1 State of Grace (9 page)

“That’s not to say they’re arrogant. Most elves are friendly and easy to get along with. But they all think they’re better than humans or dwarfs or any other race you can name.”

Wolf chewed on that. The only elf he’d ever met was Silverleaf, but he fit the description Hoag made of the typical elf. He thought he was better than anyone else. The way he carried himself. The way he gazed coolly at his opponents in Conquest. The way he treated Simone de Beausoir like more of a pet than a lover. All this was apart from his arrogance, which was considerable. Silverleaf was arrogant, because, before he played Wolf, he’d never been beaten. The confidence came from his self-assured belief that, as an elf, he was just better than the humans with whom he worked.

“So how did this conflict between Freyalans and Shendalis come about?” he asked.

“Well, Wolf, as I’m sure you’re aware, religion does funny things to faith. When Frey died, he didn’t name a successor. That created an argument as to who was the most qualified to lead his church.

“Most elves felt it was his sister, Freya. She accompanied him on many of his journeys and was a near-constant companion. She had a great understanding of his mind.

“But you know how men are, Wolf. Most of them don’t like the idea of a woman in charge of them, and a certain percentage will do anything to make sure a man is running things. It seems that even being a member of God’s chosen people doesn’t make you immune to this failing.

“A vocal minority proclaimed Frey’s best friend, Shendal, to be his true heir. Shendal didn’t come into Frey’s life until a few years after the Revelation – the day when Frey brought his message from God to the elves. Depending on which accounts you read, Shendal was more of a mouthpiece than an advisor, but it didn’t matter. He had a penis, and that made him superior to Freya in the minds of some.

“While Freya and Shendal lived, the two groups existed mostly peaceably. But it didn’t take long after their deaths for a true schism to occur. The Shendalis are far more conservative. It wasn’t long before they couldn’t co-exist with the more progressive Freyalans.”

Wolf sighed heavily. He was an atheist for a number of reasons, but one of them was something his father said to him when he was coming of age – before Wolf’s powers manifested themselves. “Beware of religion,” his father advised. “There is no greater fomenter of hatred on Earth.” He was saddened but unsurprised to see the truth of his father’s words even in the magical and noble race of elves. It seemed to him they were not any closer to God than the other races.

“So that’s why they’re warring now,” Wolf said.

“No, Laddie,” Hoag said, his green eyes gleaming. “Remember the Shendalis are a minority party. They existed within elfin society for hundreds of years before this conflict. They sat at the fringes and railed against the corruption of Frey’s pure society, reminded everyone Frey instructed them to create a state of grace – a nation of godliness – and pushed for changes to the law to improve morality, but it wasn’t until recently they took power.

“In the last twenty years, the friendliness between Alfheim and the human nations, particularly Urland, led to Shendali anger. They claimed the Freyalan government had lost Frey’s message of shepherding the other races and become slave to them. As more elfin magic made its way across the Gleaming Sea, they saw Alfheim losing her proper place in the world.

“Their cries of outrage discomfited corrupt officials in the government, which led to crackdowns, police raids, and further marginalization of the Shendali movement. So, they organized. They crafted weapons. And then they attacked.

“Despite being a minority population, they were able to seize nearly half the country and hold it during their civil war. When that
coup
attempt came down a few years ago, they would have succeeded in taking over the whole country if it hadn’t been for your soldiers.”

“And yet, they want those soldiers out as quickly as possible now,” Wolf said, “despite the fact their government is balanced on a very precarious coalition.”

Hoag smiled and took another deep draught of wine. He leaned forward.

“You’ve missed the point of the story, Ambassador,” Hoag said. “That’s why you Urlanders can’t seem to get things straight over there.”

“Remind me of the point,” Wolf said.

“Remember,” he answered, “the thing with elves is they’re a proud people. They believe they’re God’s chosen ones. But their country and their society are ripping themselves apart, and they’ve had to prevail upon humans – a lesser race – to preserve what’s left of it. Your very presence in their country is an offense to them. It’s offensive to their sense of pride and self-worth. They know they need you, Wolf, and they hate themselves for it.”

Hoag fell silent. Wolf wasn’t sure what to say. It was an alarming revelation if it was true. How could such a situation be fixed? Urland couldn’t withdraw if the situation was still unstable. But if his country’s very presence was destabilizing Alfar, how could they stay?

“You’ve booked yourself a hell of a pickle for your first diplomatic assignment, Wolf,” Hoag said. “If you want to find your way out of it, you need to understand the situation.”

Wolf could only nod. The situation was nearly intractable. Wolf was no diplomat. He was a Shadow with a mission. He wasn’t sure how he was going to play either role effectively.

“Cheer up, Laddie,” Hoag said with a smile. “It’ll take us about seven days to reach Alfar. You’ve plenty of time to draft a solution.” Then he let out another of his characteristic guffaws. Wolf couldn’t help but join him.

“I’m sure that’ll be plenty of time,” he joked.

Hoag smiled at him. Then he rubbed Richie’s shoulder.

“Get some rest, Wolf,” Hoag said. “Tomorrow will come soon enough. We’ll talk then.”

Wolf rose from the table.

“Thank you for dinner,” he said. “And the insight.”

“The pleasure was all mine, Ambassador.”

“Richie,” Wolf said with a nod. The youth nodded back.

Then Wolf turned and left the captain’s cabin. He wasn’t planning on getting any rest just yet. His nap had been sufficient for the time being. He had a lot of thinking to do.

Chapter 10: Shadowcat

(Three Months before Revelation Day)

The secretarial pool at Phrygian Army Station 505 just outside Pushkingrad had acquired a new member – a stray black cat. It wandered in from who knew where and began winding itself through Nadia Simonyiva’s legs and purring. Nadia had a soft heart and picked the cat up and started stroking its ears. The cat was very appreciative, but it meowed loudly until she gave it some fish from her lunch. Then it treated her like a trusted friend.

It became a regular visitor after that, a fact Nadia only encouraged by providing it with a dish of cream when it made an appearance. After eating, it would reward her by sitting in her lap and purring loudly while she stroked it. Then it would hop down and explore the office.

The cat’s name was something of a controversy. Each member of the pool had a different name for it. Sonya called it Petya, after a lost child. Anna referred to it as Oksana, because she liked the sound of it. And Yuri, the corporal in charge of the secretaries, called it his little babushka.

As for Nadia, she simply called her new friend Blackie. She knew it was uninspired, but she liked it. It seemed to suit her little black cat.

Blackie was extremely curious. She went all over the office and seemed to stare at things as if she really knew what they were. Sometimes, she would be sitting on top of a report, and Nadia would swear it looked as if she was reading it. Everyone loved the little black cat, and they all liked to speculate on her remarkable curiosity.

If they had known the reason for the cat’s interest in all they did, they would have been horrified. Blackie was not the cat’s real name. Neither was Petya nor Oksana nor Babushka. Her real name was Lieutenant Svetlana Markova of the People’s Defense Bureau. When Nadia observed her sitting on a report, staring at it, she was in fact reading it. When she was caught poking around in Yuri’s office or the databank room, it was because she was trying to uncover information for Major Davidov.

Svetlana had spent several weeks endearing herself to the staff, so that she would be able to gain free access to the office. Once she had established trust, she spent a lot of time trying to uncover information on Viktor Krilenko’s assignment to General Tupelov.

But doing so was a lot harder than she planned. There was no mention of him in any of the standard files that were easily accessible at the women’s desks or in Yuri’s office. Svetlana wasn’t too surprised. If Ravager was on a covert or illegal assignment, it wouldn’t be out in the office for just anyone to stumble across. That meant it had to be in the databank – a large chest of drawers kept in a secure room just off the main office.

Phrygian databanks were not known for their lack of security, and this one was no exception. Each drawer – and there were thirty of them – had an individual lock that had to be keyed to open it. Without the key, opening the drawer set off a magical trap that was always disastrous for the would-be spy. Each secretary was assigned six drawers and had an individual key for each. If a secretary needed access to someone else’s drawer, she had to ask that person to borrow the key and show a code clearance that gave her permission. The keys were small, round stones that fit into holes in the drawer faces. Each looked nearly identical to the next. If Svetlana was going to go through each drawer, she would somehow have to steal all thirty keys and then be able to distinguish which went to which drawer.

But that wasn’t the only problem. Not only was the databank trapped, so was the room in which it was housed. An alarm system protected it from being penetrated after hours, which was the only time Svetlana would be able to go through the drawers. A spell enchanted the floor so that anyone who walked on it had only ten seconds to disarm it before a voice started screaming, “Alarm!” at deafening levels.

Svetlana found this out the hard way. She knew the floor was trapped, but she snuck in one night, hoping her cat frame would be too light to trigger the alarm. Her hopes were dashed eleven seconds later. The volume of the screaming hurt her ears, and brought Yuri running within two minutes. When he found her cowering from the sound, he sighed heavily.

“You are going to get me into trouble, Babushka, if you don’t keep out of places you aren’t supposed to be.”

The only way to disarm the trap, she discovered, was a panel on the far side of the room. It had nine buttons on it that had to be pushed in a certain sequence to disable the spell. One morning, Nadia went in to disarm the floor, and Svetlana pursued her, jumping up on her shoulder, so she could peer at the keyboard while Nadia entered the code.

“Blackie!” Nadia cried. “You are going to make me mess up.”

But Svetlana held her position, and Nadia had to proceed or risk setting the alarm off. Svetlana watched carefully. Once Nadia entered the code, Svetlana visualized it over and over in her head until she had it memorized. She imagined herself entering the code until she could do it without thinking about it.

But she was no closer to actually being able to look inside the drawers. She might be able to get into the databank room, but she still needed keys. She feared she wasn’t going to be able to get the information Major Davidov needed.

Then she caught a break. She was nosing around Yuri’s office one day, when Nadia came in.

“Excuse me, Comrade Corporal,” Nadia said. “I wonder if I might borrow your master. I have to do some work on
Operation: Hammerfall
.”

Yuri’s usually jovial face turned very serious. Svetlana stopped what she was doing to watch.

“Do you have your code clearance, Nadia?” he asked.

“Yes, Comrade,” she replied.

She produced a card and handed it to him. He inspected it carefully. Svetlana hopped up on the desk to get a look at it. There were several letters and numbers – the code, Svetlana presumed – the seal of the Phrygian Army, and a signature – General Yevgeni Tupelov. Svetlana’s heart skipped a beat. She was onto something.

Yuri stared at the card for another moment and then looked Nadia over seriously. He handed the card back, then reached for his keys and unlocked a drawer on his desk.

“Very well, Nadia,” he said. “Be quick, though. It makes me nervous to have it out too long.”

“Yes, Comrade Corporal,” she said.

He reached into the desk drawer and withdrew a small, metal box. Opening it, he produced a pearl and handed it to her. She took it, thanked him, and went out. Svetlana hopped down off the desk and followed her.

Nadia went straight to the databank. She set the pearl in a small slot on the top. Then she opened several drawers, two of which Svetlana knew were not assigned to her. Nadia began going through files and making notes. Svetlana hopped up on her shoulder and peered at them.

“What are you doing, Blackie?” Nadia said with a laugh. “Are you interested in
Operation: Hammerfall
too?”

More than you know,
Svetlana thought. But it did her no good. Nadia scooped her up and took her to the door.

“I am afraid your security clearance isn’t high enough, Blackie,” she said.

She dumped the cat out into the office and shut the door behind her.

Svetlana was frustrated with the near miss of an opportunity to find out what this was all about, but at least she knew there was a master key she could use. Locked out of the databank room, she returned to Yuri’s office and set about watching him to see where he kept his keys.

Over the next two days, she attempted to steal them, but she could never quite pull it off. He caught her every time and asked, “Why are you so interested in my keys, my little Babushka? Is it because they jingle?” He shook them in front of her, and she pawed at them, pretending to be interested. He laughed. “I’m sorry, Babushka, but General Tupelov would have my head if I gave these to a kitty to play with.”

She gave up trying to steal them and decided on another plan. The next day, she came to the office with a pair of lock picks in her mouth. She darted into Yuri’s office and spat them out behind a cabinet. Then she went about her business, disappearing under Yuri’s desk before everyone was set to close up for the day. When everyone left, she crept out and resumed her human form.

The one drawback to taking her cat form was she couldn’t take clothes with her. When she became human again, she was naked. Svetlana had little shame – her body was well worth admiring – but it was cold in Phrygia, even this far south. She shivered as she collected the lock picks and set to work on the drawer containing the databank’s master key.

In seconds, she had it open, snatched the pearl out of it and made her way to the databank. She punched in the code rapidly, and then prayed to the Great Bear it hadn’t been changed. She waited a full fifteen seconds before deciding it was safe to move again.

She dropped the pearl into its slot and said another quick prayer. Then she yanked open a drawer. Nothing happened. She sighed with relief and set to examining the drawer’s contents. She found nothing useful and closed it.

She decided then to start with the drawers she’d seen Nadia open. What she found made her both curious and confused. The first mention she saw of
Operation: Hammerfall
was in a drawer dedicated to scrolls on Army finances. It came up only as a line item in some of the discretionary funding files.

She saw it again in an operations report. This one discussed reactivating retired soldiers. It made no mention of what for, only that they would be associated with
Hammerfall
.

In the third drawer, she finally found a mention of Ravager. It designated his base of operations as Al-Adan but made no mention of his mission.

Svetlana felt her curiosity grow. As she looked through each drawer, she never found a master file on
Operation: Hammerfall
. It appeared only in brief mentions with other business. By the time she’d been through most of the drawers, she had a picture forming in her mind, but she couldn’t say for sure just what it depicted. Whoever was behind
Hammerfall
had taken great pains to obfuscate its purpose and even knowledge of it across many, many files.

When she left the databank, Svetlana was very troubled. She’d read a lot of suspicious things and come to some disturbing conclusions. She wasn’t sure what to make of them, but she knew it was time to bring them to Major Davidov’s attention.

She had just returned the pearl to Yuri’s drawer when she heard a sound. Turning, she found herself face to face with him. When had he come in? She hadn’t heard him.

“Who are you? What are you doing?” he asked, although he didn’t sound at all authoritative. He couldn’t take his eyes off her breasts. Svetlana saw an opening and took it.

“I am a surprise from your friends,” she said sexily. Yuri’s eyes widened and sweat started to trickle down his neck despite the cold.

“A surprise?” he said.

“Yes,” she said. She came forward and put her arms around his neck and looked deeply into his eyes. “Surprise!”

Then she kneed him as hard as she could in the groin. He collapsed to the ground instantly, and she leaped over him and dashed out the door and down the stairs.

He recovered faster than she would have thought possible and gave pursuit. When she hit the bottom of the stairs, she threw open the door and transformed into a cat. She sped behind a conveniently located rain barrel and hid herself.

Seconds later, Yuri emerged, holding his groin and looking desperate. He searched the grounds left and right for the naked intruder who had assaulted him. After a moment, he limped off in the direction he presumed she went. Svetlana came out and made her way back to the safe house, where warm clothes and coffee waited for her.