Spinspace: The Space of Spins (The Metaspace Chronicles Book 2) (35 page)

Chapter 92

Kristana
: actions and consequences

“War does not determine who is right – only who is left.”

– Bertrand Russell

Perhaps he wasn't coming tonight.  She set down the brush and turned from the mirror, trying not to sigh. 
Face it, Governor, at your age you're lucky if he sneaks into your quarters at
all.
 

She knew she was lucky.  Xander had stayed with her late husband for so many years, watching the woman he loved smile at another man, the Governor of Rado.  When Roberto died, passing the torch to her, Xander had been content to console her in private.  When she discovered she had feelings for him, the wizard had remained in the shadows, had accepted that it was preferable for people to see him as the distant Court wizard rather than a lover who might detract from her
gravitas
.  He had even, when their secret liaisons had resulted in her pregnancy, agreed that it was best for Aria to be seen as the last gift of the general to his people.

Yes, she was lucky.  But on nights like this when it seemed he would not come to her, she didn't feel lucky.  She had never felt jealous of Xander's dream before, but now that the the school was finally born, she couldn't help resenting the time it was consuming.  His school was like a newborn, crying out for attention and care.  Was this how husbands felt when a baby snatched their wives' attentions?

No that she didn't have her own distractions.  Aria fretted over her impending marriage to the new Honcho, and the ambassadors from New Israel and the Dixie Emirates, while getting along far better than anyone had expected, nonetheless showed a talent for unending haggling and discussion to maximize their respective government's advantages in the proposed trade agreement.  She was beginning to think it might be easier to talk the countries into joining her new Union with Texas as member states then it would be to settle trade protocols between the separate nations.

She glanced at the oil clock on the nightstand.  The oil had filled the bottom of it all the way up into the purple band, which meant it was between 11PM and midnight now.  What could be keeping him?  The steady drip drip dripping of oil was counting out the moments of her life as she grew older waiting for him to appear.

She wondered if the founding of the school would change things for Aria.  With wizards becoming more common, would her daughter be able to court one, if the marriage with Jeffrey never happened?  Kristan had seen how Lester tried not to watch Aria when they were in the same room.

Her thoughts were all over the place tonight.  If Aria called off her engagement to the Honcho, it would be a mixed blessing for Rado.  On the one hand, she could hand over the rains of power to her daughter and enjoy a much-deserved retirement with Xander, who could likewise pass the torch to Lester to run the school.  Lester could be the Court wizard, and maybe be the secret (or even public) consort of Governor Aria.

On the other hand, if the engagement were called off it might be the the straw that broke the back of the Union.  With his father's failed invasion, maybe only Jeffrey's engagement to Aria was keeping him on his throne.   If the marriage were off, the peace might be gone with it.  The war hawks in the Lone Star Empire might give him an ultimatum: declare war again or be replaced.

But if they
did
get married, what then?  Could her daughter, groomed to be the next Governor after Kristana, settled down in Dallas as the new Honchessa and start making heirs?  Not to mention that they'd be heirs to
both
countries.  Daughters would be okay because the men in Texas didn't want a female leader...but was there any reason why a son couldn't follow her as Governor?

I should have stepped down and held elections by now.
Like Robbie, I'm supposed to be only the caretaker protecting them until the democracy can be restored.
  But there had never been a good time for it.  How do you do that - change governments, in the middle of a war?

Now was a good time, but the peace was still fragile.  Conducting free elections would take time – they didn't have the instant communications of the Ancients to inform all the citizens of their candidates.  The general had encouraged self-government at the local, town level.  But the people had no one with enough experience to prepare them to run a country. 
Or am I just stalling?

She shook her head and strode over to inspect herself in the mirror again.  Successions were a tricky business in then best of times.  She had to step down before they could worry about her being senile...yet the had to wait until Aria looked mature enough.  It was a race of wrinkles.

Xander un-cloaked behind her, nearly making her jump when his reflection suddenly appeared behind hers.  “Sorry I'm so late,” he said.  “There have been some new developments.”

She turned around and extracted penance in the form of a long kiss before asking him what he meant by that.

“We caught the saboteur trying to kill a couple of the apprentices.  I'm sure he's the same one who tripped Lester on the stairs and killed Kurt.”

Her eyes narrowed and her lips compressed.  “Who is it?”

Xander held up a hand as if to fend off her burst of grim resolve.  “You're not going to like this, but I believe it wasn't his fault.  It's Kaleb, the one from Angeles, and the Queen's the one who put him up to it.”

“I don't care if it was his great-Aunt Nellie.  Kill someone other than in war or self-defense, you swing for it, in
my
country.”

“Hear me out.  When he clearly had no idea what we were talking about, even after being caught red-handed, I had Doc Daniels hypnotize him.”  Xander took a breath.  “It took a little careful digging, but we finally uncovered his repressed memories of being ordered to do the things he did and then forget them.  It's like she had a spell on him.  That's why he showed no signs of guilt when I questioned all the students earlier.”

“If he had no idea what he was doing, then how did he just happen to end up here in Denver?  Angeles is a long way away.”

“She sent him here.  He didn't want to come, but she has his mother and siblings.”

“How do you even know that she knows hypnotism?  How could she be sure of her control of him from this far away?”

He fished something out of his pocket and showed it to her.  It was a ring of some blue metal.  “With this.  I don't know how yet, but it amplifies telepathy.  He had a command to put it on every night so that she could contact him and give him new orders.”

“So you're telling me he was a puppet?  You're sure?”

“Absolutely.”  Xander stroked his beard.  “I've been debating whether to let him consciously remember everything that happened.  Even though he'll know how used he was, the guilt from his involvement, however non consensual, in Kurt's 'accident' is bound to weigh heavily on him.  Basically, he's a victim too.”

“I don't know if my soldiers and Kurt's family are likely to see it that way,” she said.  “What happens now?  Are you going to let him go...or keep him here and continue teaching him?”

“I don't know yet,” he admitted.  “I've no idea if the other understand this as well as Daniels and I do.  They might not be entirely convinced that he didn't somehow let it happen, that maybe he  could have resisted more than he did.  Trust may be slow to return completely, if ever.”

She looked down at his hand, as he dropped the ring of blue metal back into his pocket.  “Have you tried putting it on, to tell Queen Rochelle that her plan failed?”

He blinked.  “No, of course not.  For all we know, being out of contact with him is the only thing keeping her from killing his family. If she thinks he's still working for her, or at least doesn't know that we caught him, it buys him time to decided what to do, and gives us time to prepare him for the inevitable.”

“What do you mean?”

“Think about it.  The best way to keep his family safe in the long term is to get them out of her power.  And the best way to ensure that is to confront her.'

“You mean, to assassinate her.”

“Not just that,” he said.  “To
replace
her.”

Chapter 93

Nathan
:  a time to teach, and a time to learn

צעיר ומבוגרים כאח
ד,
מור
ה,
כמו גם סטודנטים

“
Young and old alike, teacher as well as student...”

– I Chronicles 25:8

He had never seen his father so obviously impressed.  Isaac was gazing at the newest creation with something akin to awe.  The thing had no name.  Experimenting with it, Isaac held the pipe with one hand while his fingertips stroked the metal near the other end.  When he stroked around the circumference in one direction, the end of the pipe grew re-hot.  Stroking around the other way turned it frosty cold. Stroking parallel to the long access engaged the swizzle component, blowing air through the pipe.  The combination of the cooling, heating, and swizzling made it a one-tool solution for keeping a room comfortable year-round

“How did you do this?  I've never seen anything like it.”

“I didn't, or not all of it.  I still haven't got the swizzle weave myself, so I got Esteban to do that.”

“Still it's impressive.  The two of you have made something I've never heard of.  Have you tried doing it the other way?”

“What do you mean?”

“Putting the
icetorch
weave on a swizzle, instead of the reverse.  I was wondering if it made any difference, the weaving order.”

”Good question.  I guess we'll find out tomorrow.'”

“Have you decided what to call it?”

“Not yet.  Xander's looking through some of his old books tonight trying to find a precedent.  Probably we'll get to name it ourselves.”

His father was silent for a moment.  “This will complicate things,” he said, handing the artifact back to Nathan.

“What things?”  Now it was his turn to ask the questions.

Isaac took a sip of cider from a mug. “I've been negotiating with ambassador Qusay from the Emirates on a trade agreement involving swizzles, everflames, everwheels, crops, and ore.  Once we realized that neither the Emirates nor New Israel makes swizzles, and while we specialize in everflames and coldboxes the Emirates specializes in everwheels, it seemed natural to set up a triangle trade in which each of the three countries does what it does best.”

“Sounds like a good idea.  So what's the problem?”

“Your new artifact, whatever you call it, is something new that
no one
knows how to make...so how will it fit into the agreement?”

What could he say to that?  “Well, if no one learns how to make them it has no effect on your agreement.  Even if I learn how to make swizzles, though, I'm just one person.  I don't see that it's a problem for you.”  He thought about it.  “In fact, it could be another thing for countries to concentrate on.  New Israel could make the
icetorches
and then trade them to Rado to add the swizzle layer, and then
they
could trade them to the Emirates.”

His father considered that.  “Why only to the Emirates?”

“Well, everyone can burn wood or coal to stay warm, but no one has a way of cooling down in the summer.  And the Emirates are farther South than new Israel so they need cooling more.”

“True, but we
do
need heating during the winter.  We can already help our own people do that with everflames, but the forced draft provided by the swizzle makes heating much more effective.”

“Okay, then Rado can trade them to both countries.  What I'm getting at is it doesn't undermine your trade agreement – it only reinforces it by adding another reason for the trading.  Everyone benefits.  New Israel and the Emirates get whatchamacallits, and Rado gets books, paper, and crops.”

He looked around the room.  “Do you have a swizzle or just a length of pipe anywhere?  I wanted to show you how to do the
icetorch
  weave before I go back up to the School.”

Chapter 94

Carolyn
: the mother of all headaches

“A woman is like a tea bag – you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.”

– Eleanor Roosevelt

What a horrible dream!
She tried to shake her head and it exploded with a wave of pain that nearly knocked her out again.  What was that?

“She's awake, doctor.”

She forced her eyes to open and a familiar face swam into view: Daniels.  Was she in his infirmary?

She made the mistake of trying to move her head again and this time the blast of pain brought back an ugly memory: Kaleb swinging a length of pipe, too late to block.  “Ohhhhhhh!”

“That'll teach you to move without permission.”  Daniels raised a cup of something to her lips.  “Drink this.”

She forced herself to drink some.  “Ugh.  Tastes like tree bark in water.  What is it?”

“Tree bark in water.  Willow bark, to be precise.”

She let her head fall back onto the pillow.  “And how is it supposed to help?”

“It contains salicin, which your body converts to salicylic acid.  It will help reduce the pain.”

“How?”

“Damned if I know.  It's chemically related to acetylsalicylic acid, a painkiller the Ancients called Aspirin.  Apparently, it reduces the perception of pain.  Luckily for you, you have a couple of young willow trees in your gardens on the fifty-ninth floor.”

She remembered them vaguely.  “Are they rare?”

“Rare?  No, they grow all over the continent.”

The pain was a dull ache as long as she kept her head motionless.  “So it wasn't a dream.  Why did he hit me?” 

Daniels frowned.  “I should let Xander tell you, but the hell with that.  I was there for the interrogation.”  He set the cup down on a table.  “You've been unconscious for almost a whole day.  You had a concussion, but you're lucky.  Your skull didn't crack, and you should have no permanent effects.”

He scribbled a note about the willow back and added the current time.  “As to why Kaleb struck you, it seems he was the saboteur.  He was acting under hypnotic compulsion, and remembered none of it until Xander and I put him back into trance and did a little digging.”

This time she remembered in time not to shake her head.  “But why did he want to hurt me?  I never did anything to him.”

Daniels pursed his lips.  “You're not thinking clearly yet.  First, he didn't want to hurt you.  He was being controlled by the Queen of Angeles who sent him here.  Apparently, she wants to shut down the school.  He was also responsible for Lester's 'accident' on the stairs and Kurt's burning to death.”

“My God.”

“The thing you have to keep in mind is that it wasn't his fault.  If you blame him you fall into the Queen's trap.  Obviously, she wanted to turn the Governor's troops against the school, and when that didn't work she tried to get him to kill you instead.”

Why?
she almost asked, but then her mind answered itself: because no one would send their sons and daughters to a school where students died.  “Who stopped him?”

“That's where it gets complicated.  After he knocked you out, he tried to shove you down the elevator shaft.  If no one had stopped him we, might have thought you just managed to stumble into the open doors by accident.  But Nathan and Kareef were awake, fortunately.”

“But...how did
they
know?”

“That's what I wanted to know.  They used some wizard's trick I suppose.  Anyway, you were sliding toward the elevator when Kareef shoved you out of the way.  Problem was, to do that he stepped right into the spell Kaleb was using to move you, and it shoved
him
in.”

“Oh no!”

“Wait.  I'm not finished.  Nathan managed to grab Kareef's hands.  The little idiot was going to go over the edge with him, but Esteban was awake by then and grabbed Nathan's feet and managed to save both of them.  So it was a close one, but we lost nobody.”

She absorbed that.  “How did the Queen know about the elevator doors being open?”

“She must have been in communication with Kaleb somehow.  I'll let Xander explain that one, since I'm not sure I understand it myself.”