Unhewn Throne 01 - The Emperor's Blades(60)

“Rianne!” someone bellowed merrily, pounding at the flimsy door out in front of the hut. “Amie! We come bearing coin and cock!”

“And flowers,” urged the other, deeper voice.

“And be-au-ti-ful flowers!”

“I’ll deal with this,” Valyn said, stepping through the back door of the house. He crossed the small space in a few strides, checking his twin blades as he went, then flung open the front door into the faces of two fellow cadets. Laith carried a bottle of wine in each hand and had struck a grandiose pose outside the door, head thrown back, hips thrust forward, arms wide in greeting. Gent stood half a step behind him, tunic unlaced halfway down his chest, a scraggly bouquet of island flowers held in one huge fist.

Both cadets reeled backwards, eyebrows drawn down as they tried to make sense of Valyn’s unexpected presence in the doorway. Then Laith burst into laughter.

“Well played, Valyn! Well played! And here we thought you spent all your evenings mooning over Lin!”

“What are you doing here?” Valyn demanded, feeling foolish even as the words left his lips. Amie and Rianne were whores. It didn’t take much calculation to figure out what might have drawn the two cadets, pounding on their door in the middle of the night.

Gent beamed drunkenly while Laith leaned forward with a conspiratorial grin. “Sometimes we come for the outstanding library, sometimes for the learned discussion of political affairs, but tonight”—he winked—“I think we’re more in the mood for a little tickle, if you know what I mean, provided you haven’t tired them both out. Amie!” he bellowed—so loud, Valyn’s ears rang. “Rianne! We come bearing coin and cock!”

“Shut it, you ’Kent-kissing idiots,” Valyn hissed, snatching them both by the blacks and dragging them inside.

Laith regained his balance first and peered blearily about him. “What’s wrong with you? Where’s Amie? Where’s Rianne?”

“Amie’s dead,” Valyn snapped, waiting to make sure the words had penetrated the haze of alcohol. “Someone hung her from a rafter and cut her to ribbons.”

The two cadets had seemed impressively drunk, but they sobered impressively quickly. Gent still wobbled some on his feet, and Laith’s eyes still twitched, but by the time Valyn had finished speaking, Gent was tossing his bouquet aside and both were reaching for their knives.

“Where?” Laith demanded, rotating to put his back toward Valyn and Gent, scanning the small, dark space of the cottage.

“Not here,” Valyn replied. “She was—” He stopped himself as Rianne’s words hit him: She was going to see a soldier. He eyed Gent and Laith, suddenly wary. He’d known them both for half his life. Laith flew too fast and drank too much, and Gent tore into other soldiers like a rabid bull in training exercises, but neither of them seemed capable of the violence inflicted on the dead girl. Besides, Amie had been dead for more than a week. If they were the ones to have killed her, they wouldn’t be likely to show up in the middle of the night, looking for a tumble.

“Not here,” he said again.

“When?” Laith asked.

“What about Rianne?” Gent rumbled, his voice hard.

“Almost two weeks ago,” Valyn replied. “But her sister just found the body tonight, tied up and cut up in a garret down by the harbor. Rianne’s fine. Or as fine as you’d expect, after finding her sister’s body. We just got finished burying Amie.”

“Shit and ’Shael,” Laith muttered, sheathing his belt knife and shaking his head. “Where is she?”

Valyn nodded through the back door.

Laith took a step toward it, then stopped to clumsily gather up the flowers Gent had dropped on the floor, rearranging them into a lopsided bouquet once more.

Rianne started crying once again when she saw the two cadets. Gent’s eyes flitted to the grave; then he turned to her with an awkward formality.

“Valyn told us what happened. You find the bastard, and we’ll kill him.” He concluded with a brusque nod, as though that settled everything.

Laith gathered Rianne in his arms. She started to resist, then sagged against him, snuffling. Another man might have felt awkward, comforting the whore he’d crossed the sound to bed, but Laith didn’t feel awkward about much. He kissed her hair as if she were his own sister and rocked her back and forth without saying a word.

Lin watched the two with hooded eyes. “What are you doing here?”