In most ways that counted, Violet was a cat. Ninety-nine percent of the time, she acted like an ordinary cat… more like ninety-five percent of the time if you discounted when she was asleep, which was quite a lot. But that remaining one percent was pretty substantial. Most of the time, she would head bonk Val (or somebody else) to get pats and scritches. But sometimes she wanted to draw your attention to something that only she could sense.
Once, it was a ghost floating around a mausoleum in the little temple cemetery… Val hadn't even known that ghosts were real. Apparently, they were, but they weren't actually that scary. They were just sort of sad, and nobody could even see them, unless you sensed them with magic. Other times, it was to warn Val of danger. Val wasn't sure how her cat was able to sense danger, but she apparently could. She bonked Val's ankles three times as she walked back home after magic lessons.
Meow. That meant, Pay attention to me!
"I think Violet wants something," Niko said. They walked together since Sabine's was only two blocks from the Vinzenno residence.
"Probably just head scratches." She glanced down. "You'll get them when we're home."
Meow. There's danger ahead. Help!
"What danger?"
Rather than specify, Violet bounded off down the avenue, past the carriages and pedestrians lazing along in the springtime evening. Val figured that if she didn't put a little trust in her familiar, there wasn't much point in having one, so she dashed after her with Niko close behind.
They ran for a block and a half, cut through an alleyway, and then ran through the narrow confines and across a mostly-empty intersection for another two blocks. It was an awfully long way to get away from danger when there didn't appear to be anybody chasing you. Val supposed there were plenty of sorts of danger, and some of them you didn't see coming. Or maybe her cat familiar was just toying with them for fun…
They approached the next intersection, Violet deftly bounding past waste bins and broken crates. Val had to dodge and leap and hope she didn't crash into anything or slip - in the waning evening light, her human eyes weren't quite up to snuff. But the alleyway exit loomed before them, opening to a mostly-empty intersection at the edge of the posh neighborhood that everybody called the Palace District.
She heard the clop of horse-hooves, the rumble of carriage-wheels, and somebody shouting at somebody else, "Get out of the bloody road!"
Val skidded to a stop, and Niko barely avoided bowling her over. There, not twenty feet from where they exited the alley, were two very nice carriages getting ambushed - and it wasn't just a robbery. The ambushers pulled the driver right off his horse and stabbed him right through the heart. Then they used an iron crow to pop the door open, pulling out a man and a woman.
"Do you know who I-" the man said. Then he, too, was stabbed. The woman screamed and looked to be about a second from death, but two armed men leapt out of the carriage and put themselves between her and the attackers, at which point they entered melee, their swords clashing against those of their attackers. A bolt whizzed right past, striking one of the soldiers down.
"We'd better help," Val said. "Got your knife?"
"Always," Niko said.
They dashed out and toward the bolt-shooter. He wasn't more than fifteen feet from the spot. His eyes went wide and he went for his sword, the bolt-shooter clattering to the cobblestones. Niko went left and Val went right, and they did mirrored versions of exercises #17 and 21. They hadn't even planned it - those were just the right moves to make.
There wasn't much point in checking whether the man was dead or arguing who'd actually killed him. They turned back to see the second defender get cut down by two attackers. Meanwhile, three more rushed the second carriage. The driver had already been bolted, and now they pried at the door like they had at the first carriage.
"Hey!" Val shouted.
That got at least three of them to look her way. She and Niko shut their eyes and let the ensuing flash blind everybody else. During an ambush, any source of additional confusion favors the defender since the attackers already have a plan and probably a backup plan. Any distraction evens things. At least that's what Tobbin had told them. Maybe tactics weren't rubbish after all?
Two of the attackers charged them but got netted up in Val's invisible barrier. Fire flared beneath their feet and an unexpected whoosh of wind from Niko blew the flames right onto them, igniting their clothes. That was about the only useful spell that Niko knew and, unplanned as it was, the combined result was pretty effective. Now on fire, the two men screamed and ran. Val and Niko let the first man run into the alleyway and pursued the one fleeing back toward the carriages. Val went high, Niko went low, and the guy wouldn't be bothering anybody ever again.
That only left the… well… nobody. The guards in the other carriage had dispatched the last two, though one of them looked pretty hurt.
"We need to get you a potion," Val said. "Come on, we…"
Just then the ducal guard showed up, six men on mounts galloping down the street, halberds at the ready and shouting for everybody to stop. They surrounded Val and Niko, which was more than a bit intimidating.
"By the authority of the duke, I hereby arrest you for murder!" the lieutenant said with a bit too much fervor. For some reason, he looked very confused. "Uh… throw down your arms and surrender yourselves!"
Val and Niko did, obviously. They hadn't done anything wrong, after all.
+++++
By the time they got to the Ducal Central Guardhouse, which was about a block from the palace, the adrenaline had worn off and Val was a wreck. She grasped Niko and pulled her into a hug. Niko wasn't much better off. She kept sobbing and sniffling and begging them not to tell Sabine. Though, in retrospect, Sabine probably would have been pretty proud.
"Please don't tell… I like my job," she sobbed.
Val sobbed, too, because Niko would be an orphan again if Sabine fired her, and that just wasn't fair. Regardless, they were both in a lot of trouble. The lieutenant ushered them into the guard house, pushed them both into one little cell, and clanked it shut behind them.
"What did we do wrong?" Niko sniffled. Even though she was larger than Val, she curled up against her and buried her face into Val's shoulder.
"Nothing," Val said. Sure, they'd killed two guys and badly burned another, but they'd witnessed those guys killing two defenseless men. What were they supposed to do? Let it happen? Ask nicely if the attackers would pretty please reconsider cold-blooded murder? But Val was also very much aware that you could get into big trouble without having done anything wrong. She banged against the steel bars with her palm. "Will you please let us out? I'm friends with the duke's mom!"
"With the duke's… mom?" the duty sergeant asked.
"Mrs. Eatherfine?"
"Who?"
"The dowager duchess, you cretin!" Val shouted. "She'll vouch for me! We didn't do anything wrong!"
"I doubt Duchess Eatherfine will still be friendly with you when she learns you've assassinated her daughter," he said.
"When she learns I've… sorry… what?"
The sergeant clanged against the bars with his billy club, barely missing Val's fingers. He'd probably meant to hit them. Chuckling, he walked away.
"What in hell's bells is happening?" Niko whispered, uncurling slightly from her balled-up spot on the little concrete bench.
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"I don't know," Val said. "I'm scared."
"Me, too."
At least Violet was there. She'd somehow gotten into the guard house, strutted right in, and squeezed herself between the bars. There, she hopped up onto the bench and unfurled herself between Val and Niko, purring happily.
Not two minutes later, there was a commotion at the front of the guard house. It wasn't a small guard house, either, but there was shouting, a mumbled apology, and a great shuffling of people. Two men in ducal regalia marched into the corridor with the little holding cells, followed by a young woman about Niko's age in an ornate blue dress. She had sparkling blue eyes and an expressive mouth with teeth that were just a bit too pearl-white. Her frowning face erupted into a brilliant smile the second she spotted Val.
"My saviors!" she cried. "Captain, I demand that you let these two young women out immediately! They're the only reason I'm still alive - when my coaches were set upon, they killed or chased off half of the assailants by themselves and almost certainly spared the lives of myself, Lady Magdalin, and my two body men."
The guard captain followed after them, stammering an apology and explaining, "Milady, I cannot let these two go. They've been arrested for the…" he checked his paper. "For the assassination of Lady Aleida Eatherfine."
"Do I look assassinated to you?"
The captain frowned. "You do not, milady."
Consequently, the guard sent a runner out to fetch Ette or Ginn to pick them up. Lady Aleida stayed behind a few more minutes to chat the two and thank them for their bravery.
"I've always said the common folk are just as patriotic as the nobles… maybe more so," she said.
"We are, Lady Aleida," Niko said.
"Please, call me Aleida." She squeezed Niko's hand. Val felt a twinge of jealousy at that for some reason. "I'm sure I can arrange an audience with my brother if you'd like to talk to the duke?"
"I already know the duke, Aleida," Val said. "Meeting you is much more pleasant… uh… no offense to the duke…"
Aleida laughed and squeezed Val's hand, which felt quite nice. "I certainly won't deny it! How would you like to have tea with me in the palace? I'd love to know where you learned those fancy moves!" She badly mimed exercise #12, which neither Val nor Niko had even done.
"Yes, please!" Niko said. "We love tea!"
Aleida laughed again. It was like the ringing of silver bells. How was it that stupid Ansibald was the duke and his sister was only a lady? That hardly seemed fair. Val liked her much more than her brother… though saying so aloud was probably treason. Not that the duke was bad, per se, but he didn't have a silver laugh, and not once had he squeezed Val's hand like that. Not that she wanted him to do that.
There was more commotion at the front of the guard house, followed by Ginn shuffling into the lobby where Val and Niko were waiting with the duke's sister. "What have you girls gotten yourselves into?" she sighed.
"They've saved the life of the duke's sister," Aleida said. And, while Ginn was pondering that, she clarified: "That's me!"
"Milady!" Ginn curtsied. "I'd, um… better get these girls home."
"Your daughter is a rare gem, Mrs. Vinzenno."
Ginn beamed at that. "That she is. Come on, you, two. I'll hail us a carriage."
+++++
Val explained what had happened on the way home. Ginn wasn't pleased that Val had deliberately engaged with armed criminals with deadly intent, but could only sigh and admit that she was just glad nobody had been hurt. She trusted Val not to get in too deep over her head.
This was, in Val's opinion, probably a misplaced trust. Given Val's track record, getting in over her head and then squirming out by the seat of her pants seemed to be her oeuvre. But maybe that was the point. By the fourth or fifth time, Ginn had resigned herself to the fact that Val was probably going to get into more trouble than most people could handle, but that she'd handle it one way or another.
"The guard captain said they think the assassination attempt was by the Penitent Order," Ginn said. "They found some brands on the men you killed that look like the ones the brother-knights get. It sounds like they were making another attempt at the duke's family - Lady Aleida was saying her devotionals at the Temple of Hale Vescal for the evening and they intercepted her on her route back to the palace… if you ask me, the duke just needs to drive the whole damn church out of Aurilicht."
Val nodded. It made sense on a superficial level. But, beyond that, things didn't quite add up. The men she and Niko had fought wore swords, and they fought like fighters who were used to fighting with swords. The Brother-Knights of the Penitent Order didn't fight like that, though. Add on top of that that Val had never heard that the lady was a member of the Temple of Hale Vescal. True, that was the most-upscale of the three Old Sudren septs in the city. But two members of that sept, Marianza Falchioni and Claudius Snipe, were in Val's magic class. And there was approximately zero chance that Marianza wouldn't have brought it up all the damn time. So, if true, it wasn't public knowledge.
Val could have mentioned all of this, but instead, she said, "I'm glad we saved her."
Ginn leaned forward and kissed Val's forehead. "Me too, honey. Now… Ette and Sabine are out late on a job, so Niko should probably stay with us for the night. Is that all right?"
"Yes, Mrs. Vinzenno. Thanks."
After they returned to Val's place, Ginn reheated supper while the two of them took turns in the bath. Then, after supper, they went up to Val's room with the door open and studied from Val's books. Niko couldn't really understand any of the material that Val was working on, but she still had most of her old books. They lay on the floor on their stomachs, side by side, flipping through their respective books and taking notes on the little leaflet notebooks that Val had discovered at the paper store.
Niko traced out a spell circle from her book - inexpertly, but she was getting better. "I've never killed anybody before," she said.
"I know," Val said. She imagined the way that she and Niko had gone at the man with the bolt caster and realized she didn't feel much from it. "You get used to it, I guess. It still feels dirty, but like a dirty thing that needed to be done."
Niko nodded. She erased part of the circle she was drawing and redid it after spotting her error. "I'm not sure I want to get used to it," she said eventually.
"It just happens," Val said. "I don't want to get used to it, either, but sometimes killing needs to be done and you're the one who needs to do it." The wind whistled outside and raindrops spattered on the window pane. Violet purred at the foot of Val's bed. She wondered if it would be too callous to ask Niko if she wanted hot chocolate. She asked anyway. "You want some cocoa? We've got creamy puffs for it."
Niko put her graphite stick down. "Yeah."
After that, they washed up and got ready for bed. The whole evening still seemed surreal, from saving the duke's little sister and killing two would-be assassins to having hot chocolate with Niko on the floor of her room. Ginn gave Niko a sheet and a pillow so she could sleep on the divan in the storage room, but Niko asked if she could sleep in Val's room and Ginn gave her the go-ahead, as long as Val kept the door open.
Val read for a little while longer, going back to one of her old adventure stories about a princess whose father (the king, obviously) always wanted a son, but the queen had died when the princess was very young and he refused to marry again. So, instead of teaching a son about riding and fighting and hunting and the knightly ways, he taught his daughter. Then she entered a tournament in disguise, but became enamored of a knight and only came in second place because she couldn't bear to knock him from his horse in the final joust and fell off hers deliberately. Only, it turned out the other knight was also a princess in disguise - a princess from the hated rival kingdom. Instead of becoming lovers, they became best friends and hunted and fought and jousted together and the kingdoms were at peace. Val was a bit disappointed that the two couldn't still be lovers, but she supposed at least one of those two princesses didn't feel the way she did, which was valid. It was a kid's story, but sometimes it felt good to read something that wasn't dense and dry and full of diagrams.
"I don't want to sleep alone tonight," Niko whispered. "Can I come up?"
Val moved herself to the side and then nudged Violet with her foot. She sat up enough to see out into the hallway - no Ginn or Ette anywhere nearby. "Yeah."
Niko slipped under the covers and turned to face Val. Her face was silhouetted against the dim hallway lamp, but Val could still see the twinkle in her crystal-blue eyes as she watched Val. Val just lay there, she and Niko barely making contact, the heat between their bodies palpable. Val smiled. From the twinkle in Niko's eyes, it looked like she was smiling, too. Violet purred and twitched at the foot of the bed, probably dreaming of the rats she'd be hunting in a few hours. More rain pattered against the window pane.
"I'm sorry about everything that happened," Val said.
"It was Violet's fault," Niko said, prodding the cat with her toe.
Violet meowed. It's not my fault you followed me.
They stared at one another for another minute. Val yawned. Niko yawned. It was getting late - Ginn turned the hallway lamp off on her way to bed. Thankfully, she didn't peek in to catch them both on the bed. Or maybe she knew but could tell that nothing untoward was happening. At least not at the moment. Niko leaned forward until the tips of their noses barely touched and giggled. It made Val dizzy to look in her eyes at that distance.
"Can I kiss you?" Niko whispered.
"Yeah."
"Okay."
And they did. It wasn't much, just three or four seconds, lip to soft lip, nothing more. Val's tummy did flips. Her heart wanted more. But she just lay there and enjoyed it, committing every scintilla of sensation to memory. Niko pulled back, smiling again. Val smiled back.
"That was nice."
"Yeah."
"Good night."
"You, too."
They soon drifted off, lightly holding one another, cuddling under the covers, Niko's hand draped gently upon Val's side. Val didn't wake until morning when somebody pounded at the downstairs door. Violet dug her claws in, which jerked them both awake. That gave Niko enough time to roll out of Val's bed with a thump and cover herself with the sheet on the floor. Ginn poked her head in two seconds later, shooting a blushing Niko a skeptical look before turning to Val.
"Honey, there's a page at the door from the duke."
"Just a sec," Val said, pulling a robe over her night shirt. She scampered downstairs to meet the page.
"Message from the duke, miss!" the girl said.
Val cracked the seal on the message and read it:
Your presence required 10 am for the duke's formal declaration of war.
Ginn leaned over Val's shoulder, reading the message, too. "Well, shit."