Stone of Tears

“Sure.” Richard led a giddy Perry toward the bedroom. “If that is what you would like, take it. I’m glad someone will enjoy wearing the red coat.”

Perry sorted through the wardrobe, looking for a pair of pants and a shirt he thought would look dashing.

“I saw Sister Liliana leaving your room, just before I came.” He pulled out a ruffled, white shirt. “she one of your teachers?”

“Yes. I like her. She’s the nicest of the lot.”

Perry held up the shirt in front of himself. “How does this look on me?”

“Better than on me. You know Liliana?”

“Not really. She just always gave me the shivers. Those strange eyes of hers.”

Richard thought about Liliana’s pale, pale blue eyes shot through with violet flecks. He shrugged. “I thought they were strange, too, at first. But she’s so bubbly and friendly that I don’t even notice them anymore. She has such a warm smile that it’s hard to see anything else.”

She considered the captain standing before her desk. He was asking an outrageous price. But then, what was the Palace’s gold to her? Before it was missed, she would be gone.

As she had feared, the boy was proving troublesome to tame. It was becoming important to cultivate other options. There were other ways of seeing to the Keeper’s wishes, other ways of keeping her oath.

“I agree to your price. In fact, I double it, just to insure your loyalty.”

She pushed the purse across the desk. Captain Blake licked his cracked lips as he watched it moving closer. He finally reached out and took it, testing its weight before tucking it in his coat.

“Very generous of you, Sister. You’re a woman who knows how to win a man’s loyalty.”

“You are not going to count it, Captain?”

His cold eyes weren’t touched by his servile smile. “Aye, Sister, I’ll be counting it when I get back to the Lady Sefa. When do you wish to sail?”

There were still a few matters, a few loose ends, to attend to. “soon. I have paid you more than enough to have you at the ready, until I’m ready.”

Aye, Sister, you have at that.” He scratched his scruffy chin. “I’m content to sit. I’m in no great hurry to be sailing to where you want to go.”

She leaned forward. “You are sure you can make the voyage.”

“Aye, Sister. The Lady Sefa has made the voyage before, and can again. Still, I’ve no itch to be off into those waters until I have to.” He straightened his tattered coat. “How many ladies will you be bringing?” An apologetic smile spread easily on his weathered face. “I’ll need to see to the proper accommodations.”

Sitting back, she again ground her teeth at the memory of Liliana pulling off her hood at the joining rite. Liliana had let every other Sister know her identity by doing that. Worse, she had been warned. It was more than a mistake; it was arrogance. Liliana was proving dangerously untrustworthy. With the power she was appropriating, there was no telling what she would do next. There was certainly no reason to take Liliana.

As for the others, why take them all? The Prelate had made a mistake by speaking her suspicions aloud, thinking a shield of Additive Magic would protect her. The Prelate would have cause to suspect six of the Sisters, but if the Prelate were to die, there would be no reason for anyone, even Liliana, to suspect the others. Why take them, when they might prove useful here?

She was liking this plan more by the moment. “Myself and five others will be going.”

“Mind if I ask why you fine ladies want to be sailing out around the great barrier. Isn’t the Old World to your liking?”

She leveled a menacing glare on the man standing before her. “I have bought your ship, your crew, and you, for as long as I want them, and for whatever purpose I want them. Answering questions was not part of the bargain.”

“No, Sister. I just thought—”

“Your silence was.” Without taking her eyes from his, she flicked her wrist and brought a blade to hand. “I have always thought death too brief a lesson. I believe in long lessons. If I so much as suspect you have violated your part of the bargain, any part of it, they will find you still breathing, but without an inch of skin left anywhere on you. Do we understand each other?”

Captain Blake stared furiously at the blue and yellow carpet beneath his feet. “Aye, Sister.”

Then that will be all, Captain. I will be seeing you spon. Be ready to sail the instant you see six Sisters coming.”

After he had gone, she pulled a spare dacra from a drawer and, resting an elbow on the desk, watched it spinning in her fingers as she thought. She didn’t like leaving matters to chance. Best if all the loose ends were taken care of.

Someone would have to eliminate Richard Rahl. Someone not going with them. She smiled. Someone expendable.

Chapter 65

Richard sat quietly with his legs folded and the sword across his knees. He wore his mriswith cape so that Pasha and Sister Verna wouldn’t know where he was. He didn’t want either to know the sun had set on him in the Hagen Woods. Either would surely come after him if they knew what he was doing.