“I’ll be sure to do that. But I don’t feel too bad for you. You can’t have been looking for more than half an hour. What do you expect? Searches and wines take time to mature.”
“Wines do, certainly. But searches can be helped. And I’d take it as a personal favor.”
“How about if I just pay for the next bottle of wine, instead?”
“That’s a thought. You don’t seem worried, Padraic. Is that your real name, by the way?”
“I don’t remember anymore.”
“Too much wine can do that to one’s memory.” He poured me some more. “You probably should be worried, though. Because, when I say that I might have to bring you in—”
“Please,” I said. “Don’t ruin the surprise. Or the meal, for that matter.”
“You know, I can’t even eat this stew. I wonder if they have anything else.”
“I wouldn’t risk it if they did. We got what they recommended; what do you suppose the inferior stuff is like?”
“Good point. Who did you say you’re working for?”
“An unnamed Imperial group, devoted to the interests of the State.”
“Excellent. I believe you, too. Only, I will require some form of identification, or a contact in the Imperial Palace, or a Signet.”
I poured him some wine. “That could be problematical,” I said.
“Yes. What exactly are you trying to do?”
“There’s an old lady whose land is being taken away from her. We’re trying to find out who owns the land so we can buy it for her, but the company is out of business. She’s being evicted, you see—”
He held up his hand. “Say no more,” he said. “Just give me her name, and I’ll see that it’s taken care of.”
The worst of it was that he might be able to, and perhaps he even would; but I couldn’t count on it, and I certainly couldn’t give him any help in tracking you down, Kiera; especially after all the work I’d just gone through to destroy all the work you’d done in setting this up. I said, “I can’t seem to remember, just at the moment. It must be the wine.”
“Probably.”
“Boss, there are a couple of blades I don’t recognize outside the door.”
“Outside the door? What are they doing?”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say they were getting ready to go charging in.”
“Oh.”
Loftis sighed and pushed the food away. “Execrable,” he said. “What am I going to do with you?”
Under the table, I let a dagger fall into my left hand, and made sure my sword was loose in its sheath. “You could paint me blue and trade me for bagpipes.”
“Yes, that would be an option. But I’m afraid, as much as I’ve enjoyed sharing a meal with you, I’m going to have to insist on your accompanying me back to a place where I’m better equipped to get answers to questions.”
“Damn,” I said. “I just remembered. My niece is getting married this evening, and I have to pick out some new clothes, so I’m afraid I won’t be able to make it today.”
“Oh, I’m sure your niece will understand. Just what was her name, and where might I find her?” He smiled, then the smile went away and he looked at me very hard. “There are really only a couple of questions I need answered, but I do need them answered. Do you understand?”
I matched his stare.
He said, “Who do you work for, and what are you trying to accomplish? If you give me those answers, maybe we can work something out. If you don’t, I’m going to have to start squeezing you.”
“It isn’t going to happen,” I said.
“Boss, they’re coming in!”
I rose to my feet, and I had my weapon halfway out when two men came through the curtain I was facing. I stepped to the side so Loftis couldn’t get an easy shot at me and flipped my dagger at one of them; when he flinched, I lunged for the other one, knocking his weapon out of line and nailing him in the throat. I risked a quick glance toward the door, and then saw the other two, who were looking a little startled to see me noticing them and smiling; Loftis was now on his feet, too, and he had a weapon out, but he was looking at the pair who’d come through the door. He was facing away from me, so I couldn’t see his expression, nor did I have time for a close look, because there was still the one I’d thrown my knife at. But Loftis did take the time to look at me, and there was no particular expression in that look. He said, “He didn’t break the stick,” which was just damned informative, but I didn’t have the time to ask for an explanation.
As I turned back to the one I’d distracted, he made a break to get past me; that was fine, they could all run away as far as I was concerned.
Only he didn’t run away.
He got past me, then he buried his sword in Loftis’s skull, then he kept running out the door. The other two followed behind; they were gone before I realized it.
“Boss?”
“Don’t worry, Loiosh. They weren’t after me.”
“They weren’t?”
“Right. On the other hand, I suppose that means you can go ahead and worry.”
Everyone in the room was staring at Loftis, and there was no sound, until the Dragonlord dropped his weapon, which made an appalling clamor as it hit the floor.
He turned very slowly and looked at me; there was an expression of surprise on his face. He opened his mouth, then closed it. I could see the muscles of his neck straining, and realized that it was hard work for him to keep his head straight with the weight of a sword attached to it.
Loftis sank to his knees, then he fell forward onto his face, looking absurd and pitiful with the sword still sticking out of the back of his head.
I got out of there in a hurry, before anyone in the place could think to stop me.
Loiosh said, “Should I follow them? Oh, never mind; they’ve just teleported. I can show you where they tele-ported from if you want.”
“I have no intention of tracing anyone’s teleport, Loiosh; I just want to get out of here. Keep watching.”
“Okay, boss.”
I crossed the street and turned right at the first corner I came to, then right again, then left, then left again, and then right, then I went straight for a while, then I stopped and looked around, having gotten myself lost enough to have a chance of confusing anyone else.”
“Well?”
“All clear, boss.”
“Okay, back home, then.”
“I’ll keep watching.”
We made it back to the cottage, both of us looking around fairly often. Buddy seemed happy to see me, Rocza seemed happy to see Loiosh, the old woman didn’t seem happy about anything, and Savn didn’t seem to care one way or another. I sat down at the table, closed my eyes, and took my first deep breath in what seemed like a year or so.
The old woman looked at me and didn’t ask any questions, wherefore I gave her no answers. I really wished you were here, Kiera, because I felt the need to confess and to have some help sorting out what had just happened. It had all made sense—Loftis figuring it out, sitting me down where he could give me one chance to come clean, and then having his people arrest me—up to the point where they’d killed him.
They’d killed him.
Had he been surprised by who came through the door? Or that anyone showed up? Or only by what they did?
He didn’t break the stick.
That was a good one; I’d love to have found out what it meant, but there was no one around to ask. If I’d understood it, no doubt it would turn out to be the code phrase that made everything clear, and indicated exactly what I should do next. More probably, it went back to his childhood and had something to do with being hurt—at least, that’s the sort of thing that went through my head when I decided I was about to become damaged, or maybe dead.
I regretted him. He was an honest son of a bitch, in spite of what he was doing, and he’d struck me as good at his job, although the only trace of evidence for that was that he’d hit you the same way, Kiera, so maybe he was really just a fool who knew how to impress people like us.