AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It was well made and well-balanced. If I needed another knife, I would have bought it. I made a mental note to come back later.
When the woman moved on from the belt stand, I put down the knife, smiled at the blacksmith and walked on slowly through the crowds.
She wound her way through, stopping every so often, but always keeping Ryze and the others in sight. She even bought a small cake from one of the stands and ate it as she followed. It looked so good, I bought one myself. Then one each for the others. No doubt they'd appreciate the treat later.
Unless I got hungry and ate them first.
Now, where was the woman? I glanced around surreptitiously before casually opening the bag and pulling out a cake.
I was halfway through eating it when she stepped out of an alley, right in front of me and put a knife to my throat.
"Why are you following me?" she rasped.
I looked down at the blade, then went on eating. "The question is, what are you doing in Garial, Illaria? You're a long way from the Winter Court."
"I could ask you the same thing, Master Tavian," she said.
"You could, but it's none of your business," I replied. I'd seen her plenty of times around the palace. Usually watching Fae men without shirts sparring in the practice ring. Her bright red hair and emerald green eyes were difficult to miss. Especially in the Winter Court.
I pushed the knife away from my throat with my wrist and finished the last of my cake.
"You didn't answer my question. What is a woman who looks like she's straight out of the Autumn Court, who lives in theWinterCourt, doing here in theSummerCourt? If you ask me, all of that is very suspicious. Added to that, you were following Ryzellius. Don't tell me you didn't notice him walking right in front of you."
She didn't flinch, but she put away her blade. Lucky for her, because if she tried to use it, she’d be dead in a heartbeat. And then Ryze would be pissed I made a mess in the street.
"I might have noticed," she said noncommittally. "I also have it on good authority Cavan ordered him out of the city. Before you say it, half the city is talking about it."
I doubted it was anything like that much, but I wouldn't call her out on it. People did like to gossip, and often didn't care what they were gossiping about. When you were a spymaster or a Master of Assassins, you tended to listen to it. On occasion, some of it was even true.
"We're starting to attract attention." I nodded for her to step back into the alley. "Now, you have approximately a minute to explain what you're doing here. Otherwise, the next set of bones drying here will be yours."
She looked huffy. "I was sent here."
"By whom?" I asked. "Not by me. Not by Ryze or Vayne either. Let me guess, direct order from Harel?"
"Fuck no," she said quickly. She actually looked disgusted at the idea. "There's a faction in the Autumn Court who are concerned about what he's doing here. They sent me to find out."
"You work for a faction that wants to rival the High Lord of the Autumn Court," I said slowly. "Why do you live in the Winter Court?"
She shrugged. "I like it."
I cocked my head at her.
She sighed. "Fine, I'm in exile from the Autumn Court. That faction, they,we, made a move against him a few years ago. We weren't successful, obviously. He had a lot of them executed, but some of us got out first. Now we can't go back. We'll be killed on sight."
I frowned. "Why have I not heard of any of this?" It was my job to know things like this. If I didn't know, then spymaster Bravenna didn't know either. This kind of information would have reached my ears if it reached Ryze's.
"It was all done quietly, including the executions," Illaria said. "Harel has been trying to increase his power for a long time now. His influence too. We believe he's here to do just that."
"We could have saved you the trouble of coming here," I said. "We think the same thing." I wasn't concerned about telling her that, since she clearly knew plenty already.
She almost looked sulky as she said, "I didn't know you knew. Those I work with, we're few and we're vulnerable. We have influence of our own, but Harel is aware of us. We speculated whether or not we could align ourselves with any of the other courts, but we didn't know who we could trust. We still don't."
"I think it's more or less fair to say, at this point, any enemy of Harel is a friend of ours," I said. "Any enemy of Cavan too, for that matter."
"Including Khala?" Illaria asked. "I saw her being taken to the palace. Shame, she seemed so nice. And her human friend too."
When I didn't say anything, she continued, "You're trying to get her out, aren't you? I can help."
