Chapter 44. The Spy

emony sat upon her bed, legs folded and palms up in a classic pose of meditation.  Now that she was bored out of her mind, the lessons she had neglected during her girlhood were starting to come back to her.  Focusing on breath, she imagined the push and pull of the tide scattering over the shore.  Seagulls wheeled and squalled as the salty wind tickled her face.  The sand was cool and silky between her toes as she padded over the strand.  Then she remembered that she was supposed to be emptying her mind, not filling it up with a trip to the beach.

Sighing, she pulled herself back and tried again.  Poor old Master Torai.  She remembered the feel of his hand smacking the back of her head during meditation lessons in the old abbey.  What had he said about her mind?  Like a puddle full of tadpoles all swimming in different directions when he wanted it to be like a mountain pool.  It was hard to do when there was a distinct lack of mountain pools in the valley surrounding the monastery.  And now that she had wandered the length and breadth of Tyria, she was quite certain her mind could not be in any way compared to the mountain pools she had seen.  For starters, with Uriel and Morisedd around, there were often avacara or ice imp corpses floating in them.  Lemony grinned to herself as she thought of her travels with her two old friends.  Then she was smitten by grief that those days were gone and her lot in life now consisted of four walls.  Four very richly adorned walls with good meals and baths thrown in, but they were not walls she would have chosen.

And so she tried once more, pushing aside her grief and anger at her imprisonment and taking deep even breaths when the clack and hiss of the door screen brought her back to the room she shared with Uriel.

“Your presence is required,” said the guard and Lemony rose stiffly to her feet, alarmed when the man waved her away and only Uriel was allowed to leave.  She grumbled to herself, aware that if she were actually any good at meditation she would not feel as frightened and alone as she did at that moment.  She hugged herself against a draft, her thin cotton robe strangely inadequate as she chafed her arms.

And then she was pinned as her arms were crushed to her sides and a hand clapped over her mouth, instantly silencing her cry of alarm.  Lemony instinctively fought against the vise-like grip, shuddering against her captor’s belly.

“Quiet, Sister Lemony,” a woman’s voice hissed in her ear, “I need your help.  If I release you and you make too much noise I’ll have to knock you out.”

Lemony nodded to indicate that she would remain silent and was relieved when the shadowy figure let her go.

“Who are you and how did you get in here?” Lemony whispered angrily.

“Ming of Crystal Palm,” the woman replied, “I haven’t much time.  Was there a third person with you when you came to this place?”

Lemony rushed to her bed in a moment of inspiration and pulled out the purple kerchief that wrapped the items that had once belonged to Pendaran.

“Take this and use it to find him, please.  He’s in trouble and he needs your help.  They bricked him into the sewers near Tahnnaki so that he would starve to death where no one would find him.  Pendaran.  Please help him.”

The assassin nodded and quickly concealed the small bundle within her shirt.

“Is there anyone in this household who may have evidence to prove the duplicity of this guild?”

“Twisted Lu and Mai Ling,” Lemony replied, “Very good at creative writing when it comes to keeping the books.  And Lu keeps trophies of his victims in his cedar chest.”

“Do you know where I can find their rooms?”

“They live together in the low blue-roofed building southwest of the courtyard.  You can’t miss it.  There is a longevity symbol above the lintel but someone has defaced it so that now it says ‘indigestion’.”

“You’ve been extremely helpful,” the assassin whispered, “I will repay you at a later date.  Speak nothing of this encounter.”

Lemony nodded and proffered a low bow.

“Find Pendaran,” she pleaded, “I’m worried he may already be dead.”