Thirteen

The name hung in the air after Stenwold had spoken it: Aldanrael. A name grown familiar to the folk of Collegium, a name that spoke of friendship and rescue in dark days. He did not rush the silence but looked from face to face, those few there with him in his study: Jodry Drillen, of course, who was looking as though he had just been stabbed; brooding, bearded Tomasso, keeping his peace before the Speaker; Laszlo and the Mantis, Danaen, as witnesses; the reliably solid figure of Elder Padstock, Chief Officer of the Maker’s Own company; and Arianna.

She stood behind his chair, her hands on his shoulders. Those hands had twitched as he named the Spider house, and he had merely thought, She understands what this means, crossing swords with the Aristoi.

‘Can . . . can you be sure, though?’ Jodry managed at last. ‘Towards the Spiderlands, things are seldom clear, they say . . . don’t they?’

‘Things have been well concealed from us for over a year, if Failwright’s notes are to be believed,’ Stenwold replied. ‘We have accomplished that rarest of achievements: we have stolen a march over the Spider-kinden. They did not know we were warned of them until Danaen’s people hacked down their hirelings. There was a Spider-kinden master of the ship that Danaen sailed into harbour, and she left papers.’ Stenwold gave a half-smile. ‘The Aldanrael is named.’

‘Stenwold,’ Jodry almost whispered. ‘Stenwold, we can’t . . . you know what this means. There must be another way. You are bringing us to war.’

‘No!’ Stenwold snapped. ‘That’s exactly the rumour that Teornis will stir up. That is the muttering that people like Helmess Broiler will raise, who bear neither of us any fond feelings. They will say, “There goes old Maker, desperate for another war so he can play soldier again.” I did not bring us to this, Jodry. I have uncovered a plot, a hidden war against our city.’

‘Then what are you proposing?’ Jodry demanded.

‘We confront them. We expose what we have discovered, and call their bluff. I’d hope they’d back down, blame everything on someone else, and give up whatever scheme it is that they’re about. Either that or we’ll exchange the Aldanrael for some other house less interested in our shipping. You know how the Aristoi families feud. Believe me, Jodry, I did not go looking for a war with the Spiderlands.’

Jodry glanced over Stenwold’s shoulder. ‘My dear, what say you? You can perhaps know the mind of your people better than we.’

Arianna looked down at Stenwold’s bald head, and then across at fat Jodry. ‘I do not think the Aldanrael, or the Spiderlands, will simply walk away,’ she told him sadly. ‘You’ve killed one of their own.’

‘Can we deal with this quietly?’ Jodry asked. ‘Perhaps we can just get Teornis in a room and talk him round.’ Stenwold could not see Arianna’s expression, but from Jodry’s reaction he guessed that it was not encouraging.

‘I’m not sure Teornis and the Aldanrael will let this be settled quietly,’ he murmured.

‘But they’re Spiders. I thought they liked all that hole-and-corner stuff,’ Jodry complained.

Stenwold sighed. ‘Teornis knows we don’t want another war, not so swiftly on the heels of the last. He will hope that we sue for peace, submit to whatever terms he demands, rather than fight. And meanwhile the Empire’s building up forces near Myna. It wouldn’t take much distraction on our part to see the Empress acquire a few more provinces while our back’s turned. Teornis knows all this.’

‘There will be panic, uproar. We’ll throw the whole Assembly into a horror, statesmen and merchants and scholars all,’ Jodry said direly.

‘But, more than that,’ Stenwold stated, ‘our people have been robbed, some have been killed. Master Rones Failwright, a member of our Assembly, has vanished, and it seems plain that the Spiders did away with him once his voice grew too loud. I don’t think we can hide this, but also I’m not sure that we should. I don’t think the Spiders want a war either, and a show of defiance now may forestall all of that. Collegium must be strong, and we may just face down Spiderlands and Empire both.’

‘If you go begging to them,’ Danaen agreed, ‘they will give you only knives. They will cut you and cut you, and make you ask them to cut you again. Spiders must be met with sword in hand. There is no other way.’

‘Thank you for that.’ Jodry grimaced. ‘I’d accuse you, Stenwold Maker, of being a man who refuses to take the easy way out of anything. However, in this case, I’m not sure there’s an easy way. I wish you weren’t right quite so often, is all. You’re prepared to handle this at the Assembly?’

‘When have I ever shied from bringing unwanted truths before the Assembly?’ Stenwold reproached him.

‘Then I’ll call you, tomorrow, first thing.’

Stenwold nodded and took a deep breath. ‘Chief Officer Padstock.’

‘Yes, War Master.’ The woman looked as though she had been waiting for this moment all her life.

‘Tomorrow I would like you to assemble your company before the Amphiophos. Take no action unless ordered to, or unless violence is offered you, but I want a reminder that Collegium is more than books and words and coin to be taken.’

‘It will be my pleasure, War Master,’ she said, and only then did he realize that she had used the title a moment before.

Well, perhaps it is time to don that robe once again, he thought, without joy.

One by one they filed out until, after they had gone, it was just Arianna left there in Stenwold’s study with him. He was fretting with his papers and she knew, from that old habit, that he had more to say.

Did Teornis know this was coming? she asked herself. Did he broach me because of this? She guessed not, or he would have detailed some more active work for her already, given her some specific instructions. But he knew that he would lock horns with Stenwold, sooner or later. A saying of her people, of her family, returned to her. You cannot stop how fast the world turns. The world had ground her family into pieces. Now she herself would have to stay one step ahead of it.

Stenwold was regarding her with a slight smile on her face. ‘I know,’ he said.

Her heart stuttered. He knows? ‘Sten?’ she asked, her voice smooth and easy. There was an art that all Spiders learned, to keep a gap between the mind and face so that no shock to one caused ripples on the other.

‘This situation, I know it’s not like going up against the Empire, sword against sword. I know Spiders are a different game entirely.’

Oh, if only you really did, though. He was proffering her a tiny scroll, a curl of paper barely the size of her little finger. She took it numbly, opened it to find a single line of elaborate script. ‘Welcome to the Dance,’ she read. She had no doubt that it was in Teornis’s own hand. Anything else would have been bad form.

‘It came to me via the very messenger I sent to fetch Jodry,’ Stenwold explained.

‘You know what this means?’ she pressed. She felt a clutch of tension inside her, but she did not know whether it was for Stenwold’s future or her own.

‘I know that “the Dance” is what they call politics, amongst the Spider-kinden, so I suppose Teornis is just telling me that he knows what I’ve done. His people must have recognized the Very Blade as soon as Laszlo brought her into harbour.’

‘Oh Sten . . .’ she sighed. ‘You do not understand what he means, not at all.’ Which could cost you your life.

He frowned at her. ‘What, then?’

‘Oh, it’s high praise of a sort,’ she said sadly. ‘He means that, by uncovering this you have proved yourself a peer in his eyes. He considers you a worthy opponent. It means that he will make no allowances for your kinden. You are a Spider to him, and he will not spare you, nor expect you to spare him.’

‘Ah.’ Stenwold looked at his hands. ‘Well, that seems plain. Should I be expecting the assassin’s knife, then? Should I start preparing my own food?’

‘Oh, that would be poor form,’ Arianna explained. ‘Inelegant. To commission the death of your chief enemy is an admission of defeat – or next to it. Spider-kinden do not simply have their dance-partners killed: they destroy them, piece by piece, until death would seem a mercy. I do not think Teornis will seek to have you killed unless you leave him no other choice by backing him into a corner. Your friends and allies are under no such protection, though. It is a long-standing tradition to attack someone through their household. Take Jodry, for example.’

‘Jodry?’ Stenwold shook his head. ‘Jodry’s the Speaker for the Assembly, after all. I can’t see Teornis causing that much trouble just to get to me. In fact, it’s more likely he’ll kill me to inconvenience Jodry, surely.’

‘No, Stenwold, no,’ Arianna insisted. ‘What does Teornis care about Beetle ranks and titles? What makes the true adversary is skill, not . . . public office. You are his enemy. You are the man he will dance with. For the rest – Jodry, your Fly-kinden, the Mantis and her crew, that militia-woman – fair game, Stenwold, all of them.’

‘And you?’ Stenwold pressed.

‘Oh, who knows what Teornis would do with me,’ she said, looking straight into his face and thinking, I am telling you, Stenwold. Listen when I tell you. Understand me! But he did not understand her. There was only concern in his expression.

‘I should have you leave the city,’ he started, and raised a hand to cut off her immediate objection. ‘And I know that would solve nothing. Distance is no shield. Instead I must make use of you. Your help here will be the difference between life and death, it seems.’

Oh, very likely. ‘What do you want from this, Stenwold? What will you count as a victory?’

‘Keeping Collegium safe,’ he replied immediately. ‘I do not know what the Aldanrael think to gain from this piracy – they would not risk so much just for plunder. Whatever it is, though, they must walk away from it. My people will be nobody’s prey.’

‘And if Teornis offers a compromise?’

‘If he does, is it likely to be sincere? Or merely a trap?’

She shrugged. And I cannot answer that. I cannot see what Teornis seeks either. ‘It may be. But, even so, if he does?’

‘Will I treat with him, you mean? I would be a fool not to listen to what he might have to say, but I will not simply bare my city’s back for the rod. Men have died. Ships have been lost. If we offer some meek submission, then we simply invite worse.’

And that is true also, she thought. ‘Think carefully on what you will tell the Assembly,’ she warned him.

‘I know. Words said openly cannot then be unsaid.’ He rubbed at his face.

And am I advising him now for himself, or for Teornis? she asked herself. What can I say that is not a betrayal of one man or the other? ‘If you give him no other alternative, he will fight,’ she said. ‘I know the Mantis say we are cowards, my kinden, but that is not true. It is just that direct violence is considered the last and ugliest way of solving any problem. We will take up the sword, if no other choice is left to us, but if you leave him an escape, he may take it. Public face is very important to us. When you make your speech, at least allow him some graceful way to step away. You never know, if the Aldanrael’s plans are still young, they may prefer to abandon them rather than risk a confrontation. Teornis himself may jump at a chance to wash his hands of the matter.’

‘I understand.’ Stenwold nodded soberly. ‘I will choose my words carefully.’

She left him at his desk, staring at a blank parchment.

Downstairs, she had Cardless prepare her a tisane, while she took stock of her options. Tell Stenwold was one of them, but the time for telling him had now come and gone. She should have mentioned it as soon as they were alone together. She should have mentioned it as soon as he returned from his voyage on the Tidenfree. Every moment that passed took her further away from the moment when confession would bring her absolution rather than blame.

Can I just walk away and vanish? She knew she could not. She could betray Stenwold, but never abandon him. She could not stand apart, and know that he was facing this fight, and not know what would become of him. If I am by his side, whoever’s side I am on, then there may come the moment when some act from me can . . . Can what? Save or destroy him, which? Teornis would not let her run, either. He would judge her more harshly for taking flight than he would for remaining loyal to Stenwold, although he would not hesitate to be rid of her in either case. Even as Stenwold’s ally, she was valuable to Teornis as a means of applying pressure, while as a runaway she would be despised and worthless – fit only to be hunted down like an animal so that her incriminating knowledge could be capped.

And if I go to Teornis now? It was worse than that, of course. If she did not go to Teornis now, he would want to know why. His note to Stenwold showed he was well aware that swords were being drawn. He would not believe her if she pleaded ignorance, and she was not sure she could lie to him convincingly in any case. Every minute I stay away invites him to conclude that I’ve betrayed him.

Stenwold. Teornis. The big, lumbering Beetle with the sharp mind, or the elegant, laughing Spider. Stenwold, who roused the whole city against the Wasps. Teornis, who held the entire Fourth Army with just two hundred men and some clever words. Stenwold, who kept the Vekken at arm’s length for days. Teornis, whose relief force drove them off.

Stenwold, who gave himself to the Empire to save me from the crossed pikes.

Teornis, who will make me one of his family.

She felt her selfishness stir, at last. Who was she to sit in judgement on either the War Master of Collegium or an Aristos of the Aldanrael? She was just Arianna, Spider orphan of a failed family, also Rekef deserter, exile from her old home and parasite on her new one. What were honourable causes and noble sentiments to her? She had joined the Rekef readily enough when it suited her, and abandoned it just as swiftly. She had then taken up with Stenwold . . . well, Stenwold was the Big Man in Collegium in those days. Now her association with him had surely taken her as far as it could go. She might be the toast of the city, but this was a Beetle city and, however much they tried to mimic the glories of the Spiderlands, they would never seem more than clowns in borrowed clothing.

Teornis would make her one of the Aristoi. She would be part of the Dance. She would be wealthy, and have slaves and riches and all good things. More, the Dance never stopped and she would never be bored. Beetles might strive for a comfortable life. Spider-kinden strove only to live.

She slipped out of the house. If Stenwold had any sense, he might begin to suspect. She knew that he would not, though. He was a spymaster, and there were few of his agents that he held in total trust, but she was his agent no longer. She had stepped in too close, and he would no more suspect her of betrayal than he would have suspected Cheerwell his niece.

‘I’ve been expecting you.’

One of Teornis’s people had led her to a townhouse overlooking the harbour, which still bore some blackening from the Vekken incendiaries. From without, it was just another two-storey Beetle tenement, squat and flat-roofed. Inside it had been draped with silks in the Spider style, and she found Teornis upstairs, stretched out on a couch. A Fly servant offered her wine as she came in, and she took it but did not drink.

‘You knew it would come to this when you first approached me,’ she accused him.

‘Time spent stating the obvious is time wasted,’ he reproached her. One hand indicated the couch opposite from him, and she sat there stiffly. ‘If you think I’ve misled you, then go back to your Beetle lover.’ He was smiling, and there was nothing harsh in his voice, but his words cut her nonetheless.

‘What is going on?’ she demanded. ‘Collegium’s shipping? Why so much trouble over so little?’

‘Oh, it’s not gentlemanly to bore a great lady with one’s plans.’ Teornis sipped his wine, watching her carefully. ‘One presents the finished work, or not at all. So . . . ?’

‘Stenwold will speak before the Assembly tomorrow.’

Teornis steepled his fingers.

‘Raising the stakes on his very first move, very bold,’ Teornis noted. ‘Who is in his cadre?’

The word was used by Spiders for an Aristoi’s closest agents and followers. ‘Jodry Drillen,’ Arianna recited, knowing that she might be signing death warrants even as she spoke the names. ‘Some militia officer called Pad-stock. A crew of Fly-kinden mariners led by a man called Tomasso. And Danaen, who leads the Mantis reavers that took the Very Blade.’

‘Mantis-kinden,’ said Teornis disgustedly. ‘You’d think they’d be grateful that I allowed them the glory of destroying the Fourth. Well, I’ve dealt with them before, and I can deal with them again. Speaking of dealings, how is our Beetle manipulus? Front or back foot?’ Meaning, on the attack or preparing a defence.

‘Standing firm,’ she told him. ‘But he will talk, if you will. I hope I have persuaded him not to make any direct accusations tomorrow, therefore to hold open the chance that some . . . agreement can be reached.’ She stopped because he was giving her a sharp-edged smile.

‘It is a noble and respected tradition to play two sides off against each other, and thus to pull their strings,’ Teornis remarked, very pleasantly. ‘However, you are not so skilled as to be able to play both myself and Maker for fools, girl. Content yourself with taking my instructions, and you will prosper. Try to turn this into your own dance, and I cannot vouch for your future.’

She began to say something, but the words would not come out.

He nodded slowly. ‘My dear Arianna, do not think that I do not understand sentiment. I am fond of Maker myself. I do not want to rid the world of him, for we will need him, like as not, when the Empire stirs again. Still, we must make him tractable, and he must learn that drawing a sword on the Aldanrael is not to be advised.’ He put down his goblet on a tray that his servant proffered. The metallic clack of it seemed very loud. ‘My cousin Elleria had command of the Blade, and Maker’s people killed her,’ Teornis said flatly. ‘The family will want blood for that. I cannot simply throw up my hands and abandon the plan. Whatever agreement is reached, however it may look to the dull Beetles and their Assembly, it will be a victory for us. If Maker will give way, then all the better, and we can then work out some mummery to make him look strong and us blameless. If Maker will be stubborn . . . Aristoi blood has been shed, so we cannot back down.’

Abruptly he sighed, and Arianna had a brief window onto a genuine unhappiness. ‘Far be it from me to criticize the women of my family,’ he continued, ‘but Elleria was a fool. Why else would they have placed her in such a demeaning role? And even that she got wrong, and then she got herself killed. If there was any justice in the world, then she’d be denounced as a rogue element, and we’d all be friends again. However, she is family, and Maker’s agents killed her. I have sent to Everis to raise a fleet, a proper armada that will make the force that broke the Vekken siege look like a scouting party.’ His face was all brittle brightness and good humour again, in contrast to her aghast expression. ‘It will be up to us, my dear, to bring Maker to his knees in submission before that becomes necessary, however. Do not fret: outfitting an armada takes time. We have a few months, I would guess, before their sails are seen.’

There was an expectant hush as Stenwold took the podium, called to speak without warning, unscheduled and before any other petitioners. Has word got out? he wondered. It was not impossible that Jodry had failed to keep the matter to himself. Looking at the Assemblers, though, he guessed not. It was simply that an old instinct had been reawakened amongst them. They were used to this: Stenwold Maker had been away from the city; Stenwold Maker had returned; Stenwold Maker would now come before the Assembly full of dire warnings. He had conditioned them to it, over the last ten years and more.

Only now perhaps they’ll believe me, he considered, and the thought gave him a strange feeling of anxiety. Did I think I was safe, back then: was I secretly glad that, no matter what I said, nobody would pay any heed? Now that my words have consequences, I must be careful what I say.

His gaze caught that of Teornis. The Spider-kinden was here by right, as an ambassador, but he seldom bothered to exercise that right unless he knew that something of importance would be said. He nodded coolly to Stenwold. We know, his look seemed to say. You and I, only we two know fully what we are about here.

Stenwold had spent a long time countering the machinations of the Empire. The Wasps were almost like old friends now, for he knew them and their ways. The Aldanrael, however, were unknowable and subtle. For all Arianna’s assurances, he had not discounted a direct attempt on his life. He wore his sword, and a tunic of hide and steel plates beneath his robes.

‘My fellows of the Assembly, Masters and Magnates of the city of Collegium,’ he addressed them, ‘as you hear my voice, I would ask you to consider another voice that has been strangely silent of late. The man I refer to was not shy of disturbing our councils here with his worries, and yet where is he now? I speak of Rones Failwright. Who of you here has asked himself where that man has gone? Not one of you?’

He allowed them the pause, then took up again before they could start discussing with their neighbours.

‘Perhaps you are simply glad that the old ship-handler is no longer nagging us all about his lost profits?’ An undercurrent of mirth, and Stenwold frowned at them thunderously, for all he had engineered it himself. ‘Master Failwright has disappeared. He has not been seen for near three tendays now. I believe he is dead. I believe he was murdered.’

That quietened them, and Stenwold took a deep breath. Now that he was under way he did not so much as glance at Teornis of the Aldanrael.

‘Should I not take this to the militia, you ask? Is this a matter on which to try the patience of the Collegiate Assembly? Well, Masters and Magnates, I have undertaken my own investigation into the issues that Master Failwright would so often raise before us. Why kill such a man, unless he had uncovered a truth amidst all his complaints? You will recall his grievance, of course: he claimed that the shipping of Collegium was under attack, that there was some force or pattern behind the loss and pillage of ships, something more than mere chance and independent brigandage could account for.’

They were shuffling a little, shifting on their stone seats, wondering where he was going with this. Only a handful of merchants still actively involved with the sea-trade were listening attentively.

‘I took the liberty of conducting an experiment, as a good College Master should,’ Stenwold told them all. ‘I had, stashed aboard a trader bound for Everis, a hidden cargo of swords, just to see what might befall.’ He had them again, with that revelation. ‘As it happened, there was a pirate vessel out there that took an interest in my cargo. A vessel going by the name of the Very Blade overhauled our ship and tried to board her. Our crew and our marines threw them back and took their ship. It lies in the harbour even now.’

There was a cheer at that, which surprised him. Perhaps they thought that was all: old Maker playing War Master on the waves for his own amusement, striking a few little blows for Collegium against the lawless. He raised a hand to hush them.

‘There was evidence aboard the vessel to suggest that Master Failwright was correct in his beliefs,’ he told them. ‘There was a hidden hand behind the actions of this pirate ship – and who knows how many others?’

He had his silence, at last. It was a rare thing in the Amphiophos, that stillness.

‘What documents were recovered suggests an involvement from the Spiderlands, and I am sad to say that the family Aldanrael is named.’

It was like dropping a stone on to clear water: the moment’s graceful fall, and then chaos. Fully half the Assemblers there were trying to say something: to each other, to him, to the chamber as a whole. Many were horrified, protesting that he could not possibly be right, for the Aldanrael had proved themselves firm friends of Collegium. I can only agree. I cannot see why they would do it, but here we are, nonetheless. Others, especially the shipping men, were calling down shame on the heads of all Spider-kinden, demanding justice and reparation.

Stenwold’s eyes sought out the Imperial ambassador: Aagen was expressionless, but behind him there was a curious look on Honory Bellowern’s honest face – a man given an unlooked-for gift of incalculable value.

Jodry stepped in just then, selecting someone at random from the crowd simply to shut the others up. Stenwold saw a solid, greying woman he could not put a name to rising to her feet.

‘This is preposterous!’ she snapped. ‘The Spiderlands? What gain is in this for them? Since the siege, we’ve been getting along famously with them, so why would they start robbing us?’ There was a fair amount of support for her, and yet a lot of muttering, too. Because they’re Spiders and you can’t trust them, seemed to be the meat of it.

Jodry singled out another, but his finger drifted too close to Helmess Broiler, and his old adversary stole the moment, standing and holding his arms up for quiet. He had enough supporters still that he got it, or at least a semblance of it. ‘My fellows!’ he called out, and Stenwold braced himself for more opposition. What Helmess said instead, though, was, ‘We should not dismiss this just because we laughed at Failwright.’ This was sufficiently surprising that the rest of the Assembly started listening. Helmess looked left and right, his gaze stern. Stenwold had to admit that the man had a fine debating manner, crammed with authority.

‘We will see Maker’s evidence, of course. Master Maker and I are old friends in this chamber. We have crossed swords often and, although the admission must be wrung from me with pliers, he is a man who always has the city’s interest at heart, whether his suspicions are true or false.’ He smiled slightly, just for Stenwold’s benefit. ‘Surely it is time that we turned to the accused, Master Speaker. What do the Spiders say?’

What is he after? Finding himself apparently on the same side as Helmess Broiler made Stenwold feel very uncomfortable indeed, and Jodry was obviously thinking the same thing. Nevertheless the Speaker nodded and waved towards Teornis. ‘What say the Aldranrael?’

The Spider Aristos stood up smoothly, utterly untroubled. ‘These are grave words, Master Speaker. By all means, let us examine Master Maker’s papers, for I cannot think he would raise such a storm over nothing. Perhaps one of my family’s rivals seeks to drive a wedge between us. Our mutually profitable friendship has drawn envy in many quarters, I am sure. Perhaps it is some enemy of yours that seeks to plant the seed of conflict. Perhaps my own family has kept some plan from me.’ He spread his hands, seeming the soul of reason. ‘I place myself at the Assembly’s disposal, so that we may divine the truth in all of this.’ Teornis now looked Stenwold directly in the eye. ‘I’m sure that we would all prefer to explore every possibility before we commit ourselves to something unwise.’