‘Master Maker,’ the Fly told him, reproachfully, ‘this was left in our offices. Nobody saw by whom.’
Stenwold felt a worm of unease, for the paper had read, in stark, sharp letters, ‘Tell Maker I shall be there.’ Still, there’s nothing that can be done about that, until the time… He was about to move on but the Fly skipped in front of him, coughing politely.
‘Ah, so you’ve not been paid for it.’ He made a wry face and passed her a couple of coins. She bowed neatly, feet already leaving the ground, and was off and away over the city.
Jodry was to be found at his desk, and not alone. A young Beetle lad that Stenwold recognized as Maxel Gainer was sitting mournfully in a chair nearby, as though he was a student about to be disciplined. He looked up hopefully when Stenwold was ushered in.
‘What’s the emergency?’ Stenwold asked. He had not heard that Collegium was now at war with Tsen or Vek, or any Ant city-state, and he was sure that someone would have mentioned it.
Jodry raised his eyebrows. ‘Am I allowed to ask just where you’ve been these last two tendays?’
‘On a cruise for the good of my health,’ Stenwold replied curtly. ‘Jodry-’
‘I need your diplomatic acumen, Stenwold. You know these Ant-kinden better than I do.’
So I’m now Collegium’s special envoy to the entire Ant race am I? What a prime job that would be. He took a seat, with a sidelong look at Gainer. ‘What’s he done now?’
‘Nigh on started a war,’ Jodry said dismissively. When Gainer began to protest, he held up his hands. ‘Oh, not deliberately, and more down to old Tseitus than him, but, hammer and tongs, Stenwold! You’d not believe the tightropes I’ve been walking, and I’m not a man constitutionally suited for that, I can tell you.’
‘So how have things fallen out with the Tseni and their submersibles, then?’ Stenwold asked. The thought that submersibles might become useful in Collegium’s near-future had not passed him by. If the Spiders attack, they will come by sea again. The other thought, which he could not keep from his mind, was And how friendly is Jodry here with Teornis – with the Spiderlands? It had always been the Empire, with Stenwold. He had always been hunting for the Imperial agents and sympathizers, marking down men or women as hands that took Wasp coin. He had never stopped to think that others, too, might have designs on his city and on the Lowlands.
‘Their case is that the Tseitan is essentially a stolen design,’ Jodry explained. ‘They’re making a big deal of it, as though it’s going to be the next snapbow. Personally, I think it’s just about political leverage and that they want something else from us.’
‘Well, what exactly is the Tseitan?’ Stenwold pressed. ‘Is it ours or theirs or what?’
Jodry signalled to Gainer, who cleared his throat. ‘The original submersible, my master’s old boat, was manufactured in Collegium, but Master Tseitus brought along a good half-dozen innovations with him – in his head but ready-made, if you see. I always reckoned they were his.’ The young artificer looked harassed, a man clearly out of his depth. ‘He could have learned them in Tsen, maybe. But we did a lot of our own work on her too, and the Tseitan throws out at least a couple of the ideas Master Tseitus came up with, for better ones. He kept improving the design all the time.’ He looked downcast. ‘Wish he was here with us now, I tell you that.’
‘So what do Kratia’s Tseni want?’
‘War with Vek,’ Jodry replied. Seeing Stenwold’s reaction, he smiled bleakly. ‘They haven’t said as much, but that’s what it is. As soon as they got wind that we were cosying up to the Vekken at last, they started to sweat about it. Vek’s armies have been pointing east a long time, so if they’re suddenly happy about relations in our direction, it makes sense that they might turn to Tsen for their next war games. After all, there are a lot more Vekken than there are Tseni.’
‘Well, they can whistle for their war,’ Stenwold said sourly. ‘I’ve spent too long building the peace.’
‘Ah, but these Tseni, I hate to say it, are clever bitches. They’re not like your average Ant-kinden ambassador. They’ve been going about the people, making themselves known. They’ve been guesting with Assemblers. They’ve been talking up Tsen’s role in the war: how they sent soldiers so many miles to fight off the Empire and die in front of Sarn. And Tseitus… Well, you’ll laugh.’
‘They’re saying he’s a hero,’ Gainer put in, sounding equally baffled and proud.
‘I thought they were saying he was a thief?’ Stenwold demanded.
‘That’s what happens when you go off on a cruise for your health,’ Jodry observed pointedly. ‘The world doesn’t just wait. It turns out now that Tseitus was a hero of Tsen come to help his good friends in Collegium. I’ve already had one request that his work in the war be recognized officially, Sten. His work in sinking the Vekken flagship, of course.’
Stenwold nodded dourly.
‘And let’s face it, he did.’ Jodry threw up his arms. ‘And, yes, the Vekken were trying to kill us all, and that’s not exactly ancient history. So people are starting to mutter.’
‘I can imagine.’ For Stenwold, it was like feeling the leaden, icy waters close over his head. He was drowning in Collegium politics yet again. ‘Let me think on this. There must be a way.’
‘Take all the time you need – but not too much,’ Jodry said. ‘Master Gainer, at least, has profited from this. Not only is he seen as a hero’s apprentice now, but the donations towards the Tseitan project have now become almost adequate. Throwing good coin at a boat that sinks looks like madness to me, but you never can tell with people.’
‘I just want to continue Master Tseitus’s work,’ Gainer said stubbornly. ‘I don’t care about all this other stuff.’
‘My advice is to use it while you can,’ Jodry recommended. He turned back to Stenwold. ‘Now, are you glad I called you in so quickly?’ he gave a broad, sardonic smile.
‘No,’ Stenwold replied shortly. ‘But you were right to do so, curse you. The last thing we need right now is trouble with the Ants. With any Ants.’
Jodry nodded. ‘You’re probably also aware that those Wasp soldiers sitting near Myna’s borders haven’t gone anywhere. They’re saying the whole Eighth Army is marching up and down there like it’s the Empress’s birthday or something. War here in the Lowlands is probably just what they’re waiting for. If we have to look away for ten minutes, we’d probably find that the whole Three-City Alliance has vanished like a conjurer’s hat by the time we look back.’
And how much more true will that be if we end up crossing swords with the Spiderlands, Stenwold reflected. They’ll celebrate all over the Empire, if they find that their two great enemies have come to blows. And then they’ll march.
As he stepped out of the office, he paused to run over the conversation in his head, prying at the gaps. Any suggestion of betrayal there? Any hint of a Spider lurking behind the words? Perhaps Jodry’s just too accomplished a statesman. In truth his gut feeling was that Jodry had nothing to do with the piracy business, but he knew he could not take the chance of assuming so. Absolute secrecy, then: the knowledge, burning inside him like hot metal, would not be let out that way. And, in all honesty, if he is innocent of any complicity, he is better off not knowing, and Arianna the same. I will keep this between me and the Tidenfree until I know for certain.
Stenwold trailed his slow way home, still carrying the burden of knowledge he felt unable to vouchsafe to anyone.
Eleven
He paused in the doorway of the Merraian Taverna, and a moment of bittersweet nostalgia caught him, seeing its familiar interior. The place had been a landmark of his intelligencing work since long before the war. The owner knew him well – and his money – but it was something more than that…
How long has it been? Three years and more since he had sent them off. It had been the end of innocence for his niece and his ward and two of his students. Except Tynisa had already killed a man the night before, and Salma had known more of loss and death than any youth of his age should do.