Bite Back 05 - Angel Stakes (33 page)

“You guys go ahead,” I said as we walked past Altau security and into the conference center.

Small groups of representatives swirled in the entrance hall. The sound of subdued discussions was like bees in a hive.

I gave Yelena a shove toward the main auditorium.

I just needed a minute to find my balance again. Forsythe was my fault. I’d gotten beyond thinking of resolution, and the ‘if only I had done something’ phase. I was into trying to work out the best, quickest way to stop him and his criminal network. But it was all complicated by the tasks I had for Skylur and the new Assembly.

If I got the Were to help, would that be acting as syndesmon?

I walked a circuit around the hall, trying to put aside what I’d learned about Forsythe so I could think more clearly.

I was lost in thought, safe inside a conference center that was protected by Altau security. But not all enemies were outside; I remembered that too late when I found my way blocked.

“Diakon Huang,” I managed to say. He’d approached soundlessly, soft footed. He was flanked by his sharp-eyed Adepts.

“House Farrell. Forgive me, but you appear disturbed.”

“I am. It’s private.” Damned if I’d talk to him about it.

He was plainly dressed: lace-up brown leather shoes, dark pants and a freshly-pressed white shirt, open at the collar. Clean shaven. Thick black hair combed. Face solemn, serious and concerned.

The Diakon of the Emperor of Heaven looked completely ordinary, and yet his power seemed to radiate from him like a lamp.

And he shared a quality with Skylur: in a group photo, you’d miss him completely.

Look him in the eyes? Entirely different.

A dangerous man, as I’d been warned, and one who was staring at me the way a snake looked at a rabbit.

But I could stare down a brick wall; he wasn’t going to make me blink.

I got a sensation of his eukori. Like a flag waving in the wind, in slow motion. A silent pendulum on a grandfather clock.

I mentally recoiled. I did
not
want him in my head.

How easily had he snuck up? More importantly, how did I stop him?

“I apologize,” he said. “It is not my nature to intrude, but there are times when events conspire to eclipse the comfort of good manners and the benefit of harmony, and this is such a time.”

He’s right about that.

“My task here is of the highest importance,” he said. “Not for me. Not even for the Emperor. For everyone, the entire world, but most especially for your friend and her dragon.”

I believe that.

“It is vital that my community of Adepts are able to offer their assistance at the earliest possible time. To delay is to encourage a danger with unimaginable consequences.”

Yes. Yes. I can completely see his point.

“The knowledge and appreciation of dragons is at the heart of the Empire. A tragedy for a dragon would be a tragedy for the Empire, and for the world. We know an immature dragon cannot channel the amount of power we sensed without injury.”

I’d channeled that power, a fraction of it, before Kaothos took over. It’d pushed me over the edge into rogue. Fragments of the night’s memories floated before my eyes.
Her wings blotting out the stars. Fire in my veins. The hideous pain.

“Yes. The dragon is injured.” His voice glided quietly over me. “In danger. It needs our help.”

The ‘it’ was jarring. Kaothos wasn’t ‘it’. Kaothos was ‘she’. His words suddenly were making me angry.

Your anger is the great strength that carries you.

Speaks-to-Wolves had said that.

Yeah. Anger was an old friend I could use. A friend I was used to. It cleared my head, which felt unfocused and somehow soft.

I blinked.
Wake up. Wake up!

How long have I been standing here?

“I request your assistance in finding Tullah and her dragon, House Farrell,” Huang said smoothly. “For her sake, as well as everyone else’s.”

“I don’t know where she is,” I said. The words leaked from me. My voice felt rusty.

I wanted to help him.

No! I wanted to help Kaothos.

That’s the same thing, isn’t it?

“And yet…” his eyes lost their intensity, as one of his Adepts whispered in his ear.

My knees felt wobbly.

What had he done? What had he seen?

“We have no time,” Huang said. “Our conversations have always been most interesting, House Farrell. I sense you could help us. As we could, no doubt, help you. Perhaps with support for Altau. Or even an invitation to accompany Tullah and her dragon to the Empire. There, we would honor you for what makes you different and unique, unlike so many of the Athanate here, even Panethus, who are not your friends.”

Skylur and Tarez appeared, smiles fixed on faces.

Huang took a step back.

“Or perhaps,” he said, “the help you need would be something so simple for us. Something on the issue which had you so disturbed as you arrived at this meeting.” He turned to Skylur. “For which we are now called to the conference room, I believe. House Altau, House Tarez.”

Skylur dipped his head formally and Huang walked off, surrounded by his Adepts.

“Did he just hack into my head?” I asked, my heart racing.

Skylur snorted. “Not with completely success. We need to keep better watch, Tarez.”

He also left for the conference room as Yelena came trotting back, looking concerned.

Tarez, normally so cheerful, was looking angry.

“Be careful, Amber,” he whispered as we moved toward the entrance. “You mustn’t get cornered by him. You can’t defend yourself against his telergic abilities.”

I shivered. In the middle of the conference center, Huang had managed to slip out from under Altau’s watch and find me. Sooner or later, he would again. All he would need would be a few minutes.

Inside the main auditorium, Skylur was already sitting relaxed at the front. His arms rested on the arms of his chair and his fingers were steepled. He looked completely at ease, a man with not a worry in the world.

So, it was that bad.

Alongside him was Imiso Correia, leader of the Hidden Path.

Yelena, Elizabetta and I sat in the seats reserved for us in the first row.

I looked around.

Over the last week, the Athanate Houses had started to group themselves into geographic areas and alliances that vested votes in a nominal head of the group, so the numbers in LA had gone down dramatically. Two weeks ago, the auditorium would have been full. Now we were down to major players, about fifty of them. With their security. The early hour had obviously been no barrier to showing up for this discussion.

Eugenie, House Passau, sat three rows back and smiled at me. She represented a large section of the European Houses. I still had some friends here, then.

The other person I saw a few seats away was Amelie Prowser. Skylur seemed to think she wasn’t an enemy, but I wasn’t sure I trusted her.

Many of the others I only vaguely recognized. The drawing of the battle lines between Panethus and the newly formed Hidden Path seemed to have shaken up the mix of representatives.

Skylur leaned forward almost as soon as we had settled.

“Thank you,” he said simply, and the room fell silent. “This is a briefing discussion. The presence of House Farrell as syndesmon has been requested, so I’ll speak in English. The scope of the discussion is the implication of legal codes at the interface between human and paranormal races.”

Correia stirred, but didn’t interrupt.

“I’d also emphasize that this is a briefing, not a vote,” he continued. “In light of their independence from both parties, I’ve asked House Stanbrigge of the Midnight Empire to give a summary of positions as an opening statement.” Skylur gestured to Stanbrigge.

“Thank you, House Altau,” Stanbrigge said as he stood. “I’ll keep it brief, and I know I won’t capture the full nuances of the positions of all groups and sub-groups. Forgive me, but time presses.”

There were tight smiles from the audience. I’d been told this was the longest period such a large group of Athanate had come together in one place since the ill-fated meeting in Orleans on the Loire in the late 17
th
century, when half the attendees had died violently.

“Everyone accepts that, at some stage, it is possible that humanity will discover the paranormal world. Everyone accepts that a discovery that catches us unprepared could be fatal to us. Panethus believe discovery is inevitable and imminent. What divides us is not only what we do at the time of discovery, but also what we do in preparation for it.”

Correia looked to interrupt with a comment, and Stanbrigge held up a hand. “Or what we might usefully do to delay it.”

They didn’t know that Emergence had already begun, but I couldn’t share that with them.

Correia subsided and Stanbrigge went on. “The Hidden Path contend that the Athanate could prevent discovery, or actively delay Emergence until we are fully prepared and are capable of taking effective control of enough of the world to ensure our survival. The Hidden Path do not believe any internal changes are necessary, and so the legal system as enshrined in the Hidden Path philosophy should remain unchanged and be imposed on the rest of the world.”

There was a rustle of Athanate shifting and whispering. Stanbrigge had summed it up fairly, but the Hidden Path party didn’t like it phrased so bluntly.

“Panethus are the party promoting Emergence,” Stanbrigge said. “They argue for changes to the ways we live and operate to minimize the impact of discovery, to minimize the appearance of differences. In short, to position ourselves so that humanity perceives us as symbiotic and neither parasitic nor threatening.” He paused, deliberately. “The official Panethus line is that preparation should include amelioration of our laws, in particular restricting the force of our laws and traditions exclusively to those within our communities and acknowledging human laws governing those outside of them.”

I could feel the unease of the Panethus around me, but the summary was fair. If anything, it slightly favored us.

And unknown to them, we were already talking to the FBI through Agent Ingram. I doubted he’d wait too long before taking the next step and getting his boss involved. Assuming it all went well. How that was handled with the new Assembly was up to Skylur. Way above my pay grade. I hoped.

Meantime, Correia’s supporters were waving and shouting foul.

Stanbrigge waited until he could make himself heard. “We are not yet discussing the matter. I will take questions on the validity of my summaries only,” he said, and looked meaningfully at his watch. He pointed to a woman in the Hidden Path group and called a name I couldn’t hear.

“No amount of mincing words will hide it,” the woman said. “Panethus would allow human law to reach into our communities, and through events that might not be preventable, humans would therefore have jurisdiction over Athanate. This is not accept—”

“Thank you, you’ve made your point. Noted. House Singh?”

I hadn’t seen Arvinder until Stanbrigge called his name.

Would Arvinder be on our side? He was here as the sole representative of Theokos, the Athanate creed that covered the Indian sub-continent, and would carry a large block of votes in the new Assembly. Theokos were nominally Panethus, but they didn’t have kin like the rest of Panethus, they had devotees. It was only because they’d joined Panethus at the last Assembly that Skylur had survived the vote of confidence. What must Correia have been whispering in Arvinder’s ear to tempt him back to her side?

And the only thing I really knew about his position was that Arvinder disagreed with Skylur on the management of Emergence.

His handsome, rakish appearance made me think of Peshawari hill bandits. Clearly, I had a soft spot for hill bandits, because I still liked him, despite his attempts to lure me away to join House Singh.

“Your summary of positions is far from complete,” he said.

What?

“The Midnight Empire declines to debate and will accept the decision of the new Assembly without complaint,” Stanbrigge responded. “Basilikos have no voice here. They’ve indicated they’ll take no part in the new Assembly.”

There were some loud comments made about Basilikos being present, and just calling themselves Hidden Path.

Arvinder waited until it died down. “As it is beyond the scope of today’s meeting, I will say only this: that Basilikos may have no interest in the Assembly, but the Assembly
cannot
have no interest in Basilikos. However, that was not my point. You have stated the positions of the Hidden Path and Panethus, and declared the Midnight Empire outside of the debate at the moment. But among other parties whose positions we must know, there is the Empire of Heaven, and they are very much present.”

Crap.

I sensed a shifting of bodies and caught a glimpse of Huang far to my right.