The Vondish Ambassador

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The sun seemed even brighter here than it had in Ashthasa, even though it was now well down the western sky and the walls of the houses and shops were a slightly darker shade of golden-yellow. Once again they had emerged in a public square, but this one was hard-packed earth, rather than being paved with stone, and appeared to have little in the way of city around it. A white marble palace loomed over them on one side, while the other three sides of the square mostly had just a few open-fronted shops shaded by brightly-colored awnings. A broad road led out of the square directly opposite the doors to the palace, and Emmis could see that it led, perhaps half a mile away across a valley, to a castle built of dark red stone, looking like something out of a picture book about the Small Kingdoms.

Well, that was reasonable enough, since they were presumably somewhere in the Small Kingdoms. Emmis could not see how they had any business anywhere other than Ethshar and the Small Kingdoms, and this definitely wasn't Ethshar of the Spices.

"Semma!" Lar exclaimed, as they climbed up out of the fissure.

"Is that where we are?" Emmis asked, looking around. The crowd here was smaller than the ones that had gathered in Lumeth and Ashthasa, which seemed peculiar; wasn't this the heart of an empire, where the others were little more than city-states?

"Yes!" Lar said, pointing. "That's the Imperial Palace, where the Council meets, and over there is Semma Castle, where the Regent lives – and where I live."

That was interesting; Emmis studied the castle. It didn't look terribly appealing. He noticed it had a rather sprawling village clustered around it, where the palace only seemed to have this one square's worth of homes and businesses near it. "I would have thought the Regent would live in the Imperial Palace," he said.

Lar turned up a palm. "He doesn't like being that close to the Imperial Council."

That struck Emmis as slightly odd, but then, much of what Lar had told him about Lord Sterren seemed a little odd.

The gargoyles clambered up out of the fissure, and Ithinia lowered her flute and tucked it into her right sleeve. "We have come to address the Imperial Council!" she proclaimed.

The crowd murmured, and someone opened the palace door and slipped inside.

Lar bestirred himself and hurried to Ithinia's side, with Emmis trotting after him. "They may not be in session," the ambassador said.

"I know that," the wizard replied.

"And the Regent may be in the castle, over there."

Ithinia turned to glare at him. "Yes?"

"Should I go see if he's there?"

"Your Excellency, I would think that an earthquake splitting open the market square and allowing a party of magicians to emerge would draw his attention, wherever he is."

"Well…" Lar could not really argue with that, and subsided. Emmis thought the ambassador was just eager to get a good look at his home, now that he was unexpectedly back here.

The door of the palace opened again, and a youth in a black-and-silver tunic emerged and ran across the square, circling around the visitors and heading full-tilt toward Semma Castle.

"We could go inside," Lar suggested. "The Council doesn't make anyone wait out here in the sun."

Ithinia turned to glare at him. "If I wanted you to play native guide, Your Excellency, I would have asked you."

The palace doors opened again, but this time both valves swung wide, and a soldier in a red-and-gold uniform emerged. He saluted Ithinia and the other wizards, then cleared his throat.

"Lady Kalira, Chancellor and Vice-Regent of the Empire of Vond, welcomes you and invites you all to come inside and be made comfortable." He spoke Ethsharitic with only a very slight accent, less than Lar's.

"We have come to speak to the full Council," Ithinia replied.

"The full Council is not here, honored visitor. A messenger has been sent to the Regent, but at present only Lady Kalira and three other Councillors are in attendance."

Ithinia frowned, then turned to confer quietly with the other wizards. As they spoke, Emmis noticed the soldier staring at Lar. He had the expression of someone trying to figure out where he knew a face from.

He also noticed that Lord Ildirin did not look happy. Despite his vigor, Ildirin was a very old man, and they had been doing a great deal of standing around in the sun; Emmis thought he was probably exhausted.

One of the other wizards – Serem, was it? – pointed to Ildirin just then, and Ithinia nodded.

Then she turned back to the messenger and said, "We will accept the Chancellor's invitation, with the understanding that our business here is not private, and that members of the public must be admitted."

The soldier bowed. "This way, please," he said, and turned to lead them in.

Almost the entire party from Ethshar – all of it but the two gargoyles, who took up posts on either side of the palace doors, and the four prisoners who had been left behind in Lumeth and Ashthasa – followed him, through a grand entrance hall and around a corner into a large and luxurious drawing room equipped with a goodly assortment of chairs, sofas, and settees.

"Please, make yourselves comfortable," the soldier said. "Lady Kalira will be here shortly, and Lord Sterren should be on his way."

Emmis was happy to take a seat and give his feet a rest; Lar settled beside him, then leaned over and asked, "How did Ithinia find out about…" He hesitated, glancing around to be sure no one was listening. "Did you tell her we wanted to prevent warlocks from coming to Vond?"

"No," Emmis said. The settee suddenly seemed a bit crowded and much less comfortable.

"Did you ask her to do any of this?"

"No," Emmis said. He twisted in his seat. "Didn't you? You and Lord Ildirin were talking to her – I thought this was your idea."

Lar shook his head. "No, we just asked her to help us locate and capture the assassins. Which she did. And we asked her questions about protective spells. But we didn't ask for the Guild to help this way."

"Did you ask her about…" It was Emmis's turn to glance about. "…about the hum? The source?"

"No. She frightened me. I didn't want to trust her that much."

"She frightens me a little, too," Emmis admitted.

"So what did you tell her?"

Emmis considered that, then said, "I didn't really tell her much of anything. I asked her a question, and then she figured everything out."

"Do you think that was magic?"

In fact, Emmis was fairly certain no magic had been used, that Ithinia was just smarter and better informed than she had any right to be, but he turned up a palm. "I don't know," he said.

"What was the question?"

Emmis shifted uneasily. "It was about something the theurgist told me in the Wizards' Quarter," he said. "Corinal said something about wizards guarding the Lumeth Towers, and I asked her why they do that."

Lar cocked his head. "Did she tell you?"

"Not really," Emmis lied.

A few days ago, he knew, he would have happily explained everything to his employer; even now, he wasn't sure why he was holding anything back. The events of the last few days, though, had taught him that information was power – and that there was power in withholding information, as well. Knowledge, once shared, couldn't be taken back. And partial information was dangerous. A few apparently harmless facts had sent the Lumethans into a panic and set assassins on the ambassador's trail; a few words here and there had let him save the ambassador from those assassins. The magicians in the Wizards' Quarter charged high fees for answers to questions they didn't understand, while Ithinia seemed to have figured out half the World from being asked a question. Questions and answers, facts and mysteries, could lead in any number of unexpected directions.