The Ambassador's Mission полностью

“I can’t! They took the key. Said that way I couldn’t sell it to anyone else before they came back with the money.”

“What? You’re lying!”

“No! Nonononono!” The pawnshop owner threw up his arms and cringed away from her. His behaviour was a little extreme for someone a head taller than the woman stalking toward him. As if he knows she is more dangerous than she looks.

The woman waved her arms. “Get out,” she ordered. “Leave the lamp, get out of this shop and don’t come back until tomorrow.”

“Yes! Thank you! I’m sorry I couldn’t—”

“OUT!”

He tore back down the stairs as if a wild beast were in pursuit. The woman waited, listening to Makkin’s footsteps. The sound of the shop door slamming echoed up to Cery’s ears.

The woman turned to look at the safebox, then her shoulders straightened. She approached it slowly, then squatted before it and went still. Cery could not see her face, but he saw her shoulders rise and fall as she breathed deeply.

A moment later the lock clicked open.

Gol let out a quiet gasp. Cery smiled grimly. Locks don’t just open of their own will. She must have used magic. I have the proof I need that we have a rogue in the city. It wasn’t proof that she was the Thief Hunter, though, but what if she was? He felt a chill run up his spine at the thought. Was the woman below really the murderer who had killed so many Thieves?

She was examining the books within the safebox now. He recognised the one on magic. Opening it, the woman flicked through the pages, then muttered something and tossed it aside. Picking up another book, she examined it as well. When she had looked at all of the tomes she slowly stood up. Her fists clenched and she uttered a strange word.

What did she say? He frowned. Wait a moment. That was a different language. She’s foreign. But she hadn’t said enough for him to recognise the language or even her accent. If only she would speak again. A whole sentence, not only a curse word.

But the woman remained silent. She rose and turned her back on the safebox and its contents, now strewn about the room. Walking away, she reached the stairs and disappeared into the darkness of the shop below. The door slammed again. Faint footsteps faded in the street beyond.

Cery remained still and silent, waiting until they were sure that if anyone had heard the woman shouting they would have lost interest and stopped watching the shop. He considered his plan. We have the information we need. The only surprise is that the magician is a woman and a foreigner. That doesn’t make her any less dangerous, whether she is the Thief Hunter or not. And if foreign magicians are taking up residence in Imardin, Sonea will definitely want to know about it.

And Skellin. Should he tell the other Thief?

I don’t have proof that she is the Thief Hunter. I only have proof that she is the Rogue. I’d rather Skellin didn’t know that Sonea and I still communicate. If the Guild captures this woman they’ll read her mind and find out once and for all if she is the killer. If she isn’t, then there’s nothing to tell Skellin.

And if she was … well, once the Guild found and dealt with the Rogue there’d be no Thief Hunter to worry about any more.

CHAPTER 14

UNEXPECTED ALLIES

So who am I meeting tonight?” Dannyl asked Ashaki Achati as the carriage set out from the Guild House.

The Sachakan magician smiled. “Your ploy of not nagging to see the king has worked. He has invited you to the palace.”

Dannyl blinked in surprise, then considered all that Lord Maron had told him about the Sachakan king and protocol. The former Ambassador had said that the king refused an audience as often as he granted one, and that there was no point Dannyl seeking one unless he had something to discuss. “I wasn’t aware that I should have been nagging. Should I apologise for that?”