Rori shifted trying to find a comfortable spot on the bench he’d been sitting on for so long his rear had gone numb. His back was against another white stone wall typical of the government buildings in Lycea and Willowsbrook. Nolan was lying on his back on an identical bench. His eyes were closed, but Rori doubted he was asleep.

  In fact, no sooner had this thought crossed his mind than Nolan sat up and turned to face the door beside his bench. Almost immediately the door opened, and Dade came out and said, “Okay, I suppose it’s possible that could have worked out better, but it certainly could have ended worse.”

  “What’s that mean?” asked Rori.

  “You’re under house arrest,” said Nolan.

  “What’s that mean?” repeated Rori. “Also, how do you know that?”

  “I chose this bench for a reason,” replied Nolan. “It whispers its secrets to me.”

  “Hardly,” said Dade and then turning to Rori he continued with, “Normally it means that you are restricted to your house until after the inquest has finished.”

  “Inquest?” said Rori. “I didn’t do anything wrong. Also, I don’t have a house.”

  “Can I finish or are you going to interrupt after every sentence?”

  “Sorry.”

  “Okay, as I said, normally that means you are restricted to your house, but since you don’t have a house, or actually live in Lycea, that won’t work. They were going to make you stay at Nolan’s house, but I mentioned your being needed in Willowsbrook and our ongoing investigation and they agreed to a slightly different set-up.”

  “What he means is that he pulled one of the many strings he has control over and called in a few of the many considerable favors he is owed to get things to work out the way I told him to arrange it,” said Nolan.

  “You tell it your way, I’ll tell it mine,” replied Dade. “The end result is this. You are simultaneously under both the protection and the surveillance of the Watch. You are required to keep a minimum of two soldiers in close proximity until such time as things are resolved.”

  “So, I’m going to be shackled with two military goons for the next forever?” asked Rori in disbelief.

  “I guess you can put it that way,” said Dade, “but only if you are trying to insult Brand and whichever other person in our squad ends up staying with you.”

  “Oh yeah,” said Rori, “I guess you all count as soldiers.”

  “Hah!” laughed Nolan.

  Rori gave Nolan a sour look and then said, “What about Nolan? Why isn’t he in trouble?”

  “First off, you are not in trouble,” said Dade. “You’ve been involved in two incidents within two days. Both possibly involving assassins. You are merely a ‘person of interest’. As for Nolan, he’s well known by the government. That, his association with me, and a few other factors afford him a little more leeway than most.”

  “He means, I’m special,” said Nolan.

  “Have they confirmed that the assassin with the blowgun was also the person who fired the dart at the bull auction?” asked Rori.

  “Not yet,” answered Dade. “Though they have confirmed that the bull did not die from its collision with the wall. Its heart had actually exploded in its chest. It’s possible your making it run around hastened that happening, but the bull was going to die anyway.

  “They are trying to match that dart with today’s to see if they have the same poison on them. But I don’t need two gold to tell you that they will be a match.”

  “Has anyone talked to Rud and his crew to see if they know anything about it?” asked Rori.

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  “We’ve asked but they are refusing to talk. But I don’t think it is likely. What do you think Nolan?”

  “I agree. It was dumb luck that Rori ran into Rud. The assassin was probably just using the chaos of the moment to try and knock Rori off. Who’s so desperate to get rid of you that they are hiring an assassin?” said Nolan.

  “That’s something else we can look into. Maybe it can lead us to the answers to our other questions,” said Dade.

  “Speaking of assassins and answers to questions, did you get any from the remaining Harrigan?”

  “Some but nothing too revealing. He says that they were hired last night by the other assassin. He is claiming they were hired as bodyguards and that they were defending themselves when you two attacked. More likely they were hired as additional muscle once the first assassin saw that knocking Rori off wasn’t going to be so easy.

  “That’s about the only useful info. He refuses to answer any questions about the identity of the first assassin or who originally hired him. Things devolved rather quickly once he found out his brother was dead,” said Dade with a shrug.

  “Will anyone believe him about us attacking them?” asked Rori.

  “If it had just been you and Nolan, it’s possible that would have been enough for them to get off with a minor fine for fighting in the street. But since Brand, a member of the military, observed the whole thing, there’s little chance of that working out for them. Besides, there are enough various other activities they have committed in the past to keep him locked up for several years at a minimum.

  “I wonder how much a contract on Rori is going for,” mused Nolan. “Speaking of money, what about mine?”

  “Brand is picking it up. We can meet up with Kedra once he gets here.”

  “What money?” asked Rori.

  “There was a bounty on the Harrigans. Only a hundred gold each. It’s not much, but it’s better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick,” said Nolan.

  “Don’t I get a share?” asked Rori.

  “Sure,” replied Nolan. “Which one did you take out?”

  Once Brand had rejoined them, the four moved quickly into the interior of the building. Their destination was not far from the room Rori had been waiting in, but if the room had any special significance, it was lost on Rori. It was relatively large, maybe fifty feet square, but besides the benches that lined the white stone walls there was nothing inside of it.

  “Nolan has more money than he knows what to do with and Brand’s family is loaded. I was the bait that drew out the assassins, please tell me again why I don’t get a share of the money?”

  “It’s the principle of the matter,” said Brand. “Nolan swung and put down his man. I swung . . .”

  “Twice”, interrupted Nolan.

  “I swung and put down mine. You just kind of stood there.”

  “Also, and this is really the main reason,” said Nolan with a smile, “because it’s annoying you.”

  After a moment of silence Rori turned his back on the other two and said to Dade, “So what’s up with this room?”

  “It’s where Kedra will show up. It’s private and there’s a teleport beacon of sorts here. Removes the worry that you might not end up at your desired destination.”

  “Is that actually a worry? Does it happen often and how far off can you be?”

  “Hundreds of miles actually,” answered Brand.

  “Okay, that seems like a potential problem we should all be more worried about,” said Rori.

  “It’s Kedra. This is what she does. Don’t waste time worrying about it,” said Nolan.

  “How does she get here anyway? Won’t she just get rerouted to the teleport sink at the military base?”

  “She doesn’t have to go there if she doesn’t want to,” said Dade. “People who have enough clout receive some method of ignoring it.”

  “Is that the blue spindle thing she sometimes holds in her hand when teleporting?”

  “No, that’s something else,” said Dade.

  “Wait, if there is some way to avoid it, doesn’t that mean there is some way for bad people to avoid it as well?” asked Rori.

  “In nearly no time at all,” crowed Nolan.

  “Oh, shut up,” said Dade.

  “What did I miss,” asked Rori.

  “I’ve made that exact same point many times. To which Dade has always responded that it wasn’t something most people would see to exploit. You just heard about it, and you immediately spotted the flaw. Surely someone else out there has figured it out as well and has had considerably more time to circumvent the system.”

  “Few people know the teleport sinks and traps even exist,” said Dade. “Even less know that there even is a way to avoid them. I think we will be fine.”

  “Why wouldn’t we be fine?” asked Kedra, appearing in the middle of the room. “Also, why aren’t you wearing your good armor?”

  “I didn’t have time. These three have kept me busy with their bloodbaths in the streets.”

  “There was no bloodbath,” said Nolan in a hurt voice. “There was one person knocked unconscious and one unfortunate death, but there was relatively little blood involved.”

  “If you don’t want people dead, you should make that more clear,” said Brand. “It’s lovely to see you again, Kedra.”

  “Thank you, Brand. Now if you would all stand close together, I’ll try to make you look more presentable. We don’t want to give Senator Ewedith any additional reasons to make your lives more difficult.”

  “I’m fairly sure it won’t matter,” said Nolan.

  “Nevertheless,” said Kedra. As she began mumbling in a low voice, Rori could feel her drawing in magic energies. He then felt them wash over him and the others and in a moment the group looked much more like people going to court and less like people who’d been in a street fight. They were wearing the same clothes, but everyone and their clothes looked freshly washed.

  “Now if we are all ready?” said Kedra. Shifting to stand in the midst of all four she began reciting words that Rori recognized as her signature teleport spell.