Kaddie and Torrell exchanged a glance as they hung up their outer garments.

  “Tea?” Marla brandished the teapot.

  Both nodded and took a seat at the table.

  As soon as the tea was poured, Robles launched straight in. “I’ve been approached by Arben Theed regarding Torrell’s employment.”

  Kaddie abruptly felt cold. Glancing across the table she saw Marla and Elspeth’s expressions. They appeared to mirror her own, and from them she drew strength. “No,” she said. “He can’t. He wouldn’t. Why are we even talking about this?” She glared at Torrell, just in case he had lost his mind and was considering it.

  He wasn’t looking at her. “He wants me to go work for him?” He was regarding Robles at the exclusion of everyone else.

  Her grandfather let out a sigh. “We could have discussed this alone, but I want the women present. I’m hoping they’ll talk some sense into both of us.”

  Kaddie stared at her grandfather in horror.

  “What’s the deal?” Elspeth asked.

  “He offered to buy out Torrell’s contract. It was quite a generous offer, too. Torrell would then move into the palace and start work on the tunnel in the ruins, and whatever else they might find.”

  “They’ll want to get their hands on it, whatever it is, before Harrow decides to return and bring reinforcements,” Torrell said. "Assuming there’s anything there in the first place.”

  Robles had a desultory sip of his tea. “The mystery of what lies beneath Terohas has been of interest for centuries, but the recent fervor is new. There are rumors coming from the capital. They’ve uncovered something there, and presumably it’s connected.”

  “You can’t just let him go.” Marla rested her elbows on the table. “Not after what happened.”

  “Precisely.” Robles raised a finger as Torrell opened his mouth to speak. “I have no wish to keep you here against your will. But we will discuss this.”

  “You want to go,” Kaddie said. “You’re actually considering it.” She stopped when she saw the look of determination on Torrell’s face. Her lips became a thin line and her voice became a whisper. “And I see you’ve already made up your mind.” She stood and pushed her stool away from the table. “If that’s so, I don’t see any point in discussing this further.”

  “You will sit back at the table, Kaddie,” Robles said. “And you will do it, now.”

  Kaddie narrowed her eyes, but nonetheless returned to her seat. She felt cornered, trapped, forced to listen while Torrell threw his life away.

  Elspeth was shaking her head. “This hobby of yours could kill you. You know that?”

  “It’s not a hobby.” Torrell’s voice had acquired a hard edge.

  Robles cleared his throat. “Actually, I thought, maybe, we can reach a compromise.”

  Kaddie and the others stared at him. She heard Torrell let out a sigh of relief, or at least, that’s how it sounded.

  “I’m sure compromise is a concept young Kaddie hasn’t encountered before, but I’ll try and explain.” Robles gave her a broad grin before continuing. “One thing we don’t need is a repeat of what happened when he was kidnapped.”

  “You have a plan?” Elspeth asked.

  “Of course I have a plan, woman. It’s thanks to my plans over the years that we’ve remained solvent and in good standing.”

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  Kaddie saw Marla rolling her eyes. If they were discussing a lighter subject she would have hidden a smile, but there were no smiles forthcoming this evening. Not when Torrell’s life hung precariously in the balance.

  “I suggest,” Robles said, “that we loan him out for a few days on a regular basis.” He regarded Torrell with solemnity. “You get to play in your beloved underworld for a day or three, then resume your duties here for another five. That way, we don’t lose sight of you.”

  “You’d allow that?” Torrell seemed genuinely surprised.

  “Would I have suggested it otherwise? Dangle it like a carrot and withdraw it at the last minute? What do you take me for?”

  Kaddie and Torrell’s eyes met and it became a battle for her to keep her mouth shut.

  “That still puts him in harms way,” Elspeth insisted.

  Robles frowned. “It does rely on Theed’s current interpretation of poisoner’s luck. He seems very set on establishing a relationship.”

  “I didn’t know we were supposed to be lucky,” Kaddie said.

  Marla chuckled. “From his point of view it’s the opposite. You don’t bite the hand that feeds you. You don’t spit in the brew that heals you.”

  For a long moment the table was silent, until Torrell said, “Let me do it.”

  Robles raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure? Theed might possess a veneer of civility but he’s still surrounded by cut throats.”

  “But if I go there willingly, we’ll all know where we stand.”

  “Good point. Well, ladies, do we allow him to walk into the villain’s den?”

  Kaddie looked at the faces around the table. Elspeth wore a frown, while her grandfather bore that steely look when he was hiding what he was thinking. Marla was patting Torrell on the shoulder. “I say yes,” she said. “He’ll be down there every chance he gets, anyway, and I think we have to be practical. A foot in the door with the Theeds might not be a bad thing. If there’s something coming behind all of this, and the more prepared we are the better.”

  Robles’ face erupted into a grin. Kaddie pushed away from the table and stood. Obviously, there was to be no more discussion, and no one would listen to what she had to say.

  On her way out of the room she heard her grandfather say, “Sit down, boy, we have more to discuss, and don’t worry, she’ll come around.” Every step up to her room from that moment on was filled with righteous fury and culminated with the slamming of her door. Fools, fools, fools!

  ##

  Light flickered below her door sill, and the accompanying knock arrived later than expected.

  “Kaddie, can I come in?”

  She sat frozen on the edge of her bed. Her mouth wouldn’t move and her fingers were tied in knots as she waited for another pause, another knock, whereupon Torrell opened the door and stepped cautiously inside.

  “How did I know you’d be sitting in the dark?” He set his lantern cautiously on the table and used it to ignite a taper. When he’d lit the lantern on her desk, he took a seat in the chair alongside it. “Look, I know you think this is a betrayal. After all you had to go through. Your face—”

  “I don’t care about my face!”

  Both lanterns were protected from stray breezes. Their light flickered, nonetheless. Torrell waited for the flames to stop dancing. “Do you understand why I’m doing this?”

  She stared at him and remained silent.

  “Give me your left hand,” he said.

  “Why?”

  “Just give it to me.”

  Her fingers were like claws as she reached out, having been curled into fists for so long. He turned her wrist until the palm faced upward, and gently he pushed back the cuff of her sleeve.

  “Marla told me how you got these marks.”

  “So?” She wrenched her hand away. “What do they have to do with anything?”

  “They’re snakebites, and she said—”

  “Marla ought to mind her own business. This was research, to determine the anti-venoms.”

  “You still put yourself in danger. Don’t you see? What I’m doing is no different.”

  “Of course it’s different. Tunnels full of stupid stones?”

  He let out a sigh and leaned back in his chair. She saw the sharp angles of his profile as he looked out of the window. He looked miserable, and for a while neither of them spoke.

  “I don’t want you to be angry with me,” he said eventually.

  “How am I supposed to feel after what happened? Everyone keeps talking about my eye, but you were beaten up, too. Don’t think I didn’t see it.”

  “It won’t be like that, this time.”

  After another interminable pause, “Have you been keeping up with Mr. Kanter’s lessons?”

  He smiled. “Maybe. And Coglan has been showing me and Pick a thing or two.”

  “How to snap Tenadas and Breso in two, one should hope.”

  He reached for her hand again which, reluctantly, she allowed. “So, you’re not angry with me?”

  “Don’t push it, Torrell Voldan.”

  “I’ll be careful.”

  “You’d better.”

  He let go and stood, and planted a gentle kiss on her forehead. And when he’d collected his lantern and left the room she spent a long time staring ahead at nothing while she rummaged through her thoughts.

  Was she mad at him because she was worried about his safety, or was it because she might lose him? What if those three days stretched into four, and then five? What if the day arrived when he didn’t come back at all and she’d never see him again?

  Other than feel selfish and wretched, she didn’t really know why it was hurting so much. Until she recognized an odd sensation in her insides, like the time she’d looked in the mirror and had finally acknowledged that her eye had gone, and she’d felt extremely sad.