Agent of the Dragon

Two figures were already sparring lightly when Rhysa entered the salle. She let her eyes and mind lose themselves in their dangerous movements and the graceful arcs of steel as their blades made metal fans in the air. Lady Kasteryn was easily recognizable, but when Rhysa recognized the other, all her fatigue sloughed from her as water from oilskin.

Lady Kasteryn stopped the bout and wordlessly gestured to Rhysa. The second figure spun and broke into a huge grin.

“Elise!” Rhysa ran and hugged her friend, kissing her cheek.

Elise broke the embrace first and held Rhysa at arm’s length. She gave Rhysa a brief measuring glance. “Good heavens, girl. You’ve changed in the past year.” She hugged Rhysa again briefly. “It’s good to see you.”

“I’m glad you’re here.” Rhysa looked at Lady Kasteryn, hope shining in her eyes. “I take it she’s part of today’s lesson?”

Lady Kasteryn nodded, straight faced but with a twinkle in her eye. “Warm up with Elise. I’ll give you fifteen minutes.”

Rhysa grabbed a practice sword from a rack at the far end of the room. The sword, though steel, was not sharp. The sharpened portion had been cut off leaving a thin, blunted edge. She well knew how much it would hurt if she let it hit her, but it wouldn’t cut.

She and Elise faced each other in the center of the salle. Elise winked, then swung her sword at Rhysa’s legs. Rhysa blocked, and with the clear ringing of blade on blade, her heart soared. The sword in her hand grew light and responsive--no magic, just joy in the craft of sword-work. Elise started slowly and simply--taking her through the basic techniques, gradually increasing speed and force as Rhysa’s muscles warmed.

When she felt fully warmed up, Rhysa departed from the drills. Their sparring took on the joy of two friends playing. Neither actually tried to get past a guard to land a blow. Back and forth and circling around, they worked each other all over the salle. From time to time, one or the other would laugh at their shared joy. A dual joy: joy in being with each other, and joy in their sword-work. All too soon, Lady Kasteryn called a halt, ready to begin the day’s lesson.

Rhysa had been right--it was a rough workout, though not for the reasons she’d expected. Her exhaustion had fallen beneath the joy and energy of Elise’s presence. What had been difficult was fighting all out with Elise while deflecting Lady Kasteryn’s magical attacks. Elise was very good at straight swordwork, slightly better than Rhysa--when Rhysa could devote her full attention to physical combat. As it was, she hadn’t had so many training bruises since Lady Kasteryn had taken her beyond the basics of fighting. Elise was merciless in the practice ring, and Lady Kasteryn’s attacks had been just shy of truly damaging. It felt good to push herself to the limits, but as the rush faded after the workout, she began to feel how much damage she’d taken.

Rhysa smiled at Elise as they soaked their tired and sore muscles in the guests’ bathing chambers. They were in a large communal tub made to hold six people. Steam rose as Rhysa reheated the water with a brief touch of magic.

“Handy.” Elise sighed as she sank to her chin in the newly-heated water.

“Mmhmm.” Rhysa closed her eyes.

A comfortable silence descended.

Elise broke the silence with soft, wondering words. “I’ve never seen her push anyone so hard.”

“Lady Kasteryn?” Rhysa’s own voice was languid.

“Uh-huh.”

Rhysa shrugged, her eyes still closed.

“I’m serious.” There was a note in Elise’s voice that snapped Rhysa’s eyes open. Rhysa looked at Elise’s odd expression--admiration heavily laced with worry. “Before you arrived,” Elise continued, “she explicitly told me to hold nothing back except those techniques dangerous even under severely controlled practice. If she weren’t obviously a Master of combat, and if she didn’t have a reputation for never losing a pupil, I’d swear she was trying to break you.”

Rhysa shook her head slowly. “No. I don’t know why she’s doing it. She must think I need it, or will need it soon, to push this hard.” Rhysa thought for a moment. “She and the other two told me I was approaching my journey-period, maybe it has to do with that.”

“Huh.” Elise’s voice was skeptical. “You obviously didn’t expect me this morning. You probably don’t know Lady Kasteryn hired me for a couple of months.”

Rhysa sat up. “No. I didn’t know.” She smiled. “It’ll be good to have you around again.”

Elise returned her smile. “Actually, I’m only technically hired. It’s just to satisfy the guild. When I’m not actually training with someone, Lady Kasteryn told me I was to consider myself a guest.”

“That’s got to be odd: being a guest in the house you used to be a slave in.”

Elise laughed. “More than a little.”

Rhysa stretched and stood. “Speaking of old jobs, I’d better get down and grab some breakfast before they clean it up.”

Elise quickly reached up and grabbed Rhysa’s hand, stopping her from stepping out of the tub. “Oh, sit down. You can eat with me.” Elise grinned. “As I should know, guests eat anytime they wish.”

Rhysa looked down at Elise and smiled wistfully. Desire and responsibility warred in her breast. She’d just decided responsibility had to win, when the door opened and Lady Kasteryn strode through.

She walked up behind Rhysa and, with gentle pressure on her shoulders, pushed her back into the hot water. “Bryn, Jayse, and I discussed you two. We decided you should both have the day off.” Lady Kasteryn smiled. “Enjoy your free time.” Having delivered her short, surprising message, she turned and walked out.

Rhysa was flabbergasted. She’d earned the occasional extra rest day, but had never been given one. She looked at Elise who grinned back. “Huh. Guess they want us to get mischief out of our system before they start putting pressure on us.”

“I’m just worried what they’ll be using the extra time for. If this morning’s exercise was any indication--.” Rhysa’s sigh indicated the unspoken threat.

“Come on.” Elise stood. “Let’s go get dressed.”

Rhysa watched the water sheet off her friend. With a slight shift of mind, she saw the magical overlay giving the water a phosphorescent effect. Elise was beautiful, and the shimmering overlay highlighted her beauty. There was attraction between them, a tension they both enjoyed, though they’d never been lovers. Rhysa was glad about that. Although she would willingly go to bed with Elise, she definitely preferred men. As far as she could tell, Elise felt the same way. Goodness knows they’d given each other enough massages; Elise could have started something easily enough.

With an effort, Rhysa brought her mind back to the present and shifted her mind so the magical overlay was not visible. She stood and accepted the towel Elise offered. They dried themselves off in silence, and Rhysa saw Elise notice the crossed arrows of involuntary manumission for the first time. Elise paled, but said nothing, just walked to Rhysa and gently traced the lines of the arrows on her left arm. Rhysa was surprised to see tears fill Elise’s eyes.

“It happened shortly after you left.” Rhysa’s voice was low. “I want to talk to you about it, but not right now. I’m okay, mostly.” She looked into Elise’s eyes and smiled. “Let’s enjoy today. There are some things I want to do.”

Elise nodded and, with an obvious effort, shook off the encroaching gloom. “What is it you want to do?”

Rhysa put on her tunic, then walked with Elise to her friend’s room. As Elise dressed, Rhysa told her about her suspicions concerning the riot--not that there was more than a gut feeling the riot was the opening gambit in a deep laid game.

“I managed to avoid the riot,” said Elise. “I was on contract and my assignment took me out of the city.”

“It wasn’t pretty, and I suspect it was deliberately started. I’m not sure by whom, and I don’t know why. I have a feeling the answers are important.”

“Have you told the Trio, yet?”

“No. Not until I have something more concrete. They’d listen to me and trust my instincts, but there’s really nothing for them to work on. They’d only do what I’m doing now.”

“So what’s your next step?”

“I need to find out who benefited and how. And to do that, I need to reconstruct the aftermath of the riot: who was hurt or killed, what businesses were destroyed, who was arrested.”

“Sounds like a lot of legwork.”

“Only figuratively speaking. The city guard offices will have all the information. Our problem will be persuading them to give it to us.”

“I’m sure you’ll think of something.”

Rhysa snorted.

Elise innocently held up her hands, palms out. “I’m just a bodyguard.”

Rhysa snorted again. “Right. You know as well as I do how much research that entails.”

Elise grimaced. “Too true. I’ve always hated that part.”

“Yeah, well...I already know how I’m going to do it.”

“Oh?”

Rhysa grinned. “I’m going to get the Trio’s backing. Everyone knows those three mages collaborate a lot. So if I can get a formal request from Lady Kasteryn asking for the information, no one will be suspicious some of the information falls outside of Lady Kasteryn’s purview.

“Must be nice being the favored protégé of three peers of the realm.”

Rhysa made a face. “As far as the public is concerned, I answer solely to Lady Kasteryn.”

“I remember. Your plan should work.”

“Let’s see if Lady Kasteryn agrees.”

They found Lady Kasteryn in the library. She looked up from the book she was reading when they entered, and put it aside when she saw they wanted to speak with her. Rhysa told her of the project she had in mind, and what she needed from Lady Kasteryn.

Lady Kasteryn leaned back and thought for a minute. “Do you have any idea where this might lead?”

“No. I’m trying not to anticipate too much. I don’t want to miss something because it doesn’t fit my conclusions.”

Lady Kasteryn smiled. “Jayse would be proud.” She stood and walked to the sideboard serving as a writing desk. She selected paper and pen and ink. It took only a couple of minutes to write out the request. In silence, she handed it to Rhysa, who gave her a quick smile and took the written request.

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