Chapter Three

Charity Conidian felt uncomfortably like a fake as the carriage came to a halt outside the gates, allowing her to climb out of the vehicle right in front of the Imperial Palace. The lines of petitioners, many of whom had been waiting there for hours if not days, turned to stare at her as the gates opened, allowing her to enter the building. She kept her face as impassive as she could, sensing hundreds of faces glowering at her. They had been waiting for hours and she was being allowed to enter the moment she arrived? It was hard for her to blame them for being annoyed.

Your father would merely have sneered at them, her thoughts reminded her. No one said anything out loud, of course. Her golden robes marked her as someone of substance. He wouldn’t have doubted his right to move ahead for a second.

She cursed her father mentally as she walked through the gates and up to the massive pair of stone doors. Magic crackled around her, reminding her – as if she’d needed the reminder – that she was walking into the lair of the Grand Sorceress herself, a woman with the power to do anything she liked to Charity and what remained of her family. No one would come to their defence, not after the ... incident at House Conidian. Her father was effectively dead – being Powerless was worse than dead – and his network of clients had been shattered, while the sharks were already gathering. If she couldn’t salvage something from the wreckage, the Conidian Family would die.

But she didn’t know how! Jamal – wherever he was now – had been the Prime Heir, while Charity had been primed for an arranged marriage to someone who suited her father’s interests. It hadn’t been something she wanted, but she’d accepted it ever since she’d learnt to understand how the world worked. The family came first, always. And if it meant she had to share her bed with an elderly warlock who had interests her father wished to share, she had no choice, but to obey. The only consolation had been the certain knowledge that there would always be a place for her at House Conidian. But now even that was gone.

She looked up as she heard someone walking towards her with calm, measured footsteps and saw a tall blonde-haired girl, in her early twenties if Charity was any judge. The girl nodded to her, then walked past. Charity stopped and turned to stare at her as she left the palace, wondering just who she was. Her father had made sure she knew all the movers and shakers in the Golden City, as well as their children, and she didn’t recognise the blonde. It was possible she’d been brought up outside the city, yet everyone who wielded political power had to spend some time inside the Golden City. And she should have known ...

“My Lady,” a voice said. She turned to see a middle-aged man, wearing a slave collar around his neck. “You are requested to wait in the antechamber.”

Charity nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Her father had been a powerful magician, the master of a spider’s web of influence ranging from the Imperial Palace to the Southern Lands, and a Privy Councillor. He could have demanded an immediate interview with the Grand Sorceress and been seen at once; she had to wait, just so she knew her place. But she was almost grateful for the chance to collect herself, she decided, as she was shown into the antechamber. The girl looking back at her from the mirror was almost a stranger ...

She rubbed her eyes, bitterly. Once, looking good as well as strongly magical had seemed a good thing. She had to attract suitors, after all, suitors who might be prepared to trade power and influence for her hand in marriage. Now, she looked weak and mournful, her large blue eyes making her look childlike. There was no point in trying to hide behind a glamour, not now. She simply didn’t feel like putting the effort forward to construct one. And she couldn’t help wondering, as she sat and forced herself to calm down, just what the Grand Sorceress wanted. The chance to cripple one of the Great Houses might well seem ideal, from her point of view.

Not that we’re much of a threat any longer, she thought, bitterly. Her father and Jamal were Powerless and Johan was dead, while her younger siblings were too young to influence events. If she failed to keep the family together, the gods alone knew what would happen to the children. Jay wouldn’t come of age for another two years and the others were younger still. We’ll be lucky to keep even a fragment of our power.

She looked down at her hand. It was shaking. Johan’s fault, of course, although he hadn’t meant to do anything of the sort. She’d been turned into animals and objects before – Jamal had picked on her too – but Johan’s power had left her deeply shaken. He might not have known it – she hoped he hadn’t known it – yet his power had blanked her out, almost completely. She hadn’t just been forced into the shape of a rat; she’d been a rat. The experience had almost destroyed her confidence completely.

The slave cleared his throat. “Can I get you something to drink, My Lady?”

“No, thank you,” Charity said. She wanted a glass of brandy desperately, but she needed a clear head when she faced the Grand Sorceress. “I will be fine.”

She had to wait for nearly half an hour before a different slave appeared and beckoned her forward, leading her into the Throne Room. Charity hadn’t been in the giant chamber since the family had moved to the Golden City, when she’d been presented to the Grand Sorceress, but it hadn’t changed. The Golden Throne was still glowing with magic, linked into the powerful wards surrounding the palace. Charity couldn’t help admiring the sheer level of workmanship that had gone into crafting the Throne. There was no one alive who could build the like.

Her father had once told her that entire fields of magic had been forbidden, then forgotten, never to be rediscovered. Charity hadn’t really believed him, but now, looking at the Throne, she wondered if he’d been right all along. The Throne was not only soaked in magic, she saw; it was linked so firmly into the Golden City itself that it would be impossible to remove, or even to reprogram. No one who was not a member of the Imperial Family could sit in the Throne and live.

“Charity Conidian,” the Grand Sorceress said, in her raspy voice. “Come forward, into the light.”

Charity obeyed. The Grand Sorceress was sitting below the Throne, half-hidden in the waves of magic billowing around it. As always, her body was hidden and shapeless behind the veil, suggesting that she had something to hide. If she was truly as staggeringly beautiful as the rumours said, Charity was sure, she would have flaunted it to the entire world. Instead, she chose to hide. It suggested there was something about her that would shock everyone, if they learnt the truth. But she kept that thought to herself. Irritating the Grand Sorceress didn’t tend to lead to a long and happy life.

She went down on one knee, then bowed her head. “I came as you commanded, Your Supremacy,” she said. There were many ways to address a Grand Sorcerer, but she knew she didn’t dare show any form of defiance. “And I look forward to serving you.”

“I’m sure you do,” the Grand Sorceress rasped. “How is House Conidian?”

Charity gritted her teeth. “Weak, but recovering,” she lied. In reality, she wasn’t sure if she could keep the house in the Golden City. Perhaps it was time to retreat back to the countryside and spend the next few decades rebuilding the family. “We will survive.”

“I am glad to hear it,” the Grand Sorceress said. There was a hint of ... something, perhaps amusement, in her tone. Lady Light Spinner was from a rival Great House, after all. If the Conidian Family took a fall, her family would be strengthened. “And your younger children?”

“Well enough,” Charity said. She’d called the younger siblings back to the house, just to keep them out of the firing line. “Jay is in his fourth year at the Peerless School, while his younger siblings are enduring their first.”

She shuddered, bitterly. The full powers of a Family Head had descended on her, no matter how ill-prepared she was for them. She could command her younger siblings as she saw fit, with no regard for their feelings. The only blessing was that Jamal was no longer in a position to claim leadership of the family. He would have had her married off to one of his cronies before she could muster a single word of protest. And she dreaded to think what he would have done if she had managed to object. She would have been better off abandoning the family completely.

“How nice,” the Grand Sorceress said. “I ...

She broke off, then rose to her feet. “What are you doing here?”

Charity turned her head, then jumped. Vlad Deferens was standing at the edge of the room, smirking at them. Charity had never liked him, even when he’d been working with her father; he’d always given her the impression that he was leering at her behind her back. And when she’d looked up his homeland, she’d realised why. She’d never understood why her father had seen him as a potential ally, even though he was a Privy Councillor and a powerful magician. He was just too uncivilised to be trusted.

He was a tall, powerfully-built man, wearing a red tunic and kilt that exposed his bare arms and legs, revealing his muscles to anyone watching. His dark hair was long and unkempt, his beard just long enough to be difficult to comb. His eyes, as dark as his hair, sparkled with mischievous light. She couldn’t help the impression, as he looked at her, that he was undressing her with his mind. No doubt he was one of the magicians who had learnt stripping spells and used them in the Peerless School. The Administrator might hand out harsh punishments for anyone caught in the act, but he’d never been able to stamp out the practice completely. In the end, all it had done was encourage the girls to learn more protective spells.

“You shouldn’t be here,” the Grand Sorceress snapped. Magic crackled around her, more magic than Charity could summon at a moment’s notice. “How did you get through my wards?”

“It’s easy to walk though the wards if you happen to be superior,” Deferens said. He had a rich plummy voice, which couldn’t quite disguise the scorn. “Or if you happen to know one of the great secrets of the universe.”

Charity took a step backwards ... and another, and another, until she was pressed against the far wall. Magic was boiling around the Grand Sorceress now, barely held in check by her indomitable will. And to think that her father had thought he could manipulate her ... Charity shivered, fighting down the urge to turn and run for her life. She’d known the Grand Sorceress was powerful – Lady Light Spinner was the strongest magician known to exist – but she’d never really understood how powerful. A flick of her wrist could obliterate Charity as easily as she might step on a bug.

And yet Vlad Deferens had walked through the Grand Sorceress’s wards as if they hadn’t even existed.

“There are no secrets that would let you past my wards,” the Grand Sorceress said. “How did you enter my palace?”

Charity knew she was right. Warding had been a particular speciality of hers – Jamal had encouraged her to learn how to protect herself and her property as quickly as possible – and even though any ward could be broken with enough magic, it would definitely have sounded the alert before it snapped. By all the gods, there were plenty of ways to set up wards to monitor the other wards and alert spells to monitor those. And the Imperial Palace was crawling with wards, some so ancient that they predated the first Grand Sorcerer. There was no way a team of highly-experienced ward-crackers – or even Inquisitors – could have broken the wards without sounding an alarm. Light Spinner should have had hours to prepare her counterstroke as the wards were weakened, then finally broken ...

“You wanted to surrender to me,” Deferens said. He leered at the Grand Sorceress, a filthy expression that made Charity feel unclean – and she wasn’t even the target! “And so your wards let me through.”

Magic billowed around the Grand Sorceress as she took a step forward. “You will leave this place, now,” she hissed. “Or fight me in the heart of my power.”

Charity shivered in fear. Magic was flaring around both of them now, enough magic to do real damage to the Imperial Palace if they started fighting in earnest. It was hard to tell which of them was the strongest, but it hardly mattered. She knew there would be little left of the palace if they fought ... and there would be nothing left of her. Carefully, she looked towards the door ...

... And Deferens looked at her. And she found her feet frozen to the floor.

“I merely wish to claim my right,” Deferens said, as he turned his gaze back to the Grand Sorceress. “You cannot deny me that, can you?”

The Grand Sorceress took another step forward. “What right do you wish to claim?”

Deferens indicated the Golden Throne. “I wish to take my rightful place.”

Charity stopped casting counter-spells – none of which seemed to do anything more than waste energy – and stared at Deferens in disbelief. Only a member of the Imperial Bloodline could sit in the Golden Throne and the Imperial Bloodline had been extinct for centuries, as far as anyone knew. The Privy Council might be obliged, by their oaths, to allow anyone who wanted to sit in the Golden Throne a chance, but there had been few takers. It wasn’t really surprising. A fake would die the second he sat on the Throne.

Let him do it, she thought, vindictively. The Throne will kill him.

But Deferens wasn’t stupid, a nagging thought at the back of her mind reminded her. Surely, he would know the dangers of taking the Throne ...

“If you wish,” the Grand Sorceress said. Her voice was tight, utterly emotionless, but Charity was sure she was worried. She had to know the dangers too, but her oaths wouldn’t let her stop him. “Please. Take a seat, if you dare.”

Deferens smiled a victorious smile, then stepped up onto the podium, turned, and sat down on the Golden Throne. Magic blazed around it for a long second – Charity thought that he was about to die – and then the entire palace shook, violently. She screamed in pain as the wards suddenly pressed down on her with terrifying force, then pulled back so quickly that she couldn’t help wondering if she’d imagined the whole thing. And yet, her feet were still stuck to the floor ...

“I claim my right as Emperor,” Deferens said. He sat on the Throne, illuminated by shimmering golden light. The radiance was magic, Charity realised, because she couldn’t take her eyes off him. And it played with her emotions, causing her to feel respect, awe ... and fear. “Kneel.”

There was so much power in his words that Charity found herself on her knees before quite realising that her body had started to move. Light Spinner started to kneel, then stopped herself, magic flaring around her. Deferens snorted rudely, then drew on the wards. Charity covered her eyes hastily as light flared through the room, the wards pushing down on their former mistress. There was a scream, then darkness fell like a hammer. And then a thin chuckle echoed through the room.

“You can open your eyes now,” Deferens said.

Charity obeyed, helplessly. Deferens was standing in front of Light Spinner, who was still ... too still. He looked down at the veil for a moment, then pulled it free in one savage gesture, revealing a stony face. Charity found it hard to grasp what she was seeing. The Grand Sorceress had been turned to stone! And her face was warped and twisted ...

“So that was what she was trying to hide,” Deferens said. He ran his hand over Light Spinner’s chin, smiling unpleasantly. “She must have been a very bad girl in her youth.”

Charity swallowed as he turned his attention to her. “And you? Are you such a bad girl?”

“No,” Charity said.

Deferens turned and walked back towards the Throne. It seemed to have changed, somehow, now that a true heir to the bloodline had taken his seat. Charity tried to move, but her legs refused to obey. It was hard to tell if he’d trapped her in place or she was simply too scared to move a muscle. Sheer terror kept her rooted to the spot.

“You have a choice,” Deferens said. “You can serve me, loyally and faithfully, or you can join her. Which do you choose?”

Charity thought about it, somehow calming her thoughts. There was no way she could fight him, not even without the wards backing him up. Light Spinner hadn’t been able to fend off the wards and she had been the most powerful magician in the city. She glanced at the warped statue and shuddered, helplessly. That fate – or worse – would be hers if she refused to submit.

But if she did join him, what would he make her do? The thought was terrifying, her imagination providing all kinds of possibilities. And yet, she would have a chance to escape, if she waited for the right moment. And maybe she could steer him in more positive directions.

“I will serve you,” she said, and bowed her head.

Vlad Deferens – Emperor Vlad I – started to laugh.