“About Jade?” Cat shrugged. “He’ll be back, in time. And hopefully he’ll be in a better mood.”
Emily nodded, slowly. Even if they wanted to search for Jade, they had no idea where he’d gone. She felt a twinge of envy for Alassa, mingled with a hint of bitterness…Jade loved her, completely and totally, but…she hadn’t had a relationship that was so intense. Caleb hadn’t trusted her completely, had he? Maybe it was just her. She hadn’t been too worried about him when she’d been stranded in the past, unsure even if she’d be able to return to her own time. But then, to him, she’d been gone for seconds. He hadn’t even realized she’d been away for months.
Cat opened a bag and produced a handful of ration bars. “We may as well eat,” he said, passing one to her. “I don’t think he’ll be back in time for us to go eat outside.”
“Not without a chaperone,” Emily agreed, wryly. “Do you think…do you think this is only the beginning? That Randor will find more and more ways to control lives?”
“Probably,” Cat said. He seemed to understand what she meant. “A man who feels that he should be in control, and that he is losing control, will fight desperately to regain it. And Randor has been losing control for a long time.”
“Yeah,” Emily said. “And how much of that is my fault?”
Cat pointed a finger at her. “Don’t go blaming yourself for anything,” he said, firmly. “There are plenty of other people who will be happy to do that for you.”
Chapter Fifteen
EMILY WASN’T SURE PRECISELY WHEN SHE’D gone to sleep. She’d chatted with Cat about everything from his family to her future plans for an apprenticeship and Heart’s Eye, but…she wasn’t sure when she’d gone to sleep. Cat hadn’t woken her to take a watch, either. The wards should have kept them safe, but she knew better than to take them for granted. God alone know how many wardcrafters were serving the king.
Jade was sitting by the wall when she awoke, staring at nothing. Emily tensed, realizing–dully–she had no idea when he’d returned. The wards weren’t smart enough to tell if Jade had been hit with a compulsion spell or otherwise wasn’t in his right mind, although he didn’t look as if he was under an external influence. It wasn’t particularly reassuring. There were plenty of ways to influence–and warp–an unwilling subject without making it obvious.
“Emily,” Jade said. He looked pensive. “I…I’m sorry.”
“Think nothing of it,” Emily said, swinging her legs over the side and standing. “What time is it?”
“Nearly breakfast time,” Jade said. He nodded towards the other bed. “Cat’s still snoring.”
Emily eyed the hump under the sheets for a long moment. She’d had roommates who snored, in the past, but none of them had sounded quite so loud. Cat was snoring so loudly that she couldn’t help wondering if he were faking it, although she couldn’t imagine why he’d want to bother. Cat was hardly the sort of person to shy away from confrontation. And every other time they’d shared a room, she’d been so tired or distracted that she hadn’t noticed the snores.
And Caleb didn’t snore, she reminded herself. They hadn’t shared many nights, but she’d grown used to his presence. He was very quiet in bed.
“I’ve arranged another meeting with Master Abrams and Mouse,” Jade said, once Emily had splashed water on her face. “We’ll be meeting him after breakfast.”
Emily shrugged, using a spell to clean herself. It felt uncomfortable, even though she knew it worked. She wanted a proper bath, or at least a shower, but she doubted she’d be able to find one. The inn probably didn’t even have a metal tub! The bathhouses might still be open–she didn’t think Randor would have closed them down, even though they were good places to share gossip–but most of them didn’t admit women. The ones that did were only open to upper-class women, some of whom might know her by sight.
“I was wondering about the problem,” Jade said, looking away as she took off her nightgown and pulled on her dress. “We could dig a tunnel under the walls, then blow a hole in them with gunpowder.”
“Unless they hear us digging,” Emily pointed out. Sergeant Harkin had been fond of telling horror stories of digging–he’d called it mining–and counter-digging, of desperate skirmishes fought underground as one side tried to undermine the castle and the other tried to shore up the defenses. He’d made it sound nightmarish. “And we might not be able to get under the wards.”
She gritted her teeth as she wrapped her hair in the scarf, careful to make sure that no strands were showing. There was no requirement to keep her hair under wraps, certainly not when she wasn’t married, but it made her look like a modest girl from a traditional family. She didn’t understand how married women could wear scarves all the time, much less children who hadn’t grown into womanhood yet. Her hair itched under the cloth. Maybe they cut their hair short, deliberately. It wasn’t something she wanted to do.
“We really need to know what the wards will react to,” she said. “Would they notice if we hollowed out a cave and stuffed it full of gunpowder?”
“They might,” Jade said. “But it depends on the design.”
“And we need to know if a gunpowder blast will get through the wards,” Emily added, after a moment. Some wards would be completely ineffectual against bullets and blasts, while others would stop them in their tracks. “And we’d have to be careful we didn’t accidentally bring down the entire building.”
She eyed him for a moment. “Did you sense her, when you went to the Tower?”
Jade looked surprised, just for a second. “How did you know I went?”
“I know you,” Emily said. She didn’t want to tell him that it was a predictable thing to do–or that the mere fact he’d returned to the inn was a tacit admission that he’d found no way into the Tower. Jade wouldn’t be deterred, as long as there was even the slightest chance of success. “Did you sense her?”
“No,” Jade said. His face darkened. “The wards made sure of that, Emily. It was like looking into a blinding light. I don’t think we could hope to scry the defenses.”
“We’ll think of something,” Emily said, as reassuringly as she could. “And then we’ll get her out of there.”
Cat rolled over and sat up, looking unsurprised to see Jade. Emily guessed he’d stayed awake, even after she’d gone to bed. He’d probably been more worried than he cared to admit. Most of the men she’d met would sooner have their teeth pulled out by what passed for dentists in the Nameless World–she had a feeling they moonlighted as torturers–than admit weakness to another man. She hoped they weren’t going to argue. She wasn’t in the mood.
“We need food,” Cat said, standing. “Some food will make us feel a lot better.”
Emily looked away, feeling her cheeks redden. Cat had slept in his underpants. She tried not to think about the nasty scars, remnants of his training, covering his chest. The tattoos didn’t protect him from everything. She didn’t know why he hadn’t healed himself completely, but she could guess. Men liked a few scars to show they’d been in fights. It was a way of telling other men they were formidable.