"Do you have any idea what time it is?" Ehren mumbled. "And we have a history examination at third bell." He turned his back, resettled himself onto his pillow, and mumbled, "Come back after the exam."
Tavi glanced across the cot at Gaelle, then the two of them reached down and hauled Ehren bodily up out of bed. The skinny boy let out a yelp as they dragged him toward the door of his dorm room. On the way, Tavi scooped up a pair of trousers, stockings, and boots, neatly laid out in preparation for the morning.
"Quiet," he said to Ehren. "Come on. We don't want the night watchman to come looking for us."
Ehren subsided and began to stagger along with them, keeping pace, until after several dozen paces he blinked, and murmured, "What's going on?"
"Tell you in a minute," Tavi said. He and Gaelle steered Ehren toward the overgrown area of the campus where Killian's supposed classroom was located. Tavi snagged the key to its door from beneath a nearby stone, unlocked it, and the three young people hurried inside.
Once there, Tavi made sure the shades were drawn tight closed, and murmured, "AH right," to Gaelle, who coaxed the flame of a furylamp to dim life.
Ehren gave Gaelle a self-conscious glance, reached for his clothing, and started jerking it on with considerable haste, even though his nightshirt came to well below his knees. "We're going to get in trouble," he said. "Tavi, what are you doing?"
"I need your help," he said quietly.
"Can't it wait?" Ehren asked.
Tavi shook his head, and Gaelle suddenly frowned at him. "Tavi," she murmured. "What's wrong? You look awful."
At that, Ehren frowned and studied him as well. "Tavi? Are you all right?"
"I am," Tavi replied. He took a deep breath. "My aunt isn't. She came to the capital for the presentation at the conclusion of Wintersend. Her party was attacked. Her companion and her armsmen were murdered. She's been taken."
Gaelle drew in a quick breath. "Oh, furies, Tavi, that's horrible."
Ehren pushed his fingers idly through his tangled hair. "Crows."
"She's in danger," Tavi said quietly. "I have to find her. I need your help."
Ehren snorted. "Our help? Tavi, be reasonable. I'm sure the civic Legion is looking for her already. And the Crown is going to turn the Realm upside down and shake it until she falls out. Gaius can't afford to let something happen to Steadholder Isana."
Gaelle frowned. "Ehren's right, Tavi. I mean, I'm your friend, and I want to do whatever I can to help you, but there are going to be much more capable people handling your aunt's disappearance."
"No," Tavi said quietly. "There aren't. At least, I don't think anyone with a real chance of success is going to look for her."
Ehren's expression became uncertain. "Tavi? What do you mean?"
Tavi took a deep breath. Then he said, "Look. I'm not supposed to tell you about this. But the Crown is, for the moment, extremely limited in what it can do to help."
"What does that mean?" Gaelle asked.
"I can't share specifics," Tavi said. "Suffice to say that the Crown isn't going to be turning anyone upside down looking for my aunt."
Gaelle blinked in slow surprise. "What about the Cursors? Surely they will be able to help?"
Tavi shook his head. "No. There…" He grimaced. "I can't tell you any more. I'm sorry. The only help my aunt is going to get is whatever I can bring to her myself."
Ehren frowned. "Tavi, don't you trust us?"
"It isn't that," Tavi said. "Because I do."
Gaelle stared at him, then mused, aloud, "Which means you are under orders not to speak to us about it."
Ehren nodded thoughtfully. "And the only one who could give you an order like that is Maestro Killian."
"Or the First Lord," Gaelle murmured. "Which means…" Her face went a little pale.
Ehren swallowed. "Which means that something very serious is happening-something serious enough to divert the entire resources of the Cursors and the Crown elsewhere. And that whoever gave him the order is afraid of treachery from within the Citadel, because even we aren't getting the whole story."
Gaelle nodded slowly. "And as students newly introduced to matters of intelligence, we present less risk to security matters." She frowned at Tavi. "Has something happened to the First Lord?"
Tavi used every ounce of experience he'd gained growing up with a powerfully sensitive watercrafter watching over him to keep any kind of expression from his face or voice as he answered. "I can't tell you anything more than I have."
"But if we do this," Gaelle said, "we will be in danger."
"Probably," Tavi said quietly.
Ehren shivered. "I would have thought you'd ask Max first," he said. "Why isn't he here?"
"I'm not sure where he is," Tavi said. "But as soon as I see him, I'm going to ask him, too."
Ehren frowned and glanced down at the floor. "Tavi, we have examinations for two more days-and we still have to complete our final exercises for Killian. There's no way I can do that and an investigation, too."
"I know," Tavi said. "I'm asking for a lot-from both of you. Please believe me when I say that I wouldn't do it if I wasn't desperate. We've got to find my aunt-both for her own sake and to help the Crown."
"But…" Ehren sighed. "History."
"I think we can get the Academy to give us special consideration later," Tavi said. "But I can't promise you anything, Ehren. I'm sorry."
"My admittance to the Academy was conditional. If I fail any courses, they're going to send me back home," Ehren said.
Tavi shook his head. "You've been training as a Cursor, Ehren. The Crown won't let them send you away if you were pulled away from your studies by duty."
Gaelle arched her brows. "But is this duty, Tavi?"
"It is," Tavi said.
"How do we know that?" Gaelle asked.
"You'll just have to trust me." Tavi gazed at her steadily.
Gaelle and Ehren traded a long look, then Gaelle said, "Well, of course we'll help you, Tavi." She took a shaking breath. "You're our friend. And you are right about your aunt's importance to the Crown." She grimaced. "I wasn't exactly having a good time with my assignment for Killian in any case."
"Oh, dear." Ehren sighed. "Yes, of course we'll help."
"Thank you," Tavi told them. He smiled a little. "If you like, I'll even help you with your assignments for the Maestro. We'll make it our own little secret."
Ehren let out a wry laugh. "I can hardly imagine where that could lead," he said. He finished lacing his boots. "So, tell us whatever you can about the attack on your aunt."
Tavi told them about the visit to Lord Kalare's garden party and what they had learned there and after, omitting any mention of Max or Brencis and his cronies from the tale.
"It would appear," Ehren said, "that Kalare dispatched these cutters who killed your aunt's entourage."
"It seems a rather glaringly obvious conclusion," Gaelle replied. "It may have been a deliberately planted encounter for Tavi's benefit."
"It hardly matters," Tavi said. "The men who took her wouldn't bring her back to Kalare's property in any case. He'd be protecting himself from any association with the murders and kidnaping."
"True," Ehren said. He glanced at Gaelle. "The staff of Kalare's household may have seen something. And odds are very good the house's chef employed the services of caterers for some of the food. They might also have seen something without realizing it."
Gaelle nodded. "There were any number of people on the streets nearby. We could knock on doors, speak to people still there. There are bound to be rumors flying about, too. One never knows when they might be useful. Which do you prefer?"
"Streets," Ehren said.
Gaelle nodded. "Then I will approach Kalare's staff and the caterers."
"If she's been taken," Tavi said, "they might be preparing to leave with her. I'll take the riverfront and check in with the dockmaster and the causeway wardens to make sure they know to keep an eye out." He half smiled. "Listen to us. We sound almost like Cursors."
"Amazing," Gaelle said, mouth curving into a small smile.
The three young people looked around at one another, and Tavi could feel the quivering nervousness in his own belly reflected in his friends' eyes.
"Be careful," he said quietly. "Don't take any chances, and run at the first sign of trouble."
Ehren swallowed and nodded. Gaelle rested her hand briefly on his.
"All right," Tavi said. "Let's go. We should leave separately."
Gaelle nodded and doused the light of the furylamp. They waited until their eyes had adjusted to the low light, then she slipped out of the classroom. A few moments later, Ehren breathed, "Good luck, Tavi," and vanished into the late-night darkness himself.
Tavi crouched in the darkness with his eyes closed, and suddenly felt very small and very afraid. He had just asked his friends to help him. If they were harmed, it would be his fault. Max now languished in the Grey Tower, a prisoner because he had tried to help Tavi. That, too, was his fault. And no matter what he told himself, he felt responsible for what had happened to Aunt Isana as well. If he had not become involved in the matters leading up to the Second Battle of Calderon, the First Lord might never have seen an opportunity to use her by appointing her a Steadholder.
Of course, if he hadn't gotten involved, his aunt might well be dead, too, along with everyone else in the Calderon Valley. But even so, he couldn't keep the heavy, ugly pressure of guilt from weighing on him.
If only Max hadn't been taken, Tavi thought. If only Gaius could waken. Direct orders from the First Lord could galvanize the Civic Legion to furious action, dispatch the Crown Legion to help search, call in favors owed by Lords, High Lords, and Senators alike, and generally change the entire situation.
But Gaius was unable to take action. Max was locked away behind the heaviest security in the Realm, furycraftings that no one could overcome…
Unless there was someone who could.
Tavi jerked his head upright in sudden, astonished realization. There was indeed someone capable of circumventing the kinds of security craftings that kept Max locked away in the Grey Tower. Someone who had, without using craftings of his own, managed to outmaneuver, circumvent, or render impotent the furycraftings that protected the businesses of jewelers, goldsmiths, and more humble bakeries and smithies alike.
And if the those furycraftings had been so effortlessly overcome, then perhaps he might be able to enter the Grey Tower as well. If someone could reach Max and withdraw him quietly from his prison, the guards might remain ignorant for time enough to enable Max to return to the Citadel and resume the role of Gaius Sextus. And then there would indeed be a First Lord able to have the city turned upside down in order to recover Aunt Isana from her captors.
Which meant that Tavi's next move was obvious.
He had to find and catch the Black Cat.
This was no mere exercise, upon which hung nothing more than his final grade. Tavi had to convince the thief to help him enter the Grey Tower and liberate his friend Max. And soon. Every moment that the stars wheeled overhead was a moment in which whoever had his aunt might dispose of her.
Tavi narrowed his eyes in thought, then rose from the floor, left the classroom, and locked the door behind him. He returned the key to its resting place, and hurried with silent, determined paces into the night.