The problem was, all the officers below were drunk. She had to work with what she had.
“Hold this a minute, and I’ll open the door,” she said, taking his key from him and giving him a piece of embroidery.
She turned the key, stepping into the room warily. There didn’t seem to be enough rooms at this particular inn for everyone getting drunk downstairs to have their own room, but she had obviously found someone with enough rank to warrant some privacy.
“Come in,” she invited, and he clutched the fabric to his chest and stumbled after her.
“Would you like some water?” She found the pitcher on a table near the bed, and poured it into a glass.
He drank it down as if he were a child following orders.
“Why don’t you sit?”
He didn’t look for a chair, he simply folded his legs and landed on the floor.
It made her feel slightly queasy how easily she could manipulate him.
“You look like Princess Ava Valestri.” He tried to waggle his eyebrows again. “Can I call you that while I fuck you?”
Ava went still. “How do you know what the princess looks like? Most people don’t even know she exists.”
“A drawing sent out by the Queen’s Herald after she went missing. Only the senior officers know. We were told to look out for her.” He held out his glass and she poured more water into it. “I think the Queen’s Herald is in trouble about it.” He snickered.
“That picture is wrong, you know. It doesn’t look anything like the princess.”
“Oh.” He nodded sagely. “But can I still call you that when we—”
“That’s not going to happen.” Ava shuddered. “So tell me all the clever things the Kassian army are planning against the Rising Wave.” She lowered herself into the chair by the fire.
“Got ourselves some flares.” He grinned at her. “We’re going to wait for the Rising Wave to pass the hills, where we’ve set up flare cannons, and when they come past, wooooooo, boom.” He traced the air to show the trajectory of a flare and then threw his hands in the air for the boom. “And then,” he leaned toward her and lowered his voice, “when they run for Bartolo, because its the only place for a quick river crossing, we’ll come out from under the city and—” He made a sound at the back of his throat and ran a finger under his chin.
“How many flares?” she asked, trying to sound impressed.
“Ten canons, three flares each.” He leaned back on his hands, as if expecting praise.
“That is amazing,” she said. “Can you tell me what flares are, again?”
He chuckled indulgently. “Magical fire. Got them from Zilvana. Burns and burns. Spreads like water.” He tapped his cheek, and she thought he meant to tap his nose but missed. “Got to be careful. Very dangerous to launch.”
“Very dangerous.” Ava thought through her options. “Where are they now? Are they in Bartolo?”
“No, silly.” He shook his head. “Already gone two days ago. Probably already setting them in place. The Rising Wave could be coming past any day.”
She, Oscar and Deni must have just missed them.
“Are you going to the hills?”
“No.” He looked sad about it. “Would love to see it, but I’m stuck here to mop up the survivors.”
Rage spiked in her chest, and she took a calming breath. “You know what you should do?”
He looked up at her and shook his head.
“You shouldn’t take that kind of disrespect. A competent officer like you, stuck in Bartolo? You should pack your things and simply go home.”
“I should. You’re right, I should.”
“Go tonight, if you can. Don’t tell anyone. Why should you give them notice when they disrespect you like that? And when you get home? You throw that piece of fabric in the first fire you see and be done with it.”
She left him packing his things, flinging them into a canvas bag with a sort of delighted outrage.
She hoped his disappearance caused all kinds of logistical trouble.
“He touch you?” Oscar asked as she stepped into the hallway, and she frowned at him in incomprehension.
“What?”
“Did he try—” Deni shut his mouth. “You were the more dangerous of the two, weren’t you?”
She shook her head, dismissing the whole line of questioning. “Have you heard of flares?” She came to a stop at the top of the stairs. The noise coming from below told her they wouldn’t be able to have a conversation down there.
“Flares?” Oscar shook his head, but Deni went pale.
“I’ve heard of them. Some kind of magical fire.”
Ava nodded. “They aren’t going to hide troops in the hills. They’re setting up cannons on the hilltops and they’re going to shoot flares at the columns. They’ll only need a small force for that. It’s how they have enough troops to hide an army in the cisterns to deal with whoever escapes the flares and tries to use the Bartolo bridge to cross the river.”
“The fuckers.” Deni’s voice was hushed.
“We’re leaving now?” Oscar asked.
She nodded. “You two go back the way we came in, get the horses where we left them and cross the river. Go find the columns before they try to surround the hills.”
“And you?” Deni did not sound happy.
“I’m going out the other way. I’ll get a horse or find a lift, but the Rising Wave has already split up. We need to warn both groups.”
“Why don’t I go out the other gate and you go with Oscar?” Deni asked uneasily.
“Because I can make it so that no one knows I was even there,” she told him bluntly, and after a short staring match, he lowered his gaze and nodded.
The door opened behind them, and the officer came out, a pack slung over his shoulder.
“You should go out the back way,” Ava told him. “There’s too many people in the front.”
“Good idea.” He was still slurring his words and he walked past them and down the stairs, unsteady on his feet.
“Where’s he going?” Oscar’s voice was hushed.
“I persuaded him to desert. That should make things a little more difficult in Bartolo for the Kassian, as apparently he was in charge of the units going to hide in the cisterns.”
“You are scary, Ava. As scary as the Commander.” Oscar didn’t sound scared, though. He sounded admiring.
“Guess we were made for each other, then.” She grinned at him even as she thought about how the officer had recognized her from a picture circulated by her cousin. “Now let’s take my own advice and leave out the back door.”
Chapter 34
She walked into camp and looked around.
She’d left the horse she’d stolen to graze a little way back, and had wound her scarf over her head, mouth and neck, more to ward off the cold than to increase the effectiveness of the invisibility spell.
It looked as if Massi and Raun-Tu were in charge here.
General Ru and Luc would be with the main army.
She had passed two Kassian scout parties on her way here. She had thought, when she’d run into the second one, that she’d have to abandon her horse, because she hadn’t thought it became invisible along with her, but she had been proved wrong.