“Archigos, what I did. .” She wasn’t certain what she wanted to say.
“Is something that will remain between the two of us, because it must,” he answered for her. “Let’s go inside; the air is holding a bit of the old winter this morning.”
He held aside the balcony’s sheer curtains for her. Inside the apartment, Watha had started a small fire in the hearth. She smiled at them, then left the room, closing the doors behind her. “Your servants are all three excellent people,” the Archigos said. “Discreet. Prudent. Close-mouthed about what they see and hear. They will do whatever you ask of them.” His mouth twisted and his gaze wandered to the flames in the hearth. “As long as what you ask doesn’t conflict with my instructions to them, of course,” he added. She could sense the layers of meaning underneath his words. She felt her stomach twist.
“Archigos, what happened to me last night?”
His gaze returned to her and he smiled again. He took a seat on one of the sofas and motioned to her to sit across from him. “What happened was what I expected to happen. You can’t touch Cenzi that closely and not have consequences. You know that.”
“I’ve felt weariness before; all of us did while U’Teni cu’Dosteau was teaching us the chants. But not like that. Never anything so …exhausting.”
“You’d never gone that deep before,” the Archigos answered. “ ‘The greater the Gift, the greater the cost.’ I’ve already said that once to you.
It’s an old cliche, but there is often truth buried in platitudes. The warteni know that weariness; their spells have that same kind of power. You could easily be a war-teni, if that’s what you wanted.”
“My spell. .” She bit her lip for a moment, wondering what to say. “My spell was wrong. It violated the Divolonte. I thwarted Cenzi’s Will.”
“Did you? Do you believe Cenzi is so weak that you could bend His will to your whim? Do you think He couldn’t stop you if He wished?
There’s nothing wrong with what you did. You have a rare skill; it would be thwarting Cenzi’s will for you not to use it.”
Ana’s eyes widened: what the Archigos said was heretical; it went against all the railing of the teni in their Admonitions. “Archigos, the precepts of the Toustour and the Divolonte teach us that the Gift is never to be used that way.” It was what U’Teni cu’Dosteau had taught her, it was what she had always been told.
“Sometimes what the Faith teaches is wrong.”
The statement snapped Ana’s mouth shut. The Archigos smiled, as if the expression he saw on her face amused him. “Oh, I’d deny it if you ever said that I spoke those words, Ana,” he told her. “And I’d never say them in public. Not even the Archigos can spout heresy without consequences; some of the a’teni are waiting for just that opportunity.
A’Teni ca’Cellibrecca especially would love an excuse to wrest the title away from me. Nor can you perform such feats without consequences; that’s why you must be very careful henceforth with what you do.”
The smile vanished, and there was something in his face that made Ana sit back hard against the seat of her chair. “After all,” he continued, “if I told ca’Cellibrecca what you did last night, why, he’d have no choice but to send you to the Bastida. An acolyte made an o’teni by the Archigos. . why, they’d wonder if you hadn’t used your skills to place a charm on me, and if you hadn’t arranged the attempted assassination for your own purposes. And believe me, in the Bastida you would tell them whatever they wanted to hear.” The smile returned then, but utterly failed to comfort her. “You see, O’Teni Ana, we must trust each other not to reveal the secrets we know.”
The Archigos pushed himself forward on the sofa, then let his short legs slip to the ground and stood. He walked over to Ana and put his hand on her knee as she sat, stunned. She could feel the heat of his skin through the cloth of her robe.
It felt the way her vatarh’s hand felt. She shuddered. She clasped her legs tightly together under her robes.
“We are coming on dangerous times,” he said. “The general populace, they don’t realize it yet. The people only see the prosperity and the celebrations for the Kraljica’s fiftieth. They fail to notice the storm clouds gathering on the horizon or hear the grumbling underneath the cheers. Dangerous times. I didn’t realize, until almost too late.”
The Archigos’ hand lifted from her knee. She pulled back quickly; she saw the Archigos’ lips tighten as his hand dropped back to his side.
His ancient lips parted softly and he sighed.
“Ah. So that’s the way it was. I wondered, when I saw how your vatarh was with you. I’m sorry.”
Ana felt the heat of embarrassment on her face. “Archigos. .”
He shook his head. “No. Say nothing. We all have demons in the night that we must struggle with. I have mine, too. I didn’t intend to make you think that I. .” His hand brushed hers, but he shook his head and brought his hand back. He took a breath and stepped away from her. “You’ll have to trust me, Ana, because in the days to come you’ll have to choose sides,” he said. His voice was carefully neutral.
“In the trials that I suspect are on us, those with strength and influence must take their stand. I hope you can choose wisely.” Then the smile came again, and all the reserve was gone from his voice. “As I chose you. Ana, I have been asleep. Since. . I don’t know when, but for years now. While I’ve been sleeping, those who don’t think of Conce-
nzia as I do have risen, slow step by slow step, until I find they are all around me. A’Teni ca’Cellibrecca, yes, but he has several allies among the a’teni. A few months ago, I think I awoke again. . ”
He took a breath. Ana remained silent, sitting motionless, not knowing what to say or how to react. She felt lost, as if she’d wandered away from everything familiar to her in the world. The Archigos went to the hearth and held his hands out, warming them. Without a word, Beida came in with an overcloak and helped the Archigos put
it on; Ana realized she must have been watching and listening the whole time. Shrugging the cloak around his shoulders, the Archigos turned and smiled back at Ana. “You should rest and finish recovering, O’Teni,” he said. “I’ll send someone to fetch you just before Second Call; you’ll walk in the procession today with the rest of my staff. After the blessing at Old Temple, you and I will go to see the Kraljica. She sent word that she would like to meet you. Beida, if you’ll be so kind as to show me out. .”
With that, he left. As the door closed behind him, Ana touched the hand the Archigos had touched. Her own fingers felt cold on her skin.
Karl ci’Vliomani
The last notes of First Call drifted away. Karl watched ca’Rudka lift his head and rise from his bended knee, his clasped hands dropping from his forehead. “No prayer at all, Envoy ci’Vliomani?”
ca’Rudka asked. Karl thought the man’s smile seemed more a mocking leer, and the gleaming metallic nose was impossible to ignore. “I thought the Numetodo were still believers in something, even if they’ve abandoned the Concenzia Faith.”
“We do believe, Commandant,” Karl answered. “We believe in logic, in proofs that we can see and touch and feel. We believe that if the gods do exist, then the way to understand them is through the abilities they’ve given us: reason and logic. What better way to worship them than to use all the qualities we have?”
“ ‘ . . if the gods do exist.’ ” Ca’Rudka inclined his head, looking upward as if tasting the words on his tongue. “I have no doubt as to Cenzi’s existence, Envoy ci’Vliomani, nor do I need anything but my faith to understand Him.” The commandant smiled at Karl. “But we’re not here to discuss theology, are we?”
The response to Karl’s request to meet with the Kraljica had come not long after the Lighting of the Avi: not from the Kraljica herself, but from her aide Renard cu’Bellona. The Kraljica would regrettably be unable to meet with Envoy ci’Vliomani, but Commandant ca’Rudka would be available to address his concerns. It was, honestly, more than Karl had expected. He’d arrived at the Grande Palais before First Call, as the note had requested, and been ushered into one of the lower reception rooms in the East Wing, where tea and breakfast had been laid out on a small table with two servants standing patiently behind it, and where Commandant ca’Rudka entered a few marks of the glass later, just as the wind-horns announced First Call.