Already, his hands were moving. Keep them under close watch. He looked to Jin Li Tam. “I would speak with you, Lady, when we are alone.”
He watched the scouts as they escorted their guests from the room. He watched Seamus and Winters as they followed, and last, he watched Aedric pause at the door. “Is all well, General?” he asked.
Rudolfo inclined his head. “It is, Aedric. But stay nearby.”
After the door closed, he expelled held breath and let slip some of the anger that had coiled around his spine. “You come into my house under magicks? You insert yourself into the affairs of the Ninefold Forest?” He felt his voice shaking from it, though he was careful not to raise it. “You have much explaining to do.”
Jin Li Tam looked at him, her mouth slack. “What-?”
But another voice cut her off. “You have my deepest apologies, Lord Rudolfo, for this deception.” There was a brief pause. “It was necessary that I travel quickly and quietly.”
The woman’s voice sounded familiar, despite being thickly muffled by the magicks, but Rudolfo could not place it. Still, he felt the anger prickling his scalp as he white-knuckled the arms of his chair. “What you deem necessary is your own concern. You’ve violated my territories-my very home. This is unprecedented.”
“We live,” the woman said slowly, “in unprecedented times.”
And in that moment, he placed the voice and looked up to lock eyes with Jin Li Tam. Her own face, he saw, had gone pale. Jakob gurgled in his sleep and waved a tiny hand.
“You are a long way from the Marshlands, Ria,” he said.
“I am far from the Machtvolk Territories,” she conceded. “But the news I bear merited personal and prompt attention. You and your family are in grave danger.”
His eyes narrowed, and he willed the pounding to slow behind his temples. “Go on.”
Now, her voice was from another corner of the room. “We’ve word of a growing threat against your household.”
“And how exactly have you come by this word?” he asked, tipping his head slightly as if he might somehow hear her move.
She did not answer at first. When she did, the words were carefully chosen. “As you no doubt have surmised, we have an active network in place.”
And, he remembered, the ability to somehow divert their birds and decode their messages. For the last six months, Isaak and his mechoservitors had been busy scripting new codes nearly as fast as they were broken. He paused, uncertain, and then took a risk. “We also know you have access to our birds and codes.”
She hesitated, then answered. “Yes. We do.”
Honesty, then. How refreshing. Rudolfo sighed. “Continue.”
“There are spies in your house, Rudolfo, and there are enemies in your forest.” She paused. “And I can assure you, they are not my overzealous evangelists. Though I will deal with them once you’ve concluded your own audience with them.”
Spies in my house. “I want specific details.”
“When I have them,” she said, “you will have them.” He sensed more hesitation in her next pause. “Meanwhile, I wish to extend aid to you. Already, my network is scouring the Named Lands for more substantive evidence of this threat. With your permission, I can widen my investigation to include the Ninefold Forest, and I can also send you a hundred of my Blood Scouts.”
Rudolfo’s mind reeled at her suggestions. Blood Scouts in the Ninefold Forest? The Machtvolk Y’Zirites investigating his people. But three of her words snared him fastest. “With my permission?”
She chuckled. “I know you think us monsters. The Desolation of Windwir. The kin-healing of House Li Tam and the night of purging. But we are not monsters, Lord Rudolfo. We are the servants of House Y’Zir, and by bonds of kinship, we are your servants as well.” Her voice drifted across the room now from the other side. “My deception this day notwithstanding, I have the very best interests of your son at heart, and I would not easily violate the trust or sovereignty of your Ninefold Forest Houses.”
Then why not come in open dialogue? Why sneak in, magicked? But even as the questions formed in his mind, he knew the answers without asking. If there were spies in his house, the arrival of the Machtvolk queen would not go unnoticed. Her strategy was sound. if she was indeed being truthful.
He glanced at Jin Li Tam. Still her face retained its calm expression. But when their eyes met again, he saw the rage there. “I appreciate your offer of assistance,” he said. “But we will handle these matters within the Ninefold Forest without Machtvolk assistance. If you truly have my son’s best interests at heart, you will respect our borders and will share your intelligence with my people as you receive it.”
For a moment, she said nothing. Finally, when she did speak, she was near him again. “Think carefully, Rudolfo,” she said, “and you will see that at no time have we raised a finger to harm you or your family. We are allies.”
Rudolfo pondered this. He could still remember the voice on the night Hanric was killed. No, not him. And Rudolfo had been cast aside without even a bruise. Later, when Jin Li Tam had taken the Wandering Army to field, she’d challenged a Blood Scout single-handed, and when the Marsher had known it was his so-called Great Mother, he’d refused to fight. Still, these cultists left a forest of bones on the plains of Windwir and had murdered thousands of others in their faith.
“You have done enough harm to others to merit my suspicion,” he said.
“And I have saved your son’s life,” she reminded him. “What does that merit with you?”
Rudolfo nodded slowly but found no words to accompany it.
Her voice became even more muffled, heavy with emotion. “Your son will be the salvation of our world,” she said. “We have pledged blade and heart to his well-being and to the well-being of his parents.” Her voice was moving across the room. “I will ask you to reconsider my offer of aid. You have many enemies in the Named Lands, and your borders are not secure. Allow me to assist you or, if you can not abide a Machtvolk presence on your soil, send your wife and child to me and I will watch over them until this threat has passed.” Her voice was near the door now. “It will pass, Rudolfo, and when the Crimson Empress arrives, she will make all things right.”
He squinted but could not even make out the ghost of her. She will make all things right. That would be quite a trick. He considered his next words carefully, tasting them like iron shavings in his mouth before he spoke them. “Ria,” he said in a quiet voice, “do not come to me in this way again, and do not broach my borders without announcing yourself.”
The door handle moved beneath a hand he could not see. “I will do what I must to preserve the life of this Child of Promise,” she said, and her next words stung him though he knew she meant them to. “The question remains, Lord Rudolfo, as to whether or not you will do the same.”
Rudolfo heard Jin’s swallowed gasp and looked over to see her face red in wrath she could no longer conceal. Still, Jakob slept on.
As the door swung open slowly, Aedric looked in. “Was there someone-?”
When Ria moved past him, the first captain leaped back and reached for his knives, his lips puckering to whistle third alarm.
“Let her go,” Rudolfo said, hearing the weariness in his own voice. Even as he said it, his fingers were moving. Do you believe her message?
Jin Li Tam sighed. She had not spoken through the entire exchange, and he could see that her lips were a tight, pale line. I believe her, but I do not trust her.