Ventus by Karl Schroeder (leveled readers .txt) 📕

face and shoulders bruised, but otherwise unharmed.

She crab-walked over to the gun, then crouched under the crenels away from the sweep of the steam cannon below. They had stopped their deadly barrage in any case; it looked like the assault on the tower had failed.

For a while she stayed there. She didn’t want to think about where she was or what she had done to get here. The things she would have to do next might be worse.

She knew what Armiger looked like from Jordan’s descriptions. He might be anywhere within the acres of palace grounds. She was betting he would be in the tower, with the queen.

It seemed insane to move, but her use of the microwave gun might bring the Winds down on the palace anyway. Using it, she could clear a path through any number of defenders. She couldn’t bring herself to turn it on human opponents again, however. She would find another way in.

Something was burning in the courtyard near the main doors. The smoke was rich and grey, and it made a smothering pall that hid the spot where her wall met the outside wall of the keep. Steps led down at that point, but she wouldn’t use them; no doubt the main doors were securely barricaded by now.

There was a row of narrow windows seven meters above the point where the wall met the keep. Later there might be soldiers at those windows firing down into the courtyard; for now they were open and unmanned.

Calandria took off her boots and tied them over her shoulder. Then she started to climb the chipped and cracked face of the keep.

*

“I can’t believe our luck,” said Lavin. They were at the doors to the audience chamber. There was no one about.

One of his men shrugged. “Your plan worked perfectly, sir.” His tone suggested no other outcome had been possible.

The sounds of the siege penetrated, as did the smell of smoke. In all his plans, Lavin had assumed the tower would be a hive of running men and hawk-eyed commandants. His strategy in this battle had been to draw the queen’s force out to minimize the numbers here, but he had never dreamed it would work so well.

He revised his plans. They might be able to smuggle the queen out of here after all.

A scout eased the door open a crack and peered through. “I see no one… wait, there’s one man.”

“What’s he doing?”

“Walking. Must have just gone up the stairs ahead of us and paused here for a second or something.”

“Let me see.” Lavin motioned him aside. They had agreed on how to deal with simple soldiers: they would walk right by them. Lavin might be recognizable to some officers and the generals, but to few others. And they were all dressed in the queen’s livery.

So this man should present no problem…

Lavin cursed under his breath when he saw who it was. General Armiger walked slowly, his head down as if musing, hands clasped behind his back. He wore scrolled black armor, with a commander’s flag jutting over his shoulder. He would notice any commotion, and Lavin had no doubt he knew where all his troops were supposed to be. They would have to kill him now, and as quietly as possible.

“Your invincible queen has tried to kill herself.”

For an instant Lavin felt the words had been spoken to him; his heart almost stopped. Then he spotted the woman who had spoken. She stepped from the shadows of the doorway to the antechamber where Lavin had dined with Galas.

General Armiger took her in his arms, and she rested her cheek against his breastplate. “It is my fault,” he said.

“What?” She drew back a little, looking up at him.

“I told her the truth. I took away her hope.”

“She’s only human, after all.” The woman sighed. “Does that disappoint you?”

Lavin blinked. It couldn’t be true. She would have held faith to the very end, in the face of any opposition. He knew her. Nothing could shake her confidence in her own ideals. Had he thought she could fall prey to despair, Lavin would have done anything he had to in his negotiations to ensure this assault did not happen. He would have made concessions.

If Galas despaired, then they had both lost, for that would mean the woman he had come to rescue no longer existed.

He forced himself to focus on the present situation. “We will walk in casually. Kasham, step behind him as we pass. Bahner, do likewise with the woman. A blade in the heart, then drag them behind the throne.”

The men nodded. Lavin stood straight and swung the door open.

Armiger was walking quickly towards the far door. The woman stood where they had embraced, looking after him.

Lavin raised a hand, and his men halted in silence. Armiger reached the door to the antechamber, and passed through it without looking back.

Lavin caught Bahmer’s eye and shook his head. Bahmer shrugged. Then they entered the room.

The woman turned, noted them with indifference, and walked to one of the tall windows on the right. She stared out as they passed by. Lavin led his men left to the antechamber, and they were through, as simply as that.

He stepped boldly into the corridor beyond the antechamber. A stone staircase led up to the left, and two broad wood-paneled corridors radiated right and ahead. There was a deep carpet on the floor, and portrait paintings on the walls. These must be Her apartments.

A man in servant’s livery ran up. Lavin forced himself to stand perfectly still, although his heart was hammering. “Are you looking for the general, sir?” asked the servant.

“The queen, actually.” He felt his men shifting uneasily behind him. They were close to breaking strain, he knew—any slight provocation now and they would unsheath their swords. He prayed they would remain as cool as he pretended to be.

“The queen is… indisposed,” said the servant. “General Armiger is with her.”

“Where?”

“Her closet, at the end of this corridor, but sir, General Armiger said they were not to be disturbed. He ordered even the duennas to leave.”

Lavin sniffed. “This is critical to ending the siege,” he said, and walked on.

They passed two more servants and five of the queen’s maids, one of whom Lavin recognized. None looked at them. Then they were at the queen’s door.

33

They were in sight of the palace walls when Jordan began to hear the song. It came from directly overhead, far above the smoky air and late autumn clouds. The last time he’d heard something like remotely like this, the sky had been filling with vagabond moons at the Boros estate. The sky was empty now.

Periodically as they trudged toward the siege, Jordan had paused and closed his eyes, to watch the events there unfolding through Armiger’s eyes. He knew an assault on the palace was in full swing, but beyond that everything was confused. Armiger seemed to be moving purposefully, but since he didn’t talk to himself he wasn’t letting Jordan in on his thoughts.

“Going in there is suicide,” Tamsin had said when he told her of the assault. “We need to stop and wait for it to end.”

Maybe. But Jordan feared that the seemingly empty landscape around them would erupt at any second with minions of thalience. He could easily be caught by them before they reached the palace.

Only Armiger could oppose the Winds. Compared to them, the threat of these human armies seemed almost trivial.

“We have to tell him about Mediation and thalience,” he told her. “He would have acted by now if he knew exactly what was going on. I don’t believe the queen told him what he needed to know.”

Tamsin started to answer, then seemed to think better of it. She glanced over her shoulder, eyes catching the leagues of open sand that lay between herself and her devastated home.

“None of us knows what we’re doing, do we?” she said in a small voice.

Jordan looked at her, surprised. “No,” he said finally. “Not even him, I guess.”

“What about the swans?”

“The Winds of Mediation take care of the earth,” he said. “Maybe if we can find somewhere underground to hide, we can escape the swans.”

Tamsin squinted upward. “The sun’s a funny color.”

“I don’t want to hear it.” He shut his eyes briefly, inner vision trembling between Armiger and kaleidoscopic images from the siege. As had happened at the Boros manor, the local landscape was excited, stones, wood and plants all trading images and sounds on some frequency they rarely used. Jordan could see through their eyes when they did this; he saw fighting figures on the ground from the vantage point of smoke rising above the towers. He saw both inside and outside the great hall of the summer palace, where tense soldiers waited with tinder and flint to light a new and vastly larger conflagration should Parliament’s forces breach the walls. He heard the confused shouts, the screams, and he heard weeping as he saw Armiger’s hands reach to undo the ropes that bound the Queen of Iapysia to a gilded chair in her chambers.

“Ka,” said Jordan. “I need your help now.”

*

“You told me the truth,” said Galas. “That is why I decided to end it.” She stood shakily, massaging her wrists where the ropes had chafed.

Armiger shook his head angrily. “We have more important things to worry about than your kingdom.” He threw down the ropes.

Galas’ maids cowered in the corners of the opulent bed chamber. Two soldiers stood uncertainly by the door; they had been placed there to guard the queen against herself, and were suffering the abuse of the maids when Armiger entered.

Galas smoothed back her hair with one hand, staring wildly about herself. “What?” She turned and looked at him in puzzlement. “What did you just say?”

“You have a greater responsibility now,” he said. “More than your kingdom is at stake.”

Galas laughed. She tried to stifle the sound with her hand, but it kept coming, and she reeled toward the window, bent over, hands to her mouth. When she could speak again, she shouted, “And what about me? What say do I have in this? Or do I have none? Who gets to sacrifice me on their altar? Parliament? Lavin? You?”

The door swung back with a crash and five armed soldiers paced in. Their swords were drawn. The last one in shut the door behind himself and threw the latch.

“Galas,” said the man at the head of the group, “I am afraid I must ask you to surrender.”

Her two guards were suddenly against the wall with swords to their throats. The other two men had their blades leveled at Armiger.

“Lavin.” She felt a deep feeling of cold wash over her. “You did come.”

“I came to ensure your safety,” said Lavin. “I said I’d let no one harm you. And I won’t.”

“Then the palace has fallen.”

“Yes,” said Lavin.

“No,” said Armiger. “He has snuck in somehow. That’s why you ordered your men not to come over the walls, isn’t it? To keep our forces away?”

Lavin nodded curtly. “Kindly kneel on the floor, general. You too.” He indicated the others in the room. “We are going to strike you unconscious; there’s not enough rope to bind everyone. Anyone who struggles will be killed.” He stepped up to Galas. “You will accompany us, your highness. If you try to call for help I have instructed my men to kill you.” For a second he looked dizzy; he clutched at the back of the chair where Galas had been bound. “I can’t do