“Did you see the scroll?”
“I did, Majesty.” There were hundreds of scrolls, but Tavert had been right, the Lord Warder had known exactly what he’d meant when he’d said he was to see the scroll. The original wasn’t paper, but finely tanned skin; the Lord Warder had called it vellum as he’d smoothed out the surface, his fingers encased in a pair of fine kid gloves. A good portion of it had rotted away and what writing remained was faded and in a language that had been long dead when the empire was founded. Reiter had only a vague idea how they’d managed to translate it even after the old man’s explanation. Soothsayers had figured prominently, so it was no surprise the explanation made little sense.
“Did you read the translation?”
“I did, Majesty.”
“And what did you learn?”
“The Pack was created by mage-craft.” He decided to keep the whole if the translators weren’t blowing smoke out of their asses to himself.
“And now you understand why they’re abominations. Unnatural. An ancient construct by a blind mage so powerful he or she could pervert the rules governing life itself. The really fascinating extrapolation is that the origin of the abominations explains why mage-craft is dying out in the empire. As science and technology push the abominations back into the wild, where they’re most comfortable…”
She had gold rings in her ears.
“…the bloodlines die out. Abominations need to be bred back into the bloodlines of the mages in order for mage-craft to remain powerful. I guarantee you, Captain, that if we knew how to test for it, we’d find the abominations in the blood of these women as well as in their bodies.”
The boy, Tomas, had a slight point to his ears. Reiter had known a man in the army with three balls. He knew what he thought was stranger.
“Just think what I could accomplish if one of these five throw a mage of that caliber. Empires rise…”
It took Reiter a moment of puzzled silence to realize the emperor had been quoting the Soothsayer’s prophecy. “Or fall, Majesty.”
For the first time since he’d come into the tiny room, the emperor turned from the spyhole, his blue eyes narrowed. “What did you say, Captain?”
“The prophecy, Majesty. Empires rise or empires fall.” Reiter could feel sweat beginning to bead along his spine. The emperor’s expression made him feel a certain kinship to the pelt they stood on. “If the Soothsayers are concerned…”
And just like that, the bayonet was withdrawn and the emperor shook his head indulgently. “The Soothsayers aren’t so much concerned as they are open to all possibilities.” He pushed his hair back off his face and smiled. “It’s up to us, as reasoning people, to apply those possibilities. Thanks, in part, to you, I control five of the six possibilities and the sixth is on her way.”
Reiter didn’t want the responsibility the emperor seemed willing to grant him.
“Did you know that science keeps us alive fifteen years longer than in our grandfathers’ generation?”
“No, Majesty.”
“It does. I’ve been thinking, since I first read the scroll, what mage-craft strong enough to create a whole new species could do. If I controlled that mage, if that mage had been trained from birth to obey me, if I could trust their mage-craft, then I could live forever. I’d have the time I need to make the empire great. And when the abominations are gone, wiped out in the wild, mage-craft will die out in the wild. I will control the only remaining mages. Worth the losses in Aydori, don’t you think, Captain?”
Fortunately, before Reiter could answer, before Reiter could decide what to answer, the emperor kept talking.
“And now this new possibility of science and mage-craft working together…” He rubbed his hands together, rings whispering over each other, and grinned. “I can’t wait. If you could move back behind the rear draperies, Captain.”
As the emperor settled into the chair, Reiter backed through the two panels of fabric, until he was suddenly teetering on the edge of the stairs. Weighing the chance of a fall against missing what was about to happen, he decided to balance right where he was. Shuffling left on the balls of his feet, heels suspended over nothing, lined him up with the narrow gap between the pieces of fabric. When the emperor reached down to the side of the chair, Reiter noticed a brass-bound lever built into the base.
Long, pale fingers closed around the lever and shoved it forward. The floor vibrated and the front of the room opened, splitting in two and folding back. On the one hand, the emperor formed policy based on the insane ramblings of Soothsayers interpreted through bad poetry. On the other, his engineers were superb. The man was a mass of contradictions.
Reiter was tall enough he could see the faces of the women around the table as they stood and turned to face the emperor. He didn’t know how the emperor saw it—it was all theory to the emperor, and he believed he’d proven his strength, so he probably saw it as respect—but Reiter thought they stood because it was a better position for fighting than sitting down.
“It has occurred to me,” the emperor said, “that I have very little personal experience with mage-craft.” Reiter could hear the smile in his voice. “While I’m considering a certain proposal…” His tone was an unpleasant mix of coy and patronizing. “…I require more data points in order to make an informed decision. If the net were removed and you could give me one small demonstration of your power, what would it be?”
The largest woman said something under her breath.
“Ah, yes, you’re the one who speaks so little Imperial. Louder please, so it can be translated.”
“She said she would make a rose bloom, Your Imperial Majesty.” It was the blonde who’d spoken on the road. Something about her tone reminded Reiter of Major Halyss’ father, and he wondered what the other woman had actually said.
“Fascinating, but not very useful. You.”
The youngest woman started, glanced at the blonde, who nodded. “I part water, Majestied.”
“You’re part water…oh, you can part water.”
She visibly relaxed when the emperor laughed—even kidnapped and imprisoned, that was the effect he had on people. Reiter found it one of the more disturbing things he’d ever seen.
“A lot of water?” he asked. “Lakes? Rivers?”
She shook her head. “Not know amount, Majestied.”
“Oh.” She actually looked disappointed when he sounded disappointed. “No matter. I’m sure it’ll be fascinating discovering how much water you can part. Eventually, of course. You.”
The tiny dark-haired woman stared at the finger pointing at her. “I send you smells.”
“Not very useful, I’m afraid, although I could see sending smells away as being of some benefit. Still that’s what we have fans for. And you,” he pointed at the blonde, the other woman in blue, “you’d do the same. So what would you do?”
Even frowning slightly, the redhead was gorgeous. Reiter hoped Sergeant Black had kept the men under control on the way back to Karis.
“I’m a Healer, Majesty. If you want a demonstration, I’ll heal.”
“Excellent.” He pulled the lever back.
Reiter watched the women watching the emperor until the wall closed and he was grateful for the extra moment the fabric screening him provided when the emperor threw himself up out of the chair and turned.
“I knew, of course, what each of my mages could do. I had Lieutenant Geurin courier me the color of their eyes as soon as he reached civilization, thus the color-coded clothing so each craft could be identified from a distance. I’ve researched each of the six crafts. You’re wondering why I asked then, aren’t you? I was curious,” he continued without giving Reiter a chance to answer. Reiter closed his mouth and moved aside, to give the emperor room to get past him and down the stairs. “Curiosity, according to my priest, is my greatest failing. I wanted to know if they’d lie. I can’t abide liars and, more importantly, I don’t trust liars. This kind of cooperation indicates they can be taught, and I’m so very pleased that they answered the question as asked instead of spouting foolish defiance.” He chuckled, a warm, almost fond sound. “I suspect that I’ll find when I read the translation that the first to speak wasn’t going to make the rosebush bloom, but rather do something rude with it.”