Jorlanna's enclave before dawn to his audience with Thuel in the afternoon, and now this.
Her smile vanished. 'Answer the door, Kelas.'
He stood and fumbled with Kelas's sword. Gripping its hilt, standing behind the cover of the great desk, he called out, 'Come in.' His voice didn't quite carry the authority he tried to weight it with.
The latch rattled and the door swung open, and Aunn saw a face that registered as familiar, but he couldn't place it. A nondescript face on an average man-medium height, medium build, neutral hair. The kind of face that witnesses have trouble describing. He knew the kind, because Kelas had guided him in developing his own version of the same face. The perfect killer's face. Aunn hadn't worn his killer's face in many years, and he didn't even have a name for it.
The killer stepped into the room, cautiously, but he didn't have a weapon in his hand.
'Kelas,' Nara's voice still came from the crystal orb in front of him, 'you know Vec.'
Vec? It sounded like a changeling name, and the newcomer confirmed the suspicion by dropping the killer's face, leaving no face to replace it, just featureless gray skin and limp white hair. Was Vec the changeling who had appeared in his office the night before, and the same one he'd faced in Kelas's house?
'Vec led Thuel's mission to capture Gaven, and failed-of course. Thuel doesn't know what he's dealing with, so Vec was not properly prepared. But Vec and I have spoken, and I'm convinced that he's the ideal person to fill your other changeling's role in our plan.'
Vec pushed the door closed and leaned against it, his lipless mouth twisted in a strange sort of smile.
'Vec will kill the queen,' Nara said.
Kill the queen-the other changeling's role? Kelas and Nara had planned for Aunn to be the assassin?
'I see,' Aunn said. His eyes were fixed on Vec's blank white orbs.
'There's just one flaw in your plan, Nara,' Vec said. His face began to change again-soft and round, with dark hair hanging over pale blue eyes. 'This isn't Kelas ir'Darren.' The face of the servant girl from Kelas's house wore a triumphant expression.
'You damned fool,' Nara said.
Vec's triumphant smile dropped from his face as he tried to see into the crystal globe. Aunn glanced down at it as well. Nara looked disgusted.
'Do you actually think I was ignorant of this deception?' she said. Her gaze was turned in Vec's general direction. 'As long as he thought I believed his ruse, he was still useful to me.'
Aunn tightened his grip on Kelas's sword and glanced at the door. If he struck now-
Vec must have had the same thought, for he looked up at Aunn in a sudden panic, a dagger appearing in his hand.
'Now kill him,' Nara said, 'and prove your value to me.' But the two changelings were already in motion.
Aunn jumped onto the chair and stepped up onto the desk, both to clear his path to the door and to maximize the advantage of his longer blade. He swept the blade wildly as Vec tried to stab at his legs, and drew one cut across the other changeling's forearm.
'You fool,' Aunn snarled, doing his best impression of Kelas in a fury. 'You've ruined everything.' He shot a foot at Vec's head and managed a glancing blow. For a moment, he thought it might work-Kelas clearly had Vec cowed, and the changeling recoiled from both the blow and the rebuke. But then Vec stood straighter and began to change, taking on Kelas's face himself.
'Do you mock me, changeling?' Vec roared in Kelas's voice. 'You think it's funny to wear my face?'
Cold fear gripped Aunn's chest-not fear of Vec, but the raw terror that Kelas had instilled in him over years of training. He fought it, trying to fix the image of Kelas's dead body in his memory.
'I already killed Kelas once,' he said through gritted teeth.
'You dare to threaten me?' Vec yelled, and he launched a fresh assault, beating Aunn back. As Aunn shuffled back out of his reach, Vec stooped to grab the legs of the desk and heaved. The desk reared up under Aunn's feet and threatened to crush him against the wall. He managed to jump clear, toward the door.
The door burst open, and Aunn saw one of the soldiers stationed to guard the Tower, gawking in at the two Kelases in the office. Clutching a longsword in front of him, the soldier glanced between the two changelings, panic on his face.
'He's a changeling and a traitor!' Vec yelled, pointing at Aunn. 'Seize him!'
'Idiot!' Aunn drew himself up to Kelas's full height and tried to wrap Kelas's imperious air around him, but Vec had a head start on that. 'Don't involve yourself in something you don't have the wits to sort out.' And don't get yourself killed, he added silently-I don't want to watch this bastard kill another innocent.
'You'll see the truth when he dies!' Vec shouted, and pain stabbed through Aunn's side.
Aunn cursed himself. He had let the guard distract him, let himself worry more about the guard's survival than his own. He batted at Vec with Kelas's blade, and he felt the dagger slide out through the muscles of his lower back. As he turned his full attention back to the assassin, he tried to assess the wound, probing the mutable flesh around it with his mind. He would probably survive it, assuming the blade wasn't poisoned-and assuming he didn't take any more wounds like it.
Vec lunged at him again, but Aunn deflected the blade with an awkward parry. The guard stupidly inserted himself between them, pushing Vec back with his shield.
'Drop your weapons, both of you!' he said. 'I'll take you both to Thuel and let him sort it out.'
'Are you blind as well as stupid?' Vec roared. 'Can't you recognize a changeling when you see one?'
Aunn knew what Vec was doing. It never occurred to most people that anyone of their acquaintance could be a changeling. People knew they existed, of course, but mostly from outrageous tales and occasional reports in the chronicles. And that ignorance made them very susceptible to suggestion-once the idea was planted, they'd start to see changelings everywhere. Even the guards in the Tower of Eyes were easily fooled.
Sure enough, the guard turned to examine Aunn's face, suspicion in his eyes, exposing his back to Vec's blade.
'Watch out!' Aunn shouted, but in the same instant the guard's eyes went wide with pain, then his knees gave out.
'And so the queen will fall,' Vec whispered, a feral grin twisting his face.
Aunn spent only an instant weighing his options. He could stand and fight, but he was already badly wounded and holding a weapon he didn't favor. He could try to run to Thuel for help, but Thuel was probably at home asleep, despite the guard's brash declaration. Besides, Aunn was no longer any use to Thuel, and the Spy Master was bound to figure that out soon enough. He needed to get out of the Tower of Eyes, out of Kelas's body and clothes, and out of the whole damned mess he'd put himself in.
He bolted out of the room, pulling the door behind him. The guard's body and the door would slow Vec slightly-just enough to allow Aunn to escape, he hoped. He tore down the deserted hall, Vec's footsteps pounding behind him.
'Coward!' Vec shouted, still playing Kelas's role to the hilt, trying to batter Aunn's will into submission-and perhaps to rouse more guards. 'Come back and accept the punishment you've earned!'
Pain seared across Aunn's back from his wound with every step he ran. A moment with one of his wands would close it, but he didn't have a moment to spare. The pain sapped the strength from his legs and made his head swim. He felt as though he were running in a dream, making no progress through an endless tunnel, with his pursuer closing quickly.
He burst through a door into the center of the tower, with a wide stair twisting down to the ground floor. Aunn vaulted down, stumbled on the stairs as a fresh jolt of pain stabbed across his back, and ran as fast as he could manage down the winding stairs. A knife clattered against the stone just ahead of him, then nearly sent him tumbling down the stairs as he tried not to step on it. In that off-balance moment, a second blade bit into his shoulder-a small cut, but Aunn didn't need any more wounds. He fumbled in a pouch at his belt as he continued down the stairs, searching by touch for a wand he normally kept close at hand.
Polished wood, a smooth stone at the tip, fiery lines of power twisted and coiling inside-he found the wand he sought, drew it out of the pouch, and pointed it up the stairway. He had to pause a moment, stopping his rush down the stairs, to focus on loosing the knot of magic in the wand's core. A spark flew up from the wand as if from a bonfire, and erupted in roaring flame above him. As the fireball filled the stairway, Aunn ran again, and a moment later he burst through another door onto the ground floor of the Tower of Eyes.
