Chapter Twenty-eight

We ended up staying at the celebration for hours. Neither Tannix nor Tandrin could leave long enough to get me out of the Order's walls, and with all the guards around, there wasn't a chance of me risking it by myself. I followed them as they made their way through the crowds, talking to almost every lord and lady we passed. They had casual conversations with the ones they already knew, and lengthy introductions with those they didn't.

I didn't mind following them. It was interesting to hear about the nobility, their names and where they came from. When the servants started carrying around food, I was even more glad to have stayed. Though I couldn't take any from them myself, Tannix often took food that was offered to him and handed it back to me. I'd never seen such fancy foods. There were little pieces of bread with various toppings. There were different types of meat and fancy foreign fruit. Everything was delicious and I more than ate my fill.

By the time I got back into the lower city, Lothian Dusk had come and gone, and real night was settling over the city. As I neared our old building, I could hear voices. Castin and Stria were sitting outside, talking quietly. They looked up when I passed, and Castin nodded at me.

The way Stria and Castin felt for each other wasn't a well-kept secret, but something about seeing them sitting so close together suddenly bothered me.

Pretty soon Tannix would be sitting like that with Lady Mayah.

I forced the image out of my head and walked through the door, already undoing the ties on my blue cloak.

"Baisan! I'm back," I called while still in the hallway.

"Thank Zianesa," he said, appearing in the doorway ahead of me. "What happened?"

I shrugged and brushed past him. "Tannix is a full member of the Order. He'll be leaving Zianna." It wasn't something I wanted to think about, so I turned back to Baisan and reached into my pocket.

His eyes widened when he saw the little pile in my hand. Three rings, two bracelets, and a pin. I couldn't help myself. "They'll sell well."

Baisan picked up one of the bracelets to inspect it. "I'm going to assume he didn't realize you were doing this?"

"He would've been furious." I took off my belt and knife and dropped them on top of my cloak. "But you should have seen these people. They were so rich, they'll just buy more and not be any poorer for it. But us? If we sell these we'll be able to feed ourselves for months."

Baisan nodded. "They're definitely more useful to us." He took the rest of the jewellery from my hand and slipped it into a pocket. "We'll go out tomorrow and look for customers."

"Check the brothels first."

"Yes, I know." He paused. "Did Kassia find you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Right after you left, she went after you. She wanted to tell you something."

I shrugged. "No." I started to walk over to my corner, and then froze as something occurred to me. "She hasn't come back?"

"No. That's why I thought she found you."

It was so obvious I was surprised that I hadn't realized it before. Things fit together in my head: things she had said, things Tannix and I had mentioned around her, the way she'd acted—the girl we'd seen with the director.

"Finn? What's wrong?" Baisan asked warily.

"It was her," I muttered. Then I turned and ran.

Getting to Tannix would be impossible. The Order was still filled with the nobles, and there were many more guards than usual. I didn't even know if I could make the climb. My trip over the dividing wall had been hasty, and I'd already wrenched my wrist a bit. I made up my mind quickly.

Guards still patrolled the streets, but it was dark and I was wearing black pants and a black tunic. The cloak had been left behind in my rush, but I realized that was a good thing as I ducked into a shadow, hiding from yet another pair of guards. When their footsteps faded, I carefully looked around the corner. They were far enough down the street that I didn't think they'd notice me. Carefully, I stepped out onto the cobblestones and walked up the street.

It was oddly dark. There were no visible stars; clouds must have covered the whole sky. A warm wind blew down the streets, making me think that a storm might be on its way. Voices broke into my thoughts and I once again slipped into an alleyway. My trip continued like that, running along the street and hiding for a moment before running again. By the time I reached the building, I was exhausted.

I had a good memory for locations. I could tell which window was Tandrin's even though I hadn't seen it from the outside. Three floors up. I pulled myself up on the first windowsill and grabbed at a brick above my head.

Strong arms suddenly wrapped around my waist and pulled me down. I struggled against them, trying to hit whomever was holding me, to no avail. My hands were roughly bound behind my back and a hand clamped over my mouth and there was nothing I could do about it. My wrist ached furiously.

"Tiny for an assassin," a voice muttered.

"They usually are. Brute force isn't an assassin trait," the man holding me replied. I recognized the voice.

I jerked my head to the side quickly, dislodging the hand. "Eppson," I yelped. "Your name's Eppson."

He turned me around sharply, but didn't let go of me. He seemed bigger than he had earlier in the day. His grip so strong that his hand might as well been a metal cuff. I almost felt like I was shrinking under his gaze. "How do you know that?"

"L... Lord Tandrin told me," I stammered. "I was the servant with him today, you saw me. Please, sir, I need to speak with him."

"Why is a servant trying to sneak in?"

My mind raced but I couldn't think of a good reason. "I'm not a servant," I said. "But please let me talk to him. He knows who I am, and he'll want to see me. Please."

Sir Eppson stared at me for longer than I thought we could spare, but there was nothing I could do about it and I stood still. Finally, he nodded at the other guard. Without saying anything, Sir Eppson dragged me to the stairs leading up to the door. We walked in and up the staircase I'd found so pretty last time. It was just as pretty in the flickering candlelight.

There was another guard standing outside Tandrin's door, and I flinched when he looked me over. "What's this?"

"He wants to talk to Tandrin," Sir Eppson said, giving me a shake. "Says he knows him and I think I recognize him from the ceremony. But we'll see what our lord says."

The door guard hesitated. He opened Tandrin's door and walked in, while Sir Eppson, the other guard, and I waited outside. Irrationally, I started wondering what the guards would do to me if Tandrin said he didn't know who I was.

I needn't have worried; Tandrin appeared in the doorway a moment later, looking tired but fairly alert. "What are you doing, Eppson? Let him go. What's going on, Finn?"

"I need to talk to Tannix," I told him, while the huge guard untied my wrists. "But I couldn't get to him so I came here." Once free, I rubbed my right wrist gently, hoping the pain would fade.

"And it can't wait?"

"No."

Tandrin nodded at the guard who had been outside with us. "Go get my brother. Tell him to be quick, Finn..." He cut himself off and glanced at me.

"Baisan. I've used the name before. He'll understand."

"Tell him that Baisan is here," Tandrin told the guard, who immediately jogged off. Tandrin gently pulled me into the room and closed the door, leaving his other guards outside. "Are you going to tell me what's going on?"

"Do you know about the letter?" I asked cautiously.

"What letter?"

After a moment of internal debate, I decided to tell him. I explained everything that had happened since I had first found the letter. Some of it Tannix had already told him, but with less detail. He was particularly surprised when I told him that I had killed one of the two assassins. I explained my theory about the director, and finally my thoughts about Kassia.

Tannix's timing was perfect. He burst in right at that moment, but froze when he saw me. His appearance was startling. He looked like he'd run the whole way from the Order, and he wasn't wearing his usual cloak or his sword. The panic in his eyes scared me a little. He was usually good at reining in his feelings, so that even after being attacked by assassins he had seemed mostly unfazed. Something had just happened that was somehow worse than that. Worse than almost being killed.

I suddenly found myself wrapped in arms again, but this time it was a hug. Once again there was nothing I could do about it. He might not have been as strong as Sir Eppson, but he was still stronger than me. I could feel his heart racing.

"Tannix, what's wrong?"

He broke our hug but didn't let me go, holding me at arms' length. "Why did you do that to me?"

"Do what?" I asked, so confused that I couldn't even begin to understand what he was talking about.

"Say it was Baisan. Why would Baisan need to see me urgently? I thought he was going to tell me that you hadn't made it home. Or that you'd been arrested. Or hurt somehow. Or killed."

"Sorry," I said, still puzzled. I couldn't quite make sense of his behaviour. I was usually so good at reading people. "But why would Baisan come to Tandrin?"

"Maybe you told him to. I don't know, Finn! I wasn't thinking rationally!" He let go of me and ran a hand through his hair while taking a couple slow breaths. "What is so urgent?"

Tannix's strange panic would have to wait. "Kassia," I said. "Kassia's the assassin."

"What?"

"Well..." Faced with him, I started second-guessing myself. "Think about it. She was around a lot when we were talking about the whole thing, and she was interested in it. She even said she believed me when I said the director was the associate."

"We don't know if that's even true."

"Just assume it is for a moment. When I got back, Baisan told me that Kassia had followed me earlier. But I never saw her. She went to him."

"If it was her, why wouldn't she have gone to him earlier?" Tannix asked.

"Because she never got the letter," I said. "She knew where she was supposed to go but she didn't know who she was supposed to go to. Then she heard us talking about the letter and she must have realized that we would figure something out." Tannix still looked doubtful, so I pulled out the last of my evidence. "I didn't realize it at first because I wasn't paying attention, but we saw the director with a girl earlier. It was her." I gave him a moment to think about it, and I could tell when he finally believed me.

"We need to go talk to him." The calm and powerful Tannix I was used to came back instantly. "Finn and Eppson, with me. Cail, your sword." The door guard handed his sword over wordlessly. Tannix took it and started turning his wrist, testing the weight of the weapon.

"I'm coming too," Tandrin said.

"No, you're not."

"You can hardly stop me," Tandrin said. He picked up his ceremonial sword and attached it to his belt. "When you need a speaker, you'll be glad I'm with you. Just because I never killed an assassin—one, mind you. Finn told me the truth—doesn't mean I can't use a sword." He strode past his brother towards the door. "Shall we?"

Tannix muttered something under his breath. While slipping his sword under his belt, he followed his brother. "You'll do what I tell you."

"Of course, little brother."

Tannix waved at Sir Eppson and me. We both started following him, though the knight kept back a bit and I made sure to keep pace with Tannix. He walked quickly, keeping his left hand on the sword pommel to steady it.

"What are we going to do?" I asked.

"Figure out what's going on," he said. "If I have to arrest the director, I will. I have the authority now."

Walking through the streets with Tannix and Tandrin was nothing like sneaking around by myself. I didn't have to hide from any of the guards, though multiple times I almost tried to instinctively. I stayed beside Tannix the whole time. Tandrin was just behind us, and Sir Eppson was behind him, where he could keep an eye on all of us. I was grateful for his presence, though my wrist still ached from when he grabbed me.

Tandrin's building was not far from the Order. When we reached the gate, it was opened instantly. The guards were clearly confused, but they weren't about to argue with both of the young West Draulin lords.

Within the walls, things looked different. Already the chairs and the temporary stage had been removed, leaving the courtyard empty. There were only a few people still out, mostly guards or servants. We ignored them and they ignored us. We entered the main building through the front doors, something I hadn't done in four years. It looked the same as it had then, the black stone just as shiny and strange.

We went up a staircase I had never used before. One staircase led to a hallway, which led to another staircase. We walked down a plain, thin hallway, and then Tannix stopped in front of a large wooden door.

He looked at me. "Don't speak to him."

I nodded. Talking to the director was not something I ever wanted to do again.

Tannix took a deep breath. "Finn, if you're right about this, I'm sorry I didn't believe you sooner." His grip on the sword tightened, and he pushed open the door.