Masque of Death (Kormak Book Nine) (The Kormak Saga 9) (5 page)

The first sacrifice had only been a test to see how far she was prepared to go. There had been more sacrifices, each performed by her hand. She had taken drugs and wine to steady her hand. Each was a step down a dark road. Each made her investment in time and willpower more important. Each made it harder to turn back. It had all felt so inevitable once she was locked inside it.

She was avoiding what she had done. She did not want to think about it. Even now she could not imagine how she had done it, but now she was more or less sober. At the time, she had been on powerful drugs. She had distanced herself from what she was doing. She had told herself it was all a hallucination or a dream. It had not been.

She could not bring herself to speak of it. The words stuck in her throat. The Guardian appeared to understand.

“They accepted you in the end. You did whatever it was that was required of you to make them do that.”

“Yes, I did it.” Why could she not say what she had done? She had done it after all. How could such an evil deed be easier to perform than to talk about?

“And then what happened?”

She had not been let into the secrets of immortality. Not even after she had made the necessary sacrifice. She had done other things for the alchemist. She had seduced powerful men, taken lovers. She had driven her husband mad with jealousy so that he would kill them in duels. She had held the threat of telling him over the heads of others. She had wheedled information from some and stolen things from others. She had helped neutralise Balthazar’s enemies and advance his friends. She had not then known it was all part of a much larger plan.

She was not proud of herself, but she had done it. She had received rewards too. Small rewards at first. Potions that had made her feel young and happy, that had countered the guilt and depression she so often felt when she was not taking them. She had drunk too much and taken too many lovers, including those she had not been told to take.

She lost control of herself. She began to drink too much and talk too much. There had been crying jags and spells of wild exultation. And recently she had come to realise that the other members of the cult were looking at her oddly. They were worried about her behaviour. It came to her that was dangerous because she knew now how dangerous these glittering friendly people could be.

They worshipped not just the Old Ones but Old Ones who had given themselves to the Shadow. They plotted rebellion against the state and the Church. They killed people, and they worked dark magic. She realised that she stayed drunk and high not just from guilt but from fear. There was no one she dared tell.

“You were afraid of these people, I understand, but why not go to the Church. Frater Ramon would have helped you. He and the Governor would have hunted down the people who had deceived you.”

“You don’t understand. Frater Ramon is sick, and the Governor is a weak and fearful man.”

“So you have not talked to anyone about this,” said Kormak.

“No.”

The Guardian nodded and paused for a moment as if he were thinking about something. He gazed around the room. The silence grew longer. Her dread mounted. Her fate was entirely in his hands. Still, she felt as if a vast weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

“It is still possible you might be saved. If you do exactly what I tell you and everything I ask.”

She saw a small glimmer of hope. Perhaps she could escape from this with her life.

“You can give me the names of all these people.”

“Yes.”

“You are willing to testify under oath and sign your name to a confession?”

“Yes.”

“You will betray them even though you have sworn oaths to them and sacrificed human beings for them?”

“Yes.” She looked up at him and saw something strange written on his face. It might have been sadness. “You don’t believe me.”

“Unfortunately, I do.”

“Why, unfortunately?”

“It does not matter. Take off your clothes.”

“What? Now hardly seemed the time.”

“You said you would do anything I asked. Think of this as another test. A final one.”

So the Guardian was not so different from other men after all. Well, if this were part of the price of freedom she would pay it. She had paid it before.

She stripped slowly, folding her clothes one by one and setting them down on a chest of drawers. She turned to face him and saw appreciation in his eyes.

“Lie down on the bed.” She did so, wondering why he had produced the knife. She was still wondering when he drew the razor sharp blade across her throat.

A
servant rapped
on the door. “Breakfast is served in the main dining room.”

Kormak rose from where he lay. Rhiana stirred next to him. “My head,” she said. “It feels like a mast fell on it.”

“If you will drink the local wine,” Kormak said.

“Oh,” she said. “It’s all starting to come back to me. That is embarrassing.”

“I don’t think anyone noticed anything you said or did.”

“Except you. I hope.”

“Except me.”

“It seems we are back where we started.”

“We’re not aboard a ship. I find that a bonus.”

“You know what I mean. What are we going to do?”

“Nothing has changed,” Kormak said. “I’m still a Guardian, and you still want to go back to Port Blood. We talked about this on the
Pride of Siderea
.”

“You don’t want anything to change. You want to stay just the way you are.”

“I see that some of the wyrmspike wine is still in your blood. You’re very argumentative this morning.”

“It takes two to make an argument.”

“You get no argument from me about that.”

“Well, that’s a novelty.”

“I believe the Governor is waiting for our presence.”

“And you change the subject, as always.”

Kormak shrugged, rose from the bed and started to get dressed. “I have work to do here and a limited time to do it in.”

“So you’re off to seek a new way of getting yourself killed.”

“I hope not. I hope I’m about to start discovering who tried to get King Aemon killed. If I don’t, I may get myself killed. Prince Taran does not like me, and he likes failure even less.”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do about you.”

“You don’t need to do anything.”

“I wish that were true.”

“Get dressed,” Kormak said. “We are keeping the Governor waiting and Admiral Zamara too.”

“I don’t think they will be shocked. Not with the way everybody was behaving last night.”

“Zamara is quite an impressionable soul.”

“I think he’s going to be out of his depth here.”

“He might surprise you.”

“I certainly hope so. For his sake.”

Rhiana began to get dressed. Kormak watched her as if it was the last time. She was certainly very beautiful, and he would be sad to see her go. But the longer she stayed with him, the more danger she would be in.

They strode down the stairs into a huge dining room. The Governor was already present, but there was no sign of his female companion from the evening before. Zamara was there along with Terves. The Governor looked up as Kormak entered and said, “Good morning, Guardian. I trust you slept well.”

“About as well as everybody else,” Kormak said.

The Governor looked at Rhiana appreciatively and said, “I do not doubt that for a second.” He gestured to the collection of bowls on the table and said, “Help yourself to whatever you want. We do not stand on ceremony here. It’s not like at the King-Emperor’s court. We are somewhat less formal here.”

“I noticed that last night.”

The Governor looked away and made a deprecatory gesture with his right hand. “I trust you will not judge me by last night. Like everyone else, I was somewhat the worse for wear. That is not the way things usually go round here. I can assure you, as I was just assuring the Admiral, that I run a very tight ship.”

As he spoke more and more servants in plain black tunics entered the room, carrying a selection of dishes which they placed upon the table and then withdrew silently as they came. “Do have some of the dried fish, Sir Kormak. I think you will find it is excellent.”

Kormak helped himself to some bread and butter and put it on a plate. “I have some questions to ask you.”

“Of course, of course. But first Admiral Zamara gives me to understand that you have some papers for me. Credentials, as it were. It’s not that I don’t take your word, but there are protocols to be followed in matters such as this.”

Kormak produced papers and the royal signet ring. The Governor made a great show of reading the King’s warrant and inspecting the seal. By the time he had finished, his face was pale, and he was swallowing even though there was no food in his mouth.

“Everything certainly seems to be in order,” the Governor said. “What can I do to help you? I can assure you that all you have to do is ask, and I will move heaven and earth to get it done.”

“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Kormak said. “All you need to do is answer some questions. Depending on your answers we shall see how things proceed.”

“By all means, go ahead. I have nothing to hide. Nothing to hide at all.”

“On the last treasure galleon, you sent a sarcophagus to the King.”

“Indeed, I did. A very fine specimen it was brought in by some adventurers from upcountry. I remember thinking that it was exactly the sort of thing that King Aemon had asked me to keep an eye open for. I hope the King was pleased.”

Either the man had no idea of what had ensued once the coffin was delivered or he was a much better actor than he appeared to be. “Initially.”

Now the Governor looked alarmed. “Initially?”

“The sarcophagus contained an Old One. A very dangerous one. One that killed over a score of people in the Imperial Palace and almost killed the King himself.”

If the Governor had looked pale before, he turned white now. His eyes became very large. “I’m very, very sorry to hear that. I had no idea. Please tell the King that I had no conception that anything so dangerous could have been within that coffin. His Majesty made it very clear to me that anything I found out there was to be sent on undisturbed, and I followed his instructions to the letter.”

“You made no attempt to check upon the sarcophagus whatsoever?”

The Governor shook his head. “The King was quite clear. Nothing was to be disturbed. Particularly if the object appeared to be of mystical significance.”

“And the object appeared to be so to you?”

“I am no expert on such things. In these matters, I rely upon Frater Ramon. He is a scholar of formidable intellect and considerable knowledge. He studied these matters in depth. I sometimes think that he knows all there is to know about the Old Ones around here.”

“I talked to him last night, and he certainly seemed knowledgeable.”

“You are undoubtedly considerably better informed in such matters than I am.”

“So you’re saying that Frater Ramon is the person responsible for sending this to the King.”

For an instant, the Governor looked relieved. He had found a way to shift the blame. Kormak could almost see the gears moving inside his head. “I would hardly say he was responsible for sending it to the King. He simply advised me about it. In fact, now that I think about it, he did tell me about the seals. He said that this was a discovery of extraordinary mystical significance.”

“You told him about the King’s interest in these things?”

“He is my closest adviser in such matters—of course, I had told him. He was well aware of the reason I was consulting him about the sarcophagus.”

“We’ll come back to that then. Tell me where the sarcophagus came from originally. Tell me about these adventurers.”

“There’s not a lot to tell really. They were typical of their sort. Rough men who spend a lot of time out in the wilderness looking for gold and ancient treasures. They claimed that they had found the sarcophagus deep in the wastelands beyond the Xilarean peaks. They claimed that they had spent a lot of time and gold getting it and that a lot of their friends had died while they were doing so.”

“Where could I find these men? It would help me a lot, and it would not do you any harm if they could confirm your story.”

The Governor smiled. “There are plenty of people who could confirm my story. The men brought the matter up in one of my judicial sessions. They presented themselves to me. Ezra was there. Frater Ramon was there. Half a dozen scribes were there and a group of personal servants.”

“And all of these people saw the sarcophagus? And none of them had any opportunity to tamper with it?”

“I’m in no position to say, Sir Kormak. I was not with the sarcophagus every minute it was within my mansion. In fact, after the initial session, I barely saw it. That was the business of Frater Ramon and the previous Admiral and all of the other people responsible for seeing that cargoes were transhipped.”

“I get the picture.”

“I’m sure you understand how it is. I’m a very busy man, and I can take personal responsibility for all of the little details of everything that surrounds me.”

“Of course, Governor.”

“That’s very understanding of you, Sir Kormak. Would you perhaps like a little wine?” The Governor appeared to think that they had passed some milestone in the conversation. Kormak saw no reason to let him think otherwise.

“No thank you. So you have absolutely no idea where I might find these adventurers?”

“Probably where you will always find men of that sort. They will either be frequenting the lowest dives in the city, or they will be upcountry searching for their next big find.”

“And their names?”

“Anders and something?” The Governor looked at Ezra.

“Gregor, your Excellency.”

“Gregor. Thank you, Ezra.”

“You said that they found the sarcophagus in the mountains.”

“Indeed, Sir Kormak. There are some villages up there as well as plantations. I believe these men had come from the wastelands beyond the mountains.”

“I would very much like to find these men. It would certainly go a long way towards exonerating you in the King’s eyes.”

The Governor set his goblet down. “You’re saying that I’m in trouble with His Majesty even after what I’ve told you?” There was a dangerous edge to his voice.

“That will be up to His Majesty. I am merely reporting to him.” Kormak had conducted enough interrogations to know that he wanted to distance himself from the perceived threat here. The Governor could undoubtedly be a dangerous man if he felt at risk.

The Governor's nod was affable. He was starting to reassert control of the situation. “I will do everything in my power to help you find the men who sold me the coffin. I will also put all of my staff at your disposal. There is nothing more important to me than getting to the bottom of this matter, and I would greatly appreciate it if you let His Majesty know that.”

“I certainly will,” Kormak said. “He will learn of all of the cooperation you have given me.”

Raised voices were heard outside. It sounded almost as if two people were about to come to blows.

A large man with a dark, furious face and bristling moustaches barged into the room. He strode directly up to the table and drew back his hand as if to slap Kormak in the face. The Guardian caught his wrist. Try as he might, the man could not move his hand.

“Unhand me, you ruffian, or I will teach a lesson.”

“I will if you can remain calm, sir,” Kormak said.

“How dare you speak to me of remaining calm. I demand satisfaction, sir. I demand it now.”

Zamara stood there, mouth open, stupefied. He quite clearly did not know whether to intervene or not. Among the nobility duels were a matter governed by etiquette.

“Satisfaction? For what?” Kormak asked.

“For your behaviour, sir. Surely you’re not going to be so indelicate as to force me to spell this thing out.”

“I’m afraid I am. When a man challenges me to a duel, I feel the need to ask why.”

“For your behaviour towards my wife, of course.”

“Your wife?”

“Don’t play the innocent with me! I won’t stand for it.”

The Governor had been watching all of this with mild amusement. Kormak suspected that Aurin would be quite happy for this man to kill him in a duel. It would certainly put an end to the investigation. He began to wonder if this had perhaps been arranged.

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about,” Kormak said. “And I don’t fight duels.”

“What sort of coward are you?”

“If you want to try and kill me, go ahead. It will give me no pleasure to cut you down.”

The man stared at him. Clearly, this was not how he expected things to go. “I do not have my duelling sword with me. Nor are you properly equipped.”

“I have fought many a battle with this blade. And it has shed the blood of considerably more noble men than you.”

“This is not the way such things are done,” the man spluttered.

“Do you need an audience? If there is a matter worth killing over surely it is best to get it out of the way. If honour must be satisfied, there is no time like the present.”

The man took a step back now and looked at Kormak as if seeing him for the first time. His expression was confused. He looked as if he suspected he was being mocked and at the same time there were something like respect in his eyes. Kormak judged his opponent. He moved very well for such a large man and doubtless he would be formidable in a fight.

“You have no honour, sir.”

“I’m not the one who charged in and started making false accusations.”

“Are you calling me a liar, sir?”

“Why? Would it give you cause to challenge me to a duel?”

“I am sure it would.”

“Sir Kormak is mocking you, Count Shahad,” said the Governor.

“No man mocks me and lives.”

The Count placed his hand upon his sword. “I want witnesses to show I cut down this clod in a lawful manner.”

“Since I am about to die, may I ask who put you up to this?” Kormak asked.

“No one but yourself, sir. Your behaviour with my wife was unforgivable.”

“What am I supposed to have done to your wife?”

“You have polluted her, sir. You have sullied my good name and dragged hers through the mud.”

“And how exactly have I done this?”

“In the usual way, sir. In the manner of a lustful man venting his evil desires on pure and innocent flesh.”

“And when did I vent my evil desires?”

“You know full well, sir.”

“Indulge me.”

“Last night, when in your cups, filled with drunken lust you pulled my poor wife into a darkened room and had your evil way with her.”

“That seems very unlikely,” said Rhiana. “Sir Kormak was with me last night. And I saw your wife nowhere in our chambers.”