The Red Wolf Conspiracy Part 48

He rose and bowed to the governor's wife, who was making the sign of the Tree over anything that moved.

"But ... but ... but," said the governor, looking from face to face. "It's a fair q-question, isn't it? What did did she mean by she mean by we we?"

"She meant herself," said Chadfallow. "And her lover, Sandor Ott." He pointed at the spymaster.

Isiq turned in his chair and cried, "No!"

Rose laughed sharply. "That old tinshirt, Sandor Ott? His Supremacy's chief a.s.sa.s.sin? Why, I wouldn't trust him to a.s.sa.s.sinate a dog."

"An excess of trust will never be your your burden, sir," said the doctor coldly. "But you know who this is." burden, sir," said the doctor coldly. "But you know who this is."

"'Course I do. He's an honor honor guardsman. He's a butler with a sword." guardsman. He's a butler with a sword."

"A butler deadly enough to kill everyone in this room and walk out unscathed," said Hercol from the doorway. "h.e.l.lo, old master."

Ott leaped so fast no one saw him move. Back to the wall, he drew his sword.

"Have you lost your minds, all of you?" he said. "My name is Commander Shtel Nagan. Sandor Ott is the Emperor's spy, and no one knows what he looks like!"

"That was true once," said Chadfallow. "But your ambition has proved stronger than your wisdom in recent years. I know your face, Ott, from my time as Special Envoy in this city. You came here disguised as a merchant, but you were secretly gathering information for the Rescue of Chereste."

"Invasion, you mean," said Eberzam Isiq.

Pazel looked at him with amazement.

"I recognized you," Chadfallow went on, "when I returned to Etherhorde. You were always there in the shadows. At last the Emperor introduced us properly--and swore me to secrecy. But I swore another oath long before--to defend Arqual against all enemies."

"I swore the same oath," said Ott. "I have lived by it all my life."

"Not all," said Hercol, drawing closer. "Not, for instance, when you sent one of your men to knife me in the dark and cast my body to the waves. Nor when you killed him, after he failed, so that no one would see his broken wrist. Yet thanks to Pazel Pathkendle and my brethren from Tholja.s.sa, I saw the poor lad. In the Uturphe morgue. And of course I know your face. How sad to meet this way! I once revered you so."

"Stop meddling, both of you," said Rose in a warning voice. "This man is a guest on the Great Ship."

Chadfallow smiled at him. "That, sir, is one of many reasons I am glad I did not sail with you. On the Chathrand Chathrand you outrank us all. On dry land you outrank Fiffengurt and Uskins." you outrank us all. On dry land you outrank Fiffengurt and Uskins."

"Amba.s.sador," said Ott, turning to Isiq, "I have watched over your family for years. Your dear first wife, your daughter, yourself."

"You have," said Isiq uncertainly. "But so has Chadfallow. And Hercol has long been my daughter's tutor."

"The doctor did not serve you on this this voyage," said Rose. "He abandoned your family out of fear. He disobeyed the Emperor himself. And now he claims that Syrarys is this man's lover. How do you know, Doctor? Have you seen them together? Has anyone?" voyage," said Rose. "He abandoned your family out of fear. He disobeyed the Emperor himself. And now he claims that Syrarys is this man's lover. How do you know, Doctor? Have you seen them together? Has anyone?"

No one spoke for a moment.

"Diadrelu--" began Thasha. But she caught Pazel's look of alarm and fell silent.

Slowly, Rose sat up in his chair. "What sort of name is that?"

"Never mind!" said Pazel. His voice rang in the sudden silence.

Rose turned to him, unblinking. "It sounds like a crawly name."

"How dare you!" squeaked the governor's wife. "This is the amba.s.sador's daughter! And you imply that she talks to ... ship maggots! For shame, for shame, Captain Rose!"

Before Rose could reply, Lady Oggosk made a sound of disgust. Leaning forward on her elbows, she gestured at Ott with a b.u.t.ter knife.

"I saw them together--that man and Syrarys. Of course they're lovers. I caught her with him months ago, at Castle Maag. She confessed. He was tired of being a servant, she was tired of the amba.s.sador. Once Thasha married the Sizzy prince, and peace reigned, these two would grow rich in the new world of trade between the empires. Bribes, usury, imaginary taxes. They'd be fat as sultans. The amba.s.sador was too sick to decide much himself, she told me. Of course, I didn't know she was poisoning him."

"You treacherous cur!" said Isiq to Ott. "You'll hang!"

The governor stood up, trembling all over. "Mr. N-Nagan," he pleaded, "or whatever your name is--will you kindly lay down your sword?"

Ott stepped forward. Hercol's eyes narrowed and his hand went to his own sword-hilt. But the spymaster merely bowed and laid his sword upon the table. A knife followed, long and white and well worn.

The governor heaved a great sigh of relief and sat down. And Ott lifted his knife again and hurled it straight at Lady Oggosk.

The next three seconds were astounding. Hercol lunged and caught the knife in midair. Oggosk screamed. Sandor Ott leaped onto the table and ran its length. Thasha plunged her dinner fork into his leg, but Ott, never slowing, dealt her a savage blow to the face. Then, reaching the table's end, he planted a foot on the governor's head, driving it facedown into his dinner, and leaped straight at the round window behind him.

But something else flew at Ott's head in that instant: a hissing red blur. Sniraga.

A horrid noise, and a downpour of colored gla.s.s. A moment later, Hercol reached the window.

"He's in the courtyard!" he shouted. "Drop the portcullis! You there! Drop that gate!" Drop that gate!"

Silence. Then a resounding clang clang. Hercol's shoulders slumped.

Turning back to the room, he said, "The cat is safe in the gardenias, d.u.c.h.ess, and her claws have marked the spymaster for life. Governor, your men have sealed the palace--"

"Victory!" cried his wife.

"--one second after Ott departed it." Hercol sighed. "You may call out your constables, your bloodhounds, the port marines. You may tear what's left of this city apart. But you won't find him."

"Do you mean to say that they had been planning this for years?" years?" said the governor, as one servant picked swordfish from his beard and another lit his pipe. said the governor, as one servant picked swordfish from his beard and another lit his pipe.

"I'm certain of it," said Isiq, despondent. "Syrarys was always the one most eager to move to Simja. Now I know why."

"They subjected you to deathsmoke in Tressek Tarn," said Chad-fallow quietly.

"Deathsmoke!" cried Thasha, aghast. "The monsters! Thank heaven we were only there a night."

"I will have to perform some tests," Chadfallow went on, "but I am very much afraid that the droplets you've been taking were also a deathsmoke concoction."

"But you can cure him, can't you?" demanded Thasha.

The doctor lowered his eyes.

"No," said Isiq. "He cannot. There is no permanent cure. One grows stronger with the pa.s.sage of years, but a deathsmoke addict craves the drug until he dies. I have seen men die for it, too, in the navy."

"You will not die," said Chadfallow. "That much I can promise you. But you may have to fight, Excellency--like a tiger, to master yourself."

"Speaking of tigers ...," said Pazel.

There was a scrabble of claws, and Sniraga pulled herself in through the window. She walked primly to Lady Oggosk. Furtively, Thasha watched the old woman lift her pet. Why did you help us? Why did you help us?

Oggosk seemed to feel her gaze. Her cloudy blue eyes rose to Thasha's own.

"Where thou goest, I follow fast," she whispered.

Those words. Where had Thasha heard them before? At first the memory refused to surface. Then she had it: the Mother Prohibitor's emerald ring. The words were inscribed about the emerald. Could Oggosk be a Lorg Sister? Did she have her own cherry tree in the Orchard? Had she prayed before dawn, kneeling on icy stones? Had she sat on Thasha's bench?

Dimly she recalled the Mother Prohibitor's words: On the path you are doomed to tread one of us at least will be near you. In dire need you may call upon her; she cannot refuse On the path you are doomed to tread one of us at least will be near you. In dire need you may call upon her; she cannot refuse.

"If you're a friend," she whispered to Oggosk, "why did you send your cat to steal my necklace?"

Oggosk looked at the silver chain on Thasha's neck, and gave a violent sort of squirm. "Too late for all that, too late," she muttered.

"What do you mean, too late?"

But Oggosk would no longer meet her eye.

"Such lengths the villains went to!" the governor was saying. "To play with the life of His Supremacy's amba.s.sador, to arrange a marriage across both empires--"

"Without Thasha's wedding there would be no amba.s.sadorship," said Chadfallow, "and thus no way for Ott and Syrarys to leave Arqual. And that was the only chance they had of a life together. His Supremacy would never let Ott retire. He was too useful to be allowed to fall in love."

"Whereas I," said Isiq, "was useful only only because I fell in love." because I fell in love."

"Then you bring us no peace!" cried the governor's wife. "This marriage was a trick, and we must go on living with Sizzy threats and raids, and fearing a third sea war!"

"Wrong, madame," said Chadfallow.

Pazel and Thasha looked up at him, startled.

"Sandor Ott twisted events for his own purposes," Chadfallow continued, "but the wedding of Thasha and Prince Falmurqat is no trick. The Mzithrini want peace, and so does the Emperor."

"What?" cried Thasha and Pazel together.

"Hush, children--"

"The Emperor doesn't want peace!" Pazel blurted. "He wants the Sizzies fighting themselves! He wants a civil war!"

Chadfallow looked at him calmly. "Don't speak of what you don't understand, Pazel."

"Well then, how do you you explain what happened on the Haunted Coast?" explain what happened on the Haunted Coast?"

"The two events are unconnected," said Chadfallow. "Arunis hired the Volpeks to help him raid a treasure-wreck. Had he not kidnapped Tholja.s.san sons and daughters--and had Thasha not found Hercol and the smugglers in good time--he might have succeeded. But one greedy conjurer hardly matters, weighed against the chance for an era of peace."

"One greedy conjurer?" said Thasha. "That's what you call Arunis?"

"Oh, Thasha," said the doctor. "You cannot think that we are speaking of the the Arunis? That man was hanged forty years ago! This is an upstart who took the sorcerer's name, the better to frighten us with." Arunis? That man was hanged forty years ago! This is an upstart who took the sorcerer's name, the better to frighten us with."

"Like pirates, eh?" said the governor. "There were six Billy Blacktongues."

"Just so," said the doctor. "And you see how well the tactic works? Even Thasha believed in him."

Now the young people were too afraid to shout.

"Hercol?" said Thasha quietly.

The Tholja.s.san was looking very hard at Chadfallow. "I am not a statesman," he said.

"But I am," said Chadfallow. "And I hope that you will trust my judgment as ever, Hercol. This so-called Arunis was a pa.s.senger on Chathrand Chathrand, but he had nothing to do with the other criminals aboard."

"Unless you two have a ... special source of information?" said Rose.

Pazel and Thasha looked at each other. They were trapped. To mention the ixchel would be to condemn Diadrelu and her kin to death.

"But they were were working together," Thasha pleaded. "This is one big conspiracy!" working together," Thasha pleaded. "This is one big conspiracy!"

Chadfallow shook his head. "Two small ones, merely," he said. "And we have just dealt with both."

"You're mad!" shouted Pazel. "The s.h.a.ggat Ness is aboard the Chathrand!" Chathrand!"

The adults--all of them except Hercol--laughed. Even Eberzam Isiq managed to chuckle sadly.

Thasha jumped to Pazel's defense. "It's true, Prahba! You're being fooled all over again!"

"This Ormali rat-boy's filled her head with rot," growled Uskins.

Shouting, Pazel and Thasha looked from face to face.

"There's millions in gold hidden on the ship!"

"We're not going home after Simja, we're crossing the Ruling Sea!"

"Arunis never died! He's the s.h.a.ggat's own mage!"

"Governor," said Isiq, "can you not keep order at your table?"

The governor swallowed, but he clapped his hands. "Children! Hold your tongues or ... or depart, yes, depart!"

In the silence that followed, Isiq said, "We will sail tomorrow morning, across the Straits. There we will bow low before Prince Falmurqat and his family, and beg their pardon for this ill-considered engagement, and swear to them we mean no insult by breaking it. Pathkendle, you will stand at my side as translator."

"Your Excellency!" said Chadfallow. "You cannot believe these claims!"

"About s.h.a.ggats and sorcerers risen from the dead? Of course not."

"Then her marriage must go through!"