Death Sworn(50)

Excitement fluttered within her. The river went out. Through the caves and out of them. Another entrance, another exit. And she knew how to swim.

Not that it mattered, since she was in these caves for a purpose. She didn’t need an escape.

Yet.

She followed Bazel down a steep path, narrow and bordered by a plunge into blackness—not exactly her definition of easy. She pressed as close to the rocks as she could until, after a short jump from the bottom of the path, they landed on a blessedly wide area of flat stone. Here the river was at their level, a black spreading vastness, silver ripples skimming along its surface.

Ileni looked around for some sort of raft or boat, but there was nothing on the rock except her and Bazel. The cliff face rose around them, smooth and solid but for the narrow slope of the path they had come down on. “You didn’t ask if I could swim.”

“Oops,” Bazel said.

Before she could respond, a new sound mingled with the rushing of the river: a steadier, more purposeful sound, interrupted once by a splash. Seconds later, a large canoe appeared around the bend of the river, headed straight for them.





Chapter 12

Torches in the bow and stern clearly illuminated the two occupants of the canoe. A blond man with ruddy skin was at the oars, his smooth strokes spreading wide white ripples from the sides of the canoe. In the bow sat a woman with short dark hair and a square face. Her gaze fixed on Ileni and didn’t waver, even when the canoe bottom scraped rock and the blond man leaped out to pull it onto dry land.

“Has your master started recruiting women?” she said. Her voice was surprisingly high-pitched and feminine.

“Not quite,” Bazel replied, and Ileni was startled to see that he was smiling. “Sorry to disappoint you.”

The woman rolled her eyes. “Whether or not your master thinks women are capable of killing hardly affects me. Or their ability to do so, I might add.” By now the canoe was firmly on the rock, but the woman remained sitting, as if she was a queen on her throne.

“This is our new magic tutor,” Bazel said. “From the Renegai.”

“Ah.” The woman’s gaze hadn’t moved from Ileni’s face even as she spoke to Bazel, but now sharpened. “Interesting choice on the part of the Renegai.”

“Thank you,” Ileni said coldly.

At that, the woman focused on Bazel. “What do you have for us today?”

“Two gold earrings, a necklace of black pearls, and a ring set with emeralds.” As he spoke, Bazel knelt on the floor and laid the items out on the ground. Ileni gaped. The jewelry spread on the damp stone represented a small fortune.

“Where did you get those?” she blurted.

Bazel picked up the ring and handed it to the woman, who examined it closely. “The master doesn’t mind if we keep souvenirs from our missions.”

“But you haven’t—” he shot her a warning look, and she finished—“any idea how much these are worth, do you?”

“The master is very rich,” Bazel said. “And here in these caves, they’re worth nothing.”

“Officially,” the woman put in, fingering the ring.

Bazel grinned at her. The woman smiled back, and he flushed ever so slightly.

“We’ll give you five bags of chocolate and a cask of Vaeran red wine,” the woman said, slipping the ring into her sleeve and lacing her fingers over one knee. “It’s overly generous, but we’re on our way to those very same Renegai, and we lost a horse in the mountains, so we need the extra space. There’s a shortage of dainar in the capital right now.”

“Dainar?” Ileni said sharply. Dainar was an extract of the albalia tree, necessary for a number of spells. Producing it was the occupation of many unskilled Renegai.

The woman nodded. “Valuable stuff. The imperial sorcerers pay almost anything we ask for it.”

“We—the Renegai—don’t trade with the Empire,” Ileni said stiffly.

“No, of course not,” the blond man agreed, crouching next to the jewelry. “There’s no call for Empire-made goods in the Renegai village. I don’t know why we’re wasting our time making a stop.”

The woman sighed, shooting him an admonishing look—he smirked unrepentantly—then looked with weary patience at Ileni. “When you get over your outraged disbelief, you might think about whether you want a message sent to someone among your people. I can make sure they get it. And bring a message back, if there is one. We’ll be stopping here again before we head to the capital.”