Cheapest this season, when everyone has a power play to field.”
“Will you take my message, soldier?” He gave her what she wanted-recognition,
though he’d rather call her whore and take her over bended knee.
“For you, Crit? Anything.” Teeth flashed, a chuckle sounded, and he heard her
mutter, “Zip, relax; he’s one of us,” and the youth behind her grumbled a reply
before he slouched against a daub-and-wattle wall. “Before the break of day
we’ll be there…. How many would that be you’ll need?”
And Crit realized he didn’t know. He hadn’t a plan or a glimmer. What would it
take to wrest the Globe of Power from Roxane, the Nisibisi witch? “Randal’ll
know-if he’s still our warrior mage. Don’t ask questions woman-not here. You
know better. And Niko, find him-“
“Seh,” the young tough behind her swore. ‘This one’s walking wounded, Kama.
Niko? Why not ask the-“
“Zip. Hush.” The woman stepped out a pace from shadows, smiling like her father
a show of teeth with no humor in it. “Critias… friend, you’ve been away too
long, doing what high-bom officers do in Rankan cities. If not for… past
mistakes … I’d ride with you and explain. But you’ll find out enough, soon
enough, from your beloved partner. As for Niko, if you want him, he’s in the
palace these days, playing nursemaid to kids the priesthood loves.”
Before he could escalate from shock to anger, before he thought to move his
horse in tight and take her by the throat and shake her for playing women’s
games when so much was on the line, she melted back into her shadows and there