When Nan made the arrangements with Captain Torunil, we had counted on the Duchess keeping to the schedule that her family had kept for years. Generally, they spent their winters in the ducal castle and their summers in their country estate, the very estate where I began my career as the Emperor’s Conscience. When we arrived back at the ship from our shopping excursion, a messenger was waiting with a note from Nan confirming our suspicions.
As we bounced up the lane to the estate in a rented carriage and escorted by four ducal guards, the Sisters were a bundle of nerves. For Merey, the reason was obvious: she was meeting a mother she hadn’t seen in over ten years. For the others, it was a matter of acceptance. They didn’t want to be separated. I told them that I could not imagine the Duchess turning them away, but I had little experience with her, so I could offer them no real reassurance.
“I don’t know, Evan, are you sure I have to go through with this?” Merey asked, strangling her kerchief mercilessly.
“I promised I would bring you to her if you lived,” I said.
“Then kill me,” she said, eyes wide in hope.
“She’s not so bad, Merey. Give her a chance.”
“What about me?” Marjory asked. “I had a family, and she’s not them. What does she care about me? I doubt even my own relatives care one whit about me, especially after so long.”
“I don’t have a family to come home to,” Litha said sadly. “The Duchess will have little tolerance for some foundling, noble friends or not.”
“Girls,” I said. My voice was harsh, and I intended it to be. I needed to shock them from their self-doubt. They each snapped upright and faced me. I softened my tone and smiled. “You are the Sisters! I suppose since you are here, you could rightly be called the Sisters of Jerea. You are brutal killers. You are highly trained, dangerous, and, frankly, the scariest women on two continents. One Duchess will not break you.”
“She’s not your mother.” Merey pouted.
“No, and you don’t have to accept her,” I said. “But you owe it to yourself to meet her on equal terms.” I thought about that for a moment. “In fact, this isn’t even equal terms. You know she is here. She doesn’t know you are coming. I don’t know the Duchess well, but I do know that she is an intelligent woman who wants her daughter back. I am certain that her first reaction will be her honest one. Judge her based on that, and if you want to leave, this carriage will carry us all the way back to Drada. I am with you all the way. No matter what, you are the Sisters of Jerea. Nobody can take that from you.”
They each hugged my neck and straightened their backs as the carriage rolled to a stop and a liveryman opened the door.
I stepped from the carriage, helped the ladies descend, and proceeded up the steps ahead of them. I was met by a young woman in a steward’s uniform. She curtsied.
“Welcome, sir,” she said. Who may I ask is calling?
“Magister Evanar Hostric and company,” I said.
“Please follow me inside. I will inform the Duchess of your arrival.” She turned and led us through the double doors and into the foyer.
As I entered, I saw the Duchess descending the staircase, her dress grasped in either hand. She reached the bottom and called to the woman who had greeted us.
“Who is it, Yara?”
“It’s a Magister Hostric, Your Grace, and company.”
“A Magister? What business has a Magister here?” I loosed the binds of my Aspect and drew deeply on my power. My eyes silvered over, and I addressed the Duchess with the first words I ever spoke to her.
“Greetings, Duchess.” I made sure she saw my eyes, then bowed and released my draw. When I rose, my eyes were their normal shade. Hers were as big as saucers.
“You…” she rasped. “I never thought to see you again.” She started and craned to see past me. “Does that mean…?”
I stood to the side and waved my hand behind me.
“May I present Lady Merey Anetta Atroscine, along with Ladies Marjory and Litha, whom Merey has named sisters these last eleven years.”
The Sisters walked through the open double doors and into the foyer. They walked in step, each dressed immaculately and primped to perfection. Litha and Marjory looked about the hall, and to any other, it would have seemed they were taking in the decor, but I knew they were checking for threats. Merey led the way and had eyes only for the woman who stood at the foot of the stairs with her hands over her mouth and tears running over her fingers.
The Duchess broke then and ran toward Merey, who stopped and stiffened. The Duchess halted a pace away from the daughter she hadn’t seen in over a decade and cried without shame as she gazed adoringly over all three girls.
“I begged you to bring me my daughter nearly a year ago,” she said to me between sobs. “You did that, and brought two more daughters besides. I can never repay you.”
The duchess took a halting step toward Merey. Her arms twitched as she restrained herself from reaching. She looked into her child’s eyes pleadingly. Merey nodded, and they flew into each other’s arms in a fit of mutual tears. The duchess grasped desperately for the other two girls and pulled them into the embrace. Everyone cried—me included, damn it.
I turned and left quietly, unwilling to intrude any longer on such a precious moment. I was confident that if the girls wanted to leave, they would seek me out. I made it to the front steps when they caught up to me.
“Magister Hostric,” I heard from behind me. I turned to see the Duchess, doing her best to hold all the Sisters, handicapped as she was with only two arms. She smiled, her face streaked with tears.
“Magister,” she cleared her throat, “once again I owe you a debt. If you ever need anything from me, name it, and if it is in my power to give, you will have it.” I bowed to them all deeply.
“I thank you, Duchess, but for now, this is all the reward I need.” I nodded to the affectionate display around her.
“Still…” she said and pulled the girls even closer.
I started to turn away and was assailed by three lovely women. They hugged me so tightly that I thought they would break me. I returned their embrace warmly.
“Thank you, Evan,” Merey said, her face buried in my shirt.
I lifted her chin, along with Litha’s and Marjory’s.
“If you ever need me, I will be here for you,” I whispered. “Never forget who you are.” They burst into hiccups and giggles and crushed me in another embrace.
Epilogue
His heart stopped when the beautiful spy swept into his office. He stared in disbelief until his mind caught up with his eyes, then broke into a broad grin and leaped from his chair. He rushed toward the woman. Her black hair, in contrast with the last time he had seen her, was beginning to gray, and damn his hide if she didn’t wear it well.
They embraced briefly and kissed each other’s cheeks. He held her shoulders at arm’s length and gazed into her honey-gold eyes. There was warmth there still, and something else.
“Nan, it is good to see you. You are as lovely as ever,” he said.
“You always were the flatterer, Tamil,” Nan said with a haughty sniff. “Tell me more.”
They both smiled, and Tamil beckoned her to sit.
“That you are here tells me that Evan was at least partially successful. Was he able to retrieve the children? In fact, where is he? He should have come with you.”
“He had business to attend to which he considered of much greater importance than satisfying your petty curiosities.” There was a playfulness in Nan’s eyes that the experienced old spymaster recognized.
Only part of that was true, he thought. I wonder which part.
“You are still mean as ever, too, I see. Marry me, would you?”
“You should have thought of that twenty-five years ago, Tamil, instead of chasing after Cilia. But no, you just couldn’t let that one go, could you?”
“Still twisting that old knife?” Tamil winced.
“Every chance I get.”
Nan smiled in smug satisfaction.
I deserved that. Looking on Nan’s face, his mind cast back over the years, and he saw her as she was then. Hessa’s tits, she was a goddess in that dinner dress. Beautiful and deadly with those thin blades. She was intelligent, quick, and too cunning for her own good. She still was, he supposed. He shook the thoughts from his head and changed the subject.
“How is Evan?” he said. “How did things go in Trular?”
“He is well,” she said. “But I will let him tell his tale. He has more of the details, anyway. Evan learned a great number of things. He filled me in, to some extent, but you will likely have specific questions for him I cannot answer. While I am here, however, I wished to give you these.” She pulled a sheaf of papers from her bag and passed them to Tamil.
He took them and shuffled through the pages. They were the reports she hadn’t sent along with a detailed explanation of the sudden silence. He glanced at the contents briefly until he got to the last page.
“What is this?” he said.
“That is my resignation,” Nan said. “I’m retiring. I think I have earned it after spending fifteen years in Jerea. I’ve decided to change careers.” Haran’s brows rose at that.
“Oh? What will you do now?” he asked.
“I have a boy to raise,” she said matter-of-factly.
Yes, he thought, still too cunning for her own good.
“That ‘boy’ is a grown man and an Imperial Magister.” Nan nodded her agreement.
“You and Zaipheth did well in raising him. He is a good man, but he needs a woman’s touch now, I think.”
“I can think of none better. That said, if you could—”
“I will not spy on him, Tamil. Not for you. Not for anyone.”
“I wasn’t suggesting…” Nan glared at him, daring him to say it. “Oh, all right, maybe I was. Do as you wish then. Hessa knows you will anyway.”
Nan nodded her satisfaction and rose.
“At least tell me what he’s doing that's so important it has kept him from reporting in,” Tamil called to her back as she strode through the door without a backward glance.
Tamil smiled.
Good. She has taken him under her wing. She will be able to protect him better than I can. She may even be able to protect him from me.
Nan walked into the room above the tavern, which Evan had been renting before he left for Trular, with three workmen in tow. It hadn’t been difficult to get the key. The serving girl, Mina, was most helpful in fetching the owner. The owner was more than accommodating when Nan told him the story of her long-lost son and their tear-filled reunion. Her flirting didn’t hurt her cause in the least. Regardless, she was in and she would start untangling this mess of a man before he self-destructed. All that power, all the violence and death, and no one to talk to...none to guide him...
Well, we’ll just see about that.
She gave them their instructions, and her helpers set about gathering the pitiful few belongings Evan owned and putting them in boxes. It didn’t take long. They would deliver them to the small house at the edge of Riverview Square that she had procured for him, in his name, of course. She thought it high time he started building something for himself other than that collection of souls he dragged around constantly. She knew better than most what that kind of austere life could do to a person.
Tamil, bless his heart, did his best, but he was no better. Evan deserved more. He had a good heart, and Nan would be damned if she saw it turned to ash for lack of a kind word, a stern rebuke, or a warm hug.
The family she had built at The Velvet Pearl was wonderful, but she had outgrown her usefulness over the past several years. Shani would take over there and do a wonderful job.
And I have found a new purpose. She smiled. I will look after him. Perhaps I can even protect him from his conniving uncle.
Nan froze, a thought coming unbidden to her mind. She replayed the conversation with Tamil and noted his language, both verbal and physical. At the end, when she’d told him she wouldn’t be his eyes and ears prying into Evan’s life, there had been something in his face. What was it? Relief? She cackled loudly and locked the empty room behind her.
Tamil Haran, she mused, you scheming old goat.
The End
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Oathbound: The Emperor's Conscience, Book 2 Page 27
