Erin Evans - The God Catcher

"I doubt that," he said. "He's very interested in your mistress. So interested he won't consider the fact that she's a fraud. Oh yes," he said, when Tennora's eyes widened. "I'm well aware of the bounty hunter. It was the last useful thing Alina did. Pity I'm going to have to arrange for her… disposal."

Tennora ignored the baiting. "So why not save him some time? Give her to me."

Ferremo shrugged, as if she'd asked him why he hadn't worn a yellow shirt-it didn't matter. "If she's a dragon, he'll want to know how she's avoided the dragonward."

"And if she isn't?"

He laughed. "Humans don't deserve the powers of the dragons. He'll make her understand that."

"Sounds like a waste of his time. And yours."

Ferremo flipped his dagger over his knuckles and caught it again. "What are you offering?"

"A relic," she said, "of the time before the Wailing Years. A collar worn by the Songdragon, to protect her from the dragonward if anyone ever took hold of Ahghairon's staff."

Ferremo's eyebrow twitched. "It protects against the dragonward?" Tennora nodded. "Where is it?"

"Ah-ah." Tennora wagged a finger at him. "I will get it for you in exchange for Clytemorrenestrix. Safe and alive."

"Of course you will," he said, and folded his arms over his chest. "Where is it? Under your linens?"

"It happens to be in the care of a powerful wizard," Tennora said, though she was trying hard not to think of that part. "A master of the House of Wonder. Rhinzen Halnian."

At the name, a light seemed to flare to life behind Ferremo's eyes, and his cold demeanor thawed. He set his hands on his hips and regarded Tennora with a curious smile.

"Rhinzen Halnian?" he asked. "Tymora must be laughing."

She nodded, with a little smile of her own, as if they were sharing a joke. He clearly thought they were. "He hasn't done me any favors lately," she said vaguely.

"He doesn't think much of us and our ilk," Ferremo said.

Her heart was pounding. Ferremo knew Rhinzen, which meant her old master might have been harmed by the dragon and his lovac.

Or he's been helping them, she thought.

"I can't make any promises," Ferremo said. "Especially since there's no proof she's a player. Or even a dragon."

Tennora raised her eyebrows skeptically. "Do you want to take chances?"

"It's what we do," Ferremo said with an edge of menace. "Get the relic from that high-minded long-ears, and I'll have an answer for you."

"Tomorrow evening," Tennora said, and the assassin agreed.

"Rough him up for me, and I'll see about finding you a place with a real taaldarax," he said. "And since I know where you live, I can trust you'll let yourself out." He turned and vanished into the shadows.

Tennora let out the breath she'd been holding. She wasn't dead. She had a plan. The man with the knives wasn't overly suspicious-and why should he be? She'd managed to convince him he was getting a treasure beyond worth.

Now came the difficult part.

The tower of Rhinzen Halnian rose up into the night, a pillar of rose-colored granite with delicate buttresses. Tennora could not help thinking, as she eyed it from the shadow of a barberry bush, that three days ago, she had come and gone here as easy as she pleased, never considering how lucky that made her.

The tower itself was ringed by a high wall with only one gate, guarded by four moon elves, well armored and well equipped with spells and weapons both. She'd slipped past them by scaling the wall near the gardener's shack. They were mostly there to deter unwanted guests-to out-and-out prevent their entry, the tower had more reliable and magical guardians.

She doubted that Master Halnian had changed the spells to enter by the front door, and she planned on slipping in that way. But after that she would have to be careful. She was an intruder.

That truth nagged at her as she sat waiting for the last of her former classmates to file out of the tower.

Or you could go home, a part of her thought, and she knew it had a point. What was becoming of her that she was attempting her second burglary in as many days? And this time at the home of someone who had taken her under his wing and…

Promptly thrown her out, another part added.

There wasn't another way to save Nestrix.

She pulled her stormcloak close and strode across the gardens toward the entry.

The storm clouds of the afternoon had finally broken up. Thousands of stars littered the night sky, and Selune shone among her court, a queen in a silver crown.

She kept her hood low and her cloak closed as she approached the grand double doors that led into the tower. Two massive stone griffons, rearing rampant, guarded the doorway. Though they looked like mere-if marvelously carved-statues, the night showed that their eyes glowed faintly blue. They were golems created by Master Halnian and charged with protecting his home and study from intruders.

Over and around the two griffons, the gossamer web of a warding spell stretched across the entryway. Invited or accompanied guests could come and go as they pleased. Elsewise, a rain of ice would fall from the ward, entombing the unwelcome and holding their bodies in place for the griffons or the Watch-whoever came first.

It was the only way in, unless she could scale the sheer walls-and even then while the windows would let objects out, they were warded against things coming in. She briefly imagined clinging to the edge of a windowsill by her fingernails while trying to unravel the ward. It might be safer than the griffons.

There was a chance that Master Halnian had not removed her from the list of persons who could pass through the ward unaccompanied, and it was not a chance Tennora felt good about taking. If she'd had any other options, she would have gladly gone with them instead.

The griffons seemed to watch her as she approached, sending a chill through her that presaged the ice. She took a breath to calm herself and continued her measured pace toward the doors.

Nearly there, Tennora's legs started to shake so hard they could barely carry her. Stone creaked as the griffons turned their heads ever so slightly toward her.

She didn't dare stop-her legs would certainly buckle beneath her and draw the attention of the guards. And the griffons, the griffons

…

The griffons flexed their claws into the stone floor of the entryway.

Tennora closed her eyes and kept walking, ready to feel the sting of ice with every breath. Four steps up to the entry and she quickened her pace, hurrying toward the doors.

They clacked their stone beaks.

The air stilled and grew chilly, frost spreading across her cloak. She leaped forward, reached out a hand toward the doors.

With a soft groan, they opened for her.

As her feet hit the marble floor of the entrance hall, Tennora finally allowed herself to breathe. A glance back at the griffons showed they were once again staring at each other and no one else. Tennora brushed the frost from her shoulders-it was as if they had known she didn't belong, even if clearly no one had told them she was no longer welcome. She pulled off her cloak, balled it up, and stuffed it into the sack she had tied to her belt-it would serve as decent batting until she handed the gorget over to Ferremo.

A chorus of voices, piping up one by one out of her memories, had been berating Tennora from the moment she escaped the God Catcher. As she ascended the staircase of Master Halnian's tower, they rose to a howl.

"How can you do this to someone who took you in?" Aunt Aowena wailed. "How can you betray Master Halnian?"

"This will come down on all of us!" Uncle Eckhart said. "Shame on you!"

Her father's sad voice floated up. "This is not the path for you. You know better."