Powder Mage: The Autumn Republic Part 2

Bo ran a hand through his ruddy hair and pulled on a pair of white gloves covered in archaic runes. "Why?"

"Not sure," Adamat said. "I'll go check." He hauled himself out of the carriage, glad to be out of close confines with the Privileged. Bo's elemental sorcery could kill Adamat, Oldrich, and the entire platoon of Adran soldiers that made up their escort in mere seconds. Adamat had watched Bo snap the neck of Manhouch's executioner with a flick of his wrist. For all of his charm, Bo was a cold-blooded killer. Adamat glanced back into the carriage once and then trudged up a slight incline toward where Sergeant Oldrich and several of his men conferred beside the road.

"Inspector," Oldrich said with a nod. "Where is the Privileged?"

"Better start calling him 'counselor,' " Adamat said.

Oldrich snorted. "All right. Where's the lawyer? We've run into something unexpected."

"Oh?"

"There's an army just over that rise," Oldrich said.

Adamat felt his heart leap into his throat. An army? Had the Kez finally broken through? Were they marching on Adopest?

"An Adran army," Oldrich added.

Adamat's relief was short-lived. "What are they doing here?" he asked. "They're supposed to be in Surkov's Alley still. Have they been pushed back this far?"

"What's going on?" Bo arrived, stretching his arms behind his back. Adamat was reminded again just how young Bo was-not far into his twenties, at a guess. Certainly not yet thirty. Despite his youth, the Privileged had worry lines on his brow and an old man's eyes.

Adamat looked pointedly at Bo's gloves. "You're supposed to be a lawyer," Adamat said.

"I don't like going without my gloves," Bo said, cracking his knuckles. "Besides, no one will see. The army is still a ways off."

"That's not quite true," Oldrich said, jerking his head toward the rise in the road.

Nila had caught up to them. "With me," Bo said to her. They headed up to look at the army over the rise.

Oldrich watched them go. "I don't trust them," he said when they were out of earshot.

"We have to," Adamat said.

"Why? Field Marshal Tamas has always got on without Privileged to hold his hand."

"Tamas is a powder mage," Adamat said. "Neither you nor I have that benefit. And Bo is our backup. If this doesn't work-if General Ket won't come along quietly to face the law in Adopest-then we'll need Bo to get us out of whatever mess we make."

Oldrich rubbed his temples with both hands. "Pit. I can't believe I let you talk me into this."

"You want justice, don't you? You want us to win this war?"

"Yes."

"Then we need to arrest General Ket."

Bo and Nila returned. Nila frowned to herself, while Bo seemed thoughtful.

"What do you think is going on over there?" Bo asked Oldrich. "That camp should be dozens of miles to our south."

"Could be anything," Oldrich said. "Could be the wounded from the front. Could be reinforcements. Could be that our boys were routed and they're retreating."

Bo scratched his chin. He had removed his Privileged gloves. "It's afternoon. If our boys were routed, then they'd be marching toward Adopest right now. I don't know what it is, but something is wrong. There's no more than six brigades in that camp. Too many for reinforcements, too few to be the whole army."

"We should find out what's going on," Adamat said.

"How?" Bo demanded. "We will only know what's happening by riding into that camp. Which we have to do, by the way. If I want to save Taniel-pit, if he's even still alive-and if you want my help saving your son, then we're heading down there."

Bo strode off toward the waiting carriage.

Nila remained, looking between Oldrich and Adamat.

"If this thing goes bad," Oldrich said to Nila, "will he back us up?"

Nila turned to watch Bo. "I think so."

"You 'think'?"

Nila shrugged. "He might also burn his way through a few companies of soldiers and leave us in the wreckage."

Oldrich asked, "What did you say you do?"

"I'm Bo's-the counselor's-secretary," Nila said.

"And before that?"

"I was a laundress."

"Ah."

They returned to the carriage and were soon moving again, heading over the hill, where the sight took Adamat's breath away. The Adran camp spread out across the plain in a sea of white tents. It seemed to move and wriggle, like an anthill viewed from above, thousands of soldiers and camp followers going about their day.

The carriage came to a stop once more a mile later as they reached the camp's pickets. Adamat heard one of the guards call out to Oldrich.

"Reinforcements?" a woman's voice asked.

"Eh? No, escorting a lawyer down here on the orders of the interim council."

"A lawyer? What for?"

"No idea. I'm supposed to bring the lawyer down here and convene a meeting of the General Staff."

Bo had his head near the window, listening intently to the conversation. He had pulled his Privileged gloves back on, though he held them below the window, and his fingers twitched ever so slightly.

"Well," the guard said, her voice bored, "that's going to be harder than you think."

Oldrich groaned. "What's happened this time?"

"Uh, well..." The guard cleared her throat, and what she said next was too low for Adamat to hear. Across from him, Nila had a look of concentration on her face.

Oldrich whistled in return. "Thanks for the warning." A moment later and the carriage rumbled on. Adamat cursed under his breath.

"What's happening?" he asked Bo. "Did you hear that?"

Instead of answering, Bo looked at Nila. "Did you listen like I showed you?"

"Yes," Nila said. She ran her hands over her skirt and stared hard out the window. "It seems," she said to Adamat, "that General Ket has been accused of being a traitor. She has taken three brigades with her and split off from the main army. The army is now in a state of civil war."

The General Staff command post was a commandeered farmhouse about a mile from the main highway. It sat at the center of the army, some six brigades strong, white soldiers' tents spiraling outward in an organized but ultimately loose formation of a camp.

Adamat and Bo were left waiting, confined to their carriage, for almost three hours before they were finally led inside. Their guards made it clear that the General Staff were all very busy and that their appointment would take up no more than five minutes of the general's time.

The farmhouse consisted of just one large room with stone walls, a squat fireplace at one end and two neatly made sleeping pallets in the corner. The table in the center of the room had one leg too short, and there were no chairs to be seen. Several maps lay on the table, their corners weighted by pistols. Adamat glanced over the maps briefly, committing them to his perfect memory, where he could study them later at his leisure.

"Inspector Adamat."

Adamat recognized General Hilanska from a portrait he'd seen once in the royal gallery. He was not a tall man, and significantly overweight due to complications resulting from the loss of his arm when he was a young soldier. Well into his forties, Hilanska was a celebrated hero who had made his name as an artillery commander in the Gurlish Wars. Rumor had it he was one of Tamas's most trusted generals.

Adamat nodded to the general and stepped forward to clasp his remaining hand. "This is Counselor Mattias," he said, introducing Bo. "We've come on urgent business from Adopest."

Bo swept off his hat and gave the general a deep bow, but Hilanska barely graced him with a glance.

"That's what I've been told," Hilanska said. "You should know that we are still at war. I've turned away dozens of messengers from Adro because I simply don't have time to deal with domestic issues. You're only here now because I know you were on special a.s.signment from Field Marshal Tamas before he died. I certainly hope you have something important to tell me. Sergeant Oldrich was rather spa.r.s.e on the details, I'm afraid, so if you could-"

Bo moved forward quickly, cutting Adamat off. "Of course, General," he said, drawing a sheaf of doc.u.ments from the case hanging from his shoulder. He flipped through several papers before producing one signed and stamped by Ricard Tumblar and the judges in Adopest. "I'm sorry we couldn't provide your men with more details, but this is a delicate matter. You'll see here that we have a warrant for the arrest of General Ket and her sister, Major Doravir."

Hilanska took the paper from Bo and looked it over for several moments. He handed it back. "Adopest has not been apprised of the situation here?" he asked.

"What situation?" Adamat said.

"I have sent several messengers over the course of the last two weeks. Surely you've been informed..."

"We have not, sir," Adamat said.

"The army has gone to war with itself. General Ket has taken three brigades under her command and split with the main army."

Though Nila had told Adamat exactly that, he still didn't have to fake the shock on his face. "How? Why?"

"Ket has accused me of treason," Hilanska said. "She called me a traitor. Said that I was in league with the enemy, and when the rest of the General Staff stood behind me, she took her men and broke with us."

Bo stiffened at Hilanska's words and his hands twitched toward his pockets-to his gloves, no doubt. "And there is no basis for this accusation? No evidence?"

"Of course not!" Hilanska s.n.a.t.c.hed his cane and climbed to his feet. "She based her claim on the report of an infantryman who said he saw me conspiring with enemy messengers."

"And were you?" Bo asked. Adamat shot him a look, but the damage had been done.

Hilanska snapped back, "Of course not. It was one of her Dredgers, a convict from the Mountainwatch. The worst kind of sc.u.m. To think she believed him over me..." He shook his head sadly. "Ket and I have known one another for decades. We've never been friends, but we certainly haven't been enemies. I never thought she would make such a baseless accusation. Unless..." He held his hand out for the arrest warrant and Bo obliged him. His eyes skimmed the page. "Unless she's trying to cover her tracks."

Adamat exchanged a glance with Bo. "We came to a similar conclusion ourselves, but in regard to the court-martial of Taniel Two-shot. Taniel sent Ricard Tumblar a message asking him to look into Ket's accounts, and it was what put us onto her track."

"Tamas's boy did that? He's twice as clever as Ket thought him. Incredibly sad, that."

Bo slipped to one side of Hilanska, moving casually, a hand dipping into his pocket. "What's sad about it?"

"Taniel was captured by the Kez," Hilanska said. "Raised above their army like a trophy."

"No." Bo swallowed hard, his hand coming out of his pocket without his gloves.

"The whole army saw it. Rumor has it he tried to go after Kresimir himself." Hilanska shook his head. "I watched that boy grow from a lad. I'm just glad Tamas wasn't alive to see it."

Adamat tried to focus on Hilanska's tics-the way his left hand fiddled with the empty right sleeve of his jacket, the way his eyes moved around the room. The general was working his way around the truth. He'd told him some of it, but not all.

Unfortunately Adamat had no way of discovering what Hilanska was leaving out.

"And he's dead?" Bo asked.

"They took his body down quickly after his capture. He was only displayed one day, but he was certainly dead."

Adamat shot Bo a glance. The Privileged's face had gone deathly pale. He blinked as if there were something in his eyes, and his breath grew short. Adamat stepped toward him and offered him his arm, but Bo waved him off before suddenly rushing from the room.

Hilanska watched him go. "Strange man. Did he know Two-shot?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Adamat said smoothly. "I was told he's very sensitive to talk of death."

"I see." Hilanska chewed on this a moment, a frown crossing his weathered face.

"Sir," Adamat went on so as not to give Hilanska time to consider Bo's behavior, "do you have a plan to close this schism and face the Kez?" If Two-shot was truly dead, Adamat would have to salvage the situation. Would Bo still help Adamat recover his son? Or was Adamat now on his own? Regardless, Adamat felt some duty to country that he should do what he could to reunite the army.

Hilanska headed to the table, where he swept his hand to clear the brigade markers and began to awkwardly roll up one of the maps with his one hand. "I don't think I should talk of tactics with you, Inspector."

"Tactics? Will there be a battle?" Adran fighting Adran? The Kez greatly outnumbered the Adran army, and infighting would be sure to doom them all. It was a miracle that the Kez had not yet taken advantage of the infighting to attack. Adamat's thoughts whirled as he tried to reorganize his priorities.

"Of course not. We are doing everything within our power to settle this amicably. In fact, with this new evidence I may be able to sway Ket's allies away from her. If that lawyer can get his stomach back, have him bring me every bit of paperwork he has. We can show the officers that Ket is just trying to cover up her own crimes. At the very least it will rea.s.sure the men that we are on the side of the right."

"Certainly," Adamat said. "But the Kez-"

"We have this in hand," Hilanska cut him off. "Don't worry yourself any further. I trust that you will return to Adopest and a.s.sure the council we will heal this fracture and turn back the Kez threat, and then we will return to deal with the Brudanians."

It was the first time Hilanska had mentioned the foreign army that held Adopest. Adamat opened his mouth to ask him what he meant, but the general waved his hand to signal an end to their meeting and turned his back.

Adamat found Bo sitting outside the farmhouse, his back to the stone wall and the tails of his jacket in the mud. Adamat grabbed him under the elbow. "Come on."

"Leave me be."

"Come on," Adamat insisted, pulling him up. He spoke in a fierce whisper to get Bo's attention, leading him away from Hilanska's guards. "We still have work to do."

"b.u.g.g.e.r it all. You heard him. Taniel's dead." Bo jerked away from Adamat.

"Quiet down! He may not be dead."