The Traitor Queen (The Traitor Spy Trilogy #3)(73)

There was, however, a considerable danger that Cery, Gol and Anyi would be buried, too. Cery had told Anyi that if Skellin found them before the Guild agreed to the trap, she should run and fetch Lilia. She’d been reluctant to agree, until he’d pointed out that there would be nothing to be gained by her staying. At least if she left, there would be a chance Lilia might arrive in time to stop Skellin.

“I doubt Skellin will be captured by the Guild without a fight,” Cery said. “I’d rather not be buried alive. We should get Lilia to strengthen the rooms, too.”

Anyi nodded. “She’s got plenty of magic right now. Kallen’s been teaching her how to use black magic to take and store power.”

Cery looked at her and frowned. “He has? That’s … worrying.”

“Why?” Anyi shrugged. “The Guild is supposed to have two black magicians so that one can stop the other … Oh, I see.” Her eyes widened and she looked at Cery. “You don’t think … but Kallen’s the one teaching her. He wouldn’t, if he was planning to do something.”

“Who else can teach her?” Cery asked. “Sonea is in Sachaka.”

“If Kallen is planning to abuse his power then he may neglect to teach her right,” Gol said.

“Hmm.” Anyi scowled. “Well, we all know why he might become unreliable. I never thought I’d say it, but I’ll be happier when I know the Guild is growing roet.”

Cery nodded in agreement, then lifted the lamp and got to his feet. “Now that we’ve got our plan straight, we need to make sure it’ll work down here.”

“We should make sure we have an escape route or two in case it goes wrong,” Gol added. “Perhaps put a few traps in place in case we’re followed.”

“We need to practise fighting,” Anyi added. She looked at Cery. “All of us.”

Cery sighed. She was right, but his body ached just thinking about it. “When we’ve sorted this out,” he said. “There’s no point trying to fight magic with knives.”

She made a huffing noise. “But it’ll be pretty humiliating if we can’t deal with Skellin’s thugs.”

Gol looked at Cery, then turned to Anyi. “Reckon I’m ready for a bit of practice,” he said. “If we start slow.”

Anyi gave him a considering look, then nodded. “All right then. Later on.”

“For now, let’s have another look at the passages around here. Anyi, check the escape routes and make sure Skellin can’t circle around and approach us from behind. Gol and I will decide where Lilia’s barrier should go.”

Dannyl frowned as a shadow moved into his office doorway and hovered. He looked up, expecting a slave had come to ask if he wanted food or drink, or to announce the arrival of a visitor. Instead, it was Merria.

“Lady Merria,” he said, “what’s wrong?”

She shook her head. “Nothing. Silly, isn’t it?” Her mouth pulled into a lopsided smile. “Lorkin is safe and everything’s back to normal. I should be grateful for that, but all I am is bored.”

“This isn’t normal,” Dannyl told her. “We should be dealing with visitors or invitations. Even Tayend is being ignored now.”

Merria looked down. “Actually, I did get an invitation to visit my friends yesterday,” she confessed.

Dannyl made himself smile. “That’s a good sign.” All I need is for Tayend to come in here and tell us he’s off to a dinner or party, and Achati to be the only Ashaki not treating me like an outcast, and everything will be back to normal. But he suspected nothing would ever be the same again between himself and Achati.

Merria looked down at his desk. “Did you finish your notes?”

He followed her gaze to the sheets of paper, and nodded. “Yes. The slaves were finally able to buy more ink yesterday.”

“That’s good, isn’t it?” She paused. “What’s wrong?”

He looked up, then realised he’d been scowling. “Ah … well, I made two copies so I could send one to the Guild, but I haven’t found a safe way to get it there.”

She hummed in sympathy. “I wouldn’t be trusting them to any ordinary courier. How do you usually get messages to the Guild?”

“With Osen’s blood ring.”

“You never send anything else?”

Dannyl shook his head. “There are a few traders who travel between Sachaka and Elyne or Kyralia a couple of times each year, and they carry goods for us. Nothing important, though. Just luxury goods. Spices. Raka.”

She frowned as she considered the problem. “So … you need to rewrite the whole thing in a code, and then send lots of copies via different couriers to Osen to ensure he gets at least one. Then give Osen the key to the code via his blood ring.”

He gazed at her in admiration. Such a simple solution. Why didn’t I think of that? Well, he’d already used a kind of code to hide the more sensitive information.

“Of course, that won’t help if you need to get it to Osen quickly,” she added.

“Slowly is better than not at all.” He drummed his fingers on the table. “So who will I arrange to carry it?” he pondered, more to voice the thought than to ask Merria.

“I reckon my friends might know a few traders going east.”