Imager

47

At the end of the following week, Master Draffyd examined me and said that I could go back to a stronger conditioning regime, and whatever imaging Master Dichartyn had in mind. I had not received a letter from Seliora, but I couldn’t say I was totally surprised, not when she and Shomyr were still traveling. I did receive a letter from my mother, expressing concern and wanting to know if and when she could visit. I wrote back that because of the nature of my training it would be several weeks yet. I just didn’t want to have to explain. Some of what had happened I knew shouldn’t leave the Collegium, and Mother didn’t respond well to my refusing to say much. I also didn’t want to mention Seliora, not yet. Not until after she returned from her trip. It had taken Mother years to accept Remaya, and I wasn’t about to raise that issue until I was absolutely certain that Seliora and I belonged together.

The next Lundi-Juyn sixteenth-I had barely settled into the chair in Master Dichartyn’s study when he said, “Your messenger uniforms arrived, did they not?”

“Yes, sir. They fit comfortably.”

“They should. It’s time for you to go to work. You’ll be going to the Chateau every morning for the next three weeks. In the afternoons, Clovyl will still work with you, and I’ll occasionally give you instruction and exercises. When the Council resumes meeting officially on the second of Agostos, you’ll be there all day, every day, and some evenings.” He paused. “But you will be expected to continue the physical conditioning. After you begin full-time at the Chateau, you’ll be joining the group that exercises at fifth bell every morning but Solayi.”

What could I say to that but “Yes, sir.” Then I asked, “With everything going on between Caenen and Ferrum and Tiempre, the Council’s not meeting?”

“The Executive Council is still there. Effectively, they control the government. The full sessions deal more with laws and problems.” He cleared his throat. “At the Chateau, Baratyn will brief you on your duties. He’s in charge of the messengers, both the imagers and the non-imagers who handle most of the messages. All of the imagers are listed as part-time messengers and security aides. The regular messengers aren’t supposed to know that you’re imagers, but they all know you’ve been trained to deal with weapons and attackers. Now for Baratyn-he’s a Maitre D’Aspect, but he’s listed on the official public Collegium records as a tertius.”

“Yes, sir. Am I supposed to know who the other imagers are?”

“You are, and they’re supposed to know you. Baratyn will introduce you. You wear the messenger uniform here at the Collegium only when you’re on your way to and from the Chateau. All of you travel using a duty coach that’s generally indistinguishable from a hack. If necessary, you can take a hack back, but only so far as West River Road. The Council members know that some of the messengers are imagers, and, soon enough, most of the sharper ones will be able to pick you out, but they don’t say anything because their safety rests on you.”

“What about the High Holders?” I knew that there were five High Holders on the Council, and I was glad that Ryel was not one of them. He had been, years earlier, but councilors were limited to two consecutive five-year terms. If they wished and their appointing body agreed, they could return after standing down for a full term.

“Even if Ryel were a councilor, you’d be quite safe for now, and always in the Chateau. Your situation isn’t the first time that sort of thing has occurred. High Holders never act precipitously. Often they wait months or even years.”

That didn’t reassure me.

“There’s one other matter. Usually some new messenger, or occasionally a relative of one of the councilors, generally a young woman, will ask if you’re an imager or insist that you must be. You are to say you are assigned to serve the Council. If they get very insistent, you may say that they can believe what they wish, but the truth is that you are assigned to the Council. That is what you are to say, and all you are to say. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir.”

Master Dichartyn stood. “Go put on your messenger uniform. I’ll meet you at the west duty-coach station behind the dining hall in half a glass.”

I walked quickly back to my quarters and changed. The messenger uniform was made of a fine lightweight black wool, trimmed with a gray piping so faint in color that it was almost white. Fine as the wool was, and thin as the pale gray shirt that went under the short-waisted jacket was, I did hope that I didn’t have to spend much time in the sun, not in the summer.

My changing was swift enough that I was walking up to the duty coach at almost the same moment as Master Dichartyn. He said nothing, but gestured for me to enter the coach.

Because he had not spoken, I waited until the coach began to move before I asked, “Do you know what is happening with our fleets and the Caenenans, sir?”

“No more than is in the newsheets, Rhennthyl.”

That was little help because neither Veritum nor Tableta contained anything but vague speculation. “What do you think will happen?”

“The Caenenans and their High Priest will do something foolish out of pride, and, hopefully, we will do something less foolish to keep open warfare from flaring up.” He fingered his chin, then lowered his hand.

I waited. Sometimes silence was a better way to get a response.

“Life is always about power. When men or nations talk about honor, what they mean is how others perceive their power. When a man claims his honor has been affronted, what he is saying is that another’s actions, if unchallenged, may diminish his power in the eyes of others. The same is true of nations. The Collegium does not care about the popular perceptions of power, unless those perceptions actually diminish Solidar’s power. Often our duties require redressing the balance of power without any overt use of military or economic force. That is all I will say for now, but I trust you will consider my words carefully as you watch the Council and those who move around it, prating of honor when they are in reality merely seeking to have the Council increase their power or diminish that of another.”

I already understood that. A wool importer benefited when import tariffs were lowered, and I had heard my father rail on about the lack of honor in the Council in not tariffing certain finished fabrics, but that was because those fabrics went to other factors.

My eyes strayed outside as the coach carried us over the Bridge of Desires, not the other bridge on the west side of Imagisle, which was the Bridge of Stones, because that was used almost entirely for heavy wagons and the like. We rode west past the modest spires of Council Anomen, so named because it was the anomen closest to the Council Chateau, not because the councilors necessarily attended services there, and then down the Boulevard D’Council a good mille and a half to Council Hill, ringed by a wide avenue, with the Square of Justice on the plaza to the south. Eight avenues or boulevards radiated from the ring road, but none of them were all that heavily traveled, not the way those east of the river were. The coach turned south on Council Circle, then came to a stop on the east side, just opposite a small postern gate in the white alabaster wall. I got out and waited for Master Dichartyn.

He walked up to the black iron gate. I followed him. The guard standing behind the chest-high grillwork wore a black uniform similar to mine, except for a thin black cotton waistcoat rather than a full coat. He also had a large pistol in a belt holster and a truncheon.

He nodded. “Another messenger, Master Dichartyn?”

“Yes. This is Rhennthyl. He starts today.”

The guard studied me, then nodded. I realized that he was an obdurate, but that made sense. He opened the iron gate.

Behind the wall and gate was a narrow stone walk-also white, but white granite-that led to an equally narrow set of steps leading up the side of the low hill on which the Chateau sat. Even so, there were more than a hundred steps before we reached a stone terrace surrounded by a waist-high alabaster wall. By then I was sweating, but I wasn’t breathing hard, and that I owed to Clovyl. Neither was Master Dichartyn, either, and he’d set a quick pace up the steps. The terrace had but two exits-the steps and a door in the wall of the Chateau.

“This is the way you always enter-unless you have specific instructions otherwise.” Master Dichartyn opened the door, and we stepped out of the glare of the blazing sun into what seemed cool gloom, although I knew that was only by comparison.

Inside was another armed obdurate guard. Master Dichartyn nodded in my direction. “This is Rhennthyl. He’s the newest messenger.”

“Yes, sir.”

Beyond the guard was a circular foyer with narrow corridors leading out of it both to the left and right. Master Dichartyn took the right corridor. The walls were plain white stone, old but spotless, each block precisely cut, with but the thinnest line of mortar at the joins. The floor tiles were of polished gray slate. Despite the immaculate appearance, there was a sense of age, perhaps because there were no embellishments or decorations.

The short corridor ended at a wider one, the main corridor running north and south on the east side of the ground level of the Chateau. There, Master Dichartyn turned left, stopping at the first door, which was open.

“Baratyn . . . I’ve brought you your new messenger.”

The study was small and without windows, although there was a ventilation grate high on the east wall, and held a modest desk with drawers and a wooden file case on one wall. Two chairs stood before the desk and one, with arms, behind it.

“Master Dichartyn.” Baratyn stepped forward and beckoned for us to enter. He was a few digits shorter than I was, with short-cut brown hair, a squarish chin, and eyes that seemed to change colors, from brown to hazel to light green, even as I looked at him. Like me, he wore the gray-trimmed black uniform, except on the short stiff jacket collars were two small pewter triangles-one on each collar. “You’d be Rhennthyl.”

“Yes, sir.” I inclined my head.

He nodded, then turned toward Master Dichartyn.

“That’s all. Rhennthyl will be here mornings until the Council reconvenes officially”

“That should be long enough to get him squared away.”

Even before Baratyn finished speaking, the senior imager was gone.

Baratyn looked to me. “Basyl will be here in a moment. He’s one of the senior regular messengers. He’ll show you around. If he asks where you’re from, tell him where your family lives.”

I was spared having to answer because at that moment we were joined by Basyl, a thin, almost frail man, a good ten years older than me by his looks, with wide gray eyes under brown hair so dark it was not quite black and a narrow chin. “You sent for me, sir?”

“I did. Rhennthyl here is the new security support messenger.”

“I’m pleased to meet you,” I offered.

He nodded politely. “The same.”

“I’d appreciate it if you’d give Rhennthyl a tour of the Chateau, particularly the routes and places he’ll need to know as a messenger once the Council reconvenes.”

“Yes, sir.” He nodded somberly. “Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

As soon as we stepped out of Baratyn’s study, Basyl gestured down the long corridor. “On this level are the studies for the advisors to the councilors. They have the bigger studies, the ones with the windows. The smaller studies are for the staff, like Baratyn and Pelagryn.”

“Pelagryn?”

“He’s in charge of the maintainers. Of course, Chasylmar has the northeast corner study on this level.”

“I haven’t met Chasylmar.”

“He’s the Chateau steward, and his study is the big one in the northeast corner. The corner studies are the best, because they’ve got windows on two walls and you can get a breeze there. Up on the Council level the three Executive Council members have three of the four corner studies, and the most senior guild representative has the other-that’s Councilor Ramon.”

Basyl led me all the way around the main corridor on the ground level, pointing out everything, from whose study was where, the waiting room for messengers, and where the staff jakes were and the two circular staircases. We took the one in the northeast corner down to the lower level, which held the kitchen-and a dumbwaiter that ran directly up to the upper pantry off the Council dining chamber. Then there were storerooms for everything, various workrooms, and other spaces for the maintainers and their equipment. From there we took the northwest staircase up to the third and topmost level, which held the main Council chamber, the smaller Executive Council chamber, the councilors’ lounge, their dining chamber, and all the studies.

Basyl stopped at the top of the grand staircase that led down to the foyer holding all the artwork, which he had not shown me, but which I recalled. “How did you end up here?”

“I was a journeyman portriaturist. It didn’t work out. After my master’s death, none of the masters in the guild wanted to take on another journeyman, especially one so old.”

“You’re not that old.”

“I’ll be twenty-five shortly, and that’s old to begin with another master in portraiture.”

“Your family . . . they must have . . . must know people.”

“My father is a wool factor. He wishes I had that talent. What about your family?”

“He’s a tinker of sorts. He has a small shop. People bring things to him to be fixed or sharpened. I’m not that good with my hands, but I’m quick, and I never forget anything anyone tells me. That’s useful for a messenger.” Basyl nodded slowly, then turned and led the way down the grand main staircase-the one I had last beheld more than ten years earlier. We’d barely reached the bottom when Baratyn appeared holding an envelope.

“Basyl . . . I need this run to Chasylmar. He’s not in his study, and I don’t have time to track him down.”

The senior messenger nodded and took the envelope. “Yes, sir.”

“You come with me, Rhennthyl.”

Baratyn didn’t say anything until we were inside his study. “If you’d close the door . . .”

I did, then sat down after he’d seated himself behind the desk.

“You answered Basyl’s questions accurately and yet without revealing anything.”

How had he known that? “Was that a test? Are there listening tubes everywhere?”

“Of sorts. Only in the corridors. That’s one of the other things we monitor. You will, too, in time. With what we do and you will be doing, everything is a test. But then, most of life is. Most people just don’t realize it-or don’t want to think about it. At the moment, even with you, we’re shorthanded.” He laughed. “We’re always shorthanded. There are three of you as messengers and silent guards . . . and me. In an emergency we can call on one or two others, but that includes Master Dichartyn, and he’s not always available. The other two security messengers should be here any moment. While we’re waiting, do you have any questions?”

“How many regular messengers?”

“Just four. That’s enough to allow one or two to be sent off Council Hill, if necessary.”

At the knock on the door, Baratyn called out, “Come on in.”

I stood. I didn’t like being seated when meeting other people, particularly when they were standing. The door opened, and two men stepped inside. The second one closed the door. Both of them were about my size, and at least several years older. They looked almost politely nondescript, yet I could sense that behind that facade, they were formidable. Was that the kind of impression that Master Dichartyn was seeking-someone who could blend into any group, yet who, if you looked closely, you really didn’t want to encounter in dark corners?

“Rhennthyl, meet Martyl and Dartazn. Martyl is the blond one.”

Martyl smiled politely. “Be good to have some help here.”

“Especially the way things look to be going,” added the dark-haired and dark-eyed Dartazn, who was just a shade taller than Martyl.

“I had Basyl give him the general tour,” said Baratyn. “You two can show him all the places he really needs to know. He’ll only be here mornings for the next few weeks. They’re rushing his training so that he’ll be as ready as possible when the Council goes back in session.”

Dartazn looked at me, his brows furrowed. “You usually sit with Kahlasa and the other field operatives, don’t you? At the Collegium, I mean?”

“I do. That was because I got to know Claustyn when I became a third.”

“You’re the one who took a bullet near the heart and managed to image-shield it until Master Draffyd could take care of it.”

I hadn’t realized the bullet was that close. “Two bullets, actually, but I didn’t know it at the time. And I passed out a little bit before I got to Master Draffyd.”

“Claustyn hoped you’d go field,” added Martyl.

“That would have been my second choice,” I admitted.

“You three can talk later,” Baratyn said, “at the Collegium, not here.”

“Yes, sir,” replied Martyl genially. “All the walls but those here have ears. We hear and understand.”

“Go!” But Baratyn was smiling.

We left.

By the time I climbed into the duty coach at ten bells, with Martyl and Dartazn, my head was swimming with the effort of trying to remember all the hidden nooks and passages.

“We get lunch at the Collegium when the Council’s not in full session,” Martyl explained. “That’s because they close down the kitchens to give the staff their summer break. The Chateau’s practically deserted now.”

That was fine with me. I’d need all three weeks to really learn where everything was-and that was in spite of my study of the Chateau’s plans.