'Uh -- long before we joined; I think when she was in Randel's Raiders,' Kethry replied to the lightning-quick question after a bit of thought.
'I think perhaps we have verified each other as genuine?' Tindel asked with a twisted smile. Jadrek continued to watch them; measuringly, and warily still.
'Has Idra been here?' Kethry countered.
'Yes; been, and gone again.'
'Keth, we both know there's something going on around here that nobody's talking about.' Tarma glanced at the two men, and Tindel nodded slightly. 'If we don't want to raise questions we'd rather not answer, I think we'd better either rejoin the rest of the world, or drift around the garden, then retire.'
'Your instincts are correct; as strangers you're automatically under observation. It's safe enough to mention Idra, so long as you don't call her 'Captain,' ' Tindel offered. 'But I should warn you that we two are not entirely in good odor with His Majesty -- Jadrek in particular. I might be in better case after tomorrow, when he sees those horses. Nevertheless it won't do you any good to be seen with us. I think you might do well to check with other information sources before you come to one of us again.'
Tarma looked him squarely in the eyes, trying to read him. Every bit of experience she had told her he was telling the truth -- and that now that the approach had been made, it would take a deal of courting before they would confide anything. She looked down at Jadrek; if eyes were the 'windows of the soul' his had the storm shutters up. He had identified them; that didn't mean he trusted them. Finally she nodded. 'We'll do that.'
* * *
'Gods!' Tindel swore softly. 'Of all the rabbit-brained-women!' He didn't pace, but by the clenching of his hand on his goblet, Jadrek knew that he badly wanted to. 'If anybody had been close enough to hear her -- '
'If they're what they say they are, they wouldn't have pulled this with anyone close enough to hear them,' Jadrek retorted, closing his eyes and gritting his teeth as his left knee shot a spasm of pain up his leg. 'On the other hand, if they aren't, they might well have wanted witnesses.'
'If, if, if -- Jadrek -- ' Tindel's face was stormy.
'I still haven't made up my mind about them,' the Archivist interrupted his friend. 'If they are Idra's friends, they're going about this intelligently. If they're Raschar's creatures, they're being very canny. They could be either. We haven't seen or heard of the pretty one so much as lighting a candle, but if she's really Idra's prime mage, she wouldn't. Char surely knows as much about the Hawks as we do, and having two women, one of them Shin'a'in Swordsworn, show up here after Idra's gone off into the unknown, must certainly have alerted his suspicions. If the other did something proving herself to be a mage, he wouldn't be suspicious anymore, he'd be certain.'
'So what do we do?'
Jadrek smiled wearily at his only friend. 'We do what we've been doing all along. We wait and watch. We see what they do. Then -- maybe -- we recruit them to our side.'
Tindel snorted. 'And meanwhile, Idra ...'
'Idra is either perfectly safe -- or beyond help. And in either case, nothing we do or don't do in the next few days is going to make any difference at all.'
* * *
'Next time just stop my heart, why don't you?'
Tarma asked crossly when they reached their suite. She shut the door tightly behind them and set her back against it, slumping weak-kneed at having safely attained their haven.
'I acted on a hunch. I'm sorry.' Kethry paused for a fraction of a second, then headed for her bedroom, the soft soles of her shoes making scarcely a sound on the marble floor. Her partner followed, staggering just slightly as she pushed off from the door.
'You could have gotten us killed,' Tarma continued, following the mage into the gilded splendor of her bedroom. Kethry turned; Tarma took a good look at her partner's utterly still and sober expression, then sighed. 'Na, forget I yelled. I'm a wool-brain. There were signs you were reading that I couldn't see, is that it?'
Kethry nodded, eyes dark with thought. 'I can't even tell you exactly what it was,' she said apologetically.
'Never mind,' Tarma replied, reversing a chair to sit straddle-legged on it with her arms folded over the back and her head resting on her arms, forcing her tense shoulder muscles to relax. 'It's like trail-reading for me; I don't even think about it anymore. First question; can you find other sources?'
'Maybe. Some of the older nobles, like that old lady who talked to us; the ones who weren't afraid of you.
