Foundryside (The Founders Trilogy #1) - Robert Jackson Bennett Page 0,164

said Estelle, “to gain my freedom. Wouldn’t you?”

Sancia stared, disgusted and terrified, as Tomas’s body slowly lost form and shape, turning into a boiling ball of blood and viscera, which shrank, and shrank, and shrank…

“If you hurt him,” said Sancia. “If you hurt him, you, you…”

“It could have been worse.” She gestured at the monstrous sight before her. “I could have put him through this.”

Tomas’s body was now about the size of a small cannonball. It was shuddering slightly in the air, as if it could no longer bear the pressure.

Estelle stood up tall, and despite her mussed hair and her smeared makeup, her eyes were bright and hard and commanding, and suddenly Sancia understood why people had thought Tribuno Candiano a king. “Tomorrow I shall do what my father always dreamt of, but never accomplished. And at the same time, I will take away all he valued, and all you valued as well, husband. I will become Company Candiano. And then I will collect all that I have been denied!”

And then the small, red ball that had once been Tomas Ziani simply…popped.

* * *

There was a loud, curious coughing sound, and the room instantly filled with a fine, swirling red mist. Sancia shut her eyes and turned her head away as she felt warm drops stippling her face and neck.

She heard Estelle sputtering and spitting somewhere in the room. “Ugh. Ugh! I suppose I hadn’t thought of that…But every design does have its limit.”

Sancia tried not to shake. She tried not to think of Clef in Estelle’s hands, of what she could have done to poor Gregor. Focus. What can I do now? How can I get out of this?

Estelle spat some more, coughed, and called out, “It’s done!”

The red mist continued to settle. There was the sound of footsteps in the hallway beyond. Two Candiano soldiers walked in. They did not seem surprised by the sight of all these corpses, or the whole room coated in a thin layer of blood.

“Shall we burn them as discussed, ma’am?” asked one.

“Yes, Captain,” said Estelle. She was now red from head to foot, and she cradled the imperiat and Clef in her hands like twin infants. “I am quite eager to finally play with these on my own, but…Have we seen any movements from the Dandolos?”

“Not yet, ma’am.”

“Good. Arrange for my escort to the Mountain, and mobilize our forces,” said Estelle. “The entire Candiano campo must be locked down and patrolled from now until midnight. Issue orders suggesting Tomas has gone missing—and we suspect foul play.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Sancia listened closely. And that word—“orders”—suddenly gave her an idea.

She took a breath, focused on the shackles again—and realized she’d been thinking of them wrong.

She’d been focused purely on the shackles, on the bands of steel, and what they expected or wanted—but she hadn’t realized there might be more to the system.

What’s breath but not a breath?

There were the restraints for her ankles and wrists, yes. But now that she searched them, she realized the shackles were eagerly awaiting a signal from another part of the rig—one she’d totally missed, set on the end of the operating table.

She looked down, and saw this component was small, set on the edge of the stone surface. She reviewed its commands, and saw it was constructed similarly to how Orso had described the aural relay device: a thin, delicate needle, trapped in a cage, that moved with vibrations of sound…only, it needed to move in a specific fashion.

Of course, thought Sancia. Of course!

she asked the shackles quickly.

said the shackles simply.

She nearly sighed with triumph. It must be like a safe word—someone could say the right phrase aloud, and the needle would move in just the right way, and then the shackles would pop open…

asked Sancia.

said the shackles. They sounded amused.

she said.

This was frustrating. She wondered how Clef would have figured this out. He always phrased and rephrased questions or ideas until they didn’t break the rules, in essence—so how to do that here?

She got an idea. she said.

A long pause. Then the shackles said,