“I want-I need-some assurance that I can trust any single word that comes out of your mouth.”
She allowed herself a humorless laugh. “Trust? We’re both grown-ups here, aren’t we? If you don’t want to work with me, you’re welcome to go back to burning Bolas’s zombies.”
“He has you in a screw press, yes? And he’s tightening it every day.”
“Every hour,” she said. “He has zero faith in your ability to find this Crucius character on your own.”
“Was making a deal with me your idea?”
“I’m desperate, Tezzeret.”
“An imperfect rhyme.”
“Damn it, listen to me! Bolas knows everything-your little chat with that sphinx-queen of yours and the whole damned thing.”
“I anticipated that he might know what transpired at the Seeker Academy,” I said, “but that’s far from everything. What’s your offer?”
“You don’t understand,” she said. “You’ve got it all backward. He knows way too much-he can probably solve the Labyrinth by himself.”
“I doubt it.”
“We have to stop him. Somehow.”
“A project even more dubious than locating Crucius.”
“If only,” she said. “The last thing in the Multiverse we want to do is give that bastard what he wants. We need to make sure he never finds this sphinx of his. Never.”
Doc whispered in my left ear, “Don’t even think about it. Unless you want to ruin our friendship.”
“An interesting proposition,” I said to Vess. “Assuming, for the sake of argument, that I am willing and able to conspire with you against the dragon, what do I get out of it?”
“Same as me,” she said. “Your life and your freedom. If we win.”
“Ah.”
“Did you ever stop to think why Bolas wants to find Crucius?”
“I have several theories.”
“Me too. Except I actually know something about what Bolas is up to.”
I confined my response to, “Oh?”
She cast a nervous glance around the room, as though checking the corners for indiscreet spies. “I don’t know how he plans to do it, and I don’t even know why, but I’ve got a lead on what. You know how he gets playful sometimes, and how he likes to tease you with Mysteries of the Multiverse You Will Never Comprehend? Well, he’s not as good at it as he used to be. It’s almost as if he can’t really remember what he’s already said. Over the last few months, I’ve been able to piece some bits together, and what I’m seeing doesn’t look good. Tezzeret, I think he’s going to kill us.”
“Us?”
“The Planeswalkers,” she said. “All of us. All of us he… well, owns. It has something to do with these oaths of fealty he’s collecting. And he’s planning to… do something. To us. All at once. And from how he talks, he’s not expecting any of us to be around afterward. I’m not sure how, or when, but he is absolutely certain that he can, and will, do whatever in the hells he’s planning.”
“He never suffered from self-doubt.”
“It gets worse,” she said bleakly. “I think he’s going to destroy the universe.”
“Excuse me?”
“That’s what it sounds like. This whole plane and everybody on it. Grixis, Esper, Jund, Bant, and Naya. All the damned stars in the bloody sky. Everything. All at once.”
“That would be…” I said, searching for the proper word and finding only, “unfortunate.”
“And maybe not just here. Ravnica. Kamigawa. Lorwyn. Mirrodin. Who knows? I’m not sure Bolas himself knows-he’s getting more erratic every day. Tezzeret, he could wipe out the whole Multiverse by mistake.”
“A daunting prospect. But I’m not sure either of us can do much about it.”
“Crucius,” she said. “Crucius is on his mind a lot. All the time. You and I aren’t the only agents he’s set to looking.”
“So what exactly are you proposing?”
“We have to find him first. I don’t know if Bolas needs him as part of his scheme, or wants to kill him to keep him from interfering, or some combination of the two, and I’m not sure it matters. What matters is keeping Bolas’s talons off Crucius. Permanently, if possible.”
“It’s an attractive proposition.” For good reason-she had clearly designed it that way.
“It’s like she read our minds,” Doc said.
“She didn’t have to,” I muttered.
“I’m sorry?” she said. “You’ll have to speak up, unless you want to take off that stupid helmet.”
“I’m more comfortable like this.” Her chain of reasoning had little effect on me. I don’t need an excuse to oppose Nicol Bolas and everything he does with every resource at my command. She didn’t need to spin an apocalyptically grandiose rationale to make me believe she’d do the same. I would have believed it if she’d offered no reason at all. To know him is to hate him.
None of it mattered. “How do we proceed from here?”
“First,” she said, “we get rid of Renn.”
“Kill him?”
She frowned at me. “Of course. What did you think?”
“I prefer plain language.”
“Bolas and I thought Renn might be useful. Before he sent me out here, he took Renn off somewhere and mind probed him or something. Renn doesn’t even know as much about Crucius as you do. Now that you’re here, he’s just extra baggage.”
“That’s not entirely accurate.”
“How about if you add on top that he’s going to kill you on sight? That he’s probably already killed Baltrice-no loss to me, I hate that lumbering bitch, but you always seemed to care about your people. And-”
Again she looked away, and a very pretty flush climbed her exquisite neck. Her tone, however, was flat and as ugly as the grinding of ill-fitting gears.
“So?” Liliana said. “How about it, Tezzeret? Are we on?”
I sighed. “I sympathize with your situation, and I hope you believe I would help you if I could. However-”
“There’s always a however,” she said bitterly.
“Yes. When it comes to reaching the center of the Crystal Labyrinth, Silas Renn is more necessary than you are.”
She stared at me in blank astonishment. “You think you can cut a deal with him? He’s completely insane-he can talk like a normal person, but inside he’s baying at the bloody moon.”
“I’ve allowed for that,” I said. “It’s said you have to be crazy to study clockworking, and the more you learn, the crazier you get. The ability to choose between realities can disconnect you from all of them. Crucius was known as the Mad Sphinx for a reason.”
“Is there no way I can change your mind?” She turned toward me, and I noticed her translucent silks had begun tending more toward transparent-but not as transparent as she was. “Are you sure…?”
“Liliana Vess,” I said gravely, “you are very likely the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Looking at you, I can’t so much as recall the face of another woman. If I were foolish enough to allow myself even a fantasy that you might actually be attracted to me, matters might be different. But it is my business to see things as they are. An unsentimental view of your offer makes the transaction all too plain.”
She didn’t seem abashed in the slightest. She found an even more fetching angle for her lovely eyes, and her silks continued to evaporate. “A girl does what she has to,” she said. “Just like you.”
“What I have to do doesn’t include you,” I said. “The sad truth is that I am interested only in finding Crucius- for that I need Renn, and he needs me. Neither of us needs you.”
Her face darkened; she even glowered beautifully. “You always were a bastard.”
“Possibly. My parents weren’t forthcoming on the subject.”
She turned and flounced to the door. “Well, screw you, then-”
