“The tunnels?”
“Exactly. I had all but one blocked off – hoping it would take them a while to figure out which one. Those tunnels are built for defence, but I can’t spare any more men than it takes to hold that one. As far as we can make out – Pasha’s been listening to what he can for me – they don’t know which it is yet, so you should be able to get right up to their camp without them seeing you. If you’re careful.”
“OK, that’s good, we’ll —”
“Take someone with you.”
“What?”
“You’ll take someone with you. As Pasha has pointed out, Dench knows you both very well, knows what you’re capable of. He’s bound to try something on the tunnels anyway – an obvious weak point if you know where they are, and he does, or at least some of them. So, take one of your young mages. One whose abilities he won’t know. Allit perhaps?”
“Perak, he’s thirteen. He’s a good lad, but he’s not ready for that. I’m not ready for it.”
“It was your idea.”
“That doesn’t mean I like it. Look, I’m not taking a kid out there, not Allit, he’s got enough on his plate right now. All right?”
“What were you doing at thirteen, Rojan?” Perak looked all artful, like he was trying to get one over one me.
“Trying not to blow myself up with magic I didn’t know how to use!”
“All right then, who else have you got? Because you need some edge, or you aren’t going.”
“I’ll go.” Jake’s voice was soft but determined, as was she, by the look on her face. “You’re going to need someone.”
“No,” Pasha said quickly, too quickly. He looked paler than ever and I thought back to what Allit had seen, which Pasha had never really outlined in detail except that Dench got hold of Jake. “No, you can’t.”
She raised a cool eyebrow his way and there seemed to be some sort of silent argument going on. Pasha didn’t look to be winning either, if the way his face screwed up was anything to go by, until Perak interrupted smoothly.
“Jake, I’m going to need you here with me now. Don’t worry, I’ll send a few men to help them, guard the tunnel at their back. Besides, Dench will expect you, be prepared for you. But we need someone else, someone they won’t know.”
Jake looked about to protest – her hands, as always when threatened, went straight to the hilts of her swords – but it seemed Pasha made some last silent plea and she subsided with bad grace.
“Any ideas?” Perak dropped artlessly into the lull.
I clammed up – no way was I going to volunteer anyone for this. That would make me responsible, so I kept my fat mouth shut for a change. It didn’t matter, because a relieved Pasha was ticking off the nos on one hand and the possible yeses on the other.
“I think the most likely is Halina. She’s smart, she’s got a handle on her magic, as she showed on our last jaunt down there, and I think levitation would be a handy thing to have in our bag of tricks. Most of the rest are too young, or too volatile.”
“Yes,” Perak said. “Only, um, well, I hesitate to send a lady. I mean, we all hear what soldiers are like, and if they catch you —”
“We’ll be dead, Perak. Once you’re dead, gender doesn’t really matter, don’t you think?”
“Yes, but…”
Next to him, Jake shifted. A hand on a sword, a jingle of the buckles that held her breastplate on, a half-smile that was anything but friendly. Subtle but unmistakable. A reminder that actually, Perak, you have a lady as head of your guard and she could beat the snot out of anyone in this room and I bet you wouldn’t stop her now would you? Or perhaps you might try, but you’d probably lose an appendage or two, besides which hadn’t you already sent her into the tunnels? Hadn’t she come back safe?
“Well, yes, Jake.” Perak answered the unspoken statement. “I know, and I know you went down the tunnel, but that was you, who knows one end of a sword from the other and is more than happy to use them. Not some girl who… I don’t think of you as fem – I just hesitate… Look, Pasha, do you think she’s the most capable? OK, how about we ask her?”
So we did, and Halina almost bit Perak’s hand off in her haste to accept.
After a long and tedious discussion, Perak came to a difficult decision.
“Tonight,” he said firmly, with a glare to the most vocal cardinal, who’d tried to make everyone go, right now damn it, before the Storad invaded his personal estate. An extra-special glint to the cardinal’s argument had seemed to intimate that if any mages died, that would count as a win-win situation. And this was one of the better cardinals. At least the bold one who wanted to hand me over to save his skin was conspicuous by his absence.