Of Kings and Killers (Elder Empire Sea #3) - WIll Wight Page 0,62

begin with, injured by Kern in the fighting, and he’d received word that she planned to travel back home to Izyria.

Another of them had died, he knew, but he had still expected to see four people here. The other two might have been running late, but if they weren’t in the room, he had to assume they weren’t coming.

“They’re dead,” Rosephus said from inside his helmet.

Tyria crunched into another snack.

Calder tried to pretend to be unruffled by this information, even though someone had potentially murdered two Champions. “How did you find out?”

“They found Trip dead in his bed this morning. Had to be poison, and it takes some real poison to kill one of us without waking us up.”

Rosephus’ voice boiled with hidden anger, and Calder found that more understandable than Tyria’s apparent boredom. Her eyes roamed around the room-wide mural, and she didn’t stop eating.

“The alchemists said it was heart failure,” Calder said. This was the one Champion death about which he’d been informed. “I’m told that’s not unheard of in members of your Guild.”

Champions were built for battle, not longevity.

“Would have thought so myself,” Rosephus growled, “if not for the others. Oleana was stabbed to death in a bar fight down by the docks.”

Tyria spoke with her mouth full, still examining the art on the ceiling. “Normal guy with a normal knife couldn’t stab her to death if you gave him all night. The blade would break before she did.”

“And then there’s Interion. Rode out to Hightower yesterday. Taught the Luminians a lesson and then disappeared on the way back.”

Calder had heard about the “lesson” that the Champion Interion had inflicted on Luminian headquarters.

Most of the Order was in Rainworth, so they had left only a skeleton crew manning their fortress. Interion had unleashed the wrath of a Champion on a few washouts, old-timers, and servants. Calder had already drafted up an order to have him executed for it after the fighting was over.

“And you think he’s dead?” Calder asked. “He could be anywhere.”

Tyria yawned. “He said he’d be back to Hightower this morning. He didn’t show. He’s dead.”

Rosephus tightened his grip on one of the three swords buckled to the right side of his hip. “I know the work of Gardeners. Cowards. They would have gotten me, too, if not for my battle instinct.”

“He had to relieve himself,” Tyria explained. “Stepped out at an unexpected time and saw someone running away. Found a bomb just lying there.”

Rosephus growled at her like a dog. “I knew there was something wrong. I could smell it.”

“Bomber got away, though, didn’t he?”

Rosephus’ knuckles tightened on his sword, and he glared pure wrath at her. She fished around in her paper sack for crumbs.

Calder’s own feelings were more in line with Rosephus. The Consultant assassins had struck against his Champions.

So this is their answer to my message.

Rather than responding with diplomacy, they killed his greatest warriors as they slept.

But they couldn’t afford this sort of infighting anymore.

He had to give them another chance.

He sat up straight, forgetting his casual façade. “If the Gardeners are acting against us, what do you think their next move will be?”

“They’re softening you up,” Tyria said easily. “Next they’ll go for the kill.”

That was Calder’s instinct too, though it was disconcerting hearing it from an expert. If the Gardeners were bold enough to remove Champions, they were setting up for something else.

Calder fixed both Champions with his gaze. “I’ll be addressing the public tonight…and when I do, I intend to give the Consultants the opportunity they’re looking for. Present myself as bait. Will you be my hook?”

Tyria tossed aside her greasy paper sack. “Why do you think we’re here?”

“I almost set out to Rainworth on my own,” Rosephus said.

“Good.” Calder shifted on his throne, adjusting the Emperor’s clothes. “This might be my last act as Steward. I want to make it a good one.”

The official Witness account of their peace accords was going to print today. Nathanael Bareius’ printing-houses had made sure that it would be big news all over the Empire.

Calder had taken what countermeasures he could, as even in the Witness account, it was the Independents who had struck first.

But the fact was that Estyr Six had accused him of collaborating with Elders, and damage to his credibility would be irreversible. There would be a call for his removal by sundown, or tomorrow at the latest.

When he told them, neither of the Champions seemed surprised.

“Ideally we’d all go out like Kern,” Tyria said. “On our