Nophel glanced at the woman, Peer, who had been left with him while Malia went for medicines. She had not spoken, though he'd felt the pressure of her questions.
"I can tell you only what I know."
"Peer, I'm sure you want to begin," Malia said. She closed the door and stood by the window, looking out onto the street, chewing herbs and pressing paste into wounds on her left hand and forearm. But Nophel felt all of her attention focused on him.
"You disappeared," Peer said. "When I was untying you, you… faded. Then you were gone."
"A potion from the Baker," Nophel said. "The old Baker. I told you, Dane Marcellan and she were friends."
"A potion to make you invisible?" Peer said. Disbelief rang through her words, and yet Nophel smiled, because she could not deny what she had seen.
"It's called Blue Water," he said. He closed his eyes, the good and the bad, and in doing so he brought back the images of those Scarlet Blades dying at his hand. It had been horrible, feeling his knife part their skin and flesh, seeing their eyes as they knew death had come for them. And yet he could not feel sorry. He thought of their families and friends, who would be told of their deaths today, and the people who had lost a father or brother, mother, or sister. But pity was something he had so rarely been shown that, when it did present itself, he hated it. Pity was for the weak and useless and those who had no aims.
"And he gave it to you so you could get this message to the Baker?" Malia asked.
"No, before that. Something came out of Dragar's Canton, and he wanted to know what."
"Did you find out?"
"Yes. And then I killed it."
Peer held her head in her hands, rubbing at her eyes. She's been through a lot in a short time, Nophel thought. Malia, the other woman, was harder and more dangerous. But even she was in a state of shock. For all their posturing, the Watchers had never been fighters. He was at an advantage here, and he had to remember that.
"I know who the visitor is," Peer said, staring Nophel in the eye.
"Who?"
"We're asking the questions!" Malia roared, but Peer held out both hands, as if warding the two away from each other.
Nophel looked at his hands, willed the Blue Water to act again. I did it myself, he thought, but however much he tried convincing himself of that, it did not ring true. It had been fear and danger that had forced the change, not a message from his own consciousness. Perhaps if Malia came at him with a knife… but he was not sure if even then it could happen fast enough. He didn't know how many people, if any, had ever been given the White Water antidote, but he possessed something amazing. Perhaps soon he would gain some control over it.
"A friend," Peer said, putting herself between Nophel and Malia. "A good friend of ours and the Baker. But we think the Dragarians have taken him."
"The Dragarian said he would go to the Baker," Nophel said.
Neither woman answered.
"So where is the new Baker?"
"Gone somewhere," Malia said, quieter now. "She'll be back soon."
"She knows about your friend?"
"Yes," Peer said. "But she also knows that things are stirring in the Echoes."
"What are you going to do with me?" Nophel asked. He was looking at Peer, but it was Malia who answered, wincing as she pressed the paste into a gash across her left forearm.
"I can't trust you," Malia said. "You're Marcellan, and-"
"I'm not Marcellan!"
"You work for them. You come from Hanharan Heights with a message tube, snooping around our business, and you can turn fucking invisible!"
"So you'll kill me, then?" Nophel asked.
"No!" Peer snapped, and when Malia looked at her, Nophel did not like the look in her eye.
"I'm with the Marcellans only because of the dead Baker," Nophel said, and the old bitterness burned at the back of his throat. "She was my mother and she abandoned me; the Marcellan I serve took me in. It has been the place where I've been safest. But I've always worked only for myself."
"Your mother?" Peer asked, aghast.
"Mother," he said, nodding. "So this new Baker is something to me as well."
Malia snorted, then returned to the window. There was a barely suppressed panic about her, the sense that she could unravel at any minute. She carried such an aura of violence that Nophel did not want to be near her when that happened.
"You say you're a Watcher," Peer said.
"It's my outlook, yes."
"The man we seek, our friend-"
"Peer!" Malia shouted, but Peer turned to face Nophel.
"He came in from beyond Echo City."
"No!" the Watcher woman said. But she did not come closer, did not interfere.
"Now I fear the Dragarians might have him, and there's something happening deep down beneath the city, and the Hanharans will do nothing to prevent what might come next."
Nophel gasped, the breath knocked from him. Beyond the city? Dane knew… In his message, it's clear. But there was no bitterness that Dane had not shared his knowledge with him. And then Nophel thought of the Unseen and their fading ways, and he knew what he could do. Helping the Watchers might be the only sure way to get him closer to this new Baker. Closer to true vengeance.
If only they would believe him.
"I can help," he said. "You might not trust me, but my convictions are strong. First, though, will you tell me about this visitor?"
Malia remained by the window, not as horrified as she had sounded. She's in shock, Nophel thought. She lost friends today. He could not imagine what she felt, because he had never had a friend. And what did that make him? Stronger than they were, or weaker?
"Malia?" Peer asked.
The Watcher woman shrugged. "You've told him too much already. See what he has." She coughed a harsh, humorless laugh. "Can't put us in a worse position than we're in."
Peer dragged her chair over and sat before Nophel.
"How can you help?" she asked.
"I know people who can get into Dragar's. People like me. Unseen."