Trudi Canavan - The Rogue

The best way to protect Anyi, it turned out, was to make her stay in the hideout. The easiest way Lilia found to ensure that was to stay in the hideout herself. However, it wasn’t that easy. The more Anyi felt cooped up, the more she spent her excess energy on arguing. Gol’s return with the evening meal had her circling him eagerly.

“Have you seen any sign that Lorandra or Jemmi or Rek are looking for me or Lilia?” she asked.

“No,” he replied, stepping around her and placing a sack on the low table between the guest room chairs.

Anyi turned to Cery. “See? Surely if they’d made the connection they’d be looking for us.”

“Skellin’s not stupid,” Cery replied. “He knows that either you’re with me or out in the city on your own. If you’re on your own the chances are greater that someone will see you and report it to him. If you’re with me … well, he’s already got plenty of people looking for me.”

“But what if Rek didn’t tell Lorandra that I used to work for you?”

“What else is he likely to tell her, and Jemmi, to convince them that you taking Lilia away wasn’t his idea in the first place?”

“He might only have told Jemmi.”

Cery pointed at a chair. “Sit, Anyi,” he ordered.

She obeyed, but continued to stare at him while Gol began removing well-wrapped packets out of the sack and tearing them open. The extra wrapping was to reduce the smell of food escaping and acting as a trail through the tunnels to the hideout. Delicious smells filled the room.

“Jemmi will have told Lorandra you must have been my spy, in the hopes of convincing her there was no plot,” Cery continued. “Like it or not, Anyi, they know your betrayal was faked. You’re stuck here with me.”

Lilia felt a pang of sympathy as Anyi’s shoulders slumped. Not the first time, she wondered if Anyi had told Cery of her encounter with Heyla.

“I didn’t hear that anyone is looking for you,” Gol told Anyi. “But I heard that people are looking for someone who, from your description, sounds like Naki. They’re not our people, or the Guild, I think. They’re people she really wouldn’t want finding her, I reckon.”

Lilia sat up straight. “Someone else is looking for her?”

Gol nodded, then looked at Cery. The Thief’s eyes narrowed.

“So the race begins,” he said.

“Who is looking for her?” Lilia asked. “And why?”

“Skellin,” Cery answered. “It’s no secret that Naki is missing, and that she and Lilia tried to learn black magic. The fact that Naki didn’t succeed only makes her a slightly less appealing captive than Lilia. She can still tell Skellin everything she read and did. After all, if Lilia succeeded with the same information, there’s a chance he would too. If he doesn’t,” Cery looked at Lilia and grimaced, “he knows Lilia cares about Naki. He’ll try to blackmail her into teaching him, in exchange for Naki.”

“We have to find Naki first,” Anyi said.

“Yes.” Cery smiled thinly. “Skellin’s search for her might help us. I have people watching his people. If his look like they’ve found answers, mine will ask the same questions. If his look like they’re about to search somewhere, mine will be watching, ready to help Naki escape.”

A bell chimed somewhere behind the walls. Cery looked at Gol, who gave the opened packets of food a look of regret.

“We’ll save you some,” Cery promised.

The big man sighed and hurried to the hidden door built into the panelling in the room. Anyi rose and grabbed some plates and cutlery from a side cabinet, handed them out, then joined in as Lilia and Cery began to serve themselves and eat. Gol had brought several river fish baked in a salty-sweet sauce, plus roasted winter vegetables and freshly baked bread.

Soon afterwards, Gol returned. This time it was Cery who looked disappointed, as he and Gol left. Once they were alone together, Lilia looked at Anyi.

“Do you think Heyla is out there, telling people she saw us?”

Anyi’s expression darkened. “Probably. She’s done it before. She’ll get herself into more trouble than she realises if she does.”

“Does Cery know about her?”

“Kind of.” Anyi looked pained. “I started working for Cery after Heyla and me weren’t friends any more. I told him a friend had tried to sell me out, but I didn’t tell him who she was.”

“If you weren’t working for Cery, how did she know about him?”

Anyi paused, then shook her head. “Oh, I knew of him. Distantly. Anyway … I’d rather not talk about her.”

Lilia nodded. “Your secrets are safe with me.”

Anyi looked up at Lilia but didn’t smile. Instead she regarded her with a thoughtful expression that contained a hint of speculation.

“What?” Lilia asked.

“Nothing.” Anyi looked away, then back. “How close are you and Naki?”

Lilia looked down at her plate. “Very close. Well, not so close after she thought I’d killed her father.”

Anyi grimaced in sympathy. “Yes, that would test a friendship. Not just for her, thinking that you had done it. It must equally have hurt you that she could even suspect you of having done it.”

Lilia glanced at Anyi reproachfully. The pain of knowing that a friend could believe you’d killed someone was surely nothing like the pain of thinking a friend had killed a loved one. But she does have a point , Lilia found herself thinking. How could Naki have thought I’d done it? Especially after Black Magician Sonea read my mind and said I hadn’t.

The usual pattern of chimes and knocks warned them that someone was approaching the hideout. Anyi leapt up, knocked and tapped in reply, and worked the mechanisms to let Cery and Gol back into the room.

“That was a messenger,” Cery told them. “From the Thief, Enka, who is one of the few not completely owned by Skellin yet. He wants me to help him deal with a problem he has with his neighbour, who he says has a magician working for him. He thinks I can arrange for the Guild to find her.”

“Her?” Lilia asked, her heart skipping. “Is it Naki?”

“He says it’s a woman,” Gol replied. “His description of her sounds nothing like Lorandra.”

“Lorandra hasn’t got any magic,” Anyi pointed out.

“She probably has now,” Lilia told her. “Skellin could have removed the block. But Naki’s powers are blocked.”

Cery frowned. “Perhaps she has removed the block herself as you did.”

“I was only able to do that because I’d learned black magic. Naki hasn’t.”

“Then she must be relying on her reputation to intimidate people, and perhaps using tricks to convince people that she has her powers back. Enka did say he hadn’t seen her use magic yet. We should make sure it’s her before we show ourselves, of course, and be prepared in case it’s a trap set by Skellin. At least we know that he and Lorandra won’t turn up because he’ll expect Guild magicians to arrive. We have Lilia to protect us from non-magical attacks,” he added, bowing to her.

“Why don’t you tell the Guild?” Gol asked, frowning. “Save us the trouble and risk.”

Cery smiled and looked at Lilia. “Because if Lilia rescues Naki, the Guild will look more kindly on her escaping from the Lookout.”

Lilia smiled in reply. I can’t believe I’m thinking this about a Thief, but I’m really starting to like Cery.

The Thief rubbed his hands together and moved back to the chairs. “Come on you lot. Let’s finish eating. We have cunning plans to hatch.”

“So,” a familiar voice said. “I hear you finished your first stone.”

Lorkin turned to see Evar walking along the corridor behind him. He grinned and slowed down to join his friend.