Fragile Empire Read online

  Clay and stone powers mixed together. She grew nervous at the prospect of seeing if it could be done. Surely though, she thought, someone must have tried it before? But maybe not, after all it was only twenty years since the Rahain and Rakanese peoples had started to mix, and even then in small numbers. The imperial capital was where the largest communities of the two peoples lived together, but even there, their quarters were at opposite ends of the city, and they seldom mingled socially.

  She left her apartment and descended the spiral staircase to the lower levels. The library, she thought. If anywhere held information about mixing mage skills, it would be there. She smiled. It would be good excuse to go anyway.

  The library was quiet when she entered. Dark, wooden bookshelves lined the walls, and ran in rows down the centre of the large room. Staircases led to an upper level, where a balcony was carried upon slender pillars. Students stood in silence, picking out books, or were sitting at desks studying. The sun was shining through round windows that pierced the ceiling, sending alternating shafts of shadow and light down into the room.

  Nyane made her way through the rows of books, heading for the section on mage powers. Most of the books were new, printed afresh after so many had been destroyed in the fires that had ravaged the city during the war. In the peace that followed, the Empress had agents hunt out every book collection and library that remained in the empire, making copies of everything they could find. Their work was not yet complete, Nyane knew. In the basement beneath the library sat crates of scrolls, documents and volumes still to be translated, copied and set to print. The university had its own press, the largest in the city, and it ran night and day.

  She searched the small area devoted to the known mage powers of the world. There were several shelves of works on Holdings vision skills, including a compendium of sayings from the prophets. The other nations were less well represented, with a handful of books on Rakanese mages, which she picked up, and a dubious-looking and dog-eared biography of Keira the Fire Mage. Among the sparse collection of volumes on Rahain stone mages there was the short book that she herself had written, and finally, at the end of a shelf was a single slim booklet about Sanang hedgewitches. She frowned. There was nothing on combining powers that she could see.

  Carrying the Rakanese books with her, she made her way to the librarian’s desk, where a young Holdings woman sat.

  ‘Hello, Lady Nyane,’ she said. ‘Just those books today?’

  ‘For now,’ she said. ‘Is the head librarian around? There are a few other topics I’m looking for, and he may be able to help me.’

  The woman smiled. ‘He’s downstairs in the basement archives, ma’am.’

  ‘Thank you. I’ll leave these here for now,’ she said, laying her collection onto the desk, ‘and make my way down there.’

  Nyane strode to the back of the library, passing the quiet reading desks, where a dozen students had their heads buried in books. The door to the archives was marked with a sign forbidding entry to anyone without the express permission of the head librarian. She went through, and closed the door behind her. A lamp lit a narrow flight of stairs down to the basement and she descended, taking care not to make a sound.

  At the bottom of the steps she gazed around. The floor was piled high with boxes and crates, while a fire was blazing in a hearth to her left, warming the air and casting flickering shadows against the walls. She heard a noise, and glanced over to see the librarian. He was on his knees with his back to her, looking inside a large wooden crate. She walked over, keeping quiet, until she was right behind him. Even kneeling, she could see how tall and well-built he was, and she gazed at him for a moment.

  ‘Good afternoon, Head Librarian,’ she said.

  He froze, then turned to meet her eyes.

  ‘You’re back,’ he said, a smile spreading across his lips.

  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I was wondering if you could help me.’

  ‘Of course,’ he said, standing. ‘What did you have in mind?’

  She gazed up at him. He was shorter than most Kellach Brigdomin, but still towered above her. She reached up with her arms and placed them round his neck. He held her waist, pulling her towards him and she closed her eyes as their lips touched.

  ‘I hope you remembered to lock the door this time,’ he said as they lay in each other’s arms.

  Nyane glanced at him, her arm on his bare chest. Even though he was only a couple of years her junior, he looked much younger.

  ‘I may have forgotten,’ she said.

  He laughed. ‘Can you imagine if one of the students had walked in? I’m not sure how we’d explain that to the principal.’

  ‘I missed you, Dean,’ she said. ‘It’s good to be home.’

  ‘Aye,’ he said. ‘I missed you too. I’m glad you’re back in one piece, but.’

  She frowned. ‘I can look after myself.’

  ‘I know you can,’ he said. ‘Doesn’t stop me worrying, though. The Empress sends you all over the place.’

  ‘I need to see the defences of the empire for myself,’ she said. ‘I can’t do everything from here.’ She leant up on her elbow. ‘Are you going to the party at the Kellach embassy tonight?’

  ‘Not any more,’ he said. ‘That is, unless you’re going.’

  ‘I managed to get out of it,’ she said. ‘Isobel is going to cover for me.’

  ‘Good. Mine or yours?’

  She sat up and reached for her clothes. ‘I’ve got no food in. Will your apartment be all right?’

  ‘Sure. I’ll make dinner.’

  ‘Isobel wants to speak to me before the party,’ she said, dressing. ‘I’ll be round after that.’ She stood, and glanced down at him. Should she ask? She wasn’t sure how he would react. It had always been an unspoken rule between them that he never discussed it, and she never asked.

  ‘There was actually another reason for me coming to the library,’ she said.

  ‘Aye?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I’m looking for a book about mixing different mage powers.’

  He pulled his own clothes back on and stood. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘You know,’ she said, ‘like using Rakanese and Rahain mage skills together. Combining them. I may be mistaken, but I think I remember hearing about the old Emperor conducting experiments along those lines.’

  He half-laughed and looked away.

  ‘I don’t mean to bring up any painful memories,’ she said. ‘I wasn’t talking about what happened to you, I meant before that. Wasn’t there a place in the city where he gathered mages?’

  ‘The institute,’ he said, his voice muted.

  ‘Yes,’ she said.

  ‘Keira burnt it to the ground.’

  ‘So nothing survived? No records?’

  He gazed at her, his expression clouded.

  ‘It’s fine,’ she said. ‘I thought it was worth asking. Maybe it was insensitive of me.’

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘Don’t worry, it was a long time ago. I don’t think about it much, not any more. It’s funny that we’ve never talked about it.’

  ‘Do you want to?’

  ‘I don’t know, but maybe we should. We’ve been together for four years, and we shouldn’t have any secrets.’

  ‘It’s not really a secret,’ she smiled. ‘The whole empire knows the story, and I’ve heard the Empress talk about it many times.’

  ‘She didn’t appear until later,’ he said. ‘She wasn’t there when it happened.’

  ‘No, but she knows everyone who was. Look, it’s not a problem. We can talk about it later if you like. Or not. Anyway, I’ll let you get back to work. I’ll see you tonight.’

  She turned to leave.

  ‘Wait,’ he said. ‘Follow me.’

  He walked between the rows of crates towards the back of the chamber and stopped by a pile of boxes stacked high. He reached up and took down a small package from the top of the pile.

  ‘What’s that?’ she said, approaching.

/>   ‘As far as we know,’ he said, ‘the institute was gutted by fire, and all of the documents there were destroyed. However, we found these when we were digging in the foundations of the cathedral.’

  He opened the package to reveal a tightly bound roll of papers.

  ‘Have you looked at them?’ she said.

  ‘Once, just after we found them,’ he said. ‘They may have been carried from the institute by a priest before Keira destroyed it. They detail some of the experiments you mentioned, as well as the results.’

  ‘Why has this never been properly analysed and published?’

  He gestured around the room. ‘You see all this? It’ll take years to get through it, and the Empress told us to print the most useful manuscripts first. I didn’t see much use in this. In fact, I wanted to forget I’d read it.’

  She hesitated.

  He gazed into her eyes, nodded, and handed her the roll. ‘Keep it safe.’

  ‘Of course,’ she said, her heart pounding. ‘It won’t leave my apartment.’

  ‘I should warn you,’ he said. ‘Some of the contents are pretty disturbing.’

  She placed the roll back into its packaging, and slipped it inside her robes.

  ‘Thank you,’ she said.

  She leaned up and kissed him, then walked back to the stairs, her pace quickening. She would go straight home, she thought, and begin reading immediately.

  There was a knock on her front door as the daylight was fading. A tall, thin, south-facing window was letting in the last of the sun as the sky turned red.

  Isobel, she thought. She looked up from the documents spread all over the floor of her study and got to her feet.

  ‘Just a moment,’ she said, making sure the door to her study was firmly closed behind her.

  She opened the front entrance to the apartment.

  The Holdings mage smiled at her.

  ‘You’re looking very dressed up this evening,’ Nyane said. ‘Is that a new outfit?’

  ‘Do you like it?’ Isobel said, entering the apartment.

  ‘It suits you.’

  ‘I could take that in a number of ways,’ Isobel said. ‘Do you have anything to drink?’

  ‘I have some wine, I think,’ Nyane said, walking into her sitting room. ‘I haven’t had a chance to shop since I got back.’

  ‘Busy afternoon, was it?’

  Nyane poured two glasses of red wine, and handed one to Isobel. ‘Working hard.’

  ‘Really? So tell me, how is the head librarian doing?’

  She smiled. ‘Well, thank you.’

  Isobel took a sip of wine.

  ‘Have a seat,’ Nyane said.

  They sat down, on opposite sides of a low table.

  ‘So what couldn’t wait until tomorrow?’ Nyane said.

  ‘I’m here because the Empress trusts you, and I trust you,’ Isobel said.

  Nyane frowned. ‘I’d be upset to think otherwise.’

  ‘I imagine you would. However, not everyone’s loyalty can be counted upon like yours.’

  ‘I don’t understand,’ Nyane said. ‘Has someone been disloyal?’

  ‘I’m afraid so. Someone is passing our intelligence to the Rahain. We don’t know who, but it must be someone close to the council.’

  ‘The Rahain?’

  ‘I mean the Republic,’ Isobel said. ‘Lord Protector Ghorley’s renegade domain.’

  ‘Are you here because I’m Rahain?’

  ‘Don’t be paranoid. You’re not the only member of the government I’ve had this conversation with, but I had to wait until you’d returned from Amatskouri before I could speak to you.’

  Nyane nodded, and suppressed her tongue from flickering.

  ‘So what do you need me to do?’ she said.

  ‘Nothing,’ said Isobel, placing her empty wineglass onto the table. ‘Just let me know if you see or hear anything, or if anyone approaches you with talk of sedition.’

  Nyane snorted. ‘I would do that anyway.’

  ‘I know,’ Isobel said, standing. ‘Be a little extra vigilant, that’s all. Our own intelligence is picking up mixed signals from the Republic, but the Empress wants us to be ready, in case Ghorley tries anything.’

  Nyane got to her feet. ‘Thank you for letting me know.’

  ‘I’ll let myself out,’ Isobel said. ‘Have a good evening.’

  ‘You too.’

  Isobel turned and left the sitting room, and Nyane sat back down. She poured herself another wine. She knew from previous briefings that spies from the Rahain Republic were active in the Plateau. Several had been caught over the last few years, including members of the diplomatic corps, and the lower levels of government, but it had all occurred out of sight of Nyane, who had only heard about it through Isobel.

  She washed, got changed and left the apartment, checking she had locked her front door. Dean’s flat was above the library, and she retraced her steps of the afternoon. The teaching floors were quiet and deserted, though the courtyard outside was bustling with life, as students relaxed in the warm evening. They were drinking ale, and the scent of tobacco and dreamweed floated through the air. She climbed the stairs to the left of the library, and knocked on Dean’s door.

  He opened it, and smiled. ‘Come in.’

  She went inside, and he closed the door. She turned to speak, and he put his arms around her waist, kissing her and edging her towards the bedroom door.

  ‘What about dinner?’ she laughed.

  ‘It’ll be twenty minutes,’ he said, pushing open the door. ‘Long enough.’

  After dinner they went to Dean’s warm study. His three cats were curled up on the rug in front of the hearth, where a fire was blazing. He poured her a brandy and himself a whisky and they sat. One of the cats leapt up onto his knee, circled for a moment, then settled down.

  Wretched creatures, Nyane thought, but Dean loved them. They were descended from a small number of animals that had been brought to the city from Kellach Brigdomin as a gift to a noble lord, and nature had done the rest. Over the previous decade, more and more cats had appeared in the homes and on the streets of the imperial capital. The ones in Dean’s apartment seemed to hate her, as if jealous of her sharing his attention.

  She told him all about her trip to Amatskouri and he listened. He was a good listener. He was also painfully shy, and it had taken her a long time to break down the barriers he put up around himself. They had become friends when working together for long periods while he helped translate her book, and only over time, and somewhat as a surprise, did they realise that they had fallen in love with each other.

  He opened a window and lit a stick of dreamweed, and the cat jumped off.

  ‘There was something else I wanted to tell you,’ she said, taking a sip of brandy, ‘but it’ll seem like I’m bringing up the past again.’

  ‘Aye?’

  ‘You’ll hear about it anyway,’ she said, ‘but I thought I’d let you know that Holder Fast’s daughter is coming to the city, now she’s eighteen.’

  ‘Karalyn?’ he said.

  ‘Yes.’

  He took a drag, then passed her the dreamweed.

  ‘Thanks,’ she said, smoking. ‘Do you remember her?’

  ‘Aye. She was only a little girl at the time. I’ve not seen her since.’

  ‘But she was up on the roof of the Great Fortress that night?’

  He grimaced. ‘Aye.’

  Nyane wondered for a moment if she should let it pass, but the brandy and dreamweed had loosened her self-restraint.

  ‘I never understood why someone would take a little girl up there,’ she said. ‘That’s always puzzled me. I mean, why would anyone put her in such danger?’

  Dean said nothing, a frown on his lips.

  ‘I’ve always wanted to ask if you knew the reason,’ she said. ‘Do you?’

  He downed his whisky and poured another.

  ‘There are things that happened up there,’ he said, ‘that we were all sworn to secrecy
about. Things that nobody knows, except those who were there, and Bridget, I mean the Empress.’

  ‘The Empress made you swear an oath?’

  ‘Aye, her and Daphne Holdfast. The pair of them.’

  ‘And it was about Karalyn in some way?’

  ‘It was.’

  Nyane sat waiting for him to continue, but he remained silent.

  ‘Earlier,’ she said, ‘you told me that you didn’t want any secrets between us.’

  He said nothing for several minutes, gazing out of the window. She started to wonder if she had gone too far. He had sworn an oath, and she had just asked him to choose between her and the Empress. Dammit. She should back down and change the subject.

  ‘She’s a mage,’ he said.

  Nyane blinked. ‘A vision mage?’

  ‘Kind of,’ he said. ‘I don’t really understand how, but she had an important part to play in the killing of the Emperor.’

  ‘When she was two years old?’

  ‘Aye.’

  ‘But I’ve never heard of any mage powers that come on that early.’

  ‘No one has,’ he said. ‘Karalyn is probably the only mage of her kind alive. There was another, but I never met him, and he died while the Emperor was still on the throne.’

  Nyane passed him the dreamweed.

  ‘They made you swear an oath about that?’ she said. ‘Her powers must be impressive, otherwise why would they care?’

  He shrugged.

  She smiled, curiosity about Karalyn’s mage powers filling her thoughts.

  ‘When she arrives,’ she said, ‘I would very much like to meet this young lady.’

  Chapter 9

  Family Ties

  Liberton, Rahain Republic – 12th Day, Second Third Spring 524

  The squad marched amid knee-high spring flowers under the warm afternoon sunshine. Butterflies and bees swished and buzzed past the faces of the soldiers, who were each laden with their full equipment – weapons, shield, camping materials, supplies and a multitude of other items. Despite the weight on his shoulders, Lennox breathed in the fresh mountain air and smiled.