Part 3 (1/2)
Bo looked as if he'd been slapped. ”What do you mean?”
Adamat felt instant guilt at giving Bo any false sense of hope. ”Well, let's at least confirm Hilanska's story before you go into mourning. Taniel may be a Kez captive, or he may have escaped, or...” He trailed off. Bo regarded him with suspicious skepticism.
”Why the optimism?” Bo asked. ”Shouldn't you be hoping that Taniel's dead so we can go about finding your boy? Or are you just afraid that I'll go back on my word?”
Adamat was afraid that Bo would go back on his word. ”Something is bothering me about Hilanska. The maps on his table.” Adamat pictured them in his mind, turned them around, and considered them before speaking. ”The only experience I have with battle planning is from my time at the academy, but I'd bet my pension that Hilanska is planning on sandwiching Ket's force between his own and the Kez.”
”It would be sound reasoning on his part,” Bo said.
”Not if he's trying to reunite the brigades, as he claims.”
Bo shrugged and looked off into the distance, his face sullen.
”Bo,” Adamat said. ”Bo!” He reached around and grabbed Bo by the front of his jacket, turning them face-to-face. Bo jerked his jacket out of Adamat's hands and stepped back. Adamat followed him forward and slapped Bo across the face.
A thrill of fear went up his spine. He'd just slapped a Privileged. Holy pit. What had he done? ”Pull yourself together,” he said, trying not to let his voice quake.
Bo's mouth hung open, one Privileged glove in his hand ready to be pulled over his fingers. ”I've killed men for less.”
”You have?”
”Well. I've thought about it. I'm sure other Privileged have. You have seconds to tell me why you thought that necessary.”
”Because we have a duty here. This is bigger than one man. This is the fate of our family and our friends and our country.”
”You don't understand why I'm here, do you, Inspector?” Bo said. ”I'm here because Taniel Two-shot is my only friend. He's my only family. Privileged normally do not have the luxury of either, and I'll be d.a.m.ned if you think this country means more to me than that.”
Adamat took a deep breath, relieved that Bo didn't try to kill him then and there. He whispered, ”If Hilanska butchers these proceedings, my children will wind up as slaves to the Kez. I have to try and make sure that doesn't happen. If the best way to do that is to help you find your friend, then so be it. You need to get a hold of yourself and discreetly ask around about Taniel. I'm going to look into Hilanska.”
Bo blinked several times, taking shaky breaths, and seemed to regain some of his composure. ”We're forgetting the mercenaries.”
The turn of conversation was so quick it took Adamat a moment to catch up. Of course. The Wings of Adom, the mercenary company in the employ of Adro. They should have had several brigades on the front. Adamat pictured Hilanska's map once more, looking for the flags: a saint's halo with gold wings. There they were, up in the corner. ”They're camped about ten miles from here. Probably trying to keep out of this internal spat.”
”Smart of them.”
Bo flexed his jaw and stuffed his Privileged glove back into his pocket. ”Start asking around. Find something out, and do it quickly. Or I'm going to go back in there and question Hilanska my way.”
”Are you all right?”
”My cheek is a little sore.”
”I meant about Taniel.”
Bo looked as if he'd swallowed something sour. ”A moment of weakness, that's all. I'll be fine. And Adamat...?”
”Yes?”
”If you lay your hands on me again, I'll turn you inside out.”
CHAPTER.
4.
Nila waited beside the carriage for Bo and Adamat to return from their meeting with General Hilanska.
Downhill from her a small stream wound its way through the camp, its banks muddied from the tramp of a thousand boots. Nila watched as a laundress filled a bucket with the dirty water and hauled it back to her fire, where the uniforms of half a dozen soldiers sat piled on her bench. The woman filled her was.h.i.+ng pot with the water and sat back to wait for it to boil, drawing a soiled hand across her brow.
A different choice sometime in the last few months and Nila knew that might have been her. She glanced down at her hands. For years they had been cracked and worn by the soap, water, and lye she'd used to do laundry. Now they seemed remarkably smooth to the touch and, Bo told her, they would be put to better use.
A Privileged. She still couldn't believe it, not even after seeing the fire spring from her own fingertips the first time and during all their practice since.
Privileged were creatures of great cunning and strength. They commanded the elements and made armies quake. It seemed so cra.s.s that a laundress without family or connections could suddenly hold such power.
She couldn't help but feel cheated as well. Had she known it lay dormant within her, she might have used that power to escape from Vetas or to protect the royalists. Nila clenched her fist and felt a slight warmth on the back of her hand-fire, blue and white, dancing across her knuckles as if they were at the center of a hearth. Glancing around to see if anyone had noticed, she shook her hand to put out the fire and then hid it behind her back.
She thought about her time with the royalists and remembered Rozalia, the Privileged who had fought for them. Had Rozalia sensed the latent power within Nila and simply chosen not to mention it? Or had she been kind to her for some other reason? Would Nila become like her someday-old, wise, and powerful? Would people be nervous around her as she had been nervous around Rozalia?
”Risara!”
Nila emerged from deep within her own thoughts, and it took her a moment to remember that was the name she was using as she pretended to be a secretary to Bo-who himself was masquerading as a lawyer. She turned her head to see him hurrying toward her from across the camp. There was an urgency to his step that concerned her.
”Did you find Taniel?”
”No.” Bo took her by the arm and stepped around to the far side of the carriage, where they were less likely to be overheard. ”General Hilanska says that Taniel's dead.”
The dispa.s.sionate way Bo spoke the words made her step back. Taniel had been his obsession ever since he had taken her and Jakob under his wing. His only friend, he claimed. He had been searching for Taniel for months now with a pa.s.sion that Nila had found inspiring. And now this? Bo could be distant at times, even cold, but this...
”There's something else?” she asked.
”We're going to find out for sure. Adamat thinks there's a chance he's still alive, and Hilanska is only one man.”
Nila realized he wasn't dispa.s.sionate-he was dazed.
”Where do we stand?”
”Hilanska has dismissed us, but I'm not leaving until I can confirm that Taniel is dead. I want a body or a grave or something more than just Hilanska's word. I'll even go to the Kez camp if I have to. Adamat is corroborating Hilanska's story with the soldiers. I'm going to do the same.” He paused and looked her up and down. ”This will be dangerous. If Hilanska finds out who I am, I may be killed outright-along with you, Adamat, Oldrich, and his men.”
”Just for impersonating a lawyer?”
A smile tugged at the corner of Bo's face, but he stifled it quickly. ”I'm serious. Hilanska doesn't like or trust Privileged. He's a man with something to hide, and the mere fact that we're snooping around is going to gain his suspicion. He's like Tamas-he'll do what's expedient. Even if it means killing a whole lot of people.”
”That seems like something you would respect.”
”And I can respect it by not letting him know what I really am. Or what you are, for that matter.” He glanced down at her hands and fell into a long silence. He had told her that no Privileged but the G.o.ds could touch the Else without runed gloves to keep them from being burned from the inside out by pure sorcery.