Shadow's Edge - Brent Weeks [127]
“I knew you’d say that!” she said triumphantly, almost giggling. “You said the same thing last time, remember?”
“It’s been a while,” Kylar said, his throat constricting.
“Well, I’m glad you remembered long enough to kill my father.”
Kylar blinked.
“Tell me, did you do it before or after you killed King Gunder?”
“I’m paid to kill, not to talk about it.” Gods! Her own father?
“And that’s why I can trust you. Though I will remind you that I’ve already given you money for not killing me—so you can’t do to me what I did to my father.”
“Of course not.” It took him a second to puzzle it out. She must have met Durzo when the wetboy had taken a job for her father, Duke Gordin Graesin. Perhaps Gordin had hired Durzo to kill King Davin? Duke Graesin must have thought Regnus Gyre would become king after King Davin died, thereby making Gordin’s other daughter Catrinna a queen. Logan’s mother, Catrinna Graesin, had been Terah’s half-sister, though older than Terah by almost twenty years.
“So why let Logan die?” he asked.
“Because I don’t give up things that belong to me easily, Durzo Blint. As you know.”
“Don’t you think you might want to worry about taking the throne from the Khalidorans before you worry about murdering your allies?”
“I don’t need a civics lesson. Are you interested in making money for doing nothing, or do you wish to make me your enemy? I will be queen one day, and you’ll find me an implacable foe.”
“Seven thousand crowns,” Kylar said. “How do I know you’re good for it? If the Khalidorans wipe you out, I’m not getting stiffed.”
She smiled. “Now there’s the Durzo Blint I remember.” She pulled a fat ring off her finger with an even fatter ruby in it. “Please don’t pawn it. It belonged to my father, and it’s not worth even half of the eight thousand I’ll give you for it after I take the throne. There’ll be a bonus if you bring me proof of Logan’s death.”
“Fair enough,” Kylar said.
“I foresee some of my allies becoming… problematic in the future. I’ll have other jobs for you. That is, if you haven’t lost your edge.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“When you didn’t answer my summons a month ago, I had to go elsewhere.”
“You’ll never find anyone as good as me.” That, at least, was classic Durzo Blint.
Terah Graesin licked her lips and her eyes filled with sudden hunger. Kylar didn’t recognize the look, but he didn’t like it, whatever it was. She smiled.
What is she waiting for? Me to make a pass at her? The moment passed.
“Well, then, good day,” she said in a level tone that didn’t tell Kylar whether he was right or wrong. She stepped close to him to kiss each of his cheeks. It put his real face right at level of her chest, but he was lucky. She didn’t lean close enough to touch either his real lips with her breasts or his phantom cheek with her lips. The illusion stayed intact.
As soon as she was gone, he fled. He jumped on his horse and went north out of the camp, worried that Terah might have someone watching the western exit. He shifted his disguise so that Durzo’s face was where his own was, rather than above it so that he could see the guards’ expression. The guards let him out without question, however, and when he was a mile out, he began to let down his guard. His heart was still pounding as he thought about what this meant for Logan. Even if he got his friend out of the Maw, the road ahead wouldn’t be easy. At least now he would know who his enemies were.
Kylar entered a thin stretch of trees when something whispered coolly in his mind: ~Duck.~
“What?” he said aloud.
An arrow drove through Kylar’s chest.
It rocked him back in the saddle, but his horse kept walking, oblivious. Kylar coughed blood. He’d made so many mistakes. Durzo would never have forgiven him for his carelessness. Letting down his guard, going back to the path when he’d worried someone might have been sent after him, taking his own horse rather than stealing someone else’s. It only took one mistake to get you killed, and he’d made many.
Gods, his lungs burned.
~I told you to duck.~
A shadowy form