Glasswrights' Apprentice Read online

  “For the Brotherhood,” she managed, when she at last untied the cloth. The hoard of silver glinted red in the torchlight. She managed a bow and set the coins on the floor before the nobleman.

  “What ho, Garadolo! This urchin brings us more in one visit than you manage in a fortnight of escapades!” The soldier glared his fury across the small room, and Rani found herself almost grateful for the nobleman’s presence. “Perhaps we’re lucky this prowling child managed to trace your steps!”

  “I wasn’t concerned with a child, l- , with a mere child.” Garadolo scarcely remembered to swallow Larindolian’s title. “I had other matters on my mind.”

  Larindolian poked a toe at the hoard of silver, only pulling back his fine leather boot when he appeared to consider kicking the soldier. “Matters more pressing than a spy who tracked you to the Brotherhood’s heart?”

  “I didn’t worry about that mewling tiger cub.” Garadolo glanced over his shoulder and lowered his voice to a whisper. “It was all I could do to shake Dalarati when I left the mess hall.”

  Larindolian swore a vicious oath, whirling to slap a well-gloved hand across Garadolo’s cheek. “You still have not disposed of that threat? You were ordered to act more than a month ago!”

  “I’ve been trying to see the Brotherhood for the better part of that month,” whined the soldier, terror glinting in the bloodshot eyes above his greasy beard. “It’s not as easy as you make out. The man is popular with the soldiers. He’s always surrounded by his fellows - on the target field, drinking draughts. I think it’s not necessary to do away with him. Not yet.”

  “You think? Since when have you dared to think, Garadolo?” Larindolian pursed his lips with disapproval. “We can see the product of your thinking right here - with this street urchin you’ve permitted in our midst.”

  Rani had listened to all she could; she nearly interrupted the nobleman in her eagerness to focus his attention on her. “Begging your pardon, but Garadolo is not wholly to blame. I followed him, even though he ordered me to stay in the barracks, because I wanted to see my brother.”

  “Your brother?” Larindolian was incredulous, but Rani could not tell if his surprise was from being interrupted, or if he simply could not imagine all the trouble spawned by a girl’s simple desire to see her sibling. “And who in the name of all the Thousand Gods might that be?”

  “Bardo Trader,.”

  “What, ho!” Garadolo exclaimed. “Don’t waste time with your story, little tiger!”

  “Shut your trap, you stupid ox! One more word from you, and I’ll feed your privates to the queen’s goldfish.” At Larindolian’s rebuke, Garadolo gaped comically, opening and closing his mouth like a trout plucked from a stream. The nobleman turned his attention to Rani, waving back her guard with an impatient hand. “Rani Trader.… Then you are the one who was at the cathedral with Morada.”

  Rani sighed as the knife point was removed from the base of her skull. “Yes.”

  “And you are the one who summoned Tuvashanoran to his death?”

  That wasn’t fair! she wanted to cry out. She had not known that he would die. She had hoped to save the prince, not kill him! Why didn’t anyone understand? Rani ignored the nobleman’s question, even though she was painfully aware of the furious power scarcely contained in the nobleman, the raw anger that had attacked Morada and threatened Garadolo. “If you please, I’ve been looking for my brother for weeks.”

  “Why haven’t you gone to the king, girl? Why haven’t you reported all you know about the traitors who killed Prince Tuvashanoran?”

  Rani forced herself to meet the man’s icy blue eyes. “The king would have my life before I could speak,” she shrugged. “I was in the guild, you see, and then I ran away before the king’s men could destroy it. When I was with the Touched, I lied to the soldiers and told them I was a Pilgrim, and then I was in the marketplace, working for the Council and escaping their punishment. Now, I’m living with the soldiers, and I’ve needed to find … goods … to trade for the honor of an audience with you.…” She trailed off, as the story of her wrongdoings seemed to magnify beneath the serpents’ gaze.

  “A veritable Jair, you are, changing your caste as the whim suits you.” Larindolian’s voice was dry, but Rani was not certain that the nobleman’s quiet observation was a safe substitute for the flashing anger she had already witnessed.

  “Honored be the Pilgrim’s name,” came Rani’s belated rejoinder, and her hand fluttered in a holy sign as she sought protection against her mercurial opponent. Silently, she added an appeal to Lan, and she was rewarded when the nobleman fought a losing battle against a calculating smile.

  “And what proof do we have that you are here honestly? What proof do we have that you do not come to assassinate Bardo Trader, as you have already worked to murder the Prince?”

  “Kill Bardo!”

  “Yes indeed, little one.” Rani did not like the cold eye the nobleman cast upon her. She remembered too well his restraint as he had disciplined Instructor Morada, just before turning her over to the king’s deadly guard.

  “But he’s my brother,” she explained. “I love him and respect him. I’d never harm him.”

  “But he is ‘brother’ to more than you, little one.” Larindolian’s eyes bore into her soul. So, Rani Trader, are you prepared to join your Bardo’s new family? Are you prepared to join our Brotherhood?”

  The question took Rani by surprise. Certainly, she wanted to end her wandering, to be back in the safety of her family’s home. She wanted to know her name and her caste, and her place in King Shanoranvilli’s City. She wanted to forget about the disastrous glasswrights’ guild and go back to being just plain Rani Trader, a girl who was good at the tasks she was born to. If the Brotherhood meant family, then she would throw in her lot with them.

  Before she could nod her agreement, though, she was reminded of all the members of the Brotherhood she had seen thus far - Morada’s fury on the scaffold, and the woman’s bleeding, battered body. Guildmistress Salina, so harsh in the Hall of Discipline, shrieking for revenge against an apprentice who had acted all unknowingly. Garadolo, who clearly had his own reasons for taking in a young girl and was even now cringing at the far end of the chamber, like a craven dog. Tuvashanoran, whose body she had wrapped in linen and myrrh.

  Even more, she thought of Mair, of the Touched girl who had fought the soldiers to return to Rani’s side. Mair was afraid of the Brotherhood - Mair, who had openly confronted Borin, who had ventured alone to the cathedral close. Did Rani want to join the Brotherhood? Did she even know what the Brotherhood was?

  “Please, it was never my intention to trouble you. I have lost my mother and my father, and all my brothers and sisters but Bardo. I only want to see my brother.”

  “Ah!” exclaimed Larindolian, as if she had spoken the true name of First God Ait. “But you can see the problem. As you know, there are people eager to murder Bardo Trader, people who have seen to the execution of all his family -”

  “Not all his family,” Rani countered hotly.

  Larindolian ignored her clarification. “We’d be fools to endanger Bardo by permitting him to speak with a known criminal, particularly a criminal who has already proven her skill at assassination. May Prince Tuvashanoran rest in peace in the Heavenly Fields.” The nobleman moved one gloved hand in a holy sign.

  Rani reflexively repeated the gesture, even as she protested, “You know I did not murder the prince! There was someone else on that scaffold with Instructor Morada.” Her frustration boiled over into her words. “I think Morada was right. I think you are deciding the cut of your coronation robe, and I think your Brotherhood would not take kindly to your actions.”

  Larindolian’s hissed intake of breath was as sharp as the serpents’ teeth gleaming on the floor and walls of the chamber. “You know too much, girl. It would be safer for the Brotherhood to slay you here and now, safer for all of us, including Bardo.”

  “Not safer for Bardo!
I’m his sister!” Take me to my brother, and you’ll be rewarded beyond your hopes.”

  Larindolian laughed at her brave words, brushing them off like chaff. “Prove it, girl. Make it worth my while to admit you to Bardo’s presence.”

  Rani hesitated only a moment before pushing every one of her coins across the tiled floor to Larindolian. When her magnanimity earned no reaction from the nobleman, she muttered under her breath and reached into her pouch, extracting a man’s ring, heavy with gold and set with a square-cut onyx. She had not wanted Garadolo to see the captain’s signet, but there was nothing else to be done. The stone glinted in the torchlight like a baleful eye.

  Larindolian’s laugh stung so sharply that Rani almost dropped the ring. “What do I want with your measly coins and another man’s ring?” Larindolian dug into the pouch at his own waist, scooping out a handful of gold to match Rani’s hard-won silver. “You underestimate the Brotherhood, child. We have the wealth of kingdoms at our command.”

  The apprentice gulped, even as Garadolo whooped with laughter. “He’s got you there, little tiger! Not much the likes of you can offer a lord, now is there?”

  Rani flashed the soldier a dirty look before turning her attention back to Larindolian. “What do you want, then?” She was enough of a merchant to know that the nobleman would not have opened the bidding if he did not have a price in mind.

  “I want you to rid us of that annoying soldier.” For just an instant, Rani thought he spoke of Garadolo. She flashed a glance at her erstwhile keeper, surprising his own horrified realization that he was in danger. Larindolian barked a short laugh. “No, not that miserable excuse for the king’s guard. I wouldn’t bother you with garbage like that.” Garadolo’s quick prayer to Cot was almost lost in his spluttering indignation. “No, I speak of the one that this one can’t manage to take care of.… Dalarati - get rid of that man.”

  “Dalarati!” Rani exclaimed, and the image of the handsome soldier flashed before her eyes, laughing and kind. “But he’s no threat to the Brotherhood! He gave me an almond bun.”

  “Oh well, then! An almond bun,” Larindolian sneered. “If you’d prefer sweetmeats to seeing your brother.…”

  “Tell Bardo that I’m here!” Rani demanded hotly.

  “Or you’ll do what? Don’t press your luck, girl. I’ve called the king’s guard on your betters, I won’t hesitate to turn you in, if it’ll protect the Brotherhood.”

  “You know I’m no threat! And neither is Dalarati!”

  “You’re speaking to a grown man, Rani Trader. You hardly know the lay of this land.” The nobleman leaned closer; she could smell sweet lotion on his flesh. “Dalarati has already threatened your brother’s life; he has publicly vowed to execute any of the Brotherhood he finds, and he knew Bardo’s name.” Larindolian waited for his words to register. “It’s a simple matter, Rani. Either you kill Dalarati, or he kills your brother.”

  Fear closed around Rani’s chest - terror for Bardo, for the last remaining member of her family. “Dalarati could never get past your defenses!” Rani pleaded. “You have sentries and passwords.…”

  “But you, a slip of a girl, managed to get past them. What greater deviltry could we expect from a trained fighting man? I wouldn’t trouble you, Rani, if Dalarati had not already voiced his intentions. We need you, Rani. Bardo needs you. Are you willing to trust your brother’s safety to Garadolo, to this … buffoon for one more night?”

  Rani could only shake her head, struggling to master her disbelief. “But Dalarati is a good soldier, and true.”

  “True to whom?” countered Larindolian, and he sighed like a weary man. “I wasn’t going to tell you this, Rani Trader, but you’ve forced my hand. Dalarati was once one of us. He’s betrayed us before - he fired the arrow that slew Prince Tuvashanoran, and that was never our goal.”

  “Dalarati? He slew the Prince? And he bears the mark of the snake?”

  Larindolian’s gaze was rock-steady. “As surely as did Prince Tuvashanoran himself. Dalarati is a rebel. He thinks he can run the Brotherhood on his own. He decided that justice would only be done if the Defender were slain. We’d never have permitted him on the scaffold if we’d known his intention.”

  “But -” Rani began to protest, but the nobleman cut her off.

  “Think about it. Why would we murder our highest-ranking member? With Tuvashanoran’s guidance, we could have brought the Brotherhood into the open. We could have delivered our message directly to the people, to all of Morenia. All our hopes were pinned on Tuvashanoran; the Brotherhood was grateful that the prince was going to don the Defender’s robes.”

  “But why would Dalarati -”

  “Who can say why a madman does anything? Dalarati thought he was acting to spread justice. Somewhere along the way, the man was warped. Who knows? Maybe the Thousand Gods lured him into madness.”

  “But Instructor Morada had to agree with him. She had to let him on the scaffold.”

  “Aye, Instructor Morada.” Larindolian’s thin lips twisted into a grimace. “Dalarati seduced the poor woman. He convinced her of his mad plan. There’s more power in a stolen kiss than in all the Thousand Gods’ logic. Those two rebelled and tore apart the Brotherhood’s strongest plan.”

  “Morada? And Dalarati?” Rani looked at Larindolian miserably, easily imagining the athletic Dalarati scaling the platform beside the cathedral. She pictured his hands on Morada’s arms, his lips pressed close to the Instructor’s. Larindolian nodded slowly, and when he spoke, his words were bitter ice. “You’ve chosen to come here, Rani Trader. You’ve chosen to get involved with events that are larger than a glasswright’s apprentice.”

  When Rani merely stared in disbelief at the nobleman’s words, and his offhand use of the forbidden guild’s name, Larindolian cocked his head to one side, looking like a cunning fox. His tone snapped tight around his words as he tried another tack. “But perhaps Dalarati has already gotten to you, already seduced you to join his side. Let me make this easier for you, Ranita Glasswright. You’ve come to the Brotherhood’s Inner Chamber. You know our symbol, and you’ve heard our passwords. You know the names of at least two of our number. We can’t risk having someone run about the City, spreading lies about our deeds.”

  Rani reeled under the sudden onslaught, and she responded hotly, “You call yourself a Brotherhood, but you forget that I have come to find my brother! I’d give my life for Bardo!”

  “Your life?” Larindolian did not respond with the anger she expected; rather, his smile froze his lips. “Are you prepared to make that oath official?”

  “What do you mean?” A chill draft swirled about Rani’s legs, and a prickle of fear snaked along her neck. Her mind was reeling from all the changes in this cold, cold man.

  “If you had stayed in your guild, you would have sworn your faithfulness for life by giving a blood oath upon the Orb of power. Are you prepared to make the same commitment to the man you call your brother?”

  “I do more than call him brother! He is my kin!”

  Larindolian shrugged away her protest. “Will you swear the oath?”

  Rani stared at the nobleman for a long moment, wondering if she trusted her life to this cruel man. Everyone knew that a blood oath was a serious thing - it attracted the attention of all the Thousand Gods. More to the point, though, Rani would be at Larindolian’s mercy as he determined how much of her blood would be required to bind her to the Brotherhood. Before she could summon the courage to answer, Garadolo chuckled across the room.

  “Aye, you’ve got her there! She says she’s committed to her brother, but when push comes to shove -”

  “Shut your mouth!” Larindolian snapped, but his eyes remained bound to Rani’s. She felt the power of his will as if she were hypnotized. The nobleman declared, “The decision is hers. If she does not want to see her brother, who are we to force her?”

  Rani raised her chin defiantly, yanking at her tunic’s sleeve. “I’ll see him. I’m not afraid of you.
”

  Larindolian accepted the challenge in her words with a solemn nod, and then he flashed a dagger from his waist. In the torchlight, its blade seemed very long. “Do you know what we mean when we call ourselves the Brotherhood? Do you know what we work toward?”

  Rani’s memories flashed back to a dark alley, to the bitter night when Mair had shared her Touched knowledge. “I know that the Brotherhood works to end the castes. You work to make all men equal before the Thousand Gods.”

  Larindolian nodded shrewdly. “And do you understand what that will mean to the City? Do you understand how all Morenia will be changed?”

  Rani recalled Mair’s scornful declaration that people were not fighting to become part of the casteless Touched. Nevertheless, she thought of her time with Mair’s troop, time when she had been treated honestly and judged fairly. She had not been held accountable for the vagaries of a marketplace beyond her control; she had not been punished for any master guildsman’s mistake. She was not sworn to defend a Crown she knew nothing about, and she did not need to flatter the greater nobility above and beyond her. Rani began to glimpse that the Brotherhood might be right - the City could be a better place without castes. Clearly, Bardo had reached the same conclusion.

  Rani met Larindolian’s eyes. “I understand.”

  “Very well then. Speak after me. I, Rani Trader, offer up my body and heart and soul in service to the Brotherhood of Justice, and in emblem of that offering, I give the Brotherhood the blood of my body.”

  Rani repeated each phrase of the oath, her voice amazingly steady in the flickering torchlight. When she had finished her recitation, Larindolian grasped her wrist, slashing his blade against the vein that beat in the smooth flesh at the crook of her arm. The initial cut scarcely registered, but then the cold air stung the wound. Rani sucked in breath through her teeth, but she did not pull her hand away.