The Ambassador’s Mission: Book One of the Traitor Spy Trilogy Read Free Page B

Thief Hunter.”
    “He’s real then?”
    “So Skellin believes.” Cery shrugged. They crossed the road and began striding back toward Wildways. “That wasn’t the oddest thing, though.”
    “Oh?”
    “He asked if Akkarin taught me magic.”
    Gol paused. “That isn’t
that
odd, though. Faren did hide Sonea before he handed her over to the Guild, in the hopes she would do magic for him. Skellin must have heard all about it.”
    “Do you think he’d like to have his own pet magician?”
    “Sure. Though he obviously wouldn’t want to hire you, seeing as you’re a Thief. Perhaps he thinks he can ask favours of the Guild through you.”
    “I told him I hadn’t seen Sonea in years.” Cery chuckled. “Next time I see her, I might ask if she’ll help out one of my Thief friends, just to see the look on her face.”
    A figure appeared in the alley ahead, hurrying toward them. Cery noted the possible exits and hiding places around them.
    “You should tell her Skellin was making enquiries,” Gol advised. “He might try to recruit someone else. And it might work. Not all magicians are as incorruptible as Sonea.” Gol slowed. “That’s … That’s Neg.”
    Relief that it wasn’t another attacker was followed by concern. Neg had been guarding Cery’s main hideout. He preferred it to roaming the streets, as open spaces made him jittery.
    The guard had seen them. Neg was panting as he reached them. Something on his face caught the light, and Cery felt his heart drop somewhere far below the level of the street. A bandage.
    “What is it?” Cery asked, in a voice he barely recognised as his.
    “S … sorry,” Neg panted. “Bad news.” He drew in a deep breath, then let it out explosively and shook his head. “Don’t know how to tell you.”
    “Say it,” Cery ordered.
    “They’re dead. All of them. Selia. The boys. Never saw who. Got past everything. Don’t know how. No lock broken. When I came to …” As Neg babbled on, apologising and explaining, words running over themselves, a rushing sound filled Cery’s ears. His mind tried to find some other explanation for a moment.
He must be mistaken. He’s hit his head and is delusional. He dreamed it.
    But he made himself face the likely truth. What he had dreaded – had nightmares over – for years had happened.
    Someone had made it past all the locks and guards and protections, and murdered his family.

CHAPTER 2
QUESTIONABLE CONNECTIONS
    I t was much earlier than her usual waking time. Dawn was still some hours away. Sonea blinked in the darkness and wondered what had woken her. A dream? Or had something real brought her to this state of sudden alertness in the middle of the night?
    Then she heard a sound, faint but undeniable, in the next room.
    Heart beating fast, the skin of her scalp tingling, she rose and silently moved to the bedroom door. She heard a footfall beyond, then another. Taking hold of the handle, she drew magic, threw up a shield and took a deep breath.
    The handle turned silently. She pulled the door inward slightly and looked beyond. In the faint moonlight filtering through the window screens she saw a figure pacing the guestroom. Male, short of stature, and instantly familiar. Relief flooded through her.
    “Cery,” she said, pulling the door open. “Who else would dare sneak into my rooms in the middle of the night?”
    He turned to face her. “Sonea …” He drew in a deep breath, but said nothing more. A long pause followed and she frowned. It was not like him to hesitate. Had he come to ask a favour he knew she would not like?
    She concentrated and created a small globe light, enough to fill the room with a soft glow. Her breath caught in her throat for a moment. His face was so lined. The years of danger and worry living as a Thief had aged him faster than anyone else she knew.
    I’m wearing plenty of signs of my years
, she thought,
but the battles for me were only the petty squabbling of magicians, not surviving in the