The Shadowmage Trilogy (Twilight of Kerberos: The Shadowmage Books) (83 page)

Men could be dispatched to return to Vos and collect the kind of explosives that had recently came into use in the wealthiest mines. He had witnessed their power and had been impressed. However, he suspected even the greatest of the Vos alchemists had little idea of how such destructive force would react to the magical wards and guards laid down for eternity by elves and dwarfs.

Alhmanic fumed. The artefact was here, probably just a few dozen yards from where he stood now. The presence of the Pontaine wizard practically confirmed that. And yet, right at that moment, it might as well have been a thousand miles away, across the World’s Ridge Mountains or maybe in the depths of the trackless seas.

On the other hand, there was no way he could return to the Anointed Lord empty-handed. If it cost him every man present and endangered his own life, he
had
to recover the artefact.

CHAPTER EIGHT

T
HE MAIN HALL
of the Citadel lacked the raucous activity present when Lucius had last been there. Gone were the revelling nobles, the musicians, the copious food from around the peninsula and newly introduced couples disappearing into the shadows.

Still, it was anything but peaceful. Servants moved from one doorway to another, some hurrying to errands or carrying messages, others with far weightier burdens, straining to take barrels of wine to the kitchens or bundles of freshly washed tunics to the barracks. A few other townsmen were, like him, seated at one of the long tables that still filled the floor space of the hall, having been left there since the last banquet. They all had appointments for one Pontaine official or another, and they all ignored one another.

Lucius had already seen one change of guard while he had been sat there, and looked up in expectation as he sensed a servant approaching him. However, once again, the servant carried nothing but a flagon of wine that he used to top up Lucius’ cup. That was the fourth or fifth time the man had done so, and Lucius decided to set his cup firmly down on the table this time. He could not shake the feeling that the baron was delaying their meeting, one the Pontaine lord had arranged himself, so Lucius could quietly work himself into a drunken stupor and be easier to deal with.

His head already starting to spin slightly, Lucius left his cup alone and instead sat up straight. If someone were watching him from the balcony that ran the length of the hall, or maybe from a spyhole – he would certainly not put that idea past the baron – then maybe they would sense he was done playing games and would get his meeting over with.

It took another visit from the wine-bearing servant, which Lucius pointedly refused, and then, perhaps, someone had taken the hint. Or maybe the baron had simply concluded whatever business he had been engaged in earlier. A girl, perhaps in her late teenage years, dressed in a tight gown of blue silk, approached Lucius and curtseyed gracefully before him.

“The baron is ready to see you now, my Lord.”

Lucius hid a smirk at being called “lord” and studied the girl briefly. She did not dress or speak like a servant, and he sniffed a hint of Pontaine nobility about her. Quite why such a girl would be sent to fetch someone from the hall puzzled him, and he realised he still had a great deal to learn about Pontaine customs.

She did not speak as she led him from the hall on a long journey through passageways and up spiralling stairs that were becoming familiar to him. Through it all, he saw passing servants act in a diffident nature to both of them, confirming his thought that she was not one of them.

Eventually, they arrived at a door Lucius recognised as being that of the baron’s own study. The girl reached out with a delicate hand and gently rapped on the door. She barely made a sound to Lucius, but the door opened after a few seconds to reveal the smiling face of the Baron de Sousse.

“Excellent, my dear girl,” he said. “You found him. Leave us be, and attend to your embroidery.”

The girl curtseyed deeply and turned from them to walk back down the corridor. The baron waved Lucius inside the study.

“Baron,” Lucius acknowledged, dipping his head briefly.

“Lovely young girl that one. Blood of my blood, mostly. Her mother died from a chill that settled on her chest, and few other members of our family were prepared to take on her daughter.”

“I’m surprised,” Lucius said as he walked into the study and took the chair the baron gestured him toward. “I thought Pontaine families relied on marriages to create alliances. An attractive young girl of marriageable age would be something of a prize.”

“You are beginning to learn our ways, Lucius,” de Sousse said as he walked behind the Sardenne oak desk dominating the room to take his own seat. “I commend you.”

Lucius shrugged. “It is obvious Pontaine is not going to be leaving our city anytime soon. It seems prudent to learn the customs.”

“Profitable too. Can I get you food or drink? We have some beautiful delicacies recently arrived from Volonne in our kitchens. Shouldn’t be missed.”

“Thank you, Lord Baron, no.”

“To business then. The Lady Adrianna obviously does not accompany you.”

“She received an invitation too?”

The baron nodded. “I had hoped to gain the benefits of her expertise as well as your own, but it is of little consequence, I am sure. Do you know what consumes her attention instead of me?”

“I do not. I make it a habit not to enquire too closely into what Adrianna does from day-to-day. If she wants my attention, she normally finds a way to get it.”

“Women in general normally get what they want,” the baron said, a sardonic smile hovering at his lips before disappearing. “But I do have concerns about Adrianna.”

There could be an entire guild of people who feel that way, Lucius thought, but kept it to himself.

“Can she be trusted?”

The bluntness of the baron’s question gave Lucius pause, and he stayed silent for a while, thinking how to best answer.

“In general, yes,” Lucius said eventually. “If Adrianna says she is going to do something, it will be a rare instance in which she fails. If that is something that you have asked her to do, then maybe you can take advantage of that.”

The baron looked at him for a moment as silence hung in the air.

“But..?” the baron finally prompted.

Lucius took a deep breath and wetted his lips. “You can probably trust her. However, never, ever cross her. It does not matter how many soldiers you have, nor how many pet wizards you can call upon. If Adrianna wants you dead, there may be no power in the city that can save you.”

“We have heard rumours of her actions during the last days of Vos here. We heard
–
”

“They are not rumours. Adrianna was responsible for dozens, perhaps hundreds of deaths and single-handedly destroyed a sizeable portion of the city.”

“But she was stopped.”

Lucius allowed himself a short, bitter laugh at that. The baron looked at him in surprise, and Lucius shook his head.

“My Lord Baron, the only thing that truthfully stopped Adrianna was Adrianna, and a good woman died to ensure that choice.” For a moment, he looked past the baron’s shoulder, out of the open window behind him and at the greying sky. “Always treat Adrianna with the utmost respect. To do otherwise is to court danger that no one needs.”

“But you are loyal to her?”

“I owe her for things that have happened in the past. Then again, she owes me as well, whether she would admit that publicly or not.”

“You consider her a friend?”

“I have in the past, certainly. Now... Well, I may be one of the few that actually knows where he stands with her – most of the time, at least – and I am happy to accept that.”

“Fair enough.”

“Is this why you called me here? To learn about Adrianna?”

“I asked to see both of you. My interest in her, beyond being a Shadowmage and a fascinating woman in her own right, is rooted in Adrianna occupying one of the senior positions in the city, and having gained that position through nothing more than her own efforts and skills. However, I do have something quite different to discuss with you.

“I have several interests in the Anclas Territories, and I believe you have some experience there yourself.”

“I worked as a mercenary for a number of years,” Lucius said. “Mainly in the north of the Territories. Ugly place after the war.”

“Ugly indeed, but also full of opportunity. It is that opportunity that drives me to conflict with other noble families of Pontaine. Resources from crop farms to tin mines often lay abandoned or, better, unprotected after a war. Remember, no one truly rules the Territories, so if a chalk quarry here or a wood rich with timber there is found, who truly owns it?”

“The people of the Territories?”

The baron barked a laugh in response. “Whoever comes along first with enough soldiers to take it and then hold on to it. It is all there, if you can but find it. And serfs, of course. A disenfranchised population like those of the Territories is ripe for use, be it on farms outside their homes or on a man’s own property back in Pontaine.”

“Sounds a little like slavery.”

“I did not ask you here to debate semantics. Nor argue the ways of the world.”

“Then, my Lord Baron, may I press you to tell me why I was summoned?”

“I do not intend to be left behind, Lucius. There are many among my peers, nobles of equal or similar rank and title, who already have extensive interests in the Territories. I gained a great deal from seizing Turnitia, of course, but that is only the first step on a much longer road.”

“We have discovered an artefact, Lucius. In the Anclas Territories. All indications are that it is a very powerful one, something that was forged in the days of the elves, when their empire was at its very height.”

“And you want it.”

“Of course. Something like that in my possession would mark me as a cut above all my peers. And once the secrets of the elves are unlocked from it, well, let’s just say I have certain ambitions in my own country.”

With a sudden shock, Lucius realised what he had been missing throughout the meeting, and he mentally kicked himself for not seeing it earlier.

“You’ve already sent your wizard to bring it back,” Lucius said. “And he has failed.”

“He has encountered some difficulties. It seems to me that while Master Tellmore has proved exceptional, not only in his capacity as my arcane advisor but also, let us not forget, as the one who discovered the existence and resting place of the artefact, he may not have the... instinct required here. He is very learned, and there is little he knows absolutely nothing about. But we are dealing with the magics of empires long since turned to dust, Lucius.”

“If you are wanting me to take a trip to the Territories, I must decline, my Lord Baron. I have many duties here, in Turnitia and, besides, I have already travelled that way before. Can’t say I enjoyed it.”

“Ah, of course, of course,” the baron said quietly. “Well, it was just an idea. I had hoped that Adrianna might have been fuelled by a desire to prove a learned wizard wrong, but I know that is not your motivation.”

“I think that you maybe underestimate Adrianna,” Lucius said.

“But you have responsibilities here, naturally. I’m guessing that in what is quite literally a den of thieves, there is no one you can truly trust to run things while you are out of the city. Must be quite restricting. I had hoped the thrill of adventure might be motivation enough for you, Lucius, but I was forgetting myself. A guildmaster retired from active thieving has too many concerns and demands for his attention for a trivial favour for a Pontaine lord.”

“Now wait a minute. I never said anything about being retired.”

“No of course not,” the baron said, a little too hurriedly. He moved forward to lean across his desk. “This task requires a unique combination of skills, Lucius. We have had many men try to retrieve this artefact, but even the most powerful wizard I could recruit cannot get past the first line of defences. What is needed is a deep understanding of magic – not just what can be read in a book, but felt, by
instinct
– allied to a highly developed sense of personal safety and stealth. To my mind, there is only one sort of person who matches that description...’