Scowling, he moved behind her, saw a swift glint of metal that she couldn't quite hide in her fist. He reached out and yanked the sharp-edged needle from her fingers, ignoring the profanity she spit his way.
'Where the hell were you hiding that?' he demanded. He didn't really expect an answer, which was a good thing, since she clearly wasn't about to offer any. He leaned in, examining the ropes, and decided with a soft grunt that she hadn't cut through enough of the thick hemp to matter. He casually flicked the steel shard into a distant corner and stood before her once more.
She raised her face to the ceiling, chewing on the inside of her cheek and mumbling a few more curses, before looking his way once more.
'Tell me,' he said again, 'why General Rhykus wanted to know about me. And Ellowaine, please don't waste my time, or yours, by lying.'
'If you think you could tell, you're kidding yourself,' she said. 'But I've no need to lie. The truth is, I really don't know. He obviously had his reasons, given how thoroughly he pressed me on it. He got me to remember details I hadn't even realized I'd ever known. But he never once told me why.'
'And you didn't ask?' Irrial asked incredulously.
'Wouldn't have mattered. If he'd wanted me to know, he'd have told me. Besides, I'm used to following people without knowing the whole story. It's what I get paid to do.' She stopped and glowered at Corvis. 'What I usually get paid to do.'
Corvis turned, first toward Seilloah at his feet, then Irrial behind him. The baroness shrugged, while the cat merely flicked her tail.
'You've really got a way with women, haven't you? No wonder you can't seem to keep one.' Corvis would, in that moment, have gladly drilled an awl through his own temple if it meant digging out that damn voice.
'So what are we thinking, then?' Irrial asked. 'Is the whole thing a Cephiran operation? To what end?'
'Distraction,' Seilloah suggested. 'Something to keep the Guilds and the nobles from countering their invasion?'
'Maybe.' Corvis didn't sound convinced. 'It seems awfully convoluted, if that's all it is, though.'
Ellowaine leaned forward, so much as the ropes would allow. 'You're talking about the murders. It wasn't you, was it?'
Again they glanced at one another, then Corvis nodded.
'I thought so. I couldn't imagine what you'd have to gain. Now I understand.'
'And does it bother you?' the baroness demanded. 'Knowing that you provided information that led to the murder of innocents?'
'Why would it?' the mercenary asked, her tone philosophical. 'I'm a soldier; I kill. The Cephirans offered me work when nobody else would-thanks to him.' She actually smiled at Irrial. 'Whatever he's promised you for your help, lady, I'd suggest you count it in advance.'
'No,' Corvis said, only half listening. 'Think of where the murders occurred, the fact that they targeted so many of the people connected to me.'
Seilloah nodded, her whiskered snout wrinkling. 'If the Cephirans could get into the Hall of Meeting like that, they wouldn't need this sort of deception. They could just take the government down and be done with it.'
'They'd have to have Imphallian operatives, then.'
'No,' Irrial said slowly. 'Not operatives. Co-conspirators. This feels very much like a political maneuver, albeit a bloody one.'
And then she and Corvis turned to each other, the understanding that dawned on their features enough to light up the room.
'Yarrick,' they both said at once.
'He wasn't just a collaborator,' Corvis continued. 'He was a part of this-whatever this is.'
Even Ellowaine appeared to have gotten sucked into the discussion. 'If you're right,' she said, 'if there is some sort of cross-border conspiracy, it couldn't just be a local Guildsman, no matter how potent. It'd have to go a lot higher.'
'So what would the Guilds have to gain,' Seilloah mused, 'by cooperating with a Cephiran invasion?'
'Not all the Guilds,' Corvis interjected. 'I'm starting to think that's what some of these murders were about: Silence anyone who knows about what's going on but isn't willing to go along with it.'
'And in the process,' Ellowaine said, 'provide a distraction in the form of the vicious 'Terror of the East.' Actually pretty neat, when you think about it.' Then, at their expressions, 'I know less about this than you do. I'm just speculating.'
'And why,' Corvis said, dark, suddenly suspicious, 'might that be?'
The chair creaked as she shrugged. 'Something to do while you've got me stuck here.'
'I don't think so.' Fists and jaw clenched as one. 'You're stalling.'
Seilloah bounded to the window, peering between the uneven boards. 'There's a squad of soldiers clearing people off the street!' she hissed.
Ellowaine smiled brightly beneath their withering glares. 'Oops,' she said.
'I can see the spell,' Seilloah whispered, studying their prisoner, 'now that I know to look. Someone's been watching us through her, Corvis. They've known we were here since she opened her eyes. Arhylla damn it all, I thought I felt something! I should've made sure…'
Corvis nodded bleakly. 'Let's get the hell out of here before they've finished assembling, then.'
'We're not just going to leave her, are we?' Irrial demanded. Corvis actually flinched, startled at the bloodlust in the baroness's tone-until it struck him just how she must feel about an Imphallian siding with Rahariem's oppressors.
It was, however, a moot point. Even as he considered Ellowaine, still uncertain as to what he'd do with her, she rose from the chair. Shredded ropes fell from about her chafed wrists, and Corvis saw just a glimpse of a second needle clutched in one fist.
And as clearly as if she'd explained it to him, he understood. Of course. One in each braid.
He lunged, but she was already moving. Blood welled up beneath the ropes that wrapped her calves, but the chair legs snapped as she twisted. With her captors mere inches behind, she hit the boarded window at a dead sprint. Corvis was certain that some of the snapping he heard must have been bone as well as wood, but it didn't stop her. He watched, his lopsided expression settling somewhere between enraged and impressed, as she landed in a shower of splinters, rolled awkwardly across the street, and limped into the nearest alley, dragging a clearly broken leg behind. Just before vanishing into the shadows, she paused long enough to cast an obscene gesture back at the shattered window.
'Can we go after her?' Irrial asked.
'Not unless you want to face the entire Cephiran invasion force on our way out of here. If we leave now,' he added with a sickly grin, 'we'll probably only have to dodge about half of it.'
'Where are we going?' Seilloah asked, leaping into Corvis's arms as he headed for the flimsy stairs.
'For now, anywhere that's not here. After that?' He shrugged, checking his headlong dash just enough to prevent the stairs from collapsing beneath him. 'If this conspiracy really does involve some of the Guilds, we'll have to go to them to find out, won't we?'
'Not Mecepheum again!' Irrial protested.
'Unless we come up with a better idea.' He hit the ground floor and began to run, hoping they could clear the street, hoping they could reach the horses, and the gate…
Hoping against hope that they could, indeed, come up with a better idea.
Chapter Seventeen
JASSION CROSSED THE ENTRYWAY at a deliberate pace, Talon at the ready. The thick carpeting muffled any incidental sounds he might have made, while the sundry tapestries, drapes, and patterns hanging on every available inch of wall throttled to death any potential echoes. Across the room and perhaps two strides back, Mellorin crept in a low crouch, heavy dagger clutched in her fist, a fearsome anticipation writ large on her face.
