Sins of Empire

Chapter 14

At midmorning, Vlora was summoned from her dingy, leaky headquarters in the old staff building at Loel’s Fort. She came out to the muster yard expecting a messenger from the Lady Chancellor’s office or one of her own scouts but instead found a small Palo man, hat in hand, standing beside a rickshaw. The man had a gaunt face and the characteristic ashen freckles and fiery red hair of a Palo. There were crow’s feet around his eyes from too much squinting, and deep smile lines at the corners of his mouth. He ducked his head as Vlora approached.

“Lady Flint?” he asked in flawless Adran.

“That’s me.”

“Good afternoon. I am Devin-Tallis. I was sent by the Ice Baron.”

Vlora’s mind was elsewhere, churning over supply reports from her quartermasters, but she put them all out of her head at the mention of the peculiar baron. “Vallencian? What would he… Ah! Did he get me an invitation to the gala? When is that, tonight?”

“He did, my lady.” Devin-Tallis smiled pleasantly, blinking at Vlora for several moments.

“Can I have it?” she asked.

“Ah, it does not work like that, Lady Flint. I am your invitation.”

Vlora thought she understood immediately. The Depths was closed to outsiders. Of course she would need a guide to reach whatever “palace” this gala was being held in. She called toward the staff building for Olem, then turned back to the Palo. “When is it, exactly? Vallencian didn’t give me any details.”

“The baron seldom gives out details that don’t have to do with one of his stories,” Devin-Tallis said, speaking not as if he was a Palo peasant but rather a close friend of one of the richest men on the continent. “The celebration will take place at nine o’clock tonight, at the Yellow Hall. I’ll take you there and bring you back.”

Vlora looked over her shoulder, wondering where Olem had got himself to. “All right, what time do you want to leave?”

“Eight thirty should be fine. We’re not all that far from the hall.”

“Why’d you come so early?” Vlora asked.

“I work on the other side of town. I had a job over here, so I thought it seemed prudent. If it is pleasing to your ladyship, I’ll wait here until you’re ready to depart. I’ll stay out of the way.”

“Don’t call me that,” Vlora said. “Flint is fine, or General. All right, I’ll have a guard ready by that time. Can horses maneuver through the Depths, or should I bring infantry?”

“Ah,” Devin-Tallis said, clearing his throat, “I’m afraid horses would be a very bad idea. Besides, the invitation is for one.”

Vlora paused. One? She couldn’t even bring Olem with her? “They don’t have to come inside. They’re for protection. I’ve heard… things regarding the safety of the Depths.” She half-expected the Palo to laugh at her, but instead his face grew solemn.

“One,” he said, holding up a finger. “That is all I’m allowed to guide to the Yellow Hall. Lady Flint, or her appointee. No one else. As long as you are with me, that is a guarantee of your safety as long as you do not start a fight.”

“Even if I’m provoked?”

“Dueling is prohibited. You may bring your weapons, because you are a soldier, but if you draw them in anger your safety is revoked.”

“Who, exactly, guarantees this safety?” Vlora asked. She didn’t like anything about the arrangement. It sounded like a trap. Would Vallencian set her up?

“Everyone at the celebration will be a guest of Mama Palo.” Devin-Tallis’s face darkened slightly. “No one crosses Mama Palo. Should I wait, Lady Flint? Or have you reconsidered the offer?” He paused, considering, then added in a hushed tone, “Invitations like this are not extended often. The Ice Baron has vouched for you, and that allows you to enter Palo society this once. If you turn it down, you will not receive another opportunity.”

Vlora had heard terms like this before, and it always led to one thing: a trap. Vallencian seemed genuine, and so did the Palo rickshaw driver. But she couldn’t be certain. The implication here was that Mama Palo herself had approved her invitation, which could mean anything at all. She suddenly realized how little she knew of Mama Palo. Was she a malevolent force? Lindet and the Blackhats certainly seemed to think so. Did she scheme outside of Greenfire Depths and the Palo that she had united, or did she stay within a small area of influence? Was she the type to dare the ire of a dangerous mercenary company by harming their general?

As much as the situation made her leery, she felt like she had to take advantage of this. Blackhats didn’t dare the Depths, yet she had been invited right to Mama Palo’s doorstep. Perhaps Mama would even be there tonight in the flesh. Kidnapping her on her own would be impossible, but if Vlora could arrange another, less public meeting…

“All right,” she said. “Eight thirty. I’ll be here.”

“Very good, Lady Flint. I’ll wait.”

“And I’ll send someone out with some water,” Vlora said over her shoulder, heading back toward the staff building. She found Olem on the other side of headquarters, helping a handful of soldiers pry an immense, rotted beam off the inside of the fort walls. The group leaned on a long pry bar, heaving and hoeing until the beam came loose in a shower of spongy wooden fragments. Olem saw Vlora and came to join her, dusting off his hands. “Don’t you have anything better to do?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Olem said reluctantly. “But they needed an extra body, so I pitched in. I like to get my hands dirty.”

“That’s why I like you,” Vlora responded. She smiled at his rolled-up sleeves and the sweat on his brow, considering the things she’d like to do to him. But business came first. It always came first. “I just got my invitation to the gala.”

Olem’s face lit up and he gave her a wink. “Excellent! I’ll get my dress reds and put together an honor guard.”

“Yeah,” Vlora said, drawing out the word. “That’s a problem.”

“How?” Olem asked, immediately suspicious.

“I’m the only one allowed to go. If I try to bring anyone else, the invitation is forfeit.”

Olem looked nonplussed. “Well, we’ll have to figure out something else, then.” He paused, examining Vlora’s face, then shook his head. “Oh, pit. You want to go in there alone, don’t you? Absolutely not, I forbid it.”

“You what?” Vlora said, her voice growing dangerously quiet. She grit her teeth, ready for a fight.

“I forbid it,” Olem said, though with slightly less conviction. He knew he’d made a mistake.

“I love you dearly, but you do not forbid me anything,” Vlora said in a low voice. “This is a once-in-a-million chance. I’m being invited straight into the den of our quarry, without a fight, without a risk to the lives of my men.”

“The adder’s nest, more like it,” Olem spat.

“Have you known me to fear adders?” Vlora forced herself to rethink her anger. Olem wasn’t coddling her. She knew this was a risk she was taking, perhaps foolishly. He was not in the wrong to question it. But she was the commanding officer.

“No,” Olem answered after a few moments of silence. “I’ve never known you to fear much of anything.”

“I’ll have my weapons,” Vlora said. “And my powder. I won’t drink and I won’t eat, and I’ll keep a hand on my pistol. If anything happens I’ll carve my way out of it.”

Olem scoffed. “You’re being pigheaded.”

“Perhaps. It’s a risk I’m willing to take.”

“At least let me send Norrine or Davd with you.”

Vlora lifted a finger like Devin-Tallis. “One invitation. No more.”

“Shit,” Olem said, pacing the space between her and the outer wall of the fort. “I wish Styke was here. He said he knows a bit about the Depths. If he was, I could at least have him shadow you.”

“Well, he’s not. Have you heard from him?”

“Stopped by earlier. Said he had a lead on those dragonmen. Said he’d know more tonight.”

Vlora stood with her hands on her hips, drumming the butt of her pistol. She wondered if the big bastard was leading them on, or if he really had something. “All right. I’ll meet with him when I get back. It might not be until tomorrow. It’s a party, after all.”

Olem’s jaw tightened in a way she found endearing, and he finally said, “All right. Keep your sword loose, and don’t trust anyone.”

“Of course not.”

“And,” Olem added, “if anything happens to you, I will burn down Greenfire Depths, Lindet and Mama Palo be damned.”