“There,” Jade muttered. “You see them?”
Emily followed his eyes. A pair of guardsmen were hurrying towards the Tower, hurrying in a manner that suggested–quite distinctively–that they were desperately trying not to hurry too obviously. They must have been out on the town, she guessed; they wouldn’t have had the slightest idea that the balloon was about to go up. She felt a stab of pity, remembering what military justice was like. Their commanding officer might force them to run the gauntlet if their absence had embarrassed him in front of his superiors.
“Follow my lead,” Jade ordered, as he took her arm. “And don’t do anything to resist.”
“Understood,” Emily muttered, thinking of the dagger in her sleeve. Jade seemed confident, but she thought there were too many things that could go wrong. She’d liked the original plan more. “I’ll be here.”
Jade stumbled slightly, pretending to be drunk. Emily gritted her teeth as she felt his weight suddenly pressing against her, pushing him back as hard as she could. She heard the soldiers laughing as they approached, Jade staggering from side to side until he stumbled, started to fall…and crashed into one of the men. He let out a mighty oath and punched Jade in the stomach, hard. His companion laughed so uproariously as Jade landed in a puddle that Emily found it hard to believe it was real.
“Idiot,” the lead soldier snarled. His gaze moved to Emily, but didn’t travel up to meet her eyes. “Had a bit too much to drink, had he?”
“Yes, sir,” Emily said, feeling a flicker of alarm. She knew from grim experience that a blow to the stomach could make it impossible to continue the fight. “We were at a party and…”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” the soldier said. He kicked Jade, then looked back at her, his eyes leaving trails of slime over her breasts. “He won’t be in any state for…”
His companion grabbed his arm. “Come on,” he said. “We’re already late.”
Emily watched them go, then helped Jade to his feet. “Are you alright?”
Jade snickered. “Slipped it into his armor,” he said, as they stumbled onwards. She had to half-carry him down the riverside. “He’ll have to take his armor off to find it.”
“Let’s hope they’re not going to be ordered to stand guard in the nude, then,” Emily said, dryly. She’d seen that a couple of times, back during the war. “Did he do any permanent damage?”
“No,” Jade said. He seemed to be regaining his strength rapidly. His breath came in harsh gulps as he drew on his magic to speed the process. “The blow was hard, but I’ve taken worse.”
Emily said nothing as they headed away from the river, crossing the Royal Mile and slowly making their way back to the warehouse. There were more soldiers on the streets near the Royal Mile, chasing civilians back to their homes as they surrounded a number of baronial mansions. The mansions had a form of diplomatic protection, rendering them immune to search without permission. Randor was effectively declaring war, then. She wondered, absently, if Randor would search Alicia’s mansion too. It wasn’t as if Alicia could effectively resist.
“Randor will be mounting an offensive as soon as possible,” Jade commented. “He’ll probably strike at the closest target first–Baron Silversmith–and then move on to finish the other rebels. Crushing one will weaken the others, particularly if Randor is smart enough to offer Silversmith’s vassals a place in the new order. That will suggest that anyone can switch sides and survive…”
“If they trust Randor to keep his promises,” Emily countered. She wouldn’t trust Randor unless there was some guarantee he’d keep his word. A hostage exchange was traditional, but Randor was dangerously irrational. He might deliberately write off the hostage in the pursuit of his long-term goal. “They might be left with nothing, but empty titles.”
“They’ll certainly be caught between two fires,” Jade agreed. He sounded darkly amused by the thought. “And they’ll have to time their betrayal very carefully.”
Emily nodded. The vassals would have to switch sides while they still had something to use to bargain with the king, but–at the same time–they’d have to do it when their former overlord was no longer in a position to extract revenge for treachery. Breaking one’s feudal bonds was, perhaps, the worst crime in the book. No one would fault Baron Silversmith for slaughtering his treacherous vassals, burning their lands to the ground and then sowing the ashes with salt. The vassals would have to be very careful indeed.
“I’m sure they’ll pick the right moment,” she said. Randor probably already had messengers out, testing the waters to see who could be lured into betrayal. “If nothing else, they’ll have something to bargain with for quite some time.”
The warehouse looked empty from the outside, but–as they stepped into the building–they saw fifteen armed men, carrying muskets, flintlocks, swords and wands. It was an odd weapons mix, Emily thought, but it made a certain kind of sense. Reloading a musket or flintlock in the middle of a battle wasn’t easy. Sir Roger’s men had fought in rows, one row reloading while the other fired, but the Levellers didn’t have anything like enough guns or soldiers. They might have to rely on their swords for close-quarter fighting. Thankfully, the guards would probably have the same limitations.
Their wands should even the odds a little, she told herself, firmly. We charged them with stunning spells.
Cat stood in the center of the group, issuing orders. Emily felt a flicker of relief mingled with irritation, knowing that the Levellers would be happier taking orders from a man than a woman…even her. The Levellers spoke of sexual equality, but it would be a long time before society regarded women–at least women without magic–as equal to men. Even female aristocrats were a step down from their male counterparts.
But you wouldn’t be happy giving orders anyway, a voice reminded her. Lady Barb had told her off for that, more than once. You prefer to work alone.
Jade nudged her. “We’d better get changed,” he said. “Make sure you have everything you need.”
“I’ll stick everything we want to keep in the carryall,” Emily said, as they walked into the office. Mouse was sitting on the floor, looking nervous. “Grab it before we teleport out.”
“Of course,” Jade said.
Emily stuck Alicia’s chat parchment in the carryall, checked her small collection of equipment and then hastily changed into a shirt and trousers. It was loose enough to hide most of her curves without impeding her movements in any way. She wished she’d had more time to charm the cloth to provide a little extra protection, but they’d just have to make do with what they had. Besides, too many charms would interfere with her spellcasting. She didn’t want to accidentally cripple herself.
She met Jade’s eyes. “Are you ready?”
“Yeah,” Jade said. He sounded worried. There were plenty of ways the plan could go spectacularly wrong and they both knew it. They’d worked out a handful of contingency plans, but they’d reluctantly concluded that they’d have to play it by ear. “I’m ready.”
Emily squeezed his hand. “Let’s go,” she said. “Time is not on our side.”
Chapter Thirty
SILENCE FELL.