The False Martyr (55 page)

Ipid rolled his eyes and
ground his teeth. The ambassador was playing with him. “No more of
your games. What is your report? What is happening that I need to
know about? Eia won’t tell me anything, and I will wait no
longer.”

“
He is such fun,”
Ambassador an’ Pmalatir said to Eia with a wicked smile. “How do
you keep yourself from doing this all day?”

“
Stop it, Vontel,” Eia
commanded. “He is mine. You’ve had your fun, now get on with
it.”

Ipid’s eyes bounced
between them in confusion. Clearly, they had some deeper
understanding, but he could not imagine what it could
be.

“
As you wish, my lady,”
the ambassador interrupted his thoughts with a patient smile. “But
certain things must be understood. Lord Chancellor, when I said
that I had been sent to help you, that did not mean you could
simply pull out your cock and tell me to bend over. Even the lowest
whore has certain protocols, and I am no low whore. I am like a
fine lady who you must ply with drink and conversation. You must
make me feel beautiful and loved before I will give you access to
my most prized assets. As you should know, nothing in this world is
free, least of all me.” He paused and stared. There was no humor in
his eyes. “Now, Chancellor Kavich would always start with the
finest feast . . .”

“
Chancellor Kavich is
dead.”

“
And no one mourns him
more than I. He was a man I could work with. He had secrets. It
meant that he knew the danger of secrets. He knew how powerful and
volatile they could be. He knew how to handle them.” The ambassador
paused, wiped his brow, and gathered himself.

“
I mean the girls were not
so young as to be outside their bloom,” he continued casually, “but
they were certainly young. Daughters of the household staff
usually. He had taken the flowers of most of the attractive ones.
The families were compensated. The ones who bore children were set
up with pliable husbands. The girls didn’t protest per se, and his
wife sometimes joined him, so there was no leverage there. But
still, it was not exactly what the Order had in mind. He knew, of
course, that I would never use the information against him, but the
simple fact that I knew put our relationship on a safe footing. It
is the basis upon which all these . . . slippery relationships are
built.” The ambassador licked his lips, drained his brandy, and
reached the cup back toward Eia. She frowned but rose to refill
it.

Despite his annoyance,
Ipid was silently fascinated – he never would have guessed it from
Kavich, but now that he thought about it, there had been some
awkward moments with members of his household.

“
Widowers are the worst,”
Ambassador an’ Pmalatir started again when his cup and been filled
and sampled. “Even if they have scandalous tastes, no one cares.
Almost as bad are men with no vices. So absolute anathema is a
widower without serious vice. I can barely even understand that. I
can certainly not use it. The whole point of being powerful is to
use that power to fulfill the depraved needs that drove you to
claim power in the first place. Those in power are certainly not
doing it out of some desire to make the world better. They are
doing it so that they can fuck and steal and drink and spend. It is
the great irony. The very reason they want power is what will cause
them to lose it. And as a person who knows all the secrets, it
gives me tremendous leverage over those powerful people. Now, that
may sound wonderful, and it is, but it is also dangerous to the
extreme.”

“
I am a busy man,
ambassador.” Ipid looked at the tall clock in the corner, watching
the precious seconds slipping by as the ambassador
prattled.

“
He is trying to make you
understand why he didn’t come to you directly,” Eia
supplied.

“
Because I am too clean?
Because he can’t blackmail me? You know what happens when you try
to blackmail tyrants, don’t you? First off, it doesn’t work. I
don’t need the people to like me. If you spread rumors that I ate
babies for my breakfast, it would not change a thing. Then the
tyrant has you thrown in a cell so that everyone else knows not to
try it.”

“
And that only makes it
worse,” the ambassador whined. “Even your son is unavailable – if I
had something on him, which I don’t. I mean, who has ever heard of
a rich boy at university who isn’t dipping his stick in every honey
pot he can find? All that money, and not a single bastard. How is
that even possible? But, even if I found out he was fucking the Xi
Valati, it wouldn’t matter. His own father practically named him as
one of the Exiles. There is . . . .”

“
Leave Dasen out of this,”
Ipid growled and pounded his hand on the table. “I told you, I
don’t care about your schemes. You cannot blackmail me. The only
thing you can do is
piss me
off
!” His voice rose to a yell. “Now, tell
me what you told Eia last night.”

Ambassador an’ Pmalatir
did not even flinch at Ipid’s anger. He leaned forward and
stared.

“
Listen to him,” Eia
urged. “This is important.”

“
I will tell you a story,”
Ambassador an’ Pmalatir started. He drew a long breath. Ipid fell
back into his chair, exasperated. It was clear his only option was
to listen. “When I first arrived in the Kingdoms, there was a woman
who I wanted very much to bed. By the Order, she was beautiful. I
could not get her out of my head, and I could not get her to even
look in my direction. So it was in desperation that I came up with
my first evil scheme. Through various methods I have since
perfected, I learned that this woman was having her own desires
fulfilled by her best friend. It was better than I ever could have
imagined. I now had not one, but two, women in my control, and I
enjoyed them greatly. That is until I received a visit from a man I
did not know, a rival as it turned out of the lady’s husband. I was
growing tired of my conquest by then – and they hated me in any
case – so when he offered me other rewards in exchange for my
information, I agreed. The problem was that I had no control of
this man, and he proceeded to destroy the lady and her husband. He
showed them not the slightest mercy. He took everything from them.
The husband resigned his post. They lost all their contacts and
money. The friend went into exile. And, eventually, the lady went
insane. She killed herself and their children.”

“
Lord Mondfor,” Ipid
breathed. “You did that?”

“
No,” the ambassador left
no room for doubt. “The man I sold the information to did it. I
simply wanted to fuck a beautiful woman.
He
wanted to destroy a family. I did
not do it, but it was my mistake that allowed it to happen. I did
not control the situation, you see. But I learned. I learned what
tremendous power I had, but what was more important, I learned that
I had to control that power. I learned that I had to have leverage
over every person I worked with. I had to have a way to control
what they did with the information I provided. If I did not have
that leverage, I could not work with them. I call it ‘assured
mutual defamation.’ It is the basis upon which my entire world is
built. Do you understand now why I hesitated speak with you
directly?”

“
You terrify him,” Eia
supplied when Ipid failed to answer. “Dealing in scandal is the
most dangerous profession in the world. If he does not control how
his information is used, it can lead to horrible outcomes. Many men
would do anything to bury their secrets. Others would use those
secrets to bury their rivals – not just discredit them, destroy
them. Vontel is lucky that woman killed herself rather than
him.”

“
Though that was terrible
enough,” the ambassador added solemnly. “Especially the children.
The Order take me, I never understood that.”

Eia looked at him with
sympathy. “He fears that something like that may happen again, that
you may use the information you gather in a way that will endanger
him or other innocents.”

“
But you know me better
than that,” Ipid sputtered. “You know I would never . . .
.”

“
After the way you have
acted today? You are under great stress, my dear. Your judgment is
clouded by the flurry of your concerns. Both Vontel and I worry
what you might do when you hear the information he has
gathered.”

“
And that is why you have
withheld it? Because you think I will fly off the handle and do
something crazy?”

Eia looked at Ambassador
an’ Pmalatir. Secret communication flowed between them. “I did,”
Eia eventually admitted. “I realize now that I have probably only
made things worse, but I was trying to find a time when you could
hear this without making a rash decision that you would
regret.”

“
Alright,” Ipid let out a
long breath. “I understand.”
So it was not
a conspiracy, but they had something. And whoever it was must be
important, must be close to him for them to be protecting
him.
His anger spiked at the very thought.
“But I agree to nothing. I am Chancellor. I will do what is
required to protect these Kingdoms. I will place no restrictions on
that duty. Now, tell me who the traitor is, or I will find some
other way to loosen your tongue.”

Eia sighed, sat back in
her chair, then gestured across to the ambassador. “I tried. Tell
him.”

Ambassador an’ Pmalatir
licked his lips. “Well, I am certainly not one who would stand long
to torture, so . . . .” He took another long breath. “Somewhat
conveniently, my informants scattered when the invaders arrived. It
took me awhile to find them, but most of them remain in their
places around the officials who survived the Darthur
attack.”

“
Get to the
point.”

“
Very well. Lord Allard
Stully.”

“
What about him?” Ipid was
forced to ask. It was certainly not the name he
expected.

The ambassador looked to
Eia. She motioned him to continue. “He is organizing in Aylesford.
He has assembled a number of members of parliament, has contacted
most of the governors you displaced, and is planning to start
various uprisings to disrupt your efforts to help the invaders. He
is working to establish a network of people who are angry but will
do as he says. He plans to coordinate their efforts, probably small
to start – the fly to the giant. But it will grow and consolidate
under his command. He knows you can only respond with brute force,
which will only make him stronger. Eventually, you will have
converted every citizen of the Kingdoms to his side. You will fall,
and he will be Chancellor.”

Ipid sat back. “In
Aylesford?”

“
Yes,” the ambassador
answered cautiously. “He has a sizeable estate and farmlands
outside the city. He went there with his family before the invaders
arrived.”

“
I received reports from
Aylesford this morning. There was no word of dissent among the
estates around the city. The local land owners have given
everything that has been asked.”

“
I’m sorry, Lord
Chancellor, but would you expect anything different? Lord Stully is
no fool. He knows that his best cover is to do exactly as he is
told.”

“
So how do you know he is
organizing dissent?”

“
His butler had a liaison
with my valet. The order advisor he uses for political advice has a
penchant for gambling and the debts to go along with it. I have
paid to support the bastard children of three of his maids and
cooks. His stable master killed a man in a fight in Lethbridge
twenty years ago. . . .”

“
I see,” Ipid conceded.
“So you are confident in your information.”

“
Lord Stully has hosted
twenty-eight members of parliament and six former governors since
he arrived in Aylesford. He has sent riders to every city. He has
drawn up contracts to entice those who are swayed by money. And he
sent couriers to me seeking advice on those who are
not.”

“
And he is ready to
act?”

“
He is supporting and
building resistance in almost every city. Dorington is the
exception. But he is working to sway Bairn.”

Ipid thought. For thirty
minutes, he asked questions, gathered information, and considered.
Next to him, Eia chewed her fingers, watching nervously, clearly
waiting for the explosion, waiting for him to order Lord Stully
arrested or simply killed. Certainly, it would have fit. The man
was a traitor, was conspiring to overthrow the Chancellor, to see
his efforts fail. But Ipid knew that resistance was coming. As Jon
had said, this was as good as it could get. Soon, people would grow
hungry. The invaders would leave. Anger would replace fear. The
rebellion was coming with our without Lord Stully to lead
it.

The key was in the
question that Jon had asked earlier. An hour ago, Ipid had no idea
who would lead the dissent. Now, he had a name, a face, a location.
He sat back in his chair. “We only have one option.” He looked at
Eia then Ambassador an’ Pmalatir. They glanced at each other. “I
must meet with Allard Stully. Ambassador, I assume you can make the
arrangements?”

“
What?” Eia asked. “Meet
with him?”

“
Yes,” Ipid answered with
a small smile. It was his turn to be smug. “I will meet with Lord
Stully and make an agreement.”