Just then one of the acrobats off to the side lost her grip on the long ribbon, fell fifteen feet to the floor. A man tried to catch her, but couldn’t stop her from slamming into the parquet entirely. We all watched as two men helped her regain her feet, and while she could stand on one leg, the other was twisted badly or broken. They helped her toward an exit on the other side of the vast room, one of her arms over each of their shoulders.
Cynead sighed. “You see. We all risk something. They are an investment, with skills that are oh so difficult to replace. Sometimes there are simply accidents or losses. From high to low, we all risk something.” He shook his head and turned his attention back to us. “I appreciate you coming on such short notice, men of Jackal Tower. And willingly. You are dismissed.”
The Emperor started to step away from the chair when Captain Killcoin said, “Are we still speaking directly, Your Majesty? I admit, it is not a tongue I am overly accustomed to, but I would try it just once more today, by your leave.”
Cynead looked both annoyed and intrigued, but nodded once.
Braylar replied, “What if I refuse? To willingly sacrifice myself on the altar of progress and knowledge? I confess, that prospect does fill me with more kinds of dread than I can articulate.”
The Emperor’s eyes narrowed. And while there was still a curl to his lips, it was as warm as a reptile’s. “Oh, I do think you know. But in the interest of being direct and perfectly clear: you will be hung. I imagine that ought to sever the bond nicely.”
Commander Darzaak stepped forward. “I’ll be sure the Captain here makes his way when you call for him.”
“See that you do. Oh, there is one other thing, Commander Darzaak. You will actually be the first to hear it. I planned on revealing the particulars later. But while I understand how having your Memoridons taken from you is no doubt seen as a crippling blow, it is not my intent to be a despot. They all are bound to me now, and answer directly to me or my own stable of Memoridons. But I know they will serve the Empire best by maintaining their day-to-day roles within the Towers. They will function exactly as they always have, yours to command, provided it does not run afoul of my orders or jeopardize the Empire in any way.”
Commander Darzaak turned crimson. “Spies then.”
Emperor Cynead smiled again, broad and superior and again nearly righteous in intensity. “Servants of the Empire, Commander. You are dismissed. Return to your Tower, Jackals.”
We started marching out, the Commander in the lead, his captains and lieutenants following. I was in the rear, and stopped when I felt a hand on my shoulder.
I turned to see Skeelana looking at me, and I wrenched my shoulder free. She said, “You have every right to be angry, but it’s about to get worse. I don’t have to tell you this, but I feel I owe it to you. While the Syldoon cannot run without a Memoridon tracking them, you aren’t exempt from that either. Not anymore.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
She took several steps back, and again offered the melancholy smile that only made me angrier. “It was a lovely kiss though.” Then she turned and headed off after the Emperor.
I stood there dumbstruck until I heard Vendurro hiss-shout, “Come on, Arki!” I hurried to catch up, feeling foolish and miserable.
By the time we left the hall at the entrance to the dome, I was close enough to catch Mulldoos saying, “Got to quit taking private meetings with powerful pricks. Just ain’t working out for us at all.”
Braylar replied, “You are not wrong, Lieutenant. In fact, I would recommend distancing yourself from me altogether, now that I have the Emperor’s very unwanted attention.”
Commander Darzaak shook his head as he led us to the Jackal Tower, bowlegged but still moving fast. “Wrong, Captain. Dead wrong, as it happens. Or might. The Jackals give up no one to the likes of Cynead. Not now, not ever.”
After Hewspear cast a quick glance behind to be sure we weren’t being followed, he added, “They have the right of it, Captain. We are in this together, to the last.”
Vendurro said, “Aye, Cap. And sure as spit, where we go, the men go. Every last one of us. To the last. Ain’t that right, Arki?”
I thought about what Skeelana had told me. Even if I hadn’t thrown my lot in with the captain whole and full, there was no room for reservation or regret now. “I can only vouch for myself, and I am a poor shot, and no Syldoon, but yes, I am Captain Killcoin’s man.”
Braylar nodded twice, then asked, “What would you have me do, Commander?”
The Commander didn’t answer right away, and we walked in silence down the Avenue of Towers. I wondered at all the heated conversations that must have been occurring in each massive Tower we passed as news of the Emperor’s bloodless coup had spread to every corner of Sunwrack by now. It wouldn’t be long before every Thurvacian and Syldoon knew something absolutely unprecedented had happened.
As we passed a large wagon pulled by oxen, Darzaak said, “That whoreson Cynead outfoxed us, for certain. Nothing to be done for that now. But he knows a lot more than I’m comfortable with. Only a matter of time before he uses one of our Memoridons-his Memoridons now, that plaguing cock-against us, roots out our alliance with Thumaar. And when that happens…”
Braylar finished, “The Fifth Man might have been the most generous threat we are likely to get.”
“True enough. We’ve got less time than we thought, too. Would have been bad enough, him stealing all our Memoridons, but learning we were scuttling around in the shadows plotting the same thing ourselves? No, time is not our friend. We’ll convene the captains. Immediately. I’d like to get word to Thumaar. Could be we don’t even have time for that, especially with Whoreson Cynead keeping eyes on us.”
A few steps later, Mulldoos said, “Going to sound bereft of sense, I know-”
“First admission of that sort you’ve ever made,” Hewpsear said.
“Plaguing goatcock. But you’re right, Commander. Cynead will figure out what we been up to. By torturing Cap here, most like, but could be he just has a memory witch snatch up me or Hew or some other poor bastard, plumb what we know, hang us all for traitors. No time and less. So maybe it’s time we pull stakes and break camp. Move to the hills with Thumaar.”
Hewspear asked, keeping his voice low, “Are you suggesting seceding? Moving the entirety of Jackal Tower out of Sunwrack?”
“I am, you wrinkled bastard, and you know it.”
“You are right,” Hewspear said. “That does sound bereft of sense. Entirely. The Emperor is suspicious and no fool. He will have eyes on us, and within us once the Captain’s sister and her sisters are back in the fold, reporting every move to Cynead. We could not possibly move our troops without him detecting it and utterly destroying us before we even had half of them to the gates. And even if we somehow managed to get thousands of troops out of Sunwrack, we would be branded deserters, traitors, and enemies of the Empire.”
Before Mulldoos could offer a surly rebuttal, Braylar said, “It is a mad plan. But there is one reason it could work. Emperor Cynead is exceedingly clever, but he is also exceptionally arrogant. He has just pulled off the greatest seizure of power in Syldoon history, and is basking in his triumph. While he was suspicious of us before due to our known allegiance to Thumaar, and is doubly, so now having learned of our own efforts to seize the Memoridons ourselves, he also is entirely too confident in his position.”
“Meaning?” Commander Darzaak asked brusquely.
“Meaning, my lord, he could not truly conceive of anyone moving against him just now, not after he publicly stripped the Towers of what was inalienably ours for centuries. We might have an opportunity.”
Hewspear nodded slowly, but said, “That is so, Captain. But it would be fraught with risk. We have thousands of troops in the middle of the most fortified city in the world, and our sovereign now has weapons on his side on a scale never before seen. If we failed to make it out, we would be obliterated.”