Vambran had to grin, remembering a time not so long ago when she had playfully donned his uniform, or rather, parts of it. She had been particularly fetching in the get-up. "No," he said, banishing the thoughts before they got the better of him. "I need your connections. And it is a large favor I ask. You will need to be discrete."
"Ooh, a mystery," Elenthia said, letting her voice drop.
"I'm serious," Vambran said, letting his smile go. "This could be dangerous for you."
Elenthia sat up straighter and tried to appear serious. "Anything for you, my love," she said. "Whatever it is, I'm eager to assist you."
"Good," Vambran said. "Then I need to find out where my soldiers are. They have been brought here as prisoners."
Elenthia's expression did turn serious then, and she frowned. "Vambran, I cannot ask my father to release prisoners. To begin with, his position is not one of handling the city's defenses, and besides, that would just not be possible. I-"
The lieutenant held up his hand to stop her. "I'm not asking you anything of the sort," he said. "I simply need to know where they are. I will get them out myself."
"What? You mean you intend to try to break them out of prison?"
"Yes, that's what I mean."
"Vambran, you can't be serious! You'll never succeed, and they'll throw you in the dungeon right alongside your soldiers, and I will never see you again! I'm not going to help you do something mad!"
Vambran shook his head. "I don't have a choice, Elenthia. Men have taken them and intend to kill them to ensure their silence-men who are behind the war that's occurring."
Elenthia's frown deepened. "That is unfortunate," she said. "The war is bloody, and Father has stated in no uncertain terms that the senate is up in arms over the whole affair. Half the senate approves of it, and the other half-"
"Elenthia, please," Vambran pleaded. "I don't have time for this. My companions are in danger, and I have to find them right now."
The look on the woman's face broke Vambran's heart, for he realized that he had hurt her with his harsh words. But he dismissed his feelings, promising himself that he would make it up to her later. Right then, he had more important issues to attend to.
"All right," Elenthia said, rising. "Let me get properly dressed, and I will take you to see Father."
Before she was able to walk three paces, though, alarms began to sound outside in the streets. As Elenthia gasped, Vambran moved to the window to see what the commotion was about.
"That's the call to arms!" she cried, a tremor in her voice. "The city's under attack!"
"I'd really love to stay and watch all of this," Junce was saying from a distant corner of the room, "but I have to get back to Arrabar. There's some unfinished business I must take care of at the Generon involving your niece. That little Emriana's becoming quite the lovely lady, don't you think?" he said, smiling. "I believe she and I might find something suitable to talk about, a mutually enjoyable way to spend our time together "
Kovrim jerked against the bonds that held him strapped down to a table, wanting with all of his being to get his hands around the assassin's neck and throttle him. But he was completely immobilized and finally gave up, letting hopelessness begin to wash over him. The guards who had removed him from the alcove and restrained him there had disappeared, leaving him alone with Junce.
"A word of advice, though," the assassin said, crossing over to loom near Kovrim's head, a smug smile on his face. "Fight the transformation. It won't make a difference, but I can imagine the desperation you'll feel while it's happening will be truly agonizing. So resist it with everything you have, just for me."
Kovrim gave a throaty shout at the man standing over him, but Junce backed up a pace or two, spoke a phrase, and vanished. When he had gone, the old priest broke down, sobbing in his loneliness and fear. He wasn't afraid to die, but he was terrified of becoming an undead thing. Watching Hort rise up from the floor and stare with glassy, unrecognizing eyes straight ahead as he shuffled off to join the other zombies was the most difficult thing the old priest had ever had to witness.
And he knew he would be joining his longtime companion soon, transformed by the magical plague into another mindless, disease-spreading creature, part of Junce's new army. It sickened him, made him want to retch. He began to thrash again, fighting the restraints that held him on the table.
A door opened, and Kovrim twisted his head around, trying to peer in that direction to see who it was. A man strode into the chamber where he lay, but his face was hidden by a deep-cowled hood, part of a long robe he wore. There was a strange glow radiating all around the stranger, and Kovrim guessed that it was some sort of protection against infection from the plague.
"You see," the stranger said, his face turned away from Kovrim as he stood at a workbench, doing something Kovrim couldn't see, "my cousin doesn't want to have to battle the armies of Reth and the Emerald Enclave at full strength. In truth, he doesn't want to have to fight them at all. He would much rather let the ravages of disease take their toll, and Chondath can arrive with healing magic and save the day, allowing Reth to return to the fold, where it rightly belongs."
Kovrim listened to the man's cryptic words, not understanding them, but not really thinking about them, either. It was the stranger's voice that captivated him. It was vaguely familiar, someone he had known, many years ago. But he couldn't quite place it.
"Of course," the man continued, "my cousin must make certain that Chondath is not seen as having released the plague itself. That's everyone's worst fear, that Shining Arrabar will bring the Rotting Plague back. So he developed a plan. The plague would come from elsewhere, and he would be seen as a savior rather than a devil. And who better to release the plague upon a hated city than the druids of the Emerald Enclave? When they begin to track the zombies' origins and head down into the sewers, they will find the bodies of two promising young wood folk who both gave their lives so that the 'hated city folk' could be devoured in disease."
At last, the man turned to face Kovrim, holding a small alembic, which contained a thick, yellow substance. He approached where the old priest lay, holding the alembic well away from himself. "It was a long plan, a slow one, and one that I didn't have much say in," the man said. "But then, that's always the way my cousin operated, so I guess I should feel fortunate that I was included at all."
Kovrim wanted to scream, not because the man was about to pour the thick, sludgy substance onto his face-that in and of itself was too horrible to contemplate. No, the old priest's anxiety reached a fever pitch because he remembered the face, knew the man.
Slowly, as the man let a bit of the disease-ridden pus slide out of the alembic and dribble around Kovrim's mouth and nose, he lost his faculties, his mind seeking shelter by receding from consciousness.
Rodolpho Wianar finished the application of the disease to the priest and smiled.
CHAPTER 18
Emriana held her breath, trying to hold perfectly still. It was hard, hanging as she was with her knees drawn up and hooked over a timber and her torso folded in half, both hands clinging to that same beam along either side of her knees. She would have pulled herself up the rest of the way and found a more comfortable perch, but there hadn't been time. She felt very undignified with her rear end jutting downward like that.