by Lisa Shearin
“My pleasure, Miss Benares.”
“Oh, I can assure you that the pleasure was all mine.”
Mychael laughed. “So I heard.”
I playfully smacked him on the ass and he just laughed harder.
I rolled off of him, snuggling in the crook of his arm, my head on his chest. “I hope no one else did. I can do without an applauding crowd when we step outside.”
We lay there in the silence, arms and legs entwined, warm and safe. The only sound I could hear was Mychael’s heartbeat against my ear. I closed my eyes and drifted. This felt good. Better than good, this felt right. We were still in as much danger as before; that hadn’t changed. But everything else had. Though it wasn’t a change, not really. It was more like a confirmation. Yes, a confirmation. My heart had known how I felt even if my head wouldn’t admit it, even if I was afraid to admit it. And it was past time for me to say it. I had to. I didn’t plan on dying in the next few days, and anyone who was determined to try to make me was in for one hell of a fight. They were in for a lot worse if they laid one hand on Mychael. I didn’t want to think about losing him, but the image came in my mind’s eye before I could stop it. If something did happen to him . . . or to me . . . I wanted him to know that I—
I tilted my head and looked up at Mychael. His eyes were closed, but he was awake. He sensed me looking and opened his eyes. I’d just made love to the man and was naked in bed with him. Shy should be the last thing I felt. Then why was I nervous? Just say it, Raine.
“I . . . I love you, too.”
Mychael tightened his arms around me and pulled me up close enough to kiss. Then he did just that, slow, delicious, and maddening. And I started having naughty ideas that we didn’t have time for me to have.
Mychael’s lips released mine and he just looked at me, as if memorizing my face, storing away this moment. Like he was trying to get a picture in his mind of something he was about to lose, something that would be taken from him.
He wasn’t going to lose me.
And no one was taking Mychael Eiliesor away from me.
“We’re going to get out of this.” I didn’t ask it as a question. I stated it as an irrefutable fact. “So are our friends and so are my family.” I smiled and I knew it was fierce. Hell, I felt fierce. I was also determined, and I was happy. Yes, dammit, for the first time in a long time, I was happy. And no one was going to take that away from me. “And today is the beginning of the end for anyone who thinks otherwise.”
Mychael and I got back to watcher headquarters just before sunrise. We walked through headquarters’ front doors this time, like we’d come from the citadel after a night of questioning false witnesses, not an evening of kidnapping an elven duke, blowing up a house, and making mind-blowing love in a secret hideout. Mychael pulled me into a side street twice for quick, heated kisses. But by the time we got to headquarters, the proper paladin was back.
I smiled. I wasn’t going to be fooled by that act ever again.
Sedge met us at the front door, a big grin on his broad and honest face. “You don’t need those witnesses to recant,” he informed Mychael. “Director Imala Kalis brought evidence of her own.”
Tam’s cell was empty and all eyes were on the closed door to Sedge’s conference room. And half of those eyes belonged to enough goblin secret service agents to no doubt make Imala feel comfortable and Sedge’s boys more than a trifle edgy.
“The two of them are in there,” he responded to our unspoken question, and my obvious concern.
Mychael inclined his head toward the conference room. “Was that Imala Kalis’s idea?”
“Nope, the second he was out of that cell, Nathrach damned near dragged her in there.” Sedge’s grin broadened. “The lady landed a solid kick to Nathrach’s shin, but she told her men not to interfere.”
“What’s with the goblin spy convention?” I asked, bothered by any room that was wall-to-wall fangs.
“The lady showed up about an hour ago with the paperwork she needed and the law on her side,” Sedge told us. “As a keeper of the law, I had to agree that she was well within her rights to demand Nathrach’s release.”
Mychael’s expression darkened. “What papers?”
“Papers proving that Nathrach was still a member of the goblin royal family and as such he has diplomatic immunity from prosecution of any crime except in a goblin court of law. And while the lady was at it, she claimed that Nathrach had been taken as a political prisoner and Magus Silvanus’s and Inquisitor Balmorlan’s accusations and groundless arrest were an act of war.”
I snorted a laugh. “Sorry, but that’s priceless. Did Carnades get to hear any of this?”
“He wasn’t here, just Balmorlan. And when the lady told him, she was in his face, about as close as she could get and not be standing on his boots. Balmorlan had turned up not ten minutes after she arrived. It’s like he was lurking outside.”
“He probably was,” I muttered.
“The lady said she’d drop the charges if Nathrach was released and Balmorlan apologized to him in front of her and her staff. And from the lady’s own lips: ‘If I deem your words to be contrite and sincere, I won’t sue the hell out of you and Carnades Silvanus.’ Unquote.”
Mychael smiled. “And what did Balmorlan say to that?”
“He told her that the only person on Mid who could make and enforce such a claim was the goblin ambassador, and since she was his underling, her charges carried no weight.”
I winced and grinned at the same time. “Underling. I’m betting he shouldn’t have said that.”
“He didn’t get very far,” Sedge Rinker said. “Director Kalis said that the goblin ambassador had mysteriously gone missing, she was in charge, and Balmorlan would be dealing with her.” He chuckled. “The top of her head barely came to the middle of Balmorlan’s chest, and Hell was going to freeze over before that little lady backed down.”
If Rudra Muralin was missing, it sounded like Imala Kalis had won their game of tit for tat. I wondered if Rudra was “missing” in the embassy latrine with his lackeys and staff, Imala Kalis having bolted and warded the door shut. That image was a keeper.
Vidor Kalta leisurely strolled out of Sedge’s office, a steaming mug of coffee in his hand.
“That’s far from the best part,” the nachtmagus told us. “Then Imala Kalis informed him with that adorable dimple of hers that goblin law stated when an ambassador was dead, missing, or incapacitated, the senior official present had the duty and right to assume all diplomatic duties and authority. But unless elven law had changed in the past five minutes, one of Balmorlan’s superiors being dead and the other presumed dead just made him a man without a job.”
Mychael wasn’t laughing, but his eyes sure were. “I hate I missed that.”
Sedge added a nod to his grin. “A thing of beauty, it was.”
Kalta took a satisfied sip. “Imala Kalis appeared to be having the time of her life.” His black eyes glittered with malicious glee. “Taltek was apoplectic.”
Mychael’s humor vanished. “One of Balmorlan’s superiors is presumed dead?”
“There was an explosion at a house on Ambassador Row,” Sedge explained. “By the time my men got there, the place was surrounded by elven embassy guards. Since the house is a part of the embassy, it’s elven soil. My men couldn’t go in without permission, and the commander in charge wasn’t inclined to give it, though it sounded more like they didn’t want anyone interfering. Since there wasn’t anything left but a pile of smoking debris, I had my men back off to a suitable distance.” He paused uncomfortably. “Supposedly Duke Markus Sevelien was staying there. That was one bit of information the elf commander was willing to part with.”
“I’ll bet he couldn’t wait to ‘leak’ that one,” I said to Mychael in mindspeak.
Mychael’s lips narrowed in an angry line. “When did you get this information?”
“Just before Director Kalis got here. I sent a runner to the citadel with a rep
ort for you.”
“We must have just missed each other.” Mychael said it with the perfect mix of concern, frustration, and professional poise. The man was a veritable master of misinformation, though in my family we called it being a good liar. Though sometimes lying wasn’t just the best thing you could do; it was the only thing you could do.
“If he couldn’t find you, his orders were to deliver it to the archmagus.”
“Good enough,” Mychael told him. “Sedge, I need to hear what Tam and Imala Kalis are saying.”
“Not a problem. I’ve got just the spot in my office. It shares a wall with the conference room, and in one place a piece of wood is missing. There’s a cabinet in the conference room that covers up the hole. If you’re quiet about it, you should be able to hear anything you need to.” He did his best to look contrite. “I’ve been meaning to get that hole fixed, but just never got around to it.”
Mychael gave the recording gem to Sedge Rinker. We were keeping mine. When you have incriminating evidence, it’s always good business to have a copy.
“Karl Cradock,” Mychael said. “One of the men who needs to be in that cell. He’s staying above the Bare Bones tavern.”
“He killed General Aratus?”
Mychael shook his head. “Sarad Nukpana killed General Aratus. Karl Cradock did the kidnapping and stayed around to throw the general’s corpse out of the coach.”
Sedge tossed the gem in his hand. “And it’s all here.”
“And a couple of other interesting things,” Mychael told him. “I have the kidnappers in custody that he was hiring to take the next victim. Interestingly enough, Markus Sevelien was to be that victim. You’ll want to get some men to the Bare Bones quickly. No doubt Cradock will be trying to leave the island on the morning tide. I don’t believe he feels safe here anymore. If you don’t find him at the Bare Bones, try the west docks, a Caesolian freighter named Reliant.”
Sedge shook his head and laughed. “You make me look good, Mychael.”
Mychael flashed a crooked smile. “You help me, and I help you.”
We made ourselves at home in Sedge’s office. A sergeant quietly brought us some much- needed coffee, and we settled back to be both informed and entertained.
Interestingly enough, Tam wasn’t happy with the lady who’d sprung him from jail.
Mychael and I had used Sedge Rinker’s conference room before when we’d needed to have some privacy for a conversation that turned into an argument. Tam and Imala Kalis were putting it to similar use. With typical goblin gentility, they were managing to sound civilized and verbally slice each other to shreds at the same time. It was an impressive display.
“No one has paid me anything,” Imala Kalis all but spat. “I work for the goblin people.” She paused meaningfully. “For the good of the goblin people.”
Tam’s laugh was more like a short bark. “Meaning you work for Prince Chigaru Mal’Salin.”
“I never spoke his name.”
“So your new career goal is to be the featured entertainment in Execution Square for treason? And you’ve come all this way to get me into more trouble than I already am just so I can keep you company while you walk to the block.”
“I won’t be going anywhere near Execution Square, and if you would hear me out, neither will you.”
“I have been listening and you have yet to say anything that isn’t suicidal for you and fatal to me.”
“Just because King Sathrik wants it doesn’t mean he’s going to get it. Sathrik does what’s best for Sathrik. I’m trying to do what’s best for the goblin people.” She was silent for a moment. “You could at least thank me.”
“For what? For getting me released by telling everyone that I’m a royal retainer who still works for the Mal’Salins?”
“The queen,” Imala corrected him.
“Who. Is. Dead.” Tam sounded like he’d said that more than once in the past hour or so.
“Ah, but who never accepted your resignation.”
“Who cannot because she is now dead.”
“Never accepted, never terminated. Diplomatic immunity is such a beautiful thing, is it not? It gets one out of all sorts of unfortunate situations.”
“What an appropriate word choice.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Terminated. Get me out, then get me killed, which is precisely what Sathrik sent you here to do.”
“I don’t work for Sathrik.” Imala hissed the name like something she found sticking to the bottom of her boot.
“You’re not working both sides of the family? Come, now, Imala. That would be a first for the secret service. Though wait—let me guess. You’ve gone into business for yourself. So how much are you thinking you can collect for my head? Anything less than three thousand in imperial gold and you’ve been robbed, and we wouldn’t want that. Wasn’t that the price on my head? Or has it increased?”
“No one has paid or will pay me anything for any part of you, least of all your apparently empty head. The person who I represent is interested in all of you. Intact. Alive and breathing—and thinking.”
“And on behalf of all of me, I refuse.”
“Without hearing his offer? For the last time, I am trying to keep you alive, you pigheaded ass!”
“The farther away I am from anyone with the last name Mal’Salin, or from anyone who works for a Mal’Salin, the longer my life expectancy will be—without your assistance.”
“Don’t be so sure about that.”
“Is that a threat?”
“That’s me telling you that the lines are being drawn in Regor, and when sides have been chosen, you and your son should be certain that you’re on the right one.”
Tam’s voice was lined with steel. “Leave Talon out of this.”
“You’re the one who hasn’t left him out of this,” Imala retorted. “Instead of hiding him for his own safety, you’ve publicly acknowledged him, given him your name, made him your heir, and put him in more danger than even you can protect him from. I heard and saw what he did last night, and so did a few of those Nightshades.”
“And a few of your men.”
“My men are trustworthy.”
“So you’re certain that every last one of them is unwaveringly loyal to you? Would never betray your vaunted trust? Never slit that pretty little throat of yours if given half the chance?”
“Pretty little throat?” That caught her off guard.
“I have working eyes, Imala. But more important, I have working ears. Never mention my son’s name again.”
“After last night’s little display, I won’t need to because everyone else will. And you have an umi’atsu bond with Raine Benares and are linked in some way to Mychael Eiliesor. You have become a very desirable commodity among our elite—people you don’t want desiring any part of you or your son.”
“Khrynsani,” Tam hissed.
Her words were fire voice. “I have never, nor will I ever, refer to those jackals as elite anything. Complete extermination cannot come too soon.” She paused and then laughed. “Though that explosion a few hours ago certainly diminished their numbers. I shall have to discover who was responsible for that delightful display of pyrotechnics and thank them. Unfortunately, it seems that the ultimate prize escaped. A coach was seen racing from the scene. A coach driven by a Khrynsani. I imagine Sarad and Janos were inside.”
Tam hissed a single obscenity in Goblin.
“For once I share your opinion, and sincerely wish our clever arsonist better luck in the future.”
“Have you found Sevelien?” Tam asked.
“Not a trace. What’s left of the house is still too hot to search, and the elves have it cordoned off, ostensibly waiting until they can get in to look for him.” Imala actually snorted. “He’s not there and they know it. They’re going through the motions, nothing more. My bet is that he was in that coach, taken by Sarad Nukpana, or somehow the crafty fox managed to escape.”
“And blew up his o
wn house?”
“Entirely possible. Markus always had an exquisite sense of irony.” Her voice turned grim. “And I hope he still does. He is a brilliant tactician and a charming opponent. I’ve enjoyed sparring with him in the past. Only now we find ourselves with a similar goal.” She paused. “Odd, isn’t it? Me, a goblin, wanting to keep an elven duke alive, and his own people wanting nothing more than to find him dead. These are indeed strange times.”
“And Imala Kalis wanting to protect me is even more strange.”
“Someone has to, because you seem to have little interest in protecting yourself. From the reports I’ve received, you’ve done everything in the past few months short of putting your own neck in a noose.”
“I’ve done what I’ve had to do.”
“I’m doing the same thing now—if you will rein in your innate stubbornness long enough to consider my offer.”
“Imala, I can’t do what you ask.”
Her next words came out on the barest breath. “Even if Sathrik were no longer king.”
“The changing of a king won’t change the court—or the way the court is run.”
“But it can.” The silence was thick and tense. “Your people need you, Tam.”
“And what about my dear extended family who say they need my head?”
“Leave them to me.”
“What are you going to do, poison the entire municipal water supply?”
“If I have to.”
“Why are you trusting me with this?”
“If you hadn’t left the court, Sathrik would have killed you.”
Tam laughed, a contemptuous sound. “Sathrik would have tried.”
“Success or failure wouldn’t change the fact that he never liked you; he certainly never trusted you.”
“He murdered his own mother, who was also my queen, a queen I was sworn to serve.”
“Then serve her now, Tam. Yes, she is dead, but what she stood for and believed in is not—at least not yet.”
I didn’t know if Sedge’s office was dusty or I still had smoke up my nose from blowing up Markus’s house, but I did something very bad.
I sneezed. Loudly.
