Sweep of the Blade (Innkeeper Chronicles #4) - Ilona Andrews Page 0,64

to Arland but had no status. If anything, her presence would only provoke.

Maud tapped her crest. The thin stalk of a communicator slid from her armor and split in two. One tendril reached into her ear, the other to her mouth. The crest pulsed with white light, letting her know the camera was activated.

“Arland?”

There was a slight pause, then he answered. “Here.”

“Tap into my feed.”

There was another tiny pause. Suykon said something. The vampire next to him laughed. Maud picked up speed.

The lees screeched, the sharpness in her voice making her sound like a pissed off squirrel.

Arland’s crisp voice spoke into her ear piece. “Backup is on the way.”

Her harbinger chimed, announcing an incoming message. Maud tapped it. A contract that made her an official retainer of House Krahr. She scrolled, spot searching for the right words.

… military service, to be performed as is deemed necessary by the Marshal…

He’d just hired her, giving her the same authority as any knight of the House.

“Accept,” she said.

Dizziness punched her as her updated crest interfaced with the armor. It only took a moment. Arland must’ve preloaded the House interface onto the crest before he’d given it to her and now it was activated.

Her crest flashed with red. A third tendril sprouted from the stalk, projecting a screen over her left eye. On it the icon of House Krahr glowed dimly in the far corner. Next to it, another icon, a tiny banner, waited.

This man. For this man, she would put up with Ilemina. He was worth it.

Maud marched into the clearing. Her eyepiece tagged the lees, displaying her name above her head in pale letters. Nuan Tooki. The tachi was Ke’Lek.

“Behold, a human comes!” a dark-haired vampire declared. Her eyepiece tagged him with a name. Lord Kurr. Now that she was a retainer, the internal files were at her fingertips.

Nuan Tooki ducked behind her, stuck her paw-hands into the pockets of her apron, and came out with a handful of darts in her left hand and a small dagger in her right. Monomolecular edge on both, likely poisoned.

Ke’Lek’s color darkened slightly, but only a shade, a barely perceptible green.

Suykon smiled.

Maud moved in front of the tachi, looked at the banner icon and deliberately blinked to activate it.

The crest tolled like a bell. A bright red spark blinked on her left shoulder, projecting a holographic image of the banner of House Krahr. She gripped her blood sword and it whined in her hand as red light dashed through it, priming the weapon.

The banner glowed slightly brighter.

“And what have we here?” Suykon asked. “Adorable, is she not?”

Anything she said would give them an opportunity to claim she provoked them. Any word would be presented as an insult and used as a pretext for violence. She simply said nothing.

“Are you mute, human?”

Maud waited.

Suykon’s eyes narrowed. “Lord Kurr.”

“Yes?” the dark-haired knight asked.

“I think our lady is in distress. Look at her being menaced by those two outsiders. You should go and rescue her.”

The tachi moved forward.

Maud activated the banner again. Her crest projected a red line onto the ground and tossed the prewritten warning onto her eyepiece. She read it. “You are guests of House Krahr in the presence of a knight of House Krahr. Any violence against other guests of House Krahr will be met with immediate retribution. Cross this line and die.”

Ke’Lek clicked his mouth in disappointment and stepped back. The line cut both ways.

Lord Kurr chuckled.

Her eyepiece scanned him, highlighting a long, slightly glossy streak on the left side of his armor. A recent patch job, and not a very good one. Patching armor was as much of an art as science, and it took a light touch. He’d been heavy-handed with the tools. He should’ve let someone who knew what they were doing repair it, but armor maintenance was a point of pride. It was a small target, less than a quarter of an inch wide. She would’ve missed it without the eyepiece.

“This is the only warning you will receive.”

“My fair maiden,” Kurr roared, pulling out a massive blood sword. “I shall rescue you.”

I can’t wait.

Kurr charged.

The moment his foot crossed the line, she dropped to one knee. His blade slid over her shoulder, screeching against her armor. She thrust her sword into the patch and twisted. The armor cracked with an audible snap. The nanothreads contracted, ripping themselves apart.

She freed her blade, pushed to her feet, and hammered a kick into Kurr’s exposed side. The impact knocked him back over the line.