And her eyes... those eyes that had always made him weak since the first time he’d seen her. Large, dark and expressive.
But at the moment all they expressed was a ruthless, unblinking determination as she bartered with a customer almost half again her height and weight. Cery couldn’t hear what was being said, but her confidence and defiance stirred a foolish pride.
Something wrenched inside him as memories of his sons’ broken bodies rushed in. He pushed them away, but the shock and fear lingered. He could not let the grief distract him, for his daughter’s sake as well as his own. For all he knew, someone was watching and waiting for a moment of weakness, ready to strike.
“What should I do, Gol?” he murmured. They were in a private room on the top floor of a bolhouse, which overlooked the market his daughter’s stall belonged to.
His bodyguard stirred, started to turn toward the window, then stopped himself. He looked at Cery, his gaze uncertain.
“Don’t know. Seems to me there’s danger in talking to her and danger in not.”
“And wasting time deciding is the same as deciding not to.”
“Yes. How much do you trust Donia?”
Cery considered Gol’s question. The owner of the bolhouse, who offered various “services” on the side, was an old childhood friend. Cery had helped her establish the place when her husband, Cery’s old friend Harrin, died of a fever five years ago. His men prevented gangs from extracting protection money from her. Even if she hadn’t had such a long connection with him, or she’d not been grateful for the help he’d given her, she owed him money and knew the ways of Thieves well enough to know you did not betray them without consequences.
“Better than anyone else.”
Gol gave a short laugh. “Which isn’t much.”
“No, but I’ve already got her keeping an eye on Anyi, though she don’t know why. She hasn’t let me down.”
“Then it won’t seem odd if you ask for the girl to be brought to a face-to-face, right?”
“Not odd, but... she’d be curious.” Cery sighed. “Let’s get this over with.”
Gol straightened. “I’ll go sort things, and make sure no one’s listening.”
Cery considered the man, then nodded. He glanced out of the window as his bodyguard headed toward the door and noticed a new customer had replaced the last. Anyi watched as the man ran a finger across the blade of one of her knives to test its edge. “And make sure her stall is watched while she’s here.”
“Of course.”
After some minutes had passed, four men emerged from the bolhouse and approached Anyi’s stall. Cery noted that the other stallholders pretended to pay no attention. One of the men spoke to Anyi. She shook her head and glared at him. When he reached out toward her arm she stepped back and, with lightning speed, produced a knife and pointed it at him. He raised his hands, palms outward.
A long conversation followed. Anyi lowered the knife slowly, but did not put it away or stop glaring at him. A few times she glanced fleetingly toward the bolhouse. Finally, she raised her chin and, as he stepped back from her stall, strode past and toward the bolhouse, putting away her knife.
Cery let out the breath he’d been holding, and realised his stomach was all unsettled and his heart was beating too fast. Suddenly he wished he’d managed to sleep last night. He wanted to be fully alert. Not to make any mistakes. Not to miss a moment of this one meeting with his daughter that he hoped he could afford to allow himself. He hadn’t spoken to her in years, and then she had still been a child. Now she was a young woman. Young men probably sought her attention and her bed...
He heard voices and footsteps in the stairwell outside the room, coming closer. Taking a deep breath, he turned to face the doorway. There was a moment of silence, then a familiar male voice said something encouraging, and a single pair of footsteps continued.
As she peered around the doorway, Cery considered smiling, but knew that he would not be able to find enough genuine good humour for it to be convincing. He settled on returning her stare with what he hoped was a welcoming seriousness.
She blinked, her eyes widened, then she scowled and strode into the room.
“You!” she said. “I might’ve guessed it’d be you.”
Her eyes were ablaze with anger and accusation. She stopped a few steps away. He did not flinch at her stare, though it stirred a familiar guilt.
“Yes. Me,” he said. “Sit down. I need to talk to you.”
“Well I don’t want to talk to you!” she declared and turned to leave.
“As if you have any choice.”
She stopped and looked over her shoulder, her eyes narrowed. Slowly she turned to face him, crossing her arms.
“What do you want?” she asked, then sighed dramatically. He almost smiled at that. The sullen resignation laced with contempt was what many a father endured from youngsters her age. But her resignation came more from the knowledge he was a Thief, not any respect for fatherly authority.
“To warn you. Your life is... in even more danger than it usually is. There’s a good chance someone will try to kill you soon.”
Her expression did not change. “Oh? Why is that?”
He shrugged. “The mere unfortunate fact that you are my daughter.”
“Well, I’ve survived that well enough so far.”
“This is different. This is a lot... wilder.”
She rolled her eyes. “Nobody uses that word any more.”
“Then I am a nobody.” He frowned. “I am serious, Anyi. Do you think I’d risk our lives by meeting with you if I wasn’t sure not meeting could be worse?”
All contempt and anger fled from her face, but left her with no expression he could read. Then she looked away.
“Why are you so sure?”
He drew in a breath and let it out slowly.
“Because, as of last night, you are my only living child,” he told her.
Her eyes slowly widened as the news sank in. She swallowed and closed her eyes. For a moment she remained still, a crease between her brows, then she opened her eyes and fixed him with her stare again.
“Have you told Sonea?”
He frowned at the question. Why had she asked? Her mother had always been a touch jealous of Sonea, perhaps sensing that he had once been in love with the slum girl turned magician. Surely Anyi hadn’t inherited Vesta’s jealousy. Or did Anyi know more about Cery’s continuing and secret link to the Guild than she ought to?
How to answer such a question? Should he answer at all? He considered changing the subject, but found himself curious to know how she would react to the truth.
“I have,” he told her. Then he shrugged. “Along with other information.”
Anyi nodded and said nothing, giving frustratingly little away of her reason for asking. She sighed and shifted her weight to one leg.
“What do you suggest I do?”
“Is there somewhere safe you can go? People you trust? I’d offer to protect you except... well, let’s just say it turned out your mother made the right decision leaving me and...” He heard bitterness in his voice and shifted to other reasons. “My own people may have been turned. It would be better if you did not rely on them. Except Gol, of course. Though... it would be wise if we had a way of contacting each other.”
She nodded and he was heartened to see her straighten with determination. “I’ll be fine,” she told him. “I have... friends.”
