‘You are also sent for,’ the Beetle ambassador said. ‘At your convenience.’
‘Prince Shah?’ Stenwold enquired.
Gramo chuckled indulgently. ‘Prince Felipe, you mean, but no, not him. Another at the castle requests your presence, perhaps even the same as sent for your friend. In your own time, though. When you are ready.’
‘We’re ready now,’ Destrachis decided.
Nine
‘So, we trust Thalric now, do we?’ Achaeos asked. He was looking better, genuinely better, since his own people’s doctors had started tending him. The long haul to Tharn had been worth the trouble, though now it had seemingly brought more trouble in its wake.
‘I… I think I do,’ Che said.
‘You think you do?’ He grimaced. ‘That doesn’t show much faith, Che.’
He reached his hand out and she took it, marvelling as always at how delicate his fingers were.
‘You remember Myna, Achaeos,’ she said. ‘You remember Kymene and the occupation.’
‘I do, yes.’
‘They need what I can bring them,’ she said simply. ‘Trust him or not, Thalric’s logic is sound.’
‘Only if his information is. Assuming he isn’t simply leading you into a trap.’
‘How can I know.’ She shrugged. ‘But if Thalric wanted to capture us, he’s already had his chance. He could easily hand us over to the Wasps here. He could have forced me to fly off into the Empire – Helleron’s imperial now, and only a step away. Or there’s the camp at Asta, that must be seething with them. I think he’s… lost. He’s used to having a whole Empire driving him on, and now he’s on his own, and he’s not used to that.’
‘Poor little Thalric,’ commented the Moth acidly.
‘But you see what I mean? If Myna rebels, then there will be fewer Wasp soldiers to throw at the Lowlands. If Myna and this other place rebel – and with Sten in the Commonweal trying to roust them up – we could see the whole western Empire reeling. And there must be other places who will try to throw off the yoke if they know the Empire simply doesn’t have the soldiers to spare for them.’
Achaeos closed his eyes, thinking. ‘The Ants of Maynes,’ he murmured, ‘and Sa. Great Delve. Yes, there are others.’ He opened those curious eyes again, without iris or pupil so that she could not tell whether he was looking at her or not. ‘I understand, Che, I really do. I remember Myna. Perhaps we owe them something, after all. I’m just… I don’t trust Thalric and I doubt I ever will. And I worry about you.’
‘And I worry about you too,’ she told him. ‘I’m leaving you here in their hands, after all. And, last I heard, your own people weren’t likely to step in and help you if the Wasps decided that you were a prisoner and not a guest.’
He smiled slightly. ‘It might be that things are changing a little there. It might be that the Tharen are realizing that they’re part of a greater world after all, and that someone who has at least put his nose outside once in a while is, if not much trusted, still useful.’
‘Really?’ Her eyes widened.
‘I’ve been meeting people,’ he explained. ‘They do not like me, Che. I have broken too many unwritten laws for them to like me. They need me, however. And things here are not quite what they seem, regarding the occupation. You forget that we are a cunning people, in our way.’
She pressed her lips together. ‘Well, if you trust them, then maybe I can trust Thalric.’
‘Che, that isn’t the same thing at all.’
‘I know, but…’
His smile became sharp-edged. ‘I know. It’s what Stenwold would do, in your place. And I know what Myna means to Stenwold. For him, it was the door that opened onto the Empire. I know.’ His grip on her hand increased. ‘And you want to be able to tell him how you liberated Myna. You want him to be proud of you.’
He had cut too deep with that. ‘I want to be proud of myself,’ she protested. ‘I seem to spend my whole time walking from one person’s cell to another. I haven’t done anything yet. Now I want to do my bit.’
She had brought the peoples of the Ancient League to stand alongisde Sarn, Achaeos reflected. She had retrieved the plans for the snapbow. She had found allies in Solarno and Tharn for her people. He knew that she would not be satisfied with that, though, for she was still in the shadow of her uncle and her foster-sister, Tynisa.
The thought of Tynisa sent a twinge running through him, even though he never saw her wield the sword against him. That led him on to thoughts of the other player in this drama: the Mosquito-kinden whose servant had, through Tynisa’s stolen arm, vicariously inflicted this wound he suffered. It was a matter he would have to discuss with the Skryres. Even if he could have travelled, he needed most of all to be here.
‘Go, then,’ he told her. ‘You’re right, you must go. Please, though, do not let Thalric guide your hand too much. Do not give him a chance to betray you. When you are in Myna, trust only Kymene and her people, even trust that old Scorpion more than you would trust Thalric. If the Empire should ever hold its hand out to him again, he is theirs.’
‘I know,’ she said.
He hunched forwards, and she hugged him gently but still felt him twitch in pain.
‘And don’t you trust your people more than you have to,’ she warned him. ‘If they genuinely liked you, that might last, but if they only need you then they’ll drop you as soon as that need is gone.’
‘Oh, I know it,’ he agreed. ‘Don’t think that I don’t.’
And yet, when she paused in the infirmary doorway before going, he was stabbed by the sudden thought, I will never see her again, and did not know if this was fear or prophecy.
After Che had gone, he sensed movement nearby, and it was not long before Xaraea stepped suspiciously into the room with narrowed eyes.
‘All overheard of course,’ said Achaeos tiredly. ‘I would have more privacy if I were an Ant.’
‘Aside from your perversions,’ she said, ‘you come close to betraying us.’
‘Only if you believe she would betray me.’
‘If she is to go now into the Empire, she is not safe bearing any knowledge that could harm us.’
Achaeos stared at her for a long time, until she broke and asked him, ‘What? What is it?’
‘I see why you need my differing viewpoint,’ he told her. ‘You have an imperial garrison. You have an imperial governor. What part of the Empire are we not inside?’
She scowled at him but had no answer to that, just saying, ‘Speaking of the governor, it is time for you to meet him. As it is not fit for him to come to your bedside, that means you will have to walk.’
In the end they had to help him along. He was not even capable of the length of journey that a few turned corners and passages would have made. He was healing fast, but the wound had been an inch off mortal. The chamber they took him to was one designed for meditation. Perhaps they hope to make the Empire think like them?
There was a Skryre, an old woman, seated there. Her glance towards Achaeos was bleak but not hostile. Achaeos thought he saw a touch of fear there, too, in the very depths of her white eyes. She nodded to his escorts and they took him over and lowered him until he sat beside her. A Mantis-kinden in robes knelt down beside and slightly behind him, ready to assist him if he needed it.
‘Say nothing,’ the Skryre instructed him. ‘Watch only.’
Xaraea had now taken up station beside the door, beyond which Achaeos could already hear the marching feet: the military approach of destiny.
Their visitor wore the uniform of a Wasp officer off duty: not armour but tunic and cloak in black and gold, fastened richly with jewelled pins. He entered with a female Wasp slave-girl and with half a dozen guards as his escort, as haughty and arrogant as any Wasp governor might wish to appear.
The old woman stood up as he entered, and even Achaeos was helped to his feet