Mask of Shadows (Untitled #1)(72)

“Try to buy your way out of this,” I whispered. He’d either be poor as dirt or walking to the gallows by the end of the trial.

He snorted and turned over. I dropped the bloody purse filled with credit coins into the pocket of his discarded over-robe and spat on my hands to dampen the blood dried between my fingers. Couldn’t be too obvious or his servants would’ve noticed but still obvious enough.

I checked the size of his hands. Perfect.

I tossed one glove with his clothes, another behind the head of the bed, and cleaned my hands in Pau’s washbasin. A few drops of wine were easy enough to dribble on his clothes. Tonin hadn’t had time to fight back. The only ties to the murder Pau needed were a weapon, blood, and motive.

Check, check, and check.

What’d folks say? Death weighed you down? I’d not known the heavy pain of it till I was five and Erlend dragged its shadows to my home. This was nothing compared to my darkened childhood.

“I hope they hang you,” I said to Pau’s closed eyes.

Pau, snoring away the night in a drunken stupor, only rolled over.

I wiped all traces of me from his room, took one last look at his face, and pulled on my mask.

“And I hope I’m here to watch.”





Forty-Two


I’d a credit coin and Tonin’s signet ring to give the Left Hand, and if that didn’t work, they could wait for the news of Pau’s arrest. Two debts for the price of one.

“Twenty-Three?”

I turned at the familiar voice, spying Dimas’s willowy figure weaving between the palace gate guards. I stopped.

“The Left Hand is in the breakfast nook from your first meeting.” He led me through the gate—there were more guards with weathered knowing faces—and through the old courtyard where I’d first met Ruby. “It would be unwise to approach alone.”

“For me or the guards?” I asked as he opened the door.

He smiled. “You. Auditions are over. The palace patrols have returned.”

“Over?” I slipped through the door he held open, grinning. “Sounds good to me.”

“Should it?” Emerald’s voice cut through the pleasant, buzzing energy still coursing through my veins after Tonin’s death and Pau’s looming arrest. “I’ve gotten word of a rather bloody murder.”

I nodded—news from Nicolas surely. “By who?”

She shrugged.

Ruby laughed. “You’ve been starting rumors.”

“You gave me a job,” I said. “But it was more trap than test.”

“No, it was all test.” Amethyst leaned forward. “Did you pass?”

“Thorn da Tonin is dead. I injured no one during, and I wasn’t caught.” I swallowed. That was every rule.

“Proof?” Ruby asked. “Your secrets can’t save you tonight. Where were you?”

I glared at him, in no mood for his tone or reminder of my probation. “Alibi.”

Amethyst let out a laugh.

“Alibi?” Ruby rolled his head back and sighed. “You can’t invoke ‘alibi’ and expect us to take your word for it.”

“I was at Alibi. Ask Nanami Kita. She saw me.” I leaned against the wall next to the door. “Shan de Pau should be getting arrested for murder soon.”

The Left Hand stayed silent, blank masks staring motionless at me. Then Ruby very slowly clapped and laced his fingers together. He leaned forward, chin on his knuckles.

“Shan de Pau. A murderer. Who would have thought? How will he be discovered?” Ruby asked. “And how convenient that a man so hated will be shuffled aside by the laws he’s been so careful to abide.”

“Gambling debts and bloody credit notes—merchants are very predictable about their money.” I tossed the only credit coin I’d kept at Ruby. “You know what Shan de Pau did, and you sent me there—”

“Because not killing him would’ve been your job if you were Opal,” Emerald said sharply. “Yes, we know. Our Queen knows every detail, but he bought his freedom by funding her.”

My rage at watching him relax on that rooftop flared. She knew. Our Queen knew, and she’d let him off for money that wasn’t his to give. “He’s a citizen of Igna! Whatever is his belongs to her. She could’ve just claimed it.”

“And the people of a nation barely born would never have trusted her.” Emerald stood in one fluid motion, looming over me before I could blink, and held me against the wall. Her fingers closed around my arm. “Our nation is held together by fragile promises and fear. We are that fear, and we cannot jeopardize the deals Our Queen made after the war. Lord del Weylin has styled himself King of Erlend. He will take any chance he can to cast Our Queen aside and claim the throne. One moment of weakness or malcontent, and Igna is no more. You will not unsettle what little peace the civilians of this country have. Understood?”

I nodded.

I lied.

“Good.” She let go and settled back into her chair.

Ruby sidled up next to me, flipping the credit coin back and forth across his fingers. “You should keep this safe. Interesting improvisation though.”

“Didn’t need a shield this time.” I tucked the coin into my pocket. “So I passed?”