The Burning White (Lightbringer #5) - Brent Weeks Page 0,202

anything, I swear.”

“I know,” Kip said. “This was going to come up sooner or later.”

“We’re heading back to the Chromeria with purely good intentions,” Cruxer said. “But men with impure eyes see dirt everywhere they look. We’re headed for two kinds of fights, aren’t we? And one of ’em isn’t the kind where we can save you.”

Kip looked from face to face: these boys he’d watched become men. He said, “I didn’t know who he was then, but High General Corvan Danavis half raised me, and he used to say politics are more dangerous than sharks or sea demons. We have to be ready to make sacrifices,” Kip said. “That doesn’t just mean you. It means me, too.”

“If we go back, Zymun will kill you,” Cruxer said.

“Nah,” Kip said with a wink. “My grandfather will kill me first.”

Chapter 58

“I will have my vengeance, Ravi.”

“Shh, no names, no names!” the man whispered.

Though she was nearly dozing behind a curtain, Teia’s ears pricked up immediately.

“In my own home?” Lady Aglaia Crassos scoffed.

Teia had been following Lady Crassos for days now. She’d learned all sorts of things about her, from her numerous lovers to her far more numerous business associates. The last few years had been disastrous for the Crassos family, starting with the death of Aglaia’s brother at Gavin Guile’s hands, so Aglaia had been cobbling together allies and coin in ways she’d never paid attention to earlier in her life. Teia couldn’t even tell where the lines between lovers, business associates, and political allies might be drawn, either.

She’d made no secret of her hatred for the Guiles, though.

Which might have been why some of the men who met with Aglaia wanted to do so privately.

Teia had endangered herself unnecessarily at first, when she’d presumed a furtive little banker who was meeting with Aglaia must be in the Order. That had been merely an assignation: the man was married, and the only conspiracy he seemed to be part of was disguising the true extent of his fees from his clients.

So Teia tried not to get too excited as she drafted paryl once more—when was she going to go wight on this stuff? She’d been using so much!—and peeked out.

Aglaia was checking the jewels glued to her fingernails. “I only joined your little club to get vengeance on the Guiles, Ravi. And I want that magnificent asshole Murder Sharp to serve me. I want him to be the one who does it, and I want him to know he’s serving me. Where is he? How do I hire him?”

Oh, so that was why Aglaia had been screwing a banker. She was angling for a future loan.

But Teia was only trying to feel matter-of-fact. This was her lead!

Ravi was a little beaver-faced man who fretted with his hat. “It doesn’t work like that, and don’t let them see you with that attitude. I’ll . . . I’ll speak with the priest on your behalf.”

“The high priest, and I’ll speak to him myself.”

“I have no idea who that is!” Ravi said.

“Fine, then, the priest. Which one is he?” Horse-faced though she was, with her perfect braided blond hair and her tiny vest worked with coins, Aglaia could be attractive, Teia had to admit, and Ravi had certainly noticed her cleavage and the familiarity of her wearing house clothes in front of him.

He made a pained noise. “It doesn’t work that way, really. Even I’m not supposed to know who he is, and I’ve been in the Order for three years. Each priest has several congregations and they’re always very, very careful.”

“If you figured it out, then I would have, too, within a few more weeks. I won’t tattle on you, Ravi . . . sweetest.”

“A little fear is appropriate. These people aren’t safe.”

She leaned forward, clasping her hands and making the most of her cleavage, and did she pout her lips just a little? Regardless, she waited until Ravi’s eyes flicked down to her breasts, which only made it more withering when she said, “Get some stones, dear man. We are these people now.”

His jaw twitched with momentary indignation, but then Teia saw that he was the small kind of man who, when insulted, tried to prove he didn’t deserve the insult. “I suppose . . . maybe they’ll forget that I was the one who brought you in. He’s of medium height, thin . . .” He seemed to lose his nerve and stopped.

“We’re masked and robed, Ravi. You’ve described half of them.”

He gulped.