Instead, he pulled the blade free and stepped away. He was trained to kill, but he wished he’d taken this man captive. Still, there was no time for second thoughts. “One down,” he called, “and now I’m armed. If you have a full patrol in there, stand and fight, and we’ll see who wins. But if there’s less of you than that . . .”
Theos could almost smell his opponent’s fear, and when he heard movement, he knew the intruder was heading out the back door, trying to escape.
Theos didn’t want to kill anyone else, but he’d be damned if he’d let the man go free. So he sprinted, arriving at the back door just as it was opening, and wrapped his arm around the man’s neck—quick and tight, at just the right angle. The enemy struggled, of course, bringing his arm up to stab ineffectively over his shoulder. Theos lowered his head, felt the knife puncture his scalp and bounce off his skull, and then the struggling body collapsed, so suddenly heavy it almost dragged Theos to the floor.
He held the choke hold for an extra couple of seconds to ensure the man was out, then released him. Moonlight shone through the open door on to the man’s unconscious face.
Familiar, but not intimate. Torian, but not Sacrati. Theos had probably seen the man around, maybe even trained with him, but they’d never gotten drunk together. Never fucked, he was pretty sure. So that was something.
He heaved the man onto his back and carried him to the room where he’d left the Elkati. His stomach sank when he saw the empty space, but before it had even hit bottom he noticed a darker shadow in a gap between the large desk and the wall. The boy must have gotten partly loose somehow and worked his way into a hiding spot. He was still in the building though, and still alive: Theos knew what death smelled like, and there was none of its stench in the room.
“Elkati,” he barked. “Worm your way out of there. I have someone to share your bonds.”
The boy didn’t move.
“If I have to drag you, I’m going to drive my knife into your thigh and use it as a handle.”
After a moment’s hesitation, the dark shape began squirming from its cave. An obedient Elkati and a live Torian prisoner. Theos’s luck was improving.
Chapter Thirteen
Of course, everything went wrong when his mother and the captain arrived.
“There’s a body in my foyer,” Photina growled at Theos. “That’s a problem.”
Theos shrugged. “It’s not mine.”
“Not yourbody, or not yourproblem?”
“Neither.” He watched Photina light the wall lamps, then he walked over and put the dead man’s knife on the desk in front of Tamon. “He was carrying this. It’s well-balanced, but there’s nothing special about it that I could see. Typical Torian blade.”
The captain spoke slowly. “You killed a Torian.”
Aye, that was the part Theos had been trying not to think about. “He attacked me; I had no choice.” That had to be true. “The other one tried to get away, so he’s still alive.” Theos gestured toward the two men tied back-to-back on the floor at the far end of the room. “He returned to himself a while ago, though he’s pretending to still be knocked out. He’s Torian too, but I don’t know his name. He’s not Sacrati.” And that was all he had to report. At least about therecentevents. “Photina told you about the spy?”
“She did.” He frowned at the two bound men. “I wonder if it’s time to include our Elkati visitor in the conversation.”
“Not if you want to hear anything useful or truthful,” Theos said with a bitter laugh. “If you want to be lied to, though? Absolutely. He’s your man.”
“I was thinking that I’d be the one doing the talking,” the captain said. He looked at Theos, then shook his head. “No. You first, and then I’ll move on to him. Secure the door so no one can get in while we’re busy, and we’ll go into the inner office.” He paused and glanced in Photina’s direction. “With your leave.”
She nodded, and Theos shoved the large desk over in front of the door. A strong man might be able to get the door open with the desk there, but not without making enough noise to alert the whole city.
Tamon nodded his satisfaction and stood aside for Photina to lead the way into her office. Theos followed. Now that he had the chance to learn the truth, he wondered if ignorance might not be better.
But it was too late for that, so he shut the door behind himself and leaned against it, waiting. Photina scowled at him, then at Tamon. “Don’t you train your men to stand up straight?”
“I train my men to conserve energy whenever they’re not using it productively.”
That had sounded almost like he was defending Theos. Was he more sympathetic than he’d seemed?
Tamon smiled regretfully at him. “This is frustrating for all of us,” he said. “But you’ve had it a little worse, maybe, because we haven’t given you the full story. I think it’s time we changed that.”
It was wellpasttime, but it probably wouldn’t do him any good to point it out right then. So he kept quiet.
Tamon squinted at him. “You’ve never been back east, have you? Never seen the capital, or the cities in the central valleys? Never seen the way people live there?”
“No,” Theos said cautiously. He was a warrior, and the best place for a warrior was at the battlefront. He might have passed through the central valleys on the way to the far borders, if he’d chosen that adventure, but he’d always found enough to keep him busy in the west.
