LITMIR.BIZ

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didn’t think of.’

      ‘What?’ asked Pug.

      ‘Magic,’ said Magnus. ‘Whoever has balked all our information-gathering – neutralized it, compromised it, fed us lies – it could all be done with magic.’

      Pug was silent for a while, then said, ‘My best contact for years in Kesh, Turgan Bey, Lord of the Keep and personal adviser to the Emperor, has retired. My next highest contact, Januk Hadri, Privy Counsellor to the Emperor, has been silent.’

      ‘I always thought it odd that Bey would “retire”,’ said Jim. ‘Some of those Truebloods love the life of leisure, but not Bey. Some other man might see a political sea change coming and retire to a villa on the shore of the Overn with a dozen beautiful women, or go hunting for lions or whatever else it is retired Keshian nobles do, but he loved the infighting of politics. I expected him to die on the job.’ Jim leaned forward. ‘He was your agent?’

      ‘I told you the Conclave had many friends.’

      Jim sat back, his hands in his lap. ‘I thought I had a good conduit to Kesh’s court intrigue, but Turgan Bey?’

      Magnus smiled.

      Jim shook his head. ‘I’m impressed.’ Then he looked at Magnus and said, ‘It must be magic.’

      ‘A lot of it,’ said Magnus. ‘A spell of influence to get a noble to decide it was time to retire, for instance. It is much more subtle than any overt enchantment or spell of control. Just make a man slightly tired, slightly less interested in the day in and day out, and you might not even have to suggest it’s time to step down. He may even do it on his own.’

      Pug said, ‘Yes, magic playing on your man in the Jal-Pur’s divided loyalties, or his greed, or …’

      Jim closed his eyes. ‘Of course. Amed was of the desert tribes, and blamed the Truebloods for his father’s murder, which is why I could turn him against the Empire, but ... he was Keshian.’

      ‘A call to slumbering patriotism,’ said Magnus.

      ‘It’s still a lot of magic, Pug,’ said Jim. ‘And it would take years. Agents would have to be identified, influenced, plans made …’

      ‘But it could be done?’ asked Pug.

      Jim was silent for a while, thinking. After a few moments he said, ‘Yes. If they can identify that first agent, if he or she is highly enough placed.’ He sat tapping his cheek with his finger. ‘I use blinds – that is, agents who do not know who they are working for. But if you get to someone high enough they may be able to give you the identity of others, and if you can get to them …’ He outlined quickly how the three intelligence services of Isles, Kesh, and Roldem were structured and utilized, glossing over a lot of detail, but ending on the point that many agents knew who was working for the other agencies. He finished by saying, ‘So one of mine gives up one of Franciezka’s, and in turn her agent gives up one of Kaseem’s.’

      ‘And at some point, one of them turns out to be working for the Conclave,’ said Magnus.

      ‘So this has been going on for years, now,’ said Pug.

      ‘Who?’ asked Jim. ‘Who besides you has … this ability, this power?’

      Magnus said, ‘There are only two possibilities. If the temples were to work together, even only two or three of the most powerful, they could do it. They have magic, though it is of a very different nature to what we are used to—’

      ‘Which might be of benefit,’ interrupted Pug. ‘It might be harder for us to detect the influence.’

      Magnus added, ‘Or it could be the Academy.’

      Jim looked shocked. ‘The Academy? Why? I mean, who? Don’t you still play a role there?’

      Pug said, ‘A little, and we have agents there as well.’ He looked troubled as he gazed out the window. ‘I don’t know how such an undertaking could …’ His voice trailed off and he was silent.

      Jim asked, ‘Do the Pantathians have that much magic?’

      Magnus said, ‘Why do you ask? They were obliterated. I was there when their birthing crèches were destroyed in the Ratn’gary Mountains.’

      Without humour, Jim said, ‘You missed some.’

      Pug stood up. ‘What?’

      ‘On a boat in the south of Kesh I saw a scaled green hand with black talons sticking out of a robe, and if that’s not a Pantathian, then I’ve not read every report on them in the archives in Krondor.’

      ‘Where was this?’ asked Pug.

      ‘Off the big island called the Island of the Snakes. Wondered what he had to do with things, maybe that’s your answer.’

      Pug sat down again. ‘It’s possible. The Great Uprising was about the Pantathians getting the moredhel to invade the Kingdom. With that relatively small force, they manipulated the Brotherhood of the Dark Path and that ended with the destruction of two cities, first Armengar and then Sethanon. With Kesh’s might at their disposal …’ He shrugged. ‘They have the ability to appear as other races, elf, human … yes, if they are back and in numbers, it’s possible.’

      ‘Kesh and the Kingdom at war? To what ends? How does that benefit the Pantathians, if it is them?’

      Pug looked uncertain. ‘What I do know is that when they first took a hand, at the end of the Riftwar, they were bent upon securing the Lifestone—’ he looked at Jim.

      ‘I know about it. My great-great-grandfather was detailed in his remembrances. He was at the Battle of Sethanon, remember, with Prince Arutha?’

      Pug was forced to smile. ‘Not many of us within that chamber knew the Lifestone existed then, and none of us ever understood its true nature; even later when Calis “untangled” it, for lack of a better way to put it, we hardly understood it better. The Pantathians wanted it, as did the Demon Lord Jakan later, because it was an artefact of great power.

      ‘But neither the Pantathians nor the demon knew its true nature, or that it would ultimately be useless to them. Whatever the Dragon Lords planned to do with it was never apparent. I know they were desperate to regain it during that battle.’

      Jim said, ‘I know its nature was unknown to James …’ He interrupted himself. ‘This is one of those moments when I have to remind myself that you knew him.’

      ‘My daughter was married to him,’ Pug reminded him.

      ‘You knew all of them, Prince Arutha, King Lyam, Guy du Bas-Tyra, all the great figures of history.’

      Pug’s smile was rueful. ‘Hardly all of them. And not all were mentioned in the histories.’ For a moment a fleeting kaleidoscope of images played through Pug’s mind – faces of those he had known and loved: Squire Roland, his rival for the affections of Princess Carline, then Katala, his first wife, and Laurie of Tyr-Sog, who wed Carline. Then came others, Lord Borric, Swordmaster Fannon, Father Tully, Kulgan and Meecham, those the years had left behind.

      Pug pushed aside the flood of memories and said, ‘Jim, your great-great-grandfather, like those not within that chamber, was told what we believe he needed to know.’

      ‘We?’

      ‘What would later become the core of the Conclave, along with Tomas.’ Pug looked off into the distance as if remembering, then added, ‘Lord James, the legendary Jimmy the Hand, had just died when Calis unlocked the mystery of the stone. It was … life. Somehow when the Valheru contrived to overthrow the gods during the Chaos Wars they created it. Apparently they placed some of their own life energies within it, creating a tool only they truly knew how to utilize. We surmise it was a weapon or source of great power to them, for it was they who manipulated the Pantathians to attempt to seize it. Over all these years, especially since the Lifestone was destroyed, we’ve never attempted to assess what the real nature of the device was.’

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