Storm Warning - Mercedes Lackey [177]
“It could be one of us, you know,” Karal put in reluctantly.
Prince Daren grimaced. “That had not escaped me. It could also be any of the other ambassadors and envoys, including those of long standing. Whoever this agent is, it is likeliest that he has been among us for a very long time, and he could be one of a number of foreigners we trust. It is a bit difficult to persuade them to be examined under Truth Spell.”
“Difficult?” Firesong put on his best sardonic look. “Only if you are not willing to risk an incident.”
“Selenay is not,” Daren replied flatly. “We have enough of an incident on our hands already, although mage-messages have come from Solaris this morning saying that she is aware of what happened and that it changes nothing.”
Only that Ulrich is gone ... and I promised to take care of him. Karal tucked his head down so that his grief would not show until he got his face back under control again. Altra must have gone to her with the news, before he fell apart. No wonder he looked so depleted.
“That leaves—what? Something like a hundred possible suspects?” Kerowyn hazarded. “And a good chance that whoever this is will do something again.”
Karal frowned. Perhaps associating with the engineers had put an edge on his reasoning ability, but he was certain he could narrow the field down more than that. “Wait a moment. It can’t be that many. It has to be someone who is high enough in rank that no one would question seeing him anywhere in the Palace, but low enough in rank—or apparently ineffectual enough—that no one would ever notice him. It also has to be someone who would have a reason to be in and out of people’s rooms at least once this year. If this is an agent of long standing, then surely the Empire is using him to gather information—so it has to be someone who has a reason to receive and send packages at intervals of more than once a year. He couldn’t have sent his information by magic-messengers before this year, remember? You had a guard against magic until then.” Once again, his own intellect had seduced him into concentrating on something besides grief. “That virtually eliminates all of the Palace servants.”
Kerowyn gnawed on her lower lip. “That does eliminate most of my suspects,” she admitted. “It could be one of the personal servants of one of our own nobles, though.”
“Yes, and it could be one of your nobles.” Darkwind was quick to point that out. “It would not be the first time that Selenay had had her own intrigue against her.”
“The weapon, though—it had a residue of magic that made me think it was targeted to a specific individual,” An’desha said shyly. “That would imply that your agent is a mage himself, or more likely, found a way to gain access to something personal from each of his targets to imprint the weapons with their intended victims.”
“Then planted them into the walls.” Kerowyn looked baffled. “Now you open it up to everyone in the Palace except the servants.”
Karal pondered his next words long and hard before speaking them. How expendable am I? Realistically, very. And I have Altra, who will try to protect me. I think that I must do this.
“I can offer a possible trap,” he said carefully. “With myself as the bait. Two of those weapons were meant to eliminate me; let me place myself where our agent can come at me. I honestly do not believe he will try to take me again, so soon. I think that he will try to ascertain what Solaris’ position is, and whether or not the Alliance is in jeopardy, due—”
He couldn’t say it; he choked up. The others gave him time to recover.
After a struggle, he got control of his voice again. “If disrupting the Alliance was this agent’s primary goal, he will want to talk to me almost as soon as I appear in the halls of the Palace. Let me go walk there, and see who comes to offer condolences and fish for information.”
“And what if this agent decides to ensure the Karsite defection by eliminating you?” Kerowyn asked quietly.
He twitched his mouth in what was supposed to be a smile. “Have you not been training me in enough self-defense to keep