released the spell entirely, almost falling to the stone flags of the court as the X’in Ka flowed out from him and the world surged into motion again.
He hurried away toward Oldtown, toward the bed into which he would collapse for the next few days.
Ana ca’Seranta
“…a snake without its head cannot strike,” Mahri said.
Ana shook her head. “I don’t know what you mean,” she started to say, but a sudden disorientation came over her in that moment, and Mahri vanished while the teni in the vestry with her lurched back to sudden life.
The disorientation felt oddly familiar. She couldn’t quite decide why.
She was holding the pouch in her hand. The leather was supple and worn; the weight inside was heavy and she remembered the glow of it, the color of a dying sun behind clouds. She tucked it quickly into a pocket of her green robes. None of the a’teni noticed; none of them were looking at her. None of them had looked at her since she’d left the High Lectern. Colin ca’Cille, Alain ca’Fountaine, Joca ca’Sevini, all the others: they were old men, all of them. At least a few of them had har-bored aspirations to be Archigos themselves, and they would all rather have been in their own cities than trapped here in Nessantico with the Hirzg’s army approaching. She could feel their resentment, palpable.
“You’re all blind,” she told them. They glanced at her now, startled.
“You’re so folded into yourselves that you can’t see,” she told them. Her hands were trembling, as if from the exhaustion of a spell. “I need all of you to leave me now. Send Kenne in to me as you go.”
“Archigos,” one of them said: ca’Sevini of Chivasso. From his expression, her title seemed to taste like fish oil. “You’ve already made a terrific mistake today with the Admonition you gave the ca’-and-cu’.
You’re making another now. The Kraljiki may have been able to force your ascension on us in this terrible time, but if you have any hope of ever being more than just Archigos in title, then you need our cooperation. Showing arrogance isn’t the way to gain it-not when someone else still claims the title of Archigos. You can’t dismiss us as if we were inconvenient e’teni.”
Ana had no answer for him, or, rather, she had too many.
She managed, if not to smile, to at least not frown. “You’re right, and I apologize, A’Teni ca’Sevini. Cenzi knows, I deserved your rebuke, and I thank you for having the courage to speak bluntly. Please, I ask all of you for forgiveness: I know we must work together, especially now.”
She didn’t know if it mollified them. A few nodded; ca’Sevini actually showed his few remaining teeth in a brief smile. She put away the service vestments and left the vestry as quickly as she could, calling Kenne-newly returned to the city-to her. “You saw no one outside, Kenne?” she asked. “Mahri?”
Kenne shook his head, a bit wide-eyed. “No, Archigos. There was no one in the hall but us. Why?”
She shook her head. “Never mind. I need you to do something for me. . ”
Karl hugged her as soon as Kenne closed the door behind him. “Are you sure it’s a good thing for a Numetodo to be seen coming to the Archigos’ office?” he asked. “People might talk, especially after your Admonition today.”
“At this point I’m beyond caring,” she told him.
He laughed, throatily, and pulled her to him. She allowed herself to sink into the embrace. Karl’s arms tightened around her, and she closed her eyes so that there was only that hug, that comfort, that moment.
Karl finally pulled away, and she opened her eyes again to see him looking around the room: the huge desk behind which Dhosti had sat for many years, that ca’Cellibrecca had desecrated with his presence most recently; the throne-chair at one end of the large room where Dhosti had sat for formal receptions of visitors; the gilded images of the Moitidi carved into the cornices; the massive broken globe, gilded and ornate and held in puffs of wooden clouds, looming over the main doors.
“Impressive,” he said. “Have you tried out the throne yet?”
She shook her head. “This isn’t the time for jests, Karl,” she told him. “Right now, I need you to be the Envoy for the Numetodo.” She took his hands. “Mahri came to me, after the service.”
Karl scowled. His hands squeezed hers. “Traitorous bastard. Handing us over like that. .”
She shook her head. She touched the leather pouch tied to the belt of her robes, and she could feel the throbbing of the Ilmodo trapped within it. But she didn’t tell Karl about it or show him the small globe inside. She held back, and she wondered at that. “I’m not so certain. I thought the same after he handed us over to the gardai, but now. .”
She shivered and stepped back from Karl. “I don’t know what Mahri wants, or why he does what he does, but I think he knew that neither of us would be long imprisoned.”
Karl moved his jaw as if remembering the ache of the silencer.
“What did he want?”
Ana shrugged and dropped his hands. “I don’t know,” she said.
“Not really. He. . gave me something, but what it does. .” She shook her head, catching her upper lip in her teeth momentarily. “I won’t last as Archigos, Karl. I think Mahri knows that, and Kraljiki Justi, and ca’Cellibrecca and the rest of the a’teni. I’ve been given the title because none of the a’teni would take it right now, not with the strong possibility that ca’Cellibrecca might return as Archigos when this is all over. I’m just the False Archigos, the Kraljiki’s Archigos.”
“They can’t all feel that way.”
She nodded vigorously. “That’s the way nearly all of them are thinking. Yes, there are some teni who support me: U’Teni Dosteau-and I must promote him; that would be a small help-Kenne, most of the
e’teni and o’teni who were part of Archigos Dhosti’s staff, even a few of the u’teni. But the a’teni. .” A breath. “At best, they will do no more than they absolutely must just in case the Kraljiki
“And you want more than that.”
A smile emerged momentarily. “You know me better than I thought. Yes. I want more.”
“What can I do?”
“You started to teach me. I need you to show me all you can do, and I need you to bend the Divolonte with me. . ”
The war-teni had assembled, as ordered by their new Archigos, in the Stadia a’Sute. With one exception, none of the a’teni had been invited; in fact, those few who tried to enter were forcibly turned away by the Archigos’ staff and the Garde Kraljiki, who patrolled all the entrances.
The war-teni were seated at the north end of the stadia; on the athlete’s field below, they could see a small stage erected on the grass and the Archigos’ throne set to one side of it. When the wind-horns sounded Second Call, the doors to the stadia clanged shut even as the teni were saying their prayers. A few moments later, the Archigos herself emerged from one of the field doors, accompanied by the newly promoted A’Teni cu’Dosteau and a few others, one of them quickly recognizable to the teni who were from the city.
“One of your duties,” Archigos Ana said, addressing the war-teni, “is to protect those around you from the spells of the war-teni of the false Archigos. What I’d like you to do now is show me how well you can do that. I think some of you have already recognized Envoy ci’Vliomani, who came to Nessantico to represent the Numetodo everywhere in the Holdings. I’ve asked him here today to play the role of the enemy. On my command, he will attack me-the spell itself will be harmless, I assure you, but your task will be to stop his attack from touching me at all. Let’s see how well you perform. Each of you: I know you’ve been taught by A’Teni cu’Dosteau, as he once taught me. Go on-you may start your counter-spells now.”
