“I don’t know,” Rothen replied. “I just arrived. Why are you still here?”
The man’s shoulders lifted. “I volunteered to keep an eye on the houses until everyone comes back.”
Rothen glanced up at his horse. “Anyone from the stables still here?”
“No, but I can take care of your horse for you.”
“Thank you.” Rothen handed the reins to the servant. “If nobody comes back by the end of the day, leave. Take the horse, if you wish.”
The man looked surprised. He bowed, then patted the horse’s nose and led her away. Rothen turned and started along the path to the Guild.
Three hours had passed since Cery had parted with Sonea and Akkarin. He’d received reports that she had gone to the slums to deal with the lone Ichani. Akkarin had disappeared in the Inner Circle, and Takan could not say what his master was doing.
A smuggler’s den under the Inner Circle had been selected as a meeting place. It was a large room, filled to the roof with goods. As three figures began to walk down the aisle between the shelving, Cery smiled and walked forward to meet them.
“Your Guild killed one of the Ichani,” he said. “One dead, seven to go.”
“No.” Sonea smiled. “Two dead, six to go.”
He glanced at Faren. “The one in the slums?”
“Yes, though none of my doing.”
He grinned and felt a glow of pleasure. “One of my traps worked, then?”
“I think you should have a look at what’s left of the slums before you go boasting about it,” Faren replied dryly. His second nodded in agreement.
“What happened?” Cery asked, looking at Sonea.
“Faren can explain later.” She looked over his shoulder, and he turned to find Takan approaching. “Do either of you know where Akkarin is?” she asked.
The servant shook his head. “I have received no word from him for two hours.”
Sonea frowned. Finding the same expression on Takan’s face, Cery guessed that, whatever Akkarin was doing, he wanted it to remain private. What was so important that Akkarin would hide it from his two closest companions?
“Where are the other Ichani?” Faren asked.
“Five in the Palace, one roaming around,” Cery told them.
“Let me guess,” Sonea said, “the wanderer is the woman.”
“Yes.”
She sighed. “I suppose I should wait here until Akkarin comes back.”
Cery smiled. “I’ve got someone hidden down here I want you to meet.”
“Oh, and who might that be?”
“A magician. I saved him from the Ichani woman. He’s very grateful. In fact, he’s so grateful he’s volunteered to be the bait for the next little trap we’ve set up.”
Cery led her around a stack of boxes to a small space filled with chairs. The novice was sitting in one of them. He looked up as they appeared, then rose and smiled.
“Greetings, Sonea.”
Sonea stared at him in dismay. As he’d expected, she replied with gritted teeth.
“Regin.”
35
Trapped
“Sit down, Sonea,” Cery urged. “You two stay here, while I fetch something to eat.”
Sonea stared at Cery. No doubt he had no inkling of the history between her and Regin. Then he winked at her and she realized he had remembered who Regin was.
“Go on,” he said. “I’m sure you have plenty of catching up to do.”
Sonea sat down reluctantly. She looked at Faren, but the Thief had moved across the room and was having a murmured conversation with his second. Takan was pacing in another corner. Regin glanced at her, looked away, rubbed his palms together, then cleared his throat.
“So,” he said, “you kill any of these Sachakans yet?”
Sonea resisted the urge to laugh. It was a strange, yet somehow appropriate, way to begin a conversation with her old enemy.
“A couple,” she said.
He nodded. “The one in the slums?”
“No. One in the South Pass, and one before then, in the city.”
His gaze slipped to the floor. “Was it hard?”
“Killing someone?” She grimaced. “Yes and no. I guess you don’t think about it, when you’re trying to stop the other person killing you. You only think about it later.”
He smiled faintly. “I meant, are they hard to kill?”
“Oh.” She looked away. “Probably. I only succeeded with those two because I tricked them.”
“Probably? Don’t you know how strong they are?”
“No. I’m not even sure how strong I am. I guess I’ll find out when I have to fight one.”
“Then how do you know if you can win a battle?”
“I don’t.”
Regin looked up at her, his expression incredulous. Then he flushed and looked away. “Everyone’s given you a hard time,” he said in a low voice. “Lord Fergun, me and the novices, and the whole Guild when they found out you’d learned black magic—but you still came back. You’re still willing to risk your life to save us.” He shook his head. “If I’d known what was going on, I wouldn’t have been so rough on you that first year.”
Sonea stared at him, caught between disbelief and surprise. Was this an apology?
He met her eyes. “I just... if I live through all this, I’ll try and make it up to you.” He shrugged. “If I live through this, it’s the least I can do.”
She nodded. Now it was even harder to think of something to say to him. She was saved from having to when a tall figure strode into view from between the stacks of boxes.
“Akkarin!” She leapt out of her seat and hurried to meet him. He smiled grimly as he saw her.
“Sonea.”
“Did you see what the dwells did?”
“Yes, I watched through the ring, and saw the consequences.”
She frowned. His expression was tight, as if he was hiding the pain of an injury.
“What’s wrong,” she whispered. “What happened?”
His eyes flickered over her shoulder toward Regin. Taking her arm, he drew her down the aisle for several paces, then looked down and sighed heavily.
“Lorlen is dead.”
Lorlen? Dead? She stared at him in horror, then as she read pain in his face she felt a wave of sympathy for him. Lorlen had been Akkarin’s closest friend, yet Akkarin had been forced to lie to him, to blackmail him, and control him through the ring. The last few years had been terrible for them both. The weight that had dragged at her since hearing that Rothen had died felt suddenly unbearably heavy.
She wound her arms around Akkarin’s waist and rested her forehead on his chest. He drew her closer and held her tightly. After a moment he took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“I saw Dannyl and Osen,” he told her quietly. “They were with Lorlen, so they know of our presence now. I warned them that they must not tell the others and I... I took Lorlen’s ring.”
“What about the rest of the Guild?”
“I doubt any are left who are not exhausted or near it,” he said. “The Thieves have taken some into the passages. Others have retreated to the Guild grounds.”
“How many are dead?”
“I don’t know. Twenty. Fifty. Maybe more.”
So many. “What do we do now?”
Akkarin held her for a little longer, then pushed her to arm’s length.
“Kariko is in the Palace with four of the others. Avala still wanders the streets alone. We must find her before she joins them again.”
Sonea nodded. “I wish I had known what the Thieves had planned to do to the Ichani in the slums. If either of us had been close by, we could have had all his power.”
“Yes, but there is one less Ichani for us to deal with now.” He let her go, then moved back into the aisle. “Your friend Cery does have some interesting ideas. I think, if Kyralia survives, the Guild will find the Purge has become a dangerous exercise.”
Sonea smiled. “I thought I had convinced them of that.”
“Not quite in the way Cery’s friends might.”
As they reached the end of the room, Sonea saw that Cery had returned with the promised food. Takan was eating hungrily, no longer looking as worried as he had been. Regin was looking from her to Akkarin, his eyes glittering with interest.