For a moment Emmis desperately hoped that Annis did not speak Ethsharitic as well as she thought, that she had said the wrong word. There was something very strange about coming here after visiting his family, abruptly going from happy gossip about weddings and babies and jobs and apprenticeships to this foreigner cheerfully talking about assassination.
"You want to kill him?" he asked. "Why?"
"Because he's building an army of warlocks!"
Emmis stared at her in astonishment. "He is?"
"Yes!" She looked baffled by his surprise. "You were there, you heard him talking to Ishta – he wants to send his grandson to Ethshar to learn warlockry, then bring him back to Vond. And I'm sure it's not just the one grandson; he probably has a dozen children ready for training. If it were just one, wouldn't he have brought the boy with him? No, he's making arrangements for several, we're sure of it."
"Even if he is…" Emmis stopped. Lar wasn't making arrangements to provide his empire with a dozen warlocks, so why argue about what it would mean if he did?
"Why else would they want warlocks? They're going to expand again. They're probably going to try to conquer all the Small Kingdoms!"
"I don't think so," Emmis said, but he didn't sound convincing even to himself.
He was trying to remember what Lar had said about revealing this. Was his real reason for consulting Ishta a secret? He remembered that Lar said these people wouldn't believe the truth even if they heard it, and Emmis thought that was probably right, but shouldn't he at least try?
No, he was fairly sure that Lar had said it was secret.
"He hasn't said anything to you about this plan for conquest?"
"He hasn't said anything about any plan for conquest!" Emmis replied. "He said the Empire of Vond was big enough as it is, and they aren't planning to expand any further."
"Then he's lied to you."
"How do you know that?"
"Well, what else would he want these new warlocks for?"
"I don't know – building roads, maybe, or healing the sick. What makes you think warlocks are only good for fighting?"
"Because that's how the empire used Vond, of course."
"I think you mean that's how Vond created his empire, don't you?"
"It's the same thing. The empire is still there, even if Vond himself isn't – and you know, we still don't know where he went, or whether he might come back. Maybe this ambassador is recruiting Vond's new staff, for when he returns."
"He isn't going to…" Again, Emmis stopped in mid-sentence. He didn't really know whether Vond might come back someday; no one did. While no warlock had been known to return from Aldagmor at any time in the last twenty-two years, no one knew why, or what was really going on. For all Emmis knew, they might all come home tomorrow.
But that wasn't the way he would have bet it.
"Why do you keep assuming he wants several warlocks? How do you know this isn't just personal business, trying to find his grandson an apprenticeship?"
"Even one would be too many! Besides, he treated it as official business. He brought you along. We think it's clearly part of a war plan."
"But isn't it a tradition in the Small Kingdoms not to use magic in your wars?" he asked.
"It was before the Great Warlock came along, yes. He ruined that." The bitterness in her voice startled Emmis. "The empire uses magic."
"They did before, yes, but Vond is gone."
"Why would that matter? The Imperial Council is his heir. If they didn't intend to follow his path, why haven't they broken up the empire, and let the seventeen provinces go back to being seventeen kingdoms?"
"Well, but that's hardly the same thing!"
"That's what their envoys say, but why should we believe them?
"This is ridiculous. One man talked to a warlock about an apprenticeship for his grandson, and you're convinced it's the first step in a campaign to conquer the World!"
"Probably just the Small Kingdoms," Annis said. "They know they couldn't fight the Hegemony – you have thousands of magicians here."
"There are magicians in the Small Kingdoms!"
"Some, yes, especially in the north, along the Great Highway – but an army of warlocks could defeat most of them, and the rest would probably flee. Don't forget, Emmis, we saw what Vond did. He smashed entire armies. He summoned storms out of a calm sky, and built his palace by pulling stone out of the ground with a wave of his hand. A dozen warlocks like that would be enough to defeat Ashthasa and Lumeth in a day, all the Small Kingdoms in a year."
"But most warlocks aren't like that! They hear the Calling before they have that kind of power!"
"Vond didn't."
Emmis frowned. "So he was a freak…"
Annis shook her head. "No," she said. "We think it's something about Semma that's different. Warlocks are more powerful there."
"That doesn't make any sense," Emmis said, but as he spoke he remembered what Lar had asked Kolar. That hum that Vond had heard – was that somehow related to his abnormally powerful magic?
Was that why the empire really didn't want any more warlocks?
"Listen," he said, "we have hundreds of warlocks here in Ethshar, and they don't cause any trouble. Why are you so sure they'd be a problem where you live?"
"You have all the other magicians to keep them under control," Annis said. "You have the Wizards' Guild, and the witches and sorcerers and demonologists and the rest. And for that matter, you have the other warlocks; they aren't all united in a single cause."
"So why do you think…"
"We can't risk it!" she snapped. "If the nobles of the empire have their own children trained as warlocks, that's completely different from anything anywhere else!"
"So you're going to kill the ambassador? How do you even know that will stop them?"
"We're going to kill this ambassador, and anyone else from Vond who tries to talk to warlocks, or to make an alliance with the Hegemony. The empire is quite strong enough without Ethshar's help."
Emmis blinked. "You know, I don't think the overlord would like that," he said.
"Why would he care?"
"You mean aside from generally not approving of murder? You're trying to cut off his communication with another country!"
"But he hasn't had any communication with the empire – why would he care when that doesn't change? After all, isn't he called Azrad the Lazy?"
Emmis stared at her. "No, he isn't," he said. "That was his father. Azrad VI was called 'the Sedentary,' yes, but he died five years ago. The present overlord is Azrad VII, and he doesn't have an agreed-upon cognomen yet – my sister Sharra calls him 'Azrad the Hard to Classify.' But he isn't lazy."
Annis looked distinctly disconcerted at that, but quickly regained her composure. "Still, why would he care what happens to troublemakers from the far side of the Small Kingdoms?"
"Because they're trying to talk to him, and he doesn't like being interrupted!" This didn't seem real to Emmis, talking like this. He had heard people talking about killing someone on occasion, but it had always been in a fit of anger, over a theft or a woman or some personal wrong, and it had usually been when they were very drunk. He had never heard someone calmly explain that someone was to be killed over politics, as if murder weren't important. It was hard to believe she was serious.
If she was serious, though, he would have to do something to stop her.
"So what sort of assassination are you planning?" he asked.
"Planning? It's done. Or happening, anyway. I wouldn't have told you otherwise – I don't trust you that much. Neyam hired someone."
"What?"
"Well, yes! Hagai couldn't do it, he's a theurgist, and I wouldn't know how to find an assassin, but Neyam…"