sorcery and science 04.5 - masquerade (17 page)

He didn’t trust any words that could come out of his mouth, so he continued walking down the sidewalk. As he passed through the gates of Emperor’s Park, he heard her faint whistle pick up and sing her along her way.

~ 2 ~

526AX May 15, Orion

EMPEROR’S PARK CAFE sat right at the corner of the park, just past the airship station. The park-facing side of the building was made almost entirely from glass, offering a stunning view of the flower gardens surrounding the station. In contrast, the other three sides were windowless walls of brick. As Leonidas walked through the door, he moved past a bright, sunny section of tables set with pale blue tablecloths and daisy-filled vases. He headed straight for the back, past toilets that smelled of lilac and rose fragrance oil. There, at the end of the hallway, a yellow door led into a cave-like room. Lit only by a strip of diffused overhead lights with a distinct red-orange cast, the room was as dark as the front area was bright. But it was private. Leonidas clicked the door shut behind him.

The mystery man already sat behind the only table in the room, his hands folded neatly atop a closed file folder. Leonidas didn’t recognize him, but there was something strange about his face. It was almost too smooth, like a photo-retouched advertisement.

“Mr. Chase, do sit down.”

His voice was off too. But it wasn’t smooth. It crackled. Just a tad, beneath the surface. Most people wouldn’t have noticed, but Leonidas had a knack for hearing—and imitating—voices. He’d never heard one quite like this before.

“Who are you?” Leonidas asked as he sat.

As expected, the man didn’t answer that question. People who wore disguises weren’t usually forthcoming with personal details. And he
was
wearing a disguise. It was something super high-tech. Leonidas had seen some experimental SIN tech a few months ago. They had things like that, tiny boxes you wore to distort your voice and masks to hide your face. Whatever this man was using, though, was years ahead of anything SIN had.

“Mr. Chase, I have read the details of your recent run-in with two Elitions in Lear.” He opened the folder, revealing a SIN report. And not just any report. His report on the Elition incident.

“Where did you get that?”

“I have my connections.” He tapped the report with his finger. “Elitions with the ability to read minds. Elitions who can take anyone’s shape. These are fantastical tales, Mr. Chase. So fantastical that your superiors believe you’ve lost your mind.”

“Is that what they wrote?” Leonidas asked, leaning forward for a closer look.

The man slid down the report cover. “And yet the Diamond Edges swooped in and took the case right out of SIN’s hands. They clearly believe your report. It’s a pity the Selpe Intelligence Network is content to plug their ears and bury their heads in the sand. This problem won’t just disappear. The Elitions are dangerous.”

Leonidas had to agree with him. Elitions were known to be the best assassins, but with their powers they also had the potential to be superb spies. Maybe they already were. They could be hiding in plain sight, and no one would even know.

“You said you had a way to stop the Elition thieves,” Leonidas said. “So where are they? And where is the package?”

“I don’t know.”

Leonidas tapped the heel of his boot against the floor. He kept that up until he could speak without raising his voice. “I came all the way to Orion because you told me you knew where those Elition thieves were.”

“They are not the only Elition thieves stealing from the Empire.”

Oh, goody. Cryptic and unhelpful. My favorite type.

“If you were to leave the cafe and walk down Imperial Lane, where would you end up?” the man asked.

“I don’t know.” Leonidas bottled the urge to roll his eyes. “The imperial palace?”

The man nodded. “Indeed. And that’s where the Elitions have hit hardest of all. That’s where they are plotting to steal the Empire itself.”

He was a loony. A loony pasted over with a fortune in bleeding edge technology.

“All right. I’ll, um, look into it,” Leonidas said, standing.

The man caught his arm. “Sit down, Mr. Chase. I’m not out of my mind. Two Elitions are in the imperial palace, masquerading as Selpes.”

The picture of the impostor Marin hit him, clear as the agony of betrayal. The Selpe Intelligence Network was under the misconception that he was crazy. And just because they didn’t want to hear about the Elitions’ superpowers. Maybe this guy wasn’t crazy. Elitions could have certainly infiltrated the imperial palace. Hadn’t he just been thinking about what good spies they’d make?

Leonidas eased slowly into his chair. “Do you know who these Elitions are?”

“I do.”

“Then why don’t you take them out?” Leonidas asked. “You’re, what, part of the Diamond Edges? Or maybe working directly for one of the territory rulers? You wouldn’t know so much and have all that tech if you weren’t connected to someone high up.”

The man’s fake lips spread into a tight smile, pressed close beneath a layer of what was likely silicon and a plasma display infused with nanotechnology. That’s what the specs for the next SIN prototypes were hinting at, at least.

“Very good, Mr. Chase. Though I am, of course, not at liberty to reveal those connections. And as for why we don’t just take them out, things are considerably more complicated than that. But we do have a plan.”

Elitions and complicated went hand-in-hand, just like hotdogs and chocolate.
Mmm, hotdogs and chocolate.
Leonidas opened the menu, his mouth watering with impatient anticipation.

“You see, these two Elitions are not quite Elition,” the masked man said. “They are half-Elition. And they aren’t mimicking other people. They’re hiding in plain sight.”

Leonidas peered over the list of appetizers. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about Hayden and Ian Selpe, heirs to the throne.”

Leonidas felt his mouth drop, but no words made it past his clenched teeth. Of all the secrets in all the Selpe Empire, he certainly hadn’t expected that one. Of course he hadn’t. Because it didn’t make any sense.

“Their mother was Elition,” the man said before Leonidas could speak.

“I didn’t know.”

“Very few knew. It is a secret Emperor Selpe and King River buried sixteen years ago. They concealed it from the Selpe aristocracy.”

Of course they’d concealed it. The territory leaders would never have stood for it.

“Ambrose Selpe is not a young man. His days are numbered. It won’t be long now before the Selpe Empire is ruled by the sorcerers of Elitia.”

Which would be bad. Almost as bad as the Elition who masqueraded as Marin. Leonidas knew he should have been more worried about the fate of the Empire than his own personal grudge. He just wasn’t. Since the two problems were essentially one and the same, it didn’t matter anyway.

“You know what they can do,” the man continued.

Leonidas couldn’t get her face out of his head, that fake Marin who had fooled him. Who had made him believe Marin wanted him.

“You know how dangerous they are.”

For a few painful seconds, he’d actually believed Marin herself had betrayed him. That had hurt so much that the sight of two armed Elitions looting his place had actually been a relief.

“You know they don’t belong on the throne, ruling over all Selpes.”

Leonidas looked at the man, his eyes filmed over in an angry, salty sheen. He blinked, wiping the back of his hand across his face. “What is it that you want from me?”

“In a few weeks, the prince impostors will go missing.”

The Elitions have to pay.

“They’ll be brought through Lear. It would be foolish for you to interfere. They’ll be escorted by a few dozen elite Avan soldiers and a powerful Siennan.”

The Siennans are just as bad.

“This Siennan will escort the impostors to her people, where they belong.”

Their powers make them too dangerous.

“You need only turn a blind eye and keep the Selpe soldiers in Lear occupied. An easy task and in everyone’s best interest. Neither you nor the Selpe soldiers in Lear are a match for the Siennan and her Avan entourage.”

“There are no Selpe soldiers posted in Lear,” said Leonidas.

“That night there will be.”

Leonidas set down the menu. “Why do I have the feeling a lot more is going on here than I know?”

The man rested his fake chin on his hands, which were several shades darker than his face. “There always is, Mr. Chase.”

The room was quiet but for the soft buzz of the overhead lights. Leonidas could hear neither the clink of plates nor the whisper of voices past that thick yellow door. The room truly was private. Leonidas turned his wary eyes back on the man.

“If I don’t agree to help you, I’m not going to make it out of here alive, am I?”

The man pointed at the door. “I can personally guarantee your safety as far as there. What happens after you leave this room, I cannot guarantee.”

In other words, he’d maybe make it out of the building. He might even make it to his hotel before someone tried to shoot him in the head. If he got really lucky, he might escape Lear and get to spend what remained of his very short life on the run.

“But you want to help us.”

Leonidas let out a strained laugh. “And why is that?”

“Because you want to find the two Elitions who wronged you. And when this is all over, we’ll help you find them.”

Even as his head was screaming out at him that this was all very, very wrong, his heart pounded out in hard, heavy beats. Heat flushed to his fingertips. He clenched his fists, trying to squeeze out the anger.

“You don’t even know where they are.”

“Perhaps not yet, but we’ll find them.”

The certainty in his eyes seemed real. Then again, nothing about this man was real. Whatever and whoever he was he’d hidden beneath layers of technology.

“Look, Mr. Chase. This is going down with or without you. The only difference is whether you live.” He smiled. “And whether the woman you love does.”

The heat inside Leonidas died in an instant, frozen solid by the man’s threat. He didn’t know about Marin. He couldn’t. He was bluffing. He had to be.

“My mother is the only woman I ever loved,” Leonidas said with a casual wave of his hands. “And she died years ago.”

“Do not insult my intelligence, Mr. Chase.” There was no longer a smile on his face, fake or otherwise. “Even as we speak, one Dr. Aquamarine Graunt is stepping into Emperor Stadium. We have a man trailing her. What he does when she comes out again is entirely up to you.”

The red lights shone down on the man, enveloping him in a harsh, demonic glow. Whatever else was fake about him, he wasn’t lying now. He would have Marin killed without a second thought.

“Fine,” Leonidas grated out. “I’ll help you.”

The man dipped his chin. He didn’t even look smug about it. “Your contact will be Samuel Broden.”

Hayden Selpe’s personal assistant. Whatever this conspiracy was really about, its mastermind was high up in the Empire. Leonidas probably couldn’t have stopped it if he tried. At least that’s what he kept telling himself. There was no way he was going to let them kill Marin. No way.

“He’ll contact you with instructions as the date approaches. In the meantime, we’re going to be keeping a close eye on Dr. Graunt.”

As Leonidas stood, his hands clenched down on the back of the chair, longing to throw it at the man. The back of his neck was slick with sweat. His ears pounded with the stampede of his racing pulse. He bit down on his tongue, and blood oozed up slowly, stinging his taste buds.

He forced his hands to release the chair, then he turned away. He had to keep her safe, no matter what. Even if that meant doing something that would make her hate him. She was better off hating him. At least then she’d be safe.

~ 3 ~

526AX June 4, Lear

THERE WERE OVER two hundred Selpe soldiers in Lear that night, and not one of them was sober. Leonidas glanced down at his watch. It was a quarter past midnight, but the party inside the Red Leaf showed no signs of slowing. The soldiers would continue in their merriment until three o’clock on the dot, when they shipped out. They were ecstatic. Of course they were. It wasn’t every day they got to decimate an entire nation. The Revs’ demise was two decades in the making, ever since the former Selpe colony had dared to declare its independence. They should have known the Selpe Empire would not have let them go quietly.

In just a few hours, the Rev isles would be blasted into oblivion, retaliation for an atrocity everyone knew they hadn’t committed. The Revs didn’t even have enough firepower to defend their own borders, let alone decimate an entire city. The only reason they’d been left alone for so long was the Selpe Advisory Council’s unwillingness to take back the colony. They were all far too fond of a winery on one of those islands. The normal people in the Empire—those who could not afford wine that sold for five hundred Crowns per bottle—were still bitter about the ‘Revolution’. Leonidas figured that’s why the Emperor was finally, after all these years, taking action against the Revs. After the destruction of Decia, the Selpe people were screaming for blood, and the Revs were the most convenient scapegoat. The whole thing was so obvious that it was a wonder everyone hadn’t figured it out yet.

Darius Sinf, the Varenese spy, sat at the bar, cold calculation in his eyes as he watched the drunken soldiers drink, dance…and, all in all, make complete fools of themselves. The Avan spy Morton Corse was also there. He sat behind the piano on the center stage, his sweaty hairy hands dancing across the keys. He was trying to distract the Selpe soldiers, and it was working. Not that anyone paid him any mind. But every eye in the house was locked on the quintet of burlesque dancers prancing around in front of the piano. The dancers who entertained in the Red Leaf weren’t known for their risqué performances, but there was less clothing on those five combined than a single one of the club’s regular performing ladies.