Beldre shot a glance at Spook.
“Him excluded,” Breeze said. “Spook is harmless. Really, you shouldn’t—”
“Breeze,” Spook interrupted, glancing over with his strange, bandaged eyes, spectacles hidden underneath and bulging out from the face just slightly under the cloth. “That’s enough. You’re making us both seem like idiots. Beldre knows why we’re here—everyone in the city knows why we’re here.”
The room fell silent.
He … looks a little bit like an Inquisitor, wearing those spectacles beneath the bandages, Sazed thought, shivering.
“Beldre,” Spook said. “You honestly expect us to think that you came here simply to plead for your brother’s life?”
She glanced at Spook, defiantly meeting his eyes—or, rather, his lack thereof. “You can try to sound harsh, but I know you won’t hurt me. You’re of the Survivor’s crew.”
Spook folded his arms.
“Please,” Beldre said. “Quellion is a good man, like you. You have to give him more time. Don’t kill him.”
“What makes you think we’d kill him, child?” Sazed asked. “You just said that you thought we would never harm you. Why is your brother different?”
Beldre glanced down. “You’re the ones who killed the Lord Ruler. You overthrew the entire empire. My brother doesn’t believe it—he thinks that you rode the Survivor’s popularity, claiming to be his friends after he’d sacrificed himself.”
Spook snorted. “I wonder where your brother got an idea like that. Perhaps he knows someone else who’s claimed to have the Survivor’s blessing, killing people in his name …”
Beldre blushed.
“Your brother doesn’t trust us,” Sazed said. “Why do you?”
Beldre shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said quietly. “I guess … men who lie don’t save children from burning buildings.”
Sazed glanced at Spook, but couldn’t read anything in the young man’s hard expression. Finally, Spook spoke. “Breeze, Sazed, Allrianne, outside with me. Goradel, watch the woman.”
Spook pushed his way out into the hallway, and Sazed followed with the others. Once the door was closed, Spook turned to regard the rest of them. “Well?”
“I don’t like her,” Allrianne said, folding her arms.
“Of course you don’t, dear,” Breeze said. “You never like competition.”
“Competition?” Allrianne huffed. “From a timid little thing like that? Honestly.”
“What do you think, Breeze?” Spook asked.
“About the girl, or about you insulting me in there?”
“The first,” Spook said. “Your pride isn’t important right now.”
“My dear fellow,” Breeze said, “my pride is always important. As for the girl, I’ll tell you this—she’s terrified. Despite what she says, she’s very, very frightened—which means that she hasn’t done this sort of thing very often. My guess is that she’s noble.”
Allrianne nodded. “Definitely. Just look at her hands—when they’re not shaking from fright, you can see that they’re clean and soft. She grew up being pampered.”
“She’s obviously a bit naive,” Sazed said. “Otherwise she wouldn’t have come here, expecting that we’d just listen to her, then let her go.”
Spook nodded. He cocked his head, as if listening to something. Then he walked forward, pushing open the door to the room.
“Well?” Beldre asked, maintaining her false air of forcefulness. “Have you decided to listen to me?”
“In a way,” Spook said. “I’m going to give you more time to explain your point. Plenty of time, actually.”
“I … don’t have long,” Beldre said. “I need to get back to my brother. I didn’t tell him I was leaving, and …” She trailed off, apparently seeing something in Spook’s expression. “You’re going to take me captive, aren’t you?”
“Breeze,” Spook said, turning. “How do you think the people would respond if I started spreading the rumor that the Citizen’s own sister has turned against him, fleeing to our embassy for protection?”
Breeze smiled. “Well now. That’s clever! Almost makes up for how you treated me. Have I mentioned yet how rude that was?”
“You can’t!” Beldre said, standing, facing Spook. “Nobody will believe that I’ve deserted!”
“Oh?” Spook asked. “Did you speak to the soldiers outside before you came in here?”
“Of course not,” Beldre said. “They’d have tried to stop me. I ran up the steps before they could.”
“So, they can confirm that you entered the building of your own will,” Spook said. “Sneaking around a guard post.”
“Doesn’t look good,” Breeze agreed.
Beldre wilted slightly, sitting down in her chair. By the Forgotten Gods, Sazed thought. She really is naive. The Citizen must have expended a great deal of effort in sheltering her so.
Of course, from what Sazed had heard, Quellion rarely let the girl out of his sight. She was always with him, being watched over. How will he react? Sazed thought with a chill. What will he do when he learns we have her? Attack?
Perhaps that was the plan. If Spook could force an outright attack on the Citizen’s part, it would look bad. Especially bad when Quellion was turned back by a few soldiers—he couldn’t know how well fortified their position was.
When did Spook get so clever?
Beldre looked up from her seat, a few tears of frustration gleaming in her eyes. “You can’t do this. This is deceitful! What would the Survivor say if he knew what you were planning?”
“The Survivor?” Spook asked, chuckling. “I have a feeling he’d approve. If he were here, actually, I think he’d suggest that we do this very thing …”
One can see Ruin’s craftiness in the meticulousness of his planning. He managed to orchestrate the downfall of the Lord Ruler only a short time before Preservation’s power returned to the Well of Ascension. And then, within a few years of that event, he had freed himself.
On the time scale of gods and their power, this very tricky timing was as precise as an expert cut performed by the most talented of surgeons.
50
THE DOOR TO THE CAVERN opened.
Vin immediately downed her last vial of metals.
She jumped, tossing a coin behind herself, leaping up onto the top of one of the freestanding shelves. The cavern echoed with the sound of stone on stone as its door opened. Vin threw herself forward—Pushing off the coin—to shoot toward the front of the room. A crack of light outlined the door, and even this small amount of illumination hurt her eyes.
She gritted her teeth against the light, blinking as she landed. She threw herself up against the wall just to the side of the door, clutching her knives, flaring pewter to help herself deal with the sudden pain of light. Tears crept down her cheeks.
The door stopped moving. A solitary man stepped into the cavern, bearing a raised lantern. He wore a fine black suit and gentleman’s hat.