Midst Toil and Tribulation by David Weber

Author:David Weber
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: A Tom Doherty Associates Book

.VI.

Siddar City, Old Province, Republic of Siddarmark

Merlin Athrawes sat in his small, neat, but comfortable chamber in the Charisian Embassy. It was rather cramped, but it was also one floor below Emperor Cayleb’s suite and just happened to be located directly off the stairwell. No one could reach the emperor’s level without passing Major Athrawes’ door, which could be expected to have a … dissuading effect on any assassin familiar with the seijin’s reputation.

Unfortunately, there were quite a few people in the Republic of Siddarmark, let alone right here in the capital city, who were unlikely to be dissuaded by anything. As someone had remarked many years ago on a planet called Old Earth, when someone actively wanted to die to accomplish his mission, the only way to stop him was to give him what he wanted. The sort of people who preferred to survive the attempt were easier to stop, but there were also more of them. So far, Henrai Maidyn’s agents had uncovered and defeated two plots to assassinate Cayleb. Aivah Pahrsahn had quietly (and without mentioning it to anyone) defeated another and seen to it that the would-be assassins’ well-weighted bodies had been equally quietly disposed of in North Bay, and Merlin and Owl’s remotes were tracking five different groups of plotters who all at least aspired to striking down the heretical emperor in the name of God, the Holy Archangels … and Zhaspahr Clyntahn.

It wasn’t much consolation that there were even more plots afoot to assassinate Greyghor Stohnar, and everyone was unhappily aware of how much easier it would be for Zhaspahr Clyntahn’s “Rakurai” to trundle wagonloads of gunpowder around the mainland cities. Merlin had his own remotes seeded as thickly around Siddar City as he could, but even with Owl manufacturing more of them, there was a limit to the available supply. For that matter, even Owl’s was reaching a point of diminishing returns simply trying to filter, far less process, all the data available to them. And a city the size of Siddar City was a huge, complex target. Even the best chemical tracers could be diverted or fooled by the complex brew of humanity, animals, processes, and—especially with the city’s sewers overloaded by the influx of refugees—human and animal waste.

Had Merlin been a living, breathing human being, trying to keep track of threats to the emperor he’d come to love would have been more than enough to deprive him of sleep. As it was, no one would have been especially surprised, had they opened his chamber door, to see him sitting at the table with his already famous—or infamous—“revolvers” disassembled for cleaning. Ehdwyrd Howsmyn’s Delthak Works had established a new wing to its pistol shop which was already turning out duplicates of the seijin’s revolvers in quantity (although in a somewhat shorter-barreled, lighter version than he himself favored) and, as expected, the Inquisition was inveighing mightily against the new weapons. After all, had they not been instrumental in the abduction of the innocent

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