Niles’ response was defensive. “How should I know?”
Brandt’s reply was sharp. “Because you are master of the Arrowood name, a house known for its intelligence and ability to gather information. Your father died pursuing his mission, and you’d be a poor son indeed if you didn’t at least have an idea of who murdered him.”
The boy leaped to his feet. “You can’t speak to me like that!”
Brandt kept pushing, acting nonchalant. “I’ll talk to children however I choose.”
He hadn’t been sure it would happen, but Niles swung at him. Even injured, Brandt had no problem countering the attack. With a quick movement of his right arm he redirected the boy’s attack away and down, causing Niles to stumble to the floor. The pain in his chest seared even at that small movement, but the boy was too caught up in his own shame to notice.
“I mean no disrespect, Master Arrowood. But you are Master Arrowood now, and the cheap intimidation you used to engage in as a boy has no meaning in my world. There are plenty of people who won’t cower at a name, and it is up to you to convince them the name has meaning. Your father died in front of me, right next to my own warriors.”
Niles’ face was a mix of emotions. Brandt saw anger, pain, and loneliness. The boy was a seething cauldron of emotions that needed a direction. Brandt could supply it.
“I will have vengeance for my wolfblades, and for your father, but I need your help.”
Niles looked up and met Brandt’s gaze. Brandt could almost see the transformation right before him. It was challenging to overcome a lifetime of habit, but Niles succeeded. He put the past behind him and stood up tall, dusting himself off.
He bowed.
His father’s son indeed.
“Let’s get started, then,” Niles said.
16
Questions.
There were too many questions, and not enough answers.
When she listened to Niles the day after the incident, Alena had worried he would track her down in a day or two. But then nothing happened. Niles went to class, and after that he returned home, just as he had before his father’s death. Alena knew because she followed him. He made no effort to hide his destination anymore.
After a few days, Alena began to believe she was safe. Niles had been boasting. He didn’t have the character to follow through on his claims. She still felt for her knife several times a day just to reassure herself that it was still there, but she didn’t feel the same need for it she once had.
Days passed, and nightmares faded into memories.
Then the wolfblade, still wearing the bloody uniform he had fought in, appeared and spoke with Niles.
The academy wasn’t that large, and news traveled through the student body within an afternoon of the wolfblade’s appearance. No doubt some of Niles’ new friends were all too eager to spread the rumor. Their champion had been summoned by a wolfblade.
Alena’s stomach twisted into knots then. The hunt would be on for her.
The wolfblade had seen her. There would be no hiding from him, and if he joined with Niles and learned what Zane had been investigating, it was only a matter of days before she was discovered.
So what options did she have?
She searched her mind for any advice that Bayt might have given her, but nothing came to mind. She wasn’t sure that her former mentor had ever found himself in a situation as dire as this.
The one time he had, it ended with his death.
The problem that haunted her the most was the same as it was over a week ago. She didn’t know enough to make an informed decision. She lacked enough information to predict anyone’s next actions. Any choice she made was just as likely to harm her as it was to work.
When a good idea finally hit her, it seemed so obvious she was ashamed she hadn’t thought of it earlier. This whole time she was complaining about a lack of information, yet she had worked for the town’s most well-known supplier of exactly that commodity.
The evidence was everywhere. News of the attack faded quickly as scandal after scandal enveloped the town. The governor had to replace nearly every official of note. Bayt had set up a system to protect himself, and when Zane killed him, that system fell into place.
On one hand, she laughed at the thought of so many officials with their secrets revealed. If the governor acted wisely, Landow could become the jewel of the empire in the next few years as corrupt officials were replaced. On the other, the knowledge that it was her theft that had set this chain of events in motion haunted her. How many people’s lives had been destroyed in the past week?
Her best opportunity to stop the ripples from spreading further was to visit Bayt’s shop and uncover the rest of his information.
The thought of returning to her former workplace worried her, but she saw no better way forward.
That afternoon, Alena skipped history, the mere act bringing a brief smile to her face. She hadn’t skipped since the incident. There had been no point.
But it did cause her to reflect. Even though there had been no consequences to her routine of skipping history, she was ashamed that she had felt so daring as she had done it.
Now her past behavior just seemed childish.
She didn’t have much of a plan for her return to Bayt’s shop, but she figured she didn’t need one. All she needed was to make sure that she was unobserved, and the rest would take care of itself.
She used lightness to reach the top of a roof across the street from Bayt’s shop. She watched and she waited, searching for anyone with an unnatural interest in the building.
When she was certain that the shop was unobserved, she entered through the front door. The door had been
