“She didn’t have to hit you,” he muttered. “Well, get in back and keep quiet. If they inspect the goods, let me do the talking.”
“All right. Thank you.”
Raff would laugh at her impression of a meek Animari female, mostly since she’d never met anyone who fit that profile, but her people didn’t have much experience with them, so this was the best way to elicit sympathy. She hopped into the cargo area and the doors closed. Two or three men got in the front, and the vehicle juddered into motion.
Good thing they didn’t search me for weapons. If we pass through security, things could go sideways quick.
Most wars were won on the battlefield, but this one would be fought in secret, and it would be over in seconds. I will prevail. I must. But now that she was alone and moving forward with no way back, fear settled into the open spaces, the shadows and the doubts she’d hidden in her heart. Tirael’s words haunted her.
You’re not better. Not more royal or more worthy. You’re just luckier.
Well, if that was true, let it continue to be so. A little chill prickled across her skin, then—a possibility so improbable that it had never occurred to her, not until this moment. She thought back to all her near misses, the times she should’ve died, and might have, if not for some unlikely twist of fate or a quirk of—
Luck. That’s my gift.
Her whole life, she’d thought she didn’t have one, but it was just so quiet and subtle that she’d missed it. Until now.
It was only a hypothesis, but if she was right, the gift of good fortune would be why even the most improbable plans broke in her favor. Now that I know, I can factor for it. There also remained the potential that she was completely wrong, and that if she tried to call on it to make Ruark Gilbraith die, she would be bitterly, brutally disappointed. At the worst possible moment. On the other hand, using her gift consciously would burn a lot more of her life than tapping it accidentally, as she had been doing.
It doesn’t matter. Even if I only live as long as the Animari, I can still accomplish a lot. If I defeat Ruark Gilbraith.
Her mind made up, she closed her eyes and tried to activate her gift. She’d always avoided discussions of the subject, she had no idea how other people went about using their abilities. For all Thalia knew, it might be different for everyone. Nothing popped in her mind, no sparks flickered from her fingers, so she had no idea if her luck was active when the vehicle stopped.
She couldn’t see where they were, but they had paused once while she was trying to activate her luck, and she’d heard the grind of heavy gates being opened. We must be somewhere inside Braithwaite by now. Like she had been instructed, she stayed quiet despite the movement outside.
Booted feet moved around the perimeter, and she heard voices, the low rumble of laughter, but she couldn’t make out what was being said. Tension brought her shoulders nearly up to her ears, and she tried to make herself smaller, as if she could will herself invisible. Heh, if I could do that, I wouldn’t have needed to get help from a provisioner.
The back doors popped open and soldiers dressed unmistakably in Gilbraith colors stared at her with icy eyes. Then they leveled their weapons on her. “Come out.”
“Sir?”
“Step out of the vehicle. Now.”
Fight or comply?
She had only a split second to decide, then the vegetable dealer stepped into view. “It’s all right. I told them you’re my new helper. They just need to do a routine scan, that’s all. As long as you’re not smuggling anything into the house, you’ll be fine.”
Thalia strangled the hysterical impulse to laugh. Like weapons or poison? She didn’t want to kill the man who had been kind enough to get her this far, but if a fight started here, he would sound the alarm and tell the other guards what she looked like, if she left him alive. I’ve got to buy some time.
“Sorry, I’m just a bit nervous,” she whispered.
Thalia inched forward, making it look like she feared their weapons, when in fact, she could’ve taken them away in three moves. Two more to kill both guards. But she wasn’t ready to reveal herself yet. Not unless this encounter went bad.
“Here she comes,” the vendor said.
When she emerged from the stack of crates, she watched the guards’ tension level ratchet down. Physically, she didn’t appear to pose much of a threat. They couldn’t see her bracers or her hidden twin blades. The minute they started searching, though—
Stop it. Bring on the luck.
She focused hard, reaching, and then she heard it, a soft whispering chime in her left ear. Maybe it didn’t mean anything, but she relaxed a trifle as she dropped from the truck onto the loose gravel of the drive. No paved roads inside his compound? Ruark really was a cheap bastard. She mustered a faint smile for the sentries and the vendor clasped her shoulder.
“No worries, this is business as usual. We’ll be on our way in two minutes.”
“Take off your glasses, miss. We’ll start with a retinal scan.”
Oh, fuck, Thalia thought.
And something to west exploded.
Six hours earlier
Raff eyed Gavriel, but so far, the Noxblade hadn’t produced the spear from Sky’s vision. At the moment, he was pacing, fists clenched, after hearing that Thalia had gone with Ferith on what might be an impossible mission. He’d punched Raff in the face over letting her go alone—fair, so he’d taken the hit—but when Gavriel came at him again, Raff sidestepped and slapped the asshole in the back of the head.
“Enough. We have to decide how to proceed.”
He still didn’t know if he could trust Gavriel, as the treachery scenario still burned
