The Tijervyn Chronicles
Chapter Twenty

story by
Richard Fife

art by
April Herron

Chapter Twenty: “The Unexpected”

Markus sat at a table in the Aviary common area and stared at two small, knobby balls. One had killed Scot, the butcher and gaoler, while the other had managed to only stun him. He was not even sure which one was which, they were so identical.

The rest of the gang was about the room. Bryon and Gust were sitting in front of the cold hearth, Gavrial was pacing about, and Margot and Vlad were in the kitchen, helping Cook chop vegetables. In truth, they were all doing the same thing as Markus: waiting.

The trip back from the Warrens had been tense but uneventful, and above all else, quiet. Everyone wanted to worry over Kira, but Bryon made a point that they were not safe yet, and so they had formed a protective ring around her why she supported herself on Gavrial’s arm. He had offered to carry her, but she would have no part of it. She was carried in there, she had said. She would not be carried out. Soon as they had returned to the Aviary, Nikki had whisked her to a back room, and the two had not been out in the hour since.

Gavrial stomped over and sat down across from Markus. “What are those, anyway?”

“The things that masked man threw,” Markus said.

Gavrial picked one of the balls up with the same care he might handle a viper. “I know that, but what exactly are they?”

“Praedin only knows, but whatever lightning was in them seems to be gone.”

“Huh,” Gavrial said. “All it took was one of these to kill that butcher.”

Markus nodded.

“Probably would have only taken one to kill me.” Gavrial sat the ball down. “Looks like you saved my life from that maniac again.”

“I doubt that,” Markus said. “It hit me square on, and only stunned me.”

“Hit your metal hand,” Gavrial said. “I saw the flash, Markus. If there wasn’t just as much lightning in that one as there was in the other, it would actually have been more. Something about your brass parts saved you.”

Markus took a deep breath and nodded. “Guess so. I did only feel pain in my metal.”

“But you didn’t know that would happen,” Gavrial said. “You didn’t just risk your life for me, you actually expected to give it.”

“Don’t give me so much credit,” Markus said. “I only acted.”

“Exactly. You just acted, and moved to give your life to save mine.” Gavrial held a hand up for a moment, half extended, then put it all the out towards Markus. “I’m sorry.”

Markus looked down at the hand in confusion before he realized Gavrial wanted to shake his hand. “What?”

“Don’t make me say it again.” Gavrial thrust his hand out a bit more. “I’ve treated you like dirt, been suspicious of you even after you saved me before, and never saw past what you are. But I do now. You took a bullet for me, even if it was one made of a meister’s devilry. You aren’t a revenant. You are just as much of a man as I am, if not more, and I’m sorry.”

Markus realized his mouth was agape and closed it then took Gavrial’s hand. “I am a cyborg, Gavrial. I just happen to be a man, too.”

“Fair enough.” Gavrial pumped Markus’s hand then let go. “So, any—”

A door opened at the back of the hideout, and Markus and Gavrial both turned to look. Kira had come out of the room, followed closely by Nikki, and they made their way to the dinner table. The others came over and sat down around the table, except for Cook, he kept chopping her vegetables, although slightly slower. They all sat quietly at the table for several moments.

“Thank you,” Kira finally said. “You saved me, although I don’t feel I deserve it. What happened to me, to us, was my fault. I . . . .”

“That’s nonsense, Kira,” Gavrial said. “The boy went psycho after you knocked him out during the Race.”

“I can accept my own blame, Gavrial. I’m not some simpering noble twit that needs to be comforted with lies,” she said. “But, I am a noble. My real name is Kira Tidor, and that boy was my brother.”

Silence fell over the table except for the sharp intake of breath. Oddly, it was Margot who broke the silence.

“Bryon, you don’t seem all that surprised.”

“I knew,” Bryon said. “I’m the one that brought Kira in from the street, and she was still more a nobleman’s daughter than a street urchin back then.”

“I made him swear to keep it secret,” Kira said. “Can you blame me? What must you think of me, knowing that I could have gone back to live in the plush lap of luxury had I chosen.”

“That isn’t true,” Markus said. “You told me yourself that you could never just go back, that it was hardly an easy, care-free life.”

“Doesn’t mean we wouldn’t think it,” Gavrial said. “But you know what, Kira? We don’t, or at least I don’t. You have the nautilus. Regardless of where you were born, you are one of us now. I still don’t see how you think this is your fault. Not like you knew the boy would be there when we were on the Race.”

“It wasn’t just the Race, you thick ox,” Margot said. “She tracked him down afterwards.”

“I wanted to talk to him,” Kira said. “I didn’t know what he had become. When I left my old life behind, he had been a sweet, innocent boy. I thought maybe, now that he was old enough, he could come join me. He isn’t much older than I was when I ran away.”

“So that was what that was about,” Vlad said. “And here I thought you were trying to sneak a cuddle with a lover.”

Gavrial looked at Vlad. “Am I the only one that didn’t know what was going on, here?”

Gust nodded slowly then shrugged.

“Troena above,” Gavrial said. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

“You couldn’t see past Markus being a revenant,” Bryon said. “How exactly were we supposed to know how you’d take it to know someone you’d known for so long had been lying to you about being a noble?”

“You were just as ready I was to kill Markus if he turned out to be a monster,” Gavrial said.

“There is a difference between being prepared for the unexpected and expecting it,” Bryon said.

“Is it really that simple, Gavrial?” Kira said. “I got caught doing something dumb and was marked a thief. My noble birth really means nothing to you?”

Gavrial opened his mouth to say something but closed it again and shook his head then looked away. If Markus did not know better, he would have said he was even blushing.

“You’re back,” Gavrial said. “That’s all that matters. I still think we should have killed him, though.”

“No, Gavrial,” Kira said. “He was my brother.”

He turned back towards her. “He kidnapped you and hired a maniac mad enough to burn down a block of the slums in the process.”

“Whatever he has become,” she said. “He is my brother still.”

“And he’s going to come after you again, too,” Gavrial said. “I’ve seen his type before, so sure he can’t do wrong. Next time, who knows what will happen.”

“He may not be the boy I knew,” Kira said. “But I know him well enough to know there won’t be a next time.”

“We’ll see,” Gavrial said.

“Drop it Gavrial,” Bryon said. “What’s done is done.”

“And that includes dinner,” Cook said from the kitchen.

Everyone turned, surprised, as Cook walked over with a tray laid out with several bowls of fresh, green salad. As she sat down a bowl in front of Kira, she leaned in and whispered something into her ear too softly for Markus to hear, but whatever it was brought a blush to Kira’s face.

Despite the lavish dinner, which considered of steak and vegetables and a cake besides, conversation was sparse over the dinner table. Everyone seemed to be lost in their own thoughts, or at least Markus was in his own. The small balls were still on the table next to his plate, and his gaze continued to drift to them. Once dinner was over, he stood, scooped the balls up into a pocket, and excused himself.

“And where are you going, brassman?” Margot said.

“To my room,” he said. “I need to think.”

As he walked away, he noticed Kira looking at him with a face he could not read. He paused and looked back at her for a moment, then kept walking. Whatever that was about, it would have to wait. He had more pressing concerns, and he needed to find an answer to them now.

* * *

Qristina looked over the ledgers as she walked up to her father’s office and frowned. Fewer and fewer contracts were being made, with entire days going by without a single request. What was the most disturbing, though, was the increase in cancellations. A cancelled contract was not out of the ordinary: sometimes meisters just worked too quickly and finished before the contract time was up, or nobles tried to renegotiate. But these were something else. Nobles were cancelling without any reason and, when they did offer to renew the contract, it was at insulting terms that surely even Jaeger’s foreign meisters would not have accepted.

She whisked past the novice standing duty outside her father’s office, ignoring his vain attempts at stopping her, and burst through the heavy double doors. Inside, Tesma and Jesie turned to look at her, and she stopped after only taking a step in.

“It is often polite to knock, daughter,” Tesma said. “More so to wait to be announced, and most to wait to be summoned.”

Jesie only smiled, and Qristina stood taller and glared at him while refusing to look at her father.

“Wait outside, Master Smyth,” she said. “I need to speak with the High Meister at once.”

Jesie did not move except to look at Tesma. “Sir?”

Tesma frowned and fixed a glare on Qristina, and it was all she could do to not wilt under it. After a moment, he turned back to Jesie. “I will not be long with my unruly daughter, Master Meister. If you will allow me a distraction of family?”

Jesie nodded in a way that felt almost a bow. “Of course, High Meister. I shall await your summons.” On the last, his eyes flicked to Qristina, and she clinched the ledgers tighter in her hands, imagining they were his neck instead.

Once he was gone and the door was closed, she walked over to her father’s desk. “This is not good, father.”

“I agree,” he said. “If I cannot expect loyalty and obedience from my own daughter, what shall I expect from my guild?”

“Father, I—”

“I received your note.” He turned from her and walked over to his workbench, where several sharpened lengths of copper were propped up, almost as if they were test tubes. “Did you receive mine? The one stating that I’d speak with you when I had the time?”

She glanced at the copper spikes, wondering what they were for, but pushed them from her mind and turned back to Tesma. “I sent you that note yesterday morning. It is after sunset. When exactly did you plan on summoning me?”

“When the opportunity presented itself,” he said. “Who knows when that would be? I have been rather busy.”

“Do you even realize the situation the guild is in, father?” she said. “We are on the brink of ruin!”

“I seem to recall that I had entrusted you with this issue,” he said. “Are you telling me now that you cannot handle it?”

She took a sharp breath in and forced her temper down. “I am working as best I can, father, but I would have thought you would want to know what it was I was doing.”

“Spreading rumors, threatening, sabotaging, killing even, although not in ways traceable to us, so I must only presume the last.” He turned back to her, still frowning. “I am not so daft in the ways of this city as you would like to think, daughter.”

She hoped that she hid her shock, but her father was an observant man, even if he seemed to be lost in his own world, so she doubted it. “For the good it has done me. Nothing has deterred the nobles from using these new meisters.”

Tesma shrugged and looked up to the ceiling. “Let them, then, and cut our losses.”

“If I cut our losses, we will have nothing at all,” she said.

“We are still the Meisters’ Guild,” he said. “Do not forget this.”

“Are we?” She slammed a ledger down on the workbench and would have smiled at the sudden jump Tesma gave, had she not been so angry. “Did you know that full meisters have been trying to make their own contracts outside of the guild? They take off their bracers and pretend to be Voxfeldian, for as poor a job as they do at it. I even caught a master meister doing this. And yet, despite their willingness to accept ridiculously low offers, still they find no work. It as if the nobles and industrialists know they aren’t Jaeger’s creatures.”

“I trust you cast them out,” he said. “We have no need of their weak spines.”

“Hardly,” she said. “I have punished them, confined them to the guild and gave them assistant lab duties, but I will not lose a raised meister. Half of them would go to Lector, and the other half would probably try to form rebel guilds of their own.”

“You continue to defy me, daughter.” His words were soft, but there was steel in them. “I will not have traitors in my ranks.”

“Then you will not have ranks,” she spat. “If I cast them out, others will follow, especially if the castaways do find work after they are fully quit of us. I defy you father, but for your and the guild’s own good!”

“The guild does not need your treachery to stand.”

“The guild is not invincible.” She opened the ledger and pointed to a row of figures. “Our coffers are quickly emptying paying the salaries of unassigned meisters. If we do not make a move, then Jaeger and his chit will win!”

“And his chit.” He did not look at the ledger. “You assign her credit for the impending doom you came here to tell me, but you still belittle her? Lady Kanadis has become quite the worthy adversary, both flexible and stubborn. Would but that my daughter could be the same.”

She flushed and looked away.

“So then,” he said. “We are near ruin. What will you do?”

“I don’t know.” She sighed. “Everything I have tried to undermine them has failed.”

“From the shadows,” Tesma said. “Come daughter, think of something new. Give me an idea that I would not expect from Qristina Barak.”

She glared at him. “This isn’t some test, father. These fake meisters are going to ruin us.”

“Fake meisters,” Tesma said. “It seems hardly fair. If I were to pretend to be a noble, I’d be arrested, despite not being a danger. And yet, any person can simply claim to be a meister, destroy expensive equipment from misuse, and not be held responsible.”

“If it is one thing I can say for Jaeger,” she said. “It is that he knows how to work within the . . . .”

Tesma turned to look at her. “Daughter?”

“Law,” she said. “He works within the law. How did I not think of it sooner?”

He smiled. “You have thought of something?”

“Yes,” she said. “And I need Jesie to do something for me that is not exactly in his duties. Do you think you might arrange this? He’ll listen to you.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Can you not control those under you?”

“If I had the time to fight with him, of course I could,” she said. “But I need to return to my office at once and write a letter.”

“What are you going to do?”

She was already moving towards the door, but she stopped and glanced back at him. “Something no one would ever expect of me.” She smiled. “Something direct.”

* * *

The crowd of nobles and councilmen streamed around Jaeger as he made his leisurely way into the Council Hall. The building was almost a castle unto itself, sprawling across the southwest corner of the Royal District. Buttresses and small towers lined the walls, and colonnades ran along every floor.

“Back before the Council, this building had been the residence of the Sunset Count,” he said. “But after King Judias’s grandfather granted the nobles and commoners their council, it was set aside for that.”

“Bitter?” Maaike said from beside him.

He turned to her and smiled, taking the opportunity to enjoy the sight of her. She was a very pretty girl, even if she was a hair too young for him. That had hardly stopped him before, of course, but he was fairly certain she would not be interested. She was far too cutthroat to let a silly thing like a dalliance get into the equation.

“Hardly,” he said. “I’ve seen the cost of the upkeep on this monstrosity. I am quite happy with my apartments and offices in the castle, thank you.”

She paused as they neared the entry steps and looked at an extravagant brass gargoyle set on a pedestal. “Then why mention it?”

“Because it is still history, and it is still pertinent,” he said.

“I wonder how your predecessor felt about it,” she said.

“Considering he was made the Chancellor of the Council, I doubt he felt all too bad about it.”

“You’re the chancellor?” She looked back at him. “I didn’t know you held such power, especially with all your dissembling about how you have so little.”

“I’m not,” he said. “That particular honor belongs to Lord Holmes presently.”

“Holmes?” Maaike started up the steps at Jaeger’s side. “I thought he was a nearly powerless noble.”

Jaeger stopped and looked at her again. Yes, she was young. “You have talked to me at length about the minutia of Adervynian and Voxfeldian politics, and now you’re going to tell me that you don’t understand the Council of your homeland?”

“I’ve spent more of my adult life outside of Sentat than in it,” she said. “Besides, I know about what is important here in Tijervyn, and I cannot say that the Council struck me as that. I am only here because you pestered me so to come.”

He rubbed his goatee. “If the Council is not important, then what is?”

“The nobility,” she said. “No matter what the Council decides, the King is still the ultimate authority. I would have said the Meister’s Guild as well, but I think we have seen exactly where their power lies, now haven’t we?”

He held up a finger. “The meisters haven’t drawn their last breath yet. You should also learn a bit about the Council, starting with the fact that the Chancellor is not seen as an important position. After all, it does not even have a vote.”

“Is not seen,” she said. “I have a feeling you see it differently than most, though.”

“Well,” he said. “While the Chancellor does not vote, he decides on what is to be voted on, and who can speak. After a fashion, he is the most powerful, if he knows how to manipulate a crowd and push an agenda.”

“Then why aren’t you the Chancellor?” she said. “I would think you perfectly suited for such a position.”

“I’d be the Prince’s lackey,” he said. “And everyone would know it, and see me for what I was. No, I’d rather be a simple Councilman, where people think me just a single vote that can be ignored. Lord Holmes does an adequate enough job as it is, besides.”

They made their way to a large, double stair, and Jaeger stopped and turned to her. “Try and find a seat in the west gallery, near the front. You’ll have the best view there, and the seats are not so comfortable as to encourage you to sleep during the slower parts.”

She rolled her eyes. “I have a feeling this will probably be my last time to Council, if you must give me such warnings.”

“We shall see.” He leaned down and pecked her on the cheek. It was a chaste thing, but it was enough that she blushed slightly. Half the court was sure they were already more than casual acquaintances, and it was well to encourage the rumor.

Of course, there was the other edge of her honor. While it might be seen as acceptable for him to chase the skirts of young noblewomen, the same could not be said of a young noblewoman letting herself be caught. And so, a chaste kiss and slight blush, something that might be shared between friends or lovers, and enough to keep them guessing without ever feeling sure they knew.

He left her and went past the stairs and into what was once the great ballroom. A massive window opened to the west so that in the evenings, sunset would stream in, and moonset sometime after that. When the room had been used for its purpose, it was likely an impressive effect to partygoers and guests. Now, it was an annoyance to councilmen who were trying to stay awake and see who was talking.

The room’s floor had been rebuilt, with tiered seats forming a semi-circle around a raised dais in the middle that faced a rostrum where the Chancellor and his assistants sat. Jaeger nodded to no few men as he made his way to his seat, then he pulled out the sheaf of blank papers he kept in his desk, along with an inkwell and pen. Some Councilmen would merely sit and listen and make their vote when the time came, but Jaeger found writing down notes to himself was a far better way of organizing his thoughts, not to mention it was a welcome distraction to stay awake. The chairs on the floor might be hard wood with stiff backs, but even those became comfortable after hours of sitting.

A runner boy came by and handed him another bundle of papers, these printed out with several items of note for the day’s agenda, as well as copies of bills that might be up for consideration. He sat it aside without a glance; he had read the agenda last night, as well as a few new bills. Most of the pages were old, bills they had been trying to get to even talking about for weeks and had yet to for all the bickering and squabbling that normally happened in the course of a single session.

He glanced up, and noticed Maaike had taken his advice. Honestly, anywhere in the gallery would have given her just as equal a view of the proceedings, but this way, he could easily look up and see her without being obvious about it.

Another quarter hour passed before all of the councilmen had arrived and Lord Holmes started the tedious formalities of bringing the room to order. A half hour after that, roll-call, the opening invocation, and a short homily from a visiting Bishop were finished and Holmes cleared his throat and peered down through his spectacles at the paper before him.

“I trust you all have had a chance to look over the agenda,” he said. “I apologize for the last minute changes, but in all truth, providing the agenda the day before has always been a courtesy, not a requirement, so I hope you will not mind too much.”

Jaeger sat up straight and looked down at the stack of papers the runner had given him. It was different, although not markedly so. There were two additions. Qristina Barak would be addressing the Council on behalf of the Meister’s Guild, and after was the consideration of a new bill being sponsored by Lord Dunny. He flipped through the papers, searching for the bill from Dunny, and Holmes continued.

“We are very honored to have Master Meister Qristina Barak in our presence today, representing the Meister’s Guild and her father, High Meister Tesma Barak. Master Barak has brought something to my attention that I feel many of us should hear and heed. Sergeant at Arms, please show Master Barak in.”

The main doors opened and Jaeger glanced back to see Qristina walking in. She wore a dress that accented the very few curves the willowy woman had, although the voluminous sleeves often obscured the sight. As always, her left sleeve was cinched down around her bracer, and the embossed sigil seemed to almost glow with its own light. For all Jaeger knew, it did.

She walked up the dais as if she owned the room and nodded to Holmes with a smile. She then turned around and faced the crowd, although her gaze swept across the gallery as well. She paused for a moment, looking directly at Jaeger, and her lips curled into the slightest smile. He tore his eyes off her and went back to searching for the Dunny bill.

“Members of the Great Council of Sentat, thank you for having me.” Her voice was smooth and strong. It was not the voice of an enemy on the ropes, one punch from being down for good. “The recent months have seen amazing changes in our lives. From the end of the war, to the riots, to the great fire in the Slums. There is so much of great import that it can be easy to look over dangerous but unassuming evils.”

Such as last minute bills added to the top of the agenda, Jaeger thought to himself. He had found the document, a surprisingly thin piece of legislation, especially compared to the usual monstrously long draft pieces people liked to have printed.

“But what I want to speak to you about today is a matter that should not be taken lightly. It is a matter of quality, a matter of control, a matter of security. I wish to speak to you about the status of the Meister’s Guild.”

Of course she did. Jaeger read the first paragraph of the bill and felt a knot form in his gut. As he had feared, the bill made it clear in no uncertain terms that it was not open for amendment or revision, and that it was to be considered for ratification by the king. The first was a gambit. It closed the door to deal making by adding in changes or completely unrelated laws and language, but it also guaranteed that it would be handled quickly. It would not be tabled, or postponed for further sessions in alternate forms. It would be voted on today, before any further business. The second was just icing. If the king ratified it, then only a ratified law could undo any provisions made by this law, and the king was loathe to admit he was wrong. If he did not ratify it, then it would still take the Council to pass a new bill undoing the first, and that was only slightly more common than the king rescinding an order.

“Sentat has long been a bastion of reason in having the Guild, but quite recently, there has been an influx on non-guild meisters in the city. No doubt, many of you have even contracted with these new meisters, but I come before you now with advice and warning. I ask you, how many of these new meisters have given you the same level of service you have come to expect from the Guild? I have been watching these new Voxfeldian meisters, and my heart weeps to see the want for an attention to detail they have. Projects across the city, and in the factories in particular, have been fraught with disaster and delay they never saw under Guild supervision.”

“Of course, I have no doubt that in time the renowned Sentatian reason will bring you back to the assured quality you have come to expect from the Guild, but must it be at the price of your projects? And, aside from that, I ask you, what other risks are there from non-guild meisters? Need I remind you that the vile revenants are the invention of a man who holds no allegiance to a guild? Or that his students have taken his Secret and created even more foul abominations? There is no control, no one to make them stop. I can assure you, if ever I discovered a Guild Meister even studying the ways of revenants, I would put a stop to it immediately.”

Jaeger skimmed the document and felt sweat roll down his temple. The document was eloquent, better than anything he had ever seen come from Dunny before, and likely was Qristina’s handiwork, not that she could introduce a bill herself. It was rather to the point, too. No one would be allowed to practice the meister’s art without being part of the guild. Most of the bill was the exact definition of what exactly constituted that art, but Qristina had left no loopholes, or if she had, it would take a meister to find one.

“In closing, I simply wish to ask you to consider what is best for Tijervyn and Sentat. The uncontrolled anarchy of meisters creating abominations, or the smooth operation of a bureaucracy and guild. Councilmen, thank you.”

She stepped down to polite applause, and several heads were nodding in agreement. Once she was escorted from the room, Lord Holmes pounded his gavel and brought the room back to order.

“Thank you, Master Barak, for that pointed and wise speech,” he said. “Now then, Lord Dunny, if you would please introduce your bill.”

Lord Dunny stood and read an abridged version of the bill to the floor, which of course kept all of the flowery nicety and skimmed past the real details. Once he was done, Lord Holmes had barely called for additional sponsors before several more lords stood and gave their support. They were, Jaeger noticed, the few lords that had yet to hire his foreign meisters. Likely they had been promised generous renegotiations of their contracts.

Lord Holmes waited for the scrivener to note all of the supporting nobles before continuing. “Does anyone wish to speak against this bill?”

Jaeger stood. “I do, Lord Chancellor.”

Holmes nodded almost as if he expected it. “Very well, Count of Sunset.”

“My protest is a simple one,” Jaeger said. “This bill is a direct violation of the Act Against Monopoly and Exploitation. We cannot legally force a union upon the meisters. They must have, as per our own laws, the right to work free of union or to form competing unions.”

He had not fully sat down before Lord Dunny was standing. Lord Holmes nodded to the other man. “I recognize you, Lord Dunny.”

“I anticipated Count Jaeger’s protest,” he said. “And I wish to point out that, as per paragraph three-hundred-seventeen of the Act Against Monopoly and Exploitation, a single, mandated union may be established in the case of Council regulation. Tell me, Count Jaeger, was it not but a few weeks ago that you issued a writ of service to Lord Davis, commanding the Guild to assign Meisters to his factory? Tell me, on what authority did you issue that writ?”

Jaeger stood and forced himself to keep his composure. “Under the crown-ratified charter of the Guild, which clearly states that the crown has the authority to appropriate and use Guild resources for the betterment of the city and country.”

“And does any other union have such a clause?”

Jaeger took a deep breath. “No.”

He sat down and toned out the rest of the discussion. He was beat. He looked up at Maaike, hoping that maybe she might offer him hope, but her face was blank. When their eyes met, though, she stood and left.

In less than an hour, the bill passed by a large margin, especially after several more rousing speeches summoning up the terror of meisters making revenants in their very city unchecked. Lord Holmes allowed for a short recess after the vote passed.

Jaeger walked out into the hall and was not surprised to find Qristina there. At least she did not have a smug smile, but the tight line of her mouth did not make for a warm feeling either.

“Well done,” he said.

She raised an eyebrow. “You speak as though I had won something.”

“Don’t be coy, girl. We both know what today is about.”

“Today was about me solidifying the Guild’s place and assuring the safety of Tijervyn,” she said. “Such a thing was a forgone conclusion.”

He ignored her jibe. “What made you think to do it this way? I never took you for one who would be so direct.”

“That was the point, wasn’t it?” She sighed. “After all, we must be safe from revenants and their would-be masters, shouldn’t we? Not all of us can afford to be the unwitting tools of this city’s destruction.”

He took a step back. “What?”

She gave him a smile that was more foreboding that her frown. “Good day, Count Jaeger.” And with that, she turned and left.