She found herself in a dim foyer. Directly in front of her, steps led up to a second floor and a hallway led farther into the building; a curtained archway hid a room to the right. She could heard voices from somewhere close by. “Where is Envoy ci’Vliomani?” she demanded of Mika, but she was answered from the room to her right.
“Here.” Karl ci’Vliomani moved the curtains aside and stepped from the room. He smiled and bowed to her, his hands remaining at his sides. “Thank you, Mika. We’ll meet you upstairs,” he said, and gestured to the room behind him. “Would you come in, O’Teni? It’s hardly as grand as the Kraljica’s Palais, but it will have to do.” He smiled at her.
“I’m pleased to see you again. Truly. That shell looks far better on you than it did on me.” He smiled again; despite herself, Ana found herself returning the smile. The tension within her eased; she could feel her shoulders relax as she walked through the curtains he held aside for her.
“Water? Wine? Some cakes?” He gestured to a small table in the center of the room holding a refreshment tray.
Her stomach growled, but she shook her head. There were two windows, both heavily curtained. There was a fire in the hearth, but most of the light in the room came from a large glass ball that glowed a strange blue-white. Ana put her hands toward the globe: colder than the room by far. As cold as Ilmodo fire. “I want nothing right now, Vajiki,” she said.
“Here, at least, you could call me Karl.” He smiled again. “If you’d like.”
She’d wondered whether she’d feel that strange pull again, that attraction. Now she knew that she did. You can’t trust that. You don’t know him. “Karl,” she said, looking up from the frigid glow. “Then here, at least, you may call me Ana.”
He bowed again. “I want to apologize for the subterfuge,” he said as she glanced down once more at the light. “I assumed you wouldn’t want the Archigos to know where you were tonight, and I know I certainly don’t, especially after what’s happened with the Kraljica. I can assure you that you weren’t followed.” She heard his voice change, his voice at once serious and sympathetic. “How is the Kraljica, Ana? We’ve heard nothing since the Gschnas but what the news-criers have said.”
“I’m surprised you care.” She placed a hand on the globe; the shadow of it covered the wall behind her. “For all I know, the Numetodo were responsible.”
“If you truly thought we had anything to do with that, you wouldn’t be here.” The remonstrance was gentle. “We might be at odds with the Kraljica and Concenzia, but we would much rather have the Kraljica on the throne than her son.”
“Is that why I’m here, then-you think I’ll provide you with a sympathetic voice within the Faith? I’m afraid you overestimate my influence, Envoy.”
“Karl,” he corrected. “I think you’re here because you’re curious, and I asked you because. .” He stopped. He walked to the globe, put his own hand on it, and shadows leaped. Ana removed her hand quickly.
“. . because I feel that we share a common interest.”
“And what is that?”
“You want to understand how the world works, as do I.” His hand slid caressingly over the round curve of the globe. “Like how one can use the Scath Cumhacht, the Ilmodo, even in ways that your Divolonte says it shouldn’t or even can’t be used. You understand that, don’t you?”
Ana felt her stomach lurch. She told herself it was the lateness, the exertions with the Kraljica, and the fact that she’d eaten nothing for some hours. He must have seen it also, for his hand was no longer on the globe but under her elbow, and his face was concerned. “O’Teni?
Do you need to sit down?”
“I’m fine,” she told him, forcing a smile. “Just tired. I’ve. . had very little sleep in the last few days.”
“I understand. The Kraljica.” His hand had not left her arm, and she didn’t want to pull away from his touch. “I was doubly sorry that happened as it did. I. . I enjoyed talking with you, and our dance. And I would not wish the Kraljica harm.” His hand did leave her then, and he frowned. “I apologize, Ana. I presume.”
You don’t need to apologize. I appreciate your concern, more than I should. But she didn’t speak her thoughts. “What is it you wanted to show me, Karl? We don’t have much time. The Archigos. .”
“Will be frantically looking for you, no doubt.” He nodded. “You’re right. Come with me, then. We’ll go upstairs to the hall. Things will have started by now.”
The foyer was empty when he pushed aside the curtain, and she followed him up the stairs. The sound of talking grew louder, until she could make out individual voices in the mix. The stairs entered out onto a balcony that circled the floor below, lit brightly by the same cold light that had been in the globe downstairs. “Here, Ana,” Karl said. He was standing at the railing to the balcony, behind a scrim of thin, dark fabric. “Those below can’t see you if you stand behind this, but you’ll be able to see them well enough.” As she started forward, he raised a hand. “You understand the trust I’m showing you, Ana? You’ll see the faces of the Numetodo who live in Nessantico, and that’s knowledge that the Archigos, A’Teni ca’Cellibrecca, and Commandant ca’Rudka would find extremely interesting. You will literally hold these people’s lives in your hands. I must have your promise now that you won’t reveal what you see here.”
“How do you know my promise is good?”
A momentary smile. “That’s the same objection Mika gave me. I’ll tell you what I told him: I look at you, and I know. Swear it,” he said.
“Swear it on Cenzi’s name.”
“I thought Numetodo didn’t believe in Cenzi.”
“I don’t,” he answered. “But you do.”
You came here because you wanted to know. The knowledge is there, waiting. “I’ll say nothing of what I see here,” she told him. “On Cenzi’s name, I give you my word.”
He nodded. He beckoned her forward.
The room below was large and open. There were perhaps thirty people below, most of them seated before a small raised dais where Mika stood. She recognized none of them. “So few?” Ana whispered.
“You’d think from the threat that A’Teni ca’Cellibrecca says we are that there would be hundreds of us, wouldn’t you?” Karl answered. “I wish that were the case. There are others who couldn’t be here tonight, but not many. Not in Nessantico herself. Watch, though, and you’ll see what the Numetodo can do.”
“. . tonight will be her first time,” Mika was saying. “Her name within the group is Varina. Please make her feel welcome.” There was a smattering of applause as a young woman came up on the stage. “Be kind, now,” Mika said to the others as the girl stood there. “Go on, Varina. Demonstrate what you’ve learned to do.”
Varina nodded. She took a long breath, closing her eyes. She began to chant: a phrase that wasn’t in the Ilmodo language Ana had been taught, though it had affinities-the same cadences and guttural vowels, and she thought she recognized a word or two pronounced strangely.
Still, these weren’t the calls to Cenzi that were a part of every chant she’d been taught. Varina’s hands moved with the chant, and Ana saw the beginnings of light forming around them. As Varina continued her chant, the glow strengthened until it was a fitful, small ball of light resting now on the upturned palm of her left hand. She ended the chant with a deep sigh. The ball of light sputtered and failed.
There was applause again from the onlookers. Varina nodded, then her eyes rolled backward in her head and she collapsed to the floor of the dais. She tried to stand again and failed. Mika gestured and two of the Numetodo came forward; they helped her to a chair. Another brought her water. Someone placed a dampened cloth over her forehead.