Canavan Trudi - The Traitor Queen

Anyi chose one room at random, then, since there were no chairs, sat down on the floor with her back to a wall. Lilia sat down beside her, disturbing a dust-covered broken plate. She wiped the surface clean, uncovering a Guild symbol imprinted into the underside. This isn’t very old. I wonder how it got here.

“I shouldn’t care,” Anyi said.

Lilia turned to look at her. “Of course you should. He’s your father.”

Anyi’s mouth twisted into a bitter smile. “Not much of one. For most of my life he ignored me. It was only when his other family was murdered that he paid any attention to me.”

Not sure what to say, Lilia said nothing.

“That’s not really fair, though,” Anyi added, her voice quieter and softer. “Mother left him. She said it wasn’t safe being the wife of a Thief, and that she couldn’t stand being hidden away all the time. I don’t think two people should be forced to be together if they don’t want to be.”

“How did Cery come to marry again?” Lilia asked. Divorce was something only the king could grant. She couldn’t imagine a Thief asking the king to end his marriage.

Anyi shrugged. “He just did.”

“But that’s…”

“Bigamy?” Anyi looked at Lilia and shrugged. “Not really. Nobody in the underworld can afford a legal marriage. I suppose Cery could, but why pay attention to one of the king’s laws when you don’t pay much to the rest of them? We have our own ways of declaring ourselves married — or unmarried.”

Lilia shook her head in wonder. “It’s a whole other world.” She shrugged. “Though I could say that about the family my parents were servants for. We might have been a part of their world, but we weren’t in their world. It would have been nice to be that rich, and to be able to order people around, but sometimes they had even less choice about their lives than we did. They don’t get to decide who they marry, and they do have to ask the king for a divorce — and hope he grants it.”

“Perhaps that’s why Sonea never got married. She’s not from the Houses so she doesn’t have a family deciding who she marries, but she’d have to have a legal marriage if she did and then if she wanted to end it she’d have to hope the king let her.”

Lilia chuckled. “I can’t imagine some man ordering her about.”

Anyi grinned. “No. More likely it’d be the other way around.” But as she met Lilia’s gaze she grew serious again. She looked away and sighed.

“He’s going to get himself killed. He finally lets me into his world and now I’m going to lose him.”

“Only if things go wrong — and we’ll make sure that won’t happen.”

Anyi gave her an accusing look. “You think he’s right.”

“No.” Lilia shook her head. “But I suspect we won’t have much say in it.”

The other girl scowled, then her expression became thoughtful. “You could tell him Kallen doesn’t want to do it. Put Cery off for a while.”

Lilia nodded. “I could. But then he might try to do it without Kallen.” She thought back to what Cery had said. “I can’t help thinking he is right about one thing: Skellin will guess you all came here. Where else would you go? He probably knows there are tunnels. It’s not a secret in the Guild, so I doubt it is outside of it. He’ll come to have a look eventually. When he does, he’ll find you here. And if I’m away in lessons, I won’t be able to stop him killing you all.”

Anyi turned to look at Lilia, her brow creased with worry.

“Perhaps the only way you can be safe is under the Guild’s protection,” Lilia continued. “I know none of you like that idea, but if Cery’s trap fails, that’s where you’ll end up anyway. I suspect the Guild won’t like it either, but they’ll be more willing to protect you if there’s evidence Skellin actually entered the Guild’s underground passages.”

Anyi groaned and rubbed her face with her hands. “You’re making sense, and I don’t like it.”

“I don’t either,” Lilia admitted. “But I know I can’t be the protector you need. Mostly because I’m not here that much, but also because I don’t know how powerful Skellin is. If he comes here with Lorandra I doubt I’ll be able to protect myself, let alone the rest of you. Even if he doesn’t, how are you going to let me know you need my help? What if I don’t get here in time?”

“We’ll use an escape route.”

“What if you don’t make it? Even if you do, you’ll come up in the Guild’s grounds and if he’s still following you then you’ll have to seek the help of the Guild anyway.” Lilia sighed and felt the frustration and worry of the last few weeks gather up behind her words. “It’s not safe down here, and you could be living more comfortably, and it’s so hard getting food to you, and… I miss you.”

At that last admission, the flood of words that had been pouring out of her ran out. She felt her face heat and looked at Anyi sheepishly. The other girl had an odd, surprised expression.

“I mean I miss being alone with you. Maybe that’s a little selfish,” she began. “I-”

But she got no apology out, because Anyi leaned forward, caught hold of her jaw and kissed her.

“I miss you, too,” she said quietly and fiercely.

Then she drew Lilia into her arms. For a time they simply held each other, taking comfort in physical warmth and closeness. Too soon Anyi sighed and pulled away.

“Cery will be wondering where we’ve got to,” she murmured.

Standing up, she held out a hand to Lilia. As Lilia took it Anyi hauled her to her feet, but in the same movement she pulled Lilia close and kissed her again. This time it was a lingering kiss, as if she had forgotten her last words.

A footfall, followed by a sharply indrawn breath, jolted Lilia back to her surroundings. She and Anyi sprang apart and whirled towards the door, Anyi bracing in a fighting stance. Lilia had drawn magic and formed a shield before she saw that it was only Cery standing in the doorway.

His face was frozen in surprise. As Anyi uttered a curse, Cery’s expression changed to a mix of embarrassment and amusement.

“Didn’t mean to interrupt,” he said, taking a step backwards. “Come back when you’re ready.”

Then with a barely suppressed smile, he turned and hurried away.

Covering her face with her hands, Anyi groaned. Lilia placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder in sympathy. I wouldn’t want my father walking in on me kissing another woman. As Anyi’s shoulders started to shake and she began to make choking noises, she felt her heart twist, until she saw her friend’s hands shift to her mouth and she realised Anyi was laughing.

“Well,” Lilia said as she waited for Anyi to stop. “That’s not the reaction I was expecting.”

Anyi shook her head. “No. Guess it wouldn’t be.” She took a couple of deep breaths, only breaking into spluttering once. “I’ve been worrying about how to tell him for months. Now I don’t have to.”

“You were going to tell him about us?”

“Of course.”

“But… won’t he be angry?”

“No. A bit dismayed, maybe. Did I ever tell you where he was born and grew up?”

Lilia shook her head.

“Well, it’s really his story to tell — many stories, actually. It was a place you meet people with all kinds of tastes and ideas.” Anyi took Lilia’s hand. “Come on. We really should go back. He’ll be worrying that we’re too annoyed or embarrassed to return. And I want to make sure this fool’s plan is as foolproof as possible.”

The words on the page before Dannyl were as grey as an overcast sky. Tayend had given Dannyl his meagre supply of remaining ink and, since neither the slaves nor Merria had managed to bring any more into the Guild House, Dannyl had to thin out what was left with water. Following Tayend’s advice, he now locked his research notes away with magic whenever he was done working on them.