Cursor's Fury (Codex Alera #3)(84)

"Got to die of something," Giraldi observed. "Might as well put back a few pints while you wait to see what it is."

"Exactly," Cereus said. "The girl's got a heart of gold, but she doesn't see that." He glanced over his shoulder, at the battlements rising above the garden, and the old lord's face settled into deeper lines, marks of worry and grief etched in the shadows on his face. Amara watched as he settled down to sip carefully at the ale and wait for the others to arrive. It didn't take long. Within half an hour, High Lord Cereus's little garden was crowded with visitors. "Well," he said, looking around with a somewhat lost expression on his face. "I suppose we should begin."

Cereus rose. He stepped up onto his bench with an apologetic expression and rapped a ring against his now-empty mug. "My lords, ladies. Welcome. Would that it were a happier occasion." He smiled faintly and gestured. "I have asked you here on behalf of the First Lord and his Cursor, Countess Amara. Countess."

Lord Cereus stepped down from the bench with a visible expression of relief.

Amara bowed her head to Cereus, took a small coin from her pocket, and dropped it into the pool, murmuring, "Amaranth waters, hasten word to thy master."

The water's surface rippled around the vanished coin, then began to stir. Then an extrusion of water rippled forth and resolved itself into the form of a tall, slender man in his late prime, colors slowly seeping into the shape of his tunic and breeches, forming into the blue and scarlet of the House of Gaius. Similarly, his hair became a seemingly premature grey-white, though he had seen nearly fourscore years.

Amara bowed her head. "My lord, we are ready."

The First Lord's image turned to face Amara and nodded. "Go ahead. Lords Atticus and Placidus"-he made a gesture as two more watery forms began to take shape on either side of his own-"will be joining us as well."

Amara nodded and turned to face the others in the garden. "My lords and ladies, I know that the past few hours have been confusing and frightening. The First Lord has instructed to me to share what information we have about recent events.

"We do not yet know the background and particulars of the attackers who struck last evening," Amara said. "But we do know that they attacked almost every member of the Dianic League, as well as the faculty and staff of the Collegia Tactica, the captain and Tribunes of the First Ceresian, and a number of visiting military officers who were attending a symposium at the Collegia.

"The assassins proved deadly and efficient. High Lady Rhodes was slain, as was High Lady Phrygius, Senator Parmos, and seventy-six other Citizens who had been targeted by the assassins. Several more citizens, including Lady Placidus, are missing." She reached into a pouch at her side and drew out the hinged metallic ring of a discipline collar, a slaver's device used to control troublesome slaves. "What we know is that each of the attackers wore a discipline collar, like this one. Each of them bears an engraving that reads: Immortalis. Each of the men involved in the attack appeared to be twenty years of age or younger. Each of them displayed an almost superhuman ability to withstand pain, and they were apparently acting without fear or regard for their own lives.

"We are fairly certain that these Immortals, for lack of a better term, are slaves trained, conditioned, and collar-disciplined from childhood to be soldiers. Simply put, they are highly proficient madmen with no conscience, no doubt, no aversion to pain, and a perfect willingness to sacrifice their own lives to accomplish their mission. Fewer than one target in four survived the attacks."

Quiet comments went around the little garden. A large, heavily built man with dark hair and an iron grey beard, wearing Legion armor, rumbled, "We all have some idea what they can do. But do you know who sent them?"