“So,” I said to no one in particular. “Who’d you all piss off to end up with this assignment?”

  When Barvon stormed off to gather the Council, to get us all pardoned, or the arrest order rescinded, or whatever, he only took a few of the guards with him. That still left two dozen of the poor bastards in the hall with me, standing around with the spears and doing their best to look brave, and I knew for a fact that there were more outside. I could sense Herald and Mak moving around upstairs, but I had no idea how long it would take them to join me, and I wasn’t going to sleep around a bunch of armed people whose stance on my existence I didn’t know.

  Unless I wanted to be bored, it fell to me to entertain myself. I figured I might as well make a statement at the same time.

  When none of the guards chose to answer me, not even the lady with the captain’s sash, I got back up off the floor. “No, really,” I said, taking a few languid steps in the direction of the nearest bunch. “Was it the lord commander who asked you to guard me? That must mean that he either has an extremely high opinion of you or sees you as expendable. And some of you look a little green to me.”

  When I’d crossed half the distance to her guards, the captain finally found her voice. “Lady Draka, please,” she said. “I must ask you to keep your distance from my men!”

  She sounded upset. I couldn’t imagine why.

  I stopped and craned my neck to look at her, noticing for the first time how young she was. “Don’t worry,” I said. “Testing a theory. What about you, Captain? How old are you? Twenty? How’d you get to be a captain already?” I swung my head back ahead and locked eyes with the guard right ahead of me. “You, guardsman, lower your spear, would you? Aim it right here,” I said, tapping the base of my throat.

  “Don’t you dare, Nela!” the Captain snapped. “Spears up! That goes for all of you!”

  I couldn’t help but notice that she’d ignored my question about her age.

  “Don’t listen to her, Nela,” I said. The other guards stepped aside as I advanced on the poor man who was now slowly backing away, looking from me to the captain. He ended up between two long tables. “You can’t just let a prisoner bully you, can you? And I’m not allowed to leave. How are you going to keep me here if you can’t use that stick of yours?”

  After several quick steps back to match my slow, stalking ones, Nela bumped into the wall. “Captain!” he pleaded, the tip of his spear tracing circles above his head. The poor man was scared witless. He could have moved right or left, climbing over or under either table, but all he did as I got closer was to press himself into the tapestry behind him. It was quite a nice scene, I noted as I advanced. Ships at sail in the harbor, masterfully embroidered so that the stitches almost looked painted on.

  “Lady Draka, please!” the captain said, and Conscience fought her way out from the little box where I’d stuffed her to reprimand me for how much I enjoyed the fear and helplessness in her voice. “Guards, stand down!”

  I was seven or eight feet from poor Nela when I stopped and took a look around. His friends were braver than they were clever or obedient. Five of them had their spears pointed at me across the tables, wide eyed and shaking but willing to at least consider doing something. And they must have given the man himself some small amount of confidence. When I looked back he had his own spear pointing right at the base of my throat, where I’d told him to, with less than a foot between me and its bronze head.

  “There,” I said with a full-toothed grin. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Then I stepped forward, let the tip of the spear press into my hide, and kept going.

  I went slow — I wasn’t stupid. I wanted to prove something, both to myself and the guards around me, and I kept a careful eye on Nela for any flashes of magic. I pressed myself forward until his spear was braced against the wall then added first a fraction of an inch, then another. I felt a pressure against the base of my throat, but that was it. No sting. Encouraged, I pressed harder, closing the distance by an inch, then two.

  The haft of the spear bowed. I pushed more, and it arched.

  I took a step, putting my face right in front of Nela’s, and the haft snapped.

  “There,” I said, my voice low enough that only the silence after the echoes died out let anyone but Nela hear me. “Point made. Thanks for your help.”

  As Nela slid down the wall, I carefully turned on the spot and made my leisurely way back to the center of the hall. “Captain,” I said casually, “I’d like an answer to my questions. Who did you piss off to get this assignment? And how did someone as young as you get to be a captain? Vakkal was on his way to forty, and the man who came to arrest my dear friend Herald wasn’t much younger. Makes one wonder, you know?”

  That finally got to her. She tried to keep herself in check, but she couldn’t hide the flush that came over her face nor the smell of anger that wafted off her beneath the fear. “I’ve worked hard—” she started, and I cut her off.

  “I’m sure you have, but are you sure that there’s no rich mother involved? No important uncle? I hear that you can just buy yourself a captaincy in the cavalry. What’s your name, Captain?”

  “Alanna,” she ground out between clenched teeth.

  I was far from satisfied. “Lovely to meet you, Captain Alanna. But you know that wasn’t what I was asking. What’s your House, Alanna? And don’t pretend that you don’t have one.”

  She scowled at me, the smell of her anger finally becoming stronger than that of her fear, and said, “Nahasia. Are you satisfied? I’m the granddaughter of Lord Hierophant Nahasia.”

  I could only describe what happened next as the entirely mental equivalent of Conscience smashing me in the head with a brick. Nobody reacted, so it must have not looked like anything at all on the outside, but inwardly I was entirely stunned for a good, long moment. You. Will not. Touch her! Conscience spat, not giving an inch as I fought for full control again. She hasn’t done anything!

  That was entirely uncalled for! I had no idea what my softer half had, or thought she had, sensed from me, but I had no intention of hurting the girl! “I was just going to scare her a little!” I insisted, but Conscience was having none of it.

  Leave her the hell alone! Look at her! She knows that she didn’t get her rank just on merit. And she doesn’t exactly sound proud of that or of who her grandfather is. She doesn’t need you venting your damn temper on her!

  “Fine!” I huffed. It wasn’t worth arguing with myself over, and Conscience had shown more than once that she was both willing and able to fight me. “I’ll leave her alone. Now step back!”

  I could have moved even before Conscience relaxed, but every step would have been a struggle. Now I just turned away from the nepo-tastic Captain Nahasia and curled up on the floor. I didn’t need to do anything more to her — I’d been staring at her silently for several seconds, and that had been enough for all her bluster to abandon her. Now she just stank of fear.

  “I’m sure you’re doing your best, trying to justify your rank,” I told her as I laid down, hating how guilty I felt. Conscience was still strong, and I just knew that she wasn’t going to let me push her back. “Not your fault that Grandpa got you kicked up the ladder early. But if I decide to take my people and leave, don’t stand in my way. I might just forget to hold back when a Nahasia’s involved.”

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  She didn’t say anything to that, but hurt, along with a complete lack of understanding, flashed across her face.

  “Grandpa doesn’t tell you about what goes on in the Council?” I huffed. “Doesn’t matter. Have you been in charge of the guards here since my family was brought in, Captain Nahasia?”

  It took her a moment to work up the courage to answer me. It had fled with her anger when I stared her down. “I have,” she said uncertainly. “The lord commander put me in command personally.”

  “Right. Well, here’s what you need to know — and the same goes for all of your subordinates here. I expect my people will join us down here shortly. And if any one of them has so much as a bruise when they do, I will give you all a minute to clear out. When that minute is up, either they will have talked me down, or I will be coming after you. Do you understand?”

  She shifted nervously. It looked like she wanted to run right then, and the fire that I was keeping so carefully contained flared. I could feel my claws unconsciously ripping through the fine carpet as I said, “Is there anything you need to tell me, Captain?”

  “No, I—” she said. I shifted to rise, gathering my feet beneath me, and she quickly took a step back, putting her hands up between us. “Lady Draka, we weren’t there for the arrest! I can’t guarantee— please! All I can tell you is they looked fine when I took custody, and none of my guards have touched them!”

  It was nice to see that she took every word I said with deadly seriousness. I settled back down, and Conscience didn’t make so much as a sound when I told the captain, “I’ll hold you to that, Alanna. Personally. And I will have the truth from them as soon as they join us. If you’d like to run, now would be the time.”

  For a moment, I thought that she would. She was already slightly hunched forward, ready to move, and when I offered her a chance to flee she shifted her weight to her back foot as though to turn. But that was as far as she went before she straightened. She didn’t relax — Mercies, no, she was tenser and stank more of fear than ever. But something, pride was my guess, wouldn’t let her run.

  “Would you—” she started, but her voice failed her. She tried again and managed this time. “Would you like me to have your people brought down?”

  “Thank you, Captain, but no,” I said with all the friendly cheer I could muster. It wasn’t much. “They know that I’m here, and they’ll be taking care of that themselves. And don’t worry about your men upstairs — Mak knows when to hold back. She let your colleague take her in, after all.”

  Nahasia blanched at that. “Guards,” she said, and her voice was tremulous but loud. “If our guests should have left their rooms to come down here, don’t stand in their way. Treat them with the utmost respect. Pesi and Taranna, get up there and tell every damn person in this building the same. Understood?”

  There was a scattered and uneven chorus of, “Yes Captain!” from the guards. Two of them left in a rush, while those near the doors subtly moved to the sides as though they were afraid to accidentally stand in someone’s way.

  “Very smart, Captain,” I said approvingly. “Very responsible.” Then I lay down properly. Not to sleep — that would have required me to give far more control to Instinct than was wise at the moment, so that she could keep watch. But I could be patient if I forced myself to. Mostly. I spent the time tracking Mak and Herald’s progress on some upper floor, far above me. Sometimes they’d separate in a way that suggested to me that Mak was rushing ahead, or Herald was sneaking past someone. Then that stopped, and they started moving at a much more even and relaxed pace, staying close to each other.

  I could only assume that Captain Nahasia’s messengers had reached them and were making sure that none of the guards did anything that required my sisters to strain themselves — ruining my entertainment in the process. I switched to trying to remember song lyrics in my head. That kept me until Mak and Herald descended the stairs.

  Tam was first into the hall, followed by Val and then everyone else. Mak had availed herself of some poor guard’s sword, which she carried sheathed in one hand. They waved and greeted me, and not one of them looked surprised to see me. Of course, they wouldn’t be. Not with Herald and Mak there.

  As they came in, I watched them closely, searching for the slightest limp, the first hint of a bruise, anything at all that might indicate that they’d been poorly treated. To the captain’s great fortune, I didn’t see anything. Kira looked oddly tired though. A suspicion grew inside me, quickly and strong enough for Mak to hurry to my side to calm me.

  “It’s good to see you, Mistress,” she whispered, low enough that no one else should have heard, before raising her voice. “Before you ask, yes, Kira has been healing quite a lot. But please, the men and women here had nothing to do with that. The ones who brought us in got a little rough, but barely anything worth speaking of. Even if they’d wanted to, they had our four good friends in the Wolves watching them the whole way here. And Kira’s tired from helping some of the guards upstairs, that’s all.”

  “Your clothes are cut and torn,” I said, after looking her over up close.

  “They are,” she agreed. “It’s hard to disarm a man without hurting him, but if you take a cut or two and nothing happens…” She shrugged. “Most of them give up after that.”

  I relaxed. Kira had exhausted herself patching up the guards that Mak and Herald beat up. Of course she had. Even I would have had a hard time stopping her. And Mak had done her absolute best, getting them out without hurting anyone too badly at the cost of an everyday dress.

  Still, I had to be sure. “You’re all fine?” I asked the group as a whole. “You’re sure?”

  “Nothing is injured save our pride and our confidence in the government of this city,” Val said, and the others agreed. “Although they did take some things from us. Daggers and such.”

  “Yeah, I’d like my sharktooth back,” Mak said. “Lalia gave that to me, made to fit my hand perfectly.”

  I turned to face Captain Nahasia. “Did you hear that? I’d like their things returned.”

  “I can’t do that,” she replied regretfully. Not put on regret, either. I truly believed that she wanted to but couldn’t. “They’re still under arrest. Technically. I can’t…”

  Her words petered out as I stared her down.

  “They’re not kept here,” she explained lamely, turning her eyes away. “Anything confiscated will be at the central guardhouse.”

  “You could send for them.”

  “Not until your… family is officially released. You’d have to go down there and ask in person.”

  I couldn’t help but hear a slight note of hope at the end there. It was amusing, really. “No such luck, Captain,” I told her. “You’re stuck with me until that arrest order is rescinded, or I have reason to take my complaint directly to the Council.” The level of nervousness in the hall tripled at that. “But I respect the attempt,” I finished.

  While I spoke, my people had been settling in at the table nearest me. “Don’t suppose we could get some cards or dice?” Ardek asked, looking directly at the captain. He didn’t quite snap, but there was a rare edge to his voice. I knew for a fact that guards, and especially guard officers, made him nervous, so it was pretty funny to see him just throw that out in a tone that he’d never use even with the staff at the inn. The deference she showed me must have really emboldened him. That, or he was just pissed off enough not to care. They had locked Kira up as well, after all.

  The captain didn’t answer, but some of the guards looked at each other until one of them shrugged and approached, taking a small leather case out of his jacket and placing it on the table. “Careful with ‘em, yeah?” the guardsman said. “I’ve had them a while now.”

  “Cheers!” Ardek said, all charm again. “Are you playing? I was thinking Five Fields. Is that all right, Captain?”

  Nahasia sighed and waved a hand dismissively in their direction. “Go ahead. May as well make this farce a full cast. But no gambling!”

  “Right you are, Captain! Anyone else?”

  A few more guards, the recently recovered Nela included, slowly drifted over and took seats at the table. The captain sat down by herself across the aisle, silently resting her head in her hands, no doubt mourning the death of whatever outward legitimacy her career might have had.

  At first I ignored Conscience’s nudges, but as Nahasia slumped farther and farther forward, that got hard to do. By the time she was pressing her forehead into the expensive wood, hands clasped at the back of her head, I gave up. With Mak watching me curiously, I got to my feet and walked over, sitting down on the floor across from the captain.

  “If it helps,” I said, and her head jerked up to face me. She wasn’t crying, but her eyes had an angrily swollen look to them that told me she wasn’t far off. “I don’t think that the lord commander was trying to torpedo your career.”

  “Torpedo?” she asked, with the slightest, most careful of sniffles. I was sure that no one else noticed.

  “Sink. Scupper. Sabotage. I don’t think he was trying to damage your legitimacy.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” she said, sitting up and then slumping back in her chair. “Nothing will change. I won’t lose my rank, but no one will respect me. Everyone knows I didn’t earn my rank anyway. Oh, they’ll follow orders, and most citizens will respect the sash, but they take one look at me and they know the right someone whispered a few words in the right ear.” She sighed heavily and closed her eyes. “I just wanted to be a guardswoman and do some gods-damned good. But, no! No daughter of House Nahasia is going to be a base mudfoot! I should have just joined the temple of the Warrior like my father wanted. At least then grandfather couldn’t have interfered, lord hierophant or no.”

  “Wait. How? Isn’t your grandfather a high priest or something? Wouldn’t that give him more influence?”

  “Hah! Mercies, no! The man’s pious, but he’s a former advocate! He makes sure the temples follow the law, and not much else. If anything, they’d make me work twice as hard just to spite him.”

  “Somehow I don’t think you would have liked that, either.”

  She laughed bitterly before sniffling again. “No, I wouldn’t have. Thus, the guard, and a rank I haven’t earned. But it’s not all bad. At least I got to whine to a dragon.”

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