The Rogue

thoughtfully. “You know that Sonea and Cery were childhood friends, don’t you?”

Lilia shook her head. “No. I knew she was from the old slums, and had worked with the Thieves during the invasion.”

“Yes, Cery was her main contact among the Thieves. Akkarin recruited him to help hunt down Sachakan spies.”

“So they kept in touch all these years?”

Anyi shrugged. “I guess they must have. When Cery told me how to get here I asked him why he went to all that trouble. He said that, until recently, Sonea was restricted to the Guild grounds – like you are now. The only other place she was allowed to go was the hospices.”

“What do you mean by ‘all that trouble’?”

Anyi shrugged out of the coat. “There’s a bit of climbing, and apparently the tunnels are prone to collapsing these days. He’d do something about that if he wasn’t hiding from Skellin.” She tossed the coat over the back of a chair, then hesitated and looked close. “Curse it. The back got a bit scratched on the way up.”

Lilia sat down on one of the guest room chairs, and Anyi dropped into the one beside it. “Sonea told me she goes into the bedroom when Cery leaves, so she doesn’t see how he arrives, and that I should do the same thing when you go.”

Anyi nodded. “He advised we do that.”

“Sounds like you intend to visit on a regular basis.”

“I do.” Anyi smiled. “If you’d like me to.”

Lilia nodded. “Very much. I’ve lost the friends I had here. The ones in my class won’t talk to me. Naki is … gone. I don’t think anyone else is going to want to be my friend,” she lifted up her arms to show the black bands stitched around the sleeves of her robes, “now that I know black magic. Even if they wanted to, their parents would stop them. If they did want to, I’d have to worry what their real intentions were.”

Anyi grimaced in sympathy. “That’s going to be tough.”

“It’s not going to stop after I graduate, either.”

“At least Sonea is willing to trust you.” Anyi looked around the room. “She has friends, here and outside the Guild. Even if others don’t take that as a good sign, you should. You should also know …” Anyi leaned over the arm of her chair and reached out to touch Lilia’s cheek.

Surprised and unused to such contact, Lilia stilled. She met Anyi’s gaze. The woman’s expression was thoughtful and intense. Anyi slipped off her chair and knelt on the floor beside Lilia’s in one graceful movement. Her hand did not move from Lilia’s cheek, or her eyes from Lilia’s.

“You should also know this,” she said.

Leaning close, she kissed Lilia. It was a slow, lingering kiss. It was definitely not the kiss of mere friendship, and Lilia could not help responding in kind. It confirmed all that she had guessed about Anyi and all she had suspected of herself. It was not just Naki, she thought. It’s me – and it’s Anyi. And it could be me and Anyi.

Anyi pulled away a little, then smiled and folded herself back into her chair. She looked, Lilia mused, rather smug.

“I know it’s too soon since Naki,” she said. “But I thought you should know. In case you’re interested.”

Lilia put a hand to her heart. It was beating very fast. She felt elated and reckless. She laughed to herself, then looked at Anyi.

“I’m definitely interested – and it’s not too soon since Naki.”

Anyi’s smile widened, but then she looked away and frowned. “Even so, I’d hate for Sonea to walk in on us …”

“She’s at a meeting, and is going straight to the hospice afterwards. Night shift. Won’t be back until morning.”

“… or her servants,” Anyi added. She tapped her fingers on the edge of the chair, then stopped and smiled. “Tell me, how much do you know about the passages under the Guild?”

“I know of them, but I’ve never seen them. Nobody is allowed down there.”

“Well, unless you’re really serious about not breaking any rules any more, I could take you on a little tour.”

Lilia looked at the scratches on the back of Anyi’s jacket, then at her friend.

“I’ll … I’ll think about it.”

Sonea sat down in the chair Osen had offered with silent satisfaction. The Administrator had arranged for more seating to be brought into his office and arranged it in a rough circle before his desk. He’d insisted that Kallen not stand by the wall any more, which meant that Sonea did not feel obliged to stand up as well.

Now she and Kallen sat on either side of Osen and Balkan. The rest of the Higher Magicians had arranged themselves in no particular order, Sonea noted. Usually the Heads of Disciplines clustered together. She expected they’d still be the most vocal in this meeting, however. Some things never changed.

Rothen looked up at her and smiled. She felt an answering smile spring to her lips. He had been overjoyed to hear of Lorkin’s return, and since learning that Lorkin would be attempting to negotiate an alliance and would be bringing the Guild a new kind of magic he had been bursting with pride. At one point he’d sighed and looked sad, and when Sonea had asked what was wrong he’d looked at her apologetically. She winced as she remembered what he’d said.

“It is a pity his father never got to see this.”

Which had made her heart ache for more than the obvious reasons. For Rothen to have said this of Akkarin indicated a level of forgiveness of the former High Lord that Sonea had not thought Rothen would ever reach.

For all that Lorkin had impressed others, Sonea was all too aware that he was not safe yet. What he was doing was risky. Even if the Sachakans did not know about it, they must still consider him a potential source of information about the Traitors. He would not be safe until he returned to Kyralia.

“The king has come to a decision,” Osen told them. He turned to Balkan. “The High Lord met with him again this evening. What did he say?”

“He has gained the agreement of the other leaders of the Allied Lands,” Balkan told them. Sonea felt an odd sensation somewhere between pride and regret. To consult with the rest of the Allied Lands so quickly would not have been possible twenty years ago. Now all Guild Ambassadors were given blood rings so they could communicate with the Administrator or High Lord whenever they needed to. “The meeting will take place and negotiations entered into. They have indicated their preferred terms. They have agreed that a Guild magician will represent the Allied Lands. The king has left the choice of representative to us.”

“There is no small risk involved,” Osen told them. “If King Amakira learns of the meeting he will try to prevent it. He may even see it as an act of war. We are, in effect, considering an alliance with the people he considers rebels and traitors.”

“Whoever we send will be vulnerable. We could send the entire Guild, and not be strong enough to counter an attack,” Balkan said, then he smiled crookedly. “Amakira would hardly fail to notice if we send an army of magicians his way. For this reason, we have decided that only two magicians will go.”

“However,” Osen continued. “Two of us have the potential to be as strong as an army of us.”

Sonea’s breath caught in her throat. Surely they weren’t going to send both her and Kallen? Who would be left to defend Kyralia? Lilia was far too inexperienced and untrained …

“We will send one black magician and an assistant,” Balkan said. “The assistant must be willing to offer his or her magical strength, if required. Since there is a risk that, if attacked, the two magicians’ minds will be read, the assistant cannot be a Higher Magician or know any more about the purpose of the trip than necessary. The black magician will wear Lord Leiden’s mind-read-blocking ring.”

Osen smiled thinly. “So, as you can see, our decision was reduced to one of two black magicians.” He looked at Kallen, then at Sonea. “Are you both willing to take on this role?”

“Yes,” Sonea replied. Kallen echoed her.

Osen looked around the rest of the circle. “Then the decision is left to the rest of us now. I will ask each of