Mistress of the Night - Don Bassingthwaite [12]
In one corner of the Mantle's terrace, the laughter of a cluster of young men and women trailed away into barely-restrained silence. Keph Thingoleir watched as one of their number-a golden-haired half-elf lass in a sleeveless jerkin of black leather-rose from the table and swaggered with predatory grace toward the bar. Her route took her past his table and the young man watched her carefully.
She swung her hips sharply as she passed.
Keph grabbed for the goblet and pitcher on the table-top, but the woman's hips were faster than his hands. He rescued the half-full pitcher, but the goblet, entirely full, rocked, wobbled, then fell over. Deep red wine splashed across the wood. Keph leaped to his feet and away from the flooding wine with a curse.
The half-elf smiled at him as her friends snickered.
"Spilled your drink, Keph?" she teased. "That was clumsy of you."
At the tables around the pair, patrons glanced at each other, then grabbed their drinks and scrambled away. Keph brushed light brown hair out of his face and set the pitcher down.
"Buy me another, Lyraene," he hissed through clenched teeth, "and I'll pretend this didn't happen."
"Pretend what didn't happen?" asked Lyraene. "This?" She reached down and grabbed the edge of the table, swiftly lifting it.
Before he could snatch it up again, the pitcher toppled over, adding to the cascade of wine that came rushing toward him. He danced back, but not quickly enough. Wine poured across his boots and trousers. He drew a sharp breath and his hand darted toward the hilt of the slim rapier he wore on his hip. He stopped it just in time.
Of all the nights for Lyraene to pick a fight, he cursed silently. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but if it was, misfortune had wrapped her ivory arms around him. He forced his hand back to his side. Under the whiskers of his goatee, his lips pressed hard together.
Lyraene's smile turned into a sneer. She let go of the table. It dropped back down with a solid thud.
"Damn, Keph, you are having a bad day, aren't you?" she said. "What's the matter? City guard pick you up while they were looking for your big friend, Jarull? Your papa have to come bail his youngest son out of jail-again?
Papa tell you this was absolutely the last time he'd do it?" She smacked her forehead. "Oh, wait. That's exactly what happened."
No coincidence. Damn it. Keph glanced past Lyraene to her table of cronies. They were all watching eagerly. He groaned. They all knew, of course. And if they all knew…
Obey Strasus Thingoleir's ultimatum or rescue his own dignity? There wasn't really any choice.
Cursing his father and Lyraene equally, Keph twisted his glower into a sneer to match the half-elf s. "Now where could you have heard about that?" he asked her lightly. "Oh, wait." He smacked his forehead. "Your brother's on the city guard. Oh, wait." He smacked his head again. "Your fea(f-brother. Shame your mother was already married when she met your pointy-eared father."
Lyraene's breath hissed out between her teeth. Keph caught an ugly murmur from her friends. Lyraene, however, ignored them.
"At least I got something from my father," she said.
Without taking her eyes from Keph's, she reached across her body and drew her sword. All around them, patrons flinched back. Keph didn't move. Lyraene's posture was all wrong for an attack-the half-elf had something else in mind.
She held the rapier horizontally in front of her body and uttered a word of magic, then stroked her left hand along the blade. Where her fingers passed, light clung to the metal.
"Son of two wizards," she hissed. "Brother of two more. But you can't do that, can you, Keph? You've got no magic."
Hot blood rushed to Keph's face and roared in his ears. "Maybe I don't, Lyraene," he said, stepping around the table. "But being able to cast a cantrip that my eight-year-old niece has mastered isn't especially impressive either. Now this-"
His rapier slid from his scabbard with a pure, ringing whisper. He held it up before himself, vertically, turning it so it caught the meager light