“Consider it done,” Sara said. “But what are you going to do about Etmon? He’ll only muck things up if you leave him to run loose.”
“I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that,” Tesset said, glancing out the crashed window. “Look.”
Across the city, the Spirit Court’s tower was moving. The white stone walls, clearly visible even at this distance, rippled like water. Windows vanished beneath a wave of stone, and the great red doors of the Tower fell like trees as they watched, crashing to the ground as the entrances they guarded vanished beneath a wall of stone. One by one, every escape to the outside world vanished beneath the rippling white stone until the Tower was completely sealed, an impenetrable, unblemished spire of pure white.
“Well,” Sara said softly. “I suppose that takes care of that.”
“What was that?” Whitefall said.
Sara held out her hand and Tesset handed her her pipe. “Banage’s sealed the Tower,” she said, tapping a measure of fresh tobacco into the bowl. “Took his toys and went home. Typical.” She made a scornful face as she lit her pipe and took a long draw. “If you’re done with me, Alber, I’m going to get those messages out before Banage can convince the Spiritualists they’re being persecuted. The last thing we need is a bunch of self-righteous wizards fighting us instead of the Empress.”
Whitefall nodded, still staring. Sara turned on her heel and marched out of the room. Tesset fell into step behind her, still smiling. Whitefall watched the sealed Tower a moment longer, and then, shaking his head, he walked to the door and called the servants in to start cleaning up the mess Banage had made of his hearing chamber.
CHAPTER
6
Five hours after their failed frontal assault, Eli had everything he needed to get them into the castle. Business finished, they were now sitting at a tucked away table in one of the large inns overlooking the palace square, washed, dressed, fed, and killing the last hour before the guard change with a few hands of Daggerback. Josef was winning, which might have been the only reason he was still at the table.
“I don’t understand why you wasted your money,” Josef grumbled, picking up his cards as fast as Eli dealt them. “There’s no point. I told you, we’re just going to leave.”
Eli pursed his lips as he turned over his bid card, a knight. “It wasn’t a waste,” he said. “We have to look at you, too, you know. And the guard was right. You were starting to come off a bit terrifying.”
Josef made a harrumphing noise, and Eli grinned. Despite the swordsman’s scowl, he was looking very well. They’d found a barber to cut his hair and give him a proper shave, and while nothing could be done about his scars, Josef had looked almost civilized when he got out of the chair. Eli had also bought him a new shirt, a white one, with no bloodstains or suspicious holes, as well as some nonpatched trousers. Small changes, really, but the overall effect was a wonder. With a pressed shirt, blond hair cut short and neat, and his chin shaved clean, Eli could almost believe that the man sitting across the table really was a prince. Provided, of course, he looked past the belts of blades Josef refused to take off.
“Five to open,” Eli said, tossing his coins on the table. “Stop complaining, you look lovely. Nico thinks so, too. Don’t you, Nico?”
Nico jumped and peeked over her cards. “He looks nice,” she said, placing her ante next to Eli’s. “But he looked nice before, too.”
Josef gave Eli a “there, you see” smirk as he dropped his money onto the pile.
“There’s nice that’s fit for gutting people and nice that’s fit for palaces,” Eli said pointedly. “Besides, boys shouldn’t visit their mothers in shirts that have stab holes, or with hair that looks like he cuts it with a throwing knife.”
“Skinning knife,” Josef corrected. “I use my skinning knife.”
“Moving on,” Eli said. “We are all agreed that you look quite well now. Looking well is universally useful, so the money wasn’t wasted. I bet two.”
Josef slapped two coins on the table without looking up. “Match.”
Nico glanced at Josef, then at Eli. “Fold.”
“One down,” Eli said, grinning as Nico lay her cards on the table. “Two again.”
Josef matched his bet with a nasty look. They went back and forth for another minute, trading coins until the pile was quite impressive. Finally, Eli called it, and they showed their hands. Josef won with a pair of kings. He scooped up the money with a satisfied smile while Eli watched glumly. When it was all gone, the thief stood with a resigned sigh.