Part 9 (2/2)

She felt more than heard his snort of derision. ”A cold, calculating choice on the part of my younger self, and it gave me a marriage with exactly those same qualities. But there are other alliances that can be forged outside of marriage, A'Hirzg, if one is careful. And interested.” His hand was still on hers, his fingers pressing.

”I've always been extremely careful about my alliances, Archigos. That's something I learned early on.”

He nodded. They were near the dance floor now, the music masking their voices. ”I understand you will be giving a fealty oath to Hirzg Fynn at the Besteigung tomorrow?”

”Ah,” she said. ”You have sources close to the Hirzg.”

Under the salt-and-pepper beard, the man smiled. ”Knowing what the powerful know is a survival tactic, A'Hirzg, as I'm sure you realize.” For several moments they walked along in silence around the edge of the floor. Couples swayed near them to a gavotte. ”I also hear from Nessantico that the young Kraljiki is not well,” he said. Allesandra said nothing. ”The rumors that have come to me say that the Council of Ca' in Nessantico might consider the twins Sigourney ca'Ludovici or Donatien ca'Sibelli as successors should Audric die. They're second cousins to Audric, I believe.” A breath. A smile. ”As are you.”

Allesandra stared blandly back at the man. Dancers moved past them. ”As is Fynn,” she answered finally.

”Yes, but you are the eldest. And you have the advantage of having lived there; you know Nessantico as your brother does not. And perhaps there are those in Nessantico who might recognize strength when they see it and desire a strong presence on the Sun Throne. Someone stronger than either Sigourney or Donatien.” He leaned close to her and lowered his voice to a husky whisper. ”For that matter, there are those here who would prefer you to wear the crown that is currently on Fynn's head.”

”You speak treason again, Archigos?” she asked, just as quietly.

”I speak truth, A'Hirzg.”

”And those here that you speak of. Would you be among those, Archigos?”

His fingers tightened on hers. ”I would. Perhaps . . . perhaps it is possible for both the Coalition and the Faith to even become one again-under the right leaders.”

The right Archigos being yourself, of course . . . Allesandra watched the dancers on the floor, moving through their intricate and preordained steps. What does he really know? What does he really want? She didn't know how to answer him. She didn't know if he knew about the message she'd been sent from Nessantico, or if he'd perhaps received something similar. She didn't know whether Semini was a potential ally or her enemy-and the Archigos could be a terrible enemy, as the skeletons of Numetodo heretics hanging in the gibbets near the Brezno Temple could attest.

The ice was gone to water in her drink. She gave the gla.s.s to a pa.s.sing servant and smiled at the Archigos. ”My vatarh believed that there would be one Holdings again-when he sat on the Sun Throne as Kraljiki,” she told him. ”That's what I believe also, Archigos: that a Hirzgai could also be the Kralji. And I . . .” She lifted the hand that had held the gla.s.s. She could see cool, glistening drops of water clinging to her fingers. ”When last I checked, I was not Hirzgin.”

”No, you are not,” Semini answered. ”But-”

She cut him off even as he opened his mouth again. ”No, I am not,” she said. ”That seems to be Cenzi's Will. You wouldn't intend to thwart Him, would you, Archigos?” She gave him no chance to respond. She removed her hand from his arm and gave him the sign of Cenzi. ”Thank you for the drink and for the conversation, Archigos,” she said. ”You've given me much to think about. If . . . if something would happen to, well, change things, I know that you and I might make excellent allies. Certainly you are a far more competent Archigos than the one the Nessantican Faith has named. Kenne never impressed me.”

She saw the pleasure in his face as she said that, and he nodded slightly. ”I'm flattered, A'Hirzg.”

”No,” she told him, ”it's I who should be flattered. Now . . . you should find Francesca, and I must go be my husband's wife and the A'Hirzg, and pretend not to notice when the A'Gyula slips away for the night.”

Karl ca'Vliomani.

VARINA HANDED KARL the gla.s.s ball as Mika watched. Varina's touch lingered on Karl's hand for a moment before she released him, and she gave him a smile that was tinged with sadness. Her face seemed more heavily lined than he remembered, as if she'd aged suddenly in the last month.

They were in the meeting hall of the Numetodo House, where once a week the various Numetodo would give reports on their research. There were empty chairs set neatly in rows in front of the small dais on which they stood.

Karl hadn't mentioned to Mika his visit to the Firenzcian Amba.s.sador the other day; evidently Varina hadn't either, since Mika hadn't commented on it.

”It's just a ball, right?” Mika asked as Karl hefted the globe in his palm. ”Though a fairly well-crafted one.” It was heavy and well-cast-Karl could see no air bubbles or defects in the gla.s.s: the lens of the sphere gave him a distorted, warped view of the hall. ”Do you find it unusual or notable in any other way?”

Karl shrugged. ”No. It's a true gla.s.swright's work, or an apprentice's proof-work, but otherwise . . .”

Mike grinned. ”Indeed. What I want you to do, Karl, is speak the word 'open' in Paeti and then toss the ball to me.”

Karl hefted the gla.s.s again. ”Oscail,” he said, and underhanded the small globe in Mika's direction. What happened next astonished him.

When the gla.s.s ball touched Mika's hand, a coruscation of blue-white flared, sending black shadows dancing around the Numetodo hall, painting momentary crazed black shadows on the back wall and causing Karl to shade his eyes belatedly. He heard Varina's quick laugh and a handclap of delight. Karl blinked, trying to see through the globules of fading afterimages that haunted his vision. ”By all the Moitidi . . . You two have been working, I see.”

”Not me,” Mika answered. ”It's been Varina alone.” He handed the globe back to Karl-it was simply gla.s.s again. ”If the Westlanders were able to enchant objects with the Scath c.u.mhacht, the way you and Ana said Mahri did, then we knew it was possible. And not only that-Mahri gave Ana an enchanted object that she could control by speaking the right word. Anyone could use the magic as long as they know the release word.”

Varina was still smiling. She was rubbing at a long, scabbed wound on her forearm. ”We knew it was possible; the rest was simply a matter of figuring out the formula to do it.”

”Varina's finally managed to puzzle out the sequence,” Mika added. ”She swore me to secrecy; said she wanted to surprise you. The spell's complicated, and takes more time and more energy than you might think. Compared to our own spells, something like this is expensive and far more of a drain on the body than anyone expected, but . . .” He nodded happily. ”It's reproducible. Finally. Varina says she could teach us, and either of us could do the same.”

Karl glanced at Varina, who nodded without saying anything. She held his gaze almost defiantly. He tossed the ball up in the air. ”That's impressive, Varina. It truly is. But a flash of light is hardly a weapon.”

”Theoretically, any spell within the arcana could be stored in any object: offensive, defensive, whatever,” Varina answered. There was heat in her words. ”Theoretically. Practically, well, not yet. I used the light spell because it's the first and simplest thing we teach an initiate, so it seemed best.” She shook her head. There were white strands in her brown hair that Karl didn't remember from even a week ago-had they been there all along? ”Look, it's a matter of binding the spell to the object and creating a trigger to activate it-covering the object in the energy of the Scath c.u.mhacht the way you'd wrap a mistfruit in paper. After that, it's as if the object is an extension of the spellcaster, though the object itself has to be of good quality or it can't survive the strain. It took me a while to understand that. But . . .” She sighed, spreading her hands wide. ”Just putting that simple spell in an object was incredibly exhausting, Karl. You won't be able to imagine just how exhausting until you try it yourself. The process took me three full turns of the gla.s.s, and afterward I had to rest for another day to recover. Even now, I still feel the drain on my energy, and I wonder what else it might have cost.” She bit her lower lip, brushed stray wisps of whitened hair behind her ears. ”You said that Archigos Ana claimed that old Mad Mahri gave her an enchantment that could literally stop time?”

Karl nodded. ”That's what she told me-it was how she s.n.a.t.c.hed Allesandra from her vatarh. And Mahri was able to switch his body for mine, when I was in the Bastida. His magic . . .”

”. . . was utterly beyond ours, then,” she finished for him. ”I know. The reports from the war in the h.e.l.lins hint at the same. The nahualli of the Westlanders can do more than we can, but . . . I've just proved that their X'in Ka is no more G.o.d-driven than the Ilmodo, no matter what they claim or believe.” She pointed to the gla.s.s ball. ”If I can do this, then my bet is that we can also learn to do the same with more potent spells. It's just a matter of learning the right formulae to bind the Scath c.u.mhacht to the physical object. It can be done. We can do it.”

Karl remembered Mahri, who had befriended him and Ana when they thought they were lost, and who had turned out to be not ally, but enemy. Mahri's ravaged, one-eyed, and furrowed face swam before him as he gazed at Varina. He lifted the gla.s.s ball again. ”So anyone could have done this spell. . . .” His voice trailed off. The explosion . . . the great flash of terrible light . . . Ana's torn body . . . Magic without hearing or seeing anyone casting the spell . . . Maybe you've been wrong; maybe you've been looking in the wrong direction . . . ”Could what happened to Ana have been . . . ?” Karl couldn't finish the question. It remained lodged in his throat, heavy and solid.

But both Varina and Mika nodded in answer.

”Yes,” Mika told him. ”That's the rest of what we wanted to talk about. Varina and I have already had the same thought. Westlander involvement can't be ruled out in Ana's death, and frankly, what happened there makes it seem likely to me. But why, Karl? Why not a.s.sa.s.sinate the Kraljiki or the Regent, who are directly responsible for the war? Why kill Ana, of all people?”

Because it would be revenge for Mahri. Revenge. That, he could understand. ”Right now, I don't know,” Karl hedged. ”But someone here in Nessantico does, I'm certain, and I'm going to find that person.” He took a long breath. They were both staring at him, and he hated the pity he saw in Mika's eyes, and the deep empathy in Varina's. ”But that's for later,” he told them. ”For now, I want you to teach me this nahualli trick. Let me see how it works.”

Varina seemed to start to say something, then closed her mouth. Mika glanced at her, at Karl. ”I think I'll leave that to the two of you,” he said. ”Alia wanted me to bring some lamb home for dinner, and the butcher will be closing his shop soon.” He made his farewells quickly and left them.

For too long after the door shut, neither of them spoke. When they did speak, it was together.

”I'm really sorry about the other day . . .”

”I've been thinking about what you said . . .”

They laughed, a little uneasily, at the collision of apologies. ”You first,” Karl told her, but she shook her head. ”All right,” he said. ”I'll start then. You said that my . . . affection for Ana had blinded me. I've been thinking about that, and-”

”Stop, Karl” she said. ”Don't say anything. I was angry and I said things that I had no right to say. I'd . . . I'd like you to forget them.”

”Even if they were true?”

Her cheeks reddened. ”You loved Ana. I know that. Whatever relations.h.i.+p the two of you had . . .” She shrugged. ”It's not my concern.” She stepped forward, in front of him, close enough that he could see the flecks of color in her pupils and the fine lines at their corners. She reached down and closed his fingers around the gla.s.s ball he was still holding, both her hands cupping his. ”I can show you how to enchant this. You just have to be patient because-”

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