“I sent the footmen out to get me dinner. We have a few minutes.”
“Will you promise that you won’t turn me inside out until I’ve explained myself fully?”
Ichtracia’s eyes narrowed. She wasn’t wearing her gloves, but Michel didn’t know if they weren’t in the pockets of her dressing gown. He touched the bottle of chloroform and wondered just how stupid he really was. “I promise,” she said.
“I need to clarify something first. Your nickname is Mara, correct?”
“It is,” she said through clenched teeth.
“Is that a common nickname?” He already knew the answer to that.
“Why would it be?” There was genuine anger in her eyes, and Michel moved on quickly.
“I need to know, because I’m here for a woman named Mara.” Michel’s heart began to hammer, and he wondered if perhaps he was committing suicide. If there was even the slightest chance he was wrong, he might be dead before he could reach the door. “Look, I didn’t come to the Dynize to get back at the Blackhats who betrayed me. I’ve never even worked for them – not really. I came to the Dynize because my boss told me to retrieve a woman named Mara and get her out of Landfall. He told me that she was in incredible danger.”
Ichtracia’s jaw tightened and she reached into her pockets, producing her gloves. Michel leapt toward her, hands out front. “Wait! You were in contact with a woman, probably with sorcery, until about a year ago. You spoke to her again perhaps” – he grimaced – “two months ago. She may have warned you I was coming, she may not have, but I was sent to get you out.”
Ichtracia’s eyes wandered the room, her brow furrowing, and the gloves slipped from her fingers back into her pockets. She took several steps over to the bed and sat down, staring at her hands for a moment before looking up at Michel. “I shouldn’t have ever answered when she spoke to me,” she said softly.
“But you did.”
“Because she seemed to know me. I told her things – too many things – and I have betrayed my country.”
This was not going well, not at all. “I don’t know what you told her. All I know is that I was asked to get you out. Look, I had no idea you were the woman I was sent for until I overheard Sedial the other day. I’ve been looking in vain for Mara, only to find out I’m sharing her bed. That’s why I left. I had to gather my thoughts.”
“I see.” Ichtracia’s eyes focused on Michel. “You were sent to save me?”
Her voice took on an angry tone that Michel didn’t like. “That’s what I was told.”
“From what?” she demanded.
“I have no idea. Danger. That’s all I know.”
Ichtracia leaned toward him. “You have nowhere to take me. These are my people. I never told the voice in my head that I wanted to leave. I just told her I didn’t want war.”
“Well, she thinks you’re going to get killed if you stay in Landfall.”
“And that’s supposed to surprise me?” she asked flatly. Michel had the sudden realization that there was something going on beneath the surface that he knew nothing about. More information that Taniel had withheld? Or something new? “My whole purpose is to die.”
Did she mean as a tool of the state? Michel took a half step toward her, lowering his hands until he could feel the bottle in his pocket. He grimaced inwardly. No, he was not that stupid. Beyond the danger of chloroforming a Privileged, pulling shit like that would destroy any trust that had grown between them the last few days. He realized, quite suddenly, that he couldn’t do that.
“Who are you?” she asked him.
The question took him off guard. He considered a dozen lies, and discarded them. “You know most of it already. I really am named Michel Bravis, and I really was a Blackhat Gold Rose. But I truly work for a man called the Red Hand, and I infiltrated the Blackhats on his behalf. I was still maintaining my cover when he asked me to get you out of the city safely. My cover was blown by one of my fellow Blackhats, so I came to the Dynize.”
“You’re going to betray them. Us.” She laughed bitterly. “I suppose you’re not betraying us if you never really were one of us. Yaret adopted you into his Household. Do you know what that even means? He took a foreign spy under his wing.”
Michel swallowed. That trust was long gone. “I’m not betraying anyone. I won’t steal anything. I won’t kill people. I’m not even looking for information. I’m here for you.”
“Betrayal doesn’t just involve murder, Michel,” Ichtracia said. “This whole thing with you dismantling the Blackhats – it was a front?”
“It was.” He hesitated before continuing. “It actually felt pretty good. I’ve had to work with those assholes for years while they torture and subjugate my people.”
Ichtracia, through her anger, actually cracked a smile. “I knew you were interesting.”
Michel watched her hands, waiting for them to dip back into her pockets for her gloves. If she went for them, he might have no choice but to tackle her and try the chloroform. He really didn’t want to do that.
“All of that, just to get to me,” she scoffed quietly. “I’m not leaving, Michel. I spoke with a voice in my head. I told her some information, sure. But I never told her I wanted to join some Palo freedom fighter off in the jungle.”
Michel’s heart began to fall. This was it. A complete failure to finish his mission and – surprisingly hurtful – the end of his relationship with Ichtracia. He would probably be dead in a couple of minutes.
“What will you do?” she asked.
“If you refuse to come?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll look for the next opportunity to leave. I’m not going to force you to come with me.”
She snorted. “As if you could.” In a moment of bravado, Michel tossed her the bottle of chloroform. She caught it, looked at the label, and stared daggers at him. “You were going to use this on me?”
“I considered it. I’m supposed to do a job. But I like you a little more than that. So if you don’t want to come, I’ll just tell my boss that I couldn’t find you. If you let me walk out of here, that is.”
Ichtracia passed the chloroform back and forth between her hands, then held it to the light to look at the liquid inside. “I’ve heard this is unpleasant.”
“It’s not enjoyable.” Michel wondered if he should make a run for it. “Look, how about this: I stay here three more days. I help Yaret find that prick je Tura and put an end to the Blackhats in Landfall for good. If at the end of those three days you change your mind, I have a way for us to disappear. If not … then I’ll go alone.”
“I won’t change my mind. These are my people, Michel. I have a duty to fulfill.”
“Consider it.” Careful to make no sudden moves, Michel headed toward the door. He was out in the street before he allowed himself to breathe again. Three days. Three ways this could go: Either he’d get out alone, he’d get out with Ichtracia, or she’d hand him over to be tortured to death.
What a way to live.
Chapter 57
“We’ve run out of land,” Jackal reported.
Styke sat in his saddle, frowning at a grassy hill on the horizon. They were a couple days south of New Starlight and had reached the far southwest corner of the Hammer, where rolling hills of fallow fields stretched for thousands of acres in every direction, barren but for the occasional farming hamlet carving out a living in the poor soil. The farming hamlets had been abandoned since the Dynize arrival, and they hadn’t seen another soul for two days.
Styke glanced at Ibana, who cocked an eyebrow at him and turned her horse around and rode back down the line, checking in with officers and making sure that the whole company was still together.