Black Bottle Read Free Page A

not dead,” said Caliph. But the assertion forced him to reflect. At least not anymore.
    It had been what? Twenty months since his failure in the skies over Burt? He wouldn’t allow himself to relive the full tragedy of the war in front of Alani, but he felt it. Enough sour, cold regret to pucker his insides.
    Alani waited quietly, patiently. He had once waited for two days for a man’s head to cross in front of a three-foot pane of glass. Caliph pondered this little-known fact as he watched the emotionless lines in his spymaster’s face.
    Finally Caliph said, “Metholinate has to be a factor.” He moved around behind his desk and leaned against a windowsill that supported enormous slabs of glass.
    Alani made a grunt. “They don’t want gas for Iycestoke, or Pandragor…”
    “No,” said Caliph. “They have solvitriol power and bariothermic. They just want to own us outright. They’ll keep our trade agreements intact but they’ll be inside the government then. They’ll be here, in the north. For the first time. And you know what that means?
    “They’ll control how we use or don’t use solvitriol tech.”
    Alani snicked his tongue against his teeth several times. “Are you sure? Are you sure that’s what this is about?”
    The way Alani asked, Caliph felt as though a drop of melt water had fallen from the great casement behind him and trickled down his neck. “You think it’s something different? Why?”
    The spymaster had not lit his pipe. He folded his arms and relaxed against the desk. “It’s a long way, reaching across the Cloud Rift, through the Healean Range, to this patch of mud and ice; especially when they have enemies grinding at them from next door. Even if we opened the floodgates on solvitriol development, we’re ten years behind them. They don’t need to be pushing so hard. Not now. By all accounts, as the saying goes, they have bigger fish…”
    Caliph pulled his lip. It was true. Why were the Pandragonians willing to extend themselves all the way to the top of the world—to the Glacier Rise? Preventing solvitriol secrets from leaving Stonehold was in the south’s interest. But could they really stop that with broad political maneuvers? No. Alani was right. That sort of thing fell to espionage.
    Why was Pandragor pushing so hard?
    Neither of them spoke.
    Finally Caliph broke the silence. “Maybe the conference on the fifteenth will turn up some answers. I want you to come with me.”
    “I was planning on it,” said Alani. “Did you really think I’d let you go alone? They’re going to try and end this whole thing while you’re there. And I mean end it.”
    The conviction in Alani’s voice gave Caliph pause. “Well, that’s why you’re coming with. If I don’t scratch out some allies while we’re there, it’s not going to matter. Maybe the Stargazers—”
    Alani touched his beard and seemed to wince.
    “What?” asked Caliph. “You don’t think we can win them over?”
    “It’s not that. I’m sure they’re the best chance we have of finding an ally south of the Rift but—”
    “But what?”
    “They don’t have much to offer. Bablemum is a better representation of how the south feels about us, your majesty.”
    Caliph scowled. “Those priests in Gas End demonstrating again?”
    “Yes.” Alani rolled his pipe in his fingers. “They don’t like Sena.”
    “Well, I don’t like the south.” Caliph felt his face flush. What right was it of theirs to have a say in who he slept with?
    “Along those lines,” Alani shifted gears ever so slightly, “the House of Mywr’Din has a visitor.”
    “From the south, I take it?” Caliph lifted his eyes from the desk lamp. He read the information in Alani’s expression. “Pandragor? Are you serious?”
    “Indeed. She arrived at West Gate and took a cab, which let her off early. She walked the rest of the distance to Salmalin’s house via back streets.”
    “Reeeeally.”
    Alani held up a tiny black gem in his