“It must be easier if you’re a sorceress,” Aiden said. There was a hint of wistfulness in her voice. “How many sorceresses get in trouble for having torrid love affairs?”
Emily said nothing for a long moment. “They wouldn’t see anything wrong with having a relationship,” she said, finally. “But they’d certainly think the lovers might be a tiny bit biased in favor of their partners.”
Aiden laughed. “One might hope,” she said. “It must be a great deal easier.”
“It is,” Emily said. She remembered Caleb and Cat and frowned. “But it isn’t that much easier.”
She shook her head. A sorceress didn’t have to worry about getting pregnant or catching something thoroughly unpleasant. A sorceress didn’t have to worry - mostly - about backbiting elders acting as though she was defiled forever, just because she’d had sex with a man. And yet... it wasn’t all fun and games. Sorceresses - and sorcerers - still had to deal with broken hearts and all the other problems that made relationships so difficult to maintain. She felt a twinge of guilt. She really should have taken the time to write to Jan.
Aiden lowered her voice. “From what I’ve heard, a royalist meeting was busted a couple of days ago,” she said. “They didn’t realize what was really happening.”
It took Emily a moment to grasp her meaning. “They don’t know we were there?”
“No.” Aiden didn’t sound as if she believed herself. “There’s no suggestion the troops captured anyone important. Just... people who were unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But... it could be a lie.”
“Yes.” Emily let out a breath. “Your friends... they know who you are, don’t they?”
“Yeah.” Aiden grimaced as they turned the corner and passed the marketplace. The bomb crater was still there, guarded by a handful of soldiers in little cloth caps. “I mean... they don’t know everything, of course, but they know about Aiden. I could run and hide, if I wanted to give up everything. If they were taken and forced to talk...”
Emily nodded. The rebels hadn’t said anything - yet - about revoking her safe conduct, but she was sure it was just a matter of time. She’d half-expected Aiden to tell her that Prince Hedrick had been ordered to leave or else. If they knew she’d been at the meeting, they’d see it as a breach of neutrality. And, unlike Dater, they’d actually have good reason to demand her expulsion from the city. And...
Her eyes narrowed. Aiden’s fellow moderates had either been captured or simply forced to scatter. If the latter... they could go underground and hide, if they were prepared to give up what little influence they had left. Aiden herself couldn’t hide without giving up everything... the hell of it, she supposed, was that Aiden could hide easily. All she had to do was put on a dress and raise it, whenever someone questioned her gender. And that wasn’t likely to happen. She wondered, sourly, what the rest of the council would think if they realized the truth. They’d probably do everything in their power to cover the whole affair up, rather than admit they’d been fooled.
“I was being followed this morning,” Aiden said. “I don’t know if they know something or if I’m just being paranoid.”
“No,” Emily agreed. “Do you want to leave the city?”
Aiden gave her a shocked look. “And go where?”
Emily started to answer, then stopped herself as they kept walking through the market. It looked as if it was on the brink of shutting down, even though it was the middle of the day. Only a handful of stalls were open, each guarded by a cluster of armed men. There wasn’t much visible food, nowhere near enough to feed a whole city. The stallkeepers were either running dry or holding stocks back, on the assumption prices would continue to rise. They were likely to get into trouble either way. It wasn’t as if the mob would hesitate to rob the stalls if they thought there was food to be found.
“Last night, someone bombed a grain silo,” Aiden commented, grimly. “And there’s a rumor going round that half the wells are poisoned. People are even drawing water from the river, which is sheer desperation. It isn’t safe to drink.”
“It can be boiled,” Emily said. “Can’t it?”
“Yes,” Aiden said. “But it isn’t always easy to render poisoned water safe.”
Emily nodded, curtly. “I think...”
A dull BOOM echoed over the city. Aiden jumped, one hand dropping to her sword as she looked around. A puff of red smoke was rising from the castle. Emily tensed. Red was the danger sign, although she had no idea what this sign meant. It wouldn’t be used for anything but an absolute emergency. She started to say something, then stopped as Aiden grabbed her hand and yanked her forward. They were practically running by the time they reached the edge of the marketplace and hurried towards the gates.
Emily hitched up her dress and forced herself to run faster as chaos burst onto the streets. Store windows were slammed closed, shutters and bolts locked firmly. Young men - some wearing uniforms, some not - hurried out of their buildings, forming up into makeshift units. The handful of women on the streets practically vanished, save for a couple carrying muskets and swords. She heard people barking commands, trying to impose some order on the chaos. It looked, very much, as though the whole city had gone mad.
Sweat poured down her back as they reached the walls. The gatehouse was swarming with soldiers, all ready for action. Guns were wheeled into place, some sited well... some sure to be blown away the moment the enemy slammed a cannonball into the walls. They’d been experimenting with canister shot and explosive shells, from
