Turned out there was enough honey left for both of us to add a spoonful to our cup. I sipped mine carefully.
“It’s not bad,” I said. “For a moment, I thought it’d be undrinkable without honey. Well, I find bck coffee undrinkable anyway.”
“I get what Your Excellency means,” Valentino said. “It’s good coffee.”
“Yeah. I get where Cassel is coming from, you know? Even if His Illustrious Highness didn’t pay for this, someone still had to.”
“Maybe it was a donation. I wouldn’t be surprised if the coffee sector is part of the strike.”
“Oh, that’s a good call.” I checked my pocket watch. “Barely past three fifteen? It’s like time stopped moving. What you just said also fits with something else I’ve been thinking. I don’t think the passage we used is the only one. Maybe if I had more time I’d be able to read the map properly—or maybe not. Though I wonder why nobody found these passsages before.”
“It’s been a long while since the Empire fell,” Valentino said. “And one of the first things Letheia I did was clearing out Imperial bureaucracy.”
“Hmm. I get it.” Soon after the Empire’s fall, anybody who could read the map would be either dead or keeping quiet out of fear.
And I guess they just build those factories on top of whatever there was before, and they cared about getting the economy going instead of taking a good look at whatever there was under their foundations. Until Cassel’s Mom went digging, that is.
“Maybe they should’ve taken a better look,” I went on, thinking out loud. “But I guess they were too concerned about the budget or something. Can’t really bme them though.” I finished my loaf. Something felt different about Valentino, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Of course, we’d been in such a hurry since we entered the caves—oh, that was it! “Sergeant Vargas, you’ve lost your hat too!”
He brushed the top of his head with one hand. “So I did. Now I think about it, I don’t think we’ll ever see our undry again.”
“Probably not. Do you think our pne’s leaving tomorrow? Either with us or without us. Maybe Cassel’s suspended all flights.”
“That’s a pos—“ Valentino whipped his head around. I held my breath and sharpened my ears. Guess he had better hearing than me, because I still couldn’t notice anything, but Valentino stood up without making a noise and went straight to the cutlery drawers.
I went to help him search and got to the knife drawer first. We’re not talking the wimpy knives you’d use to cut your steak—these were kitchen knives that looked sharp enough to slice a melon in two. I let Valentino have them, and also a couple of cleavers I’m sure they used to dismember cattle. He slid all of them in his belt together with some long wooden spoons.
“Are you going to stir soup?” I had to ask, because I couldn’t help myself. But I have to tell you I was thoughtful enough to whisper.
“Please stay behind me, Your Excellency,” Valentino said. Guess he’d gotten used to Lemarezins making dumb comments. “I’d prefer it if you’d stayed at a reasonable distance, so that I can reach you easily.”
“So they’re guards?”
“That’s what I want to find out.”
I thought he’d stick close to the walls or something, but he just threw his jacket over his stolen kitchen tools and strode out. I waited a few seconds to give him a head start, then followed—I did stick close to the walls, just in case.
The moment I caught a glimpse of white-and-gold uniforms cautiously moving up the hallway, I ducked into the closest recess in the wall, which turned out to be a closed door. It didn’t open even as I shoved my back at it—pretty sure it was locked. But I presented a much smaller target and that’s what matters. Not that they paid me a lot of attention, with Valentino standing there in the open.
“Leave now,” he said. When we’d just set out, I’d thought he was mostly passable at conveying personal authority, but I’d gotten it all wrong, didn’t I? That calm, ft intonation was never meant to be personal.
The other guards took a step forward. One got a wooden spoon jammed into his eye, as far into the skull as it’d go, and dropped just as dead as the guards outside. I fttened myself against the door, not that it made a lot of sense. One, three, five heavy weights hitting the ground. I breathed again. All I could see were a pair of legs in white uniform pants, bent at an awkward angle.
“It’s over, Your Excellency,” Valentino said.
I left my hiding pce, still cautiously. “Thanks.”
He leaned down to remove the wooden spoon from that guard’s eye. It came off with a disgusting wet sound. Thankfully, Valentino didn’t try to clean the blood and grey matter, just dropped it on the dead guy’s chest.
“You’re welcome.”
“Could you check out if there’s more after them?”
“Absolutely.”
“I’ll stay close by, just so you know.”
I didn’t particurly want to look at the dead bodies, but that was the only way to avoid stepping on them, or on the small puddle of blood that’d formed around a couple of the guards. Valentino hadn’t really intended to make them back down—he’d moved too fast. I’m sure he’d only intended to distract them as he took the knives out. I didn’t really bme him, though.
Because I’d gotten used to thinking of him as Valentino, I’d mostly forgotten about how, when I’d first met him, I’d thought he had the demeanor of a clerk. A smile with nothing behind it. But that was intentional. Valentino’s authority didn’t come from himself, it came straight from the Megarchon. He couldn’t let anybody forget it, not even lesser guards.
“We’re clear,” Valentino said.
He stood at the factory gates. It was still sunny outside, almost insultingly so. But the storm clouds crept closer.
I guess what happened next it’s my fault—I can safely say it’s not Valentino’s fault at all. Though I doubt it would’ve made any difference if I’d stayed inside. After all, I was standing safely inside the factory yard, behind the barricade still mostly in pce. And I don’t think I can be bmed for wanting to stand a bit longer in the sunlight, instead of going back inside with those corpses. I kept my ears peeled out for any noises coming from Vanth’s direction—any hints of how the battle was progressing. It was way, way too soon for it to be already over, unless we’d gotten incredibly lucky—literally incredibly, I wasn’t believing it for a moment.
The wind came all of a sudden, pulling at my hair and jacket, and at first I thought it was the storm wind.
Then I saw it wasn’t blowing at anything around us, not that one tree or the open window or that half-fttened cardboard box, just Valentino and me. Except it was pushing at him, and pulling me in the opposite direction, into the street. It happened too fast: Valentino was hit with a roaring gust that shoved him into the factory even as he tried to send it away, and I saw him receding away from me—him and the sunbathed yard. And then my back crashed against the remains of the barricade, almost louder than the wind screaming around me, and I curled myself up in a ball, though the wind fought my attempts to do that, too. It slowed me down, barely, but it didn’t stop me, so I wrapped my head in my arms and tried to tell the wind to stop. Of course it didn’t listen, but what I felt beneath its refusal wasn’t the wind’s blind rage—there was intent there. A spell.
I hit a fence; it didn’t break, all the worse for my back. After this, I’d make sure to bring some healing spells with me even if I just made a bathroom stop. And you could argue I was being too optimistic there’d be a next time. That’s not how I saw it, though. I wouldn’t trust on things getting better, but I’d bet on surviving every time.
The wind slowed down gradually, dragging me on the ground. I tried to cling to a light globe post; I missed it, and the next one, but managed to take a hold of the next one.
My ears rang. The wind gave a st feeble tug at me, then dispelled itself. My chest felt heavy; it hurt to breathe, but I could handle it.
Something worse: I couldn’t move my arms, still loosely wrapped around the post. It wasn’t good, but not too terrible either—it was just what Vanth had worried about. The backsh of forcing that spell. My muscles hurt and trembled with involuntary contractions. Unpleasant as all hells. It’d eventually go away without causing me further damage, though a healing spell wouldn’t go amiss.
It’s the eventual part of it that worried me, of course. From my uncomfortable position—my neck was going to start hurting real soon—I saw only an empty street, but how long would it remain empty?
A drop of sweat slid down my nose. Most guards had to be busy with the battle by now, but guards weren’t my only problem. Would any strikers that stumbled upon me believe I was on their side? Most importantly, not everybody in the city had taken a side. I thought of that guy who’d thrown a bottle at Amankay, even though she was one of them and you apparently didn’t mess with them. Would anybody believe I was with them, too?
Still, I wasn’t terribly worried. Valentino would come after me right away.
I wasn’t wrong to think that. I just wasn’t counting on the carriage that stopped not far away. Once I heard the screeching wheels, though, I knew it was a bad sign. Then came the steps, fast and determined. Someone grabbed me from under my armpits, someone else lifted my legs. White-and-gold uniforms. We all piled up into the carriage and clop-clopped away.
My neck had ended up in a better position, and the seat I occupied all on my own was vastly more comfortable than cobblestones, but in every other sense I was worse off. Worrying wouldn’t solve half a thing, though, as Grandma Cielo said. Of course I couldn’t rely on Valentino coming after me—he absolutely would, but what if he hadn’t seen these guards take me away? I didn’t know how long it’d take him to find me.
Better to take stock of the situation.
Cassel still wanted a hostage. I needed to find a way to use this against him. He didn’t know Vanth had taken an oath to protect me—could I make Cassel believe Vanth was capable of letting me die? Maybe.
He didn’t know about the Rainbow Snakes—that’s what Nina had intended by using Vanth as a decoy. Cassel didn’t believe Vanth would stand against the Megarchon, just against the governor of I Tabrul. But the Snakes had to know they were already making enemies in the highest pces you could imagine.
Did that make a difference? I didn’t know yet.
I tried to lift my head. Still no response. Better not to force it.
“How about you straighten me up?” I asked. “I’d like to sit up.”
The two guards just looked at me. They had to be locals, for Cassel to send them after me instead of Vanth. Then again, did Cassel sent them? This was a civilian carriage, and a fancy one too. No doubt the guards had stolen it on the spot. I mean they’d requisitioned it.
“So how did you find me?” I insisted. “Did you get an anonymous tip or what? Because I don’t buy that you were combing the streets and just happened to find me.”
“That’s not important,” one of them said. I’d seen her blink fast when I mentioned the anonymous tip, though—barely noticeable, but there all the same.
“Fine!” I said. “Whatever! Don’t set me straight in any way. I’ll tell the governor all about it. I’ll make sure Her Magnificence hears about it!”
“Feel free to do that,” the other guard said. I don’t think he liked hearing the Megarchon namedropped though. Nobody did. Even if they didn’t buy that I had her ear—and why would they?—the idea of it would make anybody uncomfortable.
So I’d gotten the part about the anonymous tip right. Someone had found me in the factory and dragged me out of it and dropped me on the guards’s p—but that person wasn’t affiliated with Cassel. I knew who it was, of course. My old friend the necromancer. If they couldn’t get the job done, they might as well let someone else do it.
I didn’t have to wonder how the necromancer had found me at the factory either. They were with the Rainbow Snakes, just as I’d suspected. They’d gotten my location from Amankay or whoever. Maybe Amankay was a part of it too, though that sounded real convoluted to me. I couldn’t make any assumptions yet.
Slowly, I started breathing easier. Seeing how I didn’t have anything else to do, I enjoyed the feeling of filling my lungs with air, but carefully. I still hurt.
My position didn’t allow me to see much, but one of the things that showed through the half-open window was a blue-green spire, and it moved steadily closer.
“Of course,” I said. The guards gred at me and said nothing. If they thought I was crazy, even better.
Of course I was coming back to the pce I’d just escaped from. Of course Cassel would send his guards and greensuits to deal with Vanth and stay behind.
But then, he’d stayed in the same building where magma bubbled full of eyes and anger. I don’t care how safe the barriers were, Vanth couldn’t be any worse than that. Either Cassel was the one who’d lost his mind or he’d gotten truly desperate. Or both.
All bad options. There’s nothing worse than dealing with someone who isn’t thinking right. You can’t negotiate with them, you can barely predict what they’ll do. If I wasn’t careful I’d end up pitched into the angry magma.
One of my index fingers twitched. I tried to move it and was successful, though it felt heavier than my entire body. Patience now. I couldn’t afford myself to fuck up again.
I let the guards carry my dead weight out of the carriage. They’d noticed I wasn’t as stiff anymore, and when I wouldn’t stand on my own, one wrenched my arm behind my back.
“Hey, what the fuck! You’re already fired!” That did brought me to my feet, but that’s as far as I’d go. Not a step more!
Before they could even attempt to answer me, though, someone in white had come out of the building—no, not white. Ivory.
“Cassel, tell them to be civilized,” I said.
“It’s too te for that,” he replied, as if he was simply remarking it’d rain soon.
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