Chapter 13

guilty—she’d already made up her mind—and that she could wheedle some

artifact’s location from you. And that you would spend the rest of your days

moldering in their temple dungeon.”

Jev wanted to say that what she believed didn’t matter because it wasn’t

the truth, but he paused. As an Order inquisitor, she had the power to act as

judge over him, to proclaim him guilty. Her mind magic should have allowed

her to see the truth in his thoughts, especially if he cooperated, but… hadn’t

he sensed that she had something against him from the start? Maybe her

beliefs wouldn’t have allowed her to see the truth.

“Better to be free,” Cutter said. “Leave them here, and you can go

investigate on your own. Find out what’s going on, why you’re being

blamed.”

“Yes,” Lornysh said. “Find evidence to show that you are innocent. Or

better yet, find their missing artifact, and return it to them if that is wise.”

“You wouldn’t be able to do that if you were stuck in a dungeon, Jev, and

we wouldn’t know where to start looking. This is your land. I’d be lucky if I

could find my beard with my own hands here.”

Jev rubbed the back of his neck again. It bolstered him that his comrades

assumed he was innocent without truly having a way to know, but he wasn’t

sure this was a wise course of action. Still, they were right that he wouldn’t be

able to figure out what was going on if he ended up incarcerated in the bowels

of a temple. He grimaced at the idea of being stuck there until his father heard

and came to bail him out. Assuming the mages would even allow that. Would

they? His father had power, but the sway of the zyndar wasn’t what it once

had been. Even in his youth, that had been true. And who knew how much

had changed back here in the last ten years?

“Also,” Lornysh said, “you should take us somewhere where we can

bathe. Especially Cutter.”

“You don’t smell any better than I do, elf,” Cutter said.

“I bathe in the ocean when I get a chance. I’m positive I’m less aromatic

than you.”

“You just smell like seaweed and fish piss instead of good wholesome

dirt.”

“Dirt is not what you smell like.”

Cutter growled.

Though he was more concerned about the injured women at their feet than

anyone’s cleanliness, Jev bestirred himself to ask, “Will we find it easier to

prove my innocence if we’re clean?”

“Undoubtedly,” Lornysh said, sounding like he meant it.

“All right,” Jev said, “but we’re not leaving a monk or inquisitor bleeding

in an alley. Help me carry them to the hospital.”

He gathered the inquisitor in his arms, leaving the stockier and more muscled monk to Lornysh. He deserved the heavier load. Cutter picked up the

monk’s fallen bo.

“This isn’t how I imagined my first encounter in years with a woman

going,” Jev said, worried by the blood on the side of Zenia’s face.

He thought about taking the women to the hospital run by the Water Order

but foresaw all manner of problems if he showed up there when he was a

wanted man. Especially with an unconscious inquisitor in his arms.

Jev set a brisk pace toward a kingdom-run hospital he knew of that was

only a half mile away.

“Years?” Cutter asked, walking beside him, keeping up even with his

shorter legs. “There were camp followers. And those human gypsy women

who risk elven ire by strolling around and exploring their continent.”

“Zyndar officers aren’t supposed to sleep with camp followers and

random gypsies.”

“Oh? Did anyone tell Captain Thash that? Or Lieutenant Herringbone? Or

Captain—”

“They weren’t heading Gryphon Company and in charge of gathering

intelligence.” Jev glanced back to make sure Lornysh was following with the

monk. He was. Good. “They wouldn’t have spewed crucial information to the

enemy if they’d been drugged by some spy masquerading as a camp

follower.”

“In other words, you’re horny and would already be looking for a woman

if we hadn’t been detained.”

Jev felt his expression growing wistful, though not for the reasons Cutter

suggested. The only woman he’d thought he would sleep with for the rest of

his life had married someone else.

The narrow street opened up into a wide boulevard, and the hospital came

into sight, and Jev’s shoulders loosened in relief. He just hoped the Water

Order hadn’t also told the city watch that he was to be arrested.

“Elf!”

Jev tensed anew at the cry from across the street. He had expected it, but

he’d vainly hoped they might drop off the women and escape the city before

someone noticed Lornysh. Unfortunately, the bright afternoon sun didn’t

leave many shadows for Lornysh—or his ears—to hide in.

More cries arose as men and women pointed fingers in their direction. Jev

glanced at Lornysh, but as usual, his face gave away little. He strode at Jev’s

side toward the hospital.

“Get the watch!” someone cried. “Hurry!”

“Doesn’t look like they’re inclined to like you, Lorn,” Cutter remarked.

“Dwarf!” someone else yelled, the alarmed cry holding the same fervor as

the previous ones.

“Huh?” Cutter asked. “They can’t object to my people, can they? We cut