Of Kings and Killers (Elder Empire Sea #3) - WIll Wight Page 0,16
gunner barked a laugh and swung the cannon-brush around to point into Calder’s face. “All right, when you find a solution to the Great Elders tearing the sky in half, you send for me.”
Calder’s eyes moved against his will to seek out the black crack in the morning sky.
Foster chuckled. “Good luck.”
When Calder returned to the Imperial Palace, General Teach and Baldezar Kern were waiting for him at the gate.
The Head of the Imperial Guard stood scowling with her arms crossed, her freshly polished red-and-black armor gleaming in the noonday sun. The Champion held a wooden rocking-horse under one arm and a crumpled paper sack in the other hand.
“You’ve been informed that the Independents agreed to our meeting?” Teach asked briskly.
“Of course. I was told last night.”
A messenger had awakened him after midnight and delivered him the letter accepting the peace accords, which had been sealed by all the Independent Guild Heads and two of the three Regents, penned by the hand of a Witness. It was as official as anything could be.
The meeting was to take place in two weeks, which the fastest either side could reasonably make it. They both wanted to resolve the Guild conflict as quickly as possible before any more of the Empire crumbled around them.
“Good,” Teach said. “That leaves us to determine the specifics of the meeting.”
He noticed they weren’t letting him any farther into the Palace.
“What specifics?” Calder asked, walking forward to see if Teach would let him by.
She didn’t. She’d cornered him here, and she wasn’t about to let him out of whatever lecture she had prepared.
“Attendance and location.” She held out a small piece of paper. “The Guild Heads have met, and this is what we decided.”
Calder eyed Kern before taking the paper. He didn’t see why the Head Champion needed to be here, especially as the man seemed fully concentrated on not shattering the rocking-horse between his elbow and ribs.
The paper was divided in two. Across the top were written the names Azea and Calazan Farstrider. Twin heads of the Witness Guild.
On the left were the names of all three Regents and the Heads of the four Independent Guilds: the alchemists, Consultants, Greenwardens, and Luminian Order.
The right side bore the names of the Imperialist Guild Heads, with a circled question mark next to the Magisters. The Magister’s Guild hadn’t appointed a new Head since the death of Mekendi Maxeus, and it was Calder’s personal opinion that they were waiting to see how the conflict between Guilds was resolved before doing so.
He didn’t see his own name on this list.
Before diving into that, though, he turned to Kern. “What’s in the bag, Guild Head?”
He wanted to call the man “Baldezar,” just to establish his authority and shorten the distance between them, but there was probably a better place to start flexing his muscles than with a man who had singlehandedly sunk an entire fleet of rebel ships.
“Chocolate biscuits,” Kern said seriously. “I don’t get to this side of the city often, and there’s a bakery on Peregrine and Gazrial that serves my wife’s favorite.” He hefted his other arm, indicating the rocking-horse. “This is a present for my son Torrence. He collects them.”
“And how are you involved in this?” Calder asked, gesturing with the list of names. “Did you have something you wished to speak with me about, or did Teach feel she needed backup?”
He had hoped a joke would lighten the mood, but General Teach’s scowl deepened.
Kern seemed perfectly placid, but Calder expected he would show no more expression if a sudden gunfight erupted around him. “I happened to be leaving, but I knew what news she was delivering to you. I wanted to see your reaction.”
Wonderful, Calder thought. I was hoping for more pressure.
Despite what the news-sheets printed and what Calder conveyed to the Independents, the Champion’s Guild was not fully behind him. To hear Kern tell it, there was no single voice representing the Champion’s Guild.
Their members had largely dispersed, their organization a shadow of what it once was. They had graduated only one generation of Champions since the Emperor’s death.
The technicality of their joining the Imperialist cause was the only thing that had prevented them from announcing the dissolution of the Guild. One thin thread holding them together.
Though if they were recruiting alchemists like Petal, Calder hoped that meant good news. Both for the Champions as a whole and for their support of his authority.