“I could say the same of your wife, Archigos.”
He chuckled. His hand patted hers. “The ideal spouse is both an ally and a friend,” he answered. “But that’s an ideal rarely achieved, isn’t it? That’s a shame. I’ve wondered, at times, what might have happened had the false Archigos not snatched you away. Perhaps, A’Hirzg, you and I might have ended up… allies. Or more.”
Allesandra nodded to a passing covey of ca’-and-cu’ wives. She saw their speculative gazes rest on her hand laced with the Archigos’ arm. “The daughter of Archigos ca’Cellibrecca was a better choice for you, Archigos. Look at where you are now.”
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 glass to a passing 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 glass. 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 glass 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 Ambassador 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 glass: 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 glasswright’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 glass again. “Oscail,” he said, and underhanded the small globe in Mika’s direction. What happened next astonished him.
When the glass 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 glass again. “If the Westlanders were able to enchant objects with the Scath Cumhacht, 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 Cumhacht 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
