There was less subtlety about the sed attempt. If they hadn’t figured out the drakes had been involved in the kidnapping of Edward Montague, they were dumber than I thought.

  It was still just Valit and his harp-pying friend, though, who dove out of the sky, heading right for the tower Lady Karsin called home. o let them know there was a third Drake involved. Yet.

  Valit collided first, cws sliding off the stone of the tower to his obvious frustration. R, he sprayed a golden stream of fire down onto the roof of the tower. That slid off as well, sent skimming along the tower’s surfato thin air, where it dissipated.

  He scrambled on the slippery surface, cws failing to find purchase. He beat his wings to stay aloft, cws trying to tear through unyielding stones. Above something formed in the sky, a blood-red circle that exparying to swallow all the sky outside its bounds.

  Silver darted through the edge of the circle, ripping it apart as the harp-pyer dove through. The spell struct crumpled, no longer joiogether, and the f red was what was devoured, the sky ing it instead.

  Down from a nearby rooftop, I watched as snakes of green emerged from the tower, only to be burnt away by Valit’s fmes as he tain at the tower.

  A few feet away, the third drake stood, not g if anyone saw him, idly mung away as if at the ival or a street performanbsp;

  To my irritation, all the Drake had brought with him was a tray full of fancy cheeses I had been told I want not allowed to take a bit off of.

  I’d inquired about if he’d brought a specific drink, only to get a choked ugh iurn.

  “The tea?” He asked, f down a chuckle. “The drugged tea we fed you to make you tell the truth only for you to spout it before it even worked?”

  I’d sidered that fad had only ohing to say in response.

  “If it’s not addictive, then yes. It tasted like liquid stars, and I’d appreciate the ce to taste it again.”

  We’d been waiting for things to kick off after no more idle chit-chat and he hadn’t even bothered to share his name.

  “He’s got good spirit, but I am gd we decided to alter the pn,” I said as Valit failed to breach the tain. “I don’t think evehree of you bined could force your way in.”

  The drake snorted. “No, we would have.”

  I waited for an expnation, but there was no eboration as he turned his attention back to the cheese.

  “Well, either way, I think this one works better,” I said. “I’m gd there were numents over it.”

  “He was aodating, but he wants your head still,” the Drake informed me. “Ohis is all done. He’ll have restraint, so you should be safe as long as you have a strong enough protector. The empire serves that purpose well enough. It’s big enough to get through his skull, at least.”

  “Sounds like you disagree?” I said, tinuing to watch Valit and the harp-pyer’s overt assault oower. By now, guards had emerged down below and were unloading rifles and pistols at the two drakes as they flew around. Their fire still failed to affect the tower’s defenses, and I’d made it clear no one should die from this, so there’d be no attag the guards.

  o make any potential backsh from this worse.

  “I don’t bme sgers for ag in their nature,” the Drake said. “Besides, you’ve been rather polite for one and at least someen about it. Also, it wasn’t my retive whose grave was robbed.”

  Ah. Yeah, that might expin this one’s retively x position.

  “Family is a tie that’s supposed to bind,” I said. “Never really stue, with one exception. My retives either despise me or want to exploit me for what I am. Everyone else seems to have that bond, even with people they, by all rights, should hate. Not me though. Still, not the worse fate. Nobody is going to manipute me the way we’re about to manipute Lady Karsin.”

  There was silence from the Drake, not even the mung of cheese as I watched the ongoing fight down below. Valit had ended his attempts to force open a hole in the wall, pulling back. Gathering spirits had tched onto his limbs, and I could see his scales darken as they tried to cut through.

  They failed, but he still flew away from the walls. They detached, a swarm of shadows f into a siendril that tried to around his f, but bursts of fire-breath drove them back. They fled to the safety of the Tower’s wards, still coiled and ready to stab out if he ventured closer. Meanwhile, more spells shed out from the ground below and the tower windows, bolts of lightning, bursts of fire, even ice spikes. Elemental assaults, the easiest to jure but they had the sheer mass to be a problem for Valit.

  The Drake finally spoke again.

  “Why would she care?” the Drake asked me as he grabbed another slice of cheese from the tray. “From what you’ve described, her son is nothing more than a cover, and she poisoned him to test this poison. Then there’s this cure that she had you test on him, personality-altering. Why would she care for the boy?”

  “Why would she adopt him in the first pce?” I asked, watg as Valit retreated further, r as spells scoured his fnks. His scales were holding for now, but he’d probably reached the limits of the firepower he could ehe harp-pyer was doing more than disrupting spells, having gone on a rampage through the gardens and surrounding structures. Lag the wards of the tower, Valit had badly damaged them. The gardens themselves were on fire now, exotits crag away.

  “She didn’t need an heir,” I tinued. “And I checked the records. Adopted when an infant, raised sihen. Long iment for that pn, assuming they even had it plotted out back then. And it presumes she was always the leader.”

  Admittedly, my grasp of the shape-gers anization was tenuous at best. Getting information from Hawkins was like pullih. The Bishop had dohing but pray since arriving in the Coffin, and the puddle of flesh Voltar and Dawes had caught steadfastly refused to ge from said puddle.

  “It feels like leadership is g,” I said. “I think the bishop being of Halspus helped me put it together. Why the Bck Fme was targeted, at least. They needed her help to make the pn work, so they gave it to her. Not that all leadership hierarchies are dictatorial, but other cross purposes indicate a ck of tral authority. They robbed my b for an iream despite the fact that it only helped tip me off and they didn’t he cash. Someone wao keep the scheme running to make money off the cures, despite them only needing to repce Edward Montague.”

  It made little sense any other way. The endgame was the Bck Fme, and myself being bmed, and presumably myself and some other key members executed. Push the idea that Versalicci would tihe poisoning scheme? Anyone who turned up with a cure would be suspected of being Bck Fme, no matter if they had no horns. Not a good way to earra cash unless you took it and moved elsewhere. Someone looking for a quick way to earn cash if they had to burn it all down here.

  Valit and the harp-pyer had left now, leaving the burning wreckage of Lady Karsie behind. Relieved defenders and shocked onlookers filled the ground in equal measure.

  “I am surprised he agreed to this,” I said. “Holy, I half expected him to just devour me like a rat when I suggested it.”

  The drake grunted. “He’s young. Still thinks he’s invincible. But I will suggest he and Malletearia perhaps take their honeymoon to the tryside this ing year after this.”

  Hrrm, that I hadn’t been told about. Not all that relevant, but you never knew what might be useful. Wonder where that put this one in terms of retions to them? Friend? Retive to the bride?

  “You should have brought more cheese,” I said. “This will take a while.”

  It did, as Lady Karsin’s servants got to work trying to dig out the ruined buildings and more people emerged from the tuards kept both the Watd the onlookers from entering the estate, and that brewed a small frontation demanding her dyship’s presence.

  A cart left a side gate, a tiny oh a single, bundled up driver, ao me the Drake tensed.

  “No,” I whispered. “It’s he first o.”

  “Unless someone sends one knowing everyone assumes it’s rue, first o,” the drake replied, turning his attention back to his cheese tray. Not much left on it, a quarter of what he’d started with. He’d turo rationing since I’d mentioned him needing more.

  “The first one is ,” I insisted. “Besides, we have someorailing it, in case it is. But you always have to at for those who will assume it’s the first one. She’ll panic, yes, because we’ve showed we have greater power than she hold off forever, but the danger isn’t immediate. She wait to send him away till ter in the day. Besides, she probably has her hands full, making sure no one died.”

  That st word was more a question than anything else, and the drake snorted.

  “Valit is impetus, but he is not a fool, Infernal,” he said. “No one in service to the murdered died. Inured, perhaps, but they should have known that before choosing to serve a viliness.”

  A retort that people rarely thought those they worked for were evil formed, but I dismissed it. I did not want to get involved in a debate over morality with a Drake.

  We waited. Another pair of wago, much rger, but both packed with injured. Not any dead yet. Probably not iher of those. The injuries weren’t faked, and she’d want petent prote.

  The fifth cart, though, whearted taking rubble out? Me and the drake teleported to follow that one.

  “Could you simply not spray them with fire?” The drake asked me.

  “No,” I said. “Fire spreads could harm the boy. Also, demonic corruption could make something that could kill the boy. Since I want him alive, no diabolism. Or alchemist’s fire.”

  “Ah, so yht me here to be the muscle,” the drake said sardonically.

  Actually, I’d brought him here to act as my taxi service. Once I’d found out he could teleport, it cut out so much legwork that would normally be involved in this step. The wagon traveled at a slow enough pace I could have followed on the rooftops easily enough, but not having to race across them was a relief.

  “You don’t o assist me if you think it beh you,” I said. “Mind you, if I die and the boy gets away, I doubt Valit would be too happy.”

  I couldn’t tell if the drake’s solid color eyes rolled or not, but his body nguage gave the impression. “Yes, yes Infernal. I do not o be instructed on how he’ll react if his ce for revenge slips through his fingers. In front of the cart?”

  “Fifty feet,” I said, and in a blur of blue and vanished sensations, I was there oreet.

  I moved quickly, drawing my revolver.

  “Off the wagon!” I anded, and the driver shakily nodded, letting go of the reins and holding his hands up. He jumped off, then moved to the left as I waved my revolver that way.

  I moved towards the wagon, a wary eye on it, only for the driver to luowards me.

  I turned swiftly, revolver ready, but the damage was done. A rge, hulking figure emerged from the wagon, a man the size of an orc.

  Oh, it was Lord Montague’s bodyguard. What a shock-

  A meaty fist rammed into my stomach, driving the breath out of my lungs and me off the wagon.

  Shuddering, I fell to the ground, gasping for air as the enhanced human dropped down to the grouo me. It shook as both feet hit the ground, and I could see his face impassively look down at me as a foot lifted. The bottoms of his boots were steel.

  I sucked a breath in and rolled to the side as the boot came down. It rammed into the stohe street surface splintering. Little bits pelted me, but I just tinued rolling and then scrambled to my feet.

  He swung another fist my way, and I backpedaled as it passed right in front of my nose. My chest and stomach still hurt where he’d punched, a cough trying to force its my throat. I couldn’t grapple. He had height, reach, and definitely muscle. And good form as he kept ing, jabs that could break my neck keeping me moving away from the wagon.

  I still had the revolver, but every time I tried to raise it, a punch threateo tear it from my hands.

  The drake raised his arm up to gesture, only funshot to echo as someone opened fire from within the wagon. He roared far louder than human-sized lungs should allow as it punched a hole into his wrist.

  “We need him alive!” I yelled, then ducked as another jab came for my jaw.

  Fuck this. My tail grabbed a knife from within my coat, slig at his fist as the jab came. My other hand grabbed a vial as he yelled in pain, fingers loosening as the cut tendons came into py.

  Human tendons for te hands. Shoddy work like I’d spotted all the way back at Hell’s Own. His other hand was ing for me and I met it with my own, the vial of acid between them.

  Flesh bubbled and hissed ah screamed, but I kept my focus. Ko the knee, angling through the oversized flesh to where even enrged boruggled to keep weight up. An injured arm came up to try to e and I intercepted with my jaw. My teeth bit down, slig into thick flesh.

  Another scream as I pulled the hammer bay revolver and stuck it under his . A sirigger pull ter and his struggles ceased as he slumped down.

  The Drake was busy with the fool who had shot him with a bullet capable of hurting him. She floated in mid-air, trying to draw breath and failing, brown hair floating as if uer.

  I ighem, making for the wagon. No one else moved inside, and I quickly searched its interior.

  Demond Karsin y he bottom, deeply asleep. Probably sedation. A quick check with my hand for Biosculpting turned up nothing, and a poke with a small life-essenfused wand caused no respo was him.

  Excellent. I grabbed him and pulled him out of his co as he whimpered slightly. I checked his vitals quickly, and firming they were good, went back out.

  Back outside, the Drake looked ptuously at the two dead guards as well as the still-quivering an.

  “Do you want this one dead?” he asked mildly, and the an fainted.

  “No, her finding out isn’t an issue,” I said. “The preparations are plete. We just o do the most important part now.”

  “That being?” the Drake asked with a raised brow.

  I grinned, grabbing the reins of the wagon. “Tea party.”