'Since Eminence Rhodon survives.'
'Thanks be to the Lord of All.' Gabriella said in a hushed voice. Erak repeated it after her.
'Thanks be to the Lord of All,' Kesar echoed, 'and to Healers, and to the incompetence of assassins.' He turned to the Duke. 'These are the two who caught the assassin, your grace.'
'And made him talk?' Freihurr vom Kalten asked.
Gabriella looked, almost imperceptibly, to DeBarres and Eminence Kesar. Kesar nodded and Gabriella answered. 'A little, your grace. He mentioned the Brotherhood, before he died.'
Freihurr cocked an eyebrow. 'Died?'
'He was trying to kill Sister DeZantez at the time,' Erak pointed out.
'Nevertheless,' Freihurr went on, 'dead men tell no tales, and — '
'And we would have preferred him to be a little more chatty, your Grace,' Gabriella agreed. 'But, knowing the Brotherhood was involved, we can start looking at their members in the area.'
'Do we know who they are?'
'We have a list of their senior figures,' Kesar said, 'extracted from various sources during the hearing of Confessions. Unfortunately, knowing a few names, which in all probability are aliases, doesn't guarantee finding the person. Nevertheless, DeBarres' men already have a wish-list of people we should like to speak to in general, and this event merely makes the desire more… urgent.'
As the sun moved behind Kerberos and the world turned dull and grey Goran Kell turned his mount on to the game trail, and began to thread his way through the foliage. Once the trade road had vanished into the murk, Kell and his followers dismounted, and led their horses deeper into the woods.
Kell knew there were men out here and was on alert, trying to judge how long it would be before they reached them. He was still shocked when a hand suddenly reached across him to grab one shoulder and the icy tip of a short sword pricked his throat.
'It's raining blood,' a voice said.
Kell coughed, trying to lubricate his throat. He hoped he was only imagining the sensation of blood slipping down his collar. 'But… But the sun will be dry and bright.' He sounded more hopeful, and less confident, than he intended.
The blade and the grip vanished and a shadowy figure reached past him to take the horse's reins. 'You're early, sir.'
'It's an extra day's pay to you and your men, Chaga.' He didn't mind that his faithful soldier had threatened him. It was his duty, after all, to be sure that Kell wasn't an impostor disguised by magical or other means.
'It certainly is. Where are we going, sir?'
'Turnitia first, I think. And I want no interruptions from the Swords of Dawn.'
Chaga grinned, showing missing teeth. 'That goes without saying, sir.'
The bath-house was a stone-walled chamber attached to the castle's largest tower. The water was heated by fires in the next room, before flowing down and into the wooden tubs. Gabriella handed her armour for cleaning and put the rest of her clothes into a large basket for the castle's staff to take for laundry later.
The water was refreshing, and Gabriella ducked under the surface, shaking her head to get any trace of the day's exertions out of her hair. She still felt tense, and wished it was so easy to wash away what had happened to Eminence Rhodon. His wound wouldn't disappear with warm water and soap.
A surge of water brought her back to herself and back to the surface. Erak was just settling in opposite.
'It's been a long day,' he said, enjoying the soothing effect of the hot water.
'For everybody. Half the Order will probably be joining us any minute.'
'Not unless they bring a battering ram, Gabe.' He grinned, passing her a large iron key. 'I thought you wouldn't want to be disturbed.'
'I've been disturbed enough for one day,' she admitted. 'That man I caught… He was a maniac. Possessed, maybe.'
'Then there's a well-fed demon in the pits.'
She nodded. 'Erak, do you think that that man was the same one who shot Eminence Rhodon?'
Erak slid round to sit next to her and leaned his head on her shoulder.
'You've nothing to be guilty or ashamed about. Unlike the rest of us.'
'What have you got to be ashamed about?'
'You must be joking, Gabe. A whole troop of the Swords couldn't protect our own Eminences?'
'A determined assassin who doesn't care for his own life will always get through.'
'Next time try to sound like you believe that.'
'Don't you?'
Erak was silent for a moment. 'The Lord of All is on our side. He doesn't look the other way but he demands that we're worthy of him. And we weren't.'
Gabriella shook her head. 'Somehow I don't think the Eminences will agree, nor will the Anointed Lord.'
Hasso, formerly of the Red Daggers, wasn't stupid. Goran Kell was a warrior, unlike Scarra, and wouldn't think twice about killing him. Again, Hasso was confident of his own fighting ability, but he knew that he would be outnumbered if he tried to take on Kell's bodyguards. He didn't particularly believe that Kell had ran off with half the money, and knew he would only get himself into a fight against impossible odds if he went after Kell.
No, Scarra was the one who had cheated them all, and Scarra was the one who needed punishing for it. With that in mind, Hasso had turned away from Kell's trail as soon as he was out of sight of Scarra and the others. He knew that they'd expect Kell to kill him, or perhaps they thought he'd join Kell's half of the company. Either way they wouldn't feel threatened.
If they knew he had gone off on his own, however, they might see a threat. They might worry about who he'd run into, or what he'd say. As he camped overnight in a tumbledown cottage, he thought about that. More accurately, he tried to think about that, but kept becoming sidetracked by the thought of how to punish Scarra and make up the shortfall in his fee.
By morning, he realized that he hadn't been as sidetracked as he had at first thought. He realized that the two things were actually the same. By the time he had fed his horse and rolled up his bedding, he knew just where to go, and what to do.
One of the Duke's troops came to fetch Gabriella and Erak as they finished breaking their fast in the castle's refectory.
'Enlightened Brother, Sister, the guards have brought in a man who's been causing a stir in the marketplace this morning.'
'Stealing?' Erak asked. Neither of them were interested; that was the town guards' business, not theirs.
The guard shook his head. 'Asking awkward questions and demanding to talk to either an Enlightened One or a member of the Swords.' The guard shrugged. 'You're here, and all the others are busy, so…'
'Define an awkward question,' Gabriella suggested.
'He's been asking about the shooting of Eminence Rhodon. Asking if there's a reward for information.' Gabriella and Erak exchanged rueful looks. This would be the fifth such inquiry she had heard this morning and the Lord alone knew how many more the other Swords or the Duke's guards might have handled. 'Funny thing, though,' the guard mused, 'the man claims he only got into Kalten this morning.'
That did interest Gabriella. It wasn't unusual for the people of a town to seek to profit from some event that had just occurred, but how would an outsider even know to ask yet? Gabriella decided that that would be the first question she asked him.
'I didn't,' the man who called himself Hasso had said, answering Gabriella's question. She, Erak and Hasso were strolling within the courtyard of Castle Kalten, as the cells were already full, and Gabriella wanted to both keep an eye on the man, and make him think he was being dealt with as a contact rather than as a prisoner.
Hasso was eyeing his surroundings warily; he seemed wisely cautious, but not intimidated. Gabriella took him
