The Mask of Mirrors by M. Carrick; (lightest ebook reader txt) 📗

Her limbs were weak and shaking after the trip through Ažerais’s Dream, and even if she tried to bolt, Gammer Lindworm would catch her. Instead she opened her mouth and screamed.

A boot crashed into her gut a moment later, driving all the wind from her. A fist to the head followed. Mettore stood over her, swearing. While Ren retched and tried to suck in breath, he shoved a glove into her mouth and secured it with one of the ties from his curtains.

That might muffle any sounds she made, but it wouldn’t stop them entirely. Mettore put one boot across her throat and said, “Go on screaming if you like, gnat. My servants know to ignore minor disturbances.”

The pressure increased enough that Ren saw spots. Then it was gone, Indestor sliding across his monstrous desk to crash down on the other side. Papers flew, and weights and pens hit the carpet with muffled thumps.

Gammer Lindworm’s bony ankles bracketed Ren’s rib cage. She’d thrown Indestor as easily as the wineglass. “I said borrow, not break!” she hissed, sounding like her zlyzen.

“And I said that if you touch me one more time, you’ll pay for it,” he snarled, climbing to his feet.

She only laughed. “What will you do to me? Chase me into my home? You can’t follow me there, and if you try, my friends will tear you apart.”

Mettore straightened his coat and answered with the cold smile of a man who never doubted his own power and control. “No—I’ll just leave you looking like this. You haven’t yet found a physician who can give you back your beauty, have you? No matter how much money or how many monsters you throw at them. If you want the medicine I promised, then you do as I say, hag.”

The threat made Gammer Lindworm recoil—but only briefly. The smile she favored Ren with was almost as sickening as Indestor’s kick. “You see how stupid men are, my girl? He forgets how useful I am. He doesn’t even know I’ve brought him what he needs.”

“I have what I need,” Mettore snapped. “That slattern—”

“Is Alta Renata.”

A moment passed, measured by the thip, thip, thip of spilled ink dripping onto the thick carpet. Then Indestor’s footfalls as he came around the desk. Gammer Lindworm backed up, allowing him to catch Ren’s chin and lift it, fingers digging into the bruises forming there.

“How the fuck…” His thumb smudged hard across her cheek. Her imbued cosmetics were made to withstand that sort of touch. But the disguise always depended primarily on no one connecting Arenza to Renata; once he knew to look, Mettore could see the truth.

His furious glare shot from her to Gammer Lindworm. “And you brought her here? Dressed like this? Why?”

“This is what she is. Always has been, since before she joined my Fingers. My clever Renyi, making you all dance for her, thinking she’s one of you.” Gammer Lindworm twirled like a young girl. “Oh, how we’ll dance together when I’m better. We’ll get Sedge and Tess and my new children, and we’ll own you all.”

Mettore straightened and began pacing. “You brain-addled crone. You kidnapped a— Wait. No. If she’s an imposter, then I’m safe. I’ll simply tell everyone the truth: that I discovered her crimes, sentenced her, and sold her as a slave.” He stopped, looming over Ren once more. She closed her eyes to block out the sight of his fury transforming to satisfaction. “Pity I bruised her face. But I can’t sell her to Sureggio anyway—not under the circumstances—and she’ll still fetch a fine price, pretty as she—”

His gloating died on a strangled urk. “Don’t even think of selling what’s mine,” Gammer Lindworm growled, glaring down the length of her bony arm and tightening her grip around Indestor’s throat.

Any hope that the crone might forget her strength and go too far was dashed when she released him. “Now give me my medicine, or I won’t help you tonight.”

“After we’re done,” Mettore said, trying and failing to keep the rasp from his voice. “You’ve proven yourself far too unreliable. I can’t trust you not to change the plan again.”

Gammer Lindworm’s lip peeled back in a snarl, bony shoulders hunching for another attack. But then her mood shifted again, and she knelt beside Ren and petted her hair. “It’s all right. I can see what he wants; he’ll follow through on his plans. Then I will be beautiful again, and we’ll be together.”

“But not yet.” Mettore was smart enough not to touch Gammer Lindworm. Instead he rang a bell, then grabbed Ren and hauled her roughly to her feet. The Rook’s shawl slipped from her shoulders; she caught it in her hands, down by her hips, and felt the weight of the last remaining knife in her palm.

One throwing knife. She palmed it an instant before Mettore yanked the shawl away and threw it in the corner. A heartbeat later the door opened and a woman entered. The same one Ren had seen in Horizon Plaza with Mezzan and Breccone Indestris. The same one who’d poisoned Ren and Leato on the Night of Hells.

“Lock her up with the other one,” Mettore said. “It’s always better to have a spare.”

The Shambles and the Aerie: Cyprilun 35

It took until late afternoon for Grey to track down the truth of what had happened to Arkady. She’d been taken, yes—but not by Gammer Lindworm.

“Yer niece has a mouth on her; that’s for certain,” said the drunk who admitted he was sleeping it off on a stoop when the commotion woke him up. “And I en’t just talking about the cursing and shrieking. Snapping at them all like a damned turtle. Near bit the ear off the one with the wine brow.”

Grey’s hand fisted around the mill he’d offered the drunk for the story, resenting giving over even that much. “You didn’t think to stop them from assaulting a child?”

Watery yellow eyes tried to