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“They’re gone,” he says.
“What?”
Alek glances over at me with an anxious gleam in his bright eyes. “All three of the books I set aside here that had some mention of scourge sorcery. Someone’s taken them.”
My heart sinks. “The librarians realized and sent them to be destroyed?” I venture.
Alek puts my darker suspicion into words. “Or I wasn’t the only person already aware of them... and the same people who murdered Julita set out to make it even harder for anyone to figure out what horrors they’re committing.”
Fifteen
When I look up from the shopping list Stavros has just handed me, the former general is watching me with a gleam dancing in his dark eyes. “Do make sure it’s aged kivseed oil not fresh. And I hope you can make it through the errand without slicing anyone or anything up?”
I wrinkle my nose at him. “I haven’t stabbed you so far, so I’d say my self-control is working just fine.”
He cocks his head with the little twitch that tells me he’s refocusing his vision. Abruptly, I get the sense that he’s not just heckling me but intrigued despite himself. “I heard you slashed someone’s saddle during a hunt the other day.”
A chill runs down my back. I don’t want this man—this sorcerer-hunter—scrutinizing me any more than he’s already inclined to.
I force a guffaw and tuck the list into the pouch on my belt. A silk pouch on a gold-edged belt, naturally, since it needs to go with this fancy-ass dress. “I’d like to see them prove I did it.”
“Was there any particular reason you felt the need to send one of the students off their horse?”
She was asking for it, Julita mutters.
I opt for a slightly more detailed explanation. “She was questioning my qualifications for the assistant position. I thought it’d be worthwhile to demonstrate that I can take care of my opponents just fine.”
Stavros raises his eyebrows. “I suppose it proved something. Maybe next time you can make your point without damaging school property, though. Having the stablemaster venting at me is rather tiresome.”
“I’m ever so sorry,” I say, not at all apologetically, and gesture to the luxurious quarters around us. “I’m sure there’s money somewhere in the college’s extensive coffers to cover a saddle strap. And you wouldn’t have that problem if you’d let me do more than haul around equipment during your classes, so people would have seen I earned the spot.”
“I thinkearnedis a bit of an exaggeration.” He chuckles and shakes his head. “Did it never occur to you that it might be better if people heredon’tsee how you handle a fight? You don’t approach combat like a noblewoman.”
I shrug. “I’m supposedly a paltry noblewoman from some lowly province and a family no one’s even heard of. Who knows what tactics we might prefer there?”
Then the full implications of what he said sink in.
I peer up at him, momentarily unsettled. “Are you trying to say that you’ve been treating me like a pack mule for my own protection?”
The man I’m most afraid of sending me to my death has actually been defending me?
I guess it’s in his own best interests that my true origins remain hidden, as much as he knows about them. Both in case it comes out that he helped me forge my new identity and to preserve Julita’s presence here. But it’s hard for me to imagine the arrogant jackass in front of me doing anything for any reason other than to annoy me.
And it’s not as if he’d do any of it if he knew the full truth about me.
Stavros’s mouth forms a slanted grin. “Somehow you’ve become a cornerstone in our plans, Thief. It would also be tiresome to have to start over after we’ve gone to the work of setting you up here.”
There’s still something more curious in his gaze than I’ve seen before. Is it possible I’ve earned a little respect from the former general as well?
I don’t really like the strange tingle of exhilaration that idea gives me. Anyway, at the moment I have much more need of something else from him.
I hold out my hand. “Speaking of work, can I get an advance on my pay? There are a couple of things I’d like to pick up for myself while I’m in town.”
This time Stavros’s eyebrows shoot up almost to the fringe of his blood-red hair. “You haven’t been supplied with enough fineries yet?”
I fold my arms over my chest. “Who says I want ‘fineries’? Women have needs.”
Making it sound like some sort of feminine issue does the trick. Stavros snorts and then sighs, but he produces a few coins from a drawer. “I suppose it would look odd if I wasn’t paying you some sort of salary.”
