“I always knew I was only a moderate talent,” Lynch was saying. “I’d never envisioned a glorious future for myself, just a mediocre Source and mediocre assignments. But I was all right with that. We can’t all be legends. All the same, I’ve worked hard and I’ve been a good person. I don’t deserve what I’ve gotten.”

  “Obviously not,” Aiden agreed. “And the worst thing is that there is nothing you can do about it.” He glanced at me, then. See? the look seemed to say. “The Triple S did nothing to protect you from this man,” he said to Lynch. “It wouldn’t help you with him when he was endangering you and all the regulars entrusted to your care. And now they’ve sent you off into exile with him as though you were some kind of criminal. It’s irresponsible and cruel. I tell you, the Triple S shouldn’t have this kind of control over you.” He fixed me with another glare. “I’ve said this before.”

  Ad nauseam. “Armies and guilds have the same kind of control over their people.” But the protest sounded lame even to my ears, for I could see their point. Lynch had been badly used. The Triple S should have done something. I had always known the Triple S had a few problems. I just hadn’t realized they were this bad.

  “The difference there, my dear,” said Aiden, “is that people choose to join the army or guilds. No one chooses to join the Triple S. You’re taken from your families without any right to refuse, and the Triple S controls you for the rest of your lives. Because unlike members of the army or the guilds, members of the Triple S can’t resign.”

  It was true. It had always been so, and having met a real victim of Triple S policy for the first time, I realized injustice could result. But there was nothing to be done.

  I hated feeling helpless.

  “They did the same thing to my brother,” Aiden said to Lynch, and I thought I was finally beginning to understand the resentment he felt for the Triple S. “He was Paired to an unworthy man, and because of that man he was sent to Middle Reach. And it always seems to be the Sources, doesn’t it, who commit the crimes and get both partners sent to Middle Reach?”

  “Your brother is Ryan Kelly?” Lynch asked with a smile. “I should have recognized you. He speaks of you often. It’s a very great pleasure to finally meet you.”

  And, strangely enough, they started rattling off stories about Ryan and seemed to forget the somber mood they had shared just moments before.

  I couldn’t join them. I was too busy thinking about how fortunate I had been, landing myself a Source who was, by all accounts, rather superior, only to despise him for it. I had ignored those who were less fortunate, feeling it was up to them to deal with whatever problems came their way. If they couldn’t, there was something wrong with them. And if the Triple S was remote and indifferent, it was nothing to me, because I had done nothing to earn its displeasure.

  Guilt was a waste of emotion.

  Shut up.

  I was an ungrateful wretch. I would do better. And there had to be something I could do for people like Lynch and, from the sounds of it, Ryan. I was an excellent Shield from a prominent merchant family. My Source was the Darling of the Triple S and a future duke. Surely the combination would give me some kind of voice, enough to make the council at least think about changing the way it dealt with erring Sources.

  I didn’t think I could change the whole system. I didn’t even want to. But I had always thought it was wrong to punish both partners for the crimes of one. There had to be some alternative.

  Later. Time enough to save the world after I’d found Karish. And figured out how I was going to deal with his being a duke. And, oh aye, what was going on with those strange Rushes.

  The list just kept getting longer and longer.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Finally, we made it to Middle Reach. I was beginning to fear we’d never get there.

  I’d never really studied Middle Reach, had never really thought about what it would be like to go there. Part of me had been expecting some kind of mud pit, with a few knocked-together houses and rough, downtrodden peasants. Another part realized this was ridiculous. Great things had once been expected of Middle Reach, and quite a few people lived there, so it had to be more than a swampy outpost.

  Well, the mud was there, but there were also a lot of wooden sidewalks. There were enough buildings to satisfy the demands of a small town, and they were well built and in good repair. But they were ugly. I couldn’t say why, exactly. There was nothing outlandish about the colors, and the architecture seemed normal enough. But there was no beauty about the place, either, and decades of nearly constant rain had given everything the feeling of being brown, even on a bright day.

  One building, much larger than the rest but with the same air of ugliness, stood some distance from the town. “What is that?” I asked Lynch, pointing.

  “Used to be the civic center. For town meetings.”

  Ah, a remnant from grander days. Back when Middle Reach had been on its way to becoming the mecca High Scape was. Now, the entire population could probably fit in that one building with plenty of room to spare, and I suspected the citizens weren’t the most civic-minded group of people one could hope to meet. I wouldn’t be. “What’s it used for?”

  Lynch shrugged. “Youngsters avoiding the disapproving looks of their elders, I imagine. It fell into disuse ages ago. It’s probably a death trap.”

  Hm. Depressing.

  As we moved through the streets I started feeling a little uncomfortable. It seemed to me that everyone was aware of our presence. Not actually watching us—no one stopped and stared—but giving us as much attention as peripheral senses allowed. I supposed that wasn’t so strange, as Lynch was of the notorious Lynch and Lang, and possibly people remembered Aiden from his earlier visits, but I didn’t like it. I didn’t want anyone noticing me yet.

  “How’s your leg?” I asked Aiden, mostly to distract myself. He answered with a tight nod. I took that to mean there was some pain but it was bearable.

  As in High Scape, all the Pairs in Middle Reach shared a residence. As we neared it, I expected to see some evidence of tension in Lynch, as she was no doubt dreading her reunion with her crazy Source, but she was calm. More than calm, she was cheerful. Strong woman, I thought.

  The residence was not so large as the one in High Scape, but the building was in slightly better repair than its neighbors and had the air of being well tended. There were flowers in the front yard, the first evidence of an attempt of beauty that I had seen in Middle Reach. I had never before paid attention to things like flowers, but their otherwise total lack made me appreciate this small sample all the more.

  I decided I liked flowers.

  Ryan had been waiting for us. He came striding out of the residence before we reached the front door. He didn’t look too happy to see us, though, unless he usually expressed pleasure with a scowl. He gripped Aiden by his shoulders. “I thought you said you were better,” he said accusingly.

  Ah. He was disturbed by his brother’s limp. I couldn’t blame him for that. It disturbed me, too.

  “I am,” Aiden answered mildly. “I can walk.”

  I didn’t think Ryan was satisfied with that, but he didn’t press. I wondered if he knew I was the one who’d crippled his brother.

  They didn’t look anything alike. Ryan lacked his younger brother’s height and was of a broader build. Though hair and eyes were the same colors, they were of different shades. There was a grace to Aiden’s movements that was absent from Ryan. To look at them, I would have never thought them siblings.

  And then we were being introduced. “Dunleavy Mallorough, this is my brother, Ryan Kelly.”

  I hesitated in the act of greeting him. How did I address him? Shields were called by their family name as a matter of professional courtesy, until invited to do otherwise. Regulars often found it rude, and the siblings of a friend deserved a more intimate title. But what did one call the Shield brother of a regular friend?

  He was perceptive for a man. His eyes twinkled in a smile, and he held out his hand. “Dunleavy.”

  If he could, I could. “Ryan.” I shook his hand. “Very good to meet you.” Sorry I haven’t been taking better care of your brother.

  He gave my hand a small tug before releasing me. “Come,” he said, taking my bag from me before I could politely object. If anyone needed assistance, I thought, it was Aiden. “We’ll get you settled, and then we’ll see about tackling your problem.”

  So he already knew. I didn’t know how I felt about that. I might have liked the option of discretion.

  Like the outside, the inside of the residence was not so grand as that in High Scape. The rooms of the lower floor were smaller, the wood of the structure more worn. All the furnishings were new, though, and it looked well-kept and cozy.

  Not what I would have expected from a collection of Pairs known for being incompetent or dilatory.

  “We have plenty of free rooms,” Ryan said, leading us up the stairs. “I guess the Triple S anticipates a lot of us will end up here,” he added in a bitter tone. “I hope you find it comfortable.”

  My box of a room at the academy was still a very recent memory. I had low expectations. And while the room Ryan lead me to was nothing like my suite in High Scape, being nothing more than a largish bedroom, it was perfectly adequate.

  I decided not to comment on the need for additional rooms for future tenants.

  Once Ryan had left me, I poked my head out the door to watch which room Aiden entered. When I was sure Ryan was back downstairs, I trotted down the corridor and knocked on Aiden’s door.

  I heard him sigh before he responded with an invitation to enter.

  His room was virtually identical to mine. I sat in the chair beside the door. “I like your brother,” I told him.

  “Of course you do,” he said, slowly sinking onto the bed.

  “How’s your leg, really?”

  He eased closer to the wall so he could lean his back against it. “I really don’t want to have to go anywhere tonight.” He massaged his knee and sighed. “I’m so sorry it took us so long to get here, Dunleavy. I know you would have gotten here much faster on your own.”

  That was true, but there was no point in hanging on to the irritation. I’d been overreacting, anyway. It wasn’t as though Karish could have been lingering on the edge of death for the past week. It would have happened already. He was all right, and it would be better to undertake looking for him in a rational and thorough matter, rather than rushing around and possibly scaring his captor into doing something fatal. “We’re here now, and I’m glad to have your company. I’m going to need your help.”

  He looked up at me then, and he smiled. A strangely pure, almost delighted smile that made me uncomfortable. I almost asked him what it was about but decided I didn’t want to know.

  I went back to my room, where I unpacked and freshened up. I joined Aiden and Ryan in the kitchen for a meal that was rather rough but tasted good enough. And I heard Ryan’s story.

  “You won’t believe it,” he warned me. “It’s too fantastic. And it’s been kept quiet. Most people would have expected to have heard about it.”

  And so saying, he practically guaranteed my belief.

  “Paren is my Source,” Ryan said. “A fairly talented one. And a nice fellow. A good one. Always helps you out, good with a story, fun at a party. Always has lots of friends wherever he goes. People always like him.”

  But.

  “We were on a circuit, and we would visit a lot of sites in a year. We almost never made it back to Shidonee’s Gap, because we were good. People often asked for us in particular. But after a while, we kind of settled into a routine. We were still a circuit Pair, but from one year to the next we were likely to be in the same place during the same season.

  “I liked it. Liked going to different places. Saw some amazing sights, met some great people, did some good work.

  “Anyway, things were fine for a while. Paren and I got on well. Did our jobs and had a beer afterwards. But we weren’t best pals. Whenever we moved somewhere he’d go his way and I’d go mine. Not that we didn’t get along. Just had different interests and different friends. So it took me a while to really notice what kind of friends he was making.”

  “Undesirables, were they?” I asked.

  “Not hardly. When I did take the trouble to notice, I was amazed at how many dukes, earls, councilors, and wealthy merchants he called friend. Every site, it seemed, he called on someone. Long dinners, sometimes spending the night.” I tried not to look at him as though I was wondering why he was so intimately aware of his Source’s every move. Because I was wondering. He blushed anyway. “Started thinking something was up,” he said gruffly. “Started following him around. Got chased from some mighty fine houses. Asked him about it. He claimed they were all family acquaintances. Only his file never mentioned such lofty connections, eh?”

  “What did you think was going on?” Because obviously something was.

  He shook his head and shrugged. “Didn’t really think anything. Didn’t have any real suspicions. As I said, he’s a nice fellow. Thought maybe he was some kind of pet to the aristocrats. Some of them get a kick out of having a Source wait on them. Giving them advice. Giving them other things. Maybe it started with one of them and they spread the word. That sort’s all related, eh? And if that was what was going on, and Paren was willing—he never seemed reluctant to go—it was no real harm and none of my business. Course, the trial really opened my eyes.”

  That last, being tacked on so nonchalantly, took a moment to sink in. Then my breathing suffered a little hitch. “Trial? For what?”

  “Crimes against the Crown.” I frowned. He was right. I should have heard about something like that. Shouldn’t I? “I told you they kept it quiet. Can’t have the regulars knowing what Pairs might get up to, can we? And it was six years ago.” Six years earlier I probably would have had little interest in that sort of thing. “So I’m in a tavern in White Horse with some friends, playing cards and having a good time, and these Runners come in. They ask to speak to me, real polite. I’m not worried, I haven’t done anything. And anyway, I’m a Shield. So I go outside with them. Once we’re outside they ask me to go to their Headquarters, because they’ve been having some trouble with the Pairs, and they want to ask me some questions. I think they must mean White Horse’s permanent Pairs and they want to know what Pairs can do, from an outside, objective source, so I say sure.” Suddenly he exhaled, looking very tired, and rubbed his eyes with one hand. “I lived in a tiny room, a cell really, for nine days. That’s what I was told, after. Don’t quite remember it, myself. Lost track of the time. They sat me in a chair and wouldn’t let me out of it. And they asked me questions.” He smiled at me wearily. “They didn’t do anything else to me, you know. Just asked me questions. Have I ever met the Head Trader of Red Deer? The Countess of Sea Scape? The Minister of Roads and Canals? Did I know about the Shidonee’s Gap property pool? The proposed wheat tax?” He laughed. “What the hell do I know about any kind of tax? I don’t pay taxes. I don’t know any aristocrats or ministers, either. But those were the kinds of questions they kept asking, over and over and over again.” He picked up his wineglass but didn’t take a sip, just stared into the contents. “Exhausting it is, listening to questions you can’t answer. At least, not to their satisfaction. You get so thirsty. You get a headache. You get nauseous. Each bone in your body gets to weighing a hundred pounds, and your head fills with sand, and then with stone, and it gets that you can’t even understand the questions anymore. Hell, once they asked me my name and I couldn’t answer them. But still, they kept asking.” He shook himself, shaking away the memories. “They never touched me, but I felt like I’d been through some kind of nightmare.”

  Aiden put a reassuring hand on Ryan’s arm. Ryan smiled at him. I suddenly felt intrusive, and I wondered why Ryan was telling me all this. I remembered Aiden once saying he wanted me to talk to Ryan, to describe to him what was good about being a Shield. How could I do that? Whatever was coming next in the story, it was big, and it was serious. Crimes against the Crown. And then I was supposed to give him my fairy tale? Look, Ryan Kelly. Look at my life. See how much better it is than yours?

  Karish and I had been bonded for only a few months. It sounded like Paren had fooled Ryan for years. Maybe Karish was fooling me, too, or would be once he was on his feet for more than two moments in a row.

  “They didn’t tell me anything, though,” said Ryan. “I hadn’t a notion until we were in court, me and my good-fellow Source, who I hadn’t seen in all this time. Calm he was. Not a care. Told me not to worry. It would all be fine. And then it all came out.” Another long, deep breath. “Paren had been carrying information from site to site.”

  “As in information he wasn’t supposed to have?” I guessed.

  “Aye. You know the sort of thing that goes on in those circles. The government wants to build a highway and a noble wants to sell some land and a merchant wants to sell some stone and steel. So certain information gets passed around before it should be, and money goes where it’s not supposed to, and the highway gets built to certain people’s advantage. I don’t know why it’s so illegal, really, but I guess I don’t know much about that sort of thing. Though I heard more about it than I wanted during that damned trial.

  “Anyway, it seems Paren was happy enough to play messenger, and so when the ’ristos came up with a new scheme his was the first name to come to mind.” Bored with swirling the wine in his glass, Ryan tossed it back with one swallow. “Do you know about the tax concessions made to the merchant class a while back?”

  He was surprised when I nodded, but I belonged to a merchant family, after all. Tradition granted tax concessions to the aristocrats because they created their own policing forces, raised their own armies, ran their own courts, and often built their own roads and waterways. Merchants had been granted the same concessions decades after assuming similar responsibilities.