Street Magic - By Tamora Pierce Page 0,45

what you want. This isn't that time," Briar retorted. Then he bit his lip. I open my mouth and Rosethorn pops out, he thought ruefully. Next thing you know, I'll threaten to hang her in the well. "Close your eyes," he told Evvy firmly.

The lady nibbled a fig as she eyed Orlana. "You tried to seize the girl yesterday," she remarked. "You were burned for your pains, and you fled without taking her."

Orlana, her nose raw, her eyes bloodshot and puffy, her breath still rattling in her chest, nodded sullenly. She should have ignored her orders to report to the lady if anything happened. Ikrum wouldn't have made her come here – he was half-terrified of the woman as it was.

"And now you say you left your watcher's post because of flowers. "The lady's fingers hovered over a second fig.

"You make it sound like a little thing!" Orlana cried. "I couldn't breathe, it was so bad!" Silently she cursed Ikrum in Shaihun's name. The desert winds should scrape him to the bone for having brought the lady into their lives.

"I am sure you thought the inconvenience was serious." The lady surveyed Orlana from top to toe. "And this pahan told you that it was necessary to court the stone mage?"

"For other gangs. He says he doesn't want Vipers courting her at all." She was thirsty, but there was no point to asking for something to drink. The lady would never permit a thukdak to handle her cups.

The lady inspected one of her many rings. "The courtship need not come from Vipers," she murmured. "As for your tale of giant roses – though I have warned you all that drugs will only keep you in the gutter, it is clear that you at least did not pay heed. Your tale is simply an excuse for drug intoxication, and I refuse to accept it."

"I don't care if you do or not, takameri" Orlana spat, fed up. "I wasn't taking drugs and that's what happened. Who are you to go questioning me and what I say? You never gave your blood to the gang. You never gave up family for the gang. You – "

The lady raised a finger. The mute walked out of the gallery and dropped his bowstring over Orlana's head, twisting it deftly. Orlana, fighting wildly, tried to get her fingers under it and failed.

As the mute stepped away from her corpse, the lady beckoned to one of the other galleries on the edges of the garden. Her armsmaster Ubayid came out of the dark room where he'd been waiting and listening. When he was close enough, he knelt on the garden flagstones and bowed his head to her.

Where the mute was big and rounded with fat, Ubayid was rawhide lean and wiry. He wore his black and silver hair combed strictly back, tightly braided. His skin was brown and weathered from hours in the sun. A long mustache framed the top and sides of a thin-lipped mouth; his cheeks were clean-shaven. His lower eyelids sagged a little, giving an emotionless expression to his brown eyes. He wore the clothes of a free man of the city – loose shirt, sleeveless over-robe, baggy trousers, boots, sash – plus a sword on his left and a long dagger on his right. He had been one of her first husband's guards, but had chosen to make her interests his own.

"Find Ikrum Fazhal and tell him to report to me immediately," the lady ordered. "Then ask questions about this eknub pahan. Discover where he goes. I desire to make his acquaintance, but subtly. If courtship will pry the girl from him, I shall court them, within limits. I like servants to appreciate their value. Since this pahan has made himself her friend, I shall make the pahan look upon me with favor."

As the mute slung the dead girl over his shoulder and took her away, Ubayid looked at the mess he had left. "If you keep killing them, lady, you won't have a gang left."

Her eyes widened with fury. "I give you too much license, Ubayid. They will stop offending me, and I will no longer have to punish them. These urchins simply need to learn I will not accept failure."

When Ikrum arrived, he was brought to the lady's sitting room, not the garden. The servants had not yet finished retiling the spot where Orlana had died. The lady heard the boy arrive, but did not look up from her book until well