Gorinthians (53 page)

The guard did a small double
take when Thistledown gave his status, eyeing his less-than-opulent
clothing with a doubtful eye. “I am sorry, my lord, but we did not
hear word that you were coming. The Lady Sentina has given strict
orders that we can only allow nobles on the list to enter the city.
If you could wait inside the guardhouse, I will send a runner to
the palace.”

“
So much for that idea,”
Thistledown muttered, sounding disappointed. “On second thought, we
are just going to go through the gates.”

“
Very good, sir,” the guard
replied woodenly. “Go right on in. I am sure the Lady Sentina just
missed your name.”

“
I am sure she has more
important things on her mind,” Thistledown said dryly, booting his
horse into motion.

Morindessa marveled at
Thistledown’s subtlety. She had not even felt his
yar
reach out. As she
passed the guard, his wooden gaze passed through her, barely
pausing on Riah. The streets inside the wall were lined with inns
and taverns. The shops did not start for several blocks. There were
small island gardens in the cobblestone road, mostly grown over
with weeds. King Fedrin had not been very interested in the
appearance of Shalilayo for the last couple of years. Morindessa
wondered how long the Gorinthian had inhabited the king’s body
before Seranova had killed it.

They rode for over an hour,
moving deeper into the giant city as the sun moved closer to the
horizon. They were nearing the inner city stables, where horses
were required to be left behind before entering the wealthy part of
the city. The nobles and wealthy merchants that inhabited the inner
city did not like the smell of manure on their streets, so they had
banned any kind of transportation that involved horses. Instead,
they used litters that were born on the backs of slaves, or in some
cases, peasants from the outer city that could not find
work.

After leaving their horses
in the large array of stables that ringed the inner city wall,
Morindessa and Ferrich released the light curtain they had
surrounded themselves with to stay invisible.

“
Ferrich and I will stay at
the Silver Swan,” Morindessa told Thistledown and Riah. “Let us
know how things work out in the morning.”

“
I think I will stay with
you,” Riah decided with a smile. “I still haven’t caught up on all
of the lost time without you.”

Thistledown nodded gravely.
“I will come down in the morning to fill you in on where we go from
here.”

Wishing the rest of the
youths in their party good luck, Morindessa led Ferrich and Jesha
toward the Silver Swan, with Riah walking next to her. Morindessa
was surprised that Seranova was going to the palace with the
others. She would not have thought Seranova would be comfortable in
that environment. Jalorm seemed relieved she was staying with them,
though. He seemed determined to break through her wall of
indifference.

“
Where is Lochnar?” Ferrich
asked suddenly. “I haven’t seen him for quite a while.”

“
He’s around,” Riah assured
him. “He likes to stay completely separate in populated places. He
will probably pay us a visit once we have some rooms.”

The Silver Swan was not far
and they reached it within a quarter of an hour. It was a
completely white building, with a large sign of a silver swan
hanging above the door.

“
I used to stay here when
one of the nobles had a job for me,” Morindessa commented. “The
innkeeper is a woman I helped once, so she takes extra care to make
us private from others.”

The dining room was already
half full of customers. Most of the people who stayed in the inns
outside of the inner city were wealthy servants of great houses,
sent on various errands. Several heads turned to follow them as
they moved toward the front desk where a plump woman sat in an
armchair, knitting. She rose with a smile on her round
face.

“
Mistress Shellna, it’s so
good to see you again.” The plump woman beamed at her. “Is it just
the four of you?”

“
Yes Delila, just the
four,” Morindessa replied with a warm smile. “How are your
daughters?”

“
Nina just gave birth to
her second daughter,” Delila said proudly, leading them up the
stairs to their rooms, “and Sorsha is engaged to the stable
master’s son.”

“
That is wonderful news,”
Morindessa exclaimed brightly. “He is a nice young man.”

“
I always keep these rooms
empty unless I fill up, just in case you come,” Delila told her. “I
know how you like to be close to a back door.”

“
Thank you, Delila,”
Morindessa said, squeezing the plump innkeeper’s arm. “You do too
much for me.”

“
Considering that I would
not be here if not for you, I don’t think it is possible that I
could do too much for you,” Delila disagreed.

“
Well, I don’t know how
true that is, but you have my thanks,” Morindessa replied, opening
the door to the room she always stayed in. There was a large bed
against the far wall with a large wardrobe next to it. The room was
furnished with a finely made table and a bookshelf filled with
Morindessa’s favorite novels. Morindessa invited the others into
her room once Delila finished showing them where their rooms were.
There were several armchairs in her room as well. Jesha jumped up
into one, folding her legs beneath her.

“
Nice room,” Riah commented
approvingly. “What did you do to earn Delila’s favor?”

“
One of the idiot nobles
had taken an interest in her daughter a couple years ago.”
Morindessa replied in disgust, “He had a bad reputation for
treating women roughly, and Delila would not consent to let him
marry her daughter, Nina. He showed up here with a few of his
guardsmen dressed up as servants and tried to kidnap Nina, after
attempting to murder Delila. I happened to be here when they
attacked Delila, and I took care of them. Delila knew who I was,
but she has kept it a secret ever since. And she always gives me
this room when I come here. No one else stays in it.”

“
That sounds fair,” Riah
said, her cat-like eyes twinkling. “You learned the trade better
than I thought you would in so little time.”

There was a soft knock on
the door. Morindessa reached out with her
yar
to see who it was before opening
the door and found that it was a servant girl from the dining
room.

“
Would you like dinner
brought up to you, or will you be dining below?” the young girl
asked in a clear tone. She had long, blonde hair and short stubby
face that looked like someone had smacked her with a frying pan
when she was younger. She glanced past Morindessa at Riah and her
eyes widened. Riah had taken her cloak off, and her golden hair was
cascading over her shoulders, glowing in the soft candlelight. Her
face did seem to have a light of its own, lighting up her perfect
features.

“
Two of us will be eating
in the dining room,” Morindessa said after a moment's thought.
“Please bring up the other two meals.”

The girl seemed unable to
break her gaze from Riah. Her eyes were wide and her mouth slightly
open. Morindessa stepped between the girl and Riah and repeated
herself. The girl gave herself a shake and nodded. She tried to
peer past Morindessa at Riah as she backed into the hall, but
Morindessa purposefully stayed between her and Riah.

“
Did I sprout horns or
something?” Riah asked in puzzlement when Morindessa closed the
door. “Everyone has been staring at me for the last four
days.”

Morindessa was not sure how
to tell her that she had somehow given the word beautiful a new
meaning. “When was the last time that you looked in a
mirror?”

“
Several years,” Riah
laughed shortly. “Not since before Jerard captured me,
anyway.”

Morindessa walked over to
the wardrobe and pulled the mirror off the wall that was hanging
next to it. She walked back to where Riah was sitting in an
armchair and held the mirror up in front of her. “What do you
see?”

“
Oh my!” Riah gasped
loudly. “What’s happened to me?”

“
I don’t know,” Morindessa
said carefully, “but it happened after your father healed you. He
must have done something.”

Riah seemed unable to break
her gaze from the mirror. “But this is ridiculous! I can’t go
around looking like this! I’ll never get anything done!”

“
That’s why I am having
that girl bring two of the meals up here,” Morindessa informed her.
“Between Jesha and you, there are enough oddities to catch every
eye in the common room.”

Morindessa took the mirror
back and hung it on the wall. “Are you hungry, Ferrich?”

“
I thought you would never
ask,” Ferrich grinned. “I was about to start eating the
chairs.”

Morindessa led Ferrich down
to the common room and the two of them sat down near the fire pit
at the back. Morindessa always made sure that no one could approach
her from behind.

A servant walked across the
room to their table, a small frown on her face. “What can I get for
you?” she asked in a high-pitched whiny voice.

“
Chicken please,” Ferrich
requested. He blinked as the servant girl kept staring at him. “Is
something wrong?”

The girl jumped slightly, as
if someone had goosed her. “I’m sorry, I dazed off a little,” she
whined.

“
He said he would like
chicken,” Morindessa repeated, staring hard at the girl, “and I
would like a potato with butter.”

The girl backed up a step as
she felt the full force of Morindessa’s gaze. “That will be just
one minute, mistress,” she sounded slightly out of breath. She
turned and hurried back to the kitchen.

“
What in the world was the
matter with her?” Ferrich wondered aloud.

“
I think that she
recognized you,” Morindessa told him somberly. “I didn’t think that
anyone outside of the inner city would recognize you, because of
all the time you spent at the University.”

“
Should we leave?” Ferrich
asked nervously.

“
Let’s see
what she does before we jump to any conclusions,” Morindessa
decided. She reached out with her
yar
, sensing for anything unusual.
Almost immediately, she sensed a disturbance outside the inn. A
moment later, three men charged through the doors toward Morindessa
and Ferrich, with swords drawn.

Morindessa flipped a dagger
out of her sleeve and had it lodged in the first man's throat
before he even passed the initial row of tables. Leaping high into
the air with the aid of her
yar
, Morindessa launched herself
across the room and came down on the remaining two men. Time slowed
for her as she swatted the second man's sword aside with the flat
of her palm at the same time that she kicked the third man's head.
She landed softly on the ground behind the one remaining assailant.
She wrapped her arm around his neck from behind and used her
yar
to help pull him up
high in the air before slamming him down onto one of the sturdy oak
tables. Pulling a second knife from her sleeve, she stuck it under
the corner of his eye.

“
Who sent you?” she asked
in a whisper, her mouth next to his ear. “Don’t make me ask twice.”
She pushed the point of her razor sharp dagger until a small spot
of blood appeared beneath the man's eye.

“
I don’t know his name!”
the man cried out in panic. “He would only talk to us through a
wooden panel.”

With a quick flick,
Morindessa sheathed her knife. The man began a relieved sigh, but
Morindessa cut him off as she twisted his head sharply sideways.
There was a loud crack followed by silence. The other customers had
not even had time to leave their chairs before it was over. They
sat gaping in astonishment at the massacre that had unfolded in
front of them. Morindessa heard retching sounds coming from one the
tables as a woman regurgitated her meal onto the floor.

“
Where is that chicken?”
Morindessa called to the serving girl. The girl had just come out
of the kitchen to see what all of the noise was. “The longer I have
to wait for it, the messier things will become.”

The servant girl backed into
the kitchen as fast as she could, her eyes as wide as teacups.
Morindessa went back to her table. Ferrich had barely stood up by
the time that she had finished.

“
That was cruel,” Ferrich
accused her.

Morindessa looked back at
the dead bodies and then back at Ferrich in puzzlement. “Would you
rather I let them kill us?”

“
Not them,” Ferrich said
gesturing at the bodies. “What you did to that servant
girl.”

“
Oh, that,” Morindessa said
with a grin. “I have to do things like that to keep my reputation
up.”

Many of the customers were
leaving the common room, some of them moving toward their rooms,
others moving toward the exit. A few of the braver ones were
sitting back down, watching Morindessa and Ferrich sideways when
they did not think they were looking. Delila emerged from the
kitchen with a concerned expression on her face. She gasped loudly
when she saw the bodies on the floor, her eyes flying to
Morindessa. A moment later, she was calling one of her servants
from the kitchen.