The Palace Job (37 page)

Icy made barely a splash as he hit the water in a graceful dive.

Ululenia fluttered in on snowy white wings a moment later, changed into a great silver salmon in mid-air, and splashed into the water just as gracefully.

I shall determine the correct tunnel,
she told him as he broke the surface and shook the water from his face. He nodded, and her scales shimmered beneath the surface, and then she was gone.

It was dark in the reservoir, and the water was not heated. Someone without the ability to channel their body's energy into a harmonious relationship with very cold water might have been uncomfortable.

The tunnel off to the right will lead us inside,
Ululenia said moments later,
and I sense no magical wards, just as Tern predicted. However, the tunnel is long, and the water passes through a metal grate too narrow for you to fit through.

"I am capable of slowing my breathing rate as long as necessary." Icy smiled. "And unless the metal is magical, it should bend easily enough. Shall we?"

With a brief mental nod of kinship, the Imperial and the unicorn made their way into the palace.

"You're sure you can make the shot?" Hessler asked.

Tern, Desidora, and Hessler stood on the roof of a bank across the street from the west wall of Silestin's palace. From their vantage point, they could see over the palace walls and into the gardens near the palace itself, and specifically near the palace mausoleum.

"I
am sure,"
Tern said, "that I can make the shot."

"Okay," Hessler said.

Tern lined up her crossbow. She had it set on a collapsible tripod and aimed at a ten-foot-tall bronze statue of Ael-meseth, whose arm was conveniently extended in a judgment-giving pose. She took off her spectacles, squinted into the scope (adjusted for her lousy eyesight already), and began to make tiny targeting adjustments.

"It's just that it's going to look conspicuous if you miss," Hessler added.

Tern turned around and glared at him. Her eyes looked tiny without the spectacles. "I
am not
going to miss, Magister."

"We believe in you, Tern," Desidora said firmly. Tern gave her a narrow look.

"Of course we do," Hessler said hastily. "We just want to make sure that, you know, you don't miss."

The bolt loaded into the crossbow was attached to a cable, which was in turn already attached to the wall behind them.

"Wait a minute," Tern said. "This isn't about me, is it, Hessler? You're afraid of sliding into the palace on the cable!"

"That is the most—I have summoned daemons who could rend my soul asunder if I misspoke a single word!" Hessler declared irately. "The very
idea
that I'd be afraid of sliding down a
rope
is ludicrous, provided that the rope is securely fastened and that you make the shot properly and it doesn't fall out when I'm halfway across the street."

Tern turned back to her crossbow. "Magister, I do this
all the time.
Hell, Icy usually walks down the cable instead of sliding. Of course, he's just a damn showoff." She licked her finger and held it up. "Half a tick..."

"Oh,
that's
hygienic."

"Hush, Magister. I'm dealing with daemons that could rend your soul asunder if you don't shut up and let me work." Tern moved the crossbow a tiny bit to the left. "Or at least dump you in the middle of the street," she added absently. "Now, the tightrope-bolts always drag a bit more in the wind, so maybe up
just
a hair... no, no, add a touch more velocity instead, don't want it to get caught up high in the wind. Aaaaaaand..." she pulled the trigger.

With a great snap, the bolt sprang free, sailed across the street and over the palace walls, and slammed solidly into the bronze arm of Ael-meseth. The bolt shattered, and a pair of coiling claw-hook lines sprang free from the central casing, tangled around the god's arm, and held firm. A thin cable now ran from the top of the bank across the street and into the mausoleum garden.

"Hah!" Tern stood up and popped her spectacles back on. "First try!"

"Wait, what do you mean, first
try?"
Hessler asked.

"Oh, you know how these things go." Tern snapped the crossbow free from the tripod and collapsed the tripod down to a series of small metal rods that easily fit into her pockets.

"No, really, I don't."

"I thought it was
wonderful,
Tern," Desidora said.

"Besyn larveth'is!"

"Well, thank you, both." Tern hooked the crossbow onto a pocket, then removed three small devices that looked like metal handgrips with half-circles at one end. "So, take your bar, attach it like so..." She gave one of the devices to Desidora and another to Hessler. Then she held the device up beside the now-taut cable so that the cable fit inside the half-circle of metal and pressed a button. The grip split into two halves, one in her hand, and the other snapping out a full hundred and eighty degrees and locking into place, so that now, instead of one handgrip, there were two handgrips, and the cable went through the hole in the middle. "And there you go. All you have to do is run and jump and hang on tight."

"Wait. That's it?" Hessler coughed. "Could we maybe try it a few times as you watch, or maybe you could hook ours on, or—"

"You're awfully cute, Hessler, but you need to lighten up," Tern said. "I'll see you both on the other side. Desidora, you've got the wards?"

"Of course," Desidora said with a smile. "Good luck."

Tern nodded, took a breath, gripped the handgrip, and leapt off the rooftop.

"By all the magic of Jairytnef!" Hessler said in a strangled voice as Tern sailed across the street, cleared the palace walls, and then dropped down behind a hedge and out of view.

"No kidding," Desidora said absently. "Calling you cute had to take you by surprise." She snapped her handgrip into place, locking it around the cable, then checked to make sure that Ghylspwr was secure on her belt.

"I
meant
that..." Hessler broke off in agitation. "Aren't you the least bit nervous about this procedure?"

Desidora laughed. "I was a love priestess, Magister. Helping young lovers break into each other's bedrooms required worse than this."

"I'm sure we'll... she called me cute?" Hessler blinked. "Oh, you know how Tern is."

"I do indeed. I might not be a love priestess anymore, but I can still read auras." Desidora smiled. "See you inside, Magister." She tugged once on the handgrip, then leapt.

Hessler watched her go, staring nervously into the twilight. Desidora dropped safely behind the hedges.

"She called me cute," he murmured. "Hunh."

Loch, Kail, and Dairy were ambling through the gardens, listening to the chatter as the twilight set in and the magical lights filled the air, when suddenly there were guards all around them.

"I don't believe you were given an invitation,
my lady,"
one of the guards said with a sardonic grin.

"Make a scene, and you'll regret it," another guard added. "Come quietly, and you'll be his guest after all... in a sense."

Loch looked around in alarm, saw the guards positioned casually at all possible escape routes.

"Damn," she said. "Red ribbons?"

"Red ribbons," the first guard confirmed.

Loch dropped her arms to her sides. "Can't blame a girl for trying."

Eighteen

A pair of guards in ancient ceremonial armor stood outside the mausoleum. Tern, Desidora, and Hessler (who had landed safely after all his worrying) got close by sneaking through the hedges, but then there was a bunch of open space, and the guards, and a large bronze alarm gong.

"So what's the deal?" Tern whispered. "They're a bit out of my range for darts. Diz, can you maybe do that throwing thing you do with Ghylspwr?"

"There's a ward around the mausoleum." Desidora shook her head, frowning absently. "Pm not certain, but it looks like it would stop anything we threw or shot from reaching the guards."

"Where's the ward?" Hessler asked. Tern guessed that he was trying to look with his wizardly senses, but it looked a lot like squinting. He was cute when he squinted, though.

"Protected under the overhang. I couldn't hit it from here even with Ghylspwr helping me."

"Besyn larveth'isr

"Don't worry about it, big guy," said Tern. "We'll figure something out. Hey, Hessler, can you lure them outside the ward with an illusion?"

"I 1 see what I can do." Hessler concentrated, and a moment later a pretty woman appeared behind a nearby hedge and called to the guards, "Excuse me, can either of you help me back to the party?"

She disappeared shortly after a flurry of crossbow bolts ripped through her. Hessler turned back to Tern. "No." Then he gestured, and Tern, peeking around the hedge, saw one of the guards strike the gong and make no noise whatsoever. "I can keep them from raising the alarm, though," he said with an effort, sweat beading on his brow.

They waited a moment.

"And that's it?" Tern asked, blinking. "They shoot at an intruder, ring the alarm, and then do nothing? Even when the alarm doesn't go off? What's wrong with these guys?"

"They're..." Desidora raised a hand, and her pink fingernail polish slid to black for a moment. "Ah." She nodded. "Mindless skeletal warriors. They only react as their enchantments dictate." She grimaced, and her color slowly returned. "I could crumble them into dust if they weren't behind the ward."

Tern began taking things out of her pockets. And to think, she'd been worried about being useful. "But their arrows fired out, right?" A pair of metal rods, some connecting joints, a pair of gear-driven wheel-legs. "So the ward might not protect against something that wasn't an attack?" The all-important wind-up assembly, of course, was in its velvet pouch.

"What are you doing, Tern?" Hessler asked as she snapped pieces together.

She smiled brightly as a spring clicked into place. "I'm going to throw Ghylspwr."

"Kun-kabynalti osu fuir 'is?"

"Oh, relax, you big baby."

There were two guards in the water filtration chamber. By rights, it should have been a prime spot for the lucky and the lazy. But when the hatch covering the pipe abruptly tore free from its casing and clattered to the floor, the two guards had their swords free in an instant and lunged forward, snarls of hatred twisting their faces.