Kyra didn’t want to think about why the sight of Willem with his mistress upset her so much. The answer was there. She just didn’t like it. “Why’s Malikel unmarried?” she asked. “All the other Council members have wives, don’t they?”
“You know, I’ve never considered that. I suppose I always saw Malikel as a solitary entity.” Tristam tilted his head thoughtfully. “To be honest, I think it would be difficult for him to find a family open to an alliance with him.”
“Because he’s Minadan? Even though he’s a Council member?”
Tristam hesitated, then gave an uncomfortable nod. “Allowing a foreigner into the workings of one’s city is hard enough. Allowing him into one’s family…I can’t see it happening.”
Kyra chewed on his words. She supposed she wasn’t all that surprised. Though Malikel had power and influence, he’d never completely lost the aura of an outsider. The children of Forge stared openly at Malikel when he toured the city, and Kyra remembered at least one serving girl new to the Palace who had been afraid to wait on the Defense Minister. In a sense, Malikel’s situation was the opposite of hers. He was a good man and dedicated to the city, yet people feared him because of his dark skin and foreign ways. Whereas people who saw Kyra tended to underestimate her, seeing only a young girl of low birth.
“To be honest, Willem had a good point,” she said. “I still wonder why Malikel trusts me. I did try to kill him.”
“You were ordered to assassinate him,” Tristam corrected. “And you didn’t carry out that order. Furthermore, you captured James and turned him over to the Palace. That, if anything, should prove you’re no longer loyal to him.”
James. Kyra shivered as the assassin’s face appeared in her mind. He’d changed her life the day he’d walked into The Drunken Dog to hire her. “There was a time when I believed in his cause. He really did think he was fighting for justice.”
The problem was, he’d taken the fight further than Kyra had been willing to go. Things had gone sour when Kyra refused to kill innocent bystanders. And though she’d once been his most promising recruit, he’d eventually counted her his enemy.
Tristam spoke again. “And now you’re working for the very people you once thought to bring down.”
Kyra glanced sideways at him. “Are you doubting my loyalties now?”
He gave a faint smile. “Do I think you’ll do anything to harm the city? No. Nor would I hesitate to entrust you with my life. But I do wonder sometimes if you regret joining the Palace.”
Tristam owed her his life several times over, and she him. So she believed Tristam when he said he trusted her, and she took her time thinking his question over. When Kyra had been in the Assassins Guild, she’d feared that she was slowly becoming something she hated, that the horror of taking someone’s life would fade into normalcy. What about now? She was glad she no longer had to follow James’s orders, but was the Palace changing her in subtle ways as well?
“You do look lovely, you know.” Tristam’s words startled her out of her reverie. “I’m so used to seeing you in trousers.”
She knew instinctively that he’d changed the subject on purpose, to give her permission not to answer right away. Kyra was grateful. “I prefer trousers. Certainly can’t run anywhere in this dress,” she said. “But you don’t have to stand by the wall with me all night. Feel free to go charm the Edlan ladies.”
Tristam pantomimed taking a lady’s hand. “Good evening, fair lady. I’m Tristam, recently stripped of my rank. Would you like to dance?”
“They might find the idea of a disgraced knight romantic, if you frame it right.”