She’d be a fool to try. No one knows I can’t use my magic. All the people here look at me and see a witch. With two Cousins who, by their looks, are quite competent with their swords. Miryo shivered, although the air was warm. Mother, I do hope they’re competent. I assume they are, and if I’m wrong, I don’t want to find out in the middle of an attack.
They soon left the main crush behind, and Kan and Sai moved up closer to Miryo’s sides. She began to breathe easier. The streets they were on were less crowded, but not deserted. It didn’t feel like they were headed into an ambush.
A bridge loomed in the uncertain light ahead. The Tufa River rushed underneath, white-capped and energetic. Miryo’s guide had released her horse’s bridle; now she gestured for the three of them to follow her over the bridge. On the other side, they found themselves amid buildings with signs marking them as inns.
“Here you are,” the woman said, indicating the buildings with a sweep of her arm.
“Any recommendations?” Miryo asked, having decided the woman was not a thief.
She shrugged. “I live here. I don’t know.” She scanned the street less drunkenly than she had Miryo’s face a while before. “That one over there, I’ve heard it mentioned once or twice. Decent food. I could use a bite myself.”
Miryo looked to the one she had indicated, THE DANCING FLAME, the sign read, with a cozy hearth painted above the words. She glanced back at Kan, who shrugged. Sai looked blank.
“Sounds good,” she said at last.
Neither room nor food was too expensive, and by the time their bags were upstairs, the woman had ordered supper for all of them, a dish of rice mixed with vegetables. Miryo poked through hers cautiously, then took a bite; it was acceptable.
“What’s your name?” she asked the woman, who was devouring her own food at a good rate.
“Anthia,” she mumbled, wiping a drip of sauce off her chin.
“Thank you, Anthia. Are all of the folk here so helpful?”
The woman swallowed and flashed a quick grin at her. “Some of them. You kept me from falling under your horse, and so saved me from bruises, maybe broken bones. I figured you deserved something in return.”
Miryo gave her a sharp look. Her voice had cleared of its slur with remarkable speed. “Somehow,” she said, “I don’t think that’s quite true.”
Anthia looked puzzled.
“You’re not as drunk as you pretended to be. And you weren’t as off-balance as you looked; I could tell that as soon as I grabbed you.”
Anthia saluted with her mug of cider. “Sharp of you.”
“So the question is,” Miryo said, studying the woman closely, “did you fall into me on purpose, and if so, why?”
A shrug. “I wanted a better look at you, and it seems less strange if you pretend to be drunk. Drunk people act oddly.”
“Why did you want a better look?”
Anthia gave her a half grin and took a sip of cider. “Tell you later.”
“Tell me now,” Miryo said.
“Not here,” the woman said, still with that half grin, and flicked her eyes toward the few other patrons in the room.
Miryo stood. “Upstairs, then.”
The Hairan seemed about to protest, but Kan had her arm by then, and propelled her firmly up the stairs.
Up in the room, Kan and Sai bracketed Anthia, but not too threateningly. The Hairan leaned against the wall and seemed much more amused than she had any right to be.
“I must say,” Anthia murmured, looking at the Cousins on either side of her, “I didn’t expect this out of you. I must be getting careless in my old age. Most people take far longer to get this paranoid.”
“What are you after?” Miryo asked, her voice hard.
“Haven’t you checked yet?” Anthia asked, cocking her head to one side.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Odd,” Anthia murmured, her eyes narrowing. “Well, you look wet behind the ears still; you must not be in the habit yet.” Abruptly Anthia was gone, and in her place stood a younger, cockier-looking woman with red hair and a triskele pendant.
“Oh, Lady,” Miryo murmured, sitting down hard on the bed.
“No, Terica’s the Lady here. I’m Edame, adviser to her and her Lord husband.”
“Miryo,” she replied, standing once more. “I didn’t realize.”
“You weren’t meant to. That was the point of the illusion. A tip, oh green one: If someone seems odd, check them for any kind of magic. Sometimes it’ll be a fellow witch in disguise. Sometimes it’ll be someone spelled by a witch, for any one of a number of purposes. Sometimes it’ll just be somebody odd. But it’s always good to know.”
Edame didn’t look much less green than Miryo herself; if the woman was a day over thirty, Miryo would eat her shoes. How she had gotten to be adviser to the rulers of a domain was a mystery, but Miryo recognized her name and knew she wasn’t lying. “I’ll keep that in mind. Now, what exactly were you doing?”
The witch shrugged. “The more feckless of Lord Mimre’s two sons was gambling in that hall tonight. I was keeping an eye on him, at my Lord Iseman’s request. Then, as I was leaving, I saw you, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to investigate what a sister of mine was doing in town.”
She’s as prying as Morisuke—and she’s not even a Head! “Well, my business is my own.”
“Certainly,” Edame said easily. “Still, can I offer you lodgings at the keep? The beds up there don’t have lice.”
“Kind of you, to point me to an inn with lice.”
“All of the inns have them, except for the ridiculously expensive ones patronized by fat merchants. And even some of those.”
Miryo found herself glancing at Kan and Sai. Both of them had on their usual faces, impassive and wary, but neither seemed to see a danger in the offer. Miryo didn’t see any, either. And it would be good to save the money. “All right.”
Edame nodded. “Excellent.” She gestured peremptorily for the Cousins to take the bags. “Let’s not waste any time; it’ll take a while to get to the keep.”
The Fire Hand took them through the northern and southeastern districts rather than fight the crowds in the southwest again. The central keep was just south of the fork in the river, nestled right up against the bank.
Not much of a “keep,” Miryo thought, looking up at it. I don’t know much about warfare, but it doesn’t look very defensible to me. Not with buildings crowded right up against its walls. I guess they’re not worried about an attack.
Edame roused a pair of stable boys to care for the horses and swept right on into the keep proper. Miryo tried not to scurry at the woman’s heels, but she had a very swift stride. They whipped through one high-ceilinged hallway after another until Edame stopped dead and made an irritated noise. “Blasted woman. I can never find her when I need her.” She sang a quick seeking spell, then set off again at the same brisk pace. Miryo felt the power move—primarily Air, and little enough that Edame didn’t need a focus to handle it—and swallowed. Narika’s warning was becoming more real to her. She wanted to be able to do what Edame had, wanted to disguise herself and find people she was looking for with the power that was her birthright.
Not yet, she said to herself, and gritted her teeth. Not yet.
She didn’t realize how grim her expression had become until they came across Edame’s target, and the woman flinched visibly at her look. Miryo smoothed her face hastily and attended to what the Fire Hand was saying.
“I know you don’t have anything prepared,” Edame said impatiently. “But you can put something together, surely. We’re always housing visitors here. This is the domain capital, for Crone’s sake! Don’t tell me that you can’t find a room for one of my sisters!”