Amara felt as though someone had punched her in the belly. "Great furies," she breathed. "What has happened?"
"War," Serai responded. "A quiet war fought in alleyways and service corridors. We Cursors are being hunted and killed."
"But who?" Amara breathed.
Serai moved a shoulder in a slow shrug. "Who? Our best guess is Kalare," she said.
"But how did he know where to hit us?"
"Treachery, of course. Our people have been killed in their beds, their baths. Whoever these people are, someone who knows us is telling them where to strike."
"Fidelias," Amara said. The word tasted bitter.
"Potentially," Serai said. "But we must a.s.sume that there may be someone else within the Cursors-and that means that we cannot trust anyone, Cursor or otherwise."
"Great furies," Amara breathed. "What about the First Lord?"
"Communications have been severely disrupted throughout the southern cities. Our channels to the First Lord have gone silent."
"What?"
"I know," Serai said. The tiny woman shivered. "My initial orders from the Cursor Legate were to dispatch an agent to your command to escort Steadholder Isana to Festival. But once this began happening it became clear that attempting to make contact with other Cursors would be dangerous. I had to speak to someone I trusted. So I came here."
Amara took Serai"s hands in her own and squeezed tightly. "Thank you."
Serai answered with a wan smile. "We must a.s.sume that word has not reached the First Lord about the situation."
"You intend to use Isana to approach him in person," Amara said.
"Precisely. I can"t think of a safer way to go about it."
"It might not be so safe," Amara said. "An a.s.sa.s.sin attempted to kill Steadholder Isana yesterday morning. He was using a Kalaran knife."
Serai"s eyes widened. "Great furies."
Amara nodded with a grimace. "And she"s lived her entire live in the provinces. She can"t enter the capital unguided. You"ll need to show her around the political circles." She exhaled. "And you must be very careful, Serai. They"ll try to remove her before the presentation ceremony."
Serai chewed on her lip. "I"m no coward, Amara, but I"m not a bodyguard, either. There"s no way I can protect her from trained a.s.sa.s.sins. If that is the situation, I need you to come with us."
Amara shook her head. "I can"t. Matters have developed locally." She explained what Doroga had told them about the vord. "We can"t afford to let them spread and multiply. The local garrison will need every crafter they can get to make sure these creatures do not escape again."
Serai arched an eyebrow. "Darling, are you sure about this? I mean, I know you"ve had some contact with these barbarians, but don"t you think that they might be exaggerating the truth?"
"No," Amara said quietly. "In my experience, they don"t know how to exaggerate. Doroga arrived here yesterday with fewer than two hundred survivors from a force of two thousand."
"Oh come now," Serai said. "That must be an outright lie. Even a Legion"s morale would break well before that."
"The Marat are not legionares legionares," Amara said. "They aren"t like us. But consider this-they fight, men and women and children together, beside their family and friends. They will not desert them, even if it means dying beside them. They consider the vord to be the same sort of threat-not just to their territory, but to their families and lives."
"Even so," Serai said. "You aren"t a battlecrafter, Amara. You"re a Cursor. Let those whose duties call them to a soldier"s work do their part. But you must serve your calling. Come with me to the capital."
"No," Amara said. She paced to the window and stared out of it for a moment. Bernard and Frederic were lifting a pair of vast hogsheads of preserved foodstuffs onto racks on either side of a gargant"s pack harness. The bull yawned, scarcely noticing what must have been half a ton of burden the two earthcrafters had casually lifted into place. "The garrison here lost most of its Knights Aeris at Second Calderon, and it has been difficult to replace them. Bernard may need me to help him by carrying messages or flying reconnaissance."
Serai let out a small gasp.
Amara turned, frowning, to find the tiny courtesan staring at her with her mouth open.
"Amara," Serai accused. "You"re his lover."
"What?" Amara said. "That isn"t what-"
"Don"t bother trying to deny it," Serai said. "You were looking looking at him out there, weren"t you?" at him out there, weren"t you?"
"What does that have to do with anything?" Amara asked.
"I saw your eyes," Serai said. "When you called him Bernard. He was out there doing something manly, wasn"t he?"
Amara felt her face heat up again. "How did you-"
"I know these things, darling," she said airily. "It"s what I do." The little woman crossed the room to stare out the window at the courtyard, and arched an eyebrow. "Which is he?"
"Green tunic," Amara supplied, stepping back from the window. "Loading the gargant. Dark hair, beard, a little grey in them."
"My," said Serai. "But hardly old. Went silver early, I"d say. That"s always attractive in a man. It means he has both power enough to have responsibilities and conscience enough to worry over them. And-" She paused and blinked. "He"s rather strong, isn"t he?"
"He is," Amara said. "And his archery is amazing."
Serai gave her an oblique look. "I know it"s petty and typical, but there is is an undeniable, primal attraction in a man of strength. Wouldn"t you agree?" an undeniable, primal attraction in a man of strength. Wouldn"t you agree?"
Amara"s face burned. "Well. Yes. It suits him." She took a breath. "And he can be so gentle."
Serai gave her a dismayed look. "Oh, my. It"s worse than I feared. You"re not his lover. You"re in love love."
"I"m not," Amara said. "I mean. I see him fairly often. I"ve been Gaius"s courier to the region since Second Calderon and..." Her voice trailed off. "I don"t know. I don"t think I"ve ever been in love."
Serai turned her back to the window. Over her shoulder, Amara could see Bernard giving directions to a pair of men hitching up heavy work horses to a wagon of supplies, then checking the beast"s hooves. "Do you see him often enough?" Serai asked.
"I... I wouldn"t mind being near him more."
"Mmmhmm," she said. "What do you like best about him?"
"His hands," Amara said at once. The answer came out before she"d had time to think it through. She felt herself blush again. "They"re strong. The skin a little rough. But warm and gentle."
"Ah," said Serai.
"Or his mouth," Amara blurted. "I mean, his eyes are a lovely color, but his mouth is... I mean, he can..."
"He knows how to kiss," Serai said.
Amara stammered to a silence and simply nodded.
"Well," Serai said, "at this point, I think it"s safe to say that you know what love feels like."
Amara bit her lip. "You really think that?"
The courtesan smiled, something wistful in it. "Of course, darling."
Amara watched the courtyard as a pair of boys, no more than six or seven years of age, leapt from hiding places in the wagon to Bernard"s back. The big man roared in feigned outrage, and went spinning around for a few moments as though trying to reach them, until the boys lost their grips and fell to the ground, lurching dizzily and laughing. Bernard grinned at them, ruffled their hair, and sent them on the way with a wave of his hand. Amara found herself smiling.
Serai"s voice became lower and very gentle. "You must leave him, of course."
Amara felt her spine stiffen. She stared past the other woman, out the window.
"You are a Cursor," Serai said. "One with the trust of the First Lord himself. And you have sworn your life to his service."
"I know that," Amara said. "But-"
Serai shook her head. "Amara, you can"t do that to him if you truly love him. Bernard is a peer of the Realm, now. He has duties, responsibilities. One of them will be to take a wife. A wife whose first loyalty will be to him."
Amara stared at Bernard and the two children. Her vision suddenly blurred with hot tears.
"He has duties," Serai said, her voice compa.s.sionate, but resolute. "And among them is the duty to sire children so that the furycraft in his blood will strengthen the Realm."
"And I was blighted," Amara whispered. She pressed her hand against her lower belly, and could almost feel the nearly invisible scars from the pockmarks the disease had left. She tasted bitter bile on her tongue. "I can"t give him children."
Serai shook her head and turned to stare out the window down at the courtyard. Frederic herded a second pair of enormous gargants into the yard and began hitching up their cargo harnesses with Bernard, while other holders came and went in a constant stream, placing sacks and boxes on the ground to be loaded on the beasts once they were ready. Then Serai stood on tiptoe, and gently drew down the shade.
"I"m sorry, darling."
"I never thought it through," Amara said. More tears fell. "I mean. I was just so happy, and I never..."
"Love is a fire, Amara. Draw it too close and be burned." Serai stepped over to Amara and touched her cheek with the back of her hand. "You know what you must do."
"Yes."
"Then best to make it quick. Clean." Serai sighed. "I know what I"m talking about. I"m so sorry, darling."
Amara closed her eyes and leaned her head miserably against Serai"s touch. She couldn"t stop the tears. She didn"t try.
"So much is happening, and all at once," Serai said after a moment. "It can"t be a coincidence. Can it?"
Amara shook her head. "I don"t think it can."
"Furies," Serai breathed. Her expressive eyes looked haunted.
"Serai," Amara said quietly, "I believe there is a real threat to the Realm here. I"m going to stay."
Serai blinked up at her. "Darling, of course course you"re going to stay. I don"t need a bodyguard who is pining over a man like this-you"re useless to me." you"re going to stay. I don"t need a bodyguard who is pining over a man like this-you"re useless to me."
Amara choked on a small roll of laughter that came up through her at Serai"s words, and she folded her arms around the courtesan in a in a tight hug. "Will you be all right?" tight hug. "Will you be all right?"
"Of course, darling," Serai said. But though her voice was warm, amused, Amara felt the little courtesan trembling. Serai probably felt Amara"s shivering in return.
Amara drew back, her hands on Serai"s shoulders, and met her gaze. "Duty. The vord may be inside the capital. More killers are probably looking for the Steadholder even now. Cursors are being murdered. And if the Crown doesn"t send reinforcements to the local garrison, more holders and legionares legionares are going to die. Likely me with them." are going to die. Likely me with them."
Serai"s eyes closed for a moment, and she bobbed her head in a brief nod. "I know. But... Amara, I"m afraid... afraid I am not suited for this kind of situation. I work in grand halls and bedchambers with wine and perfume. Not in dark alleyways with cloaks and knives. I don"t like knives. I don"t even own own a knife. And my cloaks are far too expensive to risk b.l.o.o.d.ying." a knife. And my cloaks are far too expensive to risk b.l.o.o.d.ying."
Amara gently squeezed her shoulders, smiling. "Well. Perhaps it will not come to that."
Serai gave Amara a shaky smile. "I should hope not. It would be most awkward." She shook her head and smoothed the anxiety from her expression. "Look at you, Amara. So tall and strong now. Nothing like the farm girl I saw flying over the sea."
"It seems so long ago," Amara said.
Serai nodded, and touched a stray hair back from her cheek. Her expression became businesslike. "Shall we?"
Amara lifted her hand and the pressure of Cirrus"s warding vanished. "Isana should be ready to leave shortly. Be cautious and swift, Serai. We are running out of time."
Chapter 12
It took Tavi three hours to find Max, who was indeed at a young widow"s house. He spent another hour finding a way into the house, and half an hour more to get his friend conscious, dressed, and staggering back up through the furylit streets of the capital to the Citadel. By the time the lights of the Academy loomed up above them, it was the most silent hour of the night, in the hollow, cold time just before dawn began to color the sky.
They entered through one of a sprinkling of unseen entrances provided for the use of the Cursors-in-Training at the Academy. Tavi dragged his friend down to the baths straightaway, and without ceremony shoved him into a large pool of cold water.
Max, of course, had the phenomenal recuperative abilities of anyone with his raw furycrafting power, but he had developed a correspondingly formidable array of carousing talents by way of compensation. It wasn"t the first time Tavi had administered an emergency sobering after one of Max"s nights on the town. The shock of the water had the large young man screaming and thrashing in a heartbeat, but when he lurched to the stairs up out of the water, Tavi met him, turned Max around, and pushed him back into the pool.
After a dozen more plunges into the freezing pool, Max pressed his hands against the sides of his head with a moan. "Great furies, Calderon, I"m awake. Would you let me out of the blighted, crows-begotten ice water?"
"Not until you open your eyes," Tavi said firmly.
"Fine, fine," Max growled. He turned a bloodshot glare upon Tavi. "Happy now?"
"Joyous," Tavi replied.
Max grunted, lumbered from the icy pool, and fumbled his clothes off, then shambled into the warm, sun gold furylit waters of one of the heated oaths. As always, Tavi"s eyes were drawn to the crosshatched network of scars on his friend"s back-the marks of a whip or a ninecat that could only nave been formed before Max came into his furycrafting power. Tavi winced in sympathy. No matter how many times he saw his friend"s scars, they remained something startling and hideous.
He glanced around the baths. The room was enormous, with several different bathing pools trickling falls of water filling up a vast room with white marble walls, floor, pillars, and ceiling. Batches of plants, even trees, softened the severe, cold marble surroundings, and lounges were laid out in a dozen different areas, where bathers might idle in one another"s company while awaiting their turn at a pool. Soft furylamps of blue, green, and gold painted each pool, giving an indication of its temperature. The sound of falling water bounded back and forth from the indifferent stone, filling the air with sound enough to mask voices more than a few steps away. It was one of the only places in the capital where one could be reasonably certain of a private conversation.
The baths were yet empty-the slaves who attended bathers would not arrive for more than an hour. Tavi and Max were alone.
Tavi stripped, though much more self-consciously than his friend. Back at the steadholt, bathing was a matter of privacy and practicality. It had been an adjustment to engage in the more metropolitan practice of bathing followed in most of the cities, and Tavi had never managed to lose entirely the twinge of discomfort he felt when disrobing.