"The crystal did not glow, my empress. She is concealing nothing."
Llawan clicked again, and the guards swam off, out into the bay and well out of earshot. They maintained a clear line of sight on both Veza and the empress.
"Forgive us, Director," Llawan said, "but we had to be sure. If you had lied just now, that crystal would have flashed. I have negotiated many a favorable treaty with it by my side."
Veza simply stared uncomprehendingly.
"We can never be too careful when dealing with Laquatus. But now we must be completely frank with you. Aboshan already has the Mirari. Somehow the ambassador managed to get the Mirari away from the Order and into Aboshan's clutches without actually ever taking possession of it himself. The man's an idiot."
"So Aboshan has the artifact?"
"Yes."
"And the empress is worried that he will use it against her?"
Veza was shocked when Llawan laughed out loud. Cephalids made a high-pitched, staccato chattering when they laughed. It was too much for Veza. She burst into laughter as well.
Llawan quickly regained her composure. "If only that were our main concern! Aboshan collects artifacts, but he doesn't understand them. He wouldn't know what to do with a powerful artifact if it came with a guidebook and a tutor. If he gets his tentacles on the Mirari, he'll probably try to eat it.
"No, Director, we are concerned with what Laquatus will do once he has the Mirari. He claims to be working on behalf of the emperor, but he is a greedy and grasping child. It must truly gall him to see the prize that he so badly wanted in the hands of an oaf, and to know that he has no chance of wresting it free. If the thing is as powerful as they say-if it is as powerful as my mind-rider senses, then Laquatus will not allow Aboshan to have it for long. And when he gets it, the next obstacle between an ambassador's sash and the imperial cap is poor, exiled Llawan."
Veza's humor quickly cooled and vanished. "What will the empress do?"
Llawan extended a tentacle and gently took Veza's hand. "We will gather around us those who have served us well. Those who have served us loyally." She dropped Veza's hand and brought her other forelimb forward. On the end she wore a sharpened spike of whale's tooth. "And we will confront the oaf Aboshan. If we can push him, keep him furious and fearful of a renewed civil war, then he will cling tightly to his new toy and never allow Laquatus to take it. The harder the ambassador tries, the tighter Aboshan's grip will grow, and neither of them will be able to use it against us. Eventually, Aboshan will have Laquatus killed." She smiled a politician's smile. " It is never a good idea to be too ambitious when the emperor is feeling insecure. "We ask you to come with us now and stand by our side in the court of the emperor. We ask you to declare yourself as our subject, and to represent our interests. You are wasted here in Breaker Bay. Worse, you are insulted by it. Come with us now, and be our subject. We have thirty executives like yourself and another dozen cephalids of noble birth. We will present ourselves to the emperor and petition him for permission to secede from his empire."
"He will certainly refuse."
"He must. But he will observe the formalities of government. He will cite the existing treaty between us. He will bluster and threaten. He will try to have us killed by assassins, and try to have us executed publicly as traitors. And all that will buy us time."
"Time, Empress? Time for what?"
"To take control of the situation. To drum up more support among the oligarchs and nobles. To turn Laquatus and Aboshan against each other and divide their strength. To take this Mirari for ourselves and rid Mer once and for all of oafs and knaves."
Veza looked up at the surface of the pool above her head. Beyond it was her cottage, her paperwork, and her depot. Beyond that, the village and all its human inhabitants, with all their human tics and prejudices. And somewhere far beyond that was Aboshan, who cared only for the commerce and not at all for the people who conducted it in his name.
"I am yours, Empress Llawan," she said. "What would you have me do?"
Llawan smiled. "Come with us now. We are taking a water portal back to our city, where the imperial transport is being prepared for the journey north. En route, we will discuss statesmanship and strategy."
Veza nodded. "There are a few items I would like to bring along."
"Personal items, Director? This is a time for leaving things behind and starting over."
Veza bowed. "Documents, Empress. Information that may prove useful to our cause." She raised her eyes and met Llawan's. "And I am Director of Breaker Bay no longer."
CHAPTER 13
Chainer caught sight of the pair from the same vantage point he had first spotted Kamahl. He recognized KamahPs sister Jeska and the dwarf Balthor from the descriptions he had and the fact that they arrived together. Now that he saw her, he thought he could have recognized Jeska as one of Kamahl's kin without forewarning.
She was of medium height and build, but she had Kamahl's blazing red hair and brass colored skin. Where Kamahl's was cropped close to his head, Jeska wore her hair long, braided dwarf style into hundreds of finger-thick strands. Each braid was interwoven with ribbons or hide or polished stones, and she had gathered them all in the middle of her back with a heavy iron clip. Chainer recognized a weighted whip when he saw it, but he was impressed with how casually she wore a weapon that most fighters wouldn't recognize.
She also wore a peculiar metal gauntlet that covered her left forearm. It was etched with runes but unpolished, with two small horns at the wrist edge. It looked like a miniature slingshot, but Chainer couldn't quite credit the whole thing as a weapon. He reasoned it was either a sword baffle or some other sort of protective armor.
Finally, she carried a wooden baton that was intricately carved and ringed with metal. It was about as long as her arm, and it looked extremely solid. Her muscles lied about it, as well, effortlessly concealing how dense the baton actually was. In addition to the decorative metal rings, Chainer guessed the baton also had a metal core to give it extra punch.
Jeska carried herself and her weapons with extreme confidence. Her eyes were focused straight ahead, her jaw was set, and her pace was so stern it seemed more like a march than a hike. She didn't even glance at the dwarf by her side, though he matched her stride for stride and never fell out of her peripheral vision.
Balthor was built like all dwarves Chainer had seen, short and broad and gnarled as a stump. His long beard was split into two equal points that fell to his waist, and he wore an ornate headdress with a large red gem at the center. Instead of a fighting axe, he carried some kind of axe-staff that was neither completely weapon nor completely walking stick.
The strange duo was met at the gate by a Cabal representative and escorted into the arena. Chainer waited until the door had shut behind them before he turned from the window and made his way down to the pits.
Several hours later, an oily-looking fixer met Chainer on the staircase.
"You Chainey?" the fixer said. "Chainer."
"Whatever. Come on, let's go. You're on."
The fixer's attitude annoyed Chainer. "What's the rush?"
"They are. The woman's insane, and the dwarf is really cranky. They say they're going to fight now, or they're going to start wrecking the place."
"So? Turn some stalkers and some hellhounds loose on 'em. The Master of the Games said-"