The Burning White (Lightbringer #5) - Brent Weeks Page 0,53

over the man’s face. “So we’re agreed?”

The ambassador took a deep breath, but he’d already decided, Kip could tell. He wasn’t even patting his sweat. “We’re agreed,” he said.

Someone in the room whooped.

“We are going to go kick some Blood Robe ass, my friends,” Benhadad said.

“Satrap’s Guard,” Winsen said, testing it out. “Meh, it’s not quite as good as King’s Guard, but I’ll take it.”

Several others in the room—locals—looked stricken. Kip was going to abandon the city to Daragh the Coward?

Kip had no hope that word of that wouldn’t get out quickly. He only hoped it didn’t get to Daragh before their meeting. The timing here could get dicey.

“Bring in the scribes,” Kip said. “I’ll want twelve copies made to distribute throughout the satrapies. Lady Guile, would you look over the language?”

There you go, grandfather. I don’t know if you could have done better yourself.

Maybe Kip was learning something about this diplomacy business after all.

‘Kip’? Make that ‘Satrap Guile.’

Chapter 15

“You still don’t trust me,” Aliviana said.

The White King didn’t even turn from the mortal he was conversing with, some engineer or something. “You can’t lie, my dear. Why would I trust you?”

“What is that supposed to mean?” She let the ‘my dear’ go this time.

He shot her that deprecatory look again. “You’re honest. You have to be, so I trust you not to lie to me. I also trust you to be lousy at lying to anyone else.”

“I’m not a child,” she said.

Still not turning toward her, he said, “What do you want, Liv?” exactly as one would address a child.

The engineer made to withdraw.

“Why have I been denied being in charge of communications? I’m Ferrilux, goddess of superviolet. It is what I do.”

“It is what you will do,” Koios said. “Integrating our forces will take time, and I can’t risk you bungling anything at this juncture.”

“So you don’t trust me not to bungle things?”

“Yes, that’s exactly it,” he said.

“Fuck you,” she said.

He made no move toward her, but the papers in his hands suddenly went up in flames. The engineer staggered backward and fell with a yelp.

“My apologies,” Koios said to the man finally.

“No trouble at all, Your Majesty,” he said, slowly getting up and retreating. “I’ll redraw the schematics and bring them back immediately.”

“No need. It looks excellent. You may go.”

Koios turned toward her. “Not in front of the mortals, please?”

“Done,” she said. “I want access to all your research as you promised, and my bane. It’s been two days since we took our oath—”

“You were supposed to show me how to make my own oath stones!”

“I did.”

“You know my superviolets couldn’t follow what you did.”

Of course she did.

“You will know how to make oath stones before I leave, this I promise. After the battle. I couldn’t very well hand you chains you could so easily put on me, now, could I?”

He took a deep breath. “You won. I shan’t underestimate you again.”

“We both win, Your Majesty,” she said. “Now, let me help us win the real war. My research and my bane. Please. And if you’d tell me the plan, I could actually help it succeed. Which is, after all, the whole point, isn’t it?”

He weighed her with his color-knotted eyes, waves of different luxins rising and falling within them as he called on each in turn. “Apology accepted,” he said. “You’ll have the superviolet research and command, and the bane.”

She didn’t leave.

“Today,” he said. “By my word.”

He glanced at the oath stone; she carried it at her neck. Last year, he’d tried to chain her with a black luxin necklace. Now, it pleased her to remind him of it with a chain that bound them both instead.

“You’re really going to throw it in the sea?” he asked.

“When I leave. As I promised.”

“What would happen if I destroyed it instead?”

“That would be very difficult. But if you succeeded . . . You bound your will to it, utterly. Break one, break the other. I’ve told you all this. It should not be news.”

“It isn’t. I wanted you to repeat it in different words so I could tell if you meant what your words seemed to mean before.”

He strode over to a map.

“Kip is here,” he said, not bothering to wait for her to reach him before he started. “We’re here. Dúnbheo has massive numbers of ships and excellent docks, so coming down the Great River and turning up the coast here could take Kip’s Nightbringers possibly as little as two weeks. Less if they pack only essentials