The Traitor Queen (The Traitor Spy Trilogy #3)(36)

“I thought I was doing a good job of making it all sound legitimate.” Cery looked at Anyi, who rolled her eyes.

“Do any of Skellin’s people think Cery’s dead?” Gol asked.

Lilia shrugged. “Kallen wasn’t that specific. He did want to know if Cery was planning to take back these … businesses.”

“Tell him I will be in no position to until he gets rid of Skellin. Has he made any progress?”

The young woman shook her head. “He didn’t say so. I think he was hoping you’d be as useful to him as you were to Sonea.”

Cery sighed and looked away. “You’d better make it clear to him that I’m no use to anybody now.”

Anyi made a wordless sound of protest. “You’re useful to us.”

Cery gave her a disbelieving look. “If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t be stuck here. Down here I’m nothing but a problem for Lilia.”

Lilia frowned. “You’re not a problem. Not a big one, anyway.” Anyi put a hand on her shoulder.

He scowled. “The only mark I can make now is to be a nagging worry at the back of Skellin’s mind. People might say I’m dead, but he won’t completely believe it because he hasn’t seen a corpse. He has to consider I may be alive, and up to something.”

He’ll be moving in on my territory cautiously, and questioning everyone who might know where I am. Cery felt his heart spasm painfully with guilt. My people will want to believe I’m dead, because if I’m alive and not fighting Skellin it’ll seem as though I’ve abandoned them. If they find out I was hiding beneath the Guild, they’ll think I’ve been living in luxury with my magician friends, not this.

If only there was some gain to be had, other than mere survival, from being here under the Guild.

We’re isolated from the rest of the city. Magicians are not far away, and one in particular – Lilia – is able to help us. Few people would dare come here, knowing that. Cery frowned. Would Skellin dare?

Perhaps if he had a good reason to.

If he did come here, he’d be very wary. He’d send scouts to make sure it was safe first. Then there would have to be a good reason for him to enter the passages personally rather than send others. No matter where or how he learned about the existence of these tunnels, and how to get to them, he’d have to suspect the information was meant to fall into his hands, and was part of a trap.

After all, I would.

But if there was something here that Skellin wanted badly enough, perhaps he would take that risk. Cery just had to think of bait powerful enough to lure him into a trap. This time it would have to be something much more tempting than the books on magic.





CHAPTER 9


FRIENDS AND ENEMIES


Lorkin woke in a rush. He blinked up at the ceiling and puzzled at the unfamiliar bare stone, then a heartbeat later he remembered where he was and why.

And that he wasn’t alone in the cell.

He turned to see the young woman lying on the floor near the cell’s gate. Her skin and the rags that were all that was left of her slave garb were stained with blood. She was staring up at the Ashaki interrogator, who stood in the gate’s opening.

As Lorkin got slowly to his feet the Ashaki bent to grab her arm and yanked her upright. She gave a hoarse cry and sagged as if her limbs wouldn’t support her, but the man laughed.

“That wouldn’t fool a halfwit,” he said. He ran his free hand down her arm to her shoulders, then through her hair, then looked at Lorkin and grinned.

“Nice bit of Healing. Considering how much was broken, it must have worn you out.”

Lorkin met the man’s eyes and shrugged. “Hardly.”

The interrogator chuckled. “We’ll see.” He looked at the slave girl. “Walk or be dragged.”

She gave up on pretending to be wounded. Bracing her feet, she stood properly, then looked down at herself in amazement before her wonder at being whole evaporated as the Ashaki pulled her toward the gate.

“Come with me, Kyralian,” the Ashaki said. “We have more to discuss.”

Lorkin considered refusing to leave the cell, but he couldn’t see how it would gain him anything. It would force the Ashaki to use magic to drag him out, but very little magic and nothing that couldn’t be replaced by taking strength from a slave. He doubted the Ashaki would hesitate to torture the girl here instead. Saying nothing, he followed the interrogator out of the cell. The man’s assistant, as always, fell into step behind him.

The slave girl walked with slumped shoulders. Lorkin could not stop images and sounds from the day before running through his memory. The Ashaki’s torturing had been slow and brutal, calculated to cause as much pain and damage as possible without killing her.

It had taken all Lorkin’s determination to stay silent. He could not help trying to think of other ways to stop what was happening, even if temporarily, but none would work for long. These ideas kept taunting him, though. Lying to the Ashaki. Telling him things about the Traitors that were true but irrelevant. Even offering his own life in exchange for the woman’s.

Eventually he managed an unpleasant detachment from it all. He gave up on any notion that he could do anything to help the woman or himself. Later he shuddered at what he had done, and worried that accepting that he couldn’t help the slave might eventually shift into giving up on protecting the Traitors.