can't be trusted, and suddenly I've got an eight-to-four majority and can pass any legislation I want. None of the seven other Learned would
dare
oppose me, and the Skilled don't have the nerve to spar with live steel." He snorted.

"I wonder if they'll feel that way when they see
this,"
Loch asked, and held up the ring she'd stripped from his hand when she handed him the book. It was gold, set with one large ruby. "Kiss your soul-stealing magic goodbye," she said, and wrenched the ruby from the socket.

There was a moment of silence through the clearing. The ruby fell to the ground, twinkling wanly in the pre-dawn light. "Kail," Silestin said pleasantly, "take her down."

The blow caught her between the shoulder blades before she could turn.

In the control room where Kail, Ululenia, and Desidora had not long ago disabled the personal-aura ward, Ghylspwr hung suspended in a curtain of shimmering light. Elkinsair watched him closely, pressing glowing crystals on the console and frowning from time to time.

"Kutesosh gajair'is!"

"
May
I tell you a story?" The satyr pressed another crystal, and the light around Ghylspwr changed color subtly. "If you are indeed one of the ancient kings, you may even know it yourself."

"Kutesosh gajair'is!"
Ghylspwr declared again, shivering in the magical field.

"Once upon a time," Elkinsair said, "the ancients were fighting the Glimmering Folk. The ancients were losing, and they realized that as long as they existed in the world, their enemies could enter the world as well. But if the ancients left, they could place a barrier between this world and the world of the Glimmering Folk. The ancients would be gone, but this world, and all the worlds it touches, would be safe."

Ghylspwr stopped shivering.
"Besyn larveth'is,"
he said, in a far different voice.

"I am certain you do," Elkinsair agreed. "As the story goes, a few heroes held the line while the rest of the ancients erected the barrier. And as the story goes, the greatest of these heroes was the prince of the ancients." Elkinsair smiled wistfully. "He wielded a magical hammer that carried the soul of his dead father, who had been the wisest king the ancients had ever known."

Ghylspwr was silent.

"They fought for a very long time against the Glimmering Folk and their minions," Elkinsair continued. "There were only a dozen ancient warriors left, and then there were only six, and then there was only the prince, fighting with his great hammer.
As the story goes,
the hammer was called
Galar-ros'pir,
which meant 'speaks like a great fire, in honor of the eloquence of the great king."

"Besyn larveth'is,"
Ghylspwr said quietly.

"Then the prince suffered a grievous blow," Elkinsair said, "and a
curious
thing happened. A light flashed from the hammer, and the prince's wound was healed. And then it happened again, and the light flashed again, and
again
the prince was healed. As the ancients erecting the barrier listened, they noticed something." Elkinsair smiled. "Each time the prince's wounds healed, the hammer became... how to put this delicately?
Less."

"
Kun-kabynalti osufuir'is."

Elkinsair chuckled. "How very true. The great and eloquent speech began to falter, the words growing simpler each time the prince was healed, until finally the ancients erected their barrier, and—as
the story goes—the
prince, struck with one last mortal wound, flung the hammer away, crying 'Father, it is enough. Let me go.' And he died just as the barrier sprang to life and drove the Glimmering Folk away, banning them from touching the ground of this world until they possessed a true soul."

"Besyn larveth'is."

"When one of the few mortals to witness this great battle and survive picked up the great hammer, its eloquence was gone, and it could only say a few phrases. The great king had bled away his very essence to save his son... who then died anyway." Elkinsair shook his head. "Such a tragedy."

"Kutesosh gajair'is."
It was a bare whisper.

"Such simple phrases.
I destroy the enemy. I protect life.
And my personal favorite—"

"Kun-kabynalti osufuir'is."

"
None shall die while I watch over them.
The irony is
so
beautiful." Elkinsair wiped at his eyes. "But do you know what fascinates me?" He leaned forward. "The notion that magic of the soul may be drained to grant power to another."

Ghylspwr went suddenly still.

"Oh," Elkinsair said in surprise, "did you think I had just come to tell a story? Oh, no, dear weapon." He pressed another crystal, and the light changed. "If your pathetic faculties can sense me, you know that I am born of the stray magic your people left behind. I enjoy my life, and I enjoy the power your lost magic gives me. I think it only natural that I wonder how much
more
powerful I might become if I could
steal
a bit more for myself."

Ghylspwr thrashed in the shimmering curtain of light.
"Kutesosh—"

"
Gajair'is,
yes, I know." Elkinsair pressed a few more crystals. "Hence my voluntary servitude of that fool Silestin, which lets me work around all this lovely magic. Sadly, the power here on the Spire is too pure for me—poison in my veins if I try to siphon it away. You, however, already gave your magic away once. It stands to reason that you can do it again." He pressed one last button, and the shimmering curtain began to flicker into random patterns. "With the proper encouragement." He stood, letting his robe fall open, and his horn flared a blinding white as he smiled in naked lust at Ghylspwr, who continued to struggle uselessly.

"Do you always talk to your toys?" came a voice from behind Elkinsair. He turned in irritation, then paled.

Ambassador Bi'ul raised an eyebrow, a dark slash over his shining eyes.

Elkinsair pulled his robe shut. "The Archvoyant has asked—"

"I thought you too intelligent to lie to me," Bi'ul said, ignoring Elkinsair and looking at Ghylspwr. "Leave us. I would speak with the trinket alone. We have..." Bi'ul paused, then smiled. "...unfinished business."

"You... you know—"

"Leave us," Bi'ul said, sparing Elkinsair a glance, "now. Any threat I make is infinitesimal compared to what I would actually
do
should you disobey my wishes."

Elkinsair nodded quickly and darted out of the room, looking back longingly at Ghylspwr before he shut the door.

Bi'ul smiled slowly. "At last."

"You stupid girl," Silestin sneered above her. "Did you
think
you could play me?"

Kail knelt on her back. One hand clutched a fistful of her hair and yanked her head back so that the other hand could hold the knife to her throat. Her sword was in the grass a few yards away.

"You were a
captain,"
Silestin went on, "when I was a
colonel.
Did you think I didn't
know
about scout-sign? Did you think that when I closed my fist around your man's soul, I'd tell him not to betray you by
saying
or
writing
anything and forget about your little hand signals?" He spat on the ground near her head.

"It was a risk," Loch gasped. "He told me it was the ring. I could free him, bring the Voyancy on you..."

"You got greedy," Silestin said, leaning down enough so that she could see his smile. "That's why I beat you, Isafesira. If you hadn't thought you could take me down with some elaborate double-cross, you'd be free right now. All you had to do was run." He glanced up, then made a gesture Loch couldn't see before turning his smile back her way. "I'm so glad you decided not to."

The soulless men approached, and at a gesture from Silestin, Kail dragged Loch back to her knees, though the knife remained pressed against her throat. "Here," Silestin said, "take a look."

Most of the soulless men moved into protective positions around Silestin or close guard positions around Ululenia and Dairy, while a pair marched up into the elven ship and came back with the real elf. He was a thin creature with pale green skin, and he wore green and brown clothing that looked to be woven from plants. Crystals of lavender and light blue were set into his face like tattoos, glowing softly. He was bound with iron shackles, and his face was tight with pain.

"You did all this to get the
buyer?"
Loch asked in disbelief, her voice still tight as the knife threatened to draw blood.

Silestin sniffed. "Greedy
and
shortsighted." He gestured, and the soulless men dragged the elf closer. "Do you know what's going to happen today?" He pointed at the ruby lying on the ground. "Every Voyant just got an emergency summons indicating a threat to the Republic. When they get to the Hall of the Voyancy, they're going to learn that the Empire is preparing to launch a devastating attack, and that they've already tortured one of the elves to death in order to gain ancient magic to use against us." He grinned. "I didn't anticipate you activating the weapon I've had Elkinsair and Bi'ul working on, but that plays well as Imperial sabotage that
luckily
revealed a failsafe weapon left by the ancients."

"You bastard." Loch shut her eyes for a long moment. "You're going to start a war."

"Actually," Silestin chuckled,
"you
are. The elves only deal with those they trust. In order to lure one of them out of hiding, I needed someone to steal that book and then try to sell it in good faith. You think I couldn't have locked down my palace to stop you from escaping once I learned about the breach?"

"We escaped." Loch's voice broke.

"You were
allowed
to escape. That ring you just broke? It only sends the emergency message if the user believes in the rightness of his cause with the utmost conviction, and Elkinsair never managed to crack that for me. But
you
believed that what you were doing was for the best, didn't you? When the elves find one of their own killed and mutilated with Imperial soldiers dead nearby as well, they'll unleash the power of the forests on the Empire. When the Voyancy gets this message, they'll believe anything I tell them." He shook his head, frowning as he thought it over. "A loyal soldier who deserted during the war, then spent all these years planning an act of sabotage as the first strike in the Empire's attack upon the Republic. So sad. I doubt the history books will be kind."