Vengeance

years.’

‘Can Caulderon last that long?’

‘Not unless I can pull off some brilliant counterstroke.’ Again she felt that he was weighing her for a perilous task. ‘I fear we’ll have to abandon Central Hightspall and, in time to come, lead an army back here from over the mountains — if the ice doesn’t crush us first. Enough of tomorrow. Why are you really here?’

‘I came for Rannilt.’

‘Or did you come for this?’ said the chancellor.

He reached back over his head, plucked something off the lowest of the shelves and sat it on the table. It was an oval frame made from engraved silvery metal, enclosing a sheet of translucent, lustrous black mica. Two knobs spaced across the top of the frame were so worn that the knurling was almost gone.

‘This spectible,’ he said, leaning back with a self-satisfied smile that revealed small, perfect yellow teeth. ‘That’s what you really want.’

‘How — ’ Tali’s chest was so tight that it was hard to breathe. ‘How did you know?’

‘Lagger may have thought his inquiries were discreet, but if anyone asks about one of the seven devices brought here from Thanneron I will hear about it.’

‘The spectible was brought here?’ said Tali. ‘It’s that old?’

‘It came on the Second Fleet and it was an old device then. You want it to find your buried magery, I’m told.’

There was no point denying it. ‘Find it, and free it,’ said Tali. ‘Can it do that?’

‘It may be able to find it, since its purpose was to spy on magians from afar — ’

Tali leaned across the table, studying the ancient device. ‘How?’

‘By amplifying the subtle emanations that even the smallest magery creates.’

‘But if I’m not using my magery, surely it won’t be producing any emanations?’

‘I wouldn’t know,’ said the chancellor. ‘I don’t have that gift. Besides, the spectible can’t liberate your magery. All it does is see its emanations. You’ll have to find another way to free it, assuming you can get the spectible to see at all. My chief magian says it’s long dead.’

Yet you’ve taken the trouble to show it to me, she thought, though you’ve no time to waste on anything save the war. You must think it can be made to work, and you want me to do something no one else can do. If she could get the spectible to work, and wake the master pearl somehow, then let her enemies tremble.

‘I don’t know another way to free my magery.’

‘How did it appear the first time?’

‘It was after I smashed a sunstone at the Rat Hole.’ She started.

‘What?’ said the chancellor.

‘There are no sunstones here, but heatstones are stronger. So if I broke a small one — ’

‘Ingenious.’

‘Can I try the spectible?’

‘You can earn it.’

‘How?’

He was watching her, his eyes giving nothing away. ‘Make me an offer.’

What did he want? A liaison? The thought was revolting. ‘It’s said you have unnatural appetites …’

He laughed. ‘I spread that story myself.’

‘Why?’

‘The weak-minded need something to gossip about. And I like to be underestimated.’

‘But is it true?’

‘You’ve nothing to fear. In truth, I have no carnal appetites.’

‘Liar!’ she cried. ‘Your palace is full of beautiful young women. I haven’t seen a single man here.’

‘There are none, save me. Beautiful things are my particular joy, beautiful women most of all. Perhaps I should add you to my collection.’

She jumped, cracking her knee on the leg of the table.

He chuckled. ‘I ask nothing of them save a servant’s normal duties. It disappoints a surprising number of fortune seekers. How will you earn the spectible?’

Tali did not like telling tales. It felt underhand and dirty, but what choice did she have? ‘You said you know everything that goes on in Caulderon.’

‘Little escapes me.’

She took a heavy breath. ‘Then you’d know about the threat on your life.’

His small eyes narrowed. ‘Threats from fanatics and lunatics are one of the hazards of leadership. I’m well protected.’

‘Are you protected from a treasonous threat from a powerful family?’

That made him sit up and his nostrils pinch in. ‘If you know of such a threat, and seek to make capital out of it, you’re close to treason yourself.’

‘I don’t like you, Lord,’ she snapped, ‘but I will never stand by and allow my sovereign to be assassinated.’

The chancellor laughed. ‘I’m beginning to like you, Thalalie vi Torgrist.’ He pushed the spectible forwards a few inches. ‘If what you say is true, you shall have it. Who seeks to bring me down?’

‘Lady Ricinus.’

The smile vanished. ‘House Ricinus’s loyalty is not in question. It has just made Hightspall a mighty gift, one that could save Caulderon.’

Tali forced herself to stare into his eyes, hoping he would read the truth there.

‘Ricinus is so rich and powerful that even I have to tread carefully,’ he went on. ‘Do you realise what they’ll do to you, should they hear this allegation? Lady Ricinus will tear out your beating heart and choke you with it.’

CHAPTER 74

Lady Ricinus would do it, too. No wickedness was beyond her.

Tali’s stomach knotted, though not only from fear. If Rix discovered that she had informed on his parents it would destroy her friendship with him and Tobry. Well, she had started out alone; she would finish it alone.

‘I’ve so many enemies,’ she said, trying to pretend indifference, ‘I don’t see that one more matters.’

‘This one does.’ The chancellor steepled his fingers, which were as soft and smooth as a noble lady’s, though somewhat twisted, and stared at her over the tips. ‘Your evidence had better be good.’

She related how she had been hiding under Rix’s tub while the chancellor had given that ultimatum, and what Lady Ricinus had said afterwards.

‘The viper!’ he hissed. ‘I’ve always detested her. And Rixium heard this threat?’

‘I–I can’t say.’ She had not expected the question and knew her stumbling reply had betrayed him.

‘Of course you can. You’re trying to protect him and it won’t work.’ He met her eyes. ‘If he doesn’t inform me of this threat, he’s also guilty of treason and must suffer a traitor’s death.’

‘But you know, now,’ cried Tali.

‘Rixium doesn’t know I know.’

‘Why does he have to pay? He’s always defended you.’

‘In war, a leader has to know who he can rely on, and whom will betray him wilfully — or by omission. In war, one’s country must always come before one’s family. Let him stew on that conflict.’ His laughter was like a set of false teeth chattering on a draining board.

‘He’s a good man!’

‘And I’m a swine who’ll enjoy seeing him squirm,’ said the chancellor. ‘But a tough swine, just what our country needs. What else do you allege Lady Ricinus said?’

Tali related the conversation she had overheard with Lord and Lady Ricinus through the peephole, and as