“I appreciate your faith in my ability to do nothing,” Calder said dryly, but he had to force back a smile.
It wasn’t time for celebration yet; the biggest obstacle of the day stood in front of him. One person had yet to respond.
Andel replaced his hat. “Don’t plan your coronation yet. Until the Emperor dies, if that can even happen, you’re just a young man past his ears in debt. And even if he does die, I doubt he considers Ach’magut’s recommendation reason enough to name you his heir.”
Calder deflated a little. Andel was essentially right; there was a long road between him and the throne.
But he’d get there. That, he never doubted.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
I found allies in the void, but enemies too. I was not surprised. There are enemies everywhere. But strangest of all were those that were neither hostile nor friendly: the guardians in white.
The Consultants had lost the battle, no one disputed that. After they spent the rest of the day scouring the Gray Island, shaking as many Consultants as they could out of their holes, the Imperialist Guilds took to their ships flush with victory.
Even if the attack hadn’t worked out quite as they’d hoped, even if General Teach was wounded and in dire condition, even if many of the Consultants were still on the run, they’d won. The Gray Island was theirs.
And now the Consultants were fleeing.
They’d come out of a hidden harbor on a black ship with a twisting eye where the crow’s nest should be. Calder didn’t recognize the ship, but he recognized its kind: it was a Navigator’s Vessel, and not one belonging to the Guild. The Consultants had their own pet Navigator.
Not the first secret they’d kept from the other Guilds, he was sure.
The ship led them on a spirited chase, but in the end it was only one vessel, and they were more experienced on the Aion. Calder cornered it himself, and took it upon himself to address the Consultant refugees onboard.
Including, he was sure, the Gardener Shera.
Calder stepped up to the railing, raising the captain’s horn to his lips. “Ladies and gentlemen of the Consultant’s Guild, you may notice that we have you surrounded. We’re going to escort you back to the Capital, where—”
He’d intended to say, “Where you’ll be treated with all respect and courtesy,” but a pudgy green monster fluttered down from the rigging and interrupted him, in a resonant masculine voice that boomed out over the ocean. “SURROUNDED!”
Calder lowered the horn and muttered to Andel. “Cage it or shoot it, I don’t care which.”
He gathered himself before addressing the Consultants again. He’d lost his place, so he simply made it up. “…where representatives of loyal Guilds will gather to determine your treatment.” That sounded appropriately vague, if not as friendly as he’d intended. Shuffles’ appearance had tainted his mood. “I can say that, if you cooperate, we would be delighted to have an organization with your expertise on the side of the Empire. We only wish for humankind to stand united, as the Elders wish to consume us all—”
He knew it was a mistake as soon as he said it.
“CONSUME US ALL!” Shuffles declared, even as Andel chased it across the bridge.
“Andel, Foster, I’m shoving something into a cage as soon as this is over. I’d rather it be Shuffles.”
After another moment to clear his mind, he picked up the captain’s horn again. “I assure you, we have only your best interests at heart.”
“BEST INTERESTS,” Shuffles said with a laugh, making it sound like the threatening declaration of a demented murderer. Calder gave up, tossing the horn to the deck. If the Consultants didn’t get the point by now, they never would.
For a few seconds they didn’t respond, and Calder wondered if they might not have a captain’s horn of their own. He was planning on moving closer before a cloud of mist exploded into being around the enemy ship.
Bastion’s Veil. Only instead of surrounding the Consultant’s island, it shrouded their vessel, rapidly expanding into a solid bank of fog. Calder stared into the cloud, anger and hopelessness warring within him.
They’d gotten away.
Even now, Cheska was organizing a search, shouting her orders to the other Navigators, but he knew they wouldn’t catch up. The majority of the remaining Consultants were aboard that ship, not counting the thousands of Guild members on assignment all over the world. They’d taken Consultant headquarters away, but what had they really gained?
He slumped down to the deck, leaning his back against the wheel, and closed his eyes.
Someone sat down next to him.
He looked over to see Bliss staring at him from two inches away. “In pets, sudden listlessness and lack of energy can indicate that they are sick,” she said.
“I’m not an animal.”
“Then you’re distressed.” She reached into her coat and pulled out a folded-up blanket. It was big enough that it should have made a noticeable bulge in her coat, leading him to wonder irrationally if she’d created it out of nothing. She reached around him, tucking the blanket over his shoulders.
There was nothing wrong with him that a blanket could possibly solve, but it was nice to have someone worry about him for once. He leaned his head back, looking into the sky. “Thanks,” he said.
“You’re welcome.”
She joined him in looking up, even as all around him the Navigators searched frantically for the vanishing ship.
“The crack in the sky,” he said suddenly. “What is it really?”
Bliss pondered for a moment. “There’s nothing wrong with the sky. What we’re seeing is a rift, such as the Elders use for transportation to and from the void. It is simply very high above us.”
For Bliss, that was a surprisingly coherent answer. He decided to push a little further. “What’s on the other side?”
“Popular belief says it’s where the Elders come from. That’s likely to be true. We can verify that most of the Great Elders use the void for transportation and communication.”
Calder digested that, but Bliss wasn’t through. “You’ve seen Ach’magut’s library, haven’t you?”
He would very much like to know where she’d heard that, but there was no point in lying now. “Yes.”
“While Ach’magut was dead, we liberated our share of books from that library. Stole. Liberated. Liberated or stole? Either way, once we’d decoded the languages, we learned a few relevant facts. First, ours is not the only world out there.”
“I know that, Bliss,” Calder said. “My tutors showed me the planets through a telescope.”
“I didn’t say planets,” she said. “And don’t interrupt. Each Elder pursues something, and they move from world to world through the void in pursuit of it. Ach’magut pursues knowledge. Nakothi pursues the perfect balance of life and death. Urg’naut pursues absolute nothingness. Tharlos…” she paused to push down on her coat, “…pursues change. But wherever they go, they work apart. Against humanity, but neither with nor against one another. As we understand it, it was very rare for one Great Elder to ever encounter another.”
“Then how did we end up with seven?”