“Don’t make a sound,” he said, voice grim. “You will nod yes or no to my questions, and make no other movement. Did you hire Thornblood Hunters today?”
How am I supposed to answer that? It was yesterday, not today, and Kan did the actual hiring, albeit while sort of pretending to be me. So do I say yes or no?
The man had no patience for her indecision. He grabbed her shoulder roughly and swung her around to face him.
Her worst fears were confirmed. The intruder was a Hunter, fully uniformed. And while she didn’t think he was one of the three men from earlier in the day, she had no doubt that the rest of the Thornbloods were less than happy about the treatment of their own. The look in his eyes was cold as steel, and as unforgiving.
For a moment, at least. Then his eyes shot open, and his knife hand dropped to his side.
At that instant, the door swung hard into the wall. The Hunter spun around, drawing his sword. Miryo tried to yell a warning and choked on the gag. Without even looking, he snapped his left arm around and put the dagger back to her throat. She froze.
Mirage took one look at the two of them and fell against the door frame laughing.
Should I be relieved, or offended?
“Eclipse,” Mirage said when she had air to speak, “take that gag out of her mouth. She’s not going to cause any trouble.”
Eclipse? Her partner. I’d better not tell him I thought he was a Thornblood.
“What’s going on?” he said roughly, not moving either blade an inch. “Who in the Crone’s name is she? Are you even who you look hike?” His sword arm extended as though he expected Mirage to attack.
“Take the gag out, Kerestel,” Mirage said, not laughing anymore. “I understand that this looks strange, but it does have an explanation, however odd. I was waylaid by Thornbloods, but that’s over with, and we can deal with them later. I promise Miryo won’t cast a spell.”
Miryo’s earlier trust in her was repaid. Eclipse wavered for a moment, then reluctantly sheathed his blades. He pulled the gag none too gently from her mouth, and did not apologize for the rudeness.
“Sit down,” Mirage said. “This will be a shock.”
16
Kan
A long stretch of explanation later, Eclipse had not ran screaming from the room. He even seemed to accept what they had to say, at least provisionally. Mirage was relieved. Although she had allies, he was one of her few friends; she would need his support to get through this. Especially since he too was blood-oathed to the commission.
And I have yet to figure out where I stand with Miryo. Or where she stands with me.
The witch was, as far as she could tell, being completely forthright. And her attitude had changed since their encounter in the hallway; she saw Mirage now, as a person instead of a thing.
Although I have the feeling that her prior attitude didn’t come easily to her. It was something taught to her by the Primes, not something she believed in herself. Which is lucky for me, since it meant I could bluff her.
The three of them were sitting in an arc in the study, looking at their boots or the wall or random spots on the ceiling. No one had spoken for a while. The only sound Mirage could hear was the buzzing of an insect against one of the windows, fighting to get out into the darkening sky.
“There is one other thing,” Miryo said at last. Mirage looked at her sharply. “I haven’t mentioned it before now because I’m still not sure what it means. But before I was tested, one of the witches at Starfall was acting strangely. Ashin-kasora, the Air Hand Key. She was very much on edge about my testing. It looked like she couldn’t decide whether I was fated to sprout wings or die on the spot. It sort of makes sense now; she knew you were alive, Mirage. And she must have known I’d be sent to kill you. But still it feels like she’s expecting… something else. I really don’t know what. My best guess is that she suspected we’d end up where we are now.”
“In cooperation. Where is she, do you know?”
“No idea. Askavya, I was told, but that was a while ago. She disappeared right after my test, you see, before I’d even woken up.”
Mirage glanced at Eclipse, who was looking alert and thoughtful. “We could try to find out where she is.”
He returned her glance with interest when she said that. Mirage knew what he was thinking. But could they trust Miryo that far?
The two events were almost certainly related. Which meant she didn’t have much choice.
Mirage cleared her throat and addressed Miryo again. “Were you familiar with Tari-nakana?”
“I didn’t know her personally, if that’s what you mean. But I do know who she was. Does this have to do with her death?”
“Very much so. She was assassinated.”
Miryo’s eyes widened. “She what?”
“By a Hunter. A Wolfstar.” Mirage outlined their trips to Starfall and Vilardi, and Avalanche’s role in the matter.
“So how is this related?”
“There’s two angles. First, Tari-nakana was tracking my movements before she died. I know this because I found a list in her study that matched my recent itinerary.”
Miryo’s eyes narrowed. “So Ashin wasn’t the only one who knew about you.”
“It looks that way. The second angle, though, is… well, not dubious; we’re fairly certain of our conclusions. But I don’t know if they’re tied in with our situation. We think the Wolfstar was hired by witches.”
Miryo became very still. She did not so much as blink. Mirage, waiting for a response from her, doubted she was even breathing.
“An interesting theory,” the witch said at last, and her voice was so carefully controlled Mirage could guess at the roiling emotions it was masking. “Would you care to back it up?”
Mirage explained their reasoning as thoroughly and carefully as she could. Miryo had to be reeling at the idea; it was comparable to someone telling Mirage that a Silverfire Hunter had killed the person employing him as a bodyguard. Not impossible, but certainly shocking. She owed it to her double to prove the accusation was well thought out.
Miryo listened, stone-faced. When Mirage was done, she closed her eyes as if in pain, then opened them grimly. “I see. I can’t say I like the idea, but… well, a year ago I wouldn’t have believed you at all. But there’s something about the way Ashin disappeared—it’s not unusual; vanishing without telling anyone where you’re going is standard behavior for an Air Hand, but I still thought there was something off about it. As if she had not just left, but had… fled.”
“Do you think she expects what Tari-nakana got?” Mirage asked.
“I don’t know. But they both knew you were alive.” Miryo looked pensive, then shook her head with a sigh. “I’ll have to think about this. So what do you do now?”
“We haven’t told our employer yet,” Eclipse said. “There were a few things we wanted to take care of first.”
“We were headed for Miest,” Mirage elaborated. “We need to talk to Jaguar, the head of Silverfire. He’s the one who tapped us for the commission; he may know something more about the situation. And, to be quite honest, we wanted our defenses in place before we started flinging accusations about.”
“Defenses?”
“Our school is more than just the place where we learned things. If one of our people gets into trouble because of something he did in the course of fulfilling a contract, he can petition Silverfire for help. I don’t know if we’ll need it, but I’d rather be prepared.”
Miryo nodded. A wry grin slipped across her face. “Do you think they’d let me join you in hiding?”
“We’ll make sure it doesn’t come to that.”