“Looking is not spending! Anyway, the tips I earned at Aunty Djeneba’s aren’t enough to buy a single ribbon in any of those shops.”
“Kofi is going to set Aunty straight about what happened. I hope you don’t blame them.”
“I admire their loyalty to you. What an awful moment that was, though—”
I broke off as Vai halted. Ahead rose the gate and its watch lamps. A red-haired man stood beside wardens in the shadow of the gate, looking at us. The guard lamps flared as in a gust of oily wind. Vai released my hand and raised his. A slap of heat made the air snap. Vai closed his hand, and the sting vanished as though swallowed. The hilt of my sword trembled, tasting cold magic.
“Stay next to me,” he said. With a brisk stride he closed the gap, me beside him. The lamp flames shrank as if losing fuel.
Drake wore the half smile of a man anticipating a long-awaited treat. “Andevai Diarisso Haranwy, you are under arrest—”
“I am a representative of Four Moons House, a magister of the Diarisso lineage. You have no grounds nor means to arrest me.”
“We’ll see about that.” The lamp flames leaped as the air crackled with heat.
Vai curled both hands into fists, and the lamps guttered out. “If you can’t do better than that, you shouldn’t even try.”
Drake took a step toward him. “You’re under arrest as an unregistered fire bane. Which you’ve just let every warden here see. How do you like that, you bastard?”
“I am not a bastard,” said Vai so icily I knew Drake’s words had truly angered him, “and I will give you one chance to apologize to my mother for even suggesting it. Then you’ll know why you should not try to play these games with me.”
Drake’s grin flashed with a burst of fury. “Fucking arrogant bastard. See how you like fire.”
A furnace heat shimmered out of nowhere like a blast of scalding wind. Flames caught on a passing wagon. The poor mules harnessed to it—Blessed Tanit! the very mules who had hidden our kiss!—began to kick and buck in the harness as the wagoner leaped off the driver’s bench with a string of panicked curses. How did Drake dare release so much fire?
A fiery glow writhed around Vai’s form.
Blessed Tanit! Drake was using Vai as a catch-fire to fuel the flames. He was going to burn him up alive! I leaped forward and punched Drake right up under the jaw with the handle of my cane. He went down hard.
“Vai, douse the wagon!” I cried as I jabbed the blunt end of my cane against Drake’s chest.
Onlookers had already run to try to help the frantic wagoner unhitch the mules, but the wild kicking of the beasts forced them back. My sword’s blade pulsed as cold magic bloomed. Flames vanished into thready smoke. I twisted the hilt and drew the blade. As Drake pushed up, I caught the tip in the cloth of his jacket.
I would have stabbed him. I almost ran him through, thinking of the way that glow had lit Vai’s body. But Vai had said Drake was an unusually powerful fire mage. So I had to spare him in case I needed him to save Bee.
Yet Drake must have seen the killing lust in my expression, because he flopped back down.
Vai appeared beside me, seemingly untouched by the backlash of Drake’s magic. His brown gaze met Drake’s blue one.
Men can have a way of looking at each other that is itself a surge of heat and cold warring.
Noble Ba’al! I had been quite mistaken: Drake had never been specifically interested in me, had he? Through me, he had taken a petty but predictable revenge on the cold mage who had treated him so scornfully, man to man, in the entry hall of the law offices of Godwik and Clutch.
Remarkably pretty. Had I really fallen for that line? Twice?
“I am still waiting for that apology,” said Vai.
Despite my blade pressed against his shoulder, Drake did not bother to look at me. He sneered at Vai. “You shall be waiting for that apology just as long as you shall be waiting to find out your wife is not a whore.”
Vai drew his sword so quickly it took a breath for a satisfying expression of fear to sweep Drake’s face. I would have enjoyed his fear longer, but I had to speak fast.
“Vai, don’t do it. We need him alive.”
Vai exhaled as he closed a fist around his emotions and choked them down.
“You’re right, love,” he said coolly, sheathing his blade. “His apology would be worthless anyway. Come. I know General Camjiata is eager to meet with a mage who is actually trained and effective. Just as my wife was eager to bed a man who could actually give her pleasure.”
Lips pinched and eyes narrowed, Drake raised a hand. “Now I take you down.”