Myles rose, gathering up his cloak. “I’ll start inquiries about Claw,” he promised. “Injuries such as he has, particularly the acid scars, are difficult to come by. They are even more so when you’re nobly born.”
George gripped Myles’s hand. “You’re a good friend, Sir Myles. Be assured I won’t forget.”
After showing the knight out, George returned to hold court once more at the Dancing Dove. Once again he stayed there all night, seeing who was there, being seen. Bits and snippets of information came to him over the next few days as Rispah and Shem returned and went to work. No further attempts on his life occurred, although word of a costly jewelry theft that had not been cleared with him reached his ears. After a week had passed since Rispah’s return, he gathered all those close to him in a room hidden beneath the streets that formed the marketplace.
As they compared notes, the picture the thieves saw forming was a bleak one. “He’s got nearly half our people, with bribes or fear,” George summed up. “He must’ve been plannin’ this a long time, before he came to the city, even. He’s been workin’ through the likes of Zorina the Witch and Nave the Fence, gettin’ his hooks into us.” He sighed. “We’ll have to move slow, then. Buy our folk back, and destroy the secrets he’s got against them.”
“Why?” Marek wanted to know. “Why not just kill him and be done with it?”
“Because one of his people will come forward to take his place,” George replied. “I want his entire organization, not just him. Because he’s got help, and I want to know who it is. And I want to know who he is, why he’s not challenged me like any other Rogue would’ve done.”
“And if he wins?” Rispah wanted to know, her brown eyes worried.
“If he wins, then I don’t deserve to be master here.” George’s face was grim. “If he wins, I’ve no guarantees he won’t betray every one of us to my Lord Provost, or someone worse, because I don’t know what he wants. Where he is placed now, he can rule us or destroy us. Do any of you care to wager which it is?” There was no answer; he really didn’t expect one. “You all know what to do and where to ask your questions, then. As soon as the passes open eastward, I’ll send someone to find out what he was in Galla before he came to us.”
Thom, Lord of Trebond and the youngest living Mithran Initiate, poured a glass of wine for his guest, a mocking smile on his lips. “You can’t imagine what a pleasure it is for me to have my sister’s— friend—come to visit,” he said. “Particularly when it may be as much as your head is worth to be seen here, in the palace.”
“Why not call me Alanna’s lover, and be honest about it?” George suggested. The purple and gold brocade robe Thom wore over his stark black shirt and hose hurt the eyes; its cost would have fed a poor commoner and his family for a year. “As it is, I have a number of things I care to discuss with you. I couldn’t be waitin’ for your next excursion into the city to meet you.”
“Particularly since I never go to the city,” Thom agreed. “So Alanna has returned to the desert, with the devoted Coram in tow. How selfless of her. Unless she was afraid Jonathan might convince her to take back her refusal? She needn’t have worried; he’s very much occupied with Princess Josiane these days.”
George stared at Thom. If my lass had made no friends, only enemies, he thought, and if she’d been too frightened to let others know she was a human bein’, disguise and all, she might well have turned out like this monster. He’s all brain and cynicism now, with no heart left to him. “Well, you’re a nasty bit of work, aren’t you?” he remarked amiably. “Why don’t we talk of your goin’s-on here durin’ All Hallow?”
A look of grudging respect entered Thom’s violet eyes. “I’m sure I told Alanna and you I was working on experiments.”
George made a disgusted face. “And I’m sure it was no such thing. Didn’t you feel my mother testin’ your guardin’-spells? Or were so many tryin’ to learn what you were up to that you took no notice of those left half-dead?”
“I felt someone test the ward,” Thom admitted. “But I was—busy. I’m sorry it was your mother who was harmed, but she had no business prying into that kind of magic. She’s fortunate to be alive.”
“Glad you think so. And what experiments are so important that you must put such spells to protect them?” When Thom didn’t answer, George pressed, “Who were you tryin’ to raise from the dead?”
Thom jumped to his feet, the mocking expression wiped from his face. “You dare to question me, George Cooper?” he yelled, fury radiating from him in waves. “Your relationship with my sister means nothing here, so do not think to try my patience!”
George stood, his hazel eyes grim. “Don’t think to threaten me, laddy,” he warned softly. “I won’t stand for it.”