6. Clash of Stone and Steel #2
“Spread out inside the house and do a thorough search,” Sully ordered the guards. “Lord Bressen didn’t sense anything, but we’re going to make sure there’s no one here.”
Thank the gods. This was the opportunity Talyn needed.
Sully began to assign guards to specific floors, and Talyn managed to maneuver herself into the group that was assigned to the first floor. She hurried off with them, then broke off toward the servants’ wing as soon as she got the chance.
She was nearly back to her room when her bracelet glowed green, telling her Cyra wanted to see her.
Fuck. She’d been so close.
She shifted back into the guise of Leeda and, for the third time in the last few minutes, trekked up the stairs to the fourth floor. At least her legs would be strong by the end of this job.
Axenus opened the door when she knocked, and he let her in.
“My lady, is everything alright?” Talyn asked. “I felt something shake the house.”
She didn’t have to fake her nervousness. If Cyra asked her the wrong question and she tried to lie, this could go very badly.
“I’m sorry to drag you out of bed, Leeda,” Cyra said. “The shaking you felt was Bressen’s power. It seems someone tried to break past the wards on our bedroom tonight.”
Talyn feigned concern. “My lady, are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Cyra said. “I wanted to be sure you were alright. Is all well down in the servants’ quarters? Did you see anyone you didn’t know?”
Talyn shook her head. “No, my lady. I didn’t see anyone.”
She glanced quickly at the merman who stood with his arms crossed near the balcony looking out over the water.
He wore a loose pair of pants with an untucked tunic, and his garnet-colored hair hung around his shoulders as he surveyed the scene outside.
The light iridescence of his skin shimmered in the lamp lights.
“Did you need help with something, my lady?” Talyn asked. She really didn’t want to be here when Bressen and Samhail returned. She needed to get back to her room to rethink her strategy.
“No, I just…”
Whatever answer Cyra had been searching for was cut off as the sound of beating wings drew their attention back to the balcony.
Samhail landed a second later, and Talyn’s eyes flared in awe at the sight of his giant black wings stretched out behind him.
The balcony was big, but the wings nearly spanned the whole space, blocking out the night sky.
He tucked them back against his body as he entered the bedroom, but they didn’t disappear, and Talyn wondered exactly how the metamorphosis worked.
“Nothing?” Axenus asked him.
“Not that I saw,” Samhail said, “but I didn’t go very far. There’s something about this whole thing that doesn’t sit right with me. I had a feeling I should come back, that it was better to be here.”
Samhail’s eyes scanned the room as if the threat he sought was right in front of him. Indeed it was, but his gaze passed right over Talyn as if he didn’t even see her, and she softly let out the breath she’d been holding.
“My lady, if you don’t need anything,” Talyn started to say, but she stopped when Samhail’s gaze snapped back to her.
It had been a mistake to draw attention to herself, and Talyn dropped her eyes, hoping he’d go back to ignoring her.
No such luck.
“Leeda, was it?” Samhail asked, stepping toward her, and Talyn resisted the urge to retreat from him.
She knew exactly what he was thinking, knew he was remembering a few days ago when he’d caught her in the hall outside Bressen and Cyra’s rooms. He was wondering if she was the one who’d set off the wards.
“Yes, sir,” she said, eyes still down.
His bare feet appeared in front of her, and every muscle in Talyn’s body tensed. She was certain he was going to ask her if she’d been up here again. Regardless of whether she lied or not, that she’d been here once before in the dead of night made her suspect.
Talyn lifted her head and gave him her most imploring look. She had to convince him without words not to say anything about finding her that time. She begged him with her eyes to keep her secret because if they started asking her questions, she was done for.
“Samhail?” Cyra asked. “Is something wrong?”
Samhail hadn’t taken his eyes off Talyn yet, and she tried to shake her head the barest amount.
Please, she thought. Please don’t say anything.
“I was just wondering if Leeda might have noticed anything,” Samhail said finally. “She’s up here often.”
“Not in the dead of night,” Cyra said. She looked at Talyn in question.
“My lady, I was down on the main floor when I felt the lord’s power pass through the house,” Talyn said. “I saw nothing there.”
A more experienced truth seer might’ve noticed the answer that wasn’t exactly an answer.
The truth seers Talyn had met were used to people carefully wording their answers to avoid lying, but Cyra wasn’t that experienced with her powers.
She was too guileless to suspect her own lady’s maid of trying to skirt the truth.
Samhail’s gaze bore into Talyn for another few seconds before he stepped back, seemingly satisfied with her response.
“You can go back to bed now,” Cyra told her kindly when Samhail was no longer looming over her.
“Thank you, my lady,” Talyn said. She bobbed a quick curtsey and tried not to hurry from the room too fast. She didn’t want to give them any reason to call her back and ask more questions.
Aside from the lord, Samhail was probably the biggest threat to her, Talyn mused as she hurried back down to the first floor, hopefully for the last time tonight.
Cyra was powerful, but the lady was still too trusting and – all things considered – not ruthless enough to do what she needed to do in the face of a threat.
Talyn needed to know more about Samhail. He was close to both Cyra and Bressen, and he’d hunt her to the ends of the continent if she killed them. It was possible she might need to kill him too if she wanted to accomplish her mission and not have to look over her shoulder the rest of her life.
A memory sparked in her mind, and she recalled seeing Samhail touch Cyra’s cheek tenderly today at the end of their training session. Then he’d shocked the three hells out of Talyn and hugged the lady.
His behavior had struck her as odd at the time, not quite in line with the warrior’s normally gruff demeanor, but it seemed even more so now as Cyra’s slip earlier in the day took on new meaning.
They. “I love it when they do that,” Cyra had said today when Talyn had sucked on her breast.
It hadn’t hit her before, but now that she thought about it, Samhail’s eyes had lit on Cyra when he’d returned from searching the grounds. There’d been something in his look that made Talyn wonder if there was more to their relationship than it appeared, something that made Talyn…
Jealous.