Then Tari’s shriek tore into the silence.
30
My specter roared toward the surface but I tugged it back. I had to breathe. I had to think.
“You said it was empty!” Goren yelled.
“It was,” Osana replied in disbelief. “She must have come in after us.”
Another bout of scrambling, and Tari released a cry of struggle. I reached for the knife at my hip.
“What’s your name?” Dashiel coaxed.
Tari cursed in Bormian.
“What did she say?” asked Osana.
Lye grumbled, “I shouldn’t repeat it.” Then his voice curled out softly in Tari’s native language.
“I speak the common tongue, fool,” she snapped.
“Then answer the question,” Goren said.
Tari didn’t get the chance to.
I stepped from the shadows and stood behind the smallest figure. I gripped the knife steadily, my thumb on the handle’s spine as Keil had taught me. And I pressed the blade to Osana’s back.
She stiffened. The wholeroomstiffened, the three men training their attention on me.
“Lockpicker,” Lye breathed.
Goren’s eyes flashed. He had Tari’s arms pinned behind her—the tallest girl I knew, and she looked impossibly fragile in his hold.
Dashiel straightened. “Lady Alissa.”
Tari’s eyes went saucer-wide. “You know them?”
“Release her,” I said to Dashiel. “Now.”
“And if I don’t?” Goren answered instead.
I pushed the knife as far as I dared, and Osana hissed.
“Release her,” I repeated.
Lye glanced between us, one hand hovering over his bandolier. Then Dashiel let out a relenting breath, and I automatically reduced pressure on the knife.
Osana spun. She twisted the knife from my grip and slammed me against the curved wall so hard that my teeth rattled. She barred my throat with a forearm, and pain lanced across my bruised skin.
“Let her go,” Dashiel boomed.
“Do you know what your family did to the Wielders in that wagon?” Osana growled. “Maybe I should demonstrate.”
My eyes watered as she increased pressure on my neck. I kicked at her, but she knocked my knee down with a slam of her specter. Tari screamed my name.
Then the pressure lifted.
I gasped, hands flying to my throat.
