Wild Card (47 page)

“I’m going to have to find out who’s had these out in the last week, but right now, I need two things at the same time. First, I need the couple on the next trailer to be tied up so they can’t move, blindfolded and put in the back of my car. Can you get the pack to do that?”

“Where are you taking them?” she asked.

“To the Altau, to get their memory of tonight blanked.”

She grunted and walked over to the second trailer. Instructions passed on, she returned.

“So, what else?”

“Let’s get in my car, out of the wind.”

We climbed in and I put the interior light on. Ursula had deep-set eyes and they were shadowed as she watched me pull out the file of missing women.

“I want you to go through these and tell me if you know any of them.”

She sat unmoving. She wasn’t stupid. “You think the rogue’s one of us? Me?”

“Ursula, honestly, I don’t know what to think. Everyone’s giving me a different angle.”

“But Felix has spoken to every member of the pack. It’s not us. We can’t lie to him.”

“Everybody keeps telling me that. Just like they told me that Athanate and Were don’t cross infuse.”

She sat for a minute more, just looking at me.

Her team brought the couple out. They dropped the back seat flat and hog tied them in the back of the car, then tossed a blanket over them. The pair looked groggy; they weren’t even struggling.

I bit my lip. They hadn’t done anything to deserve this.

“S’okay,” one of the team said. “We’ve given them some of the booze from their trailer and some downers. Standard practice. They’re out of it, is all.”

When I turned back, Ursula was looking at the file. I’d intended to ask her the questions Tullah had set up for me, but I had to get the witnesses to Haven asap. I’d have to settle for seeing her reactions to these photos.

“This one.” She lifted the sheet out and put it to one side. By the time she’d gone through she’d taken out five of the six that Tullah had said had some connection to her business.

She closed the file and went back to the five.

“This one owns a dude ranch. Her manager called me to look at one of their riding horses that had a problem. She was there, but I didn’t speak to her.”

“What was the problem?” It wasn’t that I was interested, I wanted a feel for Ursula’s reaction.

“Just basic bad treatment. People have no idea. Horses aren’t rental cars.” She pointed at the others. “These also keep horses, but privately. There were the usual problems. Underuse. Overfeeding. Poorly fitted shoes. It’s not my normal business, but they called, and you don’t turn it down.”

I was watching her as she looked through the photos. There was nothing to suggest they were anything other than casual business acquaintances. Her heart rate had risen when we started, but it didn’t vary while she answered.

Unless Ursula was a sociopath, and didn’t have normal reactions.

I tried reaching with eukori, but either it wasn’t working on demand, or she was blank. How had I done it with Sloan at Mrs. de Vries’ house? I hadn’t even tried—it’d just happened.

“Is there anything you can think of that these women have in common?”

“Aside from being one-time clients of mine?” Her mouth twisted. “Not really.” She shuffled through them again thoughtfully and sighed. “I assume I’d be speaking ill of the dead here?”

“I don’t know. It’s possible. Officially they’re missing. What?”

“They’re all proof of that old cliché,” Ursula said as she opened the car door and got out.

“Which one?”

“You can’t buy happiness.” She closed the door and walked back to the trailer.

Chapter 48

At Haven, Tom met me at the front door. The couple, deeply asleep, were lifted from my car and carried carefully away. Tom guided me back to the familiar little library.

“Naryn will come and see you when he’s finished,” he said. “We’ll do what we can, but I have to warn you, dealing with Basilikos at the exchange hasn’t put him in the best of moods.”

“It went as planned, though?”

“Eventually.”

After he’d left, I browsed the books. They were old-fashioned hardbacks, a strange mix of classics in many languages and books I’d never heard of. Some were in scripts that I didn’t recognize, others in leather bindings that smelled like exotic travel is supposed to smell like. I’d travelled to exotic places with the army and I had different perceptions on that.

Half an hour later, Naryn came in, alone. His mood boiled through the room like a winter storm front.

I gave it my best diplomatic effort. “Diakon,” I said, and dipped my head.

“House Farrell.”

We sat at the table next to the dark French windows that led to the gardens.

“Are the couple okay?” I asked.

“They’re asleep and drunk. They’re being taken back now and they’ll wake some time tomorrow with hangovers and no memory of this evening, beyond things they’ll think they dreamed about, like wild dogs fighting.”

“Thank you, on behalf of the pack, and from me personally.”

I couldn’t say he was being pleasant, but he was being entirely too controlled for my liking. He stared at me. I stared back and waited him out.

“Farrell, you’re not acting in the interests of Altau,” he said. “Even when you’re make considered decisions, they’re biased with concerns that aren’t relevant to Panethus. Your levels of impulsiveness are a fraction away from the behavior of Aspirants undergoing crusis mania, or rogue Athanate for that matter. I’m willing to countenance that your efforts to fight this may have been heroic, but the fact remains that you’re being driven by the Were changes to your body. Skylur has been willing to risk this and leave you out in the community without support, but I’m not. I’m going to bring you in to Haven and put you under supervision while you work out the balance between Athanate and Were.”

“Have you any—” I started.

“Stop,” he said. “You were brought into a sensitive meeting with the leadership of Basilikos and you practically go rogue during the conversation, with all the fallout that would have had for the Assembly and Skylur’s position in it. Then you’re given control of a hugely expensive search for remnants of House Matlal, on the sole basis that you’ve made an oath to the Denver pack. An oath you had to make, I would point out, because you were unable to provide sufficient security for your kin. In the course of the search you’ve managed to make a commitment for all of Altau, every house in North America, to work with Were. Now you’ve botched a takedown of the Matlal Were and we’ve had to clean up after you.”

“That’s complete bullshit,” I said.

My heart was in my mouth. At the meeting with Correia, I’d seen Naryn and Skylur easily balance a squad of Correia’s security. This wasn’t someone I could push around, but if I let him push me around, I had little doubt I’d end up locked in the basement here. I couldn’t take that; not personally, and not given my commitments. It would drive me insane. Probably literally.

He’d gone still as a snake.

He was waiting for me, and it was verbal judo—the next person to speak was the one who’d blinked in this confrontation. But that doesn’t always work, if you press your attack.

“I was in that meeting,
without
any warning, for a specific purpose. Skylur wanted my reactions to be extreme. The more extreme, the better for his purposes. He’s had plenty of time to take me up on it if he didn’t like the reaction I gave. It worked. And as for going rogue, I didn’t. Close doesn’t count.”

I was warming up to my rant. He felt the initiative slipping away and started to speak; I bulldozed ahead.

“If you want to dispute that, I want to hear it from Skylur. As for the cost of the hunt for Matlal, its hardly my fault that there are so few Altau in Denver that you have to resort to buying in bounty hunters. And I haven’t botched anything. The hunters ignored my instructions.”

“You committed the Altau. A commitment we can’t maintain. We’re over-extended.”

“What would you have done? Storm the place and shoot everyone in the middle of the day? And why is this a commitment? The Confederation is sneaking around Denver and you’re not bothered, but I send them back with a threat and it’s like I’ve robbed your bank. Why can’t Altau make alliances with Were? Allies increase your strength, not diminish it.”

He stood up and leaned over the table. “We don’t trust them.”

“And so they don’t trust you. Where does that get us? Nowhere.” I tried to hold back, but it all slipped away from me. I was matching him, leaning over the table and shouting. “How can I cooperate with the pack here in Denver to everyone’s benefit and ignore that opportunity in the rest of the country? If you refuse to see anything but the worst outcomes, you might as well pack up now.”

 “There are no good outcomes from this,” he shouted back. “We can’t commit to alliances with Were. We can’t get involved in their struggles. We are over-extended as it is. One solid blow by Basilikos and we’ll lose allies. Even if they don’t, the proposal to ally with the Were will lose Panethus allies.”

“Panethus is supposed to be about Emergence. Are you proposing we accidentally forget to mention Were when we talk to the government? If we go ahead, we’ve got to go ahead with all the groups.”

“So House Farrell has developed its own agenda and the rest of us have to follow along.”

He was so thick headed. Or not. I realized he might be goading me into making some kind of statement that would justify him taking the action he’d already decided on.

Calm down.

“No.” I sat back down, trying to slow my racing heart. I folded my arms. “Skylur leads, but he has to lead. On all fronts. We don’t have time for anything else.”

“This is worse than rogue behavior. A rogue acts on instinct, but it’s as if you planned to create problems.” He shook his head. “I can’t possibly allow you to be out there creating more problems for us.”

Shit. He’s going to put me in a cell.

“You can appeal to Skylur if you want, but as of this moment—”

The door burst open.

“Ah! There you are Naryn! I’ve been looking all over for you.”

The man who came through the door was beyond unusual. His marque proclaimed him Athanate. It didn’t just precede him, it struck me forcefully, as noticeable as Skylur’s was subtle, and as powerful. Much more powerful than Naryn’s.

Even more singular was his appearance. The rejuvenating effects of the Blood kept all of us looking no older than me. I’d seen no gray-haired Athanates, but this man’s hair was black flecked with gray, swept back on his head like raven’s wings. His eyes were black stones, his skin the pale tan of latte coffee and his features were refined, almost delicate.

I wonder how many have been fooled by that?

Bian slipped in behind him, quiet as a shadow.

“House Tarez,” Naryn choked his anger down and gave a half bow.

Tarez. The House that Skylur had exchanged his priceless Hidden Path statue for, the one with affiliations that underpinned the farthest ranges of Panethus.

I started to introduce myself, but Tarez brushed it aside.

“And this is, of course, the lady I have been hearing so much about. House Farrell! Thrice welcome!”

His arms spread wide and swept me into an embrace.

I kept my wits about me enough to kiss necks on both sides. Unlike some of the Athanate I’d met at the reception, his kisses felt as if he meant them. I couldn’t help but smile.

In my nose, his marque was sharp and dry. It made me think of the dreams that the wind brings in the cold, high places.

“Tarez…” Naryn seemed to have mislaid his eloquence.

“What?”

“This is not an appropriate time. I’m discussing problems that House Farrell has caused us.”

“A fine? Ha! Charge it to me. I declare my firm affiliations with House Farrell.”

“But—”

“Could I do less? She was offered and accepted as a Blood price for my freedom.”

“She was never offered,” Naryn said. “It was a ploy.” He’d known that, of course. Maybe even Bian had too. I’d been the only one on our side to come into that meeting blind.

Tarez turned to me, his eyebrows raised. “Did you know it was a ploy, that you weren’t being offered?”

“No,” I replied. “I had no idea what was going on.”

“Did you complain and refuse?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because…” Why hadn’t I yelled and screamed and refused? “Because I am affiliated to Altau. I swore an oath.” My mouth felt dry. “It was within what was expected of me.”

“An oath that is entirely reciprocal,” Tarez noted. “And did you remember this oath as you went about whatever business has caused the Diakon such discomfort?”

“Yes, I did.”

I did. I was arrogant enough to think I saw things that were for the benefit of Altau, even if someone like Naryn said they weren’t.

“You truly believe whatever you have done is in the interests of Altau.”

“I do.”

I could feel the rake of his eukori across my mind and shivered.

“On the matter of association,” Bian said, standing with her hands held behind her, “Skylur himself precipitated this. He said at the Assembly that he had an association with the Denver pack—”

“His exact words, Bian?” Tarez asked.

“He said the Denver pack was an ally.”

“Did the Truth Sensors point out a lie?”

“I believe the Assembly was distracted by Skylur’s announcement of Emergence as the major policy going forward.”

Tarez laughed heartily. “He’s not lost his sense of timing, and it has fallen to House Farrell to make his words true, then.”

He turned to me.

“May I call you Amber?”

“Yes,” I said. “Of course.”

“Unfortunately, when I was born, names were rationed to one name per person, so you must sound formal and call me Tarez. Well, Amber, House Tarez is being sent to Los Angeles, for our sins—or maybe, for all the difficulties we have caused Altau. But there will always be a welcome there for you. Now, forgive me, I need Naryn to bring me up to date on all the strategy before I relieve Skylur there.” He gripped my shoulder lightly. “I will look for you in LA. Tread carefully.”