Cold Steel

I whispered. “Kehinde, if I may ask, I heard you were arrested by the prince here and had to return to Massilia. Isn’t it risky for you to come back now?”



After a silence in which I thought I had perhaps offended her, she said, “The work must be done despite the risk. It is more important than one life.” She blew out the candle.



Brennan coughed.



Bee and I lay side by side in the old familiar way, holding hands.



“After the war, we’ll set up a little household together, you and me and Rory,” she whispered. “Men can come and go if we approve it or wish it, dearest. We don’t need them to live.”



“Yes.” My shattering despair subsided to a weary throb. “I can manage anything as long as we are together.”



It was almost midday when Bee and I woke. Kehinde still slept, a hand gripping the end of one of her locks as if she had never let go of a child’s habit. Brennan was gone.



We dressed and went out to wash our faces in a trough. The sun burnished the ebony of Bee’s curls as she rubbed shadowed eyes. “Blessed Tanit! Cat, why did you let me drink so much?”



In late morning most of the tables were empty. We settled where we could look over the trolls’ courtyard but also see into the courtyard of the other half of the inn. There we saw Rory laughing next to his friend. Bee tended her hangover with a mug of beer and a bowl of broth. I devoured a splendid spelt porridge garnished with butter and a creamy pear sauce.



“Whatever happened with Kemal?” I asked.



She swirled the dregs of the ale in the mug. “Once we reached Havery, I sent a letter to the New Academy. After some weeks I received a reply. He wrote all manner of pleasing words, but he reiterated that he cannot leave the hatchlings until he is certain of their safety. I cannot fault him for the sentiment, but I felt obliged to reply that I could not visit him in Noviomagus given the current unpleasantness wracking Europa. I have my work, too, you know! Speeches to declaim! People to scold into behaving better! Blessed Tanit! Perhaps after all this he has reconsidered his partiality for me now he has come into his full power.”



I considered my empty spoon. “We are a sad pair.”



“Dearest, what do you mean to do now?”



“Camjiata’s skirmishers were last seen near the town of Cena. If I can find his army, I can sneak into his camp to kill Drake, and then return before Vai gets back from Senones and finds out I left. Then I’ll convince him to leave the mage House and fight for the general.”



“That’s your plan? Do you think it will be easy to convince him to leave now that he’s heir? With his monumental vanity, he’ll believe he can change things from within. That the mansa made sure to bestow such an honor on Andevai’s mother makes me respect the man’s devious mind. Has Andevai been unkind to you? Is that what drove you away?”



“Not at all. If anything, he has been overly kind.”



“That being so, you might have chosen a more prudent and less dramatic and public way of expressing your discontent.”



“I did express my discontent! He said that my being there made ‘all the difference,’ to him.”



She laughed. “I can see how that would have rubbed you the wrong way. Yet even you must see Andevai will take this defection very ill.”



“I just had to get out of there.”



Rory slipped onto the bench beside me, winkled the spoon from my hand, and started eating my porridge.



“Are you really willing to kill James Drake?” Bee asked.



“You have no idea how willing I am.” My fingers clutched my cane so tightly that, had it been ordinary wood, I would have crushed it into splinters. “He means to kill Vai regardless, so I must do it to protect Vai. Even if I cannot live in the mage House and he cannot leave it and so we must be parted… at least I will know he lives and thrives in his chosen place.”



Bee clapped one hand to her chest and the other, palm out, to her brow. “How affecting these maudlin ramblings are! I shall expire in their wake!”



Rory pressed a hand to my forehead. “Are you feverish, Cat?”



“It’s not amusing!”



“What isn’t amusing?” Brennan strolled up, looking fresh and handsome without a trace of hangover-sodden eyes. No wonder he was famous for his ability to hold his liquor! He glanced at Bee, then at Kehinde coming down the stairs from the upper floor with spectacles in hand as she squinted shortsightedly across the courtyard. After ordering porridge and ale, he sat next to me. Chartji and Caith joined us at the table. We exchanged morning greetings. Caith began picking through a heaping platter of nuts and dried berries, looking for the hazelnuts.