The Traitor Queen (The Traitor Spy Trilogy #3)(43)

Now Lilia was looking a little worried.

“We’re safe here – not because Skellin won’t have guessed we sought the Guild’s protection but because he won’t risk coming here,” he continued. “He’ll assume if we’re here we’re in one of the Guild buildings, under magical protection. If he learned that we were under the Guild, and that the magicians don’t know we’re here, he’d would slip in and kill us all – and feel smug that he did it without the Guild noticing.”

“But the Guild would notice,” Anyi pointed out. “Lilia knows we’re here and will stop him, or if she can’t then she’d get help.”

“Yes, but Skellin doesn’t know that,” Cery pointed out.

Gol gave a low growl. “No,” he said.

Cery turned to his friend, amused by the one-word disapproval. “Why not?”

“This is our last and only safe place,” Gol said. “We can’t risk losing it.”

“We do have one more safe place.” Cery pointed upwards. “The protection Skellin thinks we’re enjoying.” He gestured around them. “This, here, is our last and only chance to lure him into a trap.”

“A trap that, if it goes wrong, will see you dead,” Gol said.

“Lilia will protect him,” Anyi said, her eyes bright with the prospect of finally doing something.

Lilia nodded. “And Kallen. You are planning to tell Kallen, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Cery replied. “It’s a bit much to ask Lilia to shoulder all the burden of magical protection or to confront two rogue magicians, if Skellin brings his mother along.”

Anyi rubbed her hands together eagerly. “So what will we use as bait?”

Gol snorted. “It’s obvious. Your father intends to lure Skellin here with something he wants more than anything else.”

Lilia’s face went a little pale. “Black magic?”

“No,” Gol said. “Skellin wants to know he has full control of the entire underworld. If he finds out Cery is alive, he’ll know there’s always the danger Cery will try to get it back – with Guild help. He’ll risk a lot to kill him.”

Anyi’s eager grin vanished. She stared at Cery, searching his face as if hoping for a sign he was joking. When he nodded she scowled and crossed her arms. “Gol’s right. That is too much of a risk.”

“What else do you suggest? What else would tempt him to risk coming this close to the Guild?”

Anyi looked at Lilia. “Black magic—”

“He won’t risk trying to capture her. She could be many times stronger than him. In fact, for this to work it has to be obvious that Lilia isn’t here. He might believe the Guild doesn’t know I’m here, but he won’t as easily believe she doesn’t. Lilia will have to be seen somewhere else before he’ll come looking for me.”

“But you’ll need a magician here,” Lilia pointed out. “Or you won’t be able to stop him killing you all.”

He nodded. “Yes. Kallen. Tell him that we have a plan to trap Skellin and ask how we should contact him when we’re ready. Don’t tell him where the trap will be sprung of course. I have a feeling he’d decide keeping people out of these passages is more important than catching Skellin.”

Lilia nodded. Anyi was shaking her head. “I don’t like it,” she said.

Cery crossed his arms. “Why?”

“I …” She looked away and scowled. Abruptly she got up, grabbed a lamp and stalked out of the room.

The room was silent for several heartbeats. Lilia glanced at Cery and Gol, then hurried after her.

Cery stared at the empty doorway. His heart twisted in a way that was both painful and pleasant. He did not want to risk anybody’s life. Certainly not his own. But they could not stay here forever.

Thinking back, he remembered the angry, defiant young woman he had tried to keep in contact with after parting from her mother. Anyi had hated him – or at least she had behaved as if she did. Knowing that he had somehow won her over was a bittersweet pleasure. It had come at the price of her safety.

But then, being related to him was all it took to make life dangerous, especially while a rogue magician Thief ruled the underworld, and that rogue hated Cery.

“For once your daughter and I agree,” Gol said in a low voice. “It is too dangerous.”

“Let’s see what Kallen says to that,” Cery replied.

*

Within a few paces, Anyi slowed down to let Lilia catch up, but did not stop walking.

“Are you all right?” Lilia asked.

Anyi shook her head. “No. Yes. I … I need to think.”

Her tone suggested that she wasn’t in the mood for talking, so Lilia stayed silent. She drew magic to create a globe light, and Anyi wordlessly turned her lamp’s flame down low to conserve oil. They didn’t travel far. After a few hundred paces Anyi’s stride became purposeful and soon it became clear she was leading Lilia to some rooms nearer to the University that she’d recently discovered.

Anyi chose one room at random, then, since there were no chairs, sat down on the floor with her back to a wall. Lilia sat down beside her, disturbing a dust-covered broken plate. She wiped the surface clean, uncovering a Guild symbol imprinted into the underside. This isn’t very old. I wonder how it got here.