“But you say you can undo it,” I said.
“Yes, because whoever did this also made it so that another Mouth could unravel the glimmer.”
“On purpose?”
“Just so.”
I looked at the Blade, and a thought occurred to me-a very bad thought. “Jelem,” I said slowly, “are you trying to tell me this is imperial glimmer?”
“What?” said Jelem. He turned and looked at me. “By the Family, no! No. If it were, I’d be back home devising an alibi and considering the best route out of Ildrecca. This magic is very potent, but it’s still street magic. Imperial glimmer is far above this. Or at least, that’s what I hear-it’s all rumors when it comes to the empire’s magic, anyhow.”
“Oh, well, as long as it’s just ‘very potent’ then,” I said sourly.
Still, despite the magic, I felt strangely calm. It was as if I had gotten to a point where, with so many things piling up around me, one more brick didn’t matter anymore. The new assassin should have worried me; her presence in my rooms should have frightened me; and the unknown source of the magic used to deal with her should have scared me out of my wits. Instead, it all washed over and around me, leaving me untouched.
I suspected that things would look much worse once I got a good night’s sleep.
I heard hard, measured footfalls on the stairs. A moment later, Fowler Jess came stalking into the room, her every gesture a study in rage. “My people report all clear for the entire night,” she fumed. “No one saw a thing.”
“Not surprising,” said Jelem. He had taken a small brush from his coat and begun sweeping it through the air around the body. “The yazani who did this can likely come and go as he pleases, at least where your efforts are concerned.” Jelem paused, wet his dark thumb, and rubbed at something on Task’s corpse. “You may want to consider some glimmered defenses, Drothe,” he said. “My rates are, well, let’s not say reasonable; affordable, perhaps?”
“I can handle this just fine!” snapped Fowler. “I don’t need some cut-rate glimmer monger throwing magic all over the place-magic that’ll just end up getting in my people’s way.”
“Yes,” said Jelem as he returned to his brushing. “You’ve obviously done a superb job so far. Tell me, do I need to make an appointment to try to kill Drothe, or is it simply on a first-come, first-served basis? I can never keep Kin etiquette straight.”
I reached out and grabbed Fowler’s arm as her long knife cleared its scabbard. Fowler glared at me, yanked against my grip. I shook my head. Jelem didn’t even glance our way.
“Would your glimmer have stopped my visitor?” I asked.
Jelem sucked on his seed. “Her?” he said, pointing at the assassin. “Most likely, although I wouldn’t be surprised if she was killed somewhere else and brought here afterward. It’s far easier to veil corpses than it is live bodies. As for whoever put her here in the first place? No, I don’t think my spells would have done anything other than annoy your anonymous benefactor.”
“Like I said,” said Fowler, “we can handle this.” I let go of her arm. She put her knife away and moved over to one of the room’s two windows. With a shove, Fowler opened the shutters the rest of the way and seated herself on the sill.
“You said ‘benefactor,’ ” I said to Jelem.
He nodded, still circling Task. “What else? Believe me, if whoever did this wanted you dead, you’d be dead.”
We all grew silent after that. Jelem continued to work on the floating corpse, pausing occasionally to mutter softly to himself in singsong Djanese. Fowler sat in the window, brooding. Every now and then, I caught her making small gestures to the world outside: signaling her people and gathering reports. Doubling the guard, more likely than not.
I turned this newest question over in my head. Why kill a Blade and go to all the trouble of suspending her in my room, when a well-thrust knife and a note under my door would have accomplished the same thing? It was, I decided, more than a warning; it was a statement. Not only was someone watching over me-they had access to the kinds of power I couldn’t come close to touching. And if they had access to this kind of power-and were willing to flaunt it-what were the odds of whoever was after me having the same level of resources? The glimmered rope had been bad enough, but what if that was only small-time for them?
I looked back up at Task. Why even bother hiring Blades at all? If the person behind Tamas and Task was as potent as my benefactor, why wasn’t I dead already? And why, for that matter, was either of these people interested in me?
I placed my forehead in the palm of one hand and drew a seed from my pouch with the other, then stopped myself. No. Ahrami wasn’t the answer now. No matter how many I ate, they would only make me alert, not awake. My mind was a jumble of questions and information, none of it fitting together well. Tackling that mess now would be like trying to find my way out of a maze wearing a blindfold. I needed sleep. Hell, I practically ached for it.
“How much longer until you have her down?” I asked Jelem, already starting to lean back onto my bed.
“Hard to say,” said Jelem. “Not soon, anyhow.”
“I thought you said the glimmer on her was breakable.”
“And every lock is pickable, but do I stand beside you in dark hallways and shake your elbow?”
“Then where the hell am I supposed to sleep?”
“I would suggest ‘not here,’ ” said Jelem, turning back to Task’s body. “I don’t want company, and you don’t want to be here for some of the things I’ll need to do to get her down. You find things for a living-surely you can find someplace to sleep.”
Finding someplace wasn’t the problem; finding someplace safe, though, was another matter. Still, Jelem was right-I didn’t want to think about the kind of dreams I would have if I stayed here.
I looked over at Fowler Jess.
“Oh, hell no,” she said. “Hell no!”
“Jess… ” I began.
“You’re pulling in trouble like a crooked Rag rakes in hawks, Drothe. No way I’m letting you anywhere near my place.”
“It’s just for one night,” I said. “And besides, in a way-”
“Don’t!” she said, slipping down off the windowsill. “Don’t you dare tell me I owe you, or it’s my fault you don’t have a place to stay, or anything like that. Killing you would ruin my reputation, but, right now, I’d happily pay that price if you said something stupid.”
Since that was exactly what I had been going to say, I shut my mouth. “I don’t suppose you can spare anyone to watch me if I go to an inn?” I said instead.
Fowler leaned back against the wall. A look of pity crossed her face. Apparently, I was still being stupid.
“I’m having enough trouble keeping the Kin out of your place,” she said. “I don’t need the headache of trying to secure a public inn against another Blade, let alone a Mouth who can walk through walls. Go someplace unexpected, where people won’t look for you. That’ll protect you better than an army of Oaks could right now.”
I nodded. She was right. Go someplace unexpected…
I stood up.
“I’m off, then,” I said, heading for the door.
“That quickly? Where to?” asked Fowler.
“To someplace even I can’t believe I’m considering,” I said, and closed the door behind me.
The large wooden door swung open just as I was reaching for the knocker for the second time. If Josef felt any surprise at seeing me, he hid it well. My sister’s butler of the chamber merely inclined his head and stepped aside to let me in.
“Good to see you again, sir,” said Josef as I crossed the threshold of my sister’s house. I grunted a reply.
“Is the baroness expecting you?” he asked.
“What do you think?”
Josef smiled a bit. He closed the door. “Yes, well, I’ll announce you then, shall I?”
“Yes, do,” I said. “I suppose it’s an occasion of sorts, isn’t it?”
“Indeed,” said Josef as he turned away. “And, if I may, it’s a pleasure to see you entering the home this way again.”
How many years had it been since I had actually used the front door to come calling? Not since before Nestor’s death. It hadn’t seemed right to come walking into his house after that, but it felt somehow wrong to come skulking over the garden wall tonight, too. Maybe I’d come knocking because, for the first time in a long time, I’d be asking my sister for a favor, rather than striking a bargain of necessity.