Shadow's Edge
Page 72

Magdalyn tugged her nightgown free from where it was trapped between their bodies and stripped it off. She dropped it over the edge, laughing again as the flimsy cloth spun toward the flagstones below.
Then she sat up and kissed Garoth again, pressing her young body against him. She stripped his robe back roughly. Then she burrowed into him, moaning as her skin touched his, warm against warm in the cold night air.
She nuzzled his neck. “I heard you talking about the Night Angel,” she said. “Kylar Stern.”
“Mmm.”
“I want you to know something,” she whispered into his ear, making him shiver. What the hell was she saying? “Kylar’s my brother. He’s coming for me, you dirty fucker, and if I don’t kill you, he will.”
She bit his carotid artery as hard as she could and tried to throw them both off the edge.
The vir reacted before Garoth could, exploding at his neck. The vir lashed from his limbs, flinging him inside even as Magdalyn Drake spun out into space.
He stood shakily and summoned Neph.
The Vürdmeister found him standing on the balcony, looking at the ruin of the young woman crushed in the courtyard below.
“Take care of her, Neph. Tell Trudana I expect the best,” the Godking said, greatly moved. “Hers was a great spirit.”
“Shall I …” The Lodricari coughed his fake cough and Garoth hated him anew. “Shall I send in another concubine?” He pointedly didn’t look toward the evidence of Garoth’s continued arousal.
“Yes,” Garoth said tersely. Curse you, Khali, yes.
“If you’ll excuse us, Count Drake,” Terah Graesin said. “I have need of your quarters.”
Count Drake limped out on his cane as several guards took up position outside the tent.
Kylar was still reeling. Terah Graesin knew Durzo. That meant he was supposed to know her, and he didn’t. If she knew Durzo, that meant she knew Durzo through his work. That meant she had hired him.
“So,” she said. “Logan’s alive. That’s …terrific.” Terah Graesin had a silky, low voice. It was reputed to be sexy, but then, everything about Terah Graesin was supposed to be sexy. Kylar didn’t see it. Oh, she was pretty. She had a wide mouth, full lips, and the kind of figure that was unattainable for the majority of noblewomen who spent their days doing nothing more strenuous than issuing orders to the servants. Maybe it was that she was a little too self-consciously good-looking. She wore lots of makeup—expertly applied and subtle, but lots—and had tweezed her eyebrows down to tiny lines. The truth was, she held herself like he ought to admire her, and it pissed him off.
What pissed him off more was that to look her in the eye with his disguise, he had to stare straight at her admittedly perky breasts. Dammit, why were breasts so intriguing?
“So who’s paying you to save Logan Gyre?” she asked.
“You don’t really expect me to answer that,” Kylar said. The only card he had to play was that Blint tended to be blunt and secretive. If she knew him, she’d know that much.
“Master Blint,” she said, seeming to come to a decision, but still speaking in that same consciously sexy voice, “you’re the only man I know who’s killed two kings. How much can I pay you to kill a third?”
“What?! You want me to kill the Godking?”
“No. Simply don’t save Logan Gyre. I’ll double whatever your employer is paying.”
“What?” Kylar asked. “Why? You need all the allies you can get right now. Logan would bring thousands to your banners.”
“The problem is …well, can you keep a secret, Durzo?” She smiled.
“Would you trust a murderer with your secrets?”
“I knew you’d say that!” she said triumphantly, almost giggling. “You said the same thing last time, remember?”
“It’s been a while,” Kylar said, his throat constricting.
“Well, I’m glad you remembered long enough to kill my father.”
Kylar blinked.
“Tell me, did you do it before or after you killed King Gunder?”
“I’m paid to kill, not to talk about it.” Gods! Her own father?
“And that’s why I can trust you. Though I will remind you that I’ve already given you money for not killing me—so you can’t do to me what I did to my father.”
“Of course not.” It took him a second to puzzle it out. She must have met Durzo when the wetboy had taken a job for her father, Duke Gordin Graesin. Perhaps Gordin had hired Durzo to kill King Davin? Duke Graesin must have thought Regnus Gyre would become king after King Davin died, thereby making Gordin’s other daughter Catrinna a queen. Logan’s mother, Catrinna Graesin, had been Terah’s half-sister, though older than Terah by almost twenty years.
“So why let Logan die?” he asked.
“Because I don’t give up things that belong to me easily, Durzo Blint. As you know.”
“Don’t you think you might want to worry about taking the throne from the Khalidorans before you worry about murdering your allies?”
“I don’t need a civics lesson. Are you interested in making money for doing nothing, or do you wish to make me your enemy? I will be queen one day, and you’ll find me an implacable foe.”
“Seven thousand crowns,” Kylar said. “How do I know you’re good for it? If the Khalidorans wipe you out, I’m not getting stiffed.”
She smiled. “Now there’s the Durzo Blint I remember.” She pulled a fat ring off her finger with an even fatter ruby in it. “Please don’t pawn it. It belonged to my father, and it’s not worth even half of the eight thousand I’ll give you for it after I take the throne. There’ll be a bonus if you bring me proof of Logan’s death.”
“Fair enough,” Kylar said.
“I foresee some of my allies becoming …problematic in the future. I’ll have other jobs for you. That is, if you haven’t lost your edge.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“When you didn’t answer my summons a month ago, I had to go elsewhere.”
“You’ll never find anyone as good as me.” That, at least, was classic Durzo Blint.
Terah Graesin licked her lips and her eyes filled with sudden hunger. Kylar didn’t recognize the look, but he didn’t like it, whatever it was. She smiled.
What is she waiting for? Me to make a pass at her? The moment passed.
“Well, then, good day,” she said in a level tone that didn’t tell Kylar whether he was right or wrong. She stepped close to him to kiss each of his cheeks. It put his real face right at level of her chest, but he was lucky. She didn’t lean close enough to touch either his real lips with her breasts or his phantom cheek with her lips. The illusion stayed intact.
As soon as she was gone, he fled. He jumped on his horse and went north out of the camp, worried that Terah might have someone watching the western exit. He shifted his disguise so that Durzo’s face was where his own was, rather than above it so that he could see the guards’ expression. The guards let him out without question, however, and when he was a mile out, he began to let down his guard. His heart was still pounding as he thought about what this meant for Logan. Even if he got his friend out of the Maw, the road ahead wouldn’t be easy. At least now he would know who his enemies were.