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"I need you here," I told him. "Sooner or later, someone there would recognise you and expose you. Besides which, we may need you to send your assassins out; you can't do that if you're working in Cavan's kitchen or scrubbing his toilets."
"You make it sound so glamorous," Tavian said sarcastically.
I snorted. "There's nothing glamorous about killing."
"Depends who you kill," Vayne said.
I looked at him for a moment, but he didn't clarify his remark.
I cleared my throat. "Anyway, I'll speak to Khala and then we can make our move."
"This is where I feel I should say the High Lord should stay here and let us deal with it," Vayne said. "We both know that's not going to happen, but I feel the words are obligatory." He hunkered down deeper in his chair, satisfied he’d done his duty.
I smiled slightly. "Your obligatory objection is noted and rejected. I'm allowed to have some fun once in a while."
As I said to Khala, I didn't like to ask my people to do things I wouldn't do myself. Besides, there was an element of enjoyment to sneaking in and out without anyone knowing we were there. I'd bet half the court's coffers Dalyth didn't know who it was that day on the road beside the carriages. No doubt she'd suspect us, but without seeing us with her own eyes, she couldn't prove anything. My only regret was not disposing of her while we were there. If we weren't outnumbered at the time…
"Sooner or later, you're going to get yourself into a pile of shit," Vayne told me.
I grinned. "That's what I have you two for. To keep that from happening, or to get me out of it if it does."
"I thought you kept us around for our good looks," Vayne quipped.
"You're half right," Tavian teased. "He keeps me around formygood looks."
There was a certain amount of accuracy there. I adored many things about Tavian, including his looks."It's certainly not because you're model Fae," I told them both dryly.
"Who amongst us can make that claim?" Vayne asked.
I didn't even pretend I'd suggest I could. I was sarcastic, arrogant and possibly slightly self absorbed. If I was a model anything, it was a good example of how not to behave. I had no intention of changing that.
"I'm pretty close," Tavian said lightly. "But there's something I need to tell you about. I'm not sure if it's anything serious but I thought you should know."
I knew that expression on his face. It made me worried every time. He never wore it unless the situation really called for it and things usually didn't end well when that was the case.
"Yes, Master Tavian," I said, my tone formal. "Should I have Vayne rouse the army after all?"
"I don't think that's necessary just yet," he said carefully.
"You're not filling me with much confidence," I told him. "Out with it."
"A couple of the assassins sent into the Autumn Court haven't returned yet," Tavian said reluctantly.
26
Ryze
"Granted they're only a day or two later than anticipated,” Tavian said quickly. “My instincts are telling me something weird might be going on."
"Who were they sent to execute?" Vayne asked. The sides of his mouth were tight. It was no secret he preferred to face the enemy head on. He enjoyed sneaking around as much as the rest of us did, but he'd prefer to incinerate the front door and storm in. The last few hundred years must have been very dull for him. Which was fine with me.
"One was sent after a minor courtier who tried to blackmail one of our minor courtiers. That was a personal matter between them," Tavian answered. "The other was something to do with a business matter between former partners. One took everything and fled to the Autumn Court. The other took exception to that."
"Understandable," Vayne said. "I'd be pissed off too."
I frowned. "Neither sound like a difficult job." If I wasn't a High Lord, I might have been an assassin. The ability to make a portal to get the hells away from somewhere was a handy skill. Not to mention assassins got to travel to all sorts of interesting places and meet new people. And kill them. What more could a Fae want?
"They shouldn't have been," Tavian agreed. "In. Slice. Out. Or whatever method they used for the kill. They should both have been back a day or two early, not late."
