Prophecy (17 page)

“The woman was too … smooth for my tastes,” Embisson said, no longer alarmed as he returned his attention to the tea service. “And her poetry seemed to mock people and life rather than describe them. So now we must wait, but hopefully not too long. Do you think the man will grieve more than the single day?”

“Arstin was apparently quite attached to the old lady, so there’s no telling,” Edmin replied, coming forward to take the cup of tea Embisson had poured. “A forced wait such as this frustrates, I know, but our plans are merely delayed, not destroyed. As soon as Arstin returns to his place among the rest of the Five, those plans will go forward again. In the interim, I have the latest on Lady Hallina.”

“Ah, yes, I did mean to ask,” Embisson said at once, if not distracted then at least diverted. “How
is
the dear, sweet lady?”

“Not too well, I’m afraid,” Edmin said with the faint smile which indicated his strong amusement. “I’m told she continues to remain abed, wailing loudly in pain, ceasing only when demanding that the guard find the blackguards and hang them. She seems to have no idea of what they’ll be able to tell the guard if they’recaught, something she should be extremely aware of.”

“She would need to have a mind to be aware of that, and she most certainly does not,” Embisson reminded him, gesturing Edmin to a seat while he returned to his own. “Acting without thought of the consequences is something she has always done, which is why she finds herself in this fix to begin with. Has she any idea that it wasn’t the actions of those three alone which brought her to this pass? Is she at all close to learning the truth?”

“She believes she has already found the truth,” Edmin said after settling himself and sipping at his tea. “That agent of hers, the one she believed set up the interview and the one we had begun to use for our own purposes, had a terrible accident a short while ago. The guard initially believed that it
was
an accident which took his life, but one of my people disabused them of that notion—anonymously, of course. They now seek the man who was named to them, and once they find the cutthroat they will also find who paid him to do the deed. The lady may soon learn that ignoring consequences is the pastime of a fool.”

“No, she’ll never learn that,” Embisson said with all the satisfaction he felt. “Her whims have been indulged her entire life, and she’ll go to her own execution still outraged that someone would dare to cross her. And they’ll
have
to execute her, if only as an example to teach others to be more circumspect if they decide to indulge in premeditated murder. Once she’s been condemned then
I
mean to step forward, letting her know the truth for the short time remaining to her. She’ll have no opportunity to do anything about it, and the knowledge will be excruciatingly painful.”

“I wager she’ll be no more than outraged, and will probably appeal to the court,” Edmin said with the same quiet smile. “Her stance will be that she had the wrong man killed, and therefore she should not be punished for it. I really do hope to be there to see that.”

“Hopefully we’ll both be there,” Embisson said, his mood darkening again. “If our plans go the way we hope they will, we should also be in a much better position politically. Those five upstarts must also be taught a lesson, which is that it was
others
who placed them on the Fivefold Throne. Most of those others are now dead, and not a single man I know doubts that the upstarts are responsible for every death. Some of the fools are going out of their way to placate the interlopers, hoping to be ignored the next time a bloodletting is in the offing. The rest are meeting quietly in shadowy places, desperate for a plan to remove the uncontrolled danger. Have you looked about as I suggested?”

“Yes, certainly, and you’requite correct,” Edmin confirmed. “Once we have the place our plans will achieve for us, we will only need to step forward and claim the leadership of those groups. They will be more than happy to follow our lead, and by the way, it’s possible you may be able to add one more name to the list of those the Five have done away with. Lord Grall Razas, who established the most powerful of those groups, was suddenly found dead. It’s being said that the tightrope he walked, pretending to serve the Five while working for their downfall, finally plunged him to his death.”

“That’s really too bad,” Embisson said with a frown. “I knew Grall well, and he was most effective at making people believe he supported whatever stance
they
supported. But the upstarts aren’t ordinary people, and he must have misjudged—”

Embisson fell silent at once at Edmin’s sudden, sharp gesture, knowing immediately what it meant. Someone was approaching the room they sat in, and it would certainly not do for him to be speaking and acting normally. For that reason he slumped again in his chair, staring down at the carpeting, and Edmin began to speak coaxingly, as though he’d been doing the same all along. A brief moment later there was a knock on the door, and Edmin was the one who called out permission to enter.

“Please pardon the interruption, my lord,” the servant said from the doorway. “There is a lady here who demands to see High Lord Embisson, but one who refuses to give her name. Shall I send her away, or—”

“No, I’ll see her,” Edmin said, decision clear in his voice. “If she needs to be sent away, I’ll see to the matter myself.”

“As you wish, my lord,” the servant said with a bow, and then the man stepped aside to allow a cloaked figure into the room. The figure was clearly a woman’s, and Embisson saw, out of the corner of his eye, that her hood was drawn down to shadow her face. He was intensely curious about who she was, but not to the point of being willing to abandon his pose.

“And now, Dama, you will kindly remove that hood,” Edmin said to her once the door was closed again. “And then you may have five minutes to speak of your reason for being here. If the reason lacks importance, you will then be ejected.”

“My reason for being here lacks importance for neither of us, Lord Edmin,” the woman replied, reaching to the hood. “We have mutual enemies, your father and I, and I don’t mind speaking of the matter in your presence. I’ve heard that your father is succumbing to depression over the way he’s been treated and I can’t blame him, but I’ve come to tell him not to despair. There
has
to be a way to overcome those vermin, and together he and I shall find it.”

“Lady Eltrina, you surprise me,” Edmin said when the woman’s face was revealed, and he did indeed sound surprised to Embisson. “I’d heard that there were some … difficulties between you and Lord Grall, brought about by some matter having to do with the Five. Have the difficulties ended because of your husband’s death?”

“Hardly,” Eltrina returned with a sniff, moving toward the chair Edmin indicated she could take. “Because of those five vermin I found it necessary to escape from my own house as though I ran from a prison. I was rather ill during the following night, and when I awoke I was told that Grall was dead. So I returned to my house to collect some of my things, visited the bank, and then found a place of refuge. The vermin are hardly likely to stand by and simply watch me inherit Grall’s estate, not when my … difficulty was at their instigation to begin with. You see that I speak frankly to you, and have also placed my freedom in your hands. If you were to hold me here and call the guard, there would undoubtedly be a reward from the vermin themselves.”

“Undoubtedly,” Edmin agreed with a sober nod as he studied her. “However, I feel I must point out that if you were promised your inheritance in return for … enticing innocent people into a plot against the Seated heads of our empire, you would say the same words and behave in precisely the same way. For that reason, as well as the fact that those of us in this household are loyal and without treasonous notions, I really must ask you to leave. In deference to your being a woman and an acquaintance of long standing, I’ll delay informing the guard until you’ve had a chance to leave the area.”

“You can’t turn me away!” Eltrina protested, disturbance now visible even to Embisson in the depth of her eyes. “I’m not here working for
them
, I would
never
work for
them
! Don’t you know what Grall did to me because
they
were so terrified? It was considerably worse than what was done to your father, even though it was for the same reason.”

“Really, Lady Eltrina, I would love to continue this discussion but find it discomforting in the extreme,” Edmin said, his expression unchanged. “I have no idea what you’rereferring to, and what’s more don’t
want
to know. You—”

“Oh, but you do know, unless your father keeps secrets from you, which I don’t think he does,” Eltrina interrupted intensely. “I was there at the final competition, just as he was, and I know—just as he does—that our vaunted leaders were about to
lose
the competition to the peasants. Their Blending was stronger than our wonderful Seated Five’s, and if not for the help the vermin were given they would now be sitting in their various homes, nursing their wounds. I’m a witness to the way the peasants were betrayed, and unless I can find another way to get even with those vermin, I’m ready to spread that story far and wide. You were at least entitled to a warning, and now that you have it I’ll be glad to go.”

“Wait,” Edmin said as she rose to her feet, her hands already reaching to her hood. “If that story gets around, none of us will be safe from the rioting it will cause. Nobles will be attacked simply because they’renobles, and you yourself will not be exempted. I’m able to tell that you’resincere in what you say, and for that reason I advise you—”

“Sincere!” she echoed, staring down at him with chest heaving and eyes blazing. “I’m not sincere, I’m rabid! Do you have any idea what I was put through because of those sickening little freaks? I want to see them utterly destroyed, and if I must be destroyed along with them, then so be it. If they get their hands on me again my life is over anyway, so what’s the difference? This way it’s more likely to be a quick end rather than the slow one
they
would provide. You and your father were my last hope for finding a different way to exact my revenge, but now I realize that there’s no way for me to convince you of my … sincerity. Good day, Lord Edmin, and good luck…”

“Lady Eltrina,” Embisson said as the woman reached to her hood again, once more straightening in his chair. “You have convinced
me
of your sincerity, therefore I will admit you to the knowledge of my little charade. Deception rather than depression is what obsesses me these days, and I ask you not to put your own plan into effect until all hope of formulating a more efficient plan is gone. Will you agree to that?”

“Gladly,” the woman said at once, her eyes lighting with formerly lost hope. “And I’m delighted to see that you’reyour old self again, Lord Embisson. It was shattering to believe that those vermin had beaten you down so low.”

“When your enemy considers you helpless, they may even go so far as to turn their back on you,” Embisson pointed out, paraphrasing an old saying. “When it comes to my enemies, I have no compunction against using a back as my target. Would you care for a cup of tea, Lady Eltrina?”

“Thank you, no,” she replied, also not resuming her seat. “I must be on my way very shortly, else whatever spies the vermin have in your household will certainly take note. Tell me quickly what you mean to do, and how I can be of help.”

“At the moment, we are nearly done with gathering information,” Embisson told her smoothly, meeting the intensity of her gaze with calm. “Knowledge is power, after all, and once we have all the data we need, we will then be prepared to formulate a workable plan. Are you completely dedicated to being a part of that plan? If we’rediscovered before we can put it into effect, our end will be as horrible as our enemies can make it.”

“I’m prepared to take that risk,” Eltrina replied, her chin rising with the challenge. “And if you should happen to need gold to make the thing workable, let me know at once. Grall’s account at the bank was extremely full, and my expenses these days are minimal. How soon will it be possible for me to return? How soon do you expect to have all the data you’ll need?”

“We’ll have it in two days at most, so return here then,” Embisson replied. “But first I must ask: how safely are you hidden? If you should be taken by the guard now, we could well be taken up right after you.”

“I’m in a place where no one will find me, so don’t worry about that,” she said, this time completing the action of replacing her hood. “And as for betraying you if I’m taken, that, too, has been considered and planned for. If they find me, only I will suffer. But I don’t intend to be found, so I’ll be back in two days.”

“You’ll forgive me for not rising,” Embisson said, in fact returning himself to the slumped position he’d been using so often of late. “And as far as anyone is concerned, we never spoke.”

“Lord Edmin, I do hope that your father will soon be feeling well enough to be himself again,” Eltrina said, no longer even looking in Embisson’s direction. “I’ll return to find out if he is, and until then I bid you a good day.”

Edmin nodded to acknowledge the wish, then saw the woman to the door. The servant who had brought her waited a short way up the corridor, and when Eltrina was escorted away toward the front door, Edmin closed the door to the room and returned to his father.

“I hope your actions were wise, Father,” Edmin said, his expression faintly troubled. “I’ll admit that the woman wasn’t pretending to feel what she wasn’t, and yet to allow her into our secret…”

“Into only one of our secrets,” Embisson pointed out as he straightened again. “And that much was necessary, to keep her from doing what she threatened to. I’m of two minds about her, Edmin, and must think a while before I decide which road to take. She could well be extremely valuable to us, and yet I know from past experience that the woman isn’t to be trusted. Her ambitions are far too exalted for a female.”

“Her current ambitions run the same course as our own,” Edmin said as he resumed his seat. “I believe I’ll look into her story in the next day or two, and whatever I find out should help you to make up your mind about her. My own opinion is valueless, as I merely knew her to nod to. Perhaps, in two days when she returns, you may have decided to let her in on our other secrets.”