"It was you, wasn't it?" Hailona suddenly said. "Outside in the street. Who killed all of those soldiers. I told you it was a powder mage," she said to her brother-in-law.
"I only saw a shadow," Demasolin said. The tip of his sword wavered.
"It was I," Tamas said. "Do you want a demonstration?"
"I don't take well to threats, old man."
Tamas examined Demasolin. Muscles taut, ready to lunge. His bearing, confidence, and stance all said that he was a gifted swordsman.
A young woman suddenly burst through the door. She wore her hair up, a greatcoat over her shoulders, and Tamas could sense two pistols under the coat. "Ma'am," she said, with only one quick glance at the two men pointing their swords at each other, "there are soldiers in the street."
"Put your swords up!" Hailona hissed at Tamas and Demasolin. To the young woman, she said, "How many?"
"Eight, ma'am, but … "
"What is it?"
"They're all dead, ma'am. Freshly dead."
Hailona looked at Tamas.
Tamas shrugged. "I only killed the ones chasing you."
There was a low knock on the glass door to the portico. Everyone looked that way. From Tamas's position he could see Vlora. She was carrying something large. He gestured her in.
She kicked the door open and swung through, tossing a body to the observatory floor with a thump. "This might answer your questions," she said.
"One of my captains," Tamas said by way of introduction. "Vlora, meet Lady Hailona, former governor of Alvation."
Vlora spared Hailona a look. "Taniel told me about her. One of your past lovers. She was pretty back then, wasn't she?"
Hailona gasped. Tamas groaned. Demasolin spun toward Tamas.
"Field Marshal Tamas," Demasolin roared. "On guard, you dog!"
He leapt at Tamas with startling speed. Tamas was barely able to bring the point of his sword up in time. Immediately on the retreat, he parried twice and danced backward. He could feel his leg protest in sudden agony when he twisted away from a particularly savage thrust.
Tamas was suddenly falling. He landed on his ass, crashing into a potted plant and knocking it over. He kept his sword up in a defensive position as Demasolin pressed forward.
A pistol fired, bringing Demasolin up short. Tamas stared at the tip of Demasolin's sword, barely able to register how fast the man moved. It was like fighting a Warden, with all their speed and none of their clumsiness.
Vlora held a smoking pistol pointed at the ceiling in one hand. In the other, a loaded pistol aimed at Demasolin. Plaster drifted down from the ceiling. "Stop," she said. "Drop the sword. I won't miss."
Demasolin looked once at Vlora, then once at Tamas, lying as he was at a disadvantage on the ground. Tamas tried not to let his pain reach his eyes.
Show no weakness.
Demasolin threw his sword to the floor with a snort of disgust.
Tamas heard several sets of footsteps in the hallway outside. Faces appeared at the door. Swords and pistols were drawn. Vlora kept her pistol trained on Demasolin.
Hailona made a calming gesture with both hands. To the people at the door, she said, "Everything is fine here. Prepare to leave. We have to get out of the manor."
Vlora nudged the body at her feet with one toe. It was a man in an Adran coat, with brown hair and a mustache. He was alive, his eyes wide, looking at Vlora in fear. "This one can answer some questions," Vlora said.
Demasolin crossed the room and grabbed the front of the man's coat with both hands, pulling him into a sitting position on the floor. The soldier's hands had been tied with his own belt.
"Why are his boots missing?" Demasolin said.
Vlora lowered her pistol. "Less willing to run if he doesn't have boots."
Tamas slowly climbed to his feet while the attention was away from him. He couldn't tell which hurt more – his leg or his pride. Too old for this. He tested the leg gently. It seemed to take weight. A momentary bout of weakness? He better not risk it.
He sheathed his sword and limped to the large desk in the middle of the room so he'd have something to lean on. Hailona watching him. Her eyes held something between suspicion and fear.
"Who," Demasolin demanded of the prisoner, "are you?"
The man's eyes remained wide as they flitted between the unfriendly faces in the room. He remained silent.
Demasolin shook him by the front of his coat and switched from Deliv to Adran. "Who are you? Speak, now!"
Nothing.
Demasolin slapped the soldier, openhanded. The soldier suddenly struggled, grappling with Demasolin, trying to throw him off, only to stop immediately when Vlora set the barrel of her pistol against his neck.
Vlora leaned over the soldier. In Kez, she said, "Do you understand me?" It was a soft tone, almost seductive, and Tamas wouldn't have heard it if he wasn't in a powder trance still.
The soldier nodded.
"Do you value your life?"
He nodded emphatically.
"Darling, if you want to live through the night, you'll answer the good man's questions. If not … " She gently rubbed the end of the pistol barrel against the soldier's neck.
Again with the tone, almost seductive. It was a side of Vlora Tamas had not seen before.
"I … I am Galhof of Adopest. Adran soldier," the man said in Adran. His accent was thick, the words broken.
"Try again," Vlora said in Kez. She hadn't stopped caressing the soldier's neck with her pistol. "You'll either have to get a better Adran accent or develop a sudden immunity to bullets."
The soldier's eyes almost seemed to bulge out of his head as he tried to look at the pistol touching his neck without turning his head. He cleared his throat. "My name is Galhof," he said in Kez, "but … I am a Kez soldier."
"What are you doing in Alvation?" Demasolin asked. "What are your orders?"
"We're to take the Mountainwatch above the city."
"Why the ruse, then? Why the Adran coats?"
"Don't know, sir," Galhof said. "I'm just a soldier."
Tamas didn't have time for this. "Guess," he growled.
"So that Deliv blames Adro for the attack."
"But," Hailona spoke up suddenly, "how did they expect the ruse to hold? There are already suspicions." She shot a glance at Demasolin. "I've been saying for a week I thought you were Kez."
The soldier looked around the room again as if seeking allies. He said nothing.
Tamas felt a sudden dread in the pit of his stomach. It grew heavier as certainty within him grew. When he spoke, it came out a croak. "They plan on putting Alvation to the torch. Oh, pit. All of it. They're going to burn it all, kill every man, woman, and child. They'll leave behind just enough evidence to condemn Adro. By the time anyone has stopped to think about it, Deliv will already be at war with Adro."
"Not even the Kez would stoop to that," Demasolin said.
Tamas was certain now. "The man in command of this army is a monster."
"Who?"
"Duke Nikslaus. The king's favorite Privileged. He'll stop at nothing to win this war."
"I know that name," Hailona said softly.
Tamas shot her a warning glance. Now was not the time to bring up his history with Nikslaus.
Ruper suddenly appeared in the doorway again. "Ma'am," he said, "we have to go. The lookout has spotted soldiers coming down the main street. Over a hundred of them. We have to go now."
"The wounded?" Hailona asked.
"We'll have to carry them, or leave them for the Adrans."
"They're not Adrans," Hailona said. "They are Kez. Quickly now. Get everyone to the cellar. We'll take the old passage across the street to Wyn Manor and go to Millertown."
The butler didn't even blink at the correction. "Very good, ma'am." Ruper disappeared again.
Demasolin retrieved his sword from the floor and stopped beside Tamas. "We're not done, old man," he said, sliding it into its sheath with a click. "They call you a savior in the Adran papers. I name you a butcher and a traitor to your own crown."
"I'm all of them," Tamas said with a shrug.
Demasolin seemed taken aback by that. He strode from the room.
Tamas looked over at the Kez soldier. "He knows where we're going," he said.
"Right," Vlora said. She grabbed the soldier by the back of the neck and forced him outside.
Haliona put a hand to her mouth. "That man … "
A shot rang out on the porch.
"A soldier's lot in life is to die for his country," Tamas said.
"He was our prisoner."
"He's spent the last couple of weeks terrorizing your city, along with his countrymen. Justice must fall swiftly, or it might not fall at all."
"Is that what you said about the Adran nobility when you sent them to the guillotine?"
"Yes."
"You always said you were a soldier," Hailona said. Her voice was accusing. "Do you accept your own death as inevitable?"
Tamas leaned over to rub his leg. "Death is always inevitable. I gave up on the idea I'd die surrounded by my grandchildren earlier this year." He couldn't help but look toward the door Vlora had just left by. His thoughts leapt to Taniel. Was he alive? Had he come out of the coma? So far away. Nothing Tamas could do. "One day," he said, "I'll die for my country. I'd rather it be on the battlefield than at the hands of a Kez headsman."