Calandria needed her disguises to move through the different societies and subcultures demanded by her work. Axel just seemed to make friends where ever went, without changing one iota of his appearance or style.
"Here, look at these pictures," he was saying now, as he dragged her to one wall. The walls were hung with large, faded photographs, apparently of ancient members of the Boros clan. "Printed on porcelain," he said. "So they don't deteriorate. Good idea, no?"
She arched an eyebrow. "I suppose." Photography was permitted by the Winds, along with other gentle forms of chemistry; Axel knew that, so why should he care about these examples? They were nothing compared with even the most primitive hologram.
Axel had picked up a decanter of wine. "Oh, do stop," she said. "It's not even dinner time yet."
"I think these pictures are fascinating," he said. "Especially this oneit's printed on vellum." He put the decanter down on an ornate dresser under one, and stretched to grab both sides of the frame. He lifted it off the wall.
An irregular hole was revealed. Set into the plaster was the verdigrised mouth of a large horn. Calandria blinked at it. Axel cupped his hand at his ear. He adopted an exaggerated listening stance. Then he made a talking gesture at her with the other hand.
She cleared her throat. "I wonder how they did that?"
"The porcelain, or the velum?" Axel picked up the decanter, and gestured at the horn. She shook her head.
He shrugged, and upended the decanter into the horn. Red wine gurgled as it drained down into some pipe in the wall, and, she imagined, straight into the ear of whoever might be listening at the other end.
Axel cackled with glee and, grabbing up the silk doily on the table, stuffed it down the horn after the wine. Then he replaced the picture, and dusted his hands. "That was the only one," he said. "Now we can talk."
"Oh come now," she said. "Why would they be bugging us? We're just visiting."
"Timing," he said. He flipped a white, plush-cushioned chair backward and sat in it, leaning his arms on the back. "The whole Boros clan is here, and that's bad. Old Yuri may think we're spies."
"Why? They seem like a friendly enough bunch. Not that I've had the time to talk to any of them..."
"Ah, you will. You're better at this than I am, I suggest we attend dinner and you can tell me who intends to kill whom. They are a murderous lotdid you see a certain statue in the courtyard?" She nodded. "Yesterday night. A duel. I didn't see who, or who lost, mostly because it wasn't pre-announced. Ambush, maybe? Who knows."
"Really." She sat at the writing desk, and looked out over the grounds. "I've never been anywhere quite like this."
"It's positively medieval," said Axel with a nod. "But then, look at their history. Six hundred years ago these people were still scrabbling in the muck, living in mud huts. Only a few warlords had any kind of power. It's actually pretty amazing how far they've come as a society, considering the ancestors of people like the Boros."
He waved at the grounds. "All this is very European in style. I'm pretty sure people must have raided manse libraries here and there over the centuries. How much would it take, do you think, to build a nation? One book of economics? Another about gardening? They saved very little from the initial disaster, so they must have supplemented it from the manses, but it was obviously hard-won knowledge, or there'd be more of it."
Calandria pictured a group of soldiers armed with pikes trying to face down several of the golden creatures she and Jordan had seenbattling their way to a manse library, grabbing a few books at random, then bolting with crystalline things at their heels.
That was interesting, but not what she had come here to talk about. "What's the occasion for this reunion?" she asked.
"Yuri called itthe patriarch, you met his wife. Marice. Good name. There's some kind of power struggle within the clan, and he wants to resolve it. The Boros are old money in three nations: Memnonis, Ravenon, and Iapysia. The revolt of the parliament in Iapysia has tipped the balance of power
somehow, and Yuri wants to make sure it trickles through the family correctly. The Iapysians don't mindthey get to call in favors to consolidate their position back home. Problem is, there's two factions represented therethe parliamentarians, and the royalists. If you look you can probably make them outat opposite ends of the grounds."
"Hmm." Calandria did look out. "Dinner will be fun."
"It gets better. There's some dispute over Yuri's position as patriarch. Which side will he support in the Iapysian thing? That's a touchy question, because the loser might decide to open the old wound of his legitimacy. That's all happening down there even as we speak."
"My." She smiled at him. "We do pick the most interesting hotels."
"Yeah. Well, we'll have to be careful not to get involved. Now: how's Mason?"
"You saw him. What do you think?"
Axel shrugged. "He looks tough. Does he know where Armiger is?"