CHAPTER FOURTEEN - GOLD IN A CAGE

The office of Vael, the Director of the Royal Intelligence, was like a gilded cage, set apart from the Capital's corrupt mud and blood. As the pale afternoon sun filtering through the high windows struck the polished mahogany desk in the center of the room, the heavy, throat-burning smell of expensive incense in the air collided sharply with the stench of rust, sweat, and dried blood on the man who entered.

Commander Luvo, without feeling any need to clean the mud stains off his armor, lowered himself slowly into one of the embossed leather chairs before the desk. He hadn't drawn his sword from its scabbard, but he kept his left hand resting just above the worn leather grip, with a stillness ready to spring into motion at any moment.

On the other side of the desk, Vael leaned back in his flawless silk robe. With a silver letter opener held at the tips of his slender, well-kept fingers, he slowly turned the pages of the report bearing Luvo's seal. The rustle of paper was the only sound in that silent room.

"No information was found regarding the group that attacked the Sanctified Bloodlines unit in the region," Vael murmured, reading the report's last line. There was neither disappointment nor any note of anger in his voice; his words were as smooth as fingers gliding around the rim of a wet glass. "In the letter you sent me, you also wrote that the reason for the massacre was unknown." Vael lightly touched the pointed tip of the letter opener to the surface of the desk and looked at Luvo. "I didn't expect our army to return from the southern border so quickly, Commander. Especially while the source of the problem is still out there somewhere."

Not a single muscle twitched in Luvo's face. His black-gloved fingers rested motionless on his knees. He didn't let this first poisoned arrow of Vael's leave so much as a scratch on his armor.

"On the borderlands, every factor is a problem, Director," said Luvo, his voice as dry and resonant as the winds in a valley. "I can understand your surprise. There were things that surprised me too. One of them in particular was the absence of any intelligence to support the friction between the Inquisition and the Desert Kingdom."

Ignoring the creak of the leather chair, Luvo leaned forward slightly with his massive frame. "It's hard to understand how an Inquisition unit that set out to wage holy war on the Desert Kingdom could be wiped out without leaving a single piece of evidence to tie it to the Desert Kingdom. And then, in the middle of that massacre, to find a document belonging to the Royal Intelligence, one that barely escaped the flames..."

Luvo raised his chin slightly and fixed his eyes directly on Vael's.

"I'll admit, coincidences always make me smile."

The heavy incense in the room became suffocating for a moment. Vael's slender fingers, holding the letter opener, went rigid in the air. The light reflected off the silver trembled for an instant. Though the Director's knuckles whitened from the grip, it lasted only a heartbeat. Very slowly, very deliberately, Vael relaxed his hand and set the letter opener down on the desk without a sound.

"It's even harder to understand why the Inquisition would need an Intelligence document," Luvo continued, using the silence between them to his own advantage. "You of all people know they can issue their own special warrants for this sort of business."

Vael rested his arms on the desk and laced his fingers together elegantly. At the corners of his lips appeared that famous diplomatic smile that never reached his eyes.

"No one can know what the Inquisition is thinking," Vael said. His tone was as smooth as before, but he was choosing his words more carefully now. "But if there's a document in play, I can offer a theory. Holy wars sometimes require a broader picture. The appearance of an official unit acting for the Empire, rather than a personal mission... The Crown's customs documents serve such an illusion all too well."

Luvo simply watched this maneuver Vael had so skillfully constructed. The Director wasn't acting as though the document were his own; he was pinning the blame squarely on those fanatics. It was a flawless political move. But Luvo's eyes narrowed slightly.

"I don't recall mentioning a customs document, Vael," said Luvo. The dark implication in his voice splattered like tar across the room's gilding.

A heavy silence fell. On the invisible chessboard atop the mahogany desk, a check had been called. Vael's breathing stopped for an instant.

But the Director was not a man to be cornered. Without even blinking, he brushed it off easily: "The report and the inventory list you brought from the border arrived before you did. It must have stuck in my mind from there."

Luvo's jaw tightened slightly, but he didn't press the point.

To break this pressure, Vael rose from behind the desk. His soft velvet slippers made almost no sound on the wooden floor. He began to circle slowly around Luvo, the way a hunter sizes up a caged lion.

"You still haven't explained why you came back," Vael said as he passed right behind Luvo. "The enemy could still be out there."

"My soldiers don't fight ghosts," Luvo answered. Without even deigning to turn his head toward Vael, he stared straight at the wall in front of him. "Whatever carried out that massacre left no trace behind. All I found was blood and mud. Just as it says in my report."

Vael stopped when he came back into Luvo's line of sight. "I have no doubt as to the accuracy of your report," he said softly. "But for a commander to return to the Capital without investigating so savage a massacre within his own jurisdiction — and to pull back the border garrisons on top of it... That goes against the very nature of a legendary soldier like yourself. One can't help but wonder: did the Commander come across something in that forest that he doesn't want the Capital to know about?"

Luvo slowly tightened his black-gloved hands where they gripped the edges of the chair. The creak of leather echoed through the room. Vael had struck the nerve dead-on. The Director had sniffed out that Luvo was hiding something in that forest, and now he was threatening to go after that scent.

Luvo rose slowly to his feet. His massive frame fell like a dark shadow over Vael's delicate silk robe.

"A commander pulls his army back when he sees ground too filthy to fight on, Vael," said Luvo. His voice was no longer a warning but an outright command. "The forest was diseased. I have no intention of sacrificing my soldiers to rot, or to senseless games started by others. The border is closed. That is my official order."

The tension on Vael's face vanished in an instant, giving way to a slow, poisonous smile.

"I understand," Vael said softly, inclining his head slightly. "The safety of your soldiers matters above all else. I'll forward your report to the Royal Council. The journey must have worn you out, Commander."

Luvo looked at the Director one last time. In that brief conversation each had heard the other's lies, but neither had let his mask slip.

"Good day, Director," said Luvo. He left the room, his boots striking the floor with heavy, solid thuds. When the door closed behind him, the diplomatic smile on Vael's face instantly gave way to a cold, calculating expression.

Luvo had withdrawn the army and sealed the border. That meant Vael could not send an official military unit or investigation team into the region. If he did, it would be a direct violation of Luvo's authority and would start a political war.

But Vael didn't need an army.

---

An hour later, Vael descended to the damp, sunless training yard in the palace's lower levels. With him were four elite Royal Guards who followed him like shadows. In their thick, reinforced iron armor, these men were the palace's deadliest and most loyal guards.

The moment Vael stepped into the darkness of the yard, he suddenly slowed his pace.

No footsteps were heard. Not even a shadow stirred anywhere around them. There was only a thin whine, shrill and barely audible, that licked through the air like a blade.

The huge guard immediately to Vael's right went rigid all at once. Before the man's armored hand could even reach his sword's grip, he collapsed to his knees. A muffled rasp escaped his mouth, and he crashed face down onto the stone floor with a great clatter.

In the split second the other three guards realized the danger and moved to reach for their weapons, they froze where they stood, as if seized by an invisible hand. Their muscles locked completely, their eyes wide with terror. Within seconds all four toppled to the ground like hollowed-out statues. They were breathing, but apart from their pupils trembling in panic, they couldn't move a single muscle in their bodies.

Vael didn't even turn to look at his men suffering on the ground. He merely sighed and spoke toward the darkest corner of the yard.

"You do love a show. Was that really necessary?"

From within the shadows, from the darkness just beneath the ceiling, a slender silhouette seemed to glide down to the floor. The man's face was so ordinary and forgettable that if he passed you on a crowded street you wouldn't remember him for even a second. In his hand he held a long, jet-black wooden staff that, to an outside eye, looked like a simple fighting stick.

The assassin greeted Vael with a slight bow of his head. He did not speak.

"Commander Luvo is hiding something he found on the southern border from us," Vael said. He walked toward the assassin through his paralyzed guards on the ground, taking care that his boots didn't touch them. "He pulled his army back. I can't send an official man out there. But there's something Luvo is hiding there. A document... A witness... Maybe something else entirely. I don't know what it is. But I need to."

Vael paused. There was no expression on the assassin's face, but his lifeless, dull eyes were scanning Vael's neck — as though examining not a person but a piece of meat to be cut. Vael felt the freezing threat beneath that gaze, but he didn't let his composure crack.

"Start at the scene," the Director ordered. "What the Commander found when he got there, what he left behind, what he brought back with him... Dig up all of it. Start with the informants along the border. Question the innkeepers, the money changers, the border whores all along the road. Listen to everyone the Commander spoke to along his route. Even silence is information. If Luvo found something in that forest, that something is still out there somewhere."

The assassin tapped his black staff lightly against the stone floor, just hard enough to make a single click, signaling that he understood the order.

"And be careful," Vael added, lacing his voice with a feigned note of warning. "The Inquisition is interested in the same massacre. They have their own leaks, their own informants. If you run into them, don't get into an argument. You were never there."

The assassin tilted his head slowly to one side. A faint, freezing smile appeared at the corner of his lips. It was a silent but absolute promise that said, If I get into an argument, they won't be there anymore.

When Vael saw that smile, it took him real effort to keep the thin shiver crawling up his spine from showing on his face.

"Go," he said simply. "I want your first report within a week."

The assassin bowed his head, turned, and melted into the shadows like smoke. His footsteps were quieter even than the breathing of the paralyzed guards.

Vael was left alone in the cold yard with his four men lying on the ground. He looked at them for a moment. The palace's best-trained, most loyal, deadly guards... And now they floundered helplessly on the ground like insects.

Vael turned toward the stairs to return to his gilded office. He left the paralyzed men there just as they were. The servants would come, of course, take them away, and know full well that they were never to speak of what had happened here.

As he climbed those cold stairs, neither Luvo's insolent manner nor the Inquisition's games occupied Vael's mind any longer. Only a single question echoed in his mind: What did Luvo find in that forest?

The shadow that would bring the answer had already set out.