Eclipse stared at her. “You think he was hired by a witch?”
She hadn’t considered it until just now, but… “Maybe.”
“Why? And why would they then hire us to investigate it?”
“I can’t answer the first, but for the second… we tend to think of the witches as all getting along. Why should they? Do the Hunter schools?” They both knew how ludicrous that thought was. Even within Silverfire, there were rivalries. “It’s flat-out stupid not to expect factionality within them. So maybe one faction had Tari-nakana killed, and the ones who hired us are on the other side. Assuming there’s only two sides.”
He exhaled slowly, thinking it through. “Warrior’s blood. I thought this might turn out to be messy, but this is…”
“Ugly.”
“Uglier than the Crone with leprosy. Before, we had to worry that we’d die if we didn’t solve this. Now we have to worry that we’ll die if we do.”
“It could explain lots of things, though. Like why witches of so many different Rays are involved in our side; these factions don’t necessarily stick to Ray boundaries.”
“And why our Water contact bolted. Do you think Kekkai-nakana is on the side that hired the Wolfstar?”
“Maybe, maybe not. Our contact might fear that, though. It’s too simplistic to assume right now, but Kekkai-nakana might have had Tari-nakana killed out of ambition alone. And if our contact knows, or at least suspects, that other witches were behind the assassination, no wonder she’s afraid.” Mirage whistled suddenly. “And it explains Avalanche, too. Remember what he said? He was the only one she trusted. Tari-nakana had to have known the ones after her were witches; that’s why she couldn’t rely on Cousins as her bodyguards.”
It was making more and more sense. Mirage wished Avalanche were alive to confirm it, but even without that, the explanation was becoming more and more plausible. And more and more frightening. “Do we say anything yet?” Eclipse asked. Mirage chewed on her knuckle for a long time before answering. “No. Not until we talk to Jaguar. He can tell us about the Void witch who delivered it, if she behaved oddly or seemed to hold any information back.”
“And now we have another reason for going to Silverfire,” Eclipse said soberly. “What?”
“Protection. If we’re right, and witches are behind this, we’re going to be very unpopular with that faction. We may have no choice but to ask for shelter from Silverfire—since I don’t want to depend on ‘our’ side to keep us safe.”
Mirage shivered. Eclipse was all too right. She could feel the eyes upon her already, hunting her, after her blood, like a palpable weight on the back of her neck. Eyes that were closing in with every heartbeat. They hadn’t even told anyone their suspicions yet; when they did, the pursuit would begin in deadly earnest.
And however well-trained a fighter she might be, she had no way to protect herself against magic.
11
Haira [Miryo]
Miryo had ample opportunity to doubt her decision as they rode east. The journey through Currel’s rocky countryside was uneventful, verging on tedious, and gave her far too much time to question whether she should have gone north.
They traveled at a good pace, and by the fifth day were crossing the smoother, fertile lands of Seach’s southern coast. The road was lined with thick hedges and low stone walls; it was very different from the mountainous lands around Starfall, or Tsurike Hall’s airy forests in Insebrar, where. Miryo had spent her first ten years. She rode upright in her saddle, drinking in the sights.
The road wound between farms and the occasional, pasture. Often she could see people in the distance, hip-deep in the rapidly maturing grain. Farmers, of course, yet they seemed so different from the Cousins who performed the same work in Starfall’s domain, simply because they weren’t associated with witches. Miryo found herself squinting at these distant figures, and then realized she was trying to see if any of them had red hair.
The question of her doppelganger never left her mind for more than a moment. How had it spent the past twenty-five years? Where would she find it? It was, she figured, probably masquerading as a normal person. Would it be a farmer? Or had it taken up some craft? It would look like her, she remembered, and so she imagined herself in a dozen different contexts, each one stranger than the last. Miryo tried not to be distracted by these, and hunted the elusive flicker of instinct deep inside her mind. It was extraordinarily difficult. She repeatedly considered backtracking and going north, where she had a more concrete lead to follow. She never did it, though. Having committed to this path, she was determined to keep to it. For a while, at least. Until she could no longer stand to depend on the vague thread of direction that was all she had to guide her.
She was relieved when at last they came to something other than a village or a farm, simply for the distraction from her own doubt. And also, she had to admit, because once those villages and farms lost their exotic aura, they all mostly looked alike.
Haira’s capital consisted of a central keep surrounded by a city that sprawled across the forking of the Nuna and Tufa Rivers. Miryo and her companions had pushed to reach it that day, and so when they crested a ridge that gave sight of the city, the red-tiled houses were bathed in vivid sunset light, and the rivers blazed as if they were on fire,
“Beautiful,” Miryo murmured, momentarily entranced by the sight. The Cousins, as usual, said nothing.
The vantage given by the ridge was deceptive; it was nearing full dark by the time they passed through the gates and into the bustling evening activity of the city.
Haira was not a place that went to sleep with the sun, particularly not in the summer, when the nights were pleasant. Hawkers continued to cry their wares, often in Miryo’s face, and the taverns and gambling halls along this main road overflowed with light and laughter. She debated dismounting to lead her horse, but there were other mounted people in the streets, and she feared being crushed by the crowd if she went on foot. This was a far cry from Starfall, or the rural quiet of the previous days.
A woman careened out of a doorway to Miryo’s right and almost fell under her horse. Miryo grabbed the woman’s arm to pull her to her feet, and got drunken thanks in return.
“Tell me, where can I get a room?” she asked the woman, although by the looks of her she’d had enough beer to forget her own name.
The woman peered up at Miryo and grabbed the stirrup to steady herself. Miryo’s horse sidled until she controlled it. “North,” the woman said at last, having finished her examination of Miryo’s face. “Not around here. In the bit between the Nuna and the Tufa. We like to keep our gambling and our housing separate, here.” She grinned, and Miryo saw that she had lost two teeth at some point in her life. “Want me to show you?”
Miryo agreed warily. Having a guide through this crowd would be useful, but she knew that such offers were sometimes traps. Well, if it comes to a scuffle, that’s what I have two Cousins along for.
The woman took her horse’s bridle and began to lead the animal deftly through the streets. Miryo checked back periodically to make certain neither of the Cousins had gotten cut off by the crowd, but mostly she watched the woman for any sign of trouble.