I, Dacien

A Story by Onyx Tao

Copyright 2010

Released under the Creative Commons

Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Chapter Five

Inquisition

Colonel-Junior Dusan Scylla of the Raised Hand Regiment walked forward between two silent commando adepts to either side of him, and wondered. He knew his mission had failed; he knew that he, and he alone, bore that responsibility for failing his Clan, and for losing four commandos and succeeding only in removing a tertiary target. He still didn't know what had happened. He had given his commandos their orders, made certain they understood them, and retreated immediately to await their post-mission report. Except, of course, there had been no post-mission report. Instead of two dead Lycaili mages, found dead with a crippled wolven, all four commandos had been neutralized. Neither mage had been slain. Lord Green's Master of Time had been injured -- not killed, merely injured -- and only Lord Green's Master of Guard had been killed, Havel and Lucas. Both had held the formal rank of tempus master, and even a single commando should have been able to deal with them. Lord Green himself was not formally master-grade, but ... Dusan had spent the long, slow trip back home wondering if perhaps Lord Green was a grandmaster. But even a grandmaster should not have survived an attack by a team of four adepts. No non-adept could match an adept at tempus, it was impossible.

Impossible or not, that's the only thing that could have happened. If Havel or Lucas had been grandmaster level, they would have held the rank. It was only Xavien, already a warlord, a general, a master magician, and a lord mage as well, who would have been indifferent enough to his skill not to formally take the title. Except ... when had someone as busy as Xavien Lord Green managed to train himself to grandmaster levels? And how had even a grandmaster dealt with four adepts? When he'd received his orders, he'd thought assigning four adepts was ridiculous; a single adept could have dealt with every person in the house. Or at least, should have been able to deal with everyone in the house.

Colonel Dusan was certain that whatever had happened, it had not been magic. No mage had ever been able to stop an adept. Except ... something had stopped four adepts, and try as he might, he did not see how it could have been tempus. Or maybe it wasn't magic, and it wasn't tempus, but something else? Something like, oh, those magic weapons Ouroborous had encountered? He'd heard only the vaguest rumors about them, but something that could allow humans to eliminate a force of tempus initiates -- now, that seemed more likely to him.

Only he doubted that the Six Generals would see it that way. When he'd arrived back, and started his report to General Januisz, he'd gotten through the quick report only to have the General summon his own, personal commandos and have him placed in solitary confinement. Within fifteen minutes, two more commandos had appeared, bearing General Sandor's brands, and within an hour, there were exactly twelve commandos, undoubtedly all adepts, guarding him. Two from each of the Six. They were relieved every six hours, replaced with another set of silent minotaur tempus adepts -- and although Dusan was a tempus master himself, he had no illusions about what might happen in a confrontation between himself and any of those adepts.

He'd been kept in solitary confinement for a surprisingly long time. He didn't think that was particularly good, either. Obviously, something had gone wrong, very wrong, above and beyond the disaster of his mission. He just wished he knew what it was.

He and his silent escort finally reached their destination: a small chamber, deep below the fortress. There were six chairs, in a half-circle: General Januisz, General Casimir, General Walochya, General Sandor, General Ladislas, and General Andrei. All purebloods, pure ebon bloodline and pure white bloodlines, the bloodlines of war. Dusan's bloodline was clean white, but it didn't have the pedigree that could have brought him to the Six. An ebon-white hybrid sat to one side, and Dusan wondered why. Generally, hybrids were trained as adepts, commandos and operatives or just slaves, if they failed their adept training and survived.

"Colonel Dusan," General Januisz said quietly. "I would like you to give the report you gave me to all of us. Leave nothing out. We require the truth, Colonel. All of it."

"Yes, Sir. I received your orders from the courier, who brought three commandos with ..."

"Stop," said General Sandor. "The courier -- who was it?"

"Major Oleg, Sir."

"How were the orders delivered?" Sandor asked.

"Verbally."

"With what authentication?" asked General Casimir.

"That of General Januisz, your own, and General Walochya's, Sir."

Those were all three of the ebon generals, and General Sandor glanced back at the hybrid.

"Truth," the hybrid said.

"All three," said General Sandor. "Curious."

"Sir, that was enough to authorize the mission."

"Which was?" asked General Ladislas. "The exact orders, if you please."

"'Teodor Lord Fog Lycaili would be arriving within forty-eight hours at the house of Xavien Lord Green. Neutralize Teodor and Xavien as primary targets. Traveling with Teodor is Benelaus Ouroborous; consider him a secondary target. There is a wolven on the grounds; consider him a tertiary target. Deal with them, and return to base for debriefing.'" Dusan quoted.

"That was all?" General Januisz asked.

"Yes, Sir. I was traveling as a gem merchant, with one commando. Major Oleg brought me my orders, traveling as a cloth merchant."

"Did you see Major Oleg after that?" asked General Ladislas.

"No Sir, I did not." Dusan waited for a moment, and then continued. "After Major Oleg left, I proceeded to Winegarden Vale -- instructing the commandos to remain out of sight. I contacted a local jeweler to keep my cover intact, and scouted House Green. It seemed fairly open, and the wolven was easy to locate. I waited for the other targets to arrive, and when they did, I gave the commandos their orders. Wait twenty-four hours, wait until the primary targets are together, eliminate the wolven, the primaries, and the secondaries. Rejoin me at our rendezvous site." Dusan sighed. "I don't know what went wrong, but I was waiting for nearly two days before I found out just how poorly the operation went." He felt the stares of the bulls around around him. "I scouted House Green with the commandos personally. Havel -- the Master of Guard -- didn't notice us. Xavien didn't notice us! I drew up commands, orders, briefed the commandos -- it should have gone like clockwork."

"No," said General Sandor. "It didn't. We know a little more about that than you do, I think." He glanced back at the hybrid.

"Truth, all truth."

"I ... respectfully, I would like to know what happened, Sir," Dusan said.

The generals glanced at each other, and finally General Walochya nodded. "We're not sure yet. We believe Lord Green was involved; it may be that your scouting tipped him off."

"Sir, I followed standard procedure. There was no sign, Sir, none."

"Nevertheless," General Walochya said. "Lycaili, of course, identified the commandos as ninja, and has surrounded their mages and Patriarch with a fairly impressive guard."

"May I know why the Lords were targets?"

"It might be because Lord Green and Lord Fog appear to have developed a way to trigger a mage-transformation," General Walochya said softly.

Dusan blinked. Might? "Sir?"

"That's our best guess, in case," General Sandor said.

"Guess? Sir?"

"The problem, Colonel," said General Januisz heavily, "is that neither I, nor General Walochya, nor General Casimir authorized your mission."

"Sir? But ..." Dusan paused. "Sir, all the authentication words were there!"

"Truth," called out the hybrid.

"So it appears. But I did not send mine to you, and I have never spoken those words aloud, nor written them down, nor communicated them in any way save to you, and never intended or allowed, by accident or purpose, that they reach you for the mission your describe, or any other mission," General Januisz said.

"Truth," the hybrid said again.

General Casimir nodded. "And that goes for me. I have not sent you the code we agreed on, nor shared it with any person living or dead at any time, and never intended to activate you on purpose or accident for this mission or any other."

"Truth," the hybrid said.

"You've already heard my affirmation," General Walochya said quietly. "Nor I. Although I wonder if perhaps this might not be some plot of our counterparts. You've been quiet Andrei; I begin think you might know something."

The white minotaur bristled just as the hybrid called out "False."

"Ah," said Walochya. "Just making sure Timas was paying attention. I don't think that, actually. But I do think that the only other person who knew those codes -- a person who knew all of them, as a matter of fact, was you, Colonel Dusan."

Dusan nodded. "Yes, Sir. I have never divulged them, I have never written them down, shared them with any person. I've tried not to even think about them, never give a hint, nothing, Sir. Sirs."

"Truth."

"So you believed your mission came from us?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Timas?"

"Truth," the hybrid said.

"From all of us; not a rogue mission?" asked Sandor.

"Sir, I serve my Clan, my entire Clan."

"Truth."

"Answer the question as I asked it, Dusan," said Sandor.

"Sir, I believed the mission came from the Clan as a whole, and was not an attempt to plot on behalf of or against any particular bloodline."

"Truth."

"And you've never planned to advance your bloodline at the expense of ours," asked General Sandor disbelievingly.

"Stop!" interrupted General Casimir. "This is exactly the kind of questioning that we agreed would be off limits."

"I have not," Dusan said loudly. "I have never favored or disfavored any pureblooded minotaur for his bloodline."

"Truth," said Timas, actually sounding a little surprised.

"That will do," said General Januisz. "Colonel, do not answer any further questions along that line."

"It had to be asked," Casimir said.

"It did not have to be answered," Wolochya said. "Colonel, I thank you for your service to our clan, in the best traditions of our blood."

"This changes nothing," General Andrei said, speaking at last. "The problem is the same. Someone has used us -- someone who knows this mage-creation secret, someone who attempted to remove it from Lycaili, and fixate attention on us."

"How do you know they know the secret?" asked Casimir. "You deduce that from their targeting Lords Fog and Green. But if they wanted nobody to have the secret?"

"No. Such idealism is at odds with their demonstrated powers of reconnaissance," said General Andrei. "I think we must assume the worst. An enemy who knows everything about us, and will soon have as many mages as we have commandos." Andrei grimaced. "Does that put anyone in mind of ... a possible enemy?"

The room was quiet as the generals considered this.

"No," General Sandor said. "We would have heard a hint, a suggestion, something if they were still around."

"I think we just did," General Andrei replied coolly. "Our course is clear. We, too, must acquire this ritual, and if Lords Fog and Green are too well guarded, well, we know that two apprentices were made, and we know where one of them will be in about eight days. And conveniently close to us, at that." He looked around at the dubious faces of the other generals. "Unless there's a better suggestion?"

General Januisz nodded. "We could open negotiations with Lycaili."

"A better suggestion, not an idiotic one," General Andrei said. "They know about ninja. Nothing else, and we are in no danger."

General Januisz looked around the room, and then nodded. "Very well. That just leaves one thing. Colonel Dusan?"

"Sir?"

"This is, as you can imagine, rather sensitive information."

"Yes, Sir. I won't breathe a word, Sir."

"I know you won't, Colonel, and I'd like to thank you."

"Sir? It's my duty."

General Januisz nodded, and gestured. "To keep a secret? Yes it is." Powerful arms locked around Colonel Dusan, as a sudden feeling of dread shot through him. "I'm not thanking you for that. I'm thanking you for volunteering to join the commandos."