Osstendler spoke with Haria as they walked. “We located Caitir in a walled-in alley next to the old abattoir in the Codpiece.”

  “The ancient building that’s been walled up for centuries?”

  “The same.”

  Now the healer at least partially understood the reason for the change of plans. “I understand they made sure the new outer walls they constructed against the original walls are as close to impenetrable as possible. And for good reason, at least at that time. The abattoir was the genesis for a plague that raced through the Codpiece some two hundred and fifty turns ago.”

  Osstendler took a stutter-step, and Haria placed a hand on her arm. “Not to worry, Traya. The virus was studied and well-documented, at least in the healer community. It came from a bacterium that died after two sevendays, so it’s long gone in the abattoir. Thankfully, we now have a cure for the disease, but at the time, they were desperate to keep it contained. Their method of doing so was reprehensible. They placed everyone who had the illness or who had come into direct contact with it inside the abattoir and shut them, and so they hoped, the plague, inside. Hence the need for the walls.” She shook her head. “And their barbarism worked. But, if I understood correctly, I need to see Caitir to know how best to transport her. If she’s behind the walls, I’m afraid I’m much too old to climb either up one side or down the other, for that matter.”

  Osstendler turned a corner, and as they passed the boundary into the Foreign Quarter, she silently signaled Soirin to make sure her people were ready for anything.

  Soirin ordered, “Swords.”

  As one, the Blades drew their weapons and held them at the ready.

  Haria glanced around. “Is this necessary, Prime Osstendler?”

  “It is. The Foreign Quarter is almost as dangerous as the Codpiece, and you’re a high-ranking official within the Temple. Unfortunately, that makes you an interesting target for those who are always looking for ways to undermine the Arch Priestess. This way.” She took Haria’s elbow and maneuvered her around the back of a freight wagon stopped in the street.

  Making polite conversation to take the healer’s mind off the antagonistic stares they were getting, Osstendler rattled off facts the healer most likely already knew. “The Foreign Quarter is made up of communities of people, some criminals, and rogues, from foreign kingdoms who believe Cibía should welcome them with open arms instead of forcing them into this section of Sarlogne and away from the rest of the Cibían populace. There are just as many, if not more, good people who had to flee their oppressive governments and are just trying to scrape by. Many men come from cultures where they consider it their right to abuse women, and they resent the power of the Blades in general and Sábria in particular.

  Haria sniffed, “I’m aware of the Foreign Quarter, Traya. What I don’t know is why you feel it necessary to drag me through it.”

  “I was getting to that, My Lady. Apparently, there’s a water gate into the abattoir off one of the tributaries that was never blocked off.”

  Haria stopped in the middle of the street. “The Healer Hall records document that they were unable to build an outer wall there, so the builders were ordered to put lethal traps around the gate and inside the building to keep people out.”

  Glancing around at the surly men staring at them, Osstendler once again put a hand on Haria’s lower back to move her along. “That might be so, My Lady, but my orders are to get you to that gate. We’ll have to trust Lady Sábria and the Commander, and more importantly, Ursuna Geller, to see those traps and spring them before we arrive. Geller has studied weapons and traps her entire life, and if anyone can get that water gate opened, it’s her.”

  As they came to the trib docks, it became apparent why they hadn’t run into any resistance along the way. Osstendler had sent Marne, a tough, no-nonsense weapons master, ahead to secure a boat for their journey down the tributary. The four Blades she’d brought with her were standing in the guard position around her.

  Marne, easily recognizable from a distance by her two distinctive, long black braids hanging down her chest and back, stood at the docks next to a trib runner Osstendler recognized as a man who worshipped Elyon and was loyal to Sábria. That wasn’t what interested her, though. Next to a small building near the opening to the docks, seven or eight men were either sitting or lying on the ground with their faces bloodied and bruised.

  One light-haired man, probably from Tuviste, if his sharp, angular face and slight features were anything to judge by, held one arm tight against his chest. The pained look on his face said Marne, or one of the Blades she’d brought with her, had probably either broken bones or dislocated the man’s shoulder, or both.

  Haria saw the wounded men, as well, and as they approached the docks, she shouted angrily at Marne. “What is the meaning of this, Blade Marne?”

  Unruffled at the healer’s censure, Marne respectfully replied, “These men took exception to Blades coming into the Foreign Quarter, and I found it necessary to gently remind them that Blades are welcome in every corner of Sarlogne.” She shrugged. “We simply dealt with their hostility as we encountered it. The healer for the Foreign Quarter is on his way.”

  Not waiting to hear the Master Healer’s opinion on the matter, Marne turned to Osstendler and indicated a punt tied to the dock. “Master Gundry has agreed to take us downriver. He says if the gate’s open, something that hasn’t happened in his lifetime, he believes he can maneuver his boat up next to it. I, and whatever Blades accompany us, will secure the boat with ropes or with whatever means are available to us so you can cross.”

  Although she’d been a healer at Elyon’s Temple most of her adult life, Haria had never come to appreciate the violent life they led. A pacifist at heart, she often wondered why the Goddess had called her to not merely serve as a Temple healer but had moved her into the position of being one of the highest-ranking healers in the whole of the Cibían Empire. Pursing her lips, she indicated the boat. “Master Gundry, may we board your ship, and if so, how many can you accommodate?”

  Gundry’s brows pulled down low. “A…komodate, Milady?”

  “How many Blades can safely travel on your boat?”

  “Oh, well, first of all, it be a punt, no a boat.” He said it as though he were speaking to a particularly dim child. He glanced around, silently counting the warriors standing around. “All of ya, Milady. Me boat’s weighin’ empty an’ th’ more ballast I got th’ easier it’ll be to move her through th’ water an’ over to th’ gate.” He held out his hand, palm up. “I’ll board first, Milady, then you and yer Blades come on however ya like. If ye’ll all just go to where me lad, there, Hokum, puts ya, he’s right good at settin’ weight where it be best fer the ballast.”

  Once they were all on board and Haria was safely settled in the wheelhouse with the captain, Hokum took up the pole at the back of the boat and pushed them out into the tributary. Another lad about his age released the rope tying the boat to the dock. He backed up to give himself room to run forward, which he did. With a mighty leap, he propelled himself through the air, landing barefooted on the wooden deck. He efficiently twirled the rope into a neat circle, retrieved a second pole set into hooks on the side of the wheelhouse, and took up a position on the starboard side near the boat’s bow.

  Knowing the trip would take a while, the Blades all settled in to wait.

  CHAPTER 4

  Inside the abattoir, Geller approached the gate with more caution than either Ailith or Jenx would have thought to use. The Prime had ordered her Blade and shiv to stay well behind her as they moved through the darkened interior. She held one of the torches high, examining her surroundings with care each time she took a step.

  Ailith glanced at Jenx, who was also studying the roof and what walls they could see. Taking her cue from her handler, Ailith continued searching her surroundings. Not sure whether they were looking for human, animal, or something else entirely, she stared out into the darkness, wishing Jenx had brought three torches instead of only two.

  Geller raised a hand, telling them to stop.

  Since the Prime was acting as though they were in enemy territory, Ailith pivoted in place to watch the rear as she’d been taught. Geller saw the movement out of her peripheral vision. “Good move, Shiv. But in this case, th’ wrong one. Turn back around and look there.” She pointed to a spot up and to her right.

  Ailith followed the track of Geller’s finger but couldn’t see anything in the darkness.

  “Do ya see it?”

  Ailith strained to see what the Prime was pointing to. “No Prime. Can’t see much past th’ edge of yer torchlight.”

  Geller raised her torch higher, and as the edge of the light moved upward, Ailith’s breath caught in her throat. “Is that…?”

  “Aye, ‘tis.” Geller moved the torch back and forth, studying the area around where they stood. “Did ya see th’ skeleton we passed a ways back?”

  Jenx nodded. “Yes. It was ancient, though.”

  “And the arrow?”

  Chagrin tinged Jenx’s voice when she answered. “I’m sorry, Prime. I should’ve looked. The skeleton was so old I didn’t pay it much mind. That was stupid of me.”

  Always one to make use of a teaching moment, Geller continued searching as she asked, “And you, Shiv? Did you see th’ skeleton?”

  “Don’t ken how I missed it, but no, I must of walked right by.” Thoroughly embarrassed to be caught out when, as a shiv, she was supposed to be seeing everything and anything in her path, Ailith felt her cheeks go hot.

  Geller accepted the apology and looked at Jenx. “And Jenx, why do ya think I’m askin’ ‘bout it now?”

  “I didn’t realize why you were moving so slowly until you showed us that crossbow. So, I’m guessing you realized the man, or the skeleton, since we don’t know if it was a man or woman, got caught in one of their traps.”

  Very slowly, Geller turned to face them. “And what does that tell ya, Shiv?”

  “Th’ place is full of traps. I didn’t ken what ya was looking fer neither, and I guess I should’ve. If I’d a seen th’ body⁠—”

  “Bodies.” Geller emphasized the plural.

  That made Ailith feel even worse. Thoroughly disgusted with herself, she crossed her arms and stared at the ground.

  Jenx only had to growl one word, “Eyes.”

  Ailith immediately understood. At times, when she was ashamed of something she’d done or hadn’t done, she had a tendency to cross her arms and look at her feet. Where this habit had originated, she had no idea, but it was a terrible habit to have when you were in possible enemy territory. Her attention sharpened as her gaze snapped up, and she stared out into the darkness. The light from the torches only went so far and Ailith’s brows wrinkled as she wondered why they weren’t doing a grid pattern to search the area as they’d done with other dark warehouses.

  Geller, who’d trained hundreds of shivs and Blades over the turns, read her correctly. “That’s good, Shiv. At least now yer thinkin’. Why not th’ grid?”

  Ailith thought before blurting out the first answer that popped into her head. Finally, she said, “Well, right from th’ start, ya thought that since this place is locked up tighter than a nun’s legs, then maybe they didn’t want nobody in here, and if somebody did get in here, somehow, they wanted to make sure they didn’t get back out.”

  Geller chuffed out a quick breath. “And that’s a good comparison, Shiv, because, aye, some nun’s legs are locked tight, but I’ve been known to open a few of ‘em with me charms.”

  Most people, including Jenx, who blinked in surprise at her Prime making a joke, would be shocked that the taciturn woman would say such a thing, but Ailith had been around her quite a bit lately for various reasons and knew there was another, normally hidden side to the Prime she’d begun to like. A little, anyway. Well, when she wasn’t terrified whenever the woman caught her doing something stupid, that is.

  With a barely discernable glint of humor in her eyes, Geller continued, “Anyway, that’s stuff ya need to think about, Ailith, and you, too, Jenx. Now, what else does that crossbow tell ya, Shiv?”

  Whenever a handler and shiv team were involved, Geller directed most of her training questions toward the shiv because she never wanted to undermine the handler in the trainee’s eyes. Quite often, especially in situations they’d never run across before, the handler wouldn’t know the answer to the question, either. Since it was best that the shivs believed in the all-knowing persona of their handlers, Geller kept her questions to them to a minimum whenever the shivs were present.

  Ailith studied her surroundings as she considered the question. There was the obvious. That it was essential to know the crossbow was there so they didn’t end up with a bolt through their chest. As she thought about climbing up to disarm it, it occurred to her that if there was one trap, maybe there was a second to discourage people from doing just that. “If I were settin’ a trap like that, I’d want folks to ken ya just can’t climb up to it and bite it off. Ya’d want babblers singin’ loud that bitin’ it’ll get ya killed. Fer that matter, there might be two or three scattered about, and ya’d end up looking like a pin wobbler.”

  “Now yer thinking, Shiv. So, our next step is?”

  Both Ailith and Jenx knew that Geller wasn’t asking because she needed their input to make a decision. Their Prime already knew what she was going to do, had probably known from the moment she’d seen the skeleton with the crossbow bolt embedded in its ribs.

  When Ailith didn’t answer, Jenx looked at her shiv. “Two questions. First, what do you mean by ‘bite it off?’” The two were from vastly different worlds, and quite often, they needed to help the other understand what they’d said.

  As was often the case, Ailith was stymied when her handler didn’t know what she’d meant when, in her mind, she’d made herself perfectly clear. “Ya know. A weasel bites th’ head off a snake so it can’t bite no more. Ya bite off th’ part what sets off th’ bolt, and it’s no but a stick with a sharp end, aye?”

  Jenx’s cocked head and raised brow said she never would have guessed that, but it made sense. “And what’s a pin wobbler?”

  This time it was Geller who supplied the answer. “Pork pine.”

  “Ah. A porcupine. Of course. Anyway, to get back to your question, I’m happy to take a guess.” Geller nodded, and Jenx continued, “Since the arrow is pointing in a very definite direction, towards the’ walkway and not towards a post that someone might be climbing, I’d say that’s th’ primary arrow meant as th’ first trap. It has to have a way to be sprung, so there’s probably a tripwire running along th’ floor close by here, or, especially given th’ darkness, if we thought we were clever by finding th’ lower one, we might miss one running chest height or neck height anywhere along this path that we’re walking.”

  “Aye, that’s right. So, keepin’ that in mind, Ailith, get directly behind Jenx, and Jenx, I want ya walkin’ in me footsteps. Do ya see them there in th’ dust? Good. Move up, slow like.”

  Ailith backtracked one step, careful to put her foot directly into her own footprint, and then moved to her left and made sure to place her feet directly in Jenx’s print. Very slowly, the two of them closed the space between themselves and Geller.

  Geller crouched and pointed to a wire running across her path. She then moved her hand up two feet, pointing out a second wire and a third two feet above that. “If ya were here, alone, Shiv, and ya needed to get past this point, what would ya do?”

  Ailith followed the path of the wires with her gaze until they disappeared into the darkness. “I guess I’d probably go back to where ya saw th’ trap what’s already killed th’ lad back there ‘cuz that one’s already launched. I’d climb really careful, keepin’ me eye out fer those second traps, ya ken? Th’ ones what keep folks from cuttin’ off th’ head. I’d try to go above, all th’ way to th’ ceilin’ if I could, and see if I could swing me way across th’ beams and come down on this one to cut off its head.”

  Geller nodded, pleased with her logic. “Ya must’ve worked with traps in th’ army, aye? I mean for ya to ken somethin’ like that or to think about it, at least.”

  Ailith shrugged, not wanting to show how proud she was to receive a compliment from her Prime. “No, no traps, but ol’ Granther Dingus used to say I had a tactile mind.”

  Jenx always tried to correct Ailith’s grammar when she misspoke so she didn’t forget later. “Tactical.”

  “Aye, that’s what I said.”

  “You said tactile.” She held up her fingers. “That means by touching. Tactical means actions or strategies used in a military campaign or in a dangerous situation.”

  Ailith stared at her, and Geller hid a smile. Sometimes, she wondered about the pairings Sábria and Shirin put together for handler/shiv teams.

  Knowing it was no use arguing with Jenx about words, Ailith nodded and continued. “Granther Dingus said it’s just kind of the way I think in certain tight spots either I get meself into, or the kinds Duke Ravenkind put us into.”

  Hearing this, Geller remembered one time Sábria and the Commander had mentioned that they thought perhaps the breeding program for the berserkers had included breeding not only incredible fighting abilities into their subjects but also enhanced tactical abilities, a lower fear threshold, and quicker reactions to stimuli. Jenx was usually in on those meetings when they discussed Ailith, and Geller caught and held her gaze a moment, silently communicating her thoughts on the subject.

  Jenx had been thinking the exact same thing and imperceptibly nodded to show her agreement.

  Geller pointed back the way they’d come. Let’s backtrack to them bones, th’ last ones anyway, because we’ve passed five piles so far⁠—”

  Ailith blurted out, “Five? How could I of missed five bodies?” She looked at Jenx. “Did ya see five bodies?” Jenx shook her head, “No, but I saw three. That was enough to get me to start thinking about traps or to make me wonder whether there’d been some type of battle fought in here. I wasn’t really sure which possibility might have happened.”