Chapter eleven
Taia woke early the next morning and she and Whitestar spent a few more candlemarks making sure all the tags for their now useless personas were eliminated. They would both have reaction headaches for the rest of the day, and Taia rather hoped that her duties would keep her away from Juren for whole of it; she was still very angry with him and might actually do the boy harm if she saw him while feeling the way she did. Still, she understood the boy's youth; it was easy to get carried away flirting with a pretty girl; particularly when you get to do so while playing a role and the failure to woo her could be blamed on that and not your real self. She planned to have a calm discussion of forgiveness with the boy. But not until her headache faded.
Whitestar, for once, was less forgiving. She was inclined to Gate him back to Haven as soon as their energies had recovered enough to do so; she had worked hard on those illusions, and now all that work had been wasted. They had to establish new personas in their place, place tags for them, and make sure they would be traceable, but poorly – and they now had less time to finish the work. But there was no help for it; the damage had been done. She supposed though, that she ought to let the boy off the hook; her anger was hardly going to help make the mission a success.
Tremane, for his part, found the situation rather amusing. It was unfortunate, of course, and irritating to have to undo and then redo work that had been done, and done with great difficulty; but he remembered being a young boy, faced with the prospect of having to interact with locals, and one of them a pretty girl. He could understand why Juren would have taken advantage of such an opportunity, and had a hard time being terribly angry with him. He was not, however, the one who would have to redo the work, or the one whose life was directly endangered by the mission failure; so it was perhaps easier for him to forgive.
There was a little more than a moon left before spring, and Taia and Whitestar had a lot of work left to do. In addition to recreating characters to replace the lost ones, they had to perfect their use of the language and customs. They had to learn as much as they possibly could of what Tremane knew of the operation of the Emperor's day-to-day life, although he acknowledged that most likely all of it had changed since he had left; not only was Melles an entirely different person from Charliss, he was also considerably younger. Charliss, when Tremane had left, had been in the last few years of his mage-lengthened life; Melles was at the beginning of his own. And as suspicious and canny as Charliss had been, Melles was more so. Also, Melles didn't have a lot of friends; Charliss had had plenty of loyal followers. Melles would be very unlikely to follow the same routine more than once; he would make an extremely difficult target for an assassin. Taia would not only require the necessary advantage of surprise, but she would need to accomplish her goal without any advanced warning whatsoever.
Oh, goody. She thought. She hadn't acted as an assassin in probably twenty years. She wasn't as young as she used to be, either; her flexibility wasn't as good as it had been, and while she did her best to keep her reflexes sharp, she knew they weren't anywhere near what they had once been either. So she set for herself some exercises to attempt to regain some of that flexibility, and Tremane allowed her to practice 'assassinating' him. She was 'successful' more often than she wasn't, and he made the effort to make it a challenge for her; but she was by no means confident in her ability to be successful against someone as difficult to catch unaware as Melles. Nonetheless, she doubted anyone in Valdemar could do so with greater likelihood of success than herself; Kerowyn was older than she was, and while it was often difficult to remember that fact since Kero still moved easily and trained just as many younglings as Taia, Taia knew her friend was feeling her age. Skif was not much younger, with less experience, and with the same big white horse. So she would have to do, and she would have to be successful – or die trying. She rather hoped it was not the latter, but thought it somewhat likely nonetheless.
Whitestar also practiced 'assassinating' Tremane; she was nearly as skilled as Taia, and since she would be actually in the palace rather than its stables, it was likely she would have more contact with Melles. She was less likely to be able to accomplish the task without significant witnesses, however, and that was something they wanted to avoid. They knew that in the event of even a failed attempt, their characters would be traced, or at least the Empire would attempt to trace them; but the fewer witnesses there were to the act itself, at least that trace would be delayed, allowing for their possible escape. They might even manage to not be identified as the perpetrators at all. Witnesses had a tendency to also be bodyguards, though, which would decrease that escape possibility. Neither had a wish to die, and less did they wish to be imprisoned; Tremane was very clear that Empire executions involved a great deal of torture prior to the actual execution, particularly for attempted assassinations. Taia had had enough torture for several lifetimes, and Whitestar had no desire to acquire any.
Juren was not to even make an attempt on Melles' life. He had no experience at all, and had not even had a chance to complete his weapons training. Taia and Whitestar had been working with him on both that and his Gift training all winter, but as an untried Herald Trainee who didn't even have his Whites, it would almost guarantee their defeat if he even so much as made the attempt. He did, however, spend a good deal of time with the servants, learning how to act like a houseservant instead of lord of the manor; he was no good as a stablehand, but knew his way around a noble's house well enough to perhaps pass as a servant. He spent time learning what to watch for to know whether or not anyone was suspicious of him, or of Taia or Whitestar, so that he would be alerted to drop his shields just a little to find out what they were thinking. He had really settled down after the Rosie incident, and Taia was actually starting to have hope that he wouldn't be a total liability.
"Well," Taia said to Whitestar one evening, "I've killed Tremane nine times out of ten attempts in the past three days, how about you?"
"Eight," said Whitestar. "Eight times. Although the eighth one was a lucky shot, really, if I have to be honest."
"How was it a lucky shot?" asked Taia.
"Well," said Whitestar. "I was on Tremane's left side behind him, but I shouldn't have been. I expected him to turn left, because he was headed to his desk, and he would have seen me. But at the last moment he walked over to the fireplace on the right to add a log, and that's when I struck. But if he had moved in the way I expected him to, he would have seen me and I would have been caught."
"What were you doing on the left side?" asked Taia. It was just practice for now, but they only had about another sennight before they would leave for the empire – and a little over a moon later, it would be for real. They had to have this right.
"I actually meant to be on the right, but the step before that he had turned that direction so I moved. I guess he was looking at the fireplace, I'll have to be more observant," said Whitestar.
"Well I wouldn't call that lucky at all," said Taia. "I'd say you saw him look right, subconsciously you knew he would move right, so you stepped left. I'd say that was a success, not a lucky shot."
"Maybe you're right," said Whitestar. "Eight, then. Eight times out of ten."
"Good," said Taia. "I wish we could be successful ten out of ten attempts, but I'm not sure that's a reasonable expectation."
"I don't know," said Whitestar. "Tremane is a person we know, in a castle we've become familiar with, and a limited imagination for how much he can vary his routine – he's never been a particularly suspicious man. Melles, on the other hand – very suspicious, in a palace we're unfamiliar with, and likely to have practiced changing his routine for the last twenty years. Also, Melles is younger and experienced with assassination attempts. If we can't succeed one hundred percent of the time with Tremane, how do we possibly have any chance against Melles?"
"Excellent points, all of them," said Taia. "I was trying to be positive. I don't actually know how in all nine hells we're supposed to even attempt this with any hope of success, but I don't really see how we can prepare any more than we already have."
"True," said Whitestar. "I guess we're just going to have to be careful and lucky."
"Good thing we're so good at both," said Taia. "I don't know how we would have survived half of those merc battles without luck."
"But I don't remember either of us ever being particularly careful," said Whitestar.
"Well, that's true enough, but we lived, right? Through more than one battle that we probably shouldn't have," said Taia.
"Remember that guy riding the bull?" asked Whitestar.
"I remember you being mad at me for breaking my arm again!" said Taia.
"And after all the work I'd put in to Healing them all!" laughed Whitestar.
"I don't know what I was thinking!" said Taia.
"You were thinking you had to save the rest of the troupe, and you were also twenty years younger! We did a lot of things back then we could never dream of doing now, and not only because our joints won't take it anymore – mine or yours!" said Whitestar.
"Well, I guess it's a good thing we're going as assassins then, and not leading an army into battle," said Taia. "I don't have any more bull-rider moves in me."
"And you'd be hard pressed to not try it anyway," said Whitestar. "Oh, don't give me that look, you know you would, neither one of us can remember we're not in our twenties anymore."
"That is true, so it's a good thing the mission remembers for us," said Taia.
They continued their attempts to 'assassinate' Tremane, and by the end of that sennight they were successful every time. Juren was fairly confident in his ability to infiltrate the servants, as well; Taia still had her doubts, but she hoped she was just being hypercritical. She kept trying to reconcile this boy, who seemed so inept at everything he tried, with the student who had put every last scrap of effort into controlling his Gift and who had been so happy and grateful to have mastered it. This boy was still happy and grateful to have mastered his Gift, and he was absolutely a good person; but he was so inexperienced. And so unwilling to exert himself in anything BUT his Gift, really. She hoped the Companions had been correct, and that his presence on this mission would, in fact, somehow prove crucial; but she couldn't help but feel it would instead be detrimental.
Tremane spent the last few days before their departure drilling them on language, customs, making sure to never call them anything but their assumed names – Ruk, Saria, Lyek – and they wore their illusions every second of every day and even when they slept. Taia, Whitestar, and Juren ceased to exist, for all practical purposes; they became their personas. Ruk – Taia – spent time in the stables to get used to working within the function of a royal stable; the work of mucking stalls, grooming and exercising horses, saddling horses for their riders – that was something she didn't need to practice, but the hierarchy of a royal stable was something she needed to pay attention to, and how to get herself into a position where she might be legitimately saddling Melles' horse. Saria – Whitestar – spent time in the castle kitchen, getting used to how the cooks functioned together, getting used to cooking in an actual kitchen instead of over a fire; it wouldn't be the first time, they'd been spending time in these roles in Shonar since they decided on their characters, but they focused on them with more intensity in the last fortnight. Lyek – Juren – had been working with the houseservants since their arrival, since he was so unused to servanthood at all; his routine did not change, but he did get used to answering only to 'Lyek'.
They would wear these illusions, and use these names even with each other, for the entire journey from Shonar to the Empire's capital city. It was certainly, Taia thought, the most difficult thing to get used to, answering to yet another name; she had been Taia for most of her life. She answered to Rainfire in the Vales; it was her Tale'edras name, given to her at her adoption into k'Treva by Whitestar. Similarly, Whitestar answered to Ale'shaya on the Plains, or when Taia used that name for her; it was her Shin'a'in name, which Taia had given to her when she had been adopted into Pretera'sedrin. But to answer to yet another name, completely unfamiliar, and to be a man besides? That was not something she could easily get used to. She had to learn to walk differently, talk differently, behave differently both towards other men as well as other women. She had certainly been exposed to misogynistic attitudes before, being the commander of a mercenary troupe; it wasn't exactly common for a woman to lead a bunch of men into battle. But in the Empire, gender roles were rigid. She couldn't just demand to be treated as an equal; she couldn't even beat it into anyone to do so. So she had to learn to be vaguely condescending to women, while being loud and boastful around men. She hoped the Star Eyed would forgive her.
Whitestar did not have that problem, since unlike their original plan of both being stablehands, she was impersonating a scullery cook. She could cook with the best of them – but over an open fire. She had never used an oven. She was finding that the hardest thing to get used to; food cooked in an oven was exposed to heat differently and more evenly than food cooked over a flame. Cooked over a flame, the food had to be rotated evenly to cook through, and that took time and attention; in an oven, it didn't take as long since the heat couldn't escape. And so for Whitestar, it was difficult to learn to cook food without burning it. Bread was her biggest challenge; meat dishes she had more experience with in general, but bread was an unexpected difficulty. And pastries – well, she just hoped they wouldn't ask her to make many of those.
Juren – well, Juren had trouble with all of it, so it was a good thing he had a head start on learning to be a servant. It was also a good thing he didn't have to spend time learning assassination techniques, because he would likely not have been able to learn both. But even Taia had to admit that he was going to serve quite well as a servant; he did understand the language of nobility, and while he had to remember to not in fact behave as a noble, understanding the language and what was expected of a servant helped him to be a very good one. Between remembering to behave as a servant and remembering to respond to the name 'Lyek', Juren had what he could handle; but he, and what was more Lyesa, insisted he was up to the task.
And finally, and all too soon, it was spring. There would still be a few snowfalls, and certainly it was not warm; but it was spring. It would take just over a moon to arrive at the palace of the Empire, and they would add another sennight or so in order to make it as circuitous a route as possible so that they could not be easily traced. But they could not wait any longer; Taia would have liked to wait until the weather would be kinder to her joints, but she knew that the skirmishes with the Hardornen border would begin as soon as the weather permitted and that would be before they could arrive without a Gate. Obviously they could not Gate; servants do not Gate. Taia thought about Gating to the border, but was afraid that the magical signature would be noticed and doom the mission before it really began, so ride it would be.
They left in a light spring rain, before the break of dawn. It was still cold, so while they left a good deal of their winter gear with Tremane along with all the gifts Taia had made out of antlers and bone and Whitestar had made out of furs, they kept enough to keep them warm for the journey. The rest would be left at the guardpost on the border; Taia just hoped the weather warmed up enough that she would be able to tolerate riding with mostly summer gear. She thought maybe she'd try and make a lightweight cloak along the way so she would at least have something, in case it didn't.
Tremane rode with them to the city gate and said goodbye.
"It doesn't seem right to wish you luck on the destruction of my old country, but I can't say I hope you fail, either; if you do not succeed, I lose my new land, which I have come to love more than the old. Still. I cannot wish you unconditional success, but neither do I hope for your failure. I hope that will suffice; I have helped you all that I can, I have held nothing back. Take down Melles; he is as evil a man as man can get. But please remember that the citizens of the Empire are just that – citizens. They no more chose the land of their birth than you or I; and mostly they are good people just like any other citizen in any other country, trying to raise their children. I hope you can see some good in them even as you succeed in your mission," he said.
"I have fought too many battles against people from too many lands to not realize that they are made of the same flesh and bone that knits my own together," said Taia. "We are all just doing the best we can in the world we live in. Perhaps someday we will find a way to eliminate the need for my services; but today is not that day. Farewell, friend, and thank you."
And that is how they found themselves now, riding in the rain, the sun rising on their faces, towards the goal of their mission.
