Imager's Intrigue: The Third Book of the Imager Portfolio (51 page)

When I got to my study on Meredi morning, there was nothing in either
Tableta
or
Veritum
about Cydarth, and neither newsheet mentioned anything about our northern fleet. While Valeun might be the first to receive news about fleet actions off Cloisera, I was confident that he wouldn’t be able to keep it from appearing in the newsheets. Because there wasn’t any news, it was unlikely that any communiqués had yet reached L’Excelsis, but I had no way of knowing whether Dartazn had been successful or whether he’d even been able to conduct the operation. I was definitely getting worried, but there was little I could do about it.

Later that morning, the Council convened for its first true session for the new year. I was there to help Baratyn…and to see if anything interesting was reported or occurred. Nothing happened out of the ordinary, not even an attempt on the lives of one of the Councilors, and that often happened on the first day the Council met. There wasn’t any news circulating there, either, about the war or—as Deputy Sea-Marshal Caellynd had called it—the “conflict.”

The factor’s assembly was still considering a replacement for Councilor Glendyl, although they had already agreed that the new factor Councilor on the Executive Council would be Sebatyon, the current timber and lumber factor from Mantes. No one wanted another Councilor associated even indirectly with shipbuilding, and that eliminated Diogayn, the most senior factoring Councilor, because he owned several ironworks.

I did get home not much after Seliora. Because Diestrya was tired and cranky because she hadn’t taken a nap, we didn’t get to talk until after I had rocked her to sleep while Seliora sang lullabies. Then I eased her into the high-sided small bed, and we tiptoed downstairs.

We just sat down on the settee in the family parlor and sighed, almost simultaneously, loudly enough that we looked at each other and laughed.

“Sometimes…” I offered.

She just nodded.

“Would you like some wine? We do have a bottle of Dhuensa in the cooler.”

“That would be good.”

So I went and got it and poured us each a goblet, and we sat next to each other and had several swallows each.

“I didn’t have a chance to tell you earlier,” Seliora finally said. “Shomyr came up with the sidearm this afternoon. He didn’t know whether you’d need the holster and belt, but they’re both there in case you need them, as well as a small box of bullets. I put them in the high strongbox in the study.”

“The one our little climber can’t reach?” Even if she could, it was locked.

Seliora nodded.

“Thank you…and Shomyr.”

“Can you explain what you can?” she asked quietly.

“It has to do with Valeun and Geuffryt. I’ve told you about how I’m convinced that Geuffryt was the one who arranged the bombardment of Imagisle…”

“I can’t believe anyone could do that just because he thought Maitre Dichartyn and Maitre Poincaryt might be sometimes supporting the High Holder Councilors—even if he wanted revenge. The Collegium only has one vote on the Council.”

“There’s more to it than that, but I don’t know everything. Valeun is protecting Geuffryt, and I have a good idea just who it was that let Vyktor know that I would be visiting him, well before anyone else could have known that it would happen. Even if I could prove that Geuffryt wrote the warning note, it’s only another piece of circumstantial evidence…” I couldn’t help but shake my head.

“So you have to come up with a way to resolve this?”

“Unfortunately, and I’ll have to meet with both Geuffryt and Valeun, and that will be anything but pleasant. Oh…they’ll both be so solicitous and polite and so willing to be cooperative with the Collegium, and if I leave it to Valeun, nothing will happen because he doesn’t want any of it to come out, and Maitre Dyana would prefer not to have anything more come out because discrediting the Naval Command will just make getting Council support for rebuilding the fleet harder, and no one will think it’s urgent, especially if Dartazn’s mission is successful, because they’ll think Solidar has plenty of time.”

“That’s not true, is it?”

“No. Frydryk has the drawings and designs and rights to produce the steam turbines for a new class of warships, but it will take a year, perhaps as many as three, to rebuild the facility, and the Council will want assurances that it can be done, and the shipworks can only build so many at once. It might take ten or fifteen years…and if the Council waits several years before acting, because they want to be sure that the Naval Command is being run correctly…” I shrugged.

“You’ll do what has to be done.” Seliora reached out and took my hand. “That’s all you can do.”

And that was what I feared.

I was back to exercising and running on Jeudi morning, and that helped my mood, at least until I got to the administration building after seeing Seliora and Diestrya off. Even so, there was no sense in putting matters off. So I went to find Schorzat. I found him in Kahlasa’s study. Both of them looked up, not quite apprehensively.

“Yes, sir?”

“I’ve been thinking…I’d like you to arrange for me to meet with Sea-Marshal Valeun and Assistant Sea-Marshal Geuffryt. I’d prefer later today but tomorrow would be acceptable. Stress that it is urgent, because we’ve received more evidence of Ferran activities that bear on the Naval Command.”

“Do you want me to mention the notes to Ruelyr and Broussard?”

“Don’t give them any details. Just say that because it involves both the fleet and intelligence. I need to meet with them both—and only them at first. Then they can decide who else, if anyone, needs to know.”

Kahlasa grinned at me. “You know, Rhenn, you’re sounding more and more like a cross between Maitre Poincaryt and Maitre Dichartyn.”

“What? Trying to ask politely for the impossible?” I let wryness creep into my voice.

“Oh, you know it’s possible,” she countered. “Just extremely difficult. It’s a good thing you’ve survived so much.”

I had a good idea what she was driving at, but I only said, “There are more than a few others, like you, who’ve been through things I wouldn’t want to have done.”

“Not many. And you’ve lost people you’ve loved because you’re an imager.”

That surprised me, because I’d never mentioned Rousel’s death to anyone but Dichartyn.

Schorzat cleared his throat. I could tell we were making him uncomfortable, with the allusions to the death of Rousel and of Claustyn, Kahlasa’s husband, so soon after they’d been married. “I’ll have to go out to the Naval Command. Otherwise, they’ll stall you.”

“I’d appreciate that, and I’ll leave you two to continue doing the almost impossible.” I smiled as warmly as I could.

Once I returned to my study, I went through the newsheets.
Veritum
reported that the Stakanarans had repulsed a massive Tiempran counter-attack and then slaughtered close to half the Tiempran troops.
Tableta
’s lead story was yet another variation on the theme that innovative Naval tactics and superior training could only go so far, citing how much the new Ferran land-cruisers had changed the results in winter warfare in Cloisera and how the Stakanaran use of similar vehicles had played a part in the success of the annexation of Tiempran territory.

I couldn’t help but wonder if Valeun had some information suggesting that Dartazn’s imagers were having early successes against Ferrum.

It wasn’t until well into the afternoon that Schorzat knocked on my study door. “Half-past second glass tomorrow afternoon. The Sea-Marshal wasn’t pleased. I just asked his clerk-rating if the Sea-Marshal really wanted to put off the second-highest imager in all Solidar. Then I said I’d wait for an answer.”

“You leaned hard.”

“It wasn’t what you said, sir. It was how you said it. You don’t want to wait until next week. That was clear.”

“Something’s in the works, and I need to put the Sea-Marshal on notice.”

Schorzat smiled. “I’d love to be there.”

I shook my head. “They don’t talk unless they’re where they can deny what they’ve said.” After a moment, I added, “Thank you. I do appreciate it.”

“Better you than me, sir.” He stepped back and closed the door.

What with one thing and another, and a late afternoon meeting with Marteon, I didn’t get to the house until after fifth glass.

Seliora and Diestrya were sitting in the family parlor where Seliora was reading aloud to a slightly fidgety daughter.

Diestyra looked at her mother. “No more reading, please.”

So we talked and played with her until it was time for her to eat.

We headed downstairs after putting her to bed for our own dinner, but Seliora stopped at the foot of the stairs and turned to me. “I received a notice of a bequest today. It came to NordEste Design.”

With all that had happened, and my decision not to tell her, I’d almost forgotten that she would get the notice. “A bequest? From whom?”

“From the estate of the late Suyrien D’Alte. Rhenn…it’s for ten thousand golds. I didn’t tell anyone the amount. I didn’t want to until I talked to you.”

I had to swallow at the sum of the bequest. Iryela had said that it would be small, but I hadn’t really accepted what was considered small to a High Holder. I’d have to work for more than twenty years to earn ten thousand golds—and I was one of the highest paid imagers in the Collegium—and to save that amount would have been impossible. Even my father had put by only a fraction of that amount, at least from what I knew.

“You’re as surprised as I am,” she said. “I wondered if you knew.”

“Iryela had mentioned that she thought that you might get a very small bequest. That’s why I didn’t mention it. She emphasized that it was very small, and I’d thought it might be something like fifty or a hundred golds. I didn’t say anything because she said she wasn’t sure.”

Seliora laughed softly. “Small means something very different to her.”

“Every time I deal with High Holders, it seems as though I’m reminded of that.”

“What will we do with it?”

“Put it in the Banque D’Excelsis in your name. It has to stay in your name. Talk to your mother and grandmother. Then we’ll discuss it. Some of it should go for private tutors for Diestrya if she turns out not to be an imager, although that’s not likely.”

Seliora’s mouth dropped open. “Do you think she will be? You’ve never said that before.”

“If you weren’t from a Pharsi background, I’d say it was unlikely, but with an imager father and a Pharsi mother, Kahlasa told me years ago that there are two chances in three for a daughter to be an imager. If both the mother and father are imagers, it’s two in three for a boy, and almost always for a girl. I could be wrong, but I have the feeling that Diestrya will show up with the ability.”

“Kahlasa has always known that Klaustya will be an imager?”

I nodded. “It may not show up for a time, but she will be.”

“She knew that before she had her daughter?”

“She said she felt that it was a gift she had to pass on, like the Pharsi heritage.” Kahlasa hadn’t compared it to the Pharsi heritage, but her words had held the same import.

“Do you know why Suyrien made the bequest?”

“I can only guess. He never talked to me. Iryela said that he once mentioned that he owed Kandryl’s happiness to us.”

“So…it’s a thank-you of sorts.”

“That’s my guess, but it’s only a guess.”

Seliora tilted her head slightly. “I’m not sure how I feel about that…but that will relieve Mama. She’s always worried about the future.”

“NordEste Design is doing better than ever, you said.”

“Pharsis never stop worrying. We may try to live for the day, but we plan endlessly for the morrow.” She smiled warmly at me. “You know that.”

I did indeed.

Vendrei morning found me in Maitre Dyana’s study by half-past eighth glass. She wore a gray and silver scarf trimmed in black, and again there were dark circles under her eyes.

“What do you intend to get out of this meeting with Valeun and Geuffryt? Unless there’s something I missed, you still don’t have much hard evidence to prove what we all know Geuffryt’s been doing.”

“I do have an interesting note that I have every reason to believe is in his handwriting, if somewhat disguised. It’s a warning to Vyktor that I’ll be looking into his operations, and dear late Vyktor was kind enough to add the date of receipt, as pointed out by Commander Artois.”

“Artois’s seen the note, then?”

“He’s the one who found it, but he doesn’t know the writer, and I didn’t tell him.”

“Geuffryt will deny it’s his writing.”

“I’m certain he will, but I intend to present all the evidence to the two of them and ask them exactly what they intend to do. Their reaction will be most illuminating.”

Dyana shook her head. “Are you fully recovered?”

“I have full shields, but I trust it won’t come to that.” And it wouldn’t, if things worked out the way I’d arranged them. That was something that Maitre Poincaryt had stressed—never have a meeting unless you had set it up so that events transpired the way you intended.

“You sound like Dichartyn again.”

I just shrugged.

“I’ll be here until late. Let me know when you get back.”

That—and the fact that she didn’t ask for details—told me that she was worried…and that she didn’t have any better ideas. “I will.”

I kept myself busy for the rest of the morning and the midday meal, and then returned to my study where I organized everything—and re-organized it—for the meeting at the Naval Command.

At two quints before second glass, I slipped the loaded sidearm in its holster into the larger inside pocket of my waistcoat, then donned my recently cleaned winter cloak. After that, I picked up the leather folder that contained what evidence I had, all of it indirect, but certainly more than suggestive. There was also a blank notecard on top, as close a match as I’d been able to find to the one that held the short message signed with the “L.”

With all my preparations made, I left my study and walked through the chill and windy afternoon across the quadrangle to the duty coach station on the west side of Imagisle. Once I reached the Naval Command building, I had to wait for an escort, and then cool my boots some more in the anteroom outside Valeun’s study. I didn’t see Geuffryt, and that led me to believe that he was already inside talking with the Sea-Marshal.

A small bell chimed, and the clerk-rating at the desk in the anteroom rose. “Maitre?” He stepped forward and opened the study door.

I rose, leaving my winter cloak on the chair beside the one where I’d been waiting, and walked through the door into the Sea-Marshal’s capacious study. Through the windows, I could see the same gray clouds that had hung over L’Excelsis for the past two days.

Valeun was seated behind his desk, with Geuffryt seated on the left. Neither rose as I entered the chamber.

I waited until the door closed before speaking. “Good afternoon, Sea-Marshal,” I said, adding, “Geuffryt,” as if as an afterthought. I took the chair to the right of Geuffryt, setting the leather folder on the desk before me and moving my chair forward so that I could reach it, and the materials in it, easily.

“You requested this meeting, and the Collegium insisted that it was urgent. Quite urgent.” Valeun’s voice was smooth, calm, and modulated. His eyes were cold.

So were Geuffryt’s.

That didn’t bother me.

“It’s very urgent.” I smiled. “I don’t tell anyone something is urgent unless it is.” I reached forward and eased back the leather flap that protected the contents of the folder. Then I paused. “Oh…I do have a request, a very small request. Before we begin, would you write your name and the word ‘visit’ on this piece of paper, Geuffryt?” I leaned forward and eased the pen stand away from the end of Valeun’s blotter, then slipped the blank notecard onto the desk.

“What does that have to do with anything?” asked Valeun.

“Oh, it’s just a way of making certain of the relevance of what’s here in the folder.” I smiled again, waiting.

“Why not? We might as well get on with what ever you and the Collegium have in mind.” Geuffryt’s tone was arrogantly dismissive. He leaned forward and extracted the pen, writing the single word and then signing his name below, before sliding the card across the polished wood to me.

“Thank you.” I replaced the pen stand before picking up the card and blowing on the ink lightly until it was dry. Then I looked at what he had written and nodded. Superficially, the script was different from the note in my leather, but I could see that there were certain similarities that could not be totally disguised. Again…not quite enough proof, except for me.

“Now…” I drew the word out. “I briefed Sea-Marshal Valeun on the materials which strongly suggest that Assistant Sea-Marshal Geuffryt had a part in the bombardment of Imagisle.” I turned to Geuffryt.

He didn’t look surprised, but he didn’t say anything.

“From your reaction, I can assume that he has at least summarized the findings.”

“There’s absolutely nothing there,” replied Geuffryt offhandedly.

I had to admire his ability to dismiss the matter, but I just smiled. “Oh…I disagree strongly, and so does Maitre Dyana, and so will the Council, especially when combined with the documents that Commander Artois and the Civic Patrol discovered in the building that the latest Ferran agent to be discovered exploded around me.” I touched the folder. “It truly is amazing how far the Ferrans penetrated into Solidar and even into L’Excelsis itself. The subcommander of the Civic Patrol vanished the night these documents came to light, as it were.”

“What are these documents?” asked Valeun, not quite idly.

“There was the note for twenty-five thousand golds to the late Councilor Glendyl, another for ten thousand golds to Factor Broussard. Then there were all the payments to the two Ferran front organizations, Mahrun Barge and Cartage and Cholan Freight and Transport, and we’ve verified that they shipped the explosives they stole from the depot to various points across Solidar.” I smiled again. “Some of these operations had been running for at least four years. This does bring up the question of how a handful of imagers could discover all these connections in a few weeks when Naval Intelligence apparently was unable to discover them.”

“You are the one with the answers, Maitre Rhennthyl, pray tell us.” Valeun’s voice remained calm.

“In a moment. In addition to those, of course, was the hidden chest with over four thousand Ferran-minted golds in it.”

That brought a momentary frown to Valeun’s otherwise placidly smooth forehead.

“Oh…I’m not under any illusions, Marshal. I have no doubts that Naval Intelligence knew about much of this for some time. In fact, I have a note in the folder here, initialed and dated, that proves just that, and, in fact…”

I coughed and bent forward, easing the sidearm out of my waistcoat even as I extended light shields against all four walls of the room for long enough to do what I needed to prepare. That didn’t affect the light inside, just the ability of anyone to observe, since I was going under the assumption that someone might be watching. “You see, Geuffryt,” I said, straightening, but keeping the weapon concealed, beneath the level of the desk and on the side away from Geuffryt, “the Sea-Marshal knows you used your position to strike against the Collegium, but he’s covered up for you.”

“Oh, you can’t—

At that moment, I raised the sidearm and fired.

The single shot—aimed by imaging—went through Valeun’s forehead, as I dropped the light shields.

Geuffryt gaped and started to lunge from his chair toward me.

That was long enough for me to image pitricin into his brain and fire the pistol into the floor. As soon as he hit the carpet, between the chairs, I knelt and placed the weapon in his fingers, and let them release it. I checked to make sure he didn’t have a sidearm, but he didn’t. I hadn’t thought he would, because they weren’t worn inside the Naval Command or in non-combat situations, but it was best to make sure.

Then I straightened, and imaged the traces of powder off my grays and onto his sleeves while calling, “Help! The Marshal’s been shot!” I also dropped the light shields and rushed around the desk to where Valeun lay back in his heavy chair.

The door opened, and the clerk-rating and a guard armed with the same kind of pistol I—or Geuffryt—had used rushed in. Behind them came a smooth-faced junior commander, most likely the officer detailed to observe from hiding.

“Marshal Geuffryt…he shot the Sea-Marshal.” I tried to look bewildered before pulling myself together. “I didn’t think he’d react like that.”

The two ratings looked blankly at me. That was fine. The commander’s eyes were narrowed and wary.

“Is the Deputy Sea-Marshal around?”

“Ah…” The clerk-rating gaped.

“If he is, summon him at once.”

The commander nodded to the clerk-rating, who hurried off.

I stepped away from Valeun’s body, but I kept holding full shields.

The commander stepped forward.

“What is it, Commander?” I asked politely.

He started to speak, then shook his head. “Nothing, sir. This…it was so unexpected.”

I shook my head in return. “Treachery always outs, and it’s never pleasant when that happens.” Then I looked squarely at him.

“No, sir.” He straightened.

Neither of us, nor the guard, spoke after that, not until Deputy Sea-Marshal Caellynd hurried into the study. His eyes took in the scene. Then he looked to the guard. “You can leave. Close the door.”

“Yes, sir.”

Once the door shut, Caellynd turned to me. He was obviously surprised, if not totally shocked.

“What happened?”

“I came to present evidence that Geuffryt was involved with the Ferrans and particularly with the bombardment of Imagisle. The Sea-Marshal had seen some of the evidence earlier, but he was not convinced, perhaps because he could not believe a trusted high Navy officer was involved. When I began to mention a note found in the ruins of the Ferran agent’s building, Geuffryt shot Valeun and then turned the gun on me. I was so surprised that I stopped him with imaging. The gun went off anyway. If I’d had a moment longer…but he was standing so close to me that if he’d actually fired, my shields wouldn’t have been that effective.”

Caellynd gestured to the commander. “Is that correct?”

“Sir…”

“The Maitre’s not ignorant, Commander. He has to know you were watching or listening.”

“Yes, sir. The conversation was exactly the way the Maitre reported it. The shot happened so quickly I only saw the Sea-Marshal jerk back and the other two move the way the Maitre said.”

Caellynd nodded. “You may go. Before you do anything else, write up exactly what you saw and heard.”

“Yes, sir.”

After the commander departed, and the door closed behind him, Caellynd asked, “Why do you think Geuffryt reacted as he did?”

“I can only surmise. It could be that the Marshal had told him of the previous evidence, and that he didn’t believe it was sufficient to implicate him. The Sea-Marshal had declined to act unless the Collegium could provide more proof. You may have heard, on Lundi, a building exploded around me. That building housed a Ferran agent, and the Civic Patrol found more information linking him to the explosions. They also found a note warning this Vyktor that I was looking into his operations. The handwriting was disguised to some degree, but too many letters looked like Geuffryt’s, and when I started to bring this latest evidence out, Geuffryt shot the Marshal and tried to shoot me at close range. He knew that imager shields aren’t nearly so effective close to a weapon.”

“You have all this evidence?” Caellynd’s voice was skeptical.

“Most of it’s in that folder.” I nodded toward the desk. “Some of the background is not, but you can certainly check that yourself if you have doubts.” I went on to explain about the barges, and about the funds transfers with the Banque D’Rivages, and the forged documents. Then I let him take his time going through what I had brought.

After looking through the materials, Caellynd looked up. “I can see why you reached the conclusions you did. It’s unavoidable. There’s one thing that puzzles me. I can see the resemblance in the handwriting of the note, but the initial isn’t his.”

“It is. Had his father lived and held on to his holding, Geuffryt might well have been High Holder Laevoryn.” At least, after he’d removed his older brother, which I had no doubts he would have tried. “That’s one reason for his actions. He felt that the High Holders and the Collegium were the reason why he and his family lost everything. He’s taken other actions against High Holders in the past.”

“Such as?”

I shook my head. “They didn’t happen recently, and they’re not relevant here. Unearthing them now would only hurt innocents.”

“Will you leave that evidence?”

“No. You may view it any time you wish. If you wish to go over it now, I’ll wait. Or if you want to have anyone copy from it, I’ll be happy to wait as well.”

Caellynd nodded slowly. “Given what I’ve heard and seen, I can see your reluctance to part with it. I can’t blame you. We will need to copy parts of it, especially the barge lease contract details.”

All in all, I was at the Naval Command for more than a glass before I was finally able to return to the duty coach and begin the ride back to Imagisle.

Maitre Dyana was indeed waiting, even though I didn’t get back to the Collegium until two quints past fifth glass.

“What happened?” Her words were cool.

“I offered the evidence. Geuffryt denied it. Then he shot Valeun in the forehead and tried to shoot me. He was less than a yard away. I imaged pitricin into his brain. His shot hit the carpet.”

“His study was doubtless under observation.”

“A junior commander observed almost everything. His report verified what I told you. Deputy Sea-Marshal Caellynd went over everything with both the commander and me. After that, I presented the evidence to Deputy Sea-Marshal Caellynd, and he went over it thoroughly. He decided that there was no way to hush up everything, but that he would make a statement that apparently Geuffryt shot the Marshal when he realized that his personal ties to a Ferran banker and agent would be revealed and that he would have been demoted and dismissed.”