Shadowdance 01 - A Dance of Cloaks

feud with Lord Gandrem, the current ruler of much of the lands north of Veldaren, she’d never heard of the Kulls’ attempt on her father’s safe houses in Riverrun. If she had, she’d have seen Yoren’s courting in a whole new light.
    “My lord, a visitor requests an audience,” said a guard as he poked his head in through the flap.
    “What’s his name?” asked Theo.
    “Her,” the guard said, looking a little flustered. “And she says she has no name.”
    Theo let out a humorless chuckle.
    “Send her in.”
    Alyssa felt a bit of hope as one of the faceless women entered. She was fully clad in her black and purple wrappings, her face a mask of white cloth. By her build, Alyssa recognized her as Eliora.
    “I have come to listen,” the woman said.
    “Listen?” asked Theo. “To what?”
    “She means she needs orders,” Yoren said. All three watched as shadows seemed to curl off her firm body and fade away like smoke.
    “Yes, well, we’d have those ready for you if we weren’t always being interrupted by bothersome women,” Theo said. “First Alyssa, now you. Well, since we’re all here, let us get down to business. Maynard’s got to go. Before he does, we need to find a way to reinstate Alyssa as the lawful heir to the Gemcroft estate.”
    “Wills covered with blood are rarely followed,” Eliora said.
    “I know that,” Theo said. “I’m a Kull, not an idiot.”
    Alyssa thought they were one and the same and had to feign coughing to hide her laughter.
    “There is another way,” Yoren said. “The rest of the Trifect won’t dare let one of its members appear weak for very long. If we kill Maynard and then march on their mansion, the others will make sure the matter is settled quickly and quietly. Who’ll give a fuck if he wrote her out of his will? She’s his own daughter, the last of his flesh and blood. There’s a thousand ways we can discredit his death wishes.”
    “A good plan, though almost insulting in its simplicity,” said Theo. “I have only a hundred swords here in my name. When could we possibly storm the estate successfully? We number only one-fifth of his house guards. I can’t even guess how many more mercenaries he also has on retainer.”
    “When the head is gone, the body can only thrash for so long,” said Eliora.
    “We have a philosopher,” Yoren said dryly.
    “Is that an offer?” Theo asked. Eliora shrugged.
    “We promised to do so once. We can do so again.”
    “You also failed once,” said Theo. “Can you do
that
again?”
    The shadows flared around her body. Alyssa wished she could back away from the two men. The faceless were dangerous, and to insult their professional pride and ability seemed beyond rash.
    “We will not fail,” Eliora said. “Tell me when you will strike and I will tell my sisters.”
    Theo scratched his chin.
    “There’s only one time I can think of that we can catch the old goat unaware.”
    “When?” asked Alyssa, unable to stop herself.
    Theo’s grin belonged on a bear more than a human.
    “The Kensgold,” he said.

CHAPTER
15
    T he king was waiting for him when Gerand arrived.
    “What plans for today, Crold?” Edwin Vaelor asked as he made his fifth attempt at tying his elaborate sash correctly. Gerand frowned at his fumbling attempts, and when it was clear the king would do no better on his sixth, the advisor reached out and set the sash correctly.
    “A few squabbles among farmers and some petty lords from the Northern Plains,” said Gerand. “The troubles from Angelport will be a bit more difficult.”
    “Angelport? What’s bothering Lord Murband now? He has no rivals in the entire Ramere, not a single bloody count or noble to bicker over his territory.”
    “But he has the elves,” Gerand said. “And you know how much he likes to talk up their threat.”
    The king sighed as he slipped a gaudy necklace of gold and rubies over his neck. The Ramere was isolated in the far southeast of Dezrel, tucked in between the Erze Forest, the Quellan Forest, and the Crestwall Mountains. Lord Ingram Murband owned everything there from the Thulon Ocean to the Kingstrip, yet he complained more than any of the other lords. And it was always about the blasted elves.
    “Don’t they insist they’re our allies? Granted, I have no trust in their claims. No one lies like an elf, right?”
    “Too true,” Gerand said dryly. “However, Ingram claims that the Quellan elves have begun shooting arrows at his