Spectra's Gambit (40 page)

“Are you thinking he will switch sides?” asked Curetes.

“With Shea on board, it is certain that they will be teaching him to control his temper instead of using it. He will see that as a victory that we did not enable him to achieve, and that will create a bond between him and some crew members,” said Henrick.

“Do you think he will tell them?” asked Curetes.

“You said he followed a female Zalionian on board?” asked Henrick.

“Yeah, the albino Kymberly,” said Curetes. “He followed her like a puppy.”

“Then he may already have told them. I suggest we keep trying to get information out of him, but be cautious of him as a data source,” said Henrick.

“Understood,” said Curetes.

“Is there any sign of Raquel yet?” asked Henrick.

“No,” said Curetes.

“There are disturbing trends in her future, and we need to know more about them. They could be trouble for all of us,” said Henrick.

“Trouble?” asked Curetes.

“Yes, of a kind that will make the tables look trivial,” said Henrick.

“We have an around-the-clock watch on that location. If she visits we will know about it, but the last report still places her in the Wizard Kingdom undergoing a crash study course,” said Curetes.

“She has a lot of ground to cover, but she will visit the grave site,” said Henrick.

It had been two months since our trip home to see Flame and the new babies, and Grandmaster Vydor’s visit was upon us. We had as yet made no move to break away from the Kingdom, but not for the lack of Spectra’s desire; it was my own hesitation that delayed us. The imminent visit reminded me that Grandmaster Vydor was supportive of our desire to build this corps, and also how much we now resembled a family. I kept reliving the moment when Flame had asked us to care for her children if she fell in battle. That kind of trust can’t be replaced or rebuilt if it is damaged.

“Dusty, why do we have to put up with this inspection? Just tell him ‘no’,” said Spectra.

“No, I will not. Not only is he the most powerful wizard alive, he is still also our superior,” I said.

“But he does not have to be anymore! We can do this alone!” she insisted.

“Yes, we can, but I am not convinced that we should just yet. Let’s destroy this station under his flag first,” I said.

“Why?” she demanded. “It’s not like he’s sending us any help!”

“Only because we haven’t asked,” I said.

“Admittedly, but I still don’t see why we should not act now,” she said.

“Because if that station falls while we are still acting as part of the Wizard Kingdom, then they will go after the Kingdom and not us.” I was just stalling, and I was sure she knew that, but it was still a valid point.

She was pacing back and forth, and her hair was sticking up. Her tail was thrashing back and forth behind her, as if it had a mind of its own. I had learned that meant it was best to steer clear of her, and I would have avoided the issue if it were possible but we had to resolve this before Grandmaster Vydor arrived.

“Look, right now he is making no demands on us and is letting us do as we wish out here,” I said. “There is no harm in waiting, and we have much to gain by letting the Kingdom take the blame for our actions. Let’s just coast it out for a while longer and take advantage of the situation.”

She said nothing but kept on pacing. Her tail was thrashing so much behind her, I was worried that she might pull a muscle.

“Please, Spectra: for me?” I asked softly.

She froze, turned to look at me and sighed. “Okay. I’m going down to the practice chambers to burn off some steam. I suppose we can let the old man poke around one more time.” She forced a smile, which was a bit unsettling given her sharp, pointy teeth and angry demeanor.

She cast one of her travel spells and vanished. Technically she should have walked to the practice room, as our rules stated, but there was no way I was going to remind her of that in her current mood. I dropped heavily into my chair and leaned back, trying to will the stress from my body. I desperately wanted to soak in my tank, but there was too much to do to get ready for Grandmaster Vydor’s visit.

I spent a few minutes on the breathing exercises that Shea had taught me, and then went over all the reports on the progress of our teams. When they had joined us, they all had a solid grasp of the basics of their secondary power lines but knew nothing of their spiritual powers. Several had been experimenting and had come dangerously close to summoning things that should not be summoned. I felt this was strong support for our cause, and if I could stall Spectra long enough I could prove our case to the Wizards’ Council so that maybe we would not have to break away.

The real problem was the Korshalemian wizards. If Spectra was right and this brought war to our realm, I would never forgive myself. I had to believe that she was wrong on this particular occasion. Her vision of the future was not as clear as Grandmaster’s vision, and even he had told me on several occasions that his foresight was foggy at best and he could understand general trends only rather than having absolute knowledge.

Several hours passed before Spectra came back, but when she did she appeared calmer.

“He will be here shortly,” I said.

“Yes,” she replied.

“You have much to show him,” I told her. “You have done well training the new team. You can be proud of them.”

“Hello
!
”
sent Grandmaster Vydor.
“Are you ready for me?”

“Yes, Grandmaster,”
I sent.

When Grandmaster Vydor arrived we took him on a tour of the Nemesis. He was very complimentary throughout, and offered very few suggestions or corrections. He insisted in watching some of our wizards practice their spiritual line and even helped a couple of them with their spells.

The crew, for their part, were very nervous around him, but they all managed to do well. He was attentive to each one of them, and if they had any comments he took the time to listen to them all. When we introduced him to Chrimson he never let on that he knew he was a spy, and treated him exactly like any of the other wizards on board. Eventually we returned to my office and settled down to hear what he had to say.

“How long until you reach the station?” he asked.

“We are holding one jump out,” I said. “We were able to make up some time along the route, so we’re a little ahead of schedule.”

“Excellent!” he said. “I was wondering: how do you plan to destroy the station?”

“Grandmaster, so far all the stations run by the Imperial Humans have been using an older version of the old Empire’s operating code base. Greymere is able to use that knowledge to obtain entry, and he is confident that we can get command access to this station. Once we do that we can remove all the electronic fail-safes on the self-destruction mechanism, and Chrimson believes he can handle the physical fail-safes. With a concerted effort, we should be able to cause the station to blow itself up. If that should fail, then I believe we have enough anti-matter in the missile warheads to do the job if we place them in key locations around the station.”

“That sounds like a good plan. If it fails and you need more firepower, let me know and I will make sure you have it,” he said.

He leaned back and took a deep pull from the coffee that Nanny had made for him. “Quite frankly, I am impressed. You two have done exceedingly well out here.”

“Thank you, Grandmaster,” I said.

“I was not here for your maiden launch, so these gifts are somewhat belated, but I hope you will like them nevertheless.” He pulled out a small bag and placed it on the table. “That is one of Mantis’ bags.”

I knew that meant it held a ridiculous amount of stuff. Mantis loved the effect of either taking something impossibly large out of something tiny, or far too much material out of much too small a space. His wedding gift to us was a tiny bag like this; when I emptied it out, it filled three of my sleeping tanks with water and live aupessi.

Spectra reached into the bag and pulled out a wand. With a slight gasp she said, “Spirit bolt!”

“Yes. Kellyn made them,” Grandmaster Vydor said.

Master Kellyn was a master-level spiritualist, and a wand made by her would hold tremendous power.

“There are more wands in there, and some scrolls she made for both of you,” he said.

“Wonderful! Please thank her for us,” said Spectra. She was clearly impressed by what she saw. Master Kellyn was probably the only person alive in either realm who could make wands and scrolls that Spectra would actually find useful.

“I will. There is another gift here,” he said and pulled out a book.

Spectra started to cry when she took the book. “Where did you find this?”

“Mantis had it, and God only knows how he acquired it,” he said softly.

“But …” she started and then stopped, choked up with emotion. She traced her finger along the writing on the cover, which was in a language I could not decipher. “This was my great-grandmother’s.”

“How can you tell?” I asked. Spectra was an orphan; she knew nothing of her family.

“Traces of the aura of my family line are on the book, mostly covered by that of Mantis. Knowing him, it’s been sitting in that library of his untouched for years, which has allowed her aura to remain.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“It looks like a hand-crafted spellbook, but that isn’t possible. Magic would not have existed while she was alive,” she said.

“Unless . . . ” I wondered out loud. “Unless she lived in Korshalemia.”

She sat there hugging the book, a piece of her past that had been stolen from her and finally recovered. I sensed unfathomable depths of emotion in her. As far as I knew, she had never before possessed anything from her past.

“I am glad it has come home,” said Grandmaster Vydor. “Now to business. I am extremely impressed by the progress of your group, and you have more than proved yourselves. I hereby promote both of you to the positions of the very first journeyman-level spiritualists this realm has ever seen, at least in the past 10,000 years.”

It was really amazing how big Spectra’s eyes could grow, but in this instance my own were probably just as large. By promoting us, he was announcing to all that he supported us in the training of spiritualists, even though this was forbidden.

“But, Grandmaster, what about the treaty?” asked Spectra.

He chuckled. “The treaty has no bearing on these promotions.”

“But in it you promised – ” she began.

“No. I know what you are thinking, so let me explain,” he interrupted. “Have you ever played chess?”

“Not in a very long time, Grandmaster,” said Spectra.

“You should try it again. It is a wonderful game,” he said. “One of the secrets to winning is to start well, so over the generations people have spent a lot of time studying the opening moves of the game and coming up with specific sets of moves that would put them in the best position for the rest of the game. These became famous over time and were known by the name of the player who discovered them. For example, if you were a famous chess player and you always made certain opening moves, these would become known as Spectra’s Gambit.”

Spectra, still cuddling her new book, was listening intently to every word he said. That book had broken something down between them. A barrier was gone and he was speaking directly to her soul.

“When the treaty was being written, they assumed I was a young fool who could easily be manipulated, but they were wrong; it was part of my gambit. The treaty does not forbid me from training spiritualists, not at all. I had that language changed under the guise that Kellyn was one. Instead, it forbids me from training
necromancers.
”

I looked over at Spectra and back to Grandmaster Vydor. “Then we are not forbidden by the treaty?”

“Not at all, but that has not prevented them from trying. My gambit is coming to the end of its usefulness now, and they have realized they are in trouble.”

“How is that?” I asked.

“They fear us and our technology. They thought by implanting their teachers in our academy that they could control our realm as well as theirs. They also installed me as grandmaster, assuming I would be their puppet,” he said.

Spectra laughed out loud. “You, a puppet? Sorry, Grandmaster, but that is the best joke I have heard in a long time!”

He smiled. “Yes. I let them think it for years, while slowly recruiting their elite wizards to come over to our realm.”

“Like Mathorn,” I said.

“Exactly,” he said. “Well, now that they can see my full play, they are angry and alarmed. They have threatened to end the treaty on several occasions, but I keep demanding that they point out a single place where I have violated it, which they cannot do.”

“But won’t promoting us make things worse?” I asked.

“They cannot be worse,” he said. “Understand, the fate of the treaty was sealed the day they realized I was not their puppet and that they had no control over wizards in this realm. Even if spiritualists did not exist, the relationship would have degraded just as quickly. It is merely an excuse on their part.”

“Will there be war?” I asked.

“I hope not. I still have a few pieces to play which I hope will prevent that, but any thought of an ongoing alliance is definitely sunk. I intend to make one last attempt to retain it, but at this point I am convinced the treaty is defunct.”

“What does this mean for us?” I asked.

“It means congratulations are in order,” he said. “I am promoting you, Dusty, to be head of the Wizard Spirit Corps, a division separate from the Wizard Navy. From now on you report directly to me and the council, and Shadow will be your peer.”

Spectra was rocking in her seat, holding that book even more tightly. I could see the confusion and conflict in her mind reflected in her face. “But, Grandmaster, all those lessons in the school, the polices – ” she started to say.

“- were all products of the teachers and the headmaster from Korshalemia. I had to let it stand until we were ready to stand alone. Now, we must still be careful. As you well know, training spiritualists is dangerous; so no spiritualist will be permitted to train outside of your organization.”