The Obsidian Oracle

TWO CHAMBER OF PATRICIANS

Tithian stood in the anteroom of the White Palace, peering through a casement, counting the number of ships in Balic’s harbor. The port lay at the edge of the city, where a haze of silvery dust lingered over the bay, drifting as far inland as the inns surrounding the dock area. Still, the Tyrian king found the task an easy one, for the masts rose out of the murk like the charred boles of a burned forest.

“What’s your interest in King Andropinis’s armada?” inquired Tithian’s escort, a young man wrapped in the cream-colored toga of a Balican templar. He had a haughty chin, an upturned nose, and short hair as white as his robe. “Surely, at Tyr’s distance from the Silt Sea, you’ve no reason to worry about our navy.”

“I’ve no particular interest in the fleet,” lied Tithian, continuing with his silent count. “But I had not imagined your port would be so crowded. How many craft does your king have?”

“That’s not something we discuss with strangers,” replied the templar, taking Tithian by the arm. “Nor do we allow them to count our sails.”

Tithian jerked his arm free of the young man’s grasp. “In my city, you’d be flogged for such impudence!”

The templar showed no sign of concern. “We are not in your city, and you are not a king in Balic,” he replied. “Now, step away from the window.”

“I will-when King Andropinis is ready to receive me,” said Tithian, struggling to keep his temper under control. “If you touch me again, I’ll kill you-and I assure you, Andropinis will do nothing about it.” He slipped his hand into the satchel hanging from his shoulder.

The templar’s guards, a pair of flabby half-giants standing almost as high as the ceiling, leveled their wooden spears at the Tyrian’s chest. Dressed in leather corselets with white capes pinned over their stooped shoulders, the hairy brutes had slack-jawed expressions that did little to belie their slow wits. Tithian gave them a contemptuous sneer, then returned his attention to his escort.

“Give this to your master,” said Tithian. He withdrew a small medallion of copper that had been molded into an eight-pointed star. It was the crest of Kalak, the sorcerer-king from whom Tithian had usurped the throne of Tyr. “Tell him I have grown tired of waiting.”

The templar remained unimpressed. “I’ll relay your message-and you shall wish I hadn’t.”

With that, the man spun on his heel and left, leaving his charge in the custody of the half-giants.

“You made a big mistake, Tyr king,” said one of the brutes. “That was Maurus, Chamberlain to His Majesty.”

Tithian gave the guard a wry smile. “I think Maurus is the one who made the mistake.”

The king returned his attention to the masts. From what he could tell through the haze, the harbor seemed unusually full, with no empty dock space available and dozens of craft moored offshore. To fulfill his needs, he would require only a small portion of the armada gathered in the bay.

Now that he felt certain he’d be able to procure enough troops and ships, Tithian allowed his gaze to wander over the rest of Balic. The city shimmered with a pearly light, for its blocky buildings were faced in blond marble and its avenues paved with pale limestone. Encircling the White Palace’s fortified bluff were the pillared emporiums of the Merchants’ Quarter, as striking in their size as in the clean lines of their architecture. Beyond this district lay the dingy warrens of the Elven Market, the stadium, the workshops of the artisans, and the chamberhouses where most of the city’s population lived. All in all, Balic seemed a prosperous and pleasant metropolis, one which Tithian would have been glad to call his own.

One day, he chuckled silently, I might.

When Maurus did not return for several more minutes, the king allowed his thoughts to wander to the man who had been stalking him in the desert. Tithian had first learned of his pursuer when his spy, an elven desert runner hired to watch his back-trail, reported that a Tyrian noble of Agis’s description had been asking about him at an oasis. Despite the reasonable fee the elf had quoted for murdering the noble, the king’s heart sunk. Of all the men who might have come after him, Agis was the only one he could not bring himself to kill.

It was a flaw in his character Tithian did not understand. He made many excuses for his weakness, telling himself it would be foolish to assassinate such a valuable statesman. When that did not seem enough, the king reminded himself of Agis’s superior knowledge of agriculture, which made Tyr’s farms more productive than those of any other Athasian city. Other times, he thought of the riots that would be caused by the noble’s death, or of any of a dozen other equally valid reasons for leaving Agis alone.

Still, Tithian knew he was lying to himself. Agis had incited the Council of Advisors to defy the king in a hundred matters, from letting paupers drink free at city wells to converting royal lands into charity farms. Such insolence would have cost anyone else his life, but Tithian had always stopped short of murdering his old friend.

Even now, when Agis’s meddling endangered the most important endeavor Tithian had ever undertaken, the king could not bring himself to kill the noble. Instead of telling Fylo, whom Tithian had found seeking employment as a caravan cargo bearer, to kill Agis, the king had merely asked the oaf to detain the noble.

Tithian hoped he would not regret the decision. Agis had demonstrated many times that he could be as resourceful as he was determined, and even a giant might not hold the noble for long.

Given that possibility, the king thought it might not be such a bad thing if Fylo ignored his instructions and killed Agis. Then, at least his friend’s blood would not be on Tithian’s hands.

He banished the hope from his mind as quickly as it came. Such an accident hardly seemed a fitting end for a king’s only friend. Agis had not always been a political enemy, and there had been times that the noble had stood by Tithian when nobody else would. If the time came when his friend had to die, Tithian decided, it would be by the king’s own hand.

Agis deserved that much.

The chamberlain’s officious footsteps echoed down the hall, putting the king’s concerns about his friend out of his mind. When he turned away from the window, Tithian found a smug grin on Maurus’s narrow lips.

“King Andropinis normally addresses the Chamber of Patricians at this time,” the chamberlain said, a malicious glint flashing in his eyes. “He asks that you meet him there.”

Maurus and the guards led Tithian down a corridor lined by the lifelike statues of ancient statesmen, then across a broad courtyard to the White Palace’s marble-faced assembly hall. The building was perfectly square, with a colonnade of fluted pillars supporting an ornate entablature. Without awaiting an invitation, Tithian marched up the stairs, but before he could enter the building, the chamberlain scrambled past and blocked his way.

“Allow me to hold that for you,” said Maurus. Being careful not to touch his guest, he motioned at the satchel on Tithian’s shoulder.

Tithian opened the sack and displayed its interior. “As you can see, it’s empty,” he replied. “No reason for concern.”

Maurus did not move. “Nevertheless, I must insist,” he replied. “Things are not always what they seem, are they?”

“They seldom are,” Tithian allowed.

He reluctantly took the bag off his shoulder. Maurus’s suspicions were well-founded, for it was a magical satchel that could hold an unlimited number of items and still appear empty. Before leaving Tyr, the king had placed inside an ample supply of food, water, coins, and many other items he expected to need on his journey. Of course, the supplies also included a broad selection of weapons, but that was not why Tithian wanted to keep the sack in his own hands. He had something else inside that would convince the Balican ruler to give him what he wanted, and he had wanted to keep the bag so he could time the appearance of the items for maximum effect.

Tithian handed the satchel to the chamberlain, silently cursing the man’s caution and efficiency.

“Now may I go inside?”

Maurus slipped the satchel over his shoulder, then waved his guest through the doorway. Tithian passed into a small anteroom, where a half-giant sentry stood in front of a pair of massive doors. After raising his hand to salute the chamberlain, the guard pulled a door open and stepped aside.

Tithian entered the next chamber. The air felt hot and moist against his skin, and it reeked of perfumed flesh. Save for the soft scrape of his own sandals on the floor, the place remained so quiet that the Tyrian wondered if he had entered an empty room.

As his eyes adjusted to the stifling murkiness, Tithian saw that was not the case. A gallery of marble benches ran down both sides of the huge chamber, partially concealed by two lines of marble pillars that supported the ceiling. Several hundred men and women waited patiently in the tiers, all dressed in white togas hemmed with silver and gold. They were of many races: human, mul, dwarf, half-elf, and even tarek. They all remained absolutely silent, sitting so motionless that not even the rustle of their silken robes disturbed the eerie quiet.

At the far end of the chamber stood an empty throne, constructed of translucent alabaster and stationed upon a pedestal of pink jade. Inlays of blue-tinted moonstone decorated the back of the magnificent seat, while the arms had been shaped from solid blocks of chalcedony and the legs from limpid crystals of citrine. All of the light passing through the room’s narrow windows seemed to flow directly into the chair, which cast the radiance back into the chamber as a muted white glow.

Tithian walked forward, stopping near a graying patrician of about his own age. She had the pointed ears and peaked eyebrows of a half-elf, but her shape was somewhat plump and matronly for a woman of her race. Next to her, six gold coins rested in a shallow basket woven from the fronds of a soap tree. The woman did not turn to face the Tyrian.

“Is it not customary in Balic to greet strangers?” Tithian asked. His voice echoed through the still chamber as though he had struck a gong.

“Lady Canace cannot hear you,” said Maurus, walking toward him. “Neither can she see you.”

The Tyrian stepped around to face the woman. Ugly, red burn marks scarred her sunken eyelids, leaving Tithian with the impression that she had no eyeballs.

Maurus stopped at the Tyrian’s side, then placed a finger on the woman’s lower lip. She jumped as though startled, then allowed her mouth to be pulled open wide. In place of a tongue, she had only a mangled stump.

“King Andropinis values the advice of his patricians,” the templar said flatly. “But he also wishes to be certain that anything occurring here is never discussed outside the White Palace.”

“A wise precaution,” Tithian observed, stepping away from the woman. “It’s unfortunate he is not so prudent with his chamberlain.”

Maurus closed Lady Canace’s mouth and whirled around to reply, but an acid comment from the throne cut him off. “Do not anger my chamberlain,” said the voice. “It is the same as angering me.”

Tithian looked toward the throne and saw a huge man before the pedestal. He stood taller than an elf and was as heavily muscled as a mul. On his head, a fringe of chalk-colored hair hung from beneath a jagged crown of silver. He had a slender face, a nose so long it could almost be called a snout, and dark nostrils shaped like eggs. His cracked lips were pulled back to reveal a mouthful of teeth filed as sharp as those of a gladiator. Unlike the patricians, he did not dress in a toga. Instead, he wore a sleeveless tunic of white silk, a breechcloth of silver fabric, and soft leather boots.

“King Andropinis,” Tithian said. He did not bow, and his voice betrayed no sign of awe or reverence.

Andropinis did not answer, instead turning away to take his throne. As the Balican climbed the stairs, it became apparent that he was not entirely human. Beneath his tunic, a line of sharp bulges ran down the length of his spine, while small, pointed scales covered the back sides of his arms.

Andropinis took his seat in the throne, then glared around the chamber. We are in chamber, my advisors, he said, using the Way to broadcast his thoughts directly into the minds of everyone present.

The patricians rose from their seats, each holding a shallow soap tree basket in his or her hands. Tithian waited for the room to grow quiet again, then nodded to the chamberlain. “Announce me.”

Maurus motioned him forward. “I suggest you announce yourself,” he replied. “This audience is your doing, not mine.”

Tithian walked forward until he stood before the throne. Andropinis’s white eyes glared at him, as cold and stinging as hail, and the Balican said nothing. Compared to Kalak’s pitiful form, this sorcerer-king seemed a brute. He looked as though he could bite a man in two or rip a half-giant’s head off with his bare hands. Yet Tithian knew appearances could be deceiving. He had seen Kalak, as frail and decrepit as a hundred-year-old woman, kill slaves with no more than a glance and snap mul necks with a twist of his wrist.

The one who stands before you is Tithian the First, King of Tyr.

Andropinis was off his throne and towering over Tithian before the king realized he had moved. “Your identity is no concern of my patricians,” the Balican said quietly, clenching the smaller king’s shoulders. His fingers dug into Tithian’s flesh like talons, and his breath smelled as though he had been eating burnt cork. “Be kind enough to speak with your tongue.”

“If you wish,” Tithian replied. Moving with deliberate steadiness, he reached up and gently pushed Andropinis’s hand away from his shoulder. “And please remember that you address the king of Tyr.”

“You may have killed Kalak, but you are no king,” replied Andropinis. He circled Tithian slowly, looking him up and down. “You know nothing of being a king.”

“I know enough to have won a war with Hamanu of Urik,” the Tyrian answered. Strictly speaking, it had been Rikus who had won that war, but Tithian had been claiming credit for the victory so long that he had forgotten the distinction. “And I have won the favor of Borys of Ebe-the Dragon of Athas.”

Andropinis stopped at Tithian’s side. “You should not banter the Dragon’s ancient name about,” he warned, hissing into his guest’s ear.

“I did not come to banter, as you shall see if we may discuss the reason for my visit,” Tithian replied.

Andropinis nodded, then stepped toward the gallery where his nobles stood. “We will discuss it while I accept gifts from the patricians.”

Tithian went into the tiers at Andropinis’s side. Maurus fetched a large wooden basin from behind the throne, then followed a step behind the two kings. The trio stopped at the side of the first patrician, a wizened old man whose basket contained several glistening rubies.

Andropinis selected the largest gem and held it up to the light. “What do you want in Balic, usurper?” he asked, addressing his guest without looking at him.

Tithian’s answer was direct and to the point. “I need two thousand soldiers and the craft to carry them over the Sea of Silt.”

Andropinis raised a brow, then took all the rubies from the old man’s basket and dumped them into the basin in the chamberlain’s hands. “What makes you believe I would give them to you?”

Tithian gestured at the satchel on Maurus’s shoulder. “If I may?”

Andropinis considered the request for a moment, then nodded. “But if you draw a weapon-”

“I’m not that foolish,” Tithian said. He took the satchel from Maurus’s shoulder, then slipped a hand inside. He closed his eyes for a moment, picturing one of the sacks of gold he had placed in the satchel before leaving his own palace in Tyr. When he had a clear image of it in his mind, he opened his hand. An instant later, he felt a wad of coarse cloth in his palm. Groaning with effort, he withdrew a heavy bag, bulging with coins and nearly as large as the satchel itself. He placed it in Maurus’s basin, opening the top to reveal the yellow sheen of gold.

Andropinis stared coldly at the coins. “Do you think to buy my favor with that?”

“Not your favor,” Tithian replied. “Your men and your ships.” When the Balican’s face remained stony, he added, “I’ll pay the other half when I return, along with compensation for any losses we incur.”

“And what of the losses I have already suffered?” demanded Andropinis.

“What losses would those be?”

“Five years ago, Tyr did not pay its levy to the Dragon, and it fell to me to give him a thousand extra slaves,” he said. “I couldn’t finish the great wall I had been building to enclose my croplands. Perhaps you heard about what happened next?”

“The Peninsula Rampage?” Tithian asked, thinking of the short-lived war in which a small army of giants had overrun most of the Balican Peninsula.

“The rampage cost me half my army and destroyed a quarter of my fields,” Andropinis said, turning away from Tithian. He went to the woman next in line and examined her basket, then nodded for Maurus to take the contents. “I doubt there’s enough gold in your magic satchel to pay me back for that,” he added, glancing at his guest.

“You can build another wall,” Tithian retorted. “But I still need your fleet. I demand it on the Dragon’s behalf.”

“Do not think to bluff me by invoking his name. I should kill you for that,” hissed Andropinis. He clamped a hand around Tithian’s throat. “Perhaps I will.”

“I’m not lying,” Tithian said. “You’ll realize that when I show you my prisoners.”

Tithian reached into his satchel and visualized a chain of black iron. When he felt it in his fingers, he pulled his hand free of the bag, bringing with it the chain, which was attached at either end to a square iron cage containing a disembodied head. As they were removed from the bag, the two prisoners glared briefly at Tithian, then focused their eyes on Andropinis.

“Kill him, Mighty King!” hissed the first head. He had a shriveled face and ashen skin, with sunken features and cracked, leathery lips. “Slit Tithian’s throat and drop him close to me!”

“No, give me the throat!” growled the other. He was bloated and gross, with puffy cheeks, eyes swollen to dark slits, and a mouthful of gray broken teeth. Like the first head, he wore his coarse hair in a topknot, and the bottom of his neck had been stitched shut with wiry thread. He licked the bars of his cage with a pointed tongue, then continued, “And let the coward live. I want to see the fear in his eyes when I drink his life!”

Andropinis took the cages from Tithian, at the same time removing his hand from the Tyrian’s throat. “Wyan, Sacha!” he said. “Borys told me that he had disposed of you two.”

“Rajaat’s magic is not countered so easily,” spat the bloated head, Sacha. “Now open this imposter’s veins, Albeorn. He hasn’t fed us in weeks.”

“Albeorn?” Tithian asked.

“Albeorn of Dunswich, Slayer of Elves, the Eighth Champion of Rajaat,” snarled Wyan. “Traitor to his master and the righteous cause of the Pristine Tower.”

Tithian knew that Wyan referred to a genocidal war that an ancient sorcerer named Rajaat had started several millennia earlier. It had ended more than a thousand years ago, when all of Rajaat’s handpicked champions-with the exceptions of Sacha and Wyan-had turned against him. After overthrowing their master, the rebels had used his most powerful magical artifact to transform one of their own number, Borys of Ebe, into the Dragon. The other champions had each claimed one of the cities of Athas to rule as an immortal sorcerer-king.

Still studying the caged heads, Andropinis asked, “These two are your proof of the Dragon’s favor?”

Tithian nodded. “When he said he had disposed of them, he meant that he had entrusted them to me,” said the Tyrian. “They’re acting as my unwilling tutors, so I might learn to serve our master as a sorcerer-king.”

This seemed to amuse the Balican. “Is that so?” he asked, raising his brow.

“Of course not,” sneered Wyan. “He’s lying.”

“Kill him!” hissed Sacha.

Andropinis smashed the two cages into the stone tiers of the gallery. A tremendous clang reverberated through the hall, making Tithian’s ears ring. The heads slammed against the bars of their prisons and bounced to the other sides, then dropped motionless and dazed to the bottoms of the cages. When the Balican handed the chain back to Tithian, the corners of each cage were folded in from the impact.

“For now, I’ll accept these abominations as proof that the Dragon wouldn’t want me to kill you,” Andropinis said. “You may remove them from my sight-and tell me what you need with my fleet.”

As Tithian stuffed his dazed tutors back into the satchel, he said, “That’s the concern of myself and Borys alone.”

“Then you may leave your gold and go. Our audience is at an end,” Andropinis said, resuming his inspection of the baskets offered by his patricians. “The chamberlain’s guards will show you to the city gates.”

Maurus smirked and waved the Tyrian toward the exit.

Tithian ignored him, asking, “What of my ships?”

“You have none.”

“My demand is made in the Dragon’s name!” Tithian snapped.

“Which is the only reason I suffer you to live, usurper,” Andropinis replied. He pulled a wad of fleece from a basket held by a dwarven patrician, then used the Way to ask, What is the meaning of this, Lord Rolt?

House Rolt pledges a hundred sheep to feed Your Majesty’s legions, came the reply.

Andropinis scowled, then grabbed the dwarf’s thick wrist and snapped it effortlessly. A garbled howl of pain rose from Lord Rolt’s throat and his knees buckled. Had the king not been holding him up by his broken arm, he would have fallen to the floor.

Despite his pain, the dwarf managed to reply, House Rolt pledges a thousand sheep, Mighty King.

Smiling, Andropinis released the patrician and allowed him to collapse to the floor. He glanced down, leaving no doubt in Tithian’s mind that the exhibition had been for his benefit, and moved on.

Ignoring the implied threat, Tithian continued to press his demand. “If you deny me, you are also denying Borys.”

“Perhaps, but I will not send out my fleet-not for you, and certainly not now.”

“When?” asked Tithian.

Andropinis shrugged. “Perhaps in a month, perhaps not for many years,” he said. “When the war between the giant tribes is over.”

“Which tribes are at war?” Tithian asked.

“Your question betrays your incompetence to command my ships,” scoffed the sorcerer-king.

“I’m sure we can circumvent their lines and keep your ships safe,” Tithian replied.

“I’m not concerned about my ships!” Andropinis spat. “It’s my city I want to protect. The first giants to spy a fleet in the estuary will assume I’ve taken sides with their enemies. They’ll storm Balic, and I’ll be drawn into a war that’s none of my concern.”

“I had not thought a few motley giants would frighten a sorcerer-king,” Tithian countered.

“Only a fool is not wary of giants,” Andropinis replied. He stopped at the side of Lady Canace, the plump half-elf to whom Tithian had tried to speak earlier. The Balican clucked his tongue at the contents of her basket, then slapped her face with the back of his hand. She fell to the floor, spilling the six gold coins she had brought as an offering.

Andropinis continued down the gallery, leaving Maurus to collect the coins. “Even if Borys were here to demand it himself, I would not entrust my ships to such an oaf,” said the king.

“I’m no oaf.” Tithian’s voice remained calm.

“You are if you believe the Dragon can make a sorcerer-king of you,” said Andropinis. He lifted a long necklace of diamonds from the basket held by the stumpy hands of a dwarven patrician.

“I think he is more than capable of bestowing the necessary powers on me-once I supply him with the Dark Lens,” Tithian replied.

The Dark Lens was the ancient artifact which Rajaat’s rebellious champions had used to imprison their master, and to transform Borys of Ebe into the Dragon. Shortly afterward, a pair of dwarves had stolen the lens from the Pristine Tower, and it had been missing ever since.

Andropinis dropped the necklace in his hand back into the basket from which it had come, then narrowed his eyes at Tithian. “So, I am to assume that you have discovered the location of the lens, and the Dragon has sent you to find it for him?” he asked.

“Yes,” Tithian replied. He had hoped to avoid revealing so much to Andropinis, but it had become clear that the sorcerer-king would risk trouble with the giants for nothing but the most important of reasons. “Borys said you would cooperate by giving me the ships and men I need.”

The Balican studied his guest for a moment, then said, “If you are truly attempting to recover the lens on the Dragon’s behalf, then tell me where it is-so we’ll know where to look if you fail.”

Tithian gave Andropinis a wry smile. “Do you really want me to do that?”

The Dragon had warned him never to reveal the Dark Lens’s location, for the artifact’s ancient thieves had placed a powerful enchantment on it to prevent Borys and his sorcerer-kings from discovering its location.

Andropinis returned his guest’s smile, revealing a long row of sharp teeth. “Perhaps the Dragon did send you,” he said. “It took him many centuries to understand the magic protecting the lens. Certainly, without his help, you would not have learned its nature in a single lifetime.”

“Borys warned me of the enchantment,” Tithian confirmed. “From what I understand, it accompanies the knowledge as a stomach worm accompanies a slave. You cannot own one without owning the other.”

Andropinis nodded. “Before we understood how powerful it was, I watched the brains of a hundred agents run out their ears when they tried to tell me what they had learned.”

Tithian swallowed, glad that he had followed his instructions carefully. Borys had warned him that describing the location of the lens would be fatal, but had not elaborated on the gruesome details. Suppressing a shudder, he turned his thoughts back to the purpose of this meeting.

“So, you’ll give me the fleet?”

“I’ll give you the men and ships you seek,” Andropinis said. “But don’t return to Balic, or you’ll wish that I had killed you today. My city won’t be the one that suffers when Borys destroys the lens.”

“Agreed.”

Andropinis glanced at his chamberlain and nodded. Maurus stepped to the Tyrian’s side. “A guard will escort you to a guesthouse. I’ll have a messenger contact you as soon as the necessary arrangements have been made.” When Tithian made no move to leave, the chamberlain waved a hand toward the exit. “This way out,” he said.

Tithian ignored him and kept his attention focused on Andropinis.

“Yes?” asked the Balican. “Is there something else?”

Tithian sneered at the chamberlain, then said, “It would be best if what passed between us could not be repeated, King Andropinis. My task will be difficult enough without the Veiled Alliance interfering.”

“Maurus is trustworthy,” replied the sorcerer-king.

“To you, perhaps,” said Tithian. “But he has shown me no respect, and I’m the one who’s sailing into giant territory-where it would be an easy matter to arrange an ambush. In Borys’s name, I must insist that your chamberlain’s tongue be silenced.”

Andropinis shook his head at Tithian’s boldness, then said, “Perhaps you will become a sorcerer-king after all, Tithian.” He motioned for the chamberlain to step toward him.

Maurus dropped the wooden treasure basin he had been holding and turned to flee. “Please, my king!”

Andropinis slipped past Tithian to clamp a huge hand over the templar’s shoulder. Long claws sprouted from the sorcerer-king’s fingertips, then he used the Way to address the entire Chamber of Patricians.

Young Maurus, my chamberlain, is to be congratulated, he said. I am bestowing the title of Patrician upon him.

The applause was so thunderous that it shook the building.