The False Martyr (40 page)

Ipid sighed. Though he
needed a man that he could control, he also needed one that would
give him credibility and support. He needed someone who could
manage the Church, who could turn that powerful institution to his
side. That required an iron will and the resolve to use it. Valati
Wallock appeared lacking in both. Ipid was just about to dismiss
him and call for another, when the valati’s eyes came up. They
cleared to become calculating. His shoulders rose. His head came
back. His every feature seemed to stiffen. And he was transformed.
He went from looking like every bully’s favorite target to the
small, clever boy who stands back while his gang does the
bullying.
This
,
Ipid thought,
I can work
with
.

“
Valati Wallock,” he
greeted.

“
Lord Ronigan,” the valati
responded cautiously. “May you find peace in the Order.”

“
And you,” Ipid responded
with a slight bow of his head. “Please, come in. I am sorry to have
summoned you in this way, but I am in desperate need of your
council regarding the Order’s will.”

The valati moved
cautiously into the room, eyeing the guards. “I will do what I can.
This seems a time when the Order’s guidance is much
discounted.”

Ipid caught the barb but
refused to react to it. “That will be all, Captain,” he said as he
came around his desk. “You may return to your duties.”

“
Thank you, my lord.” The
captain saluted, bowed, and ducked back through the door with a
look of relief.

Valati Wallock watched the
door close behind him then eyed the room as if looking for an
escape should things go wrong. Finally, his eyes stopped. It took
Ipid a moment to realize that he was watching Eia, who had come to
his side. “I am sorry,” Ipid caught himself. “Valati Howland
Wallock, may I introduce my wife, Eialia Oie Alliera of the house
Eieniette. You may refer to her as Lady Ronigan. We were joined by
the Darthur after the Battle of Testing in Thoren.” Ipid followed
the introduction with its opposite in Darthur for Eia.

The valati stepped forward
to meet Eia. “May you find peace in the Order.”

“
The only peace your Order
offers is in death,” Eia responded in Darthur with a light tone
that belied the words. She followed it by stepping toward the
valati with pursed lips.

Surprised, Valati Wallock
took a step back. “I am sorry. She does not speak our language,”
Ipid said. “And it is her custom that when people are introduced
they kiss. If you do not feel comfortable, you need not
participate, but to her, it will be as if you have never met.”
Though he dreaded the prospect of seeing another man kissing Eia,
Ipid took this as an opportunity to unbalance the valati and test
his pliability. Much to his delight, the man gathered himself,
stepped forward, and kissed Eia lightly. Ipid’s heart fluttered at
the exchange, but Eia kept the kiss as chaste as possible – the
fact that she did not kiss the valati as she had him in their first
meeting gave him a small sense of satisfaction.

To Ipid’s further
satisfaction, Valati Wallock looked thoroughly flustered, not the
fear and doubt he had shown when he entered, but the disquiet of a
man who has never known a woman in the presence of an especially
flirtatious whore.

“
Please, Your Excellency,
will you join me?” Ipid saved him from Eia’s languorous stare. “It
appears they have set out tea by the hearth, and we have a great
deal to discuss.”

“
As you wish, my lord,”
the valati said with a smile though his eyes remained on Eia as she
walked back to stare out the windows. Ipid followed his eyes and
watched the triangle of her stark-white back that the dress
revealed before ending in the hideous great bow that concealed
everything below.

Finally, he placed his
hand on the valati’s shoulder and steered him to a leather chair.
He took the one opposite and poured two cups of tea.
“Tea?”

“
No, thank you,” the
valati responded absently as he again eyed the warriors arrayed
around the room.

Ipid took a cup for
himself and sipped at it before returning it to its saucer and
placing both dishes onto the small table at his side. “I am sure
you are wondering why you have been brought here.”

“
Captain Tyne and his men
were a bit short on the details,” the valati said with a quirk of
the lips that might have been a smile. “I am sorry to say that I
have very little idea what has been happening. I, like most of the
city, thought we were going to be destroyed just as the Capital and
East Bridge districts were. Those of us that remain are simply glad
to be alive.”

“
The attack stopped
because the acting Chancellor accepted the invaders’ terms of
surrender. I have been sent to ensure that those terms are
met.”

“
The acting Chancellor?
Not Kavich?”

“
He and almost the entire
Bureau were killed in the destruction of the Capital District.”
Ipid felt his guts clench at the reality of those words. “Only Lord
Bellon survived. As the last remaining member of the Bureau, he
became acting Chancellor.”

“
I see.” The valati
steepled his fingers and tapped the middle ones on the end of his
pointed nose. “So Lord Bellon is the one who had the sense to
surrender. I assume the terms are better than wholesale
destruction?”

“
If they are met.
Otherwise, they will be exactly the same as wholesale
destruction.”

“
Is that what happened in
Thoren? We heard that you negotiated terms with them, and the city
was destroyed despite their compliance. Is that what is to happen
here? You take what you want and destroy us just the
same?”

Ipid felt his anger rise
at the implication and fought to control it. As much as Thoren was
an open wound, it could also be an asset – proof of what the
invaders would do if their demands were not met – but not as the
valati had depicted it. “Thoren was a show of the invaders’ power.
It was their hope that it would keep them from having to destroy
additional cities. As misguided as it may seem, they saw it as a
mercy.”

The valati leaned forward,
fingers falling to his lap. “A mercy? But you had to know that
Kavich would not surrender without a fight.”

They didn’t ask
me
, Ipid barely kept himself from saying.
“Kavich was a fool,” he growled instead. “He brought this on you.
It all could have been avoided if he’d just swallowed his damn
pride.”

“
I see. And you think you
can keep it from happening again? Rumor is that those captured by
the invaders are made into slaves. Some have said that is what you
are, a slave whose loyalty to his masters has outstripped that to
his country. Is that true? Are you a slave, and if so, how can a
slave possibly save us from his masters? What is to keep the
invaders from destroying the city no matter what we do?”

“
Would the invaders place
a slave in charge of a country?” Ipid snapped. His hand bashed the
arm of his chair to punctuate the words. “I have this position
because I am the one that can save this country. I am the
only one
who can do it.”
He prayed that was true.

The harsh words had no
effect on the valati. He tapped his fingers on his nose and quirked
the very edges of his lips. “Alright,” he said after a long pause.
He released a great rush of air that he must have been holding. “I
am with you.”

“
You are with me?” Ipid
asked before he could stop himself. He hadn’t asked the valati to
do anything.

“
I am no fool, Lord
Ronigan. I know why you brought me here. I know that di Valati
Rylan is dead, that you need a new di valati. I suspect that you
want me to elevate you to Chancellor and validate your rule.” The
valati sat forward, stating every facet of Ipid’s plan as if he had
made it himself. “What I didn’t know was if you had the temerity to
pull it off. I did not know you well before this, but – and I
apologize – I did not see you as a man to lead a nation. A
corporation certainly, but a nation? No. I needed to see that you
were willing to embrace power, that you would not shy from
responsibility, that you would not hide behind others when hard
questions were asked. The worst thing that could happen here was
that you would have one of your men kill me. At least, I assume
they would do it quickly. I doubt that the mob will provide me such
a courtesy.”

Ipid was stunned.
All this had been a test, to see if I was worthy
to follow, and somehow I passed.
“So you
agree?” It was the only thing Ipid could think to say after the
valati stole all his lines. “You will confirm me as Chancellor and
assume control of the Church? You will help me to keep the people
in line while we meet the invaders’ terms?”

“
You can do it? You can
keep the rest of the city from being destroyed, can hold everything
together and satisfy the invaders’ demands?”

Ipid took a deep
breath.
By the Order, I hope
so
, he wanted to say. “I can,” he said
instead. “It will be difficult. I will be honest with you, the
invaders’ demands are extraordinary. Meeting them will require
great sacrifices, but if we succeed, they will move on. They will
leave, and we will have our country back.”

“
Hmm. People tend to
dislike great sacrifices. They will have no choice as long as an
army is camped at their gates, but once the invaders move on as you
say . . . .”

“
I am here only to give
the Darthur what they want. When they leave, I am ordered to
accompany them. I could not stay even if I wanted to. I need not be
popular. I need only succeed. When I am gone, the Parliament can be
convened and a new Chancellor can be elected.”

The valati laughed. “That
is fine for you. What about those of us that help you? Do you think
the mob that chases you from the city will treat us with kindness
for assisting you? You might as well kill me now.”

“
I did not say under what
terms I will leave.” Ipid had an inspiration. “I could be forced
from power. It could even be you that does it. You could be a
hero.”

Valati Wallock did not
respond immediately, but Ipid saw his mouth quirk. “It is risky,
but I do not see that there are any other options. It will have to
be more people than me. It would not be right for a valati to
overthrow a sitting ruler. It is strictly forbidden, in fact, but
if I can be seen as supporting the man who does depose you, well,
that would be something.” He thought some more then added, “I want
your assurance that if things turn the wrong way you will take me
with you. I need to know that you will not leave me for the
mob.”

Ipid could not stop a
laugh. “I do not think you realize what you are asking. I will take
you with me if that is your desire, though I cannot guarantee what
will happen after that.”

The valati sighed long and
deep. “It seems the best that can come from this, so when will we
do the inauguration?”

“
Tomorrow morning.” Ipid
felt a sudden weight lifted from his shoulders. “We need witnesses,
so we will do it at your temple on the east side, where there are
still people. We will need a very carefully crafted lesson. Can you
do that?”

“
I can. I assume you will
want to read it before it is delivered?”

“
I will.”

“
I should get to work
then. Is there a place where I can . . . ?”

Ipid gestured to one of
the desks arrayed around the room. “Take your pick.” The valati
nodded and made his way to the closest. A moment later, he was
scribbling notes.

Ipid returned to his desk
and found Eia waiting. She clasped his arm and looked up at him. “I
like him,” she said in Darthur. “He is terrified, but he is smart,
and he knows what is at stake. He knows that he is trapped. Just
meeting with you made him complicit. He was caught between the
flood and the fire. You were brilliant to give him a way out and
even more so to find one that may elevate him.”

Ipid let out a long held
breath. “Thank you, my dear.”

Eia caught him and brought
his eyes back to hers. “Just be sure he doesn’t give you to the mob
before you are ready to be gone. The only thing the mob will like
more than seeing you gone is seeing you swing from a rope. And our
gentle valati may decide that he should be the one to tie the
knot.”

Chapter 24

The
23
^rd
Day of Summer

The pale sauce jiggled as
Ipid poked at it. He pushed back the scales of the muddy river fish
and tried to scrape the gelatinous sauce from the meat. The walls
of the office suggested that he was in a palace, the food before
him, a prison. It was clear that the Stullys had taken all their,
even adequate, cooks with them, adding yet another position that
Ipid had to fill – even the simple food of the Darthur would be
welcome compared to this. He added cook to his mental list. No
matter what people made it through his doors, that list only seemed
to get longer.

Under the circumstances,
Ipid had to admit that Captain Tyne had done well. Eia had her
dressmaker and a cadre of apprentices to do the sewing. Jewelers
had been found to make pendants and seals. A number of servants had
been added to the Stully’s meager crew. The city watch had been
gathered. He even had a tailor working on suits for himself. But he
still only had three apprentice scribes to copy his edicts and not
a single decent secretary to write them. There were no order
advisors to review the laws. No bookkeepers, administrators,
traders, caravans, ships, couriers, or any of the thousand other
people and things he needed to meet Arin’s demands. And, worst of
all, no word from Liano about the return of the Chancellor’s Own.
If Arin held them, he was as good as done.