There was yet an hour to go before moonrise, but Kiri saw great value in being early. For one thing, she could make sure no ambush was being set. For another, it afforded her an opportunity to practice.

The sky was dark and cloudless, the stars in endless numbers shining down on the quiet city, still with the deep part of the night. They echoed the sparks Kiri sent out only in color and size. So much stiller, and lasting, eternal, unlike the speeding, transient sparks that flew out from her hand and skipped along the stone, disappearing one at a time. While she experimented with different shapes and spreading patterns for her sparks, Kiri sat with her back against a gargoyle. Its eyes were painted white, and flickered up with reflected light while she practiced. The first sparks she had ever made had been an accident born out of lack of emotional control, just the built-up energy in her palm leaking in sparkling flecks. Now the goal was to bring them under control, so she’d have another tool in her belt. But she hadn’t mastered it yet; she could still get a lot more of them if she was angry than otherwise. The sparks wouldn’t hurt anyone much, but as she had seen with Tagg today, they could really put someone off their game, and being a woman and much smaller than most of the people she confronted, she could always use more intimidation. She couldn’t be seen like most women were: a potential victim, weak and vulnerable.

Why did he want to meet? Why did that smug idiot think she would help him, if there was any possibility at all that he was telling the truth about even that? Sure, she was strong, and maybe dangerous in a way that he wasn’t, even with his whole gang at his back. But what kind of threat could he be facing that he would think she might help after the encounters they’d had? He had hardly made a good impression. The Firebrand had made a reputation out of fighting bullies like him. In fact, her main reputation in Laed was fighting him, personally. Maybe he was facing someone more powerful than himself; maybe he was in trouble with the Thief Lord?

Kiri didn’t like the idea, and she didn’t like that she didn’t like it. Though she hated the Thief Lord and his whole organization, and wanted nothing more than to take them down, it had been harder to set herself against them than she had thought it would be. There was abundant crime just as Gilliam had said, and the Thief Lord’s stink was in much of it. But there was so much crime, and it was so much a part of ordinary business, that she almost felt bad stopping it, as though she was disrupting a normal, respectable livelihood. It would almost be as though she had let someone’s cattle escape or something.

That was why she was focusing on the criminals she could find that weren’t part of the Thief Lord’s network. She wasn’t afraid of him. Well, she was afraid of him, but more than that she was not sure how to deal with the confusing layers of wrong that were Laed. Not right and wrong. Just more and less wrong. And she worried about who it might hurt for her to fight the Thief Lord. She thought about that little girl, stopping the Firebrand from getting her money back because she felt it was the least bad thing that could happen to her, to have her money stolen in a civil way, predictably, without a beating. She even worried about going after the thieves she was going after, since the punishments for anyone handed over to the guard seemed so disproportionate. After what had happened to that man in the street she was afraid to get thieves caught. Kiri felt people would be better off without the Thief Lord. At the same time it was possible that maybe in the short term fighting him would hurt them. So if Tagg wanted her to help him against the Thief Lord, what should she do? There was no answer, no right side in any of this.

Struck by inspiration just as sparks started to leak from her fingertips again, Kiri jerked her hand back, pulling the sparks into a glittering ball that spun slowly over her palm. She closed her fist and the ball sucked back into her palm, sending a tingling sensation up her arm. She shook it and rose to her feet. It was time to stop playing and keep a lookout. All of this musing was useless if one of the Outsiders took her out with an arrow before she got a chance to talk to Tagg. Probably it wasn’t a good idea to keep making lights up here. Even if Tagg was on the up and up and really wanted to ask for her help there was a possibility his underlings didn’t agree.

Kiri paced the stretch of wall above the gate, both to keep from getting stiff and to spot anyone approaching. Time dragged on, and the night grew colder. Finally, as the curve of the moon first pushed above the eastern horizon, she saw him, edging along the outside of the city wall. He appeared to be alone, and from her vantage point on top of the wall Kiri felt confident in that assessment. She should’ve seen if anyone else was coming.

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She judged his path carefully, and bit her lip as she tried to decide how best to intercept him. She’d already dropped down in front of him earlier today, and since that was his own method of ambush he’d be less impressed by it than most. No, that wouldn’t do, but she had another idea. Kiri smiled and dropped nimbly from the top of the wall.

“Gah!” Tagg stumbled backwards as he rounded the corner in front of Kiri and nearly ran into her. He moved away even more to get out of the range of the wreath of moving sparks that circled her feet.

Kiri suppressed her smile. That really had been as perfect as she could have hoped for. And even if the sparks were a bit much, they were really fun. After all, was it possible in a situation like this to be too impressive? Probably not.

Tagg straightened up, looking Kiri up and down with nervous eyes. She allowed herself a smile now. This time she was going to wait for him to talk first. It was only kind to give him a chance to regain his composure.

Seeing she wasn’t going to speak first, Tagg finally said, “Can you turn out the lights, Firebrand? We don’t want to attract attention.”

“As you wish,” Kiri said, with what she hoped was an indulgent smile. She flicked her wrist, and the circle of sparks jumped back into her hand. Tagg’s eyes widened. Kiri was glad to see that it had definitely been a trick worth learning. She waited for Tagg to speak again. This was his meeting, after all.

“I need your help,” he said.

“You said that,” Kiri said. “And I wanted to know, and I ask again: why would you think that I would

help you?”

“There are two reasons,” Tagg said. “First, I know you like to defend the weak against the strong. In this situation, I’m the one being bullied. Second, you are responsible for the situation. In a way, it is your duty.”

“Is that so?” Kiri said. “How about I decide that? Tell me what’s going on.”

“My problem is this, Firebrand.” Tagg seemed to have lost his nervous edge with the disappearance of the sparks. He seemed smug, with his chin up as he looked down on her. She wasn’t a short woman, particularly, but like most men Tagg was a good bit taller than her. Kiri considered cooking up a little glow to remind him who he was dealing with, but decided that would really just be petty. “When you interrupted my harvest, you made it impossible for me to meet my obligations to the Thief Lord.”

“How sad for you.”

“How dangerous for me,” Tagg said. “You don’t seem to understand how the world works, Firebrand. The Thief Lord sent his agent to inform me that I was not meeting my obligations and I could expect the Enforcer. Maybe you don’t know, but that means death. Not just for me, but for my boys, too.”

“He would kill you for this?” Kiri ground the words through gritted teeth. Smug as he was, he was right. She did feel responsible. But she thought of Colin, and couldn’t regret what she had done.

“You don’t fail in your obligations to the Thief Lord,” Tagg said. “Not more than once.”

Kiri nodded. “You’re right, you need help.” She didn’t want to say it, but it was true. “I will offer what help I can, but I admit I am not sure what you want from me.”

“A bodyguard?” Tagg said. “No, that won’t work. If it becomes known that I’m working with the Firebrand, the Outsiders will be in even a worse situation. You are already an enemy of the Thief Lord, I think.”

“I’m his enemy,” Kiri confirmed. “But I don’t know who he is. I can’t get rid of him for you. If I could, I would’ve already.”

“Get rid of the Thief Lord?” Tagg shook his head. “No, I just need him to know that we can’t be threatened with the Enforcer. Get rid of him and I think I’ll be safe.”

“I don’t know who he is either.”

“He’ll be easier to find than the Thief Lord,” Tagg shrugged. “You could use me as bait. He’s bound to come after me eventually. It’s that or I can go back to harvesting. But I don’t see that we have to be enemies, Firebrand.”

“Oh, we don’t,” Kiri said, nodding. “I think I like this bait idea.”