“Didn’t I warn you that I wasn’t proposing a truce?” Tithian demanded defensively. “If you’ll recall, I did tell you to watch yourself.”
Though Agis had to agree, he was far from pleased with his friend. “I suppose that justifies using me to hunt for the Alliance?”
“You’re the one who involved himself in the revolt,” Tithian countered. “Don’t blame me if that causes you trouble.”
“I suppose what you showed me about the obsidian balls and pyramid was just bait?” the senator asked.
“No. It was real enough,” the high templar said. Though it was difficult to read facial expressions on the tiny image in the crystal, Agis thought Tithian appeared frightened. “Tell me, how did the Veiled Ones receive the news?”
“Why should I tell you anything?” Agis demanded.
“Because my offer still stands,” Tithian replied.
“Forgive me if I seem skeptical.”
“You can’t afford to dismiss me lightly,” the high templar said. “You have no idea what I’ve done on your behalf. Kalak knows about your adventures with the Veiled Alliance. If I hadn’t used you, you’d be dead by now!”
“I’m gratified by your thoughtfulness,” Agis noted sarcastically.
“If you have Caro’s crystal, you must know that Rikus and Neeva escaped and went to your estate to look for Sadira.” Tithian raised a single finger into view. “This is how many days it would take me to track them down. As you can see, they’re still free. I’ve kept their absence a secret and didn’t send out any trackers or cilops. I even had the guards who found their empty cell killed.”
This last detail convinced Agis that his old friend was telling the truth, for it seemed exactly the sort of ruthless thing the high templar would do to protect a secret.
“Whatever the Veiled Alliance wants with my gladiators is still possible,” Tithian continued. “No one knows they’re gone except me and my most trusted subordinate.”
“That’s all very nice,” Agis replied, truly relieved that no slavehunters would be hounding them into the mountains. “But you’re still hunting down the Alliance with all your resources. Where do you stand?”
“Wherever my footing is the most solid at a given moment,” Tithian answered frankly. “I’m trapped in the middle. If I don’t make progress against the king’s foes, Kalak will kill me. At the same time, I’m terrified of whatever he has planned for the ziggurat games.”
“So you’d be willing to assassinate him?” Agis asked, deciding to see just how far his friend would go.
“It can’t be done,” Tithian countered.
“If it could?” Agis pressed.
Inside the crystal, Tithian closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, he said, “I wouldn’t prevent someone from trying.”
Agis smiled. “That’s all I need to know,” he said, moving his hand over the crystal.
“Wait!” Tithian shouted. The senator removed his hand, and the high templar smiled. “For me to play along with you until this attack on Kalak succeeds, I need to know the location of the third and final bone amulet inside the ziggurat.”
“I knew we couldn’t trust you,” Agis sighed.
“That’s hardly true,” Tithian noted. “You can trust me to take care of myself. Just be certain that your side always offers me what I seek.” The high templar paused and tapped his chin in thought. “You’d best have Sadira let Those Who Wear the Veil know that it is in their best interest to reveal the location of the amulet. You’ll figure out how to get the information to me somehow.”
Without offering a reply, Agis closed his fist over the green gem. The noble explained what had iust passed between him and Tithian, then returned the stone to Caro.
“It might be best to let Tithian know about the amulets,” Sadira ventured. “I know where the three were hidden. Could you tell the high templar, Caro?” When the dwarf nodded, she quickly told him where the magical amulets had been secreted. “They weren’t very powerful anyway,” she concluded with a shrug. “Just a few wards to stall the king’s works.”
At last Agis turned to his servant. “How long have you been Tithian’s spy?” he asked gently.
The dwarf looked away, his withered lips quivering with fear or regret-Agis could not tell which. “Not long, only since your slaves were confiscated,” Caro said. “The high templar sent me back to you. He promised to give me my freedom after the games.”
“And your focus?” Agis asked. “It never changed?”
Caro shook his head. “No. Until the moment I broke it, it was to serve you and the Asticles family.”
“Why did you give that up?” Neeva asked.
Caro met the woman’s gaze evenly. “I would have died on the ziggurat, and I didn’t want my life to end without a taste of freedom.”
“I can’t tell you how sorry I am, Caro,” Agis said, a deep sense of regret welling inside his breast. “If I had realized how much your freedom meant, I would have granted it gladly.”
Caro looked at Agis. “I don’t need your sympathy,” he said bitterly. “Just kill me and be done with it.”
“If I were you, I wouldn’t be so anxious to die,” Rikus said. “Won’t you come back as a banshee?”
The old dwarf looked at Agis, then a crooked grin crossed his lips. “That’s right,” he said, his black eyes sparkling with bitterness. “I’ll come back to haunt the Asticles estate-the site of my failure.”
“Then it will be quite some time before we meet again, I hope,” Agis said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rikus asked.
“Every man is born with a desire for freedom in his breast, just as he is born with a desire for food and drink. Anyone who has ever kept slaves knows this.”
“As does any slave,” Rikus said.
“Depriving a man of freedom is like depriving him of food and water,” Agis said, his gaze still fixed on Caro’s withered face. “If a man has no food or water, his body dies a lingering death. If he has no freedom, it is his spirit that dies.”
“So?” Rikus demanded. “What noble cares about his slave’s spirit or his life?”
“I do!” Agis replied hotly, thumping his own chest. “I’ve never taken a slave’s life!”
“Then you are a rare slaveholder,” Sadira said.
Agis looked to the half-elf. “Perhaps, but no better than the others. Now I see that my philosophy merely made me a hypocrite. That’s why the wraith wouldn’t allow me into the Crimson Shrine.”
“What are you going to do about it?” Sadira asked, her pale eyes fixed on his.
Agis turned to the ancient dwarf. “Caro, I have no right to ask anything of you,” he said, unfastening the purse attached to his belt. “Still, I would like you to perform one last service for the Asticles house. Go to the slaves that remain in my pens. Tell them they’re free to go or stay as they please.”
The dwarf’s face showed his surprise. “And me?”
“Go and enjoy your freedom.”
Taking the purse Agis offered, the dwarf walked away without a word to his former master. As he watched Caro trudge along under the blistering sun, Agis realized how little his gesture must have meant to one who had lost his whole life to servitude. Perhaps there would be others like Caro he could save from a slave’s life; Agis let that hope assuage his stinging conscience, but only for a little while.
THIRTEEN
THE VERDANT PASSAGE
“Get up!”Rikus called, fixing his stern gaze on Agis. “It’s not time to rest!”
The handsome noble looked up at the gladiator for a moment, then spoke in an even voice. “I don’t need your permission to sit,” he said, once more propping his head in his hands. “Or to do anything else.”
They were high in the Ringing Mountains, struggling up a narrow stone terrace. On one side, a cone-shaped spire of granite loomed thousands of feet overhead, and on the other a sheer precipice plunged more than mile straight down. Below the cliff lay the Tyr Valley. Their goal lay hidden before them: the magical spear Ktandeo had mentioned to Sadira. It, of all the weapons on Athas, offered them the power to strike against the sorcerer-king.