City of Towers_ The Dreaming Dark - Keith Baker [76]
The woman turned to face Lei, and her face was cold. It was just then that Daine noticed. Pierce had followed him, but Jode was nowhere to be seen.
Daine turned to Pierce. “Find Jode. Quickly. If you can’t, head back to the Manticore, and we’ll see you there.”
Pierce sprinted away, and Daine turned his attention back to Lei and the stranger. She was slightly younger than Lei, and there was no questioning her wealth. Her beautiful green gown was made from Zil dreamsilk, sprinkled with gold and platinum threads that recalled the patterns of the stars in the sky. A rainbow of gems adorned her golden headdress, scattering the light into a thousand shards. She was staring disdainfully at Lei, and she did not speak.
Then Lei hit her.
This was no elegant slap. Lei had been in the battlefield for years, and although she was part of the support corps, she’d been in more than one brawl. The blow caught Dasei completely by surprise. The woman staggered back, nearly knocking over a display of fine hats. A stream of blood trickled from her nose, and her eyes were full of fury. Rising again, she reached into one of her billowing sleeves and produced a crystal-tipped wand of black oak and leveled the slender rod at Lei.
Daine knew he couldn’t reach Dasei in time to stop her from releasing the spell, but he charged anyway. Better late than never.
He needn’t have worried. In the split-second it had taken Dasei to draw the wand, Lei was already in motion, spinning the darkwood staff. A low, sweeping blow caught Dasei just behind her left knee. She howled in pain and collapsed. A second blow smashed her hand and sent the wand flying. Daine snatched it out of the air and tucked it into his belt.
Lei stood over the fallen woman, the darkwood staff leveled at her throat. Surely it was a trick of the light, but it seemed to Daine that the face carved into the shaft of the staff was smiling a little wider than usual. Lei’s expression was grim.
“Lei, what are you doing?” he said.
“Stay out of this, Daine.”
Her opponent glared at Lei from the ground, clutching her bruised fingers.
“I have endured more pain in the last three days than you have in your entire life, Dasei.” Lei flicked her staff toward Dasei’s face, pulling back at the last minute. The injured woman flinched and cried out. “Perhaps it’s time to change that.”
“Lei?” said Daine, and he took a careful step forward. Was it the staff making Lei act this way? Could it have done something to her?
“I said stay out of this!” she snapped. She set the tip of her staff against Dasei’s throat. “I’m adapting. I’ll survive. But to have you—you!—not even speak to me …” She pressed on Dasei’s throat, pushing her back. “If you think I’ll put up with that, you don’t know me as well as I thought.” She drew back the staff, and the woman gasped. “Now, let’s try this again. Dasei d’Cannith, you don’t know how glad I am to see you.”
For a moment, Dasei held Lei’s gaze, and Daine could see the same fire in her eyes that he’d seen in Lei so many times before. Then it went out, and she looked down at the ground. “You shouldn’t be here, Lei. Just go.”
“And where should I go, cousin?”
“Dolurrh for all I care!” Dasei glared up at her. “You’re not my cousin anymore. You have no place in the family or Sharn.”
“I think that I can live with two of those three.” Lei’s voice was calmer, and she lowered the staff. “But I’d just as soon our final conversation didn’t end in the street.” She held out her hand. “Get up. Surely you can find it in your heart to buy a last meal for your departing cousin?”
Dasei said nothing, but she took the hand and let Lei pull her to her feet.
“Lead on,” said Lei. “As this may be my last meal with a member of House Cannith, I’ll trust to your generosity.” As Dasei led them to a waterhouse, Lei looked back at Daine. “Where are Pierce and Jode?