"I won't. I'm not sure I could order anyone's death. It's one of the reasons I don't think I'm well suited to the Council." Tavia rearranged books and boxes in her saddlebags. "Father took me to a nobleman's execution when I was twelve, and I threw up all over some unfortunate person's shoes when the head came off and the body started..." She grimaced. "He never took me to another."
"I didn't sleep at all for two nights after I killed that robber," Elunet said quietly. "I just kept pacing and straightening my things over and over and washing my hands and clothes and... it felt like something was chasing me and I'd never be able to get away." She scrubbed her hands over her face. "Maybe I was right."
Elunet explained Chal's methods to Tavia: his safehouses scattered around the city, the few other agents she knew of, the types of assignments she'd had in the past. Tavia listened, nodding grimly.
When they left, Tavia left a note on the silver tray by the front door explaining her departure. Elunet didn't read it. Tavia could easily have put in all the details needed to apprehend and hang a certain spy in maid's clothing, if she wished. If Tavia changed her mind and chose to denounce Elunet to her father, she had every right to do so, and Elunet wasn't going to invade her privacy any more than she already had.
They crept out as the sun was rising. Parric was still on guard duty at the front gate; he looked at them with surprise.
"I couldn't sleep after what happened last night," Tavia explained. "Nel and I are going to stay at the Rillans' country estate until tomorrow. Perhaps we'll be able to rest outside the city." Her voice was subdued, but her lie was no more awkward than her usual interactions with family. "I'm terribly sorry. I know you and Dennel were friends."
"Thank you, my lady." Parric was stiff, emotionless, and Elunet ached for him, knowing he was not in a position to get away from his duties and the reality of Dennel's death. "Roscan and I are going out soon, to... find him."
Tavia looked as if she wanted to say more, but did not. Elunet looked back once at the estate as Tavia mounted her horse, at the marble loggia framed between the columnar pines lining the path through the gardens and the balconies overflowing with ivy, and turned away, following Tavia.
Once they were out of sight of the walls, Elunet led Tavia toward the docks and her hideaway. As they moved further from the high ground at the center of the city where the seven Houses on the Council had their estates, the buildings grew shabbier and the dwellings grew smaller and more closely packed. People had started building upper stories so far out into the streets that little sunlight got through, especially this early. Elunet kept her hands close to her two remaining knives in her concealed pockets. She'd have to replace the ones from her boots later. In the distance, the shouts of dockworkers and the creaking of pulleys echoed over the water. The air smelled of the sea, of fish and tar and, unfortunately, the sewage dumped into the water and streets and the effluent from tanners' and dyers' shops. Tavia pressed a handkerchief to her nose with a look of distaste, but did not complain.
They rounded the corner of one tanner's shop, tied Tavia's horse to a wood railing bristling with splinters, and climbed two flights of rickety stairs to the roof of the building, which was high enough that Elunet could see the dromonds and galleys and newfangled caravels at anchor in the harbor. Atop the building with the tanner's shop, someone had built a ramshackle set of tiny rooms, a jumble of shacks nailed together.
"This is where you live?" Tavia said.
"Sometimes. If I'm not on an assignment that requires me to live somewhere else."
"I... like the view." It was definitely faint praise. Tavia had likely seen little of the world outside her own wealthy circles.
"I like that it's not a place anyone would consider worth robbing too carefully. I keep my valuables in a lockbox under the floorboards disguised as a prop to keep the floor from creaking." Elunet smiled, and fished her door key from a little pocket sewn into her bodice.
Inside were a straw-filled pallet, a tiny stone brazier, a small chest, a pot, pan, and spoon hanging on the wall, a chamber pot, and a candlestick on a three-legged end table. And Chal, behind the door.
"Hello, Elunet," he said, his voice cold. "I guessed you might show up here sooner or later. And Lady Tavia—it's an honor to finally meet you." He sounded surprised, but not dismayed, to see her.
Elunet and Tavia both went deathly still. Time slowed down, dilated like a vast hole opening to swallow them.
The point of a knife pricked Elunet's back. Someone else had crept up behind her.
"I raised you. I taught you everything. Without me, you'd likely be dead in a gutter somewhere, or a street whore, or a thug. And for this you betray me and kill one of my men?" Despite everything, the hurt in his voice felt like a punch to her gut. She'd looked up to Chal for so long, and she owed him so much, and this was how she repaid him.
Elunet spoke as calmly as she could. "I'm sorry, Chal—but if I hadn't betrayed you, I would be a thug. A kidnapper. And possibly responsible for getting Lady Tavia killed, as well as her guard, because I was afraid you might not let her live."
Chal advanced until Elunet could see the sleepless red that flecked his eyes, drew his knife, and held it to her throat. "Jenira says you told Hennic—who's in pretty bad shape, by the way, and might not live if those wounds take septic—that you didn't care about Mellas taking over the city with their advantage. Or the mages turning into merchants and making us irrelevant."
Elunet swallowed, feeling the edge of the blade cold against her skin. It felt as if it were already pressing in. "That's not quite true. I do worry about those things. I just don't think speculations like that are a reason to kill innocent people."
"But your personal feelings are a reason to murder your own comrades."
"That man was throwing knives at Lady Tavia and me, and had just killed her bodyguard. And Hennic was trying to kill me."
"For siding with someone who threatens us, our whole city, our entire way of life." The knife bit into her, and she felt a warm trickle of blood running down her neck into her collar. Chal's voice rasped in her ear; she closed her eyes and prayed silently to the Harvest Goddess, who shelters the dead, for forgiveness. "I've only had to do this to an agent once before. You were so bright, so skillful... and you threw it all away. I'm sorry, Elunet, but I can't allow you to live."
"You can't allow her to die either." Tavia's voice shook a little, but it was strong and clear. "If you kill her and let me live, I will have you hunted down myself. She risked her life to save mine. And if you kill her and kill me as well, my father will find you. You're not the only one who has spies."
"Really. And how would he know where to find me? Or you?" Chal's voice was contemptuous—but held a faint hint of worry.
"I left Father a letter explaining everything. I gave him this address, and your name, and the names, locations, and... and cover identities of all your other agents that Elunet knows about. I gave him the locations of—of all your safehouses. I told him everything Elunet told me about you, including all her previous assignments and every other bit of spying you've done that she could think of. Either he'll find all your agents and track you down through them one way or another, or I will."
So Tavia had turned her in after all, and turned in her former associates. She'd lied about not planning to do so. But then, Elunet was hardly one to complain about people she'd deceived lying right back at her. The details were odd, though: Elunet had certainly not given Tavia the locations of any safehouses or the cover identities of any agents, and had only told her about working as a servant in places that fit "Nel's" invented history.
"But Father's not an early riser. If you let Elunet and me go, I'll go back to House Mellas, burn the letter, and forget I ever met you... as long as you never threaten anyone else again."
Now this Elunet had not expected.
The edge of the knife dropped a little away from Elunet's throat. Chal still held it pointed at her, but she no longer felt cold metal against
her skin. Feeling a little dizzy, she gulped down a breath and resisted the urge to put a hand to the place where the knife had been. Drops of blood were still oozing out of the cut.
Tavia's face was white and damp with sweat. She took a deep breath to compose herself, and continued. "Killing us also wouldn't accomplish anything except making you a hunted man... because I've already shared my research with the mages at the Collegium. I've taken notes. Immensely detailed notes, and there are multiple copies, in both House Mellas and the Collegium. I always thought all the lost knowledge from the burning of the Great Library of Sujal was one of the saddest things I'd ever heard of, and I've always been careful to make sure nothing I discover would ever be lost, no matter what happens to me. Any other mage who knows a lot about motion spells would be able to duplicate what I did." She smiled, and the smile was not entirely forced. Chal's arm lowered slowly, as if it were deflating. "This secret's already out. You can't stop it from spreading."
Chal had gone pale and sweaty, too. He stared into Elunet's eyes a moment longer, but his stare no longer had any menace in it. "She's right, Jenira. Put the blade down. We're getting out of here."
The knife at Elunet's back eased away, and she breathed out fully. Chal and Jenira—the woman with the long braid who had fought with her during the night—went quietly out the door. She could feel the vibrations of their footsteps as they headed toward the stairs.
She waited until she could no longer hear them before moving or speaking. Tavia sat or fell down on the lid of the chest with a thud. She was shaking visibly. Elunet realized she was shaking too.
"You just saved my life," Elunet said. "As well as your own." She did not mention that Tavia had previously promised not to turn in Elunet's fellow agents.
"I can't believe I just did that. I can't..." Tavia let her face sink into her hands, was still for a few moments, then looked back at Elunet. "It was all true. Well, except for the bit about what's in the letter. And meaning to go back for it." Tavia spoke very quietly, as if she were worried that Chal and Jenira might still overhear.
"So there really are research notes in multiple places?" Elunet managed a smile. "Clever. Maybe you should have been a spy too."
"Yes—with me right now, back at the estate in my chamber, and deposited in the library at the Collegium. And the letter for Father and Grandmama only says I don't feel safe in the city because of what happened last night, and that I'm going back to the Collegium and taking you." She smiled weakly back. "All also technically true."
Elunet remembered their conversations after the soiree, after Captain Lajaras's visit. "Sometimes masks can be useful. But as an occasional disguise... not an everyday face."
Tavia was silent.
"I only wish we could get some kind of justice for Dennel. But trying to prosecute Chal and Hennic and Jenira would mean that a lot of other people would probably hang or be beheaded as well. Some of them are people I know. Some of them—maybe most of them—aren't any worse than I am." Elunet sat down on the floor next to Tavia.
"Dennel used to play stones with me. We hired him when I was ten, and we used to play games where he'd chase me around the gardens until the steward made him stop." Tavia's voice was soft and sad.
"I don't want anyone else to die because of this," Elunet said. "Because of me." Her throat was tight, and she felt tears prick her eyelids. She swallowed hard and forced them back; she was not someone who cried.
"I don't ever want anyone to die because of me." Tavia paused. "I'm an unfit heir. I'm too soft. Too academic. Too impractical."
"Too good," Elunet said. "But I'm not sure that's a bad thing. Provided we can keep you from getting assassinated."
"I hope Father lives a very long and healthy life. I don't want to be Lady Mellas until I'm as old as Grandmama."
"At which point you'll be so wealthy and powerful because of your research that no one would dare to harm you."
"Ha." Tavia turned her head to Elunet, still lolling against the wall. "I'm rather flattered, actually, by how much Chal overestimates me. It'll be years yet before my spell is useful for shipping anything. If it ever is."
"Chal always did take the long view. A good spymaster is as patient and prepared as a spider in its web." Elunet smiled. "He views all his people as long-term investments."
"Long-term investments don't always pay off. Father would say it's a good thing he has a lot of them." Tavia returned the smile, and her hand found Elunet's and gave it a squeeze. "At least this one paid off for somebody."
Nothing could have felt more welcome just then than Tavia's hand in hers. They sat in silence for a moment, allowing the moment to be what it was.
"I'd better get you those jewels," Elunet said, "and we'd better get going." She lifted one corner of the pallet, pulled a slim prybar from beneath it, and worked a floorboard free. Beneath was an unassuming, completely unadorned block of wood, slightly gnawed by rats, with a keyhole and catch hidden behind a sliding panel. With another key pulled from a hidden pocket in her bodice, she opened it. Tavia's eyes went wide at the jumble of jewelry coiled inside: a fat sapphire ring to match the necklace Elunet concealed on her person, a pendant with tiny rubies arranged into a wild rose, pearl earrings, a bracelet in three braided ropes of gold, aquamarine and amethyst necklaces with silver beads worked in the shape of lilies.
"My life savings," Elunet said, and handed it all to her.
"You'd better hold on to some of it for now, or I'll rattle when I walk." Tavia handed back the necklaces and bracelet, and slipped the rest into her purse.
"Spying paid well, but I'm done with it," Elunet said, sliding the remaining jewelry into her hidden pockets next to the daggers. "I'm tired of lies. I'm tired of wearing a mask all the time."
"So am I." Tavia stood, brushed off her skirt, and turned toward the door. "Let's find a place that smells better."
*~*~*
Elunet led Tavia and her horse along the goat path over the hills toward Telar. Spring was easing into the dry heat of the summer; the grass in the highlands was turning parched and gold. They passed terraced fields ringed with stone walls, olive groves and vineyards, high pastures and cottages. By midday the path was narrow, winding, and steep enough that Tavia had to dismount and lead her horse. The heady rush of danger and flight gradually left them as the sun climbed high, and the afternoon was a hot misery of exhausted trudging up and down rocky slopes; they had carried bread and hard cheese and almonds and water flavored with a little brandy, but only the water in quantity. By sunset, Elunet was in a daze of sleep deprivation, and Tavia was stumbling as well, but they were over the highest crest of the hills and on the long slope down toward Telar. They found a wide rock outcropping sheltered by trees and a grove nearby, where they tied Tavia's horse close enough to grass for him to graze, rubbed him down, and climbed up into the stony perch with their saddlebags and tack. Elunet let Tavia sleep first, and kept herself awake by pacing about despite her aching legs and envisioning bandits approaching in the darkness. By the time it was Elunet's turn to sleep, she was so exhausted that she fell asleep on hard stone covered with a blanket as easily as if it had been a bed.
It was already midmorning when Elunet awoke, stiff and aching but much more clearheaded. She and Tavia shared the last of their food and continued down the goat path to Telar.
Elunet had been to Telar before, in the course of her work, but not for four years. It was a slightly larger city than Auragos, with limestone walls describing an S-curve along the harbor. She realized that she was on the opposite side of the Lirrisaran peninsula, and an image came to mind of the path that she and Tavia had followed marked in red dashes on a map of the Inner Sea. Telar was not so different from Auragos within; people spoke with a different accent and some of the words were strange, the architectural styles were not quite the same, and there was a duke's palace at the center of the city rather than seven rival merchant lords' estates, but it was still a port city on the coast of Lirrisar. There were wealthy and infl
uential merchants, though they were not (officially) the rulers; there were the rich on horseback and the poor on foot; there was a rough district by the docks; the whole place smelled far less pleasant than the countryside, but it smelled like home.
There was also the Collegium Arcanum. Tavia managed to wangle them a room in an old estate within the Collegium walls that had fallen on hard times and been chopped up into tiny student residences; it was the size of Elunet's hideaway, but the walls were stone. Tavia took to setting warding spells on it when they slept; she said that they could never be too careful. Within days, once Elunet had pawned one of the bracelets, they were able to pay two masters who lectured in the summer, and to pay Tavia's library and laboratory fees. Tavia set to work, spending hours bent over books or practicing in the laboratory; Elunet was rather at loose ends. She cleaned their room and did their laundry and mending and cooked their meals, but there was only so much cleaning one could do in a room so small and sparsely furnished. They sometimes spoke, but not the way they had during the magical month after the soiree at the estate. At night, Tavia slept on a pallet and Elunet on a blanket by the door; she gazed at Tavia in the darkness and remembered the silky warmth of Tavia's lips, the softness of Tavia's body against her own.
One evening after dinner, Elunet was scrubbing the floor with a brush on hands and knees, for lack of anything more useful to do, when Tavia laughed.
"You do realize that you're not my maid any more, now that you're paying my school fees, don't you?"
Elunet stopped scrubbing and dropped the brush into the bucket. "I'm not?"
Tavia shook her head. "I suppose you're my benefactor now."
"I prefer to think of myself as doing penance."
"Benefactor sounds better if we have to explain our arrangement to other people."
"Arrangement? Is that what this is?" Elunet raised an eyebrow. "There's something charmingly scandalous about that word. If... if you want there to be. Because that night—the soiree—when we kissed—I..." She was babbling, foolish, pathetically nervous. This was stupid. It was utterly stupid and ridiculous to hope. "Nothing about it was just me being obedient, and all I really wanted was... to keep going." Her cheeks burned.
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