You’re among friends here … we all want you to feel welcome … your very good friends … such good friends.…
… yes … good friends … Somewhere … Lerial hears people talking, but their words don’t seem all that important … His hand brushes the highly ordered and tooled leather of the sheath … and the comforting words vanish … and he can sense a web of twisted order and chaos retreating from him … and that his shields are lowering. He immediately refreshes them, then concentrates on trying to locate the source of that probe … that insinuating attack that he has not even anticipated. He cannot determine the exact location of the chaos-mage, only the general feeling that he is near or in the villa proper.
Projecting feelings … over that distance? Lerial almost shudders as he rides closer to the villa, a low single-level structure that stretches close to a hundred and fifty yards, end to end. Below the east-facing terraces is a stone retaining wall that extends the length of the terraces, some fifty yards, and well beyond the terraces on both the north and south, and which rises from the west side of the road to the terrace floor. Above that is a waist-high stone balustrade, clearly placed to keep revelers or children or anyone from falling some three yards off the terrace to the road below. From the east side of the road, the lawn stretches down to the water, although there is a hedge maze of some sort in the middle of the lawn. Lerial does not recognize the bushes of the hedge that composes the diversion. A single white stone pier extends some twenty yards out into the water, with several small boats tied to bollards, and one much larger pleasure barge tied at the very end.
When they are less than fifty yards from the north end of the terrace, Lerial sees several figures move up to the balustrade. He almost swallows in amazement because, standing behind the middle of the terrace wall, several yards above an iron-bound door that doubtless blocks a staircase up from the road to the terraces, is Jhosef, flanked by two guards in brown and white uniforms. After denying us entrance, he can just stand there as if nothing happened?
“Company! Halt!” Lerial orders, looking up at the merchanter and past the retaining wall to the base of the sculpted and decorative balustrade that defines the end of the terrace. There’s no way to get up there quickly … not from here.
“That’s a very good idea, Lord Lerial. It is you, isn’t it? Who else would it be? Running errands for whelp Rhamuel again?”
“If you call seeing why you had Mykel killed running an errand,” replies Lerial sardonically.
“Killing Mykel? Perish the thought! Why would I ever wish to do that? That’s the last thing on my mind. You mistake me, Lord Lerial. I have only the highest interests of Afrit in mind. Killing young Mykel would scarcely further restoring the strength of Afrit, no matter what you younger sons think. Why don’t you ride up to the main entrance? From there you can easily enter the villa, and we can discuss what might be the best future for Afrit.” With that, Josef steps back, and in moments is out of sight.
For an instant, Lerial is dumbfounded. Now what? He had expected either more fighting, or Josef fleeing, or not being at his villa, or even some sort of attempt at a negotiated surrender. Unless those words are his way of offering such. Except Lerial trusts the merchanter not at all.
“Ser?” asks Strauxyn.
“Capture and tie up all Jhosef’s personal guards, everyone in those gate buildings. Send one squad up to the entrance immediately so that no one escapes, but keep them well back. Norstaan and I and his squad will follow that squad. Once we have the grounds secure, then we’ll look into the villa and consider Merchanter Josef’s kind invitation.” Lerial doesn’t keep the sarcasm from the last words.
“Yes, ser! First Squad, forward!”
While Lerial waits for Norstaan and his squad to move up behind First Squad, he makes certain he is maintaining his shields while he uses his order-senses to determine what pitfalls may lie farther along the approach road or on the terrace above. He can sense no other living beings in either place. There are more than a few people inside the villa, but how many are unarmed retainers, how many are armed guards, and where exactly the chaos-mage might be he cannot tell, except that he is somewhere nearby. Nor is there any indication of whether Mykel or Oestyn are even in the villa, but there is no way for him to pick them from the others within.