'Just announce us. She'll see us.'
The guard didn't bother to hide his sigh, and Corvis feared he'd have to physically restrain Jassion from bludgeoning the man to death. After a few deep breaths, however, the baron calmed himself, and the soldier indicated the door with a shallow tilt of his head. One of the other men cracked that door open and stepped inside. They could just hear the voices, here in the hall, and while they couldn't make out a single word, the surprise in one of those voices was more than a little evident.
The guard reappeared, shaking his head in astonishment. 'She'll see them,' he told his commander, now sounding as surprised as Mavere had.
'She-what? But…'
'She said she'll see them.'
The officer was visibly crestfallen. 'All right,' he grumbled. Then, before Jassion took half a step, 'but not under arms.'
'My companions are not armed,' he replied. 'Search them if you like. As for me…' He raised his hand, slowly so as not to cause undue alarm, to touch the hilt protruding over his shoulder. 'I'll not be relinquishing my sword, no. Ask the Guildmistress. I doubt she'll explain why, but she'll assure you it's all right.'
Corvis did his best to look meek, face aimed at the floor so nobody would see him grinding his teeth. Just seeing the blade on Jassion's back was enough to make him want to…
The guard returned to the office looking even more dubious, and came out looking even more perplexed. 'She says it's all right.'
The officer grunted something impolite and stepped aside. Without so much as a nod of acknowledgment, Jassion strode past, Corvis and Irrial following close behind.
'Baron Jassion?' Salia asked, rising from behind her desk. 'I have to admit, I'm a bit concerned to learn you're here. Why-?'
It all happened at once, between one breath and the next. Irrial firmly shut the door behind her. Jassion bowed low before the Guildmistress, far lower than was his wont. And Corvis, allowing his concentration to lapse and the illusions to drop, sprinted across the room like a starving leopard. His fist closed around Sunder's hilt, yanking it from the scabbard across Jassion's back-and gods, had that taken long hours of arguing, and many oaths on Jassion's part, before Irrial convinced him to place the weapon, however briefly, in the baron's care. In the heartbeats it took him to vault the desk, sending a flurry of parchment in all directions, the Kholben Shiar had shifted once more from Jassion's two-hander to Corvis's axe, the blade of which now gently kissed the priestess's throat. Corvis wasn't certain whether he, or Salia herself, was more disturbed by the weapon's eager quiver.
'If you so much as raise your voice above a whisper,' Corvis warned her, 'the Blacksmiths' Guild will be, ah, let's say, looking for a new head.'
Her glare was sharper than Sunder itself, her face as pallid as those parchments drifting slowly to the floor, her jaw clenched tight enough to bend raw iron-but she nodded shallowly.
'I'd apologize for the discourtesy,' Jassion told her, moving to stand before the desk. The bandage tied across his face, discolored where humors occasionally seeped from his ravaged nose, was now clearly visible. 'But in all honesty, I'd prefer to let him kill you.'
'Jassion, what…?' Even at a whisper, her fury and her confusion-and yes, her fear-were palpable.
'I do not,' he said harshly, 'appreciate being used, Mavere.'
'I don't know what you've done to him,' she began, eyes flickering to the man at her side, 'what spells you've cast on him, but-'
'No spells, Salia. No tricks, no sorcery. You said that you had knowledge of magic when we last spoke. Take a good look at him.'
She shrugged, wincing as the movement scraped the skin of her throat across the blade. 'Wouldn't help. Illusions I can detect; they're visible. If I could sense spells of the mind, I'd have discovered all your puppets in Guild ranks long ago.' Her voice seemed almost wistful at that.
Corvis frowned, but it made sense.
'And I cannot,' she added, 'think of anything other than the most potent magics that would inspire Lord Jassion to cooperate with you.'
'You should have thought harder then,' Irrial interjected, sliding the latch home on the door and stepping into the center of the room, 'before starting all this.'
The Guildmistress looked from one to the other, saw no pity anywhere. Corvis could see in her expression that she was weighing the odds if she called for the guards.
'You'd be dead before your voice reached them,' he warned. Her shoulders slumped.
'Where's Kaleb?' she demanded.
Jassion smiled shallowly. 'I'm sorry, I don't know who you-oh. Perhaps you mean Khanda?'
So stiffly did Salia tense that Corvis had to yank Sunder back a hair to avoid cutting her. 'How did-?'
'What were you thinking, you stupid bitch?' Irrial and Corvis exchanged worried glances, concerned that Jassion's own temper might alert the guards, but so far the baron was managing-albeit barely-to keep his voice low. 'How could you use me that way? How could you unleash something like that creature on your own people?'
'I assure you, Khanda is completely under control.'
'Not for long,' Corvis told her. Then, at her expression, 'You asked what could inspire Jassion and me to work together? That'd do it, wouldn't you think?'
'It's not possible. Jassion, whatever Rebaine's told you, it's a lie. He-'
'Is more convincing than you. Especially given what I've seen recently.' Then, though it clearly cost him, he forced his voice, his expression, to calm. 'Mavere, I only saw the aftermath of the Twins' rampage through Mecepheum, but you were present for all of it. You've seen what creatures of such power can do-and you've seen how little we can do to stop them. We know some of what Khanda plans, and I assure you, if he succeeds you'll wish you'd died back then.'
'It's a lie,' she insisted stubbornly.
'Perhaps you'll want to ask Nenavar about that?' Corvis suggested. Again, standing so close, he couldn't possibly miss the tension that ran across Salia's body like a cold shiver. She knew the name, all right.
'It's he who assured me that the bonds on the summoning were unbreakable. And I've seen him put Kaleb- Khanda-in his place. Besides, even if I wanted to, I've no means of just calling him here. I'd have to send a messenger, and I doubt you're willing to sit in this office for the hours it would take for a reply.'
'I can be surprisingly patient,' Corvis told her. 'So can Irrial. Jassion might be a problem, I imagine.' He ignored the bandage-wrapped glare. 'But that's all moot, since you're not sending a messenger. You're going to take us to him.'
Her laugh was a forced and feeble thing. 'And why would I do that?'
'Because even walking through the halls or the streets, we can kill you before any help arrives,' Jassion snarled at her. 'And if you won't help us, there's no reason not to kill you right now for what you've done!'
'More to the point,' Corvis said, shaking his head in exasperation, 'no matter how certain you think you are that we're lying to you, you can see Jassion and me standing here, working together, telling you the same thing. And you're worried that we just might be telling you the truth. Tell me, Salia, would Verelian be served by his own priestess unleashing a demon in the mortal world? Are you willing to go down in history as the next Audriss- assuming there even is a history after Khanda gets through with us?
'I don't know what you're trying to accomplish with all of this,' he continued more softly, 'though I think I can guess a good chunk of it. But what I'm certain of is that all your plans won't be worth a gnome's chamber pot if Khanda breaks loose. So you tell us, Salia. Which way do you want it?' THEY'D NEEDED HER COMPLIANCE, prayed for it, even counted on it-but that didn't mean they were remotely ready to trust it. Throughout the nerve-racking trek through the corridors and stairs of the Hall of Meeting, one or the other of them remained at Mavere's back, ready to act if she even looked askance at a passing guard, the others equally alert in case any of the passing guards looked askance at them. Even after they'd gathered their horses, and hers, they walked the beasts through Mecepheum's streets, the better to ensure the Guildmistress remained within easy reach. Only once they'd passed through the main gates did they mount up and ride, and even then they took steps to ensure Salia remained in their midst.
The faint but steady autumn breezes and overcast skies had brought a certain chill to the roads. Thus,
