A Magic of Twilight

against the Hirzg, his war-teni, and those who fight with him.”

Orlandi smiled and bowed his head from the carriage. The satisfaction continued to flow through him; nothing the Kraljiki said could upset him. “As you wish, Kraljiki.”

“Good. The Hirzg has overreached, and he will pay for his ambition. He has built his house, now let him live in it.” Justi glanced over his shoulder at the Hirzg’s entourage, moving up the Avi toward their encampment. The hillsides were sullen with the gray clouds overhead, but Orlandi didn’t care.

He had seen the sun there. He had been given his answer.

Sergei ca’Rudka

“They can’t truly siege the town until they have all western gates blocked. That means the Hirzg either has a hidden force approaching us from Montbataille Pass-which wouldn’t surprise me-or he intends to have at least two battalions ford the Clario north or south of the town. My bet would be south, since the river’s less wild there, but we can’t rule out a northern crossing. We’ll need forces here and here, and possibly here as well.”

“Commandant?”

Sergei glanced up from the maps of Passe a’Fiume and the surrounding area to see his aide ce’Falla at the door. Ca’Montmorte and the other offiziers and chevarittai in the room continued to stare down at the maps. “Did you fetch the Archigos for me, Aris?” he asked, his index finger still pressed to the yellow parchment. “I was beginning to wonder. We really need his input on the war-teni.”

“I can’t find the Archigos, Commandant,” ce’Falla said. “I don’t think. .” He stopped. Swallowed. “I don’t think he’s inside the town walls. None of the e’teni in his retinue know where he is, and his u’teni are gone as well, and there are reports that the temple gate in the outer wall was found unlocked.”

Sergei suddenly felt as if he’d swallowed a live coal. “Get others searching,” he called to the others. “We need to know what’s happened.”

A turn of the glass later, it was apparent that ca’Cellibrecca had fled Passe a’Fiume, and Sergei reluctantly informed the Kraljiki. “The Archigos is probably with Hirzg ca’Vorl now,” Sergei said to the Kraljiki, who stared out into the night from a window, his thoughts unguessable.

The Kraljiki had taken residence in the villa of Passe a’Fiume’s Comte; from the tower that rose well above most of the buildings of the town, Sergei could glimpse the fires on the mountainside beyond the Kraljiki.

A table in the middle of the room was spread with copies of the maps that decorated Sergei’s office. “Those barricading the walls near the temple heard Ilmodo-chanting,” Sergei continued, “and there were strange flashes of light from the windows-about a turn of the glass after supper, according to the servants.”

“Trust ca’Cellibrecca not to miss his supper, even for treason,”

Justi muttered. Sergei couldn’t see the scowl, but he could hear it. The Kraljiki shook his head. “He will never sit as Archigos in Nessantico again. I swear that. I don’t care what I have to do-ca’Cellibrecca won’t profit from this.”

“I will help you make certain of that,” Sergei told him.

“Will you?” Justi turned from the window. He stood over the desk in the middle of the room, littered with papers and maps. “And how will you accomplish that, Commandant? As much as I hate to admit it, we have lost one of the edges of our sword and the Hirzg knows it. There’s no hope now that he will accept my terms of parley.”

“May I speak frankly, Kraljiki?”

The Kraljiki snorted. He lifted his hands in invitation. “Please.”

Sergei paused, wondering if he truly wanted to do this. He took a long breath. “Kraljiki, I know who killed your matarh.”

He watched the Kraljiki’s face stiffen, then the man waved a hand.

“Of course. The painter ci’Recroix. .”

“I know who hired the painter, Kraljiki.”

Justi’s mouth closed audibly. “Go on, Commandant,” he said. It was nearly a grunt. “But, were I you, I’d proceed very carefully.”

“My loyalty, Kraljiki, is to Nessantico. Always. Not to any person, but to Nessantico herself: the empire. I see a Nessantico that one day will span the world from the mouth of the Great Eastern River in Tennshah to the far shores of the Westlands. I see a Nessantico whose citizens thrive, where wonders we can’t even imagine are glimpsed every day.

That’s what I would like generations to come to experience. I’m also a realist, Kraljiki. I know that there’s no easy path to that future, and I know that sometimes a tree must be pruned in order for it to continue to grow. The death of the Kraljica. . well, I loved Kraljica Marguerite as much as anyone, and I served her as well and faithfully as I could.

She brought peace to Nessantico for a long time, and we grew immeasurably under her reign. But. .”

Sergei paused. He cocked his head slightly. You’d better pray that you’ve judged the man correctly. “I mourned her passing in gratitude for what she had done, but in truth, she was a dying branch and already what she had created was starting to crumble. She was sleeping on the Sun Throne, as Archigos Dhosti was sleeping in the temple. Nessantico needed a new, stronger hand-in that sense, the loss of the Kraljica was necessary.”

Sergei waited. The Kraljiki said nothing. “I have done or ordered done many awful deeds in the Bastida as commandant,” Sergei continued. “I have injured and maimed and killed; I have watched men

and women scream in torment in front of me, and I have wondered at what Cenzi might think, of how He might judge me. But the torment was necessary. I did those misdeeds for the good of Nessantico. I think that’s happened with the Kraljica as well: a misdeed done for the sake of the greater good of Nessantico.” He waited. The Kraljiki remained silent and staring. “Had the Kraljica not died, she would be on the throne at this very moment, enjoying her Jubilee, and we would have known nothing of this.” Sergei pointed to the window, to the flickering of campfires on the mountainside, like stars fallen from the night sky.

“We would have known nothing of it until the Hirzg and his army were nearly at Nessantico’s gates and it was too late to stop him. The Hirzg is not someone I would ever wish to see sitting on the Sun Throne.”

“And I am?” the Kraljiki asked suddenly. “Speaking frankly, Commandant?”

“I admire those who know when to wait, when to act, when to sacrifice, and when to retreat. You waited a long time, Kraljiki.” And then you acted. Sergei didn’t say that, but the words hung there in the air between them.

The Kraljiki took several breaths before speaking. Sergei wondered what he was thinking, what he was turning over in his mind. Muscles bunched along his jawline, under the well-trimmed line of mustache and beard. “You still haven’t answered my question about ca’Cellibrecca,” he said finally.

Nor about you, Sergei thought. “I said that I admire those who know when to sacrifice and retreat as well as when to act,” Sergei said. “You need to return to Nessantico, Kraljiki. You need to leave.”

“And let Passe a’Fiume fall the next day? The Hirzg’s troops would be at our feet as we run back to Nessantico. How is that a victory?”

Sergei was shaking his head. “I’m not saying that we all must go back to Nessantico. Only you, Kraljiki. You need to leave. I will stay here in Passe a’Fiume with half the Garde Civile and we will hold the town for as long as possible. You, the court, and most of the chevarittai must return to the city. We will buy you as many days as possible: to order in the garrisons, to mobilize the countryside, to conscript every last able-bodied person. You’ll need to prepare for the battle, to name an Archigos in Nessantico to replace the traitor so that any declara-tions ca’Cellibrecca makes have less weight. That’s what you need to do, Kraljiki. And while you do that, let me hinder ca’Vorl’s progress.

Let me whittle down the size of his army for you. If he tries to cross at the bridge, the walls will hold him back. If he tries to ford the Clario north or south, we follow on this side and engage him. In the meantime, you prepare Nessantico.”

“And you? What do you gain from this? I don’t believe in altruism, Commandant. I especially don’t believe in it from you.”

Sergei smiled. “Assuming I survive-and I will make every effort to do so, Kraljiki-I would expect to be well