Empire
Talu was still giving Math an assessing look when Lieutenant Wanimar asked, “What should we do about them, Commander?” She hooked a thumb toward the cluster of simultaneously frightened and indignant nobles.
“Oh, them,” Talu said. “I’d forgotten about them. Apparently, the nobility can keep their mouths shut with the right incentive. I’ll have to remember that in the future.” The commander smirked. “Kill them.”
Math looked away as the knights set to work. He couldn’t watch. He wouldn’t be able to stop himself from doing something foolish.
Given the noise, at least a few people tried to fight.
They didn’t last long.
Math sought out Kai and found her standing close by. Her horror mirrored his.
The next five minutes were possibly the hardest and most difficult of Math’s whole life.
He was still injured. The knights were practically begging him to try something. They were ready for him if he did. All Math could do was bide his time, wait for the right moment.
Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is survive.
If Alik had still been alive, Math would’ve called him a thousand names and kicked his ass. The last thing in the world that this felt like was bravery.
He looked up through tears to realize Kai stood beside him again, her eyes full of unspoken questions he couldn’t answer.
Talu gave Math that fond, wry look again, the one that once would have made Math so pleased and now made him seethe.
His examination of Kai was more speculative, and much more openly antagonistic.
He headed up to the dais of the imperial throne, although he was apparently not so completely disloyal as to try sitting on it.
“Hurry this up!” Talu called to his people when they finished with their massacre. “You’ve had your fun. Now we have a schedule to keep.”
Math felt something brush up against his arm and looked down to see Kai, face pressed against his arm as though she were tired, in the middle of crying, or both.
What he felt from her, however, was nothing but anger and determination.
He didn’t react as he felt her fingers behind his back, following the line of his arm down toward the cuffs. Something clicked.
“Hey, get away from him!” a knight called out a second before Kai was dragged away. She did her best impression of an upset young woman, but didn’t fight back.
Math banged the back of his head against the wall. So close.
Math searched faces when he could see them, armor designs when he couldn’t. Most of them, he didn’t recognize. One of those knights stood in the middle of the room and circled Land spells to break up the marble flooring and move aside the resulting rubble.
Gradually, an underlayer of stone was revealed.
Kai made a catlike hissing noise.
The revealed floor had been graved with a travel circle, exactly like the one they’d used in the tower to take them to Lomar. Unlike that one, however, a piece of this graving was missing, a thin wedge cut away from the pattern.
This transport gate wouldn’t have shown up on the map, because it hadn’t been complete.
Someone handed Commander Talu an object wrapped in fabric, which he unwrapped to reveal the missing piece. He carefully set the piece down into the empty space, fiddled with it a bit until there was a click. He stepped back from the pattern, frowning.
“I’m not sure if that worked,” Commander Talu admitted. “I suppose we’ll find out in a few minutes.”
“I really hate being right,” Math said bitterly. “I was honestly kind of hoping you really were a Kaliri spy. Better that than working for Sanistral Lomar.”
Kai’s anger drained away, replaced with horror.
Talu glanced at his knights to see who might be paying attention. “We have compatible goals,” the commander explained.
“Whatever he has promised you,” Kai said, “whatever sweet words he has whispered in your ear, I promise you that his vows are nothing but lies.”
Talu shrugged. “He’s never failed to deliver before—”
The pattern glowed. Math made one last effort to pull free from his bindings, but whatever Kai had done, it hadn’t been enough.
The glow increased to sunspot brightness, forcing everyone to shield their eyes. When they could see again, Sanistral Lomar and a dozen of his undead soldiers stood in the throne room.
“Well done, Commander Talu,” King Sanistral said. He didn’t so much step off the pattern as float off.
The undead spread out immediately. One grabbed Kai. Another one pulled Math toward the center of the room.
Math caught Kai’s eye and she shook her head in warning. “Don’t,” she mouthed silently. Don’t try anything. Don’t fight.
This still wasn’t the right time. Just survive.
“Very well done,” King Sanistral murmured, as his gaze lingered on Kai. He touched her cheek with a finger that looked alive. The dead guard holding her arms kept her from flinching away. “Are you ready to help?”
She scoffed. “How could you possibly think I ever would?”
King Sanistral and his guards, almost as one, stared at Math.
The implication wasn’t subtle.
“If you kill him,” Kai spat, “I will never aid you.”
Sanistral nodded. “Understood, but you’re not thinking this through.
If I kill him, then you only have one way to restore him to life: by helping me.
It’s your decision, but wouldn’t it be more reasonable to save him such excruciating agony and bow to the inevitable from the start?
One way or the other, you will do as I demand.
” He paused before delivering the fatal blow. “After all, you love him.”
Kai closed her eyes.
“Don’t,” Math told her. “He finishes that ritual, and we all die anyway—”
One of Talu’s knights punched him in the mouth. Math tasted iron; the world flashed white. He couldn’t be certain how much time passed during that flash, but people were in the same relative positions, so probably not more than a few seconds.
Kai was staring at Math with a look of infinite, inconsolable sadness, her eyes bright with tears.
“Don’t do it,” Math whispered.
“I’m sorry,” she mouthed back, too quiet to be heard.
King Sanistral nodded firmly, as if she’d given him an answer. He gestured to Commander Talu. “Did you bring what I asked?”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Talu said. On cue, a knight came forward, carrying several large tree branches, hit by lightning or damaged in an explosion.
They dripped a green fluid more like the consistency of blood than sap.
The leaves resembled oaks. “The battalions we sent after the Queens destroyed Ash.”
“Impressive,” Sanistral said, and sounded like he meant that sincerely.
“They gave their lives to do it.” Commander Talu’s expression was hard to read.
Math couldn’t tell if he was pleased or angry at the outcome of that encounter.
He motioned for the knight carrying the branches to hand them over to one of Sanistral’s people.
“Fortunately, we assume the Queen of Oaks survived, if injured.”
Math scowled. Part of him hated how close the Idallik Council of Commanders had come to making the right call. If they had killed both Queens, Sanistral’s plans would have been ruined.
“A few branches would not be sufficient for the ritual plans you showed me in Lomar,” Kai commented. “You would need the Queen herself.”
Sanistral gave Kai an indulgent smile. “You’re right, my dear. But you’ll find a few branches are more than sufficient for a curse. Her only chance of escaping it will be to locate these branches and destroy them. That means she’ll have to come to me.”
Kai’s eyes narrowed. “You were never planning to gain her cooperation, were you?”
“Of course not. The Parnathi are the competition. Fortunately, I don’t require her cooperation. She is but a single piece of a much grander design.”
Commander Talu cleared his throat. “Is that all, Your Majesty?”
Math rolled his eyes. Sure, he didn’t work for Sanistral. Clearly.
“Yes. It is. Excellent work, Commander. Always a pleasure to deal with a professional. The city—and the empire, for that matter—is yours.”
Talu inclined his head. “Not yet. First, we’ll need to repel ‘a Kaliri invasion.’” He gave a knowing smile to Sanistral, who returned it. “That should be more than enough of a distraction to keep anyone from paying attention to you.”
Math narrowed his eyes. So Talu had been telling the truth. It wasn’t an invasion, only meant to look like one. In the aftermath, Talu could claim that the Kaliri had taken the palace, killed the regent, and conveniently murdered all of Talu’s political rivals.
Depending on how Talu had arranged matters, it was possible that the Kaliri wouldn’t even make an appearance.
But no. Math immediately corrected himself, thinking of the real Kaliri assassins who had tried to kill him. Talu’s deal with the Kaliri was real, and he’d need real bodies to present as proof of his victory.
Sanistral gave Talu an ambivalent nod. He didn’t give a damn about Talu’s plans to make himself king.
“We’ll be on the roof. We are not to be disturbed—unless it’s by an enormous oak tree. Do allow that one through.” Sanistral held out a hand to Kai. “Shall we?”
Kaiataris raised her chin even as she placed her hand in Sanistral’s. She didn’t look at Math. Her face betrayed nothing of the loathing that boiled within as she nodded to her former teacher. Those emotions were mixed with determination, resignation, and acceptance.
Kai would do whatever was necessary to stop the ritual. If that meant her death, so be it.
“What about the prisoners?” Commander Talu asked.
“As long as you keep them out of my way, do whatever you like.”
“Sanis…” Kai warned.
“Fine,” the grim lord allowed. “Please continue to see to the young man’s safety. We do not wish our lady to be upset.”
Talu bowed his head in acquiescence.
Sanistral studied Math—a collector examining an interesting specimen—before adding: “I wouldn’t dream of telling you how to do your job, of course, but why is he still in armor?”
Talu’s smile was flat. “We didn’t have time to remove it.”
“Ah.” With that, the grim lord lost interest.
Sanistral gestured toward the front of the throne room, and pieces of marble immediately began rearranging themselves, stacking together to form a stairway leading up to a seemingly new door in the ceiling.
He flicked open the doors—again without touching them.
What lay beyond was, perhaps not surprisingly, another flight of stairs leading farther up.
The negligent ease with which Sanistral cast his magic could only mean one thing: at some point, probably centuries before, Sanistral had graved the walls of the Bashan repository to create a second domain.
Sanistral led Kai upstairs. The stone doors slammed shut behind them.