“How long will that take?” he asked.
Chari considered. “Six or seven days. We can shorten that by meeting Speaker Savara at the tanners’ huts.” She glanced at Tyvara. “Savara was Tyvara’s mentor – and mine – and is one of our leaders. If you still want to come to Sanctuary, you’ll have to talk her into taking you.”
“How would I best do that?”
Chari shrugged.
“With your usual charm and enthusiasm,” Tyvara told him. “Don’t make any promises, though. My people will regard them with suspicion, if they believe them at all. You only need to mention you are willing to consider making amends for your father’s betrayal, not specify how.”
He nodded. “I can do that.”
Tyvara smiled. “I’m looking forward to watching you try.”
“As am I,” Chari said. She looked down at his shoes. “How are your feet?”
“Well used.”
“Fancy a cart ride? We have a load of feed headed for one of the outer estates tomorrow. I’m sure there’s room for two more slaves.”
Lorkin looked at Tyvara. “We can trust her?”
She nodded. “Chari is an old friend of mine. We trained together.”
He smiled at Chari and inclined his head. “Then I accept. In fact, it sounds like an offer too good to refuse.”
“Then don’t.” Chari smiled brightly. “I can offer you more comfortable beds at my estate than a bit of dirt in an old ruin. And,” she leaned toward Lorkin and sniffed, “a bath.”
Lorkin looked toward Tyvara. She was frowning.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Nothing.” Sighing, she looked at Chari. “Are you sure Lorkin is safe at your estate?”
The young woman grinned. “The master’s a sweet old drunk. I make all the decisions there, including which slaves he buys. There’s not one slave there I didn’t approve of, and the few times Speaker Sneaky has tried to get one of her girls in I’ve found them somewhere else to be.”
Tyvara shook her head slowly. “You’re going to be a very scary woman if you ever decide to take a place at the Table.”
“You can bet on it.” Chari grinned. “So you’d better stay on my good side. And you’ll have a better chance of that if you have that bath. Come on. Let’s get home before the master misses me.”
“She wouldn’t ask to meet you if there wasn’t good reason,” Gol said as he hurried after Cery.
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” Cery retorted.
“Well... all I’m saying is she’s a sensible girl.”
“I’d much rather she was not sensible with no good reason to see me.” Cery scowled. “If she’s sensible and has a good reason then there’s a better chance something bad has happened.”
Gol sighed and said nothing more. Cery wove past boxes and tubs of rotting food in the alley. At least I know that Anyi is still alive, he thought. Gol had occasionally tried to find her, and Cery had been pleased that he’d failed – and tried to tell himself it was because she’d succeeded in hiding rather than because her corpse had never been found or recognised.
Near the end of the alleyway he stopped and hammered on a door. After a short pause, the door swung inward and a man with a scarred face ushered them inside. A familiar woman stepped out of a side door to meet them.
“Donia,” Cery said, managing a half-smile. “How’s business?”
“The usual,” she said, the corner of her mouth lifting into a wry smile. “Good to see you again. I’ve got the rooms set the way you like. She’s waiting up there.”
“Thanks.”
He and Gol climbed the stairs. Worry made him edgy, and he couldn’t help glancing through doorways and around corners for signs of ambush. Though Cery did not think Donia would betray him willingly, he never discounted the chance that someone would remember they had been friends in their youth, and set a trap for him in her bolhouse. Or spy on him. He always had Donia empty the top-floor rooms either side of and below the one he held meetings in, so nobody could eavesdrop.
Reaching the door of the same room he had met Anyi in last time, he was amused to see her sitting in the exact position he had been in during the previous meeting. Keeping his expression neutral, he followed Gol inside. The big man looked around the room, then closed the door. Cery looked closely at his daughter.
There were dark circles under her eyes and she appeared to be even thinner, but her gaze was sharp and unflinching.
“Anyi,” he said. “I’m glad to see you’ve kept out of trouble.”
The corner of her mouth twitched. “It’s good to see you’re still alive, too. Any luck catching my brothers’ murderer?”
He felt a familiar wrench of grief. “Yes and no.”
“Which means what?”
Cery suppressed a sigh. Her mother had disliked evasive answers, too.
“I’ve been tracking someone, but I won’t be sure if it is the right someone until I catch them.”
She pursed her lips, then nodded. “Why have you let brazier houses open in Northside?”
He blinked in surprise. “I haven’t.”
“You don’t know about them?” Her eyebrows rose and her attention shifted to Gol. “He doesn’t know?”
“No.” Cery glanced at Gol. “But we do now.”
“You’ll shut them down?”
“Of course.”
She frowned. “But you won’t do it yourself, will you? Not in person.”
He shrugged. “Probably not. Why do you ask?”
“One opened next to where I was staying. It’s why I’m not staying there now. Nasty, nasty people. I heard them talking to the previous owner. The walls are pretty thin so it wasn’t hard to listen in.” Her eyes narrowed. “They told the man they were going to take his house and shop. They said if he told anyone they’d do things to him and his family. There was a woman with a strange accent – nothing I’ve ever heard before. She said something and then the bootmaker yelled. When his wife got home after they’d gone, I heard him telling her what had happened. He said they’d hurt him with magic.” Anyi looked at Cery intently. “Do you think that’s possible, or did they trick him?”
Cery stared back at her. If this is the rogue... if it is the Thief Hunter... is she worming her way closer to Skellin by working for his rot-sellers? “A strange accent,” he repeated.
“Yes.”
“Did you get a look at her?”
“No. But there have been rumours of rogue magicians in the city for years. It kind of makes sense if they’re foreigners. Magicians from countries outside the Allied Lands aren’t going to be part of the Guild.” She paused, then shrugged. “Of course, she could’ve been faking it.”
Cery nodded approvingly. “You were right to leave. Better to assume she has magic and get out of there. Have you got another hiding place?”
She scowled. “No. I had a few, but they’ve all been spoiled in one way or another.” She looked up at him. “You’re doing okay, from the look of it.”
“I’m not sure how much of that is because of what I’ve done, or sheer luck,” he admitted.
“Still, with the money and contacts you have, you must have a better chance than me.”
Cery shrugged. “They do help.”
“They do, do they? Well, how about I come and stay with you, then? Because hiding doesn’t earn me any money, and I’ve used up all mine – as well as my contacts.”
As Cery opened his mouth to protest, she leapt to her feet.