This would be their last meeting.
He came, just as she had anticipated, at about dawn, when the street lamps were being doused and the shadowy dealings in unused alleys gave way to legitimate business in the streets. The Knight 'n Shadow was mostly empty at dawn, though a few Waterdhavians had come for morningfeast before going about the business of the day.
He was dressed in leathers but carried no sword and wore no helm. His brown stubble defined his strong, tense jaw. His right hand was bandaged. His left was bare.
'Last place you expected this, eh?' Fayne asked.
'On the contrary,' her visitor said. 'Drinks and sly glances are your favored weapons. Why should I expect anything less than your element?'
'Mmm.' She nodded to the two goblets of wine on the table, one before her and one before an empty chair. 'Drink? 'Ware, though for-'
Kalen seized her gobler-not his own-drained it in a single gulp, then sat down.
Fayne blinked at him, then at the goblets. He'd ruined her game, and it offended her.
'My apologies,' Kalen said. 'Was one or the other meant to be poisoned?'
'Very well,' she said, keeping the anger he'd roused off her face. 'We don't have to play this game, if you don't want.'
Kalen shrugged, then belched in a way rather unbefitting a paladin.
'So you beat Rath,' Fayne said, tracing her finger along the lip of her empty wine goblet. Again, silence.
'And I suppose you know about Cellica,' she said. 'I imagine the dwarf told you / stabbed her, did he? I thought he might. That was the plan, after all.'
'He did not,' Kalen said. 'But I had guessed.'
'Poor puppy.' Fayne grinned. 'Surely you didn't believe all that romantic nonsense about me loving you.'
Again, Kalen said nothing, but Fayne could see the vengeful wrath behind his eyes.
'Ah, Kalen.' She smiled at him. 'I knew-I knew the moment you went after the girl instead of me at the revel- that we would never work together.'
He spoke, his voice grave. 'Threatening to turn you in had naught to do with it?'
Fayne laughed. 'No, no, silly boy-in my circles, that's just flirtation. No.' Her eyes narrowed. 'You just don't understand my very humble needs.'
'Needs?' Kalen's bloodstained teeth glittered at her. The look of it intrigued her.
'Yes-your heart, body, mind, soul-everything.' She flashed her long lashes and feigned a kiss. 'Is that really so much to ask?'
'I might have given it,' Kalen said. 'Before you killed Cellica-I might have given it.'
'And what of Myrin, eh?' Fayne asked.
She seemed to have struck him to the quick. Kalen looked down at the table silently.
'Ah, yes, the girl between us,' Fayne said. 'And how fares yon strumpet?'
Kalen slammed his fist on the table, drawing wary glances. 'Don't insult her,' he said low. 'A creature like you couldn't possibly understand her.' am
'I'm sure.' Fayne didn't bother looking around. 'She's not with you now?'
Kalen shook his head.
'You let her go,' Fayne said, clasping her hands at her breast. 'Oh, how romantic! You really are such an insufferably good man-and an arrogant boor, besides.' She sneered.
Kalen did norhing but stare ar her.
'You just have to make decisions on behalf of those around you, without consulting them,' Fayne said. 'Rejecting that slut of a valabrar, for instance, so as not to hurt her. Deciding Myrin would be happier without you. Telling yourself it's to prorecr them, and nor yourself!'
'I do what I must,' Kalen said.
'Gods defend us!' Fayne threw her hands up in the air. 'The arrogance! The conceir!'
'I know Myrin,' Kalen said. 'And I do not deserve her.'
Fayne couldn't contain her laughter. This was just too much.
'People never change,' she said. 'Once a rhief, ever a thief. Once a killer, ever a killer. Too much to expect you might stop hating yourself.' She blew him a kiss. 'But what if Myrin wanted you anyway?'
'I wouldn't let her.'
'How perfect!' Fayne said. 'Oh, Kalen, the gods endowed you in many ways, but wisdom of the heart was hardly one of them.'
'Whoever she is,' Kalen said, 'whatever she is, whatever folk have done to her-Myrin deserved none of it.' His eyes blazed. 'She is better than me-better than all of us.'
'Spoken like a man who knows nothing of women.'
Kalen shrugged.
'Ah, Shadowbane, the arbiter of justice-but you're working without all the evidence, love,' said Fayne. 'You don't know what that girl is. If you did, and you had the slightest love for good and justice, you'd march right out of here and take her to the Watch-or the Tower.' Fayne grinned. 'Why not do that now? Or are you afraid they'd take her away from you?'
Fayne saw Kalen's hand clench, but the knight resrrained himself.
'But no-you don't need anyone else.' Fayne winked. 'You're always alone, aye?'
She could see Kalen trembling as he looked down at the table.
'You really do love her, aye?' asked Fayne.
'You know I can't,' Kalen said angrily. 'She hurts me too much, just by looking at me.'
'You idiot.' Fayne laughed. 'What do you think love is?'
A timid barmaid stood at the edge of the room, and Fayne rolled her eyes and waved to her. Soon, tankards of ale came, and they raised them to each other, even toasted and clinked the tankatds together and smiled. By all appearances they were merely young companions, dressed in the garb of sellswords, sharing drink and conversation.
Through it all, the goblet of wine before Kalen went untouched. 'What arc you thinking about, lover?' Fayne asked. 'I am thinking about how this will end.' There was no warmth in his eyes.
'Then you will not object to assuaging my own wonders,' Fayne said.
He shrugged with his tankard.
'First question,' Fayne said. 'Why did you drink my wine rather than your own? Had you decided what manner of wench I am-one who would expect to be trusted?'
Kalen gestured to the full goblet. 'I could drink this,' he said. 'Or shall we talk more?'
Fayne's smile didn't falter-she wouldn't give him a hint as to her scheme. It was far too delicious. 'We should talk, and you should answer my question.'
'I knew,' Kalen said. 'Because I know you, Fayne.'
'I suppose you do at that-in a certain sense.' She winked lewdly then composed herself. 'Second question-you knew I was crooked. How?'
'Lady Dawnbringer,' Kalen said.
'Ah.' She nodded. 'But that didn't let you save Cellica. So you must not have been certain. You didn't know Rath was mine?' 'I suspected,' Kalen said. 'I saw the way you looked at Lady
Ilira-the triumph in your eyes. Was anything accidental about that night?'
'Well struck,' Fayne said. 'What I told you was true-the whore killed my mother, and nothing pleases me more than hurting her. I didn't pay Rath to kill Lorien, but I don't care that he did. The only part I lied about was whether I would have killed her myself.' She smiled. 'Yet still you let me share your bed, even after you knew I was bent. I don't suppose you really did love me? Just a touch?' She batted her eyes at him.
'No more than you did,' he replied, his eyes never leaving hers.
Good, that was good. All his attention fixed upon her.
'Glad my true face didn't steal your virility,' she confessed. 'But I'm so terribly curious-make love to many of my kind, do you?'
'I like my lasses wicked.' Kalen shrugged. 'But I've never known one quite like you.'
'Mmm. Good.' Fayne laughed lightly. 'Not wielding your paladin's sword, I see.' She gestured to his empty
