“I cannot imagine that you went to all this trouble just to meet us,” Lamorat said, “so perhaps you will tell us what you do want?” Hallie had to admire his outward calm even as the even tone of his voice rang false to her truth sense.
“Straight to the point. I like that,” Findo said, white teeth still showing. “What do I want? Well, mostly what he wanted,” Findo said, using the sword to indicate Hoel’s head. “Getting rid of you lot to start with. You’ve interfered with me quite enough over the years.”
He wasn’t being truthful. Or, at least, he was mixing truth and lies. Hallie frowned. She had guessed wrong. She would not have believed that Findo Trask would be so brazen as to confront the Conclave. He would understand perfectly well that there would be consequences. Even if the Conclave agreed to dissolve, Findo had killed ahochlen. Even if no one in this room took action, there would be plenty of elite out for his blood, wanting to hunt him down. He would never be absolutely safe again in his life.
It seemed that Lamorat and Cotovatre shared at least some of her concerns as the pair exchanged a glance, then Cotovatre spoke, voice chilly. “Even if we agree to disband the Conclave, what does that change?Hochlenstill rule, and they will pursue you.”
“Oh, no, my lady, you are mistaken. You’re not going to disband. Welliver here has rigged the whole building to go. You’re all going to die, and no one is going to know I was here or to look for me,” Findo said. The glint in his eye was nothing short of evil.
“That is not what we planned,” Nanters said, getting to his feet, colour high again. Hallie wondered if he had ever encountered Findo before, or had any idea of just how dangerous theveondkenreally was. Or if Nanters had simply fallen into the trap which a lot ofhochlendid, believing thateveryone would obey them. As if that was the natural order of things.
“Your plans don’t interest me,” Findo said, sparing a glance full of contempt for Nanters and Cladas, who was still sitting on the bench, hunched in over himself. “Your petty ambitions were helpful diversions, nothing more.”
“You will not get away with this,” Cotovatre said, her voice quiet and firm. “Even if you do manage to kill all of us, somehow, there will be questions. Investigations.”
“Is that so? Well, it seems you have a higher opinion of your fellow elite than I do. Let me tell you what I think will happen. I think that, with the Conclave gone, and a few well-placed bits of gossip and information spread about, your whole world order will crumble. Hoel’s people have been itching to go to war for quite some time. He stirred them up quite a bit, to be sure, but there are a lot of young men in his lands who want someone to fight. All those angry young men with guns who your people are still chasing around the building are just a small portion of those who would take up arms.” There was a tight smile on Findo’s face as he spoke.
Hallie felt her whole body grow cold, mouth dry. She should have seen it earlier. The attackers she’d unmasked had all been pale, blond and blue-eyed. From Hoel’s lands. And Findo still had more to say.
“And that’s just in one land. What about your people, for instance,” Findo said, pointing to Ulfiam Vargas. “They don’t mind you so much, but your husband is another matter. They don’t like being lorded over by a pretty boy. Won’t take much to get them to riot, either.” An unpleasant smile grew on Findo’s face. “Think about all the protests there have been. The explosions. How many of you thought someone else around the table was responsible? You don’t like or trust each other. And you’re supposed to be the civilised ones.”
Hallie’s heart was thumping in her throat again. She could see and feel the truth behind Findo’s words. The elite might rule the world, keeping the other peoples suppressed and under control, but the elite had their own violent tendencies and vicious, bitter rivalries amongst themselves. It wouldn’t take much for those old jealousies to spill over into violence. There was already violence in some places, and it was rarely sparked by the population rising up against the elite.
“Let’s say you are right. What do you hope to gain?” Lamorat asked. He sounded genuinely curious. Hallie couldn’t help but remember her assessment of him as one of the most frighteningly intelligent people she’d ever met.
“It will be amusing to watch our so-called betters tear each other apart like animals,” Findo said, a savage edge to his voice. The truth of that slammed through Hallie. Whatever other motives he might have, that was at the heart of it. “And I expect there will be many opportunities for profit and power in the coming times.” That was also honest. Findo liked violence, power and money. Destroying the Conclave and setting thehochlenat each other’s throats would let him have all of those things.
“You think to rule in our place?” Ocvran asked, a puzzled frown on his face as if he could not possibly conceive of such an idea. “Crown yourself ruler of the world?”
“I don’t need a crown,” Findo said, smiling again. And that was the truth, too. And fit much better with Hallie’s previous assessment of him as someone who liked to be in the shadows. No, Findo wouldn’t want to be out in the light. He’d want to be working on the sidelines. Dropping a bit of information here or there, whether it was true or not, making money from the supply of information or services or weaponry. After all, he was part of a world-wide smuggling operation. It wasn’t a great leap to think that would be very profitable in times of unrest. And Findo had ahistory of profiting from violence. After all, the second time she had caught him had been when he was running an illegal fight ring, pitting humans againstveondken.
Hallie took a couple of steps forward, around the end of the bench she’d been sitting on, bringing her a fraction closer to Findo Trask. “And will you set up arenas as well?” she asked, her voice choked and bitter. “So that you can watch your victims tear each other apart?”
“Ah, Miss Hallie Talbot. There you are,” Findo said, turning his red-flecked eyes towards her, planes of his face hardening into the promise of violence. “What a good suggestion. Proper arenas. You didn’t get much of a chance to fight in one before. Perhaps I’ll spare you today so you can have a proper contest next time.”
“I’m not here for your entertainment,” Hallie told him. Girard was close behind her. The best backup she could wish for. She hoped that Accalon was staying in place, keeping still and out of Findo’s immediate attention.
“Such a pity,” Findo said, an unpleasant smile tugging his mouth. He took a step towards her, ignoring the Conclave for the moment. “But you do have a habit of ruining things.”
“I’m so pleased you think so,” Hallie said, taking a step to the side, mostly to see if he would follow her. He did. He was two steps above her, their height difference meaning that, for the first time she could recall, he was a fraction taller than she was.
She’d taken him down the first time with nothing more than determination. Helped, she had to admit, by the drug he’d taken, which had provided him with extra stamina but also unexpected and unwelcome periods of unconsciousness. She wondered if he’d managed to perfect the formula and hoped not. Even without drugs, he was a formidable opponent. The second time, he had run into a food cart and she’d managed to wrestle her cuffs onto him.
There was no food cart here. Nothing she could see she could use as a weapon. And even though she had swallowed all the fluid Duncan had left for her, she still felt exhausted, heavy and stupidly slow in her movements. No match for Findo Trask.
And yet, she didn’t have a choice. Findo Trask was one of the most dangerous fugitives she’d ever been sent after. He was directly responsible for too many deaths, and deaths of people she cared about. She couldn’t let him hurt anyone else. No one else, including the people around her, who had already seen enough death and violence.
Findo’s weakness wasn’t his physical strength, she knew. He was quick on his feet and trained to fight. But he did like to talk. And she had questions. Perhaps she could keep him talking until she worked out a way to take him down.
“So was this all your idea, then?” she asked, trying to put a hint of admiration into her tone. It had been a very bold, very ambitious plot if it was. “You planned the unrest at the previous Conclave meetings, managed to fracture the Conclave so that some members turned against the others, all so you could destroy it?”
Findo paused before he answered, which made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. He was up to something.
“Let’s say I took advantage of some things already in motion,” he said, voice silky soft and smooth. “And had the vision to see what could be made to happen, with a bit of a push.”
He was telling the truth, and it made Hallie cold all over to realise that. He hadn’t started everything, but he’d decided to finish it. Most likely, Hoel had been working on his plans before he had somehow come into contact with Findo. And she had to keep theveondkentalking.
“You didn’t just escape on your own, did you?” Hallie asked. “Hoel let you out.”
