“Take it to Clemson,” Jolee ordered.
“I’m not wakin’ her up.” He shoved the tube toward the huge Enforcer.
With a roll of her eyes, Jolee snatched it from his hands. “I’ll take it. I’m the senior journeyman here, anyway. Besides,” she swept her gaze around the crowd, “the rest of you are drunk. Stick around, Dee. I’d bet my best cudgel Clemson’ll have a message for Mya.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” Dee wiped his suddenly damp palms on his jacket, hoping against hope.
If one of the other masters wanted to negotiate, this could mean a quick end to the conflict and constantly looking over their shoulders. It might even mean Hoseph’s head on a platter. What might the emperor give Mya as a reward for bringing Hoseph to justice? , he mused. A title, maybe? Would she be the next Lady T, living in a fancy house, wearing expensive clothes, attending court functions, dancing with barons and dukes?
The notion both thrilled and terrified him. Where would that leave me?
It seemed like forever before Jolee stuck her head in the door. “Come with me, Dee. Clemson wants to see you.”
“Of course.” Dee got up and followed Jolee out of the room, glad that he’d had only one drink. “What was the message?”
“They didn’t tell me. I didn’t ask.” The cheerful off-duty Jolee had vanished, replaced by the deadly serious Journeyman Enforcer Jolee.
At Clemson’s office, Jolee knocked, opened the door, and ushered Dee in.
“Dee! Excellent! Damn lucky you were here.” Clemson sat at her desk clad in a red silk robe. Behind her paced Noncey in a black robe of the same design. The Master Enforcer scrawled her name on a note and pressed her guild ring to the page, impressing it with a faintly magical seal to ensure its authenticity. She then rolled it, stuffed it in a scroll tube, capped it, and pressed her ring briefly to the end of the tube, sealing it for the intended recipient. Standing, she handed it over the desk. “For the Grandmaster’s hand only.”
“Right away.” Dee took the tube and turned to go. He’d be facing Mya a lot sooner than expected…whether he wanted to or not. The walk home would give him time to think about what he needed to say to her.
Mya sprawled on the sweat-dampened sheets, letting her gaze wander over the patterns on the ceiling and begging for sleep. She wasn’t having much luck. She’d been tossing and turning for hours, sweating in the torrid air because her wrappings were still wet from washing. No breeze cooled her despite the open window; the night air was as still as death.
After such a stress-filled day, she should have dropped off in minutes. She didn’t know if her insomnia was due to the temperature or Dee. She’d known he was upset about the unintentional killings, but she’d absolved him of responsibility.
What more does he expect from me?
She closed her eyes again, then snapped them open when the stairs outside creaked. She listened hard: footfalls, breathing, and there…a single heartbeat just on the other side of the apartment door. Mya tensed. She had four daggers in easy reach. The rustle of cloth, then the distinctive click-clack of a key in the lock reached her. Unless someone had followed Dee home, killed him and taken his key, it was him. The door opened slowly enough that the wind chimes didn’t jingle, then closed again with a near-silent thump. The lock clicked back in place.
It’s Dee. It has to be. A burglar or assassin wouldn’t lock their escape route.
Cloth rustled, and a chair moved on the kitchen floor; Dee hanging up his jacket. Mya breathed easy as his soft footfalls whisked across the floor toward the bedroom. She closed her eyes and slowed her breathing, pretending to be asleep. He didn’t need to know that she’d lain awake worrying about him.
The footsteps came into the bedroom, paused, then approached the bed. “I know you’re awake, Mya,” he said.
Her bluff called, Mya opened her eyes. “How…”
“Your breathing’s different when you’re sleeping.” He unbuttoned his shirt and she caught a whiff of rum.
“Are you drunk?”
“No.” He turned up the lamp beside the bed and pulled a scroll case out of his shirt. “I went to the distillery to pick up my jacket. While I was there, a messenger came with a scroll for Clemson. Red case. She drafted this message for you.”
“Someone wants to negotiate?” She sat up, crossed her legs tailor fashion, and took the case. “Who was it from?”
“I don’t know.” He stepped back and leaned against the door jam. “Not my place to ask.”
Mya pressed her ring to the tube to banish the magical seal, then popped the end free and pulled out the message. She read Clemson’s note with rising excitement. “Wow!”
Dee waited quietly.
“Twist Umberlin is dead,” she said.
“The Master Hunter?”
“Yep. Hoseph killed him for screwing up the attack on the orphanage. The new Master Hunter’s name is Embree. He wants to meet with me tomorrow night and is willing to trade information for switching sides. He doesn’t want anything to do with Hoseph.”
“Sounds like a trap.” Dee frowned. “Where?”
“Our choice. Clemson suggests her chandlery.” Mya thought about it. “It makes sense. That’s Clemson’s home turf, so it’d be near impossible for the other factions to set up an ambush. And even if Lakshmi’s people watched it after Clemson’s defection, nothing’s happened there, so she probably gave up and focused her people elsewhere.”
“Are you going?”
“Yes, I want to hear what he has to say. Maybe he knows where Lakshmi’s holding the other two boys.” Mya’s heart hammered as she considered the implications of the news. “This could be the tipping point, Dee! If Embree can tell us where Lakshmi and Kittal’s hideouts are, and if we can strike quickly enough, this war could be over. Hoseph’s nothing without the other factions.”
Dee stood quiet for a moment, then said, “Do you want me to run a reply back to Clemson?”
“No. Morning is soon enough.” She looked up at Dee’s blank expression, his face half lit by the lamp light, half in shadow. There were lines there, and dark smudges under his eyes that she hadn’t seen before. She patted the sheets beside her. “You look exhausted. Come to bed.”
“I…” His eyes flicked over her, then he licked his lips and swallowed hard. “I have something to tell you first.”
Finally! Maybe now we’ll get to the bottom of this. “Okay, tell me.”
“It’s rumored among the Blades and Enforcers that we…sleep together.”
“Damn! You didn’t—”
“I didn’t say anything. They figured it out on their own. I just thought I should let you know before you heard it from someone else. But…it’s not just that.” He stopped speaking and looked down at the floor, at the clothes press, back into the living room, everywhere but at Mya.
“What?” she said. “This is me, Dee. You can tell me anything.”
Clenching his fists as if strengthening his resolve, Dee said, “I…think I should go, Mya.”
What the hell? "Go where?”
“Leave Tsing…go back to Twailin.”
“What?” A cold ball of dread formed in Mya’s stomach. “You can’t leave!”
“I’ve got to! I screw up. I’m a liability.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Then tell me why you were awake when I came in instead of sleeping.”
“What? It’s hot and airless in here, and I was uncomfortable without my wrappings.”
“Bullshit.”
“What?” Dee wouldn’t have dared use that tone when she was Master Hunter.
“You can’t even admit it to yourself that you were awake worrying about me, worrying that the inept Hunter would get himself killed or let someone follow him back here.”
“That’s not what I was thinking.” It sounded like a lie even to her own ears.
“Bullshit again.”
Mya’s temper flared. “So, you can read minds now?”
“I do
n’t have to read your mind, Mya. I was your assistant for five years. I know how you think.”
“And you think I’d be better off without you?”
“Yes.” His gaze fell to the floor between them. “I think we’d both be better off.”
“Bullshit.” She took some cold satisfaction at throwing the epithet right back at him.
“What?”
“Now you’re just being an idiot. You’re not inept; you’re a valuable assistant.”
“And that’s all.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“That’s all I am to you, just an assistant you sleep with when you need tension relief. I can’t be…just that anymore.”
“Just that?” Snippets of memories whirled through her mind, lined up, and snapped together. Dee’s excessive concern when she went out alone. His insecurities. The passion with which he took her in his arms and fulfilled her every carnal wish. The kiss… She raised her fingers to her lips. So that’s what this is about! “Damn it, Dee, I told you…”
“I know what you told me. I’m not asking anything from you. I can’t change the way I feel about you, and it’s driving me crazy. If you were killed because I screwed up…”
Mya stared at him, the heat of her initial frustration chilling to fear. “Damn it, Dee, I can’t do this without you.”
“Come on, Mya! There are a dozen Blades who would have been better than me in that basement today. I screwed up, and you only let me off the hook because you want me in your bed, but you’re ashamed of that, too.
Mya fell back against the headboard in shock. “Ashamed? Is that what you think?”
“You sure as hell wanted to keep it a secret! What am I supposed to think?”
Mya ran her fingers through her sweaty hair and shook her head slowly. “I was trying to protect you!”
Confusion furrowed Dee’s brow. “Protect me?”
“Of course. Just look at what Hoseph’s done to pressure Tessifus; he kidnapped his sons. The same thing happened in Twailin when the masters took Lad’s daughter. That’s how they get to you, by taking the people you care about.”
“You…care about me?”
“We’ve worked together for years, Dee. How could I not? Yes, you run errands and keep me organized and put up with my moods, but that’s such a small part of it. I trusted you with my life this afternoon, didn’t I? I value your friendship, enjoy your company, and I like the way you think. And you…” Mya heaved a deep breath, “You remind me that I’m human.”
Dee cocked his head at her, an unasked question in his eyes.
Mya extended one arm and ran a finger up her tattooed flesh, turning it back and forth as the runes writhed on her skin. “I got these to make myself safe, but instead they made me feel like a monster.” She swallowed hard as she remembered the self-hate that had nearly destroyed her. “Then you said they were beautiful. You saw me through the ink, not just the magic or the power or the Grandmaster. You saw me, and you touched me, and you gave me back my humanity. Every time you touch me, you make me feel human. If I didn’t have that,” she shrugged, “I don’t know where I’d be now.”
Silence reigned for a long moment as Mya chose her next words carefully. “But I can’t say that I’ll love you, Dee. Love is a weakness I can’t afford.”
Mya closed her eyes, but even the darkness couldn’t block the pain. She’d loved only two people in her life—her mother and Lad—but they’d only given her anguish in return.
“Bullshit!”
Mya jumped at Dee’s vehemence. His eyes were wide now, intense in a way she couldn’t pin down.
“Do you think Paxal rode a thousand miles to Tsing just because he wanted a jaunt? No, he did it because he loves you. And what about those kids you saved by taking them off the street? You think they’re just in this for a free meal? You’ve given them pride, something to do with their lives, and they love you for it. You think that’s a weakness? You think you could have survived here without them? And you’re lying if you tell me that you don’t love them.”
Mya blinked to clear her suddenly blurry vision.
When he spoke again, Dee’s voice sounded wistful. “If all you can do is love me like that, not romantically, but as someone you can trust, someone you rely on…I’ll take it. I’ve hoped for more, but I can live with that much.”
Mya felt a strange pain in her chest that no rune magic could ever block. “You’re not leaving?”
“No.”
“Thank you, Dee.” Relief like nothing she’d ever known flooded through her. Maybe love wasn’t like a lock that was only either open or closed. Maybe there was more to it than that.
Dee doffed his shirt and kicked his boots into the corner. The sweat on his long, lean body glistened in the lamplight, but to Mya it now seemed like forbidden fruit, despite her ache of desire. After all this, how could she blithely ask for sex?
Dee’s head bowed as he turned away and unbuckled his pants. “Can I ask you a favor?”
“Of course.” She tried to keep her mind on what he was saying as he stepped out of the pants and turned to face her. It was difficult.
“If I ever ask you for a letter of reference, would you please leave out any mention of my skills between the sheets?”
“Now who’s ashamed?”
“Ashamed? You know I’m not!” Dee tossed his pants onto a chair and dropped onto the bed. He turned to her with the first smile she’d seen tonight. “One of the Enforcers was even envious. Called me a lucky bastard.”
Mya’s jaw dropped. “He…he what?”
“He said I was lucky. That we were both lucky to have someone we could trust.”
“Well, I can’t argue with that.” Mya had never had anyone she trusted enough to both watch her back and share her bed. “I am lucky.”
“I like the sound of that.” He cocked an eyebrow and his eyes drifted down along her body. “Are you feeling lucky tonight, then?”
Mya knew that look, and the fire in her stomach blazed. “You can never have too much luck.”
“Good.” Dee grabbed her and pulled her down next to him. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
Chapter XIV
Mya sat at Clemson’s desk and gave the room one final glance to make sure everything was ready. Noncey and Clemson stood behind her, one at each shoulder. Dee and a half dozen Blades and Enforcers, all armed to the teeth, formed a gauntlet between the door and the desk. Her own hand rested beside a dagger strapped under the desk, out of sight of her pending guest. She was taking no chances that this defection might be a veiled assassination attempt.
Satisfied, she nodded. “Bring him in.”
Dee opened the door, and Master Hunter Embree entered the room. Mya recognized the smooth, stealthy stride of a Hunter, the quick shifting of eyes that took in the room at a glance, noting the people and their positions, assessing the situation. Embree might be new to his position, but he was well-trained. He stopped in front of the desk and nodded to her. A sweat-beaded brow belied his calm. He knew certain death awaited him if he made a false move.
“Have a seat.” Mya indicated the chair across from her. Pouring hefty measures of spiced rum from a crystal decanter into two tumblers, she pushed one across the desk. “Drink?”
The Master Hunter sat, looked at the liquor, then met Mya’s level stare. “Thank you.” A drop of sweat trickled down his temple as he picked up the glass and downed half.
Mya lifted her own glass and tilted it toward him as a salute, then sipped the rum, pleased. The rum might have been poisoned, yet Embree drank first. He trusted her to a certain degree. She hoped the rest of the interview went as well.
“Master Hunter Embree, I’m glad to know that your distrust of Hoseph matches mine.” Mya swirled the liquor in her glass, her eyes never leaving his. “Tell me how you came to this conclusion.”
His answer was firm and immediate. “He has no loyalty to the guild. One failed mission was no reason to kill Twist, and it dep
rived us of an excellent Master Hunter.”
“Despite you being the beneficiary?”
Embree rolled his eyes. “I’d rather be out on the street doing my job than taking care of schedules and accounts…or dealing with Hoseph.”
Mya couldn’t disagree with him on that count. “Is that all it took to make you want to side with me rather than Hoseph?”
“No. Yesterday he ordered me to assign Hunters to watch Lakshmi and her people. He said it was because she wouldn’t share information, but I think it was because she told him off.”
“She told him off?” Mya’s estimation of Lakshmi went up a notch. The Master Inquisitor had seemed little more than a sweet old lady when they’d met. Of course, Mya knew Inquisitors hid their true personas deep, but facing down Hoseph bespoke uncommon nerve. “Why?”
“She accused him of driving a wedge between the factions, turning us against one another. And she wasn’t talking about the…uh…guild war, but those who are presumably on his side. She’s right. She also told him that he wasn’t guild and had no right to presume any authority.”
Oh ho! Mya wished she had seen that confrontation. “And he didn’t kill her like he did Twist?”
Embree smiled grimly and sipped his rum before answering. “He can’t. Lakshmi’s got him over a barrel with these kids she’s holding. She won’t tell him where they are, and he doesn’t like that one bit.” He sipped again and cleared his throat. “That’s why he told me to set my Hunters on Lakshmi’s people, to find out where the kids are. I decided that I don’t want anything to do with him and wrote to you.”
Mya’s pulse quickened. “Do you know where Lakshmi’s keeping the boys?”
“No. I did the reconnaissance of the Tessifus estate for Noncey,” he nodded to the Master Blade, “but haven’t seen them since. If you don’t mind my asking, why are you interested in them?”
Mya rested her hand on her dagger hilt. The interview had gone well so far, but if she thought for a moment he was only here to weasel information out of her, she’d kill him where he sat. He is new, she considered, and they may not have taken him completely into their confidence yet. Better to keep her answer vague until she was sure of him.
Weapon of Pain (Weapon of Flesh Series Book 5) Page 20