between her and my younger brother, Tazi mused to herself. Larajin would be safe enough. 'Let's go,' Tazi said and pushed the girl toward the door.
Falling into the role of co-conspirator, Larajin cautiously peered down the hallway but saw that Tazi and she were quite alone. The two women, now so differently garbed, stepped into the passageway. Without exchanging a word, they headed as one toward the grand staircase. Tazi stopped just short of it, however, and Larajin turned questioningly toward her.
'What's wrong,' the maid demanded in a loud whisper.
'Nothing,' Tazi reassured her. 'I'm simply not going your way. I'm just going to slip out through the window back at the end of the hallway,' she gestured.
Surprising Tazi, Larajin said, 'Don't worry. No one will recognize you. I hardly do myself.'
Smiling, Tazi explained, 'Actually, there are one or two guests who would recognize me, and I don't feel like explaining anything else tonight. Off with you now,' she ordered in a motherly tone to the girl two years her senior. 'Don't have too much fun. I do have a reputation to maintain.' She only managed to maintain her severe expression for a heartbeat before stifling a laugh. Larajin joined her, and the girls wished each other well.
For a few moments, Tazi observed Larajin as the girl, hesitantly at first, made her way down the grand staircase. At the bottom, Tazi saw with wry amusement that her suitors swarmed around Larajin, each one proffering her an arm and imploring her for a dance. She watched as Larajin carefully selected one and the lucky fellow swept her onto the dance floor. Confident in the subterfuge, Tazi turned to make her way out.
The same two pairs of eyes that watched her leave the ballroom earlier now scrutinized 'Tazi's' return. They were not so easily fooled.
Once out in the cool night air, Tazi breathed more easily. It was during this time that she felt the most free. Her days were filled with family obligations and watching eyes, but she had made the nights her own, and she savored the hours. Her first stop would be in the Oxblood Quarter, to gather a bit of information and a drink or two. She moved easily down the streets, so pleased with her escape that she did not notice the dark figure trailing a discreet distance behind her. Soon enough, Tazi had another matter to distract her.
Screams, more terrified than those normally heard in the Oxblood Quarter, caught Tazi's attention. She ducked off of the main street, ears pricked, searching for the source of those uncomfortable wails. It took no more than a moment's hunt down a small back street to locate the cause.
In the rear of the alley, Tazi was able to make out three people. Two burly men had backed a woman against a wall. She must have been responsible for the cries.
The men wore the oily slicks typical of people more accustomed to life on the sea. The boatmen had obviously wandered a bit to be so far from Selgaunt Bay, but Tazi was not surprised in what they had found to distract them this evening. Even in the dim light, Tazi could see the woman was a beauty. She could also see the men appreciated her looks. One of them had unsteadily reached up to touch the woman's face with a hand that did not have all of its fingers. He must not be so adept at handling ropes and nets, Tazi thought mirthfully. Fingers's shorter companion hung back a few paces, content to wait his turn and take another drag from the jug the two had obviously been sharing. The woman was not so content to be their plaything, and she lashed out.
It was either this, Tazi mused, or drinks at the Kit. Without another thought, she charged into the fray.
The woman, her clothes tattered and dirtied, had managed to slash Fingers, more by luck than any real skill. He hissed and pulled back his arm. The sight of his own blood enraged him, and Tazi could see rage burn through his drunken haze. He faced the woman with a hard look. The game was no longer entertaining for him.
'Now you're going to pay,' he snarled and balled up his fist.
As he cocked his arm back, Tazi came up from behind and ran her rapier efficiently through the meat of his upper arm. Pain and surprise caused him to fall to his knees. Tazi shot the woman a quick grin, but she didn't respond.
Probably afraid I'm going to be more trouble than these two, Tazi thought to herself. Dressed in black leathers and carrying a sword, she did not give an appearance of respectability.
Tazi placed her foot on Fingers's shoulder blades and levered her sword free. Shorty, slightly less drunk than his friend, stood mouth agape for a moment before throwing the jug aside and coming to his cohort's aid. He had forgotten the woman they had bullied into the dead end, now realizing that everything was turning sour very quickly.
Tazi could see the determined look on his face. She had a hunch Shorty didn't like to lose. She now had his complete attention.
Shorty pushed the woman out of his way, and she tumbled to her knees on the cobbled alleyway. Tazi giggled under her breath as the man nearly tripped over his intended victim. The woman made no attempt to get out of the way. Tazi briefly wondered if she was in shock, or perhaps a little slow in the head.
If our places were swapped, Tazi thought, I'd be gone like a flash of lightning.
There was no time for more musings, though, as the second man drew his knife. He lunged toward Tazi's face, but she easily sidestepped his brutish assault. His momentum carried him right into Fingers, who had been unsteadily trying to rise to his feet.
'Come on,' Tazi taunted. 'I've seen trolls more graceful than you two.'
Shorty freed himself from the tangle of Fingers's limbs and staggered to his feet.
'Don't play with me, boy.' A rain of spittle carried the shout toward her.
Tazi smirked at Shorty's threat. Once again her leather vest and pants, short hair, skill with a sword, not to mention the poorly lit alley, had done its job. How easy it was, Tazi disdainfully concluded, to deceive people.
'I'm more than man enough to teach you some manners,' Shorty threatened.
Tazi planted her rapier point down on the ground, like a walking stick, and leaned jauntily against it with her left hand. 'Just what kind of manners could you teach me, you old lech,' she demanded snidely. 'And what kind of manners were you trying to teach her?' She nodded toward the woman, still kneeling on the street. 'I think you and your friend should go back to the Bay,' she suggested. 'You two are fish out of water here.'
The man said nothing but charged her once more. With only a slight shifting of her weight, Tazi brought her sword straight up in front of her face and easily blocked his thrust. They stood facing each other, as close as two dance partners. She looked him square in the eyes and, with an angelic smile pasted on her lips, brought her right hand up and slashed across his thigh with her dagger. Shorty's face twisted in pain, and he sank to the ground, ineffectually clutching his oozing wound. A quick glance at his partner assured Tazi that Fingers was still nursing his arm and no longer posed any threat to her or any other woman this evening. She stepped past the two toward the woman who had finally stopped trembling and had regained her footing.
'Come on,' Tazi ordered roughly. 'It's time to leave.'
In the darkened alley, it appeared to Tazi as though the woman was in a state of shock. She stared blankly at her rescuer. The two boatmen might regain some of their bravado if the women lingered too long. Tazi grabbed the woman's arm and started to pull her out of the alley. And, because she enjoyed being contrary, she paused long enough to yank a black scarf from her throat and toss it at the man with the leg wound.
'Take it,' she said disgustedly, 'before you bleed to death all over this alley. It's soiled enough already.' And with that, Tazi dragged the woman into a busier thoroughfare.
They traveled a short distance before either spoke. Finally, the woman placed her other hand on Tazi's and tugged a little. Tazi stopped her march and turned to look at the woman whom she had just saved. The torches on the street were not very bright, but Tazi could see the woman was not from Selgaunt. The glow of the feeble light reflected blue off her black hair, and illuminated the dusky tones of her skin. Her clothes also marked her a foreigner. The swirl of silks, torn and dirty though they were, hinted of the desert. But travelers from so far afield were not unique in this city of commerce.
'I wanted to thank you,' the foreigner began, in a quiet but rich voice. 'I believe I am in your debt, lady.'
Tazi was shocked that the woman had seen so easily through her disguise. No one had ever found her out so quickly before.
'How did you know,' she blurted out. 'Didn't the clothes or my hair fool you a little?' Tazi paused to tug at her short, black locks.
For the first time since she had laid eyes on the dark-haired woman, Tazi saw her smile.
'It would be impossible for those things to fool me,' she replied in a soft, melodic voice, 'as I am quite
