“All right,” Leon said. “Where do we start?”
Justin stared, momentarily taken aback.
“Something wrong?” Leon asked.
“No, no… it’s just… even after all these years, I still expect you to turn me down.” Justin smiled self-deprecatingly, as if quietly castigating himself for being surprised.
An annoyed frown marred Leon’s features. “Your doubt wins you no favors. Fortunately for you, I committed to this path long ago, and I remain committed. Valeria’s mother will be set free.” Leon’s voice was tight. Restrained. Justin clearly picked up on it, and in Leon’s specific phrasing.
“I would never ask you for anything just for myself,” Justin insisted, but he went silent as Leon held up a hand.
“Let’s focus on the task at hand, and not on your doubts.” Leon shared a look with Valeria, one long and loving enough to erase his frown. “Now. Where do we start?”
One deep breath later, Justin returned, “I suppose we ought to start with the strategic objective.”
“That much is easy,” Valeria cut in. “Mother’s freedom!”
“Easy it is,” Justin agreed. “Little else matters to me. No gold, no weapons, nothing from the treasury. The woman who holds my heart is all I want to carry away from that damned palace.”
“Simple,” Leon remarked. “I like simple. What about tools? Agents?”
“I’m speaking to you now from Antiochus.” The way Justin spoke of the place—the nostalgic tone and glance off to the side where there was, Leon presumed, a window—reminded Leon of a conversation he’d had with Justin a long time ago.
“That’s… the place you were born, isn’t it?” Leon recalled Justin saying as much, deep in the dark tunnels of Nestor’s lab in the Forest of Black and White.
“… Yes,” Justin confirmed. “It has been so long since I was last here that few people remember me.”
“‘Few’,” Leon pointed out. “Not ‘none’.”
“Not none.” Justin punctuated the statement with a shallow nod of his head while Valeria leaned forward.
“Family?” she asked, her tone both angry and almost fearful. Leon knew why—Justin had long ago told both of them that he didn’t have any family to speak of in the Nexus. He only had Ariana and Valeria.
“Some men who owe me debts of affection,” Justin stated. “No one related by blood, but a few men I embrace as my brothers.”
“How many, precisely?” Leon asked as Valeria, her eyes still narrowed with suspicion, leaned back in her seat.
“Three,” Justin answered. “But they are the three we need.”
“If it’s skilled people you’re looking for, my Kingdom—”
“No,” Justin interjected. “Your offer is appreciated, but it’s not skilled enchanters or warriors we need. The men we need are those who are familiar with Kamran’s palace and who have friends in his city. Torn Sky is immense, but one of the most well-protected and secure places in the Nexus. We won’t get in if we rely only on external power.”
“Then stop keeping us in suspense and tell me who these men are.”
Justin, seeing Leon’s annoyance rise another notch, practically jumped to answer. “The first is Maemon, a man who left Antiochus with me when we were young to work for Kamran. He retired only a year ago and is still familiar with not only the security protocols but also most of the people working in Kamran’s palace right now.”
“I imagine many people are working in Kamran’s palace,” Leon said, doubt tinging his tone. “And this Maemon knows them all?”
“Those worth knowing for our purposes,” Justin said. “I also contacted another old friend, a former guard captain who supposedly patrolled Torn Sky so many times that he wore a trench around the outer walls. Or so he says—Regulus is his name.”
“Relying on men who served Kamran doesn’t fill me with confidence.”
Valeria pinched Leon’s arm. “Let’s wait to hear my father’s whole plan before we start poking holes in it.” Leon met her gaze, and his antipathy softened. He waved to Justin to continue.
“The last man is Tion Bey,” Justin hastily explained. “A minor official in Torn Sky. He knows everything about how the city functions and how to get up to Kamran’s floating palace.”
Leon waited a moment, and when it became clear that Justin was waiting for his input, he shared another look with Valeria.
“Whether or not you trust them can be cleared up after you meet them,” Valeria stated. “But I would trust Khosrow himself if it meant freeing my mother.”
Leon’s throat tightened, and he held his tongue.
Grimacing deeply, he turned back to Justin. In a restrained tone, he said, “You… sound like you have a plan already.”
Justin made a few gestures, and a moment later, the projection of the city that Valeria had been inspecting when Leon entered the room swapped places with Justin—the man became much smaller, while the map became large enough for Leon to see many smaller, more granular details.
First, he took in the whole scope of the city. Larger than Artorion by a considerable margin, with packed residential districts and more open higher-end districts. He saw markets, arkyards, mustering grounds, parks, and everything else that belonged in such a massive city.
He also saw the walls almost enclosing the urban sprawl. The city had clearly grown beyond its own walls several times, with multiple districts surrounded by walls, and then half the city protected by a double layer of walls with enormous towers, and then finally the three walls protecting the entire city.
“Hmmm…” Leon leaned closer to the projection, noting the intricate runes along the edges of the map. “These are the enchantments woven into the walls?”
“Some of them,” Justin explained. “Some entire enchantments are represented on the map only as single characters, though they are thousands of runes in complexity. The walls are too enchanted to have their entire enchantment scheme on this map.”
Leon nodded slowly. “It gives me enough to start with.”
“If all goes well,” Justin replied, “you won’t need to get through those enchantments. Regulus will get us into the city. Tion Bey will see us protected within the walls. And Maemon can get us up to the palace. From there… we will likely be on our own.”
“You place a lot of faith in three men.”
“There are not only three,” Valeria said confidently. That same confidence wavered slightly when she locked eyes with her father. “There are not only three, are they?”
“No, my dear,” Justin confirmed. “My three friends are only our most important pieces, not the entire board I’ve arranged. I have contacts throughout the city who can help, if need be. But if we’re lucky, we won’t need them.”
Leon didn’t like that—he’d like to hear the rest of Justin’s plan, but he made a mental note to press the man for contingencies later, when his initial plan had been given voice. For the moment, he focused on the map and on the enormous red circle at the center. That was the palace, floating over the city—or rather, floating over an empty section of hills that the city was built around. Within that red circle was a warren of buildings and courtyards. Leon imagined that there were many floors to the palace, but on this map, he could only see the general building layout.
He noted that the palace was intricate and maze-like. It was a palace, but the layout was designed to be confusing and to funnel foot traffic through specific chokepoints. Though it was a palace, it had all the makings of a good citadel.
“How detailed is your plan?” Leon asked, glancing once more at Valeria. “It did sound like you two were brainstorming how to get into the city when I arrived.”
“Just talking about possibilities,” Valeria said with a smile. “The details had to wait until we knew exactly how many people we needed to move into the city.”
“Tell me what we’re facing,” Leon ordered Justin. “Then I’ll tell you how many people I want to bring.”
Justin’s face stiffened, but with clear effort, he forced himself to relax. Through a clenched jaw, he once more indicated the map.
“The outer defenses are heavily enchanted, as you can see. Huge towers and entire fortresses connected by three walls ensure that no one can enter the city except through one of three gatehouses. There is no flying over and no tunneling beneath—not without alerting the entire city, anyway, and I’d rather we do this as quietly as we can.”
Leon nodded in agreement. “If you have a way in, then I won’t try and force it…”
Valeria grinned. “You look like you’re already planning on how to force it…”
“Contingencies,” Leon replied, elaborating no further. “Justin, continue.”
Justin’s tiny projected form choked back a reply and, after a moment of thought, once again indicated the map. “The gatehouse will be our first real obstacle. Patrols and outlying defenses won’t matter to us since we’ll have Regulus, Tion, and Maemon with us, as well as their attendants.
“The gatehouse is a fortress unto itself. It spans all three walls and has no less than five gates. More than ten thousand men patrol its halls and man its towers. A thousand enchantments are woven into its stones.
“But Regulus can get us through without many questions. Once inside, Tion will see us to a safe house already established in an outlying district. From there, we’ll finish any preparations we need, and then Maemon will get us up to the palace itself. He will disguise us as his attendants, allowing us to accompany him.”
“How are we getting up to a floating palace?” Leon asked. “I’m assuming we can’t fly up there ourselves.”
“Not without being immediately spotted and attacked,” Justin said. “No, there are several points in the city that connect to the palace with Lumenite strands. We’ll take one of those up to the palace. And from there, we’ll have to look for a good opportunity to slip away while Maemon ‘goes about his business’. We won’t have much time, but that is when we’ll have to get to Ariana, free her from her house arrest, and then meet back up with Maemon. We’ll leave the palace the same way we came in, return to Tion’s safehouse, and then leave with Regulus.”
“Sounds… easy,” Leon said doubtfully.
“All simple plans do,” Justin responded. “Rarely do they work out so well…”
Leon hummed in agreement.
“Getting to Antiochus will be a problem, too,” Valeria pointed out. “Let alone getting away. Kamran’s territory is more than five times ours, Leon. It’s also significantly more developed, and a bunch of strangers moving around will be easily spotted and reported. We’ll need a way in that won’t attract attention.”
“Gwarim’s close, relatively speaking,” Leon pointed out. “Closer, anyway. We can use a Lumenite bridge to his castle, and then contact some of the Storm Lords I met on Belicenion to use their Lumenite strands to get to Torn Sky…”
“Lumenite strands come and go from Torn Sky almost as frequently as trading arks,” Justin pointed out. “Not directly into the city, but we can arrive nearby without trouble. With or without Gwarim’s, or whoever’s, help.”
Leon tilted an eyebrow. “You don’t sound enthused about his participation.”
“I’d rather keep those who know what we’re doing to as few as possible. Already, enough people are involved that I can’t help but worry.”
Leon stroked his chin a few times. “What’s our time frame on this? The sooner the better, obviously, but is there any particular time that might maximize our chances?”
“Six weeks from now,” Justin said, “there will be a celebration. It’s officially to celebrate the day that Kamran first landed in the Nexus after its last Reconstitution. Unofficially, it’s to celebrate the downfall of your Clan.”
Leon immediately scowled.
“Distasteful though it may be,” Justin conceded, “it will still give us our window. It’s the biggest holiday of the year. The city has already swollen with traders providing entertainment and feasting supplies. We shouldn’t be noticed once we’re in the city. Even the palace should have enough unfamiliar faces that finding an opportunity to get to Ariana shouldn’t be difficult.”
Leon, still scowling, growled, “I’m… not fond of visiting a place while it’s celebrating my Clan’s downfall… But to free Valeria’s mother and give Kamran a black eye, it’ll be worth it.”
Valeria squeezed his arm and gave him a radiant smile. Leon brushed his fingers against hers before gently knocking his forehead into hers.
“Should be fun, shouldn’t it?” he said.
Valeria stifled a half-terrified giggle. “Should be.”
Justin cleared his throat and, with a wave of his hand, swapped the map and his own projection again, so that he was once more full-sized.
“I’ll leave the map with you,” he said. “You can study it as you will. I should get back to some of my contacts.” He almost left right then, but he paused long enough to give Valeria a long look. “I love you, kid.”
“I love you too, Father,” Valeria replied.
Justin’s eyes momentarily flickered in Leon’s direction, but Leon’s lips remained closed.
With a final loving look at his daughter, Justin’s projection tactfully winked out of existence. The map, however, remained.
Of course, it was only then that Leon remembered his mental note to ask about contingencies.
“So,” Valeria said as he mentally cursed his complacency, “your opinion. Doable?”
“This… can work,” Leon answered honestly. “There are many points of failure. I hope we’ll have more details once we get to Antiochus, but as things are right now, I can see this working.”
His gaze returned to the map. There were enchantments in the walls that he couldn’t identify given how they were labeled, and he would bet his left arm that the marked enchantments for the palace hardly scratched the surface of that place’s defenses. Getting through those sectioned parts of the enormous palace was going to be difficult, but he thought he could adapt if there was a need for it.
“I can hardly wait,” Valeria said as she snuggled up closer to him. “My father’s told me so much about her, but I hardly even know what she looks like!” Her grip loosened as her body went rigid. “What if she hates me?”
Leon’s head swung around so quickly that his neck cracked. He laid his hands on either side of her face and forced her to look at him. “She won’t. She’ll take one look at you and love you immediately. Just like me.”
She brought her hands up and laid them over his. He could feel her fingers trembling, and he lowered his hands to her shoulders while pressing his forehead against hers again.
“I was worried, too,” he confessed. “About my own mother. Centuries are a long time, isn’t it? Long enough, I had thought, that if she’d wanted to see me, then she could’ve. I imagined she’d been freed for a long time, and that it was by choice that she remained absent. I imagined a thousand different ways for her to reject me once I found her. And yet, when we finally reunited on Belicenion… all of those doubts were put to rest.”
“She has been with Kamran all this time,” Valeria pointed out. “Who knows what poison he’s filled her ears with?”
“We’ll know ourselves soon enough,” Leon said. “We’ll know when we reach her. And I know that when we do, and when we free her, you, your father, and your mother will be together again. I understand your doubts, but we’ll show them wrong. Just wait and see.”
Despite his assurances, Valeria remained contemplative, and the tremble never left her hands. He knew that fear well, and he also knew that nothing would truly allay it until Valeria and Ariana were together.
He turned his eyes back to the map with grim determination. It didn’t matter how thick the walls of Torn Sky were or how enchanted the stones were. It didn’t matter that the palace was floating in the sky and had protections that likely exceeded those of the Artor Valley itself. The only thing that mattered was that Ariana was there, languishing for centuries.
Nothing would stop him from freeing her. Khosrow himself returning from the dead wouldn’t be enough to stop Leon from reuniting his wife with her mother.
And in six weeks, he’d put that determination into action.
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