pursuit. Only a bit more than a score of nearly a hundred Knights Aeris managed to catch up to us, and without the ladies’ efforts I am certain we would have been overpowered and killed.”
“Where are you now?” Gaius asked. Then immediately raised a hand. “No, best not say. This communication could be observed by others. In general, what is your situation?”
“We pressed on for as long as we could after Kalarus fell, sire, but we didn’t make it terribly far. It’s possible that a follow-up search could find us, so we’ll only rest here for an hour or two, then move on.”
Gaius lifted both eyebrows. “Kalarus fell?”
Amara smiled and inclined her head. “Courtesy of the good count Calderon, sire. I am not certain he is dead, but if he did survive it, I doubt he will be in any condition to run a revolution.”
Gaius’s teeth showed in a sudden, wolfish smile. “I’ll want details in person as soon as you can manage it, Countess. Please convey my thanks to His Excellency of Calderon,” the First Lord said, “and to the Ladies and their retainers as well.”
“I’ll try to keep a straight face when I do, sire.”
Gaius threw back his head and laughed, and when he did the water-image changed. For a moment, there was color in it, greater detail, and more animation. Then he shook his head, and said, “I will leave you to your rest and travel then, Cursor.”
“Sire?” Amara asked. “Were we in time?”
Gaius nodded once. “I think so. But I must move quickly.” The image met Amara’s eyes, then Gaius bowed, ever so slightly, to her. “Well done, Amara.”
Amara drew in a deep breath as she felt a flash of ferocious pride and satisfaction. “Thank you, sire.”
The image descended back into the stream, and Amara slumped wearily down onto its banks, her arm throbbing dully, but with slowly increasing discomfort. She glanced aside at Bernard, who stood near Lady Aquitaine, in the shade of the same tree, his eyes distant as, through his connections with furies of earth and wood, he kept watch for anyone approaching.
“Hello, Amara,” said Odiana cheerfully.
Despite her weariness and discomfort, Amara twitched in surprise, and pain shot in burning silver lines from her shoulder to the base of her neck. The water witch had approached in total silence and spoken to her from a foot away.
“I’m sorry,” Odiana said, a quiet laugh hidden in the words. “I didn’t mean to scare you that way. That must have hurt awfully, jumping like that, poor darling.”
“What do you want?” Amara said quietly.
Her dark eyes glittered. “Why, to repair your poor shoulder, little peregrine. You’ll be as useful to your lord as a falcon with one wing. We can’t have that.”
“I’m fine,” Amara said quietly. “Thank you anyway.”
“Tsk, tsk,” Odiana said, waggling a finger. “Lying that way. I promise you that I’ll make it stop hurting.”
“That’s enough teasing,” Lady Aquitaine said smoothly.
Odiana scowled at Lady Aquitaine, stuck her tongue out at her, then got up to wander idly down the stream bank.
Lady Aquitaine rose from the base of the tree and said, “We have now reached a crossroads, Cursor. There are difficult decisions that must be made.”
“Concerning what?” Amara asked.
“The future,” Lady Aquitaine replied. “For instance. I must decide whether or not allowing you to live is likely to prove helpful or inconvenient. You are, after all, a quite capable agent of the Crown. Given the political climate, you could be a small but significant obstacle to my plans should you turn your hand against me.” She gave Amara a thoughtful look. “But you could be in a position to be very helpful indeed if we can reach some sort of arrangement.”
Amara drew in a slow, deep breath, steadying herself. “I suppose it was too much to hope for that you would act in good faith, once you had what you wanted,” she said quietly.
“We aren’t playing the game for copper rams, Cursor. You know that as well as I do.”
“Yes. But I’ve heard this offer before. I think you know what my answer was.”
“The last time the offer was made,” Lady Aquitaine said, “you weren’t married.”
Amara narrowed her eyes, and said in a cold voice, “Do you really think you’ll get away with it?”
“If I take that path?” Lady Aquitaine shrugged. “I can simply explain how we were found by one of Kalarus’s search parties, which came on us by night, and that there were few survivors.”
“And you think people will believe that tripe?”
“Why on earth not, dear?” said Lady Aquitaine in a cold voice. “You just told Gaius yourself that the party was still in danger of discovery, after all.” She narrowed her own gaze, her pale face bleak as stone. “And there will be no one to gainsay me. Not only will I get away with it, Countess. They’ll most likely award me another medal.”
“My answer is no,” Amara said quietly.
Lady Aquitaine arched an eyebrow. “Principle is well and good, Countess. But in this particular instance, your options are quite limited. You can either agree to work for me… or Aldrick can take Aria’s head, at which point I will ask again.”
Amara shot a hard look over her shoulder, where the still-limping swordsman stood over Lady Placida’s recumbent form, sword held in a high guard.
“Right now,” Lady Aquitaine said, “Gaius is likely contacting Placida, telling him that his wife is safe. But if she should die now, the furies she restrains will be freed with catastrophic results to Placida’s lands and holders. From where he stands, he will have little choice but to draw the conclusion that Gaius betrayed him.”
“Assuming,” Amara said, “that you can make good on your threat. I don’t think you’d kill another member of the League in cold blood.”
“No, Countess?” Lady Aquitaine said, her voice cold. “You know I am perfectly willing to kill every one of you rather than risk having you in my way. You know it.”
Amara glanced at Rook, who held Masha tight by the stream bank and had her head bowed, attempting to go unnoticed. “Even the little girl?”
“Children of murdered parents often grow up to seek revenge, Countess. That’s a bitter life with a terrible ending. I’d be doing her a kindness.”
Bernard placed the tip of his dagger lightly against the back of Lady Aquitaine ‘s neck, seized a fistful of her lustrous dark hair to hold her steady, and said, “You will kindly tell Aldrick to sheathe his sword, Your Grace.”
Aldrick bared his teeth in a snarl.
Lady Aquitaines lip lifted in a contemptuous sneer. “Odiana, dear?”
Water suddenly surged up out of the stream in a set of writhing tentacles not too terribly unlike those of the Canim cloud beasts. They whipped up around Rook and Masha like constrictor serpents, twining around them. For a sickening second, one of the water tendrils covered their noses and mouths, strangling them, before Odiana gestured and they were allowed to breathe again.
Lady Aquitaine glanced at Amara and tilted her head, her expression daring Amara to respond.
“There’s a flaw in your reasoning, Your Grace,” Amara said quietly. “Even if your pet mercenaries kill them both, you will still be dead.”
Lady Aquitaine s smile grew even more smug. “Actually, there’s something you haven’t accounted for, Countess. “
“And that is?”
Lady Aquitaine threw back her head and laughed, her body rippling through changes, her face contorting into different features-and by the time she lowered her head again, Odiana stood where Lady Aquitaine had been. “I’m not Lady Aquitaine.”
Lady Aquitaines voice said, from behind Amara, “Really, Countess. I’m somewhat disappointed in you. I gave you even odds of seeing through the switch.”
Amara looked over her shoulder to find Lady Aquitaine, not Odiana, holding the watercrafting that held Rook and Masha in its grasp.
“Can you grasp the situation now, Cursor?” Lady Aquitaine continued. “This game is over. You lost.”
“Perhaps.” Amara felt her mouth curl up into a slow smile, and she nodded at Rook. “Perhaps not.”
Rook’s mouth curled into a hard, unpleasant smile-and then there was a flash of light, a sudden cloud of steam,
