Fortunes of the Imperium (51 page)

CHAPTER 46

My movements were more ponderous than usual, all the better to ensure that every eye was upon me. I still could not see Parsons, but I felt his presence close by. When I reached the dais, I bowed low. I almost overtoppled, but managed to catch myself.

“Your Serenity, it is my great honor to greet you on behalf of my government, my emperor and my mother. I hope that relations between our two peoples will be closer than ever from now on.”

She dropped her jaw in a charming smile.

“Thomasin—I mean, Lord Thomas, we are honored by your presence and your friendship. We thank you also for the gift of wine and sweets to complement our feast. I am sure we will all appreciate them.”

In a gesture of good will, I had had Angie box up almost all of the vintages and treats remaining in the
Rodrigo
’s secured hold. Alas, the caviar was long gone.

“Since we are exchanging garments for the evening, I thought you would enjoy some of our prized comestibles,” I said. “It is but a small thing to have strengthened the bond between Uctu and Imperium.”

She gave me a regal nod.

“I promise to work closely with my brother, Shojan, to deepen our alliance.”

Lord Toliaus could not restrain himself any longer. He snorted audibly. Rimbalius glared at him. He glared back.

“It does you no honor to treat with humans, Your Excellence,” Toliaus said.

“I have already noted your derision,” I told him. “In fact, I have come to Her Serenity to ask permission to carry out the challenge that I set you yesterday. My wizardry against yours.”

Toliaus stood up, causing his heavy chair to keel over backward. It landed on the dais with a boom. Everyone who had not already been looking our way before focused upon us now.

“I will show you my power,” he snarled. “Here! Before the Autocrat’s very eyes! I will show her that you are a fraud.”

I looked down to examine my fingernails. They seemed unusually shiny. I admired them for a moment.

“If you think you can beat me, try,” I said. I buffed my fingertips against my robe front. “You claim to be the greatest prognosticator and sorcerer in the Autocracy. I doubt it.”

Toliaus stormed toward the steps of the dais. A couple of the gray-clad servants ran to right his chair. He waved them out of his way. I waited. He thundered toward me, but stopped a dozen paces away. He pointed a hand at me, the sucker-shaped tips of his fingers waving in a threatening fashion.

“I curse you with death, human!” he growled. “A plague eat your bones and leave your scales scattered upon the ground!” He carried on in that way for some time, his voice rising in intensity and volume until it was virtually ringing off the inlaid ceiling. When the sound died away, I clapped my hands slowly, to indicate extreme derision.

“Very weak,” I said, mustering pity on my face. “Because, honestly, my brother and I used to throw worse imprecations at one another when we were six and eight years old. Is that all that you have?”

I think Toliaus must have evoked some psychosomatic heart attacks with his string of curses, and was somewhat put out that it hadn’t worked on me. Visoltia eyed me worriedly, searching my face for any signs of impending doom.

“You will begin to feel it soon,” Toliaus assured me. “You are to be pitied for what will soon befall you.”

“Sticks and stones,” I said, spreading my arms wide. “Your words have no effect.”

“No?” he asked. “Then, feel this!” He thrust his hands out toward me.

I should have been ready for a genuine trick, but until that moment I had not been sure that he could do any. Lightning shot up from the floor through my shoes. Pain lanced through my body. I staggered from one foot to another, but every step brought fresh agony. Toliaus cackled. Electricity crackled all over my body and struck light from the silver filaments in my underrobe. Tiny bolts shot from my fingertips. I dropped to my knees, holding on to the nearest bench seat. The Uctu on it stared at me in open horror.

“Thomasin!” the Autocrat cried. “High Wisdom, stop this!”

“Not unless he surrenders, Your Excellence,” Toliaus boomed. “It is his challenge to withdraw. If he does not, he will die.”

I concentrated on a tiny spot of color just in front of my nose. It took everything I had to force out three words.

“Anstruther, help me,” I gritted.

“Hold on, sir,” came the dulcet tones in my ear. Suddenly, I felt as though I was growing taller. The lightning withdrew. I could breathe again. “I think he’s got the whole floor electrified, but he can operate it in segments. I’ll insulate you. Is that better?”

“Yes!” I took a deep breath and stood up straight. I felt heavy as a neutron star. I could still sense sharp pings striking the soles of my feet, but they were easily ignored. Summoning calmness to my visage, I turned to confront the High Wisdom.

“That was a good one,” I said, with a friendly smile. “I didn’t think you had it in you. Now, it’s my turn.”

I seized a pitcher of water from the nearest table and held it aloft. From my chest issued an almost invisible silver stream. It flowed up my arm, into the pitcher, down my body and across the floor, where it spread out around the High Wisdom. I waited for the faint gray arch to form over him, then I flicked my fingers toward Toliaus. He cringed backward, then down as the nanites began to precipitate droplets all over him.

“After lightning comes rain,” I said. The assembled guests stared for a moment, then burst out laughing. “And following rain, a rainbow. We of the Imperium consider the arch a lucky sign.” The nanites turned their silicon sides outward to catch the light. A cascade of color surrounded the High Wisdom. The guests applauded.

Furious, Toliaus shook his jowls, spraying water all around and dispelling my rainbow. He brought his hands together in a mighty thunderclap. I gasped in pain. It felt as though the walls had closed suddenly, squeezing me between them. I thought my chest would turn inside out as I struggled to breathe. I gasped. I was battered over and over by an invisible force.

“Sonic bursts, sir,” Anstruther said. “I’ll try and counter.”

Blackness crept in from the edges of my vision.

“No,” I croaked. I gazed haughtily at Toliaus. “These are all tricks.” Though the battering bruised my ribs, I turned to face the Autocrat. “If you wish, I’ll tell you how he does it.”

“I touch the power of the infinite!” Toliaus shrieked.

I smiled at him sweetly.

“Then show us the future,” I said. “Surely that would be easy for you.”

He clapped his hands again, and the pounding stopped. I almost staggered at the relief of it. He put his fingertips up to his temples. He closed his eyes, tilted his head back, and began to intone in an impressive voice.

“You will have a long life, Your Serenity,” he said. “Prosperity comes from every corner of the Autocracy! Wait—I see betrayal. These humans threaten your people’s safety.” Visoltia looked alarmed and frightened. He opened his eyes and glared at me. “You should not be here to sully the celebration of Her Serenity’s accession.”

“You’re the one spoiling the party,” I said. “But how unimaginative! I could have come up with more impressive predictions after an all-night bender. Let me show you the future, Your Serenity.” I bowed to Visoltia. I spread out my hands.

Nanites flowed from the inside of my hand into my palm. I threw those into the air. I could not see them, but they climbed over one another’s backs, holding on with microscopically small filaments to form a whisper-thin tri-dee screen. It turned to be out easy for Anstruther to reprogram the captured devices to the Imperium’s program. Redius and I had put together a stream of digitavid clips from the Infogrid, all heartwarming images like Uctu and human shaking hands, playing together, children of all species dancing in the sunlight. Toliaus fumed. Visoltia watched them raptly, her jaw lowered with pleasure. I clapped my hand, and the nanites forming the screen dropped to the floor.

“My power is at your service,” I said. “Would you like to see more?”

“Oh, yes!”

I beckoned to my cousin and her friend. Jil kept glancing toward the back of the chamber where the Bertus sat, but she rose and came forward.

I hoped that I would be able to accomplish this trick without making a fool of myself—that is, not more of a fool than normal. Anstruther was ready. She would carry out her instructions without regard for whether the process hurt me or not. When she was not feeling nervous, Jil had adored the idea of our act. The problem was to keep her from doing anything before I “enchanted” her.

“These are my subjects,” I said, taking each lady by the hand. “I have made them my servants. They will obey my every command, even if it seems impossible.” I touched their foreheads. They closed their eyes and swayed slightly.

“What is your will, my master?” Banitra asked in a breathy voice.

Jil looked put out, as though she wished she had prepared dialogue for herself in advance. But my cousin has always been ready for any jape, and threw herself into the part.

“I command you . . . to dance upon air!” I said.

“Mercy, master!” Jil pleaded.

I tore open the neck of my robe. Nanites poured forth from my chest in a silver cloud. They filled the air around the two women. Slowly, Jil and Banitra dropped backward and floated upward. The audience gasped.

Jil, I knew, had as a girl had tightrope lessons with the same teacher of acrobatics that I had employed. She had been an excellent pupil, as had been proved the night when at the age of fifteen she sneaked into the empress’s wine cellar one evening by tottering along the top of a wall that had neither sensors nor cameras incorporated into it, and brought us back two bottles of regal brandy over four centuries old. But I digress. As the ladies achieved a height of three meters, she rose to her feet and began to gyrate in the air. Banitra was less graceful. She fell over several times, but was borne upright again by a silver cluster that supported her in the middle of her back. She lay limp in a balletic arch on the top of it, pretending to be still under my spell. I turned to the Autocrat.

“Don’t you agree that my spells are superior to your minion?” I inquired, with insulting emphasis on the last word.

“Oh, yes!” she said. “Lord Toliaus, can you do anything as spectacular?”

The spots on the High Wisdom’s head flared angry red.

“It is a trick! I know he is using machines!”

“Of course I am,” I said. “Just as you were. I’d be happy to explain how I do it. Won’t you? We’re both a pair of frauds. Why not admit it?”

Rimbalius couldn’t help himself. He began to chuckle. The chuckle grew to a laugh, then graduated to a guffaw.

“He has you there, High Wisdom,” he said, banging his big hand on the table.

“Do not seek to undermine me,” Toliaus shouted. He waved a hand into a fist. I heard a shriek behind me. Jil was falling. Toliaus must have brushed aside the umbilical connected to the stream of nanites that held them up. I rushed to catch them.

I caught Jil and placed myself so Banitra landed on my back.

“Can you fix it, Anstruther?” I asked.

“I’m working on it, sir,” her voice said in my aural implant. The ladies were unharmed. I set them down and made a few magical passes. Nothing happened. I looked at my hands to see what was wrong with them. Small pieces of metal began to protrude from my skin. My throat began to close. I clawed at it, and felt more smooth metal. The nanites were resuming their previous shape! Jil regarded me with horror.

“Program override,” I croaked.

“I’m working on it,” Anstruther said.

“Hurry.” I gasped for air as I was twisted into a backwards hoop. Toliaus, not to miss a chance, postured and made gestures above my body as though he was responsible for my agony.

“Do you see, Your Serenity? His own tools turn against him, because my truth is too much for him.”

I had to give the old show-lizard credit. The Autocrat was wavering. I was almost out of breath when . . .

“Got it!” came a cry of triumph in my ear so loud I feared the rest of the room could hear it. The silver components shivered into powder and fell from my limbs. I rose to my feet.

“That’s better,” I said, settling my robes around my shoulders. “My technology bests your technology. And my truth . . .”