The Burning White (Lightbringer #5) - Brent Weeks Page 0,166

y Wawr they could reach with messages to ask to join them.

Arthur made his way over to Kip. “So,” he said, “how’d it go on your end with the ambassador?”

“You did exactly what we needed,” Kip said.

“That mean I’m . . .”

“Legitimate?” Kip asked. The word had always been bladed for him, the bastard, but now it rolled out easily. “Yes, you are. They’ll need to see the treaty, of course, and there is the matter of making sure there’s a satrapy to be satrap of . . . but, yeah.”

“This is, um”—Arthur adjusted the laurel crown on his head—“really weird. With where I was just a couple days ago.”

“Uh-huh,” Kip said.

“Say, you had me and Tallach jump up out of a pit on purpose, didn’t you? Wait. You made me climb out of a pit—literally! You bastard.”

“Maybe it was just good staging for the speech,” Kip said. But he smiled.

“Maybe.”

“Also, I don’t know how you’re calling me a bastard. You used my story.”

Arthur grinned back. “Hell, like I know how to write a speech! Anyway, something something, imitation, flattery, something?”

“I should’ve been way harder on you,” Kip said. “But there’s no worse punishment I could think of than making you a satrap. Every boring meeting you have to sit through in the future, I want you to think if maybe you should’ve been nicer to me.”

“Yeah, thanks!” Arthur said with a rueful grin.

Orholam but it was good to have him back, and have him back with some of his old spirit animating him.

The big man said, “You know, I just thought of something. The thing about using a pickax with half a handle: it’s exhausting.”

“Yeah?”

“So was that your subtle way of telling me it’s exhausting to work with me?” Arthur asked.

“Dammit,” Kip said, “I was planning to hit you with that some other day when you were being a pain in the ass.”

Conn Arthur laughed.

Kip thought it was the first time he’d heard the man laugh, ever. It was a magical sound.

And for the first time in a long time, Kip thought that maybe, just maybe, they were gonna be all right.

Chapter 46

Before Teia could move, Halfcock doubled back suddenly at some sound she hadn’t heard. Teia froze from old instinct, though she was invisible and hadn’t made a sound.

A woman in her shift came to the door to say goodbye.

Probably not a prostitute, then.

Halfcock gave the woman a kiss, on the lips.

Probably not his sister, then.

And squeezed her butt.

Teia really hoped it wasn’t his sister.

Playfully, the woman tried to pull him back inside.

Teia looked away. She didn’t want to see anything approaching tenderness. She reminded herself that it was in this woman’s economic interests to feign feelings for Halfcock. A mistress is more a mummer than a lover. This woman was interested in Halfcock’s coin stick, not his meat stick.

Better?

Better, that derisive part of her that reminded her too much of Murder Sharp admitted.

Teia didn’t know what she’d expected, but the woman was neither very pretty nor very young, both of which were things Teia associated with kept women. But then again, maybe if this woman were very pretty or very young, she wouldn’t live in this neighborhood, nor be a mistress to a man like Halfcock, who had a terrible personality and—despite his skills—wasn’t wealthy. The lowest level of Blackguards were expected to be young, and their elders didn’t want them to have too much money on their hands lest they be corrupted by all those vices that the poor avoided.

Or so the old ones said, as they kept the money and the vices both for themselves.

After some words about how she’d hoped he would stay all night this time, and whispered promises Teia couldn’t overhear, Halfcock pulled away.

Teia had made the right choice. This wasn’ t—thank Orholam—a meeting of Halfcock’s cell of the Order, with this dingy house a front for a secret temple.

Well, unless that woman was in on it.

No, as far as Teia had been able to learn, members of the Order were not supposed to know one another’s identities or fraternize in any special way. Far simpler that she was his mistress, and he was supporting her himself, and she was innocent of his Order ties. Or she might be cheating on a husband, if this was just somewhere they met to make love, but she was still innocent of Halfcock’s Order ties.

Either way, not someone Teia could kill.

The conversation dragged on, and Teia sidled closer to eavesdrop.

“. . . understand . .