Tam said nothing for a long time, long enough to make Emily wonder if she’d overplayed her hand. He might respect her, although he was clearly of two minds about her, but he’d also be reluctant to risk a direct trial of strength. The king might be able to wipe the Levellers out quickly, if they showed their hand, yet…if they managed to weaken the king, they might also give the nobles a chance to take the city. An uprising now, even if it was successful for a few days, might hand the country to the nobles. A three-cornered war would be utterly disastrous for the people caught in the middle.
“I will discuss it with my fellows,” Tam said, finally. “I cannot make such a decision on my own.”
So there are other leaders, Emily thought. Or…how many Levellers are left?
Cat clearly had the same thought. “How many of you are there?”
Tam looked back at him, evenly. “The king arrested many of the inner circles,” he said, “but we were very popular. It was fashionable to be a Leveller. Most of the outer circles remain untouched, just…cut off from the other circles.”
And you won’t give us precise numbers, Emily thought. She could understand why the Levellers had been popular–a society based on aristocracy would birth a great many people who thought meritocracy was a good idea–but the purge would have frightened many of them into destroying their cards. Others wouldn’t know who to trust. You don’t even know if you can trust us.
“We need an answer soon,” Emily said. She didn’t know what they’d do without the Levellers…if, indeed, the Levellers could make a valued contribution. Hire mercenaries and try to storm the Tower? Or put one of Jade’s more outlandish plans into operation? Or…she didn’t know. “And if you get a message to us soon, we would be grateful.”
“It will come at a high price,” Tam said. “We’ll want major concessions and reforms.”
“After the war,” Emily said. “We have to win first.”
Tam’s face darkened. “We want ironclad promises, backed by oaths,” he said. “We will not trust empty words again.”
Emily felt Cat shifting uncomfortably behind her. She didn’t feel much better herself, even though she should have expected it. Asking for an oath, demanding an oath…it just wasn’t done. It was a clear sign that they weren’t trusted to keep their word. But how could she blame them? Randor had made promises, when his crown had been threatened, that he hadn’t tried to keep. He’d thought that ennobling Paren–and a handful of others–would be enough to keep them from turning against him. But he’d underestimated Paren’s commitment to meritocracy.
And Nanette’s meddling, Emily reminded herself. She poisoned the well badly.
Her mouth was suddenly dry. “I believe that Alassa will swear an oath, once you and she agree on the exact wording,” she said, carefully. They’d have to get Alassa out of the Tower first. “However, there will have to be a careful balance between the old and the new.”
“We will no longer allow ourselves to be used as slaves,” Tam told her. “We want clear laws, applicable to all, and a very definite say in how our taxes are to be collected and spent.”
“I believe Alassa would find that acceptable,” Emily said. “However, you would have to work out a set of proposals.”
“And then come to an agreement with you,” Tam said. He met her eyes, just for a second. “I hope you can be trusted, Lady Emily. You have brought good and you have brought evil.”
“I gave people tools,” Emily said. “What they did with them, the choices they made…I wasn’t responsible for that.”
Tam bowed his head, then stood. “We will get in touch,” he said. “And when we do, we will either commit ourselves to you or back off.”
“And that’s all we can hope for, at the moment,” Emily said. She wondered, idly, just how long the Levellers would need to make up their minds. If they were as scattered as Tam implied, they might be on the verge of breaking into several different factions. “We’ll have more detailed discussions later.”
“We will,” Tam said. “I…”
A bell started to ring, clanging loudly. Below them, Emily heard doors crashing open and people running up and down the stairs. Outside, she could hear people shouting in outrage.
“The soldiers,” Tam gasped. “They’re found us!”
Chapter Seventeen
FOR A LONG MOMENT, NO ONE moved. Emily found it hard to think. History was repeating itself…they’d been found, they were going to be caught…and even if they blasted their way out, their presence would be revealed to the entire city. Randor would know to look for them–and, perhaps, to rid himself of a liability. Imaiqah might not survive the night…
“They’re hitting the ground floor,” Cat snapped, shaking her out of her trance. The sound of rioting downstairs was growing louder. “We have to go up!”
He looked up at the ceiling until he spotted a hatch. “Emily, can you sense a magician down there?”
Emily reached out with her senses. The brothel’s wards were already collapsing–they hadn’t been designed to keep out anyone who really wanted in–but she couldn’t sense a magician outside. That didn’t mean anything, she reminded herself sharply; the magician might be shielding himself from detection. But she was unusually sensitive to magic. If the magician–if there was a magician–used his magic, she’d probably be able to sense something.
“Not yet,” she said. The sound of running footsteps was growing louder. People were shouting and screaming in outrage. “We have to move.”
Cat closed his eyes for a long moment and gestured at the hatch. It exploded outwards, revealing an attic. Emily was mildly impressed by his control. She was practically standing right next to him and she’d barely sensed anything. He caught Tam’s hand a second later, pulling him under the hatch. Emily followed them, bracing herself. Levitation spells always made her feel unsteady.
She gritted her teeth as she heard someone outside the door, snapping off a locking spell. It wouldn’t hold for long, particularly when the soldiers started hacking the door down, but it might buy them a few seconds. Cat levitated himself and Tam up through the hatch, into the attic; Emily hesitated, then followed them through the hatch. The spell, as always, felt as if it were going to shatter the moment she took her mind off it. It was a very fragile spell. She knew better than to use it anywhere near hostile magicians.
The air was dry and very dusty–and dark. Emily cast a night-vision spell and looked up and down the attic, noting how the owners had never bothered to cover the supporting beams with anything that might have been able to take their weight. A single foot wrong would be enough to plunge them through the ceiling of the room below and right into enemy hands. Cat glanced around, then picked his way rapidly towards a wooden ladder leading up to a hatch in the roof. Down below, Emily could hear cursing in deep masculine voices. How long would it take them to guess where their prey had gone? If they thought to look up…
We have to have left some sign of our escape route, she thought, as Cat reached the ladder and started upwards. Tam stood at the bottom, looking around blankly. It took Emily a moment to realize that he had no way to see in the dark. Imaiqah wouldn’t have had a problem, but she was the sole magician in her family. Tam is completely dependent upon us.
The noise from outside grew louder as Cat pushed open the hatch. It was dark outside, but the moon provided enough light to see. Emily waited for Tam to scurry up the ladder himself, then looked back. The sounds from below were getting louder. She doubted it would take the soldiers that long to find a stepladder or simply form a human chain. She’d seen men climb on their comrade’s backs to reach high places during Martial Magic…
“Emily,” Cat hissed. “Hurry!”
Emily nodded and started up the ladder. It creaked and swayed under her weight, as if it was constantly on the verge of falling to pieces. The wood felt unclean under her hand…she didn’t want to think about what the brothel’s staff might have been doing with the ladder. She hoped she didn’t cut herself as she reached the top and scrambled onto the roof. The last thing she wanted was to leave a bloodstain for the soldiers to find.
“There’s a riot going on,” Tam breathed, nodding towards the edge of the rooftop. “The people are fighting the soldiers.”