“Good for you. Are you going to say it now? Will it make you feel better?”
Karris didn’t take the bait, didn’t call him an asshole or any of the other words that so aptly applied. She said, “I’m taking over command of the drafters’ training myself. Today. I’ve been helping for a long time, but they’re all mine now. And I’m reclaiming a fair percentage of the incomes I’d allowed you to divert from Chromeria funding. I’ll be using them here to shore up the islands’ defenses.”
“You will not. I’ll not allow it. Also, we need to have a conversation about those pet luxiats of yours. Not now, but—”
“I’m fighting alongside you, father. You ask yourself, Is your time so worthless that you can throw it away in fighting against me instead? I require less money than you might lose if a single galley with supplies were plundered on its way here from Ruthgar.”
He hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “Very well, but if I let you do this, then—”
“No! This is not a trade. It’s not a game. You do what you must to save the satrapies. That’s exactly what I’m doing, too.”
“And when Ironfist arrives? You’ll do what you have to then, too?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said, and she felt it to the core of her being: this, too, was true.
Andross turned to go, but then stopped. “I’ve been intending to give you a gift, but I’m afraid it’s fallen through.”
“A gift?”
“Yes. Gavin’s old room slave, Marissia. I know you have . . . missed having her help. It turns out she didn’t run away after all. She was kidnapped. I traced her to an island off the Ruthgari coast where she was imprisoned. But it turns out she escaped with the help of mercenaries or pirates. One assumes she must have been desperate indeed to throw herself on the mercies of such people, but at least they didn’t murder or enslave the servants on the island, so there is some reason to hope. Unfortunately, the lord those servants believed they were serving doesn’t actually exist, so I’ve no more leads on who took her in the first place. Anyway, I thought you’d like to know you were right about her innocence, and that she is likely still alive. Who knows, maybe she’ll come back to take up her chains once more.” He smiled thinly.
No, Marissia would fear she was labeled a runaway. She’d surely believe that if she returned they would sell her to some lesser house—if not to a brothel or the mines. It was unlikely she’d heard Gavin had manumitted her in his will. Even if she had, she’d still have good reasons to fear coming back.
But all this was a smokescreen, Karris knew. Andross had been the one who’d ordered Marissia’s kidnapping. Not that she could tell him she knew that.
So what did this mean? It was probably half true. He’d taken Marissia off the table himself, but had meant to keep her in reserve—thus, not murder but kidnapping and imprisonment, likely on one of his own islands. But then she’d escaped.
Good for her.
Oh, Marissia, how do I let you know that I mean you no ill? I would give you back your old position as spymaster in a second! But I couldn’t keep you safe.
Go, Marissia, go and find yourself a good life.
If there are any left to be found in these war-racked lands.
“I’m afraid I’ll have to muddle through as best I can without her,” Karris said. “Thank you for . . . making the effort.”
He stared at her closely, first as if waiting for her to say something cutting, as if her thanks was mere setup, but then seemingly surprised it wasn’t. “Again,” he said, then momentarily looked as if he were waffling whether to go on. “Again I see what Gavin liked so much about you.”
He’s gonna say ‘weakness.’ He’s gonna punch me in the gut with something next.
But Karris forced her tense muscles to relax, and the insults to lie quiet on her tongue. Even if he hit her with something awful next, she was the White. She could do this.
For just a moment, Andross’s eyes sparkled as if he knew exactly what she was feeling. A smile like none she’d ever seen on his face flashed, open and roguishly knowing, utterly beguiling. It dropped another twenty years from his aspect.
Then it was gone, and he was the old Andross once more—and he turned and left without another word.
And, remarkably, that was that. She took command of the drafters, and she took the money she needed, and his people did nothing to stop her.
Well, holy shit. It worked.
Chapter 48
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. What order?” Halfcock said.
But terror had splashed over his face, and it drained away too slowly for Teia to miss it.
“Is that how we’re going to do this?” Teia asked. “Really?”
“What are you doing, Teia? Where did you learn to do all this?” Halfcock asked as if he weren’t paralyzed on the floor, utterly helpless.
“It was a good fight,” Teia said. “You didn’t blink when faced with an invisible opponent. You’ve got balls of steel. Balls that I let you empty first, so you’re welcome for that.”
Halfcock swallowed.
“Seems like a nice lady,” Teia said.
“Just a whore.”
“Huh. Too bad, then. Just another innocent killed in this war. But one has to be certain.” Teia shrugged.
Orholam have mercy, is this who I’ve become? Casually threatening the murder of innocents?
“You’re not with them,” Halfcock said, stunned. “You’re hunting them!” Obviously, the only Shadows he knew of were the Order’s assassins. “That’s—that’ s—that’s wonderful! They were threatening me!”
“Uh-huh.”
“You have to believe me,” Halfcock said. “You have to believe me! I am not in the Order. I swear by Orholam! I swear to God!”
Now we’re getting somewhere. “Who’s Eliazar? Husband?” Teia asked.
“Son,” Halfcock said, defeated. “From her first marriage.”
“First marriage?”
“Shit,” Halfcock said. “Look, can you let me—”
“Do I look like a fool to you?”
“Aliyah’s my wife,” Halfcock said.
“You’re not forbidden to marry,” Teia said. “Why the big secret?”
“Not a secret from us, a secret from them.”
“Us, Halfcock? It’s so hard to tell what a traitor means when he uses that word. Which ‘us’?”
“Us, us! I’m not a traitor! I mean the Blackguard. Come on! I had to keep it secret from the Order.”
“Now, why would you have to keep secrets from the Order?” Teia asked.
“I never really followed them. I was waiting for the perfect moment to betray them. I could run away if it were just me. I don’t have family, but Aliyah does, and I knew the Order’s vengeance would be terrible. You have to believe me. I was going to redeem myself.”
“Redeem yourself, huh? Now, what’d you do that requires redemption?”
“Nothing. Nothing, I swear!”
“Uh-huh.”
“Please. I know you all hate me. I know I did stupid shit when I was a kid. Yeah, I was an asshole. But I was a kid. I’ve been paying for that for longer than you’ve been alive. You’re gonna kill me for that? You want to know why they gave me the name Halfcock?”