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Authors: Sharon Shinn

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Nonetheless, like the rest of them, she was able to summon a hearty appetite for the meal. The dining hall at the Dalian was nothing like the taprooms of most of the small hotels they’d stayed at along the way. It was elegant and formal, though its white paint was peeling a little from the onslaught of incessant humidity, and a few of its ceiling beams looked warped from the same cause. They had their choice of several entrées, and all the food looked tasty.

“Have I mentioned this? I’m never eating rabbit again,” Kirra said.

Donnal grinned. “At least not cooked rabbit,” he said with rare humor. “But if you’re traveling in hawk shape, and you get hungry—”

Kirra shuddered and bit into a forkful of chicken that had been grilled in some kind of wine-based sauce. “At the moment, I can’t ever imagine being so hungry again.”

“I like rabbit,” Cammon said. “But this is good, too.”

“I like rabbit well enough, but I like it better if I get to vary the diet now and then,” Senneth chimed in. “You know, perhaps deer meat one night, and grouse the next—”

“Well, considering that I’m the one who caught us the last few rabbits we ate, and all of you seemed pretty damn happy to eat them at the time, I just want to say you’re a bunch of ungrateful wretches,” Justin said.

“Not ungrateful,” Kirra said. “It’s just that it’s so clear that
these
elegant surroundings are really what suit me best.”

Conversation went that way for the entire meal, all of them seeming relaxed and happy for the first time in days. Senneth supposed there was no guarantee that Halchon’s men wouldn’t burst into the inn and suddenly take them all hostage, though she thought it was less likely now that Danalustrous men would be aware of the outrage and take word instantly back to Kirra’s father. So she abandoned her own habitual wariness, and she could tell that the others did, too, and the resulting sense of freedom made them all a little silly.

Except Tayse, of course. He did not seem relaxed at all. He sat with his back to the wall, his eyes on the door, and he put his attention on each individual waiter and customer who entered the big room. He ate hungrily enough, laughed when the conversation called for it, and even added a comment or two—but only, Senneth thought, so no one would remark on his quietness. She wondered if he would relax even once he was back in the Riders’ barracks behind the palace in Ghosenhall.

She probably would never know.

“So!” Justin said, pushing his plate aside and glancing around the table. “What shall we do tonight? Anyone up for—entertainment?”

“I am,” Cammon said.

“I might be,” Kirra said cautiously. “Depending on what you had in mind.”

Donnal nodded.

Tayse said nothing, but his eyes lifted to Senneth’s face. “My idea of entertainment right now is dreaming,” Senneth said. “I’m going back to bed as soon as we finish the meal. But have fun without me. Keep in mind that not everyone in Lochau is your friend.”

“Yes, but they can’t
all
hate us,” Justin said. “Tayse? You in?”

Tayse shook his head. “Not tonight.”

Senneth caught Kirra’s quick glance but refused to look in that direction.
Tayse will not leave your side,
Kirra had said. Senneth had to believe that if she had agreed to join the others, Tayse would have accompanied them as well. But he had a charge to keep her safe, and he was not about to fail now. His stubborn shadowing of her meant nothing more than that.

“Tell me the truth,” Kirra was saying. “Will it inhibit your revels if I come along with you?”

“Oh, you’ll be welcome at the brothels, never fear,” Justin said, grinning. “Glad to have you.”

Senneth gave him a pained look. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in such a rollicking mood,” she said.

He laughed. “Too many days under too much strain,” he said. “Everybody feels a little crazy.”

“Careful about just how crazy you get tonight,” Tayse warned. “Limit your drinking. And never forget you’re in hostile country.”

Justin nodded, instantly sobering. “We won’t go if you think we shouldn’t.”

“Go,” Tayse replied. “But go carefully.”

Justin’s glinting grin came again. “Or at least go well-armed.”

They all returned to their rooms to dress for the night, Kirra putting on black trousers and a black jacket and covering her braided hair with a soft black cap. As Senneth watched, she subtly shaded her features so that they were neither so patrician nor so feminine.

“You want to look like a boy,” Senneth observed.

Kirra laughed. “Never been inside a brothel.”

“You wouldn’t really—”

“Well, no, probably not. But I would be tempted, I admit.”

Senneth shook her head. “You’re a hoyden.”

Kirra laughed again. “Always was.”

Senneth stretched out on the bed, sinking gratefully into the yielding mattress. “Strange, when you can be so elegant. Even when I was living in my father’s house, I couldn’t attain the same degree of refinement that comes so naturally to you.”

Kirra checked herself in the mirror. Her chin grew harder and firmer, and the shape of her nose more bulbous. “Oh, no, that’s simply acting,” she said. “That’s me trying to imagine how Casserah would behave. I’m really just as undomesticated as your raelynx.” Her eyes met Senneth’s in the glass. “You can’t do it because it’s impossible for you to be anything but totally honest. You could never have been a shiftling. You can’t pretend to be something you’re not. It’s too hard for you to lie.”

“Some people would dispute that,” Senneth said with a sigh.

Kirra grinned and turned from the mirror. “And some people absolutely cannot tear themselves away from you, even for a night of pleasure,” she said. “Now, what are you going to do about that?”

Senneth scowled at her. “What do you mean?”

Kirra gestured. “Our room—his room—empty except for the two of you. Surely you can think of ways to mend your differences.”

Senneth groaned and slid down on the bed, pulling one of the pillows over her face. “Go. Out. Leave before I set you on fire.”

“Other people you could be enflaming tonight,” Kirra said, and hastily departed. The cushion Senneth threw at her bounced harmlessly off the door.

In truth, Senneth fell asleep again before she could seriously consider acting upon Kirra’s suggestion. Her body had been sapped of strength by too many demands; she was not prepared to add to its litany of stresses another unfruitful argument with Tayse. The idea that this time the argument might end differently did force her eyes open again for a moment, but tonight she didn’t have the kind of energy that she would want to bring to any kind of physical encounter. No—and, anyway, Tayse hardly seemed ready to relent and love her. He would not welcome one more bold advance from the deceptive noble mystic. She closed her eyes again, and she slept.

IN the morning, Kirra and the young men were full of secrets and laughter, leading Senneth to suppose their evening of merriment had gone extremely well. “What exactly did you
do
last night?” Senneth finally asked over breakfast.

“Are you sure you want to know?” Kirra replied.

Senneth looked around at the grinning faces, then glanced at Tayse. Smiling faintly, he shook his head. “I guess not,” she said.

“But you can come with us tonight, if you like,” Cammon said.

“Sure. We’ll find something else to do,” Justin added.

They all laughed again, shared guilty looks, then broke into fresh giggles. “You’re very annoying,” Senneth said.

“They’re very young,” Tayse said.

Senneth sighed. “I was never that young.”

“Come on,” Kirra said. “I’ll take you shopping.”

“No. I want to be here in case Halchon arrives.”

“He probably won’t get here for another day,” Donnal said.

“Still,” Senneth said. “Just in case. That means that some of you have to be with me at all times.” She let her gaze flick quickly around the table. “Kirra—Tayse—Justin. Don’t go far.”

Tayse nodded. “We’ll be here. No matter when he arrives.”

CHAPTER 32

I
N fact, Halchon Gisseltess and his entourage pulled into the courtyard of the Dalian Inn shortly after noon. All six of them were sitting in the men’s chamber, playing a game of cards for money, and all of them were losing pretty handily to Donnal.

“I think he’s cheating,” Justin said at last. “I think he’s changing the cards as he holds them in his hands.”

“That’s what
I’m
doing, but it doesn’t seem to be doing me any good,” Kirra said.

They were all still laughing when Cammon lifted his head and seemed to be listening. Senneth watched him, eyebrows raised. There were a lot of people crammed into the narrow streets of Lochau; it would be impressive if Cammon could pick out a handful of individuals over the general chaos.

“Group of riders just crossed into the city,” Cammon said. “Soldiers, it feels like. Maybe seven or eight of them.”

Kirra and Senneth exchanged glances. “Probably Halchon,” Senneth said. “Let’s go check our hair.”

They slipped back into their own room to see if they needed to make any improvements. Kirra was wearing her usual red, trimmed today with heavy ivory lace. Senneth had opted for black and gold, the king’s colors, in a very narrow, formal dress of drastically simple cut. Her hair was too short and too wayward to respond well to styling, but Kirra had manufactured a black band and used it to hold stray locks back from Senneth’s face. The look was severe but striking.

“I wonder if he’ll recognize me,” Senneth said, gazing at herself in the mirror.

“How well did he know you before? Weren’t you only seventeen when you disappeared? What did you look like then?”

Senneth continued to eye her reflection and didn’t answer any of the questions.

A soft knock fell on the door. “Serra Kirra? You and your—your companion have a visitor.” It was the clerk’s voice, and he sounded unnerved. “Marlord Halchon has asked—has asked for you. Both of you.”

Kirra grinned at Senneth. “Could it be? Our visitor specified you by name, and our landlord is startled to find how illustrious his guest is.”

“Halchon never did have any discretion,” Senneth said and opened the door.

Indeed, the clerk was standing there, looking most uneasy as he waited for the women to appear. That might have been, Senneth thought, because the men of her traveling party were also waiting in the hall, two of them heavily armed and looking like threat personified. But it might have been because Halchon had asked for Senneth Brassenthwaite.

“Thank you,” she said calmly to the clerk. “Tell him we’ll be right down.”

“He’s in the private parlor,” the clerk said, speaking to Kirra but giving Senneth quick, disbelieving looks.

“Thank you,” Kirra said. “How many men does he have with him?”

“Four in the parlor, two outside the door. I didn’t check to see if there were more in the courtyard. I could—”

“Never mind,” Senneth said. “Tell him we’ll be there momentarily.”

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