Rebel Elements (Seals of the Duelists) (19 page)

Heart pounding like a charging bull, Philo forced himself to stroll outside, nod amiably to Nic, and enter his waiting purple carriage. As he sat down inside, he pulled the ring out of his pocket and stared at it.

If the serving woman is lucky, Lord Eshkin won’t notice the ring’s gone missing anytime soon. Once he knows someone moved the ring, he’ll suspect everyone and everything, and that will include me, however careful I manage to be. I have until then to figure this puzzle out.

And I’m not a careful person. I suppose I’ll just have to pull rank and press some less visible people into service until I can prove one way or the other just what Lord Eshkin has gotten himself into.

But my first step must be alone. I need to visit Lady Eirene.

~~~

Tuur Langlaren settled onto the ratty cushion he had placed on the flat stone thirty years ago, folded his hands on top of the sheet of paper in his lap, and waited. As time passed, the pupils of his hazel eyes dilated in the dim light filtering in from the outside.

The diffuse blue glow finally arrived, illuminating the small, smooth-walled cave with a cool hue.

“Staas,” Tuur said, by way of greeting. “I have brought the latest class list. All of them passed on the first try. But you knew they would.”

The light brightened momentarily. Tuur set the sheet of paper, containing thirty-six names in alphabetical order, down on the cave floor. Then he closed his eyes, sensing the full presence of the sint filling the air around him. Warmth and a brighter light pressed on him for several moments. When it faded, Tuur opened his eyes and looked down at the paper.

The names were rearranged into six groups of six, inscribed in a hand different than Tuur’s. Even the ink color had changed to a deep turquoise, a color he’d seen in the sea just off the coast of Kemada once, but never in any stationery shop. No trace of Tuur’s plain black ink remained anywhere on the page. Tuur lifted it from the floor and studied the arrangements.

He placed a finger atop the names in the first group. “This is the strongest combination?”

The light brightened once more, then went out. The sint was gone, and Tuur sat alone in the dimness.

“Well.” He rose from the old cushion, paper in hand. “This’ll be an interesting semester.”

~~~

“Why hello, darling,” Lady Eirene greeted Philo, stepping back from the open door of her workshop. “Autumn’s come early this year. Do come in out of that fog.”

Philo stepped in and lifted his damp, lace-edged cape from his shoulders. He patted his pale blue wig, assuring himself that it was dry, and cast an eye over Eirene’s shell-strand headdress, the one style of headwear he could never wear.

Eirene’s workspace was tidy, her table tops and shelves holding chemical or metal ingredients labeled in a neat hand. Three lamps burned brightly, illuminating the room against the dim fogginess outside. The smell in the air was reminiscent of Philo’s jewelry boxes, and it brought a smile to his face.

“What can I do for the Ministry of Ways today?” The plump woman looked up at him from beneath the tiny, speckled cowries that marked the lower edge of her shell-laden fringe.

Philo bit his lip as he shut the door to her workshop. “Actually, my dear, I have come on a matter of personal urgency, though it does relate in some way to my position.”

Eirene’s golden-brown eyes gave him a sharp look. “Clear as mud, darling.”

Philo fished out the ring he’d stolen an hour ago. Eirene’s eyebrows lifted.

“I work with forged ducats, darling. That is not a coin.”

“No. But I have reason to believe it is a fake. That it’s not pure gold.”

She held out a hand, and he placed the ring on her palm. She closed her eyes and hefted the tiny weight of the ring a few times.

“You may be right. Let’s test it to be certain.”

She led Philo through a narrow doorway and into a large laboratory. Central tables held beakers of clear liquid and dark glass jars, as well as rows of small wooden boxes and short bits of various metals in wire, coin, and cube forms. Eirene stopped in front of a side table bearing a small set of scales.

Placing the ring on one side, she selected a wooden box from among a set of several. She opened its lid, and Philo saw dozens of tiny golden weights within.

As Eirene placed them, one by one, on the scale opposite the ring, Philo watched the scale begin to balance. When she had found the exact weight of the ring, she lifted both scales from their hooks and turned to a center table. A pair of identical narrow glass vials waited, filled to their brims with water. They were seated in slightly wider glass vials with markings on their sides. She gently slid the scales’ contents into the twin waters. Liquid spilled over the edges of the narrower vials and rose against the markings at the bottom of the wider set.

Philo frowned. “What does the water tell you?”

“That my vials are now wet.” She grinned, bending close to stare at the water in the marked vials. “The amount of water, now—that tells me the pure gold weights have a different density than the ring, though their weight was the same.”

“It is a fake,” he said, shoulders slumping.

“Indeed, darling. Care to tell me why that distresses you?”

“I would, dear, if I knew what it meant. Have you seen disguised rings like this in association with coin-forgery groups in the past? As a sort of signifier that the wearer is a member of a forgery group?”

“No. The good forgers would be able to afford the real thing, and they wouldn’t want to advertise their illegal work by wearing it. If anything, my darling little ducat forgers branched out into ring forgery, targeting poor merchants who want to appear wealthier than they can legally afford to be.”

Philo made a sour frown. Lord Eshkin would not have stolen the ring to seem wealthier. Not least because he’d hidden it away in a drawer.

She fished the ring out of the water and stepped over to a large, framed magnifying glass. “This sigil mean anything?”

“It’s Raqtaaq. That’s all I know.”

“The gold has worn thin in a few spots.” She turned it over and examined it further. “Whoever owned it had been wearing it for some while.”

“Will knowing the inner metal be useful?”

“It can be. Copper is a softer metal, like gold, but it often leaves a telltale green stain behind. Bronze or brass fakes are common enough. Ferrous coins are rarer, though, and tend to come from only a few parts of the empire, mostly in Shawnash’kote.” Eirene gave the ring a flick with her fingers, sending it rolling down the table top. As it neared the table’s far edge, it jumped sideways and clung to the flat side of a dark gray block of rock, joining a few other bits of metal there. “Ferrous. Looks like you’ve got yourself a Shawnash fake.”

What would drive a highly respected nobleman to commit the petty theft of a bit of shiny war loot? Philo wondered, delicately nibbling on a fingernail. No, it’s not really war loot, is it? The Kheerzaal History Archive has no record of the symbol on the ring among their noble Raqtaaq sigils. So, if it’s not a memento and it’s not the symbol…

It’s the ring itself.

“What if it isn’t iron?” he blurted, heart stuttering into a faster rhythm.

Eirene picked up the magnetic rock, with the ring still attached, and waggled it. “It’s iron, dear.”

“There are other magnetic metals.”

She frowned. “All right. Maybe it’s nickel or koboldt, but the sheer volume of iron in the empire simply dwarfs the chances of this ring being anything else. No other metals stick to lodestone.”

“No other
legal
metals.”

Eirene’s expression went from smug to cautious, and she set down the magnet immediately.

Philo swallowed the spit that had pooled in his mouth. “Is there a way to test for iron versus steel?”

Eirene sighed. “If there is, I know where to find it.”

Bayan stood with Calder and the rest of his class on the small, windswept plaza, damp from a brief spate of early morning autumn rain. Before them rose a stairstep of cozy, round buildings that climbed the mountainside, six to a row, six rows high: the hex houses. All the buildings occupying the same row had roofs of the same color, representing one of the elements.

“Which element do you want to be in?” Calder eyed the various rows. Here and there, more advanced students stood on the tiny balconies in front of their buildings and looked down on the gathered students.

“I don’t know. Does it make any difference?” Bayan asked.

“Depends on whom you ask. Some of the avatar students say they manifested their first avatars in the element of their hex house. What do you think you’ll be best at?”

Bayan looked over at him. “Don’t think it matters much, do you? There isn’t a mud element.”

Calder’s eyes bugged, and a delighted grin spread across his face. “Did you just make a joke?”

Bayan snorted.

“You did! You made a joke, and at your own expense, too! We’ll turn you into a duelist yet, Bayan Lualhati.” Calder clapped him on the shoulders with both hands.

Bayan scowled. “If you’d said you wanted to turn me into a Waarden, I’d have dropped you to the ground.”

Calder didn’t even blink. “Aren’t you glad you’ve such a canny friend in me?”

Bayan couldn’t help smiling at that. “
Bhattara na
. It seems I’m stuck with you.”

The headmaster approached from a side path, a sheet of paper in his hands. The wind tugged at it as he paused before the students. “Congratulations again, all of you, on advancing in your history, meditation, and form training classes. I hear good things about many of you from your instructors. It is time to assign you all into your hexes. The hex is the basic military unit of the duelist army. Right now, of course, you aren’t expected to fight any wars, so the arrangement is partially ceremonial. But, should any of you rise far enough to begin training for the rank of Hexmagic Duelist, you will understand why we put you all in hexes from the start.

“It’s a bit windy out here, so I’ll be brief. I know most of you are looking forward to examining your new hex houses. These gathering rooms will be yours for the remainder of your stay here on campus, and you may use them as often or as little as you like when you’re not required elsewhere.

“So, will the following students please step forward for inclusion in a Wood level hex house: Katje, Jaan…” The headmaster continued until he’d named all the members of the first hex.

Bayan watched as the six students stepped forward, eyeing each other warily, as if they’d never met, before approaching the first row of hex houses. Other Wood level hex students greeted them warmly, and after a short discussion, the new hex chose one of the empty cabins and went inside.

The headmaster spoke again, holding his paper against the whipping wind. “Will the following students please step forward for inclusion in an Earth level hex house: Calder…”

Bayan watched his best friend step forward and wished with all his might that his own name would be the next one called.

“…Eward…”

The enthusiastic young man stepped forward as well.

“…Kiwani…”

Bayan saw her literally sniff and raise her nose as she walked toward the other two.
Good luck with her, Calder.

“…Tarin…”

The redheaded girl gasped at the sound of her name, then she stepped forward and stood by Kiwani, who looked as if she were trying to ignore her while simultaneously maintaining a certain distance from the commoner girl.

“…Diogenes…”

“Yes,” Odjin said under his breath. He walked over and joined Calder, behind the girls, and immediately became preoccupied with Tarin’s hair.

“…And, lastly, Bayan.”

“Aye, that’s right!” Calder made a triumphant fist. But Kiwani seemed to have a different opinion. Her face froze into a mask, eyes wide with alarm, or possibly horror. As Bayan walked over and hugged the excited Calder, Kiwani turned away, looking up toward the hex houses.

Eward and Odjin clasped his hand, and Tarin did as well, after a hesitant moment. Bayan turned to Kiwani, willing to clasp hands if she was.

She didn’t look at him, but merely said, “We should pick a hex house.”

She led them up the stairs to the second level. Azhni trailed the group silently. When they reached the broad walkway in front of the six Earth houses, Kiwani stepped into one of the empty buildings, ignoring the other Earth level hex members who stood on the long balcony to greet the newcomers. Azhni followed her in.

Someone stepped out of the adjacent hex house, bearing a lit lamp whose flame wavered in the wind despite the glass bulb that sheltered it.

“You’re still here, are you?” Taban grinned. “Well, it’s ducats in my pocket then.”

“You bet on whether Bayan would fail?” Calder stepped forward with an aggressive stance, despite the flame the other boy held.

“Oh, look who found his spine this morning,” Taban replied in a bored tone. “Aye, hexling, I did, but I’ll thank you to note that I bet he’d pass, not fail. Braam’s ducats are mine to spend now.”