smiling?”
“That will let him keep an eye on her and restrict her movements.”
“You think this was all a ploy to let him do that? You are not as naive as you look, my dear Sardec.”
“Anything else?” Sardec looked meaningfully back at the pile of paperwork in front of him.
“Lady Asea is helping the Magisters assigned to look into the matter.”
“Let’s hope she has more success with this than she had finding Lord Elakar’s butcher.”
“I thought you were close to her.”
“I am. My wish is a sincere one.”
“I don’t know how long she’ll have to make her inquiries.”
“What do you mean?”
“I hear she is to be dispatched to Harven on a diplomatic mission. To try and get the Sea Devils on our side.”
“Really?”
“Indeed. What’s more, I have a pretty good idea who is going to be her bodyguard.”
“Our young half-breed comrade?”
Jazeray laughed. “Who commanded her bodyguard at Deep Achenar?”
Sardec stared at him. “I did.”
“Colonel Xeno just received a letter bearing her Ladyship’s seal. I left him scowling over it. He said to give him ten minutes and send you in.”
“Thank the light you did not tell me sooner. I might have worried.”
“I think you’d better go and see His Nibs right now. Ten minutes must be up.”
Sardec rose from his chair and made his way to the Colonel’s office.
Chapter Seventeen
“Harven?” said Rik. “Why are we going to Harven?”
Asea smiled sourly and put the General’s letter down on her writing table. “Lord Azaar has asked me to go and negotiate a new treaty with the Free Council.”
“Surely there are other people just as qualified?”
“According to our new supreme commander I am not only the best qualified, I am the best respected. In Harven it is known that I have the ear of Queen Arielle. That the information is a little out of date has not reached the august council of merchants.”
He took a deep breath and went through the mystical exercises she had given him, trying to alter the state of his mind along with the state of his body and concentrate on her words at the same time. It was good practise for sorcery apparently.
“His Lordship had other reasons?”
“Yes, my apprentice, he has. He suspects I was behind the attack on Tamara. That is why he assigned me to supervise the mages looking into the matter. No one has ever accused my half-brother of being a fool.”
“Why would he suspect that?”
“He has a nose for such things.”
Rik thought he detected a half-truth or an outright evasion there, but he was in no position to call her on it. “Did the mages find out anything?” Rik asked, pausing for a moment. He had a very real interest in this. He, Weasel and the Barbarian could easily end up being hanged for their part in it. If they were lucky they would not be tortured before their death.
“Nothing remotely interesting. Divination revealed that there were two attackers, which was strange because we found the footprints of three men. The watch are still looking for a missing footman, one who ran away. They think he might have been in collusion with the attackers.”
“How has Lady Tamara fared after her ordeal?”
“She is very distressed and will not set foot outside the ambassadorial mansion. She was apparently wounded, and the poor dear is having difficulty recovering despite Lord Jaderac’s patient ministrations.”
“What are you going to do about that pair?”
Asea grimaced. “There is nothing I can do now. I have sent her a message offering to bear news of her condition to her father.”
Rik stared at her. “Her father?”
“Lord Malkior is leading a Sardean deputation to Harven. We are not the only nation wooing the free city, it seems.”
Her smile seemed especially cold now. “You expect to meet with him there?”
“Indeed I do, Rik, indeed I do. It is a thing I most especially desire.”
“And then what?”
“We shall see what we shall see.”
Her smile told him all he needed to know about her reasons for taking this mission. He suspected that if Asea had her way, Lord Malkior would not be leaving the free port alive. He had a good idea who would be expected to do the killing.
He had barely survived his encounter with the daughter. It gave him no reason to look forward to meeting the father.
“How long will you be gone?” Rena asked.
Sardec took her in his arms. “Too long,” he said, and meant it.
She kissed him and he responded with passion.
“How long?” Her voice was very small.
“I don’t know. It will take at least a week to get to Harven, and then however long it takes for Lady Asea to convince the burghers to take our side, or at least not to interfere in the war.”
“How long might that be?”
“It might take the whole winter,” he said. “But I hope not. I hope we will be back in time for Kathea’s coronation.”
“You will have forgotten me by the time winter is over.”
“I will never forget you,” he said. “Not ever.”
Privately he wondered whether he might. Not for the reason she feared but because the ghoul disease might overtake him and swallow his sanity. He was still not sure he had a clean bill of health. He was glad he had written her the letter now. She would only get it if something happened to him, but at least she would know how he felt about her, and she would be taken care of in case of his death. He was glad more for his own sake than hers for at least he had finally managed to tell her what he thought about her, although he could never bring himself to say it in speech.
“Never?” she said.
“Never.”
“That’s a long time.”
“I mean it.”
“I’m glad.”
“I had better go and get the men ready,” he said, suddenly embarrassed by his outpouring of emotion. He found it very difficult to let her go. He had a foreboding that he might never see her again, and he took it very seriously.
Lord Jaderac sat down beside Tamara’s bed. She looked pale. More so than she ought to have, given the slightness of her wound. He had inspected it himself and had found no trace of infection but, it was always possible, although unlikely, he was wrong about it.
“Are you sure you are all right?” he asked. His concern for her welfare was unfeigned. Her father was his greatest ally among the Sardean nobility and the Brotherhood, and it would not bode well for him if something
