The Rogue Guardian

Chapter 79: Watcher

It was a strange day, I thought. Warm but gray, the cloud cover swirling unpredictably. The scent of rain hung heavy over the city but the skies refused to open. It felt like anything could happen.

It was not a comforting feeling.

Joshua and I entered the capital on horseback. Our stolen mail boat had been left at the nearest town on the Mitrove's banks, a few hours away by land, so it wouldn't be recognized and reclaimed by some government official. Once our work was done we'd ride back to the town and take it back to Maenar. If I was lucky, Nemia would be with us.

"What's your plan?" I asked Joshua as we dismounted at a stable.

"I'm not sure," he admitted. "An ambassador isn't an easy target, and I'm a little more recognizable than I'd like to be for sneaking around. I'll take look around first, confirm how I want to get into the castle, and then let's meet up somewhere in the evening to get on the same page. Are you good to do it tonight?"

"The sooner the better." It was a strange, shivery feeling to think that just hours from now I would be committing, or at least assisting in, a murder. Or a well-deserved assassination. And hopefully before that I'd learn what had happened to Jaden.

This was it. Today I was confronting Aiden and then Iso and if neither of them were responsible, I would stay and interrogate every suspect I could think of. Tobias, Magali, every shady person in the match house. Joshua didn't know that, of course. He wouldn't approve of me staying behind to investigate when we should be escaping the crime scene as quickly as possible. But I had already decided I wasn't leaving the capital again without knowing once and for all.

"I'll have to sneak into the castle somehow to speak to Nemia anyway," I said, "so I may as well do that right before we... take care of things."

"You have a strange way of viewing an assassination like one more errand you have to fit in," Joshua deadpanned, "but fine. I'll leave ten minutes for your reunion in the plan."

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The Black Horse had a new sign. I had to stare at it for a moment to be sure — after all, it had been a while. But the old, scarred wooden sign with its carved feather in the corner had been replaced.

There was no feather on this one. No sign of the Phoenix.

It occurred to me that I'd known Ysmay and Aiden had their differences, and I'd suspected Aiden resented having any higher authority trying to control him, but this seemed a little drastic. Or was I reading into it? Maybe the inn just needed a new sign. Maybe having the feather as a symbol was too obvious and Aiden took it down for... safety reasons.

I couldn't quite believe that. I wondered if I should have brought Joshua along for backup, before shaking it off.

Right, like I needed Joshua for backup.

It probably wasn't that bad.

I pulled up the hood of my cloak and stepped inside. The main room was almost empty of patrons at this time of day, less full and smoky than I remembered it being during those loud, crowded nights after the match house fights. I felt only a few curious stares on my back as I went right up the stairs. The less time there was to recognize me, the better.

The upstairs hallway felt darker and more closed in than usual, with every door shut tight and for once no murmurs of conversation bleeding through the walls. Only Aiden's office at the end of the hall had light showing through the bottom crack.

I went up to it and put my hand on the knob, but muffled voices from within halted me before I did anything. Aiden and... a woman, it sounded like. I wasn't sure who it was, though her voice seemed familiar. It was was too low to be Nali's, though, and Dell, Aiden's spymaster, was still in Maenar assisting Roman with interrogating Caer. Or at least she had been assisting, and was now probably running around trying to catch him. I didn't regret helping Caer escape, but I did feel a little bad that his disappearance would worry Ysmay and the others.