chin to indicate the metal guards strapped to Rune’s arms.
“Oh, no,” he said happily. Raising them up a little, he flipped his arms both ways, so she could see either side. “Just fine.”
She still felt a bit bemused that the guards and a few random daggers were his only weapons. After seeing the multitude of weapons Fei carried around, or the long swords that most of the men in the guild favored, she would have thought that just two long hand guards would put Rune at a severe disadvantage. But after seeing him fight on par with Fei, she would have to put that idea to rest. Perhaps he had been called “Bloodless” because he chose to break bones over shedding blood? His hand-to-hand combat skills made her think so.
Shrugging, she let it go and went back inside to get dressed and start the day. After having the light scared right out of her, she didn’t feel like snoozing for a few more minutes.
As she went about cooking breakfast and nudging people awake—cautiously, in Tran, Conli and Sylvie’s cases—Siobhan kept a weather eye on Wolf and Rune. Despite standing on guard with each other for three hours last night, they didn’t seem to be on better terms. Not that she had expected them to bond or anything, but it would be nice if they stopped eyeing each other like two yard dogs after the same bone.
Breakfast happened without mishap, and Siobhan sat down to write a very carefully worded note to any karl of Silent Order asking for a meeting. Markl actually stepped in and helped her write most of it. He was far better at crafting words than she.
She rolled the letter in on itself and stuffed it into a carrier tube, which she handed over to Fei. Both he and Rune stood just in front of the porch, fully ready to go. Fei took it from her and slipped it into an inside pocket in his jacket before he refastened it.
“I know it’s a long way for a day trip,” she told them both, feeling uneasy about sending two men into that huge city. “But try to make it back tonight. If I don’t hear from you by noon tomorrow, I’m coming in after you.”
“We’ll be back tonight,” Rune assured her. “This won’t take long.”
She certainly hoped not. “Be safe.”
Fei gave her a nod and a casual salute before spinning on his heels and heading off at a ground-eating trot. Rune gave a cheery “Bye!” before following at Fei’s heels, a noticeable bounce in his step.
“It’s almost like two young boys going out on a fishing trip,” she muttered to herself. Where was their sense of danger?
“While we wait, what to do?” Tran asked from the doorway.
“Let’s talk to Lirah,” Siobhan suggested. “I think we need to make some contingency plans in case I’m making some bad assumptions.”
Time could, under the wrong circumstances, creep by like an old man with a broken cane.
Siobhan went through the motions, doing everything that she should be doing, but she always had one eye on the sky, marking the sun’s position. She spoke with Lirah at length about what they should do if it turned out Iron Dragain really had betrayed them. She helped Conli in changing out the bandages on Lirah’s men, which was harder than she expected it to be. Siobhan was no novice when it came to wounds but these were horribly inflicted, and after seeing the damage with her own eyes, she felt it was a miracle direct from the gods that they hadn’t lost anyone. Through blood loss, if nothing else.
But when evening came, she ran out of things to do. The injured were cared for, the plans were made, the evening meal cooked and cleaned up. To keep from openly fidgeting, Siobhan fell to Tran and Wolf’s habit of sitting on the front porch, her legs dangling over the edge, slowly sharpening both of her swords.
“We’re back!” Rune greeted, voice loud and cheerful in this still evening air.
Siobhan jumped so badly that she nearly sliced her thumb off on her own sword. “Rune! Great wind and stars, don’t do that! You nearly gave me heart failure!”
The ex-assassin popped his head over the edge of the roof so that he could look down at her. She glared up at him. (And just when had he gotten up there anyway?!) “I thought ya wanted us to come back quickly?”
“Appear normally,” she scolded. “That’s all I’m asking.”