Stormcaster (Shattered Realms #3)(77)

“Hold on,” Karn said, shaking his head. “You’ve lost me now. What foreign power?”

“After my capture in Delphi, I was moved to more secure quarters in Chalk Cliffs. I was there when the port was attacked by armies fighting for the empress Celestine, known as the empress in the east.”

Up to then, Karn had displayed the face of a sharp—distant, detached, and all but unreadable. Now Hal saw a flicker of something in those hazel eyes—something that told him that young Karn had heard of the empress, and that this news shook him to his core.

Hal stiffened, his heart thrumming. What did this spymaster know about the empress? Could Arden have instigated this invasion after all? If so, why would Karn be surprised?

It was only a momentary cracking of the fa?ade, and then Karn had his game face back on. “What makes you think that it was the empress who attacked? Were they flying her banner?”

“I wouldn’t recognize her banner if I saw it,” Hal said. “I interrogated one of their pickets. He said they sailed for the empress Celestine. Then, after the city fell, I—”

“Hang on—they’ve taken Chalk Cliffs?” The spymaster’s voice was sharp as a blade.

“Aye,” Hal said. “They did. The northerners never had a chance. The town is in ruins, everyone in it slain or carried off as slaves, unless some were able to escape to the west.”

“And yet you got away?”

“During the confusion, I was able to escape by boat through the water gate with some others.”

“They didn’t have you locked up?” Suspicion glittered in Karn’s eyes once again.

“They did, but when it was clear that the city would fall, they let me go. They had no interest in offending a member of the Thane Council. They know they need allies.”

Hal waited for Karn to interrupt again, but the spymaster said nothing, only scowled and tapped his fingers on the window ledge.

“So. As I was saying. After the city fell, they began unloading horses and equipment and wagons. Ships were coming and going like buzzards to a corpse. It wasn’t a hit-and-run for plunder. It looks like they intend to stay and conquer the Fells—maybe the entire empire.”

Now Karn rose and began pacing back and forth. “Why would she attack Chalk Cliffs?” he murmured. “That doesn’t make any sense.” It seemed as if the spymaster was having a conversation with himself, with Hal and Robert as onlookers.

Hal had expected skepticism, dismissiveness, and doubt. He had not expected this immediate recognition of the danger posed by the invaders from across the Indio.

Well. He is a spymaster, after all. It is his job to know things that others don’t.

“Rumor has it that the empress has made an agreement with Arden,” Hal said. “Her armies attack in the north, freeing Jarat’s armies to subdue the thanes.”

Karn shook his head briskly. “Gerard was trying to form an alliance with the empress, but it fell through. There was no agreement.”

“Are you sure?”

Now Karn stopped, and turned, folding his arms. “I am sure,” he said flatly. “I would know.”

“You missed the attack on Chalk Cliffs,” Hal said.

Karn’s scowl transitioned to a rueful smile. “I did.”

“There was another prisoner who escaped with me,” Hal said. “He claimed that the empress attacked the city because she was after him.”

“She was after him?” Karn went still. “Who was this prisoner? What was his name?”

“He called himself Breon d’Tarvos,” Hal said.

“Tarvos?” Karn gripped the front of Hal’s shirt, pulling him closer so they were eye to eye. “What did he look like?”

Why was the spymaster so agitated?

“He was maybe sixteen or seventeen years old, with red-gold hair. He said he was a street musician. A busker.”

“Red-gold hair.” Karn released his hold on Hal’s shirt. His expression mingled relief and dread, which Hal would have thought was impossible. “Did he explain why he thought the empress was after him?”

Had the busker ever explained? Hal recalled what Talbot had said. When he saw that ship coming, he was terrified. I’d stake my life on it. When he told us to get out of the boat, he was trying to save the rest of us. He shook his head. “He never said, but it was clear that he was scared to death.”

“Was this busker a mage? Was there anything magical about him?”

Hal shook his head, knowing these questions were springing from some private knowledge that the spymaster had. “Bear in mind that I can’t see magic on a person, and I didn’t spend much time with him.”

The wheels were turning behind those shadowed eyes. “Where is he now, this busker?”

Hal shook his head. “I don’t know for sure, but we believe the empress took him aboard her ship and is sailing back home.” Hal paused, waiting for more questions, but Karn said nothing, only stared down at his hands, a muscle working in his jaw. Finally, he spoke.

“Can they do it, do you think?”

“Can who do what?”

“Can the empress’s forces conquer the empire?”

Hal shrugged. “I’ve never seen fighters like these—fearless, fast, strong, completely unafraid of death.”