The Ritual (23 page)

“Don’t you
dare
put that at our feet,” he hissed. “
Sovander
killed those half-elves, not us. He’s done far worse with far less provocation, and I
will not
be held responsible for those deaths.”

His eyes were harsh as he glared at me, but I could only hold on to my anger for a few heartbeats more. He was right, of course – their theft had simply been a convenient excuse for the king to do what he would have done anyway, at some point, somehow. I could not blame Zash for the king’s caprice. If anything, he could have blamed me for trying to ensure that he and Mior would be among the twenty for Mazar.

Suddenly contrite I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him before he could pull away. He went rigid for a moment, but then he relented and drew me close, sliding his tongue into my mouth.

“You’re right and I’m sorry,” I said when I drew away again. “But why didn’t you tell us before?”

He rested his forehead against mine. “Does it matter? I’d forgotten about it. It happened before we met, and once we had… Well, we had other things on our mind.”

Another smooth lie, but I was beginning to think I could recognise them now, after the scene in Kenizar when I asked about the marks. He was always generous with his physical affection, but any time he told me what I thought might be a blatant lie he followed it with a kiss or a caress, always passionate or intimate enough to distract me. So too this time, when he kissed me deeply again, but I decided to push a little.

“So was that for a previous job then?” I asked, stroking his cheek, my eyes still fixed on his mouth.

He hesitated for a moment, then said, “No. Same job.”

“But you didn’t mention it.”

“Why would I? It wasn’t relevant to what you needed to know.”

“And it’s needed for that ritual? What did you steal anyway?”

He shrugged. “I presume so. We stole a dagger, nothing more. I told you, Azerev never revealed what he wants to do that ritual for.” He kissed me again, and this one was so thorough and passionate that it set all my warning instincts on edge, though it also made me weak in the knees.

“If you two have finished licking each other, could we get back to business?” Mior said behind me. “In the time you’ve spent investigating each other’s tonsils I could have taught Shani how to levitate.”

I turned around and grinned at him. “So why didn’t you?”

“Too busy admiring your technique,” Shani said dryly, then looked at Zash. “So, what next then?”

“Next we observe,” Zash said, letting go of me. “Two full days at least, I’d say. We need to look at guard rounds, visitors, light or dark areas at night, any discernible habits the monks have, anything that could be useful to know.”

Mior nodded. “Alone or in pairs?”

“In pairs,” Zash said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “One thief, one sorcerer, to check for signs of magic, insofar as you can detect that from this distance. And I’d say that each pair should include one of us with more experience.”

“So you and Shani then,” I said, “and Mior with me.”

“Which means we also won’t get distracted,” Shani commented with a grin at her lover.

Mior grinned back. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Rin claims she can tell the two of us apart, but…” He trailed off suggestively and gave me an exaggerated wink, and I sniggered.

“Of course I can tell you two apart. His cock is bigger,” I said, pointing at Zash, who looked a little taken aback before chuckling. Shani giggled as well, but Mior threw his head back and let out such a loud guffaw that I feared the guards at the monastery might hear it. Zash clearly thought the same, because he frantically hushed his brother back into silence.

“Quiet, you idiot!” he hissed. “Do you want half the world to hear you?”

“Blame her,” Mior said unrepentantly as he pointed at me. “Not my fault she’s got a sassy mouth.”

“Yeah, and she never shuts up,” Zash muttered, winking at me. Then he turned back to business. “Shall we take first watch then?” he asked, turning to Shani.

She nodded. “Sure. From here?”

He looked around. “I think so. We have a good view from here, and we can keep out of sight easily. I don’t want to go any lower and lose the advantage this height gives us.” He turned to Mior and me and added, “How about you two find us a good spot for a base camp, then come and relieve us around mid-evening? I want a decent length of time here to see if there’s any pattern to the guard rounds. If it gets too boring we can always shorten our watches later.”

We both nodded, and after a last kiss we turned and started following a narrow trail that led further towards the mountains.

“Let’s go that way,” I suggested, pointing north. “From what I could see the path from the bridge turns north, so I guess that’s where the traffic must come from. I want to see if we can get a look at the road.”

“Makes sense,” Mior said. “The
re is a pass through the Whitecaps north of here, so all the travellers should come from that direction.”

“Right
, stick behind me then, and keep your eyes open.”

He chuckled. “Yes boss.”

I quirked an eyebrow at him, but he gave me a cheerful wave to go ahead, and I started walking. “You’re not normally sarcastic,” I commented after a few heartbeats. “Not like Zash.”

“I wasn’t being sarcastic, I just find it funny how you take charge just as easily as he does.”

I thought about it for a moment, then shrugged. “I suppose I do. I’m used to it with Shani. Sorry.”

“Hey, don’t apologise, I don’t mind. It makes no difference to me whether it’s you or Zash calling the shots.”

“Thanks,” I said, more touched than I would have expected. “There’s not many men would say that to a woman.”

“More fool them,” he replied affably. “I’ve never seen why men should be better than women, and I’ve known you and Shani long enough to know that you’re both smart and reliable, and have plenty common sense. I’d be an idiot not to take advantage of that. Watch your step.” He pointed at a loose rock and I avoided it with a nod of gratitude.

“Well, I appreciate it. Ah, there we are.” I climbed a small ridge and stopped as I got a good view on the road below and to the right of us. Mior drew up beside me and we both crouched down in the lee of a boulder.

“Doesn’t look much used,” Mior said, dropping his voice to a whisper.

I hummed in agreement, and mentally amended the word ‘road’ to ‘path’, for it was little more than that. Any supplies that came to the monastery would have to come by pack mule rather than cart, and in single file to boot.

“
I doubt that we’ll be lucky enough to see a visitor or a delivery come by, and Zash and Shani will spot them anyway if they do,” I said. “But at least we know exactly where the path is now, so that’s useful. Let’s head back and find a spot for a camp.”

Mior nodded and we drew away, scanning the area behind us before we started walking again. “How about we look over there?” he suggested, pointing up towards a ledge. “It looks steep and craggy behind that, so there might be caves or overhanging rock to shelter under.”

“Worth a shot. Let’s go then.”

It was a bit of a climb, but when we reached the ledge the terrain behind it was almost level. It sported a few shrubs and the ubiquitous big boulders, but little else – no caves or any other type of shelter. We nearly abandoned it to look elsewhere when Mior chanced to spot a rabbit hopping away around a tall stone slab. Thinking he’d catch it for our supper he dashed after it, but when he rounded the corner and disappeared from sight I suddenly heard him exclaim in surprise.

“What?” I called, running after him. When I stopped beside him, however, the need for an explanation disappeared. We were looking at a beautifully shielded little canyon, comfortably padded with lush green grass. It looked entirely incongruous with the rest of the ledge, which was bare but for the sere bushes, and I retraced a few of my steps to be able to compare it better.

As soon as I did the entrance to the canyon vanished from sight, and I stopped in confusion. From where I was now, you couldn’t even see that there was anything beyond the slab – its positioning was such that it appeared to be leaning flush against the side of the tall rock face behind it, with the ledge dropping off on its other side. I trailed around the entire ledge, but the illusion remained, and if Mior hadn’t returned as well I would have had difficulty in finding the entrance again.

“Problems?” he asked when he saw my baffled look, and I beckoned him over and showed him what I had discovered.

“It really is impossible to see unless you actually walk past it, and even then I keep feeling like I’m about to step off the ledge,” I said eventually. “How did you not see that when you went around first?”

He shrugged. “I was too intent on that rabbit I suppose. But it makes it perfect for our camp, wouldn’t you agree? No one will ever find us there.”

“No kidding, I’m not even sure
I
can find it again if we leave here. We’ll need a source of water though, if we’re planning on staying here for a few days.”

“There must be one in the canyon,” Mior said. “How else would the grass be so thick in there?”

“Point,” I conceded, and we went back in to investigate more thoroughly. There was indeed a water source: a tiny spring right at the back which trickled along the floor until it disappeared into a crack in the rock about halfway down the canyon. We refilled our water bags, then settled down in the grass.

“So now we wait,” I stated the obvious, settling next to Mior with my back against the rock wall.

“Hmm,” he agreed, stretching his long legs out in front of him and crossing them at the ankles. “Want to try and kip for a bit, or want to talk?”

“Let’s talk, I’m nowhere near sleepy yet.”

“Sure, name your subject.”

I th
ought for a few moments, then said, “Tell me about Siander.”

Mior pulled a face. “Can’t you think of anything better?”

I shook my head. “I’m curious. I’ve never known an elf to be employed by someone other than the king. What’s the deal with him?”

He sniggered. “Siander is that rarest of creatures: a fifth son.”

“Fifth?” I exclaimed. “An elf with five sons?”

“Yep. It seems his parents actually love each other, and his mother is surprisingly fertile for an elf. I think he has a sister or two as well.”

“Gods,” I muttered, trying to get my head around the concept of an elf family that large. Most elves had only one or two children, and those were born decades apart. Elf females were not known for their fertility, though their long lifespan seemed to counterbalance that.

“He told us all about it the first time he tagged after us,” Mior continued with glee. “As you can imagine, daddy dear isn’t keen to split his estate up into five parts, so sons three to five have been told to suck it up and make their own fortune.”

“And he’s not managed to snag himself a wealthy heiress from somewhere, obviously,” I said with grim satisfaction. “Who’d have thought it? An elf who has to work for a living.”

“Isn’t it beautiful?” Mior sniggered again. “He was so busy lamenting his fate that he didn’t even see how we were laughing at him. Zash suggested he could have entered the royal guards, but that’s too hard work for him apparently, which is why he ended up with Azerev, bugging people on his behalf. Annoying little shit.”

“Who, Siander or Azerev?” I asked casually.

“Siander, of course.”

“And Azerev? What’s he like?”

“Couldn’t tell you,” Mior replied without hesitation. He conjured up a little flame and repeated his trick of making it travel across his fingertips. “Never met the man, Zash did all the negotiations with him.”

I peered at him, but he was intent on his fire, and I didn’t know him intimately enough to guess at whether he was lying or not. With that in mind I decided to switch the subject, since it was unlikely that I would glean anything useful about the brothers’ plans from Mior.

“Tell me about yourself,” I invited. “Where are you two from? I gathered from Zash that you’re orphanage raised, but that’s pretty much a given, and he never told me much more than that.”

Mior sighed, and his flame steadied in the palm of his hand for a heartbeat as he stared at it, a melancholy look on his face. “We were born in Fennar, west of Arlis,” he said quietly. “Orphanage raised, as you say, until my magic woke up.”

“So far, so same. What did you do?”

“I panicked,” he snorted. The flame dissipated as he dropped his hands and rested his head against the rock behind him. “You remember when it happened to Shani, I’m sure, but you can never know what it’s like. To wake up and find your blanket on fire. To sweep the floor and suddenly hold a burning broom. I tried to run away from it, hid in the basement, but the fire simply followed me.”

“But so did Zash,” I said with certainty.

He smiled at that. “Of course he did. He calmed me down, comforted me, but he couldn’t make me stop doing it. It frustrated him no end,” he added with a wry chuckle.

“He does like to be in control, doesn’t he?”