Read Page 26

Amadou Barry whistled. “You didn’t come to this district to get information on where she fled?”

“I was on my own business.”Advertisement

“You’re not going to give her up, are you, wherever she’s gone?” said Marius. “Good for you. I liked her. That girl has spine and courage.”

“We should check the roof,” said Amadou.

Andevai’s gaze skipped back to me.

I widened my eyes and mouthed, broadly, “Yes. Say yes.”

“Ye-es,” he said slowly, brow crinkling with a question.

“Yes?” said Lord Marius with a surprised glance at Amadou.

I lifted my chin and mouthed, “Say yes. Say go up on the roof.”

“Yes,” said Andevai more decisively. “By all means, go up on the roof.” Then, with what was even for him an excess of haughty pride, he turned his glare onto a startled Lord Marius. “Are we going up? The soldiers told me they found a troll’s maze. Whatever that is. I’d like to see.”

The captain raised a hand as if catching a tossed ball. “A troll’s maze! We’re leaving.”

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Amadou glanced at Andevai. “They could have come over the roof.”

“There’s a goblin workshop locked up for the day on one side. On the other, they’re poisoning themselves with arsenic or some such. I don’t see how the girls could have gotten in here before us. And I’m not risking a troll’s maze. One foot wrong and the whole thing will crash down. Then we’ll be years haggling in court for damages. Trolls love haggling in court. Amadou, I suspect you’re right: This detour is a chase after a wild goose. Let’s go. They’re out there somewhere. I promised the mansa I would recover them and return them to him.”

Lord Marius went out. Amadou Barry followed.

Andevai crossed to the bed and picked up the jacket, holding it high so it swept along my left side. “Now I understand how you were able to get out of Four Moons House without being seen,” he whispered. “What magic conceals you? None I’ve ever heard of.”

“Listen! The mansa told them not to trust you. If you say left, then they’ll go right.”

Anger flashed in the flare of his eyes. “Is that so?”

“They were following you, to try to find us.”

“Were they, now?” His gaze narrowed as he contemplated an object, personage, or situation that annoyed him very much.

“Magister?” Amadou Barry stepped halfway back into the room. “Is something amiss?”

“I just can’t keep my eyes off it,” said Andevai, gaze skating above the collar of the jacket as his eyes met mine. “There’s so much about its tailoring I don’t comprehend. But it doesn’t truly belong to me, so I fear I must leave it behind. Although you never know. I haven’t given up on gaining something so very close to my heart.”

My cheeks were so on fire that I was amazed the legate could not see me.

Amadou Barry appeared startled by Andevai’s passionate words. “It’s a bit…over-complicated for my taste. We’re leaving now, Magister.”

“My thanks for the warning,” Andevai said, his gaze on me.

He tossed the jacket over the other clothes and turned away. At the door, he paused with a hand on the frame. I tensed, waiting for him to glance over his shoulder one last time.

A deep heavy boom shuddered the house.

“By Teutates!” cried one of the men, “they’re firing cannon on the river!”

Without looking back, Andevai walked out.

“Bring the prisoner,” said Lord Marius from the passage.

I heard Andevai. “By the way, Legate, how did you come to seek me out at the law offices?”

They clattered out, taking Amadou’s answer with them, and leaving me with a cold wind rising up through the shattered door and the jangling tinkling off-key chime from the chamber upstairs.

7

The jacket Andevai had held glared at me accusingly through its rose-colored spectacles with their peacock wings. I haven’t given up. I was standing there, as congealed as cold porridge, when Bee appeared in the doorway, radiant with alarm.

“Cat! We heard raised voices. What happened?”

“I don’t know whether to be annoyed or flattered.”

Rory slouched into sight beyond the threshold, hauling the two bags. “I feel like a half-dead antelope my mother has just dragged in for dinner.”

I hastened to his side. “I’m sorry. Let me take one.”

“Never again peahens. I’m off feathers forever.” He dipped his head to touch his cheek to mine. “You’re all right, though. So I’m better already. What happened to our guide?” pqdm.com