there to distract us. We already know Forsey is against the treaty.”
“What if they had a falling-out?”
“I doubt it. I bet they’re just being careful. That means that this meeting was just a first stage. There will be another one with more people from the capital. They have to meet with Fire Asp and his benefactor at the palace!”
“If that’s the case, then I don’t believe such a meeting will ever take place.”
He looked up blankly. “I don’t understand. What do you mean?”
The woman gave a cunning smile to show that she, too, was capable of complex logical deductions.
“Asp had some trouble at the port last night thanks to our dear boy’s friends, the brave but stupid Vordius and the Vuravian twit Sorgius.”
“What?” the man nearly leaped into the air in anger. “I asked you to keep an eye on them and stay a step ahead of their plans!”
“I apologize, but they went for almost a month without doing anything. They were sitting around in taverns like they always do. Then, just when my attention was distracted by the meeting in Vuravia, they went and beat up that pimp Taney and walked right into the Lotus the same day, pretending to be Vuravians, and asked to see Fire Asp. I don’t know exactly what happened, but Asp’s men tied them up and they let on who they really were.”
“Oh, no!” the man clutched his head. “Now Asp will think that the Guards are after him. He’ll call off the meeting and all our plans will march right to the Shadows!”
“Do you think so?” the woman smiled. “I suppose,” she continued with a sigh, “we should have them sent away from the capital. As far away as possible.”
“They’re still alive?” the man’s eyes were round in disbelief.
“Very much so. They escaped and took that redheaded…nuisance girl with them,” the woman said, making her opinion clear. “The same bitch that poisoned Uni!”
The man’s eyes grew even wider. “You mean to say they found her?”
“It’s a question of who found whom,” the woman snorted. “She says she was paid to do the job by a stranger, and that Asp’s men nearly killed her over it. Ha!”
“Of course she said that!”
Velenia slowly stood up and walked around behind the man’s chair. She stood there as if measuring something.
“Someday I’ll kill you, just like this!” they both said at the same time.
“But that isn’t all! The fools felt sorry for her and dragged her back to the Trout, like a pair of utter idiots.”
“We have to put a stop to this circus, may the Shadows take them all! I’d like to see all three of them exiled to the Expanse!”
“You may be right,” the woman said thoughtfully, “but I wouldn’t waste time on Fenia,” and she drew a finger across her throat. “Easier and safer that way!”
“Feeling bloodthirsty?” the man laughed. “She said she was paid to do the job. We’ll cut the throat of the man who paid her as soon as we prove his guilt.”
“Of course, of course,” the woman said absently, her eyes flitting around the room. “I suppose you feel sorry for Fenia. So young and beautiful…” she added, and her eyes shone dangerously. “Or do you really suppose I don’t know about your little rendezvous with her?”
The man leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs. He studied his companion’s face attentively the way one might study a mosquito before slapping it.
“Don’t look so serious. I’m mixed up with her, too,” the woman said. “I’ll never forget her scream. So piercing…” and she gave a little laugh. “Relax. I understand. I suppose it has to be this way. I just wanted to remember the good old days.”
“These are different days,” the man said dryly, and a shadow of something cold and remote flashed across his face. “And the game has different rules. You’re useful to me only as long as you remember that.”
The woman looked at him for a full minute. Then she stood up and noiselessly left the room.
“Eat up, dear. And take seconds if you want! Just look at you – skin and bones!” Emel Virando said as she hovered over the girl. “Have another venison crepe – I made the lingonberry sauce myself!”
Fenia, her cheeks rosy from all the attention, chewed carefully and tried to keep her eyes on her plate. The whole group sat in a small alcove at the Happy Trout (which was usually reserved for very important guests), enjoying some of the capital’s best food as they talked with Uni’s mother.
“How could you hide such a lovely cousin from us for so long, Vordius?” Sevelia Virando asked reproachfully. Subconsciously, she had always felt like Vordius was a second son to her, and she was surprised to find that he had secrets.
“She’s actually my second cousin,” he replied, clearing his throat and looking down at the floor. He felt awful lying to his best friend’s mother, but he didn’t have a choice. “Father and I are always at the barracks, so there’s no one home to look after her. I was hoping, Emel Virando, that she could stay here for a few days…”
“She can stay for the rest of her life, if she wants!” Sevelia laughed. “Vordius, you know that I always wanted a daughter,” here she wiped her eye with a sleeve. “We never had the chance, my dears!”
Sorgius looked up from his roast pig and glanced around the table. His intuition told him that there was something here of importance to him and his companions, but he was not sure it would be right to call up tragic memories that most of them had already heard before. A moment later, Sevelia quieted his doubts.
“My poor Nurelius!” she whispered. “He never had a chance to give life to another child. He was killed in the wasteland on the northern border, in September of the year of the Heavenly Era 380.
“Uni was not yet a year old,” Vordius added softly. “His birthday is in the winter.”
“I wonder how he is faring, my precious boy,” Emel Virando continued, her eyes misty. “In that terrible, far-off Virilan, from which no one has ever returned…”
“That’s because no one has ever been there, at least from the Empire!” Sorgius said brightly. “Capotians go there all the time, and they always return. Your son will return, too, and unharmed. What could possibly happen to him while he’s with the delegation?”
“I pray to our Heavenly Deity that he will not leave a poor widow all alone,” Sevelia replied fiercely. Her eyes betrayed both hope and doubt.
“Mother Virando, were you ever in the Great Expanse?” Fenia suddenly asked with what sounded like childish curiosity.
“Me?” Sevelia said slowly. “No, I haven’t.” Her eyes were blank for an instant, and then it was as if a door shut behind them. “I wanted to go with him that last time, but Uni was still a baby…”
“How
