Mercurio scratched his chin. “I thought Remus and Duomo—”
“Duomo’s a patron of the Church too.”
“I know that,” Mercurio snapped. “I’m not some simpleton fresh in from the rain, I’m a bishop of Our Lady of Blessed fucking Murder.”
“Except our illustrious grand cardinal never hires the Church to blessedly fucking murder anyone.” Ashlinn flicked through the ledger, showed exorbitant payments from Duomo dating back six years. “He just pays an annual stipend out of Aa’s coffers. Protects him under Sanctity, see? That way, he knows Scaeva can’t just have his throat cut while he sleeps. The cardinal and the consul hate each other, and both of them would do almost anything to see the other dead.”
“… IT OCCURS TO ME THAT RECORDING THIS IN A LEDGER WAS A FANTASTICALLY FOOLISH IDEA…”
“They kept it in a locked vault,” Ashlinn said to the shadowwolf. “Inside a den of the most feared killers in the Republic. And the only key was hung around the neck of one of the most accomplished assassins the world has ever known. Considering what I had to go through to get hold of it, perhaps it’s not as foolish as you think.”
“… speaking of which, little traitor, why, pray tell, have we not murdered you yet…?”
“My winning personality?” Ashlinn glanced at the not-cat on Mia’s shoulder. “Or perhaps it’s just because I’m the only one with half a clue what the fuck is going on around here.”
“So what is goi…” The old man blinked, looked about the room. “… Wait, where the ’byss is Jessamine?”
Mia and Ashlinn exchanged a long, uneasy glance. Ash’s lip was split and swollen from her brawl on the roof, her eye bruised black.
“… there was some … unpleasantness…”
“Fucking wonderful.” Mercurio glared at Ashlinn. “And you’re responsible for it?”
“If it makes you feel better, Jess stabbed me first.” Ashlinn shrugged. “I just stabbed her last. And … repeatedly.”
“So what are you doing here?” the bishop demanded. “Mia got sent out seven turns ago to kill a braavi and steal a map. She comes back here with the most wanted traitor in Church history. Where do you fit into all of this?”
Ashlinn shrugged. “I have the map.”
“… you had the map. it exploded, remember…?”
The girl smirked. “You don’t think I’m stupid enough to let something that valuable go up in flames, do you, Mister Know-it-all?”
“You’d best start talking, then,” Mercurio growled.
“Aye,” Mia nodded. “Where did you get it? Where does it lead? And who are you working for? The braavi said you were selling the map to Cardinal Duomo.”
“He hired me to get it,” Ash said, leaning against the wall and folding her arms. “After the attack on the Church went tits up, da and I spent the next eight months dodging Blades sent to kill us. By the time da died, we’d burned most of our coin. Duomo and Remus plotted together to bring the Church down, so I knew how to get in touch with the cardinal. Turns out he was looking for someone with my … skill set.”
“For what? Back-talking and smart-arsery?” Mercurio spat.
Ashlinn’s lips twisted in that maddening smirk. “Locks. Traps. Dark work. He’d learned of another way he might tip the balance and undo the Red Church once and for all. Without them in the way, he’d be free to take down Scaeva, install a pliant new consul, and have the pot for himself.”
Mia’s eyes narrowed. “What kind of ‘other way’?”
Ash shrugged. “He never said. I never asked. My job was to travel with a pack of sellswords and a bishop of Aa’s ministry. To a temple ruin on the north coast of Old Ashkah. That’s where we found the map. And … other things.”
“What kind of other things?” Mercurio asked.
Ashlinn’s face was stone, but Mia saw a sliver of fear in her eyes.
“The dangerous kind.”
“What happened to your comrades?”
The girl shrugged. “They didn’t make it.”
“So you came back to the ’Grave alone to sell the map to Duomo?” Mia asked.
Ash nodded. “The Toffs act as his middlemen. Duomo has the coin to carry a lot of people in his pocket. I didn’t know if he’d try to shiv me in the back, but I presumed the worst. I’m a loose end. One of the only people alive who knew the cardinal was working against Scaeva to take the Church down.”
“Well, someone knew Duomo is working with the Toffs,” Mercurio said. “And that the map was being delivered to them this eve. And that someone hired Mia to…”
Mia met Mercurio’s stare. The old man’s eyes growing wide.
“You don’t think…,” he began.
Mia searched the floorboards as if looking for a truth she’d dropped. Dragging her hair behind her ear. The sinking in his stomach reflected on her face.
“My patron for this offering requested me specifically,” she breathed. “‘She who slew the justicus of the Luminatii Legion.’ Or so the Ministry said. And I’ve offered up three others at the same patron’s request.”
“… Who did you kill?”
“A senator’s son, Gaius Aurelius. The mistress of another Liisian Senator, Armando Tulli. And a Galante magistrate named Cicerii.”
“Black Mother,” Mercurio growled.
“What is it?” Ashlinn asked, looking between them.
“Gaius Aurelius was rumored to be planning a run for consul against Scaeva,” Mercurio said. “And Cicerii was organizing an inquest into the constitutionality of Scaeva sitting a fourth term.”
Mia sank to her haunches, steadied herself against the flagstones. Eclipse coalesced beside her, Mister Kindly licking her hand with his insubstantial tongue.
“O, goddess…,” she breathed.
“Scaeva is pulling people into line,” Mercurio realized. “Intimidating opponents or killing them. Making sure he’s elected again.”
“And I’ve been helping him…,” Mia whispered.
“… bastard…”
“Which means he knows Duomo is working against him. He knows whatever this map leads to is a threat to the Church, and he’s using the Church to eliminate it.”
“Protecting his little cult of assassins.” Ashlinn looked at Mia, shaking her head. “What did I tell you? Whores, all. And not content with helping to murder your father, the Church made you slit throats for the bastard responsible for his hanging. Solis. Mouser. Spiderkiller. Aalea. Drusilla. They need a killing, Mia. Every last one of them.”
“Scaeva.”
Mia spat the word like a mouthful of poison. Lips peeling back from her teeth. She glared at Ashlinn, slowly shaking her head.
“Scaeva and Duomo first.”
Ashlinn stepped forward, eyes glinting like steel.
“Duomo is probably at the Basilica Grande right now.”
Mia shook her head. “I can’t get in there. I tried once before. The trinities…”
“I can get him for you,” Ashlinn offered. “He might bathe with one about his neck, sleep with one under his damned pillow, there’s no trinity that can stop me. I steal inside and cut his throat, then we get Scaeva and the Ch—”
“No,” Mia said. “They’re mine. The pair of them.”
She rose slowly from the floor, black hair draped about a ghost-pale face.
“Those bastards are mine.”