Hostages, page 35
Voices followed. The first was familiar, at least.
“Would you like some tea, Kaiden?” That was from Duma Clarisse Sett. Kai Sett’s wife. One of them.
The older entertainer, who looked a bit large, as in well fed, but was actually incredibly powerful under his clothing, or so Anders had been told, not fat at all, started to speak.
He was interrupted.
“Dumo Sett? Do you have a moment to speak? In private?” Taking a moment, since there was no answer, he went on. “This is Anders Brolly? You can simply speak back to me, but I don’t have a good reason for contacting you this way, so secrecy might be in order?”
There was the sound of standing.
“That sounds lovely, dear, but I think I’ll take a short stroll to clear my thoughts, before the show, later, first? I won’t be long.”
There was no offer to come and no goodbyes were spoken, the man not talking again for some minutes. Then, after a long while, the sound of wind and people speaking in the distance reaching across the lands to his ears, the other man spoke.
“Anders! So nice to hear from you. Is there a... Problem? I noticed that you aided myself and Eltha, some weeks back. Killing at a distance? Easily, too from the feeling of it. It reeked of being you, however. I’m alone now, if you must take my life?”
A thing that everyone had assured Anders wouldn’t be happening easily, if at all.
“Nothing like that! I was contacting you to ask if you’ve heard what’s going on down there, with the Natech? We were set to do battle with them, and when we arrived in Barquea, we heard that everything had quieted that way, greatly?”
For a moment, not long this time, there was silence.
“We, Eltha, Clarisse and I, set them back from their raids and attacks, for some time. We had to move on, however. Also... The others don’t know I aided in that effort? If we could keep that between us? Truly, I don’t know how you found out that I work in magic at all. I try to hide it.” There was a laugh then. “Unless you didn’t know that, in which case I’m only playing with you, of course!”
“Of course! I was alone in the desert, when a woman named Anarra found me, and told me a tale about you. Then I checked with several other people about that. They don’t all think that highly of you, all the time. In some ways. I’m not wild about the mass killing you do to harvest energy, but I can’t claim that I haven’t taken as many lives. More, over the last years, than you have. I can’t really cast stones for that.”
Even if he felt like it. He’d killed in war, or when he’d had to. Kaiden Sett did it for raw power.
“You can’t? Being a killer in their own right has never stopped the others from judging me. I think it’s that I take pleasure in it. Even at that, I don’t kill without restraint and attempt to live a life as normal and staid as I can bear, to make up for that.” He paused then whispered. “Is there something more you need? The Natech... I do think they’ll be back. That new border river effected the climate in their lands, and in desperation, they’re roving. Taking from others, in order to survive. Killing them all will stop them, of course. Is that the plan?”
He winced, then closed his eyes.
“Not that I know of. It may come to that. If so, you can come and harvest their energy? I don’t approve of that totally, but you don’t take the spirit, do you?” That was a thing that Farad had never been certain of at all.
There was a soft chuckle.
“No. I couldn’t do that if I tried. Not to use it. That’s outside of my humble abilities. I use the energy of animation, but only that. Now, am I supposed to believe, that after all this time, someone of power is actually pretending to be my ally? That’s a touch unlikely, isn’t it?”
Shrugging, since he didn’t know the answer, he simply made one up.
“Probably. Still, we have much in common, being touched as we are by the red crystals, and I think that means we’re similar in other ways. We don’t have to be madmen, though, which means that working together, at least on small things, won’t hurt, for the time being?”
“Hmm. You could do a tour in Modroc, after the Natech are subdued? Your illusions are asked after even now. You’ve been practicing for some new shows?”
He hadn’t, but could do that, to keep the peace, he decided.
“I’ll start on that now, in my ten minutes a day of spare time? Thank you for speaking to me. I’ll be in touch, if it is needed? Is that allowed, do you think?”
There was a longer laugh then.
“Can I stop you? You moved right past my mental defenses already this day. Thank you for asking however. Yes, I think. We can try that. If this is a trick however, meant to get me to let my guard down and take my life...”
Anders did his own laughing then.
“It isn’t. Not so far. I can’t promise that forever, but I’ll let you know, first, if that changes?”
“I, as well, then. Goodbye, for now, Anders.”
“Goodbye, Kai.”
The use of the name, an old thing the man wasn’t called now, was done on purpose. Not as a threat, but simply to show that Anders wasn’t going to be easily fooled, thinking that Kaiden Sett was what he claimed or seemed.
That done, he decided to try finding what was truly happening, in the southern lands, near the river he’d made. He wasn’t expecting to find anything good, of course.
Which meant, when his mind finally got to the correct location, he wasn’t disappointed at all.
It was, in fact, very bad indeed.
A thing he was going to have to correct as soon as possible.
If he could.
P.S. Power, Hostages
