LITMIR.BIZ

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better to do?” she muttered to Severn.

      He said nothing.

      It was Rennick who said, “Probably not. They don’t want the Tha’alani to leave the Quarter, and they’re making sure that they don’t. Hey! That man has a crossbow!”

      Kaylin had seen it. The fact that it was still in his hands implied that the Swords had far more work than they should have, and it troubled her. But not enough that she wanted to stop the carriage, get down and start a fight.

      Because it would be a fight, and it would probably get messy.

      “They’re frightened,” she said, surprising herself.

      “Funny how frightened people can be damn scary,” Rennick replied. But he looked thoughtful, not worried.

      “How many?” Kaylin asked Severn.

      “A hundred and fifty, maybe. Some of them are in the upper windows along the street. I imagine that the Tha’alani who serve the Emperor are being heavily escorted.”

      “Or given a vacation.”

      He nodded.

      “Has there been any official word about the incident?” Rennick asked quietly.

      Kaylin shrugged.

      “You don’t know?”

      “Right up until one of those idiots fires his crossbow or swings his—is that a pickax?” Severn nodded. “Swings his ax,” she continued, “it’s not Hawk business. It’s Sword, and the Swords are here.”

      And they were. Kaylin had thought they’d send twenty men out; she was wrong by almost an order of magnitude. She thought there were maybe two hundred in total—no wonder the Halls of Law were so damn quiet.

      But while they lined the street, they hadn’t built an official barricade, they did meet the carriage in the road, well away from the gatehouse, and they did tell the driver to step down. They also opened the doors, and Kaylin made sure she tumbled out first.

      “Private Neya?” said the man who had delivered the curt instructions. He was older than Kaylin by about fifteen years, and the day seemed to have added about a hundred new wrinkles, and a layer of gray to his skin, but she recognized him. “Max—Uh, Sergeant,” she added, as he looked pointedly over her soldier. “Sergeant Voone. You’re out here?”

      Max wasn’t retired, exactly, but he spent a lot of his time behind a desk. He appeared to like it a great deal more than Marcus—but a corpse would have given that impression as well. And Max looked tired.

      “Most of us are, as you put it, out here. I know why we’re here—what are you doing in a fancy box?”

      “Oh. Uh, we were sent here.”

      “By?”

      “Lord Sanabalis.”

      He whistled. “To do what?”

      “Not to step all over your toes, relax.”

      His chuckle was entirely mirthless. “We’ll relax when these people remember they have jobs and family.”

      “I’m thinking they remember the family part,” Kaylin replied. “People go crazy when they think they’re protecting their own.”

      “Tell me about it. No, strike that. Don’t.”

      “When did it get this bad?”

      “There was an incident two days ago.”

      “Incident?”

      “It was messy,” he replied, his voice entirely neutral. “The Swordlord made it clear that there will be no more incidents. The Emperor was not impressed.”

      She winced. It wasn’t often that she felt sympathy for the Swords. But while she resented the easy life the Swords generally called work, she liked them better than the people with the crossbows down the street.

      “You know they’re armed?” she asked casually.

      “We are well aware that they’re armed. And no, thank you, we don’t require help in disarming them. They’re waiting for an invitation. Let them wait. At that distance.”

      She looked at Severn as Severn exited the carriage. Rennick tumbled out after him. “Sergeant Voone,” Severn said, before the sergeant could speak, “Richard Rennick. He’s the Imperial Playwright.”

      “This is not a good time for sightseeing,” the Sword said to Rennick.

      Rennick looked him up and down, and then shrugged. “It wasn’t my idea.” But he was subdued, now. He lifted a hand to his face, rubbing the scruff on his chin.

      “You can call the Hawks out,” Kaylin continued. “At least the Aerians—”

      “We’ve got Aerians here. They’re not currently in the air,” he added. And then he gave her an odd look. “The Hawks have their own difficulties to worry about. I was sorry to hear the news.”

      “What news?”

      His whole expression shuttered, not that it was ever all that open.

      “Voone, what news? What’s happened?”

      “You came from the Halls?”

      “The Halls don’t usually have access to Imperial Carriages. What happened?”

      “No one died,” he replied, and his tone of voice added yet. “But you might want to check in at the office before you head home.”

      She wanted to push him for more, but Severn shook his head slightly. “Ybelline.”

      There was no Tha’alani guard at the guardhouse. That position was taken up by a dozen Swords. They wore chain, and they carried unsheathed swords. You’d have to be crazy to rush the gatehouse.

      Kaylin approached it quietly and answered the questions the Swords asked; they were all perfunctory. Voone escorted them to the squad and left them there, after mentioning her name loudly enough to wake the dead. She noted all of this and tried to squelch her own fear. Severn was right, of course. They’d come here for Ybelline. But the sympathies of Voone made her nervous.

      The Swords hadn’t entered the Quarter; they were met by Tha’alani guards. Four men in armor. Their stalks swiveled toward her as she entered.

      She saw that they, too, bore unsheathed swords, and it made her … angry. Those weapons just looked wrong in Tha’alani hands; she wondered if they even knew how to use them.

      But using them wasn’t an issue. They bowed to her, almost as one man. “Ybelline is waiting for you,” one told her quietly.

      “At her house?”

      “Not at her domicile. Demett will take you to her.” The man so identified stepped away from his companions.

      “Where is she?”

      “At the longhouse” was his reply—spoken in the stiff and exact cadence that Tha’alani who were unused to speech used. He obviously expected her to know what the longhouse was, and she didn’t bother to correct him.

      She followed him, and it took her a moment to realize why the streets here felt so wrong—they were empty. Usually walking down a Tha’alani street was like walking in the Foundling Hall—it was a gauntlet of little attention-seeking children, with their open curiosity and their utter lack of decorum.

      She didn’t care for the change. Hell, even the plants were drooping. Rennick walked between Severn and her, and made certain that there was always at least one body between him and the nearest Tha’alani. He wasn’t overly obvious about it, but it rankled. Even when Kaylin had been terrified of the Tha’alani, she wouldn’t have tried to hide. One, it wouldn’t have done much good and two—well, two, she didn’t casually throw strangers to fates she

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