I daresay it took him by surprise when Hasan Dar’s guards seized him, discreetly pushing up his sleeves to look for the tell-tale markings of tattoos on his forearms. By all accounts, Divyesh Patel did not fight or protest when they hustled him away. He was an assassin, not a warrior, and poison was his weapon.
My lady Amrita asked Bao to confirm his identity, and although he was a bit shaky on his feet, he did.
The little poisoner paled when he saw him in the throne room. “You!”
“Me,” Bao agreed.
Divyesh Patel was indignant. “You betrayed her?”
“No,” Bao said softly. “I traded a lie for the truth.” He glanced at the Rani Amrita and her son, Ravindra. “There are two kinds of men in Kurugiri, highnesses. Those who sought to serve with their killing arts, and those caught in her web through no fault of their own. This one…” He gestured at the poisoner. “He is one of the former.”
Amrita twined and steepled her fingers in a complex mudra, one that inspired trust. “Is that true?” she asked the fellow gently. “I beg of you, do not fear to answer. No one is beyond redemption.”
The little poisoner coughed, bending over double and bringing his fist to his mouth. Bao swore and spun into action, his staff a blur as it swept in a horizontal arc. Something went flying and clattered on the floor. Bao’s staff caught Divyesh Patel behind the knees, upending him. Before anyone else had a chance to react, he had the butt of his staff poised to crush the assassin’s throat.
“What…?” Amrita was on her feet, her voice trembling slightly. “What was that?” I moved quickly to her side and she took my arm, her nails digging into my skin in an effort to maintain her composure. With her free arm, she held Ravindra close to her side.
“Poison dart, I believe,” Hasan Dar said grimly, holding up the object that had gone flying, a hollow tube.
“Oh, gods!” She shivered.
“You want me to kill this one?” Bao inquired.
“No.” The Rani’s commander gestured to his guards to form a protective line between Amrita and the assassin. “Not until I’ve had a chance to question him at length.”
Pinned beneath Bao’s staff, Divyesh Patel flailed suddenly, his hands scrabbling at his throat. Bao swore again and gave him a sharp jab in the chest, but it was too late. The assassin hadn’t been trying to escape. There was a pin-prick of blood on the side of his throat, and a tiny needle jutted from a ring on his right forefinger.
He’d taken his own life.
Whatever it was, the poison acted quickly. The fellow jerked once, then stiffened. A little froth came to his lips, and his eyes rolled back in his head.
“Is he… dead?” Ravindra whispered.
“Probably.” Bao prodded the corpse with his staff, then glanced at Hasan Dar. “Better you cut his throat and make sure. He knows lots of poisons, this one. Maybe even one that makes it only look like he’s dead.” He leaned on his staff and exhaled hard, grinning wearily. “Lot of action for my first day out of bed.”
Ravindra gazed at him with shining eyes. “I think you just saved my mother’s life, Bao-ji!”
“I think you did,” Amrita agreed. Releasing my arm, she approached Bao and took his left hand in both of hers, pressing it warmly. “Thank you very much indeed for your swift and courageous action.”
Under her lustrous regard, my incorrigible peasant-boy actually blushed. “You are welcome, highness.” He shuffled his feet. “I hate poisoners. One of them killed me, you know. And… I fear you are only in danger because of Moirin and me. So I will do anything I can to protect you.”
“And I am grateful for it,” she said gravely, pressing his hand once more.
His blush deepened.
I raised my brows and smiled at him.
“What?” Bao scowled at me. “Don’t smirk at me, Moirin. We have a lot of work to do if we’re going to figure out how to save the Rani and her son.”
“Yes, my hero,” I said. “We do.”
SIXTY-SIX
Around and around we went, trying to conceive of a plan that would get us up the path to Kurugiri without sustaining untenable losses, and deal with the problem of Kamadeva’s diamond at the top.
Hasan Dar, Amrita, and Ravindra hadn’t had any success, the latter chastened and made uncertain by the failure of his first plan.
Bao’s knowledge was helpful, but it didn’t eliminate the obstacles facing us. I listened as he discussed the treacherous path with Hasan Dar, sketching out the likeliest places for assassins to lay in waiting on a map based on his tattoos.
“The problem is that they will always have the higher ground,” he said. “See, here, here, and here. We will always be coming around blind corners, where they can pick us off one by one.”
I thought of an offer I had made Snow Tiger once when we faced an ambush-and a warning my mother had given me. “Unless they can’t see us,” I murmured.
Bao gave me a sharp look. “Your twilight.”
I nodded.
“No.” He shook his head. “No, Moirin. I will not risk you again.”
“No, I do not like it either,” Amrita said unhappily.
“What is she talking about?” Hasan Dar asked, bewildered.
It was easier to show him than explain. I had them close their eyes and summoned the twilight, wrapping it around Bao and me, then letting it fade before their open eyes. Ravindra and Hasan Dar stared in awe; the Rani Amrita, who had seen me call the twilight before, just looked worried.
“And you could kill a man thus concealed?” her commander asked. “Or Bao could?”
My mother’s words echoed in my thoughts. It is a grave gift and one never to be used lightly. Only to sustain life. Do you ever use it for sport or any idle cause, it will be stripped from you.
Snow Tiger’s, too, her voice gentle and firm as she refused my offer. What you suggest is dishonorable.
But when I glanced at Amrita’s beautiful, worried face and her son’s thin, clever one, I knew I was willing to take the risk. “I could. I cannot speak for Bao.”
Bao frowned, fidgeting with the bands of steel that reinforced his bamboo fighting-staff. “I would have no trouble killing those men who serve them willingly,” he said. “They are assassins who kill by stealth, and it is fitting that they should die thus. But I would not like to kill those who were trapped as I was.”
In the end, it remained a moot point, for we could devise no plan for dealing with Kamadeva’s diamond.
“I could accompany you,” Amrita said quietly. “I am not affected by it, at least not with Jagrati wielding it.”
“No!” Four voices spoke in emphatic unison.
Bao reckoned we had a few more days’ grace before the Falconer and the Spider Queen decided that Divyesh Patel had failed and sent a new assassin in his place. After our initial attempts at group strategy failed, Bao suggested in private that he and I go alone. Since my diadh-anam had been twinned, I could hold him in the twilight as easily as myself. If I could hold it long enough, the two of us alone could approach Kurugiri without ever being seen, without alerting the Falconer’s assassins.
“We could steal Kamadeva’s diamond rather than take it by force,” he mused, stroking my hair.
Lying in his arms, I shook my head. “I don’t trust myself around it. Do you?”
“I don’t know,” Bao admitted. “Here, with you… yes. I walked away from it once. But…”
“What if Jagrati got me to betray myself utterly, Bao?” I shuddered. “What if she sent me against my lady Amrita and her son? I can summon the twilight. I know where the hidden room is located.”
“And you are rather deadly with a bow,” he added. “No, you’re right. It’s too dangerous.” He toyed with my hair, which had grown out well below my shoulders, but was still much shorter than it had been. “Why did you cut it, Moirin?”