The Tower of Bashan (23 page)

The group stopped some twenty feet away. Each wore thick silks, common among those who carried a blade as the material could stop most spear or arrow tips from penetrating to the skin.

Rondel shrugged. “Not if you know what you’re doing. With everyone about their business, you’re less likely to run into anyone of importance.”

“You ran into us.” The man grinned.

“Like I said,” He made an exaggerated effort of looking about. “No one of importance around here. You see anyone?” he asked Andrasta.

She snorted. Away from the nobility and their false personas, she no longer minded her partner’s tongue.

The leader of the group scowled. “Who do you work for?”

“We’re just hard-working entrepreneurs.” He leaned forward. “By the way, that means we work for ourselves.”

“I know what entrepreneur means.”

“Oh, excellent. Based on the confused look of everyone else in your group, I can see your startling intellect is why you’ve been selected the mouthpiece.”

The man’s scowl deepened. “You’re in Beladeva’s territory and he doesn’t take kindly to freelancers.”

“Beladeva again?” said Rondel. “Your boss is becoming a real pain. If he keeps bothering us, we may just have to do something about him.”

The group laughed. “That’ll be the day. Now, we’ll be taking your haul, your weapons, and your clothes.” He paused, eyeing Andrasta. “And maybe we’ll have a go with the lady while we’re at it, eh boys?”

Andrasta clenched her sword until her knuckles cracked.
I’m going to enjoy this.

Rondel blew out a slow breath. “You had to go there, didn’t you?” He switched to Juntarkan. “Now, is good.”

Andrasta reached behind her back, withdrew a dagger at her waist, and flung it underhand at the sorcerer. It punched into his gut. The man’s dancing fingers stopped as he grasped at the blade.

The leader’s gaze had followed the throw. By the time he had the wherewithal to turn around, Andrasta had closed the distance between them. Too late in bringing his sword up to protect himself, her blow sliced off part of his unprotected skull, taking an ear in the process. She shouldered the man aside, and he tumbled into the alley below.

She caught a brief glimpse of Rondel engaging one of the other men before the remaining two pounced on her. She dodged a wide slash from the one on her right, grabbing the man by the shoulder and tossing him down. He slid down the sloped roof over the edge, but caught himself before falling. The second man spun, fleeing toward a nearby building.

Andrasta kneeled at the dying sorcerer, twisted her blade loose and threw it at the runner. It struck him in the back just as he cleared the gap between buildings. He landed awkwardly, twisting in agony on the opposite roof.

A shrill sounded behind her as the man who had been hanging onto the side fell after receiving a boot to the head from Rondel. The opponent he fought earlier lay dead with a bleeding hole in his chest.

“And you wanted to do another house?”

He clicked his tongue.

“What’s on your mind?” she asked.

“Strange now that twice we’ve been attacked by Beladeva’s men. If I didn’t know any better I’d say Lela was setting us up. You did say she worked for him.”

“What do you mean if you didn’t know any better? I think it’s pretty clear.”

“Maybe with the first time because she did know Lord Rickar was going to the party at the palace. But she had no way of knowing we’d be here and doing this today. Still, it is a strange coincidence. We need to look into that connection more. We’ve let it slip.”

Shouting came from inside the home. Someone opened a window and screamed for the watch.

Rondel threw Andrasta her bag. “Let’s go.”

CHAPTER 18

Lela strode the granite hallways of her home and sighed. She passed a simple painting. It showed the lush green grass, tall pines, and the background of snowcapped mountains outside her window—but something about having it hanging on her wall, available to appreciate morning or night, regardless of season, made it all the better.

She wouldn’t consider her home gaudy, certainly not as extravagant as the Rose Palace where she once worked. However, two dozen rooms on several acres of land were more than she ever could have dreamed for.

She followed the sound of laughter from the hallway into a guest room. She walked to the window, careful to stay near the curtain as not to be seen. Kunal danced merrily with the woman from the village he had met a week ago. The two looked genuinely happy and for that, Lela smiled.

Despite all the hardships she had endured, losing her parents in war, almost losing her adopted uncle to drugs, and nearly losing herself to a life in Beladeva’s organization, she had finally found happiness.

And so has Kunal. I have paid him back for saving me all those years ago.

All because of Rondel and Andrasta.

“Lela,” said the maid from behind.

A sweet woman in her early thirties, she spoke often of her three kids. Lela tried to turn away from the window to greet her, but found herself frozen. Her eyes remained transfixed on Kunal as the clear sky outside slowly darkened.

“Lela,” the maid said again.

What’s going on? Why can’t I move?

She began to panic when the beautiful landscape withered, turning brown and then black. The woman in Kunal’s arms faded. Moments later her uncle kneeled on the ground crying as he drank greedily from a bottle. She didn’t need to guess the contents inside.

She tried to scream, to pound her fists on the window as her uncle continued to drink the drug that had already claimed years of his life. She tried to run outside so she could fling the vile stuff away, but couldn’t move. Her eyes began to well. Kunal lay down on the blackened soil and died.

Tears came down in rivers as the voice shouting her name took on a harsher tone. Something grabbed her shoulders. Her world shook.

“Lela!”

* * *

“Lela! Wake up.”

She screamed. A hand clamped over her mouth, muffling the high pitched shrill. Lela thrashed about. Finally able to move, she had to get to her uncle.

“Gods, calm down. It was just a dream,” said a raspy voice.

Thick hands grabbed her flailing arms and pinned them to her sides. She opened her eyes and stared at the two familiar people. Blinking, she realized what had happened and felt like a fool.

Rondel studied her with a look of concern. Andrasta, annoyance.

It wasn’t real.

She relaxed and they released their grip.

“I’m sorry,” she said, trying to hide her embarrassment. “I’m all right now.”

“Are you sure?” asked Rondel.

She nodded, moving over to the edge of the bed and collecting herself before standing. “I . . . I only meant to close my eyes for a few moments.” She looked to the window and saw the graying sky of day’s end. “I guess I was more tired than I realized.”

“Why are you here?” asked Andrasta. “Who let you in?”

“No one let me in. I climbed up the rainspout and came in through the window. I needed to talk to you and it couldn’t wait. Something’s come up.”

“What?” asked Rondel.

“Things between the princess and prince are worse than I thought. She’s concerned about what will happen if her brother gets his army and navy from Bratanic. She wanted me to spy on you and report back to her about what you’ve been doing, your true intentions, and the likelihood of you actually granting Prince Minander his wishes.”

“I see.” Rondel rubbed his chin in thought. “Let her know that I’m very interested in the prince’s proposition. A close relationship with the ruler of Bashan, and more importantly the unified ruler of Kindi, would have great economical and political benefits for Bratanic.”

“That will crush her. She’s already worried about the prince going to war.”

“I know.”

Lela frowned. Though she wanted Rondel and Andrasta to succeed, she hoped to avoid hurting Mira more than necessary. “You want to hurt her?”

“No. Nothing like that. But I want her desperate.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Look, the party is less than a week away, and the prince hasn’t invited us yet.”

“He left the city this morning and isn’t expected back for several days.”

Rondel’s eyes widened. He gave Andrasta a look. “Even more to my point. The fact that he didn’t invite us despite all the hints I made about loving the history of the city and the tower itself means he doesn’t want me there. Now, I can take two approaches to this, either try harder to get on the list when the prince returns, or work on getting the princess to invite me instead.”

“Why would she do that?” asked Andrasta. “She didn’t seem enamored with you.”

“She doesn’t need to be enamored. She needs to be desperate. She needs to try and make me hers.” He looked to Lela. “So, you can drop the hint that I’d be willing to meet with her in private to discuss any concerns she might have. Maybe then I can convince her to invite me to the party before the Raivataka festival.”

“And what if that doesn’t work?” asked Andrasta.

Rondel shrugged. “Then we crash the party.”

“Really?”

“Don’t look surprised. This is it. Our best chance to get the information needed. We have to be there. One way or another.”

Andrasta nodded, satisfied.

Lela took a breath. Things were moving fast and every day seemed to add more complications. “I’ll talk to the princess, but first I need to figure out how to tell her I learned all this.”

Rondel tapped his cheek. “If you want to impress her, you can tell her that you engaged us in conversation and weaseled the information out of me.”

“That might work.” Lela noticed two sacks sitting near the window that hadn’t been there before. One of the sacks lay open at the top. A jeweled necklace peeked out. Her eyes widened. “Did you steal that?”

“It’s expensive to keep up appearances.”

“In daylight?”

“People expect it less,” said Rondel.

“Then why is there blood on your clothes?”

Rondel looked down. “We ran into a few idiots from Beladeva.”

Lela gasped.

“What?” Rondel asked with a tilt of his head.

Sweat ran down her armpits. She tried to hide her dismay and worry. “Nothing, it’s just that Beladeva isn’t someone who you want to cross.”

“Neither are we,” said Andrasta.

“I’m serious. He’s one of the most powerful people in Bashan. He has his hands in everything.”

“He can put his hands wherever he likes so long as he stays out of our way,” said Rondel. “That’s twice now we’ve had to deal with his men.”

“Twice? When was the first?”

“On the way to dinner with the prince he tried to send some people after us in an alley.” He paused. “I guess it wasn’t really twice since the first time he thought he was robbing a foreign dignitary and the second time his people thought they were dealing with a couple of thieves. Regardless, if there’s a third time, we might have to take a more proactive approach.”

Gods, I can’t have them getting involved with Beladeva. I’m barely juggling things as it is. If they realize I’m playing both sides . . . .

“You sure you’re all right?” Rondel asked.

“Yes. Why?”

“You just look like your mind is somewhere else.”

“It is. I really need to get back to the palace and report to Princess Mira.”

“All right. You’ll need to leave out the balcony since no one saw you come up by the stairs. We’ve got a rope to make it easier this time.”

They tied off one end of the rope inside, the other around her waist as she went to the edge of the balcony.

“By the way, how’s your uncle doing?”

She tensed. Thoughts of her dream came back to her in a wave. “Why do you want to know that?”

“Just curious. Seems like a good man, and I just wanted to make sure he didn’t need anything.”

Unlike Beladeva’s inquiry, Rondel’s answer seemed sincere.
Another reason to side with him over Beladeva.
She relaxed a little. “He’s good. Busy with new work. Thanks for referring him to others.”

“No problem. All right, get going before someone sees us talking out here.”

She swung down the drainpipe.

* * *

Andrasta watched the little girl hurry out of sight without a sound. Lela had natural skill the warrior in her admired.

“What do you think?” asked Rondel beside her.

“I think she’s hiding something.”

“I think she’s hiding lots of somethings. You noticed the way she reacted to Beladeva’s name?”

“Yeah. I don’t like it. Why didn’t you ask her about working for him? You said you were going to.”

“I know. Something is still off though. I don’t think she had a hand in what’s happened with Beladeva’s men coming after us, but she is hiding something.”