Imperius Ch. 08

"Enough with this nonsense," said Ajax, cutting her off with a lifted hand and a kind of amused irritation that was clearly directed more toward the stiffly abashed Cato than toward Lilah. "Are you going to ask her a real question?"


"You've become awfully authoritative since your time in the arena," Cato said, but even though he sneered, Magnus could tell that he was glad for the chance to cover his embarrassment.


"Perhaps I just don't share your fascination with Praetor Valerianus' sexual dalliances," Ajax rebutted.


"Enough, enough," said Hesiod patiently, lifting a hand to quiet them. "We don't have all day," he said, but then he seemed to check himself, and looked at Saphir. "Or do we?" he asked.


"The effect is known to last between six and seven hours, depending on the subject's constitution," Saphir answered.


"Well, then..." he said, reconsidering. "I suppose we can ask any questions we like." Magnus felt, rather than saw, the man's own curiosity and playfulness grow keen.


"I admit, I myself am terribly curious...What do you think of me?" he asked.


"You're like a cat," she said, speaking so candidly and enunciating so carefully she reminded Magnus of a child giving a formal speech, "playing with your food."


Hesiod chuckled, and many in the tent followed suit.


"Perhaps then, I should get to the meat of the matter after all," he said, when they'd quieted, resuming a more businesslike demeanor. "Tell us about your father," he ordered, leaning in, as though offering to share a secret.


"My father? He's gentle and quiet...and shy..."


"And what else?"


"And nice..."


Hesiod glanced at Saphir, who took that as a cue to offer his insight.


"The serum dulls her inhibitions and her selectiveness," he said, in his most deceptively genteel tone. "She'll tell you anything you ask, but only if you lead her to what you wish to know precisely."


Magnus could only just see Hesiod's nod in response.


"What does your father do for a living?"


"He spends a lot of his time in the cellar, making all kinds of noise, and sparks, and smoke, and steam. He would let me watch, even when I was little. Even though Mother yelled at him so many times not to." she smiled, blissfully. "I was one of the only people he ever talked to freely."


"And this was in Islamuir?" Hesiod asked, his eyes scouring her distant and dreamy expression.


"Yes," she said.


"How long has he been building weapons for Illythiel?" he asked Lilah.


"I don't know."


"But you know he has been?" he asked, in a voice that was sharp only when compared to his usual chumminess.


"I only think he is," she said.


"He never told you?"


"No," she said, "He hasn't written to me since the war began."


"Damn. I was hoping she'd been lying about that," Hesiod mused pensively, half to himself and half to the rest of them. "Then where did you learn the code words to stop the Behemoth?"


"I didn't. They were just words he shouted when he was down in the cellar. I thought they could help."


With a deep sigh, Hesiod touched his hand to his brow, pausing for a few moments to regather his thoughts. "Do you know where he is now?"


"No," she said.


"Damn," Hesiod said again.


But Magnus noticed a strangeness in the way she had trailed off, and he spoke.


"But do you have a suspicion, Lilah?" he asked. The others turned and looked at him with a myriad of expressions, and he noted them all, even as his focus stayed primarily on Lilah.


"Yes," she said, her voice still dreamlike.


"What is it?"


"They said they would send him to Valence with his designs," she said, hazily.


"Why would they do that?" demanded Hesiod, his eyes growing penetrative.


"It was our last chance to ally with them, to get them to help us."


"But this is excellent news!" Hesiod said. "I have contacts in the Valencian court. If her father is there, we can spread word that we hold his daughter hostage—For the price of behemoth codes, if not his design plans as well...and maybe one or two of his inventions," he added thoughtfully.


"Wait," said Ariadne, speaking for the first time since Magnus had entered the tent. Her voice was silvery and cool and it had a way of silencing and drawing the attention of everyone present, even without her raising her voice at all. It had often been one of the things that he appreciated about her, and when she turned to look at him now, understanding moved between them, a shared realization.


"How did they send him?" she asked, turning her eyes toward Lilah even as her body was still angled to face his. "Imperial troops guard the border thoroughly. How did they intend to get him through?"


"I don't know," Lilah said, and Magnus wondered if he was imagining her momentary hesitation, before she added, with dreamlike candor. "I think it was on a stolen sky-ship. The only one we ever recovered intact. The Black Star."


"The Black Star," Ariadne repeatedly grimly, her eyes meeting Magnus' once more in acknowledgment of their confirmed suspicion.


"What?" said Hesiod, frustrated to be left out of their awareness. "What's the problem?"


Everyone glanced at Cato, who looked more uncomfortable than Magnus had ever seen him.


"Legatus," he said, after a moment. "That ship was...shot down. When we realized it was stolen, it was shot down to prevent it escaping."


"'Was shot down' is a careful way to put it, from the one who ordered the shooting," Ajax noted, his voice deeper than ever. Cato looked like he might defend himself, but he was interrupted before he had the chance.


"—My liege," Saphir said, holding Lilah steady by the arm. "She's hyperventilating." It wasn't clear whether he was speaking to Hesiod or to Magnus, but the latter had already moved to her other side. It was true, her breath was coming fast and shallow, her breasts heaving with tortured pain. She staggered, and would have fallen to the floor if not for their grip on her.


Magnus took claim of her at last, and felt her sobs and gasps give way to screams against him.


"Get the physician!" he ordered.