Sending more letters to Sempralia and the lord commander so close on the heels of the last ones was embarrassing. Especially since this one basically said that I’d consider it a favor if they’d take the position that the Wolves needed to remain in the employ of Karakan under whatever terms they could agree on. We included some actual arguments for why keeping them in their peacekeeping role would be best, but the general tone of the letter was that this would go a long way toward repairing our relationship. I also had Mak write a similar letter to the lord speaker. He’d struck me as thoughtful and reasonable, and I hoped that he would judge the benefit of pleasing me higher than whatever arguments might come up.

  Of course, I didn’t know that there was any fuckery afoot. Things might work out just fine even without me sticking my snout into things. But the outcome of these negotiations was too important to leave to chance, and I was going to stack the deck however I could.

  The humans were busy that evening, meaning that they were drunk and getting drunker. Jekrie and the others from Lady’s Rest had sold what they’d brought and had bought what they needed. They were leaving in the morning, and Ramban was going with them, which meant that any agreements between them had to be finished. That meant that Ramban was at the inn, and so was Barro, which somehow led to a lot of drinking. And while getting accosted in the cellar by a bunch of drunk people who half-way worshipped me might be fun, I decided I’d rather deal with them in the morning, when they were hungover and repentant.

  Before things in the common room got out of hand, Mak and I read Onur’s report, which he’d dutifully arranged to be delivered late in the afternoon. That done, we “rescued” Ardek from the party. Mak read him the most important parts of the report to get his thoughts on it and to see how it matched with what he and Barro had found — Onur was missing one or two things and had some new information, but nothing was contradictory. Then we left Mak to keep the revelers upstairs in line while I took Ardek out for a bit of a walk around town. The kind of walk where he left through the front door and I Shifted and snuck out through a window ten minutes later, only to meet back up in a shady alley several streets away.

  I had high hopes for the meeting that Onur had promised to arrange with the lord exchequer, but I wasn’t hanging all my hopes on it. I wanted a good look at his estate, and I wanted to make damn sure that I wasn’t spotted.

  “So, what are we doing, boss?” he asked. “Just a casual walk-by? A stake-out? Or are we going in?”

  “You will just be walking past to make sure I have the right place,” I told him. “Don’t even look at it funny. Just cough twice near the right gate then keep going and return home. I don’t want some guard getting antsy enough to remember your face.”

  “That I can do!” he said cheerfully. “Nice walk around the rich folks’ quarter and then back home? Easiest job ever!”

  Ardek led me on a convoluted path through streets and alleys, which was in no way the quickest way to the high city. It did, however, take him past any number of corners and doorways where people lurked. Most of them gave him a friendly wave, or a few words telling him that everything was good or that this or that person had passed by. In every case he slipped them a few bits or even a peacock or two. Ardek, it seemed, took his job as my — what, spymaster? — seriously.

  “Not all of these gutter rats work for us, as such,” he whispered at one point. He couldn’t sense my presence, but he’d gotten good at spotting shadows that weren’t behaving quite right. “Some of them’ll just tell anyone who asks anything they want to know. But they’re not dumb enough to lie, and a few bits here and there ain’t much. Anymore, I mean. I nearly got shivved over two bits more than once, when I was in their shoes.”

  That was, I think, his way of showing his appreciation. And he was clearly spreading his good fortune around in a deliberate way — the tipsters who got the peacocks were pretty much all those who looked like they had it rougher than the ones who got the bits. They tended to be younger, too, but I’d known for a while that Ardek had a soft spot for street rats. Honestly, if left to their own devices, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him and Kira set up some kind of orphanage somewhere along the line. It would just be one where he’d use the kids to gather information, which wouldn’t be great, objectively speaking, but still a step above how they had it now.

  The stops got fewer as we got close to and then climbed the hill. Rich people didn’t generally like beggars or ruffians in any time or any place, and the same held true here. I didn’t actually see anyone kick a kid down the street, but I didn’t see why else they’d stay out of one of the richest parts of the city.

  We passed the Tesprils’ estate, but Ardek didn’t even slow. He gave the house a dirty look, no doubt aimed at Tammy, whom I could unfortunately feel somewhere inside, and walked right on past. We climbed the hill along carefully swept back streets until the backstreets ran out, and then we followed the main street until we could climb no more. There the walls rose high, many of them clad in roses or other climbing flowers and backed by tall mature trees growing in the gardens beyond.

  Every gate had at least one guard on it, many with one outside and another inside. I was very glad that Ardek had spent a fair chunk of his pay on new clothes — the guards gave him a look or three, but that was just basic vigilance. He didn’t look out of place. The way he was dressed, he might easily be mistaken for a servant or messenger from some wealthy House, and when he coughed a couple of times as he passed by one particular gate he didn’t get anything from the two guards on the outside except a disinterestedly polite, “Health to you, fella.”

  “Mercies on ya,” Ardek mumbled back and kept walking. His “Love Me” Advancement may have been helping, but I suspected he would have been just fine without it. That man had “look like you belong” down to an art.

  As Ardek left, I went to work. Sneaking over that wall was as easy as any. With the sun long since down, dark, reaching shadows were everywhere, and since no one outside my House knew what I could do, no one thought to look for a shadow flickering briefly. The only thing that slowed me down was the view from the top of the wall.

  It wasn’t the view of the sea. I could have better sea views anytime I so chose. It was the gardens themselves. They were breathtaking. The people of Karakan grew plenty of flowers that bloomed even in the middle of what was their winter, but night blooming flowers were no more common than they had been back home. What I found on Soandel’s estate was a proper moon garden.

  I slid down and made my way among the beds, planters and trellises, almost forgetting why I was there. There must have been dozens of different flowers, though I could only name two: jasmine and moonflower. They were all carefully arranged so that the less eye catching ones wouldn’t be overshadowed by those that were more extravagant, and I just knew that many of them had been chosen for their scents rather than their looks.

  Too bad that sense might as well have not existed while I was Shifted, and I was not going to Shift back and risk getting spotted just for a sniff. One day soon, though, I’d have to come back just to enjoy the smell.

  The house itself was possibly the finest I’d seen up close, ever, in any life. The fact that it belonged to the man who held the city’s purse strings was surely a coincidence. It was just as grand as the gardens, and with almost as many flowers. There were trellises all along the walls, except directly under the higher windows — a reasonable precaution that would do absolutely no good against me. And even though I hadn’t intended to go inside that night, I was tempted. If one of those high windows had been open, I just might have slipped inside to take a look.

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  But they weren’t. I contented myself with taking a big circuit of the estate, noting which doors looked more or less used, where the balconies were — there were six of them, three on the seaward side — and which windows would be both hidden and in shadow at different times of day. I memorized every one — I didn’t know when I’d want to go in there unseen, after all.

  Once I was satisfied with my circuit, I returned to the garden for a while. There was a little bit of me hoping the lord exchequer might go for an unguarded evening stroll, but mostly it was just to enjoy the surroundings. I couldn’t wait until I’d bent Soandel to my will. I’d finally be able to go here un-Shifted and enjoy scents, not to mention the colors. The photonegative shadow world I dwelled in while Shifted had its beauty, but it never seemed quite real, and I wanted to see this place with my actual eyes.

  Sadly, no one came around except for a guard making her rounds. She walked right past me without so much as a twitch. Lucky her. If she’d so much as glanced in my direction she’d have found herself with a new employer. Not that I wanted to grab some poor woman who was just doing her very important job, protecting one of the leaders of the city — I just really couldn’t afford to be seen, or even be suspected to have been, anywhere near Soandel’s home.

  I was relieved, to be honest. I didn’t want to explain to Herald why I’d collected another random person — especially not another woman. People were looking at me funny as it was. And while I could just not tell her, I didn’t want to do that, either. I silently thanked the random guard for not being better at her job then slipped back over the wall and into the street.

  We left for Lady’s Rest early the next morning.

  We had a surprise as we were getting ready in the yard. Lina, the impulsive maid, came out saying, “Master Ramban? There’s some rich woman here looking for you. Says her name is Tavia, and that she’s been promised a place in an expertition or some such?”

  We thanked her and had her bring the younger, female scholar around to the yard. Tavia had a horse and a well-packed donkey with her, neither of which looked any happier to see me than she did. But then, neither did Ramban’s own horse, or Barro’s, or the donkey the Lady’s Resters had bought to bring with them. Only Stalwart the mule tolerated my presence, gazing at the nervous animals with placid superiority.

  Tavia was pale and jittery, and when Ramban greeted her she only gave him a sharp nod in return. She handed the reins of her animals to Lina, who held them like she’d never seen one before. At first Tavia didn’t move, only looking at me and sucking her lips nervously, but the presence of so many uneaten, unshredded, very much alive people around me seemed to give her the courage to take a few steps closer. Not close — she left a good thirty feet between us — but closer.

  “Lady, ah, Lady Draka, is it?” she finally managed to say. She held her arms stiffly at her sides, but her hands fidgeted constantly, fingers rubbing or pulling on the fabric of her cloak. “I’m Tavia. Scholar Tavia. No family name. I— I understand that we have already met?”

  Herald, who was coming along and stood beside me, giggled softly. She no doubt remembered my story about scaring the piss out of Ramban and Tavia, and seeing the latter standing here stuttering nervously months after the fact was a little bit funny, in a mean way. “Be nice,” I said softly in Herald’s direction, and she swallowed her mirth. To Tavia I said, “We have, and I’m glad you decided to come! I’ve told Ramban several times that I’d like to meet you properly. I was starting to lose hope!”

  “Yes, well, I— the opportunity—” She fidgeted some more then took a deep breath and said, “Was that really necessary? It was months before I could sleep without two lanterns in my bedroom! I had the furniture taken out so there would be fewer shadows!”

  Herald snorted, turned, and walked away.

  “I admit, I might have overdone it,” I said. Conscience had been riding me about that, and I couldn’t really disagree with her. “But that mountain, and those tunnels, are very important to me. It was either make sure that you stayed away and didn’t speak of them, or make sure you never left. I’d guess you wouldn’t prefer the second option?”

  She fumed silently for a moment then asked, “So why invite us back? Has it lost its importance, somehow?”

  “It hasn’t. But now I’m far more confident in my ability to protect what’s mine. Besides, back then I couldn’t show myself to you. Now I can, and I can ask you nicely not to reveal any of my secrets if you stumble upon them.”

  “So why?”

  “Oh, easy. I’m curious. So are you. I don’t have the time or skills, you do. Mutual benefit kind of thing.”

  Tavia’s continued survival after her outburst had done wonders for her confidence. “You’re curious?” she asked. “That’s it?”

  “Doesn’t need to be more complicated than that, does it?” I asked.

  She shrugged then shook her head.

  “Right! So, I assume that Ramban told you the terms of your stay in my mountain?”

  “I did,” Ramban said.

  “He did,” Tavia confirmed. “And I accept.”

  “Well then, welcome, Tavia! I’m Draka. I suggest you spend some time getting to know the good people here, because they’re going to be putting you up and putting up with you for the duration. Best if you all get along, yeah?”

  “Sure,” Tavia said. She looked a little overwhelmed. “Yeah. Thank you.”

  Once we were on our way, I circled high above with Herald, only joining the rest when they reached the forest. I’d considered walking out of the city right beside them, but the Lady’s Resters weren’t comfortable with the attention they already drew. I didn’t want to add to it.

  Simply strolling along the forest road like this was oddly nostalgic. Oddly, because it hadn’t been that long since I’d last walked here, headed for the gate in my mountain and the campsite which had become a tiny village. But a lot had happened since then, and while my life only a few months ago hadn’t been happier, it had definitely been simpler.

  Back then I had one goal to focus on: destroy the Night Blossom. Well, mission accomplished. Sort of. Zabra was alive and fairly well, but in every way that mattered to me I’d destroyed her. Some remnant of the Night Blossom might still live on within her, an ember just waiting for someone to blow it to life again, but that someone would have to be me. She wouldn’t so much as take a step without taking me into account. “Would Lady Draka approve?” she’d ask herself. “Would it please her? Would it make her look at me more favorably?”

  Mercies, but it was nice to have servants I didn’t feel any guilt about.

  The thirty-odd miles from Karakan to Lady’s Rest, first by road and then along simpler forest paths, took all day. My humans were hardy and marched along without complaint, most of them with packs, some of them even carrying kids when the little ones got tired. I included Herald among them — she could have easily had a horse but chose to walk. Barro probably could have made the trek, but he seemed to be the type not to make things harder than they had to be, and he rode at the back of the procession with Tavia and Ramban. That’s where most of the animals were — as far from me as possible. The exception, again, being our dependable Stalwart. He could be stubborn, surly, and would occasionally take a nibble of a hood or cloak that had offended him in some way, but at least he’d learned to relax around me.

  Herald spent most of her time with the scholars, which didn’t surprise me in the least. Both because she had a love of learning, and two academics who didn’t dare tell her to piss off no matter how much she pestered them was a golden opportunity; and because no matter how much trust I extended to them, she wasn’t Mak. She was going to vet them personally, and Mercies help them if she found them lacking.

  Well, no. It wasn’t quite that bad. She’d just bring her concerns to me, and then, depending on how strongly she felt, she might badger me into turning them away. We both knew that I had a hard time turning her down, especially when she’d set her mind on something. Luckily for them, all she had to say were things along the line of, “Those two are dedicated! I actually believe that they will be content to just know things, even if they cannot publicize them!”

  I suspected that they’d plied her with trivia and curious facts. They were also the only people who hadn’t had a chance to compliment her on her dragon ear ornament yet, and I was pretty sure I heard them do that. Whatever the reason, I was glad that we wouldn’t need to argue about them.

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