Dana followed Mei through the house. “Look, Mei, I-”

Mei grabbed Dana’s arm and tossed luz into the servant’s quarters. After checking the coast was clear, she closed the door and turned to luz. “Were you at the house?”

Suddenly, the Circle’s highest order applied: when discovered, eliminate all witnesses and escape. Immediately, Dana’s medisus pulled the hunter’s veins and nerves into view, making it easy for Dana to aim two fingers at a spot right under Mei’s jaw that would stun her, but luz strike hit air. Mei had sidestepped it, her hand sliding to the dagger on her hip, ready to slash and-

A shoulder slammed into Dana’s sternum, knocking the air out of luz lungs and luz body deeper into the room.

Had Mei just made a mistake, missed her chance to end Dana? Lu couldn’t chance it. From the floor, Mei’s chin was exposed. All Dana had to do was close luz fist, drive it upwards, and-

Mei moved one fist’s breadth to the left and caught Dana’s arm between her own neck and shoulder. Falling backward, her weight pulled Dana into an arm lock. Why wasn’t she going for the kill? There was no answer in the hunter’s face, only calm and concentration.

Still, the Circle’s highest order applied. Reluctantly, Dana used her last trick. “hFo-ku-sho."

Luz real arm emerged and, being less muscular than Rodion’s, easily slipped free of Mei’s hold. Dana rolled away, cursing her violation of the Circle’s prohibition on using hFo magic in front of unbelievers. Yes, lu had skirted that rule during the Harvest Ball by having Dwayne close his eyes, but there was no leeway lu could find here. Hopefully, magic could end this fight and give Dana time to think about what to do next. A palmed spell to Mei’s abdominal muscles would end this.

Dana charged forward. “Fo-umzen-”

Mei sank a foot in Dana’s stomach, knocking the spell out off luz lips and sending lu tumbling back down to the floor. Phons, the Circle hadn’t trained Dana for this. All lu had left was-

“Mei, Rodion, are you okay?” Dwayne’s voice came from the other side of the door. “I heard noises.”

“We are okay.” Phons, Mei wasn’t even breathing hard. “I tripped.”

There was no way Dwayne would accept that answer.

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“Okay.” Why did he accept that? “Lady Pol was wondering about breakfast, but I’ll handle it.”

“Okay.” Mei turned to Dana. “We will be there soon.”

Once Dwayne was gone, Dana got to luz feet, allowing luz medisus to fade. “Why are you covering for me? Why haven’t you killed me?”

Mei shrugged. “I need your help.”

“Pardon?” Dana must have heard wrong. “What do you mean?”

Mei found a chair and sat. “I need your help.”

Dana laughed. “You’re asking me, a Vanurian spy and mage, Dwayne’s enemy, for help?”

“You are not Dwayne’s enemy.” Oblivious to Dana’s shock, Mei counted on her fingers. “You cook our food but have not poisoned him. You make his bed but have not stabbed him in it. You know his secret and have not revealed it.” She held up three fingers. “You are not his enemy.”

That wasn’t true. Surely, it wasn’t. “Don’t you care about who I work for?”

“No because they want him alive.”

“For now.” When luz grave tone failed to unsettle Mei, Dana tried Imperial Tuquese. “They aren’t interested in what he wants, only in what he can do.”

“What they’re interested in doesn’t matter.” Mei’s smooth switch to Tuquese betrayed no hint that she found Dana’s proficiency with her native language strange. “You do. You call yourself a spy, but a spy wouldn’t insist on cooking for a boy who’d gladly do it himself, wouldn’t attempt to craft the perfect breakfast for me, wouldn’t bother to help me investigate Sorgi. A spy would have either done nothing or tried to kill me.”

Phons. Dana had assumed that Mei’s concise manner was borne of simple thoughts, but the Souran language was holding her back. Worse, her words felt true. Dana did not want Mei dead, not when it felt good to watch her happily devour a good meal. Lu did not want Dwayne’s time in Soura to end, not now when he was finally moving past his experience as a slave and growing into a full-fledged Ri mage. Lu did not want to burn the steward persona, not just because Rodion represented months of work, but also because he was also the only thing preventing the Circle from giving the Solar what they wanted: to practice and experiment on a male Ri mage.

A fourth reason tried to make itself, but Dana did not let it. A Circle Mage had no such feelings.

“We could just forget all this,” Dana had switched back to Souran, hoping Mei would sound less compelling in that language, “and return to the way things were.”

“No,” said Mei in Souran. “I need your help.”

“What for? To break into Sen Jerome’s?” As soon as lu said it, Dana realized that was exactly it. “Oh, Phons. You can’t. That place has high walls, rotating guard patrols, and a legion of fanatics trained in deadly hand-to-hand combat, who don’t like foreigners and despise the Royal Sorcerer’s Office before you accused one of their own. If, no when, they catch us, Dwayne’s reputation will be ruined, our lives will be forfeit, and any and all chances you have to find Huan will be gone.”

Mei didn’t bat an eye. “We are not razor tortoises. We can’t wait for chances to come to us. Every day we wait is another day I,” her breath caught, “that I could find another body. I need your help.”

Phons, this was a bad idea. If Dana’s handler got wind of this, Dwayne would be sent to the Solar, Mei would be assassinated, Dana would be sent to the Mountain for reeducation, to say nothing about how Magdala would react. However, Mei was right; helping her was the only way to maintain the status quo.

Hoping lu wouldn’t live to regret it, Dana nodded.

“Good!” Mei smiled. “We go after lunch.”