time, and he let the energy wrap about her extended hands. When it glowed bright, he took her hands once again, both their hands caught in the bath of Cenzi’s power. He let his attention drift out from himself, down from his hands and into hers. His eyes closed, he gazed outward with the illumination of the Ilmodo. The light reflected from the pool within her soul, and he found himself filled with mild jealousy at what he saw there.
He released her hands. The light faded. He felt himself dizzy suddenly, and he seated himself on the nearest chair. “So tiring,” he said.
“The Ilmodo becomes easier to shape as you age, but the demands on the body are worse.” Ana was watching him, but her hands were still held out. She seemed to notice it belatedly, dropping them to her sides.
“I felt you,” she said. “Like you were looking at me from the inside.”
“I was,” Dhosti answered. “And I can tell you that Cenzi hasn’t taken His power from you, even if you’ve lost the path to find it. He has indeed blessed you, Ana. And His blessing remains. It is there. Still.”
She had caught her upper lip in her teeth as he spoke, and he saw moisture gathering at the corners of her eyes. “Archigos-”
He raised his hand wearily, slumping back against the cushions of the chair. “Say nothing,” he said. “I know. I know you went to see Envoy ci’Vliomani after the Gschnas. I know you were with him when he was arrested, and that you went to see him at the Bastida. You are perhaps lovers. Ca’Rudka has told me.”
“We’re not lovers,” she said quickly, then dropped her head again.
“Not. .”
“Not yet,” he finished for her. “You find yourself drawn to him?”
She nodded.
“He’s handsome enough, charming enough, and intelligent enough,”
Dhosti said. “I was impressed by him the few times I met him, and the Numetodo chose well when they sent him to represent them to the Kraljica, even if he never had the chance to plead his case to her. I’m also told that he is betrothed to a woman back on the Isle of Paeti. Did he tell you that?”
Her eyes widened.
“I thought perhaps he had left out that bit of information,” the Archigos continued. “Her name is Kaitlin Mallaghan; beyond that I know nothing about her; after all, she doesn’t even have a ranked name, so it’s obvious who would gain the advantage from any marriage between them. But that name might be enough for you, eh? — to mention to Envoy ci’Vliomani when you see him next.” He stopped and pulled a chair alongside around so that it faced him. He patted the cushions.
“Sit, Ana. You look pale.”
She obeyed, moving as if he’d struck her. “Do you think. .” She swallowed hard. “. . that the envoy killed the Kraljica?”
Dhosti shook his head. “No, I don’t, no matter what ca’Cellibrecca says or what Numetodo trinket was found on ci’Recroix’s body. I don’t believe that any more than I believe U’Teni Estraven ca’Cellibrecca was also killed by Numetodo, as A’Teni ca’Cellibrecca is claiming.”
She took a long breath; he could see that she wanted to believe him. “Then who?”
Now it was Dhosti who shrugged. “I don’t know. I do know that I find it
“I didn’t want to be part of it.”
“I know you didn’t, but it was Cenzi’s decision to give you this burden, and you must carry it.”
“How?” she asked. “How, when even the simplest spells are hard for me?”
“The gift is still with you, Ana. Regain your faith, and the rest will return.”
“The Numetodo. . I
“And you wondered how Cenzi could allow that, didn’t you? And afterward, what happened?”
She ducked her head again. She gave the sign of Cenzi, an involuntary motion. “Since then, I haven’t been able to use the Ilmodo. Not as I once did.”
He reached over to her; she didn’t flinch this time as he touched her cheek, her neck. “Look at me, Ana,” he said, his fingers under her chin as if she were a child, and her head slowly lifted. “I’ve seen this before, with other teni who came into contact with the Numetodo and also found their belief shaken. This is nothing new, and it’s nothing permanent. Now you know what happens when faith falters. It’s a test that Cenzi has set to you. Cenzi has done this so you see His power, and so you return to Him even stronger than before. That’s all that’s required of you: you must truly believe in Him.”
“But the Numetodo don’t believe in Cenzi at all, and what I saw. . None of them had any teni-training. .”
“Trickery and misdirection,” he told her. “I know. I was once in a circus, and I saw ‘magic’ there, too.” He closed his eyes and spoke a harsh, sibilant word, lifting his fisted hand at the same time. He opened his eyes and his fist; there, dangling from his fingers, was a fine silver chain from which hung a shell of stone.
Ana gasped, her hand at the collar of her robes as if searching for something hidden underneath. “Trickery,” Dhosti told her again. “And hands that have been trained to deceive. I took your necklace, yes, but not with magic and not with the Ilmodo. It’s amazing how you never really lose the skill. You shouldn’t believe your eyes so much, Ana, but your soul.” He held out the chain to her, letting the chain pour into her palm over the shell. “That’s not a symbol that a teni should wear. Let me give you a better one.”
He reached around his own neck and removed the broken-globe pendant he wore, cast in gold and set with jewels. He offered it to her.
“Keep the shell the Envoy gave you,” he told her. “Let it remind you of what you saw with the Numetodo. But wear this instead, close to your heart.”
“I can’t,” she whispered.
“I insist.”
She closed her hand around the stone shell, then placed the chain in the pocket of her robe. She took the pendant with Cenzi’s symbol from Dhosti and placed it around her neck. The globe gleamed on
green cloth in the valley between her breasts.
Dhosti smiled. “Now, that looks far better on you than on me,” he said. He sighed. “Now, let’s talk about your luncheon with the Kraljiki.
There’s something you should tell him-it will be a gift from you to him. We don’t have much time. . ”
Orlandi ca’Cellibrecca
“Those who would bring down the Concenzia Faith are utterly without bounds and without remorse, and they would bring down Nessantico herself,” Orlandi thundered from the High Lectern of the Old Temple: Estraven’s temple. The teni who had served U’Teni Estraven were there, solemn in their green robes in the front rows, and the ca’-and-cu’ who had come to the service were arrayed in their finery behind them. Francesca sat with the family to Orlandi’s left, all of them in white mourning, Francesca’s face covered with a heavy veil so that her features were hidden. The Archigos was there as well, seated with his whore in the balcony to the right. Orlandi glared up at the dwarf, his thick, graying eyebrows lowered.
Orlandi gestured again at the casket before the altar where Estraven ca’Cellibrecca lay, the coffin closed because of the deteriorated condition of the body. “Look there,” Orlandi railed. His voice was in fine form this morning, blessed by Cenzi in this significant moment, roaring low like deep thunder throughout the temple. “The enemies of the state and of the Faith have struck down another of our finest, the husband of my own daughter, someone who may have one day worn the robes of the Archigos.”
There hadn’t been a chance of that, Orlandi knew. Estraven had been a competent follower, but that was all. Still, Orlandi saw ca’Millac’s lips purse at the comment, and that was pleasure enough. Orlandi gathered himself,
