Plus Jewels never noticed when Vivenna was watching her. Whatever sense made others glance about if they were watched for too long, Jewels didn’t have it. Vivenna turned away, and found herself blushing. Seeing a person without Breath . . . it felt like spying on someone when they were changing. Seeing them exposed.

Poor woman, she thought. I wonder how it happened. Had she sold it herself? Or had it been taken from her? Suddenly, Vivenna felt awkward. Why should I have so much, when she has nothing? It was the worst kind of ostentation.

She felt Denth approach before he actually pushed the door open. It looked ready to fall off its hinges. “Safe,” he said. Then he eyed Vivenna. “You don’t have to be involved with this, if you don’t want to waste your time, Princess. Jewels can take you back to the house. We’ll question the man and bring you word.”

She shook her head. “No. I want to hear what he has to say.”

“I figured as much,” Denth said. “We’ll want to cancel our next appointment, though. Jewels, you—”

“I’ll do it,” Parlin said.

Denth paused, glancing at Vivenna.

“Look, I may not understand everything going on in this city,” Parlin said, “but I can deliver a simple message. I’m not an idiot.”

“Let him go,” Vivenna said. “I trust him.”

Denth shrugged. “All right. Head straight down this alley until you find the square with the broken statue of a horse man, then turn east and follow that road through its curves. That’ll take you out of the slum. The next appointment was to happen at a restaurant called the Armsman’s Way; you’ll find it in the market on the west side.”

Parlin nodded and took off. Denth waved for Vivenna and the others to enter the building. The nervous Idrian man—Thame—went first. Vivenna followed him in, and was surprised to find that the inside of the building looked quite a bit sturdier than the outside had indicated. Tonk Fah found a stool, and he put it down in the center of the room.

“Have a seat, friend,” Denth said, gesturing.

Thame nervously settled on the stool.

“Now,” Denth said, “why don’t you tell us how you found out that the princess was going to be in that particular restaurant today?”

Thame glanced from side to side. “I just happened to be walking in the area and I—”

Tonk Fah cracked his knuckles. Vivenna glanced at him, suddenly noticing that Tonk Fah seemed more . . . dangerous. The idle, overweight man who liked to nap had vanished. In his place was a thug with sleeves rolled up, showing off muscles that bulged impressively.

Thame was sweating. To the side, Clod the Lifeless stepped into the room, his inhuman eyes falling into shadow, his face looking like something molded in wax. A simulacrum of a human.

“I . . . run jobs for one of the bosses in the city,” Thame said. “Little things. Nothing big. When you’re one of us, you take the jobs you can get.”

“One of us?” Denth asked, resting his hand on the pommel of his sword.

“Idrian.”

“I’ve seen Idrians in good positions in the city, friend,” Denth said. “Merchants. Moneylenders.”

“The lucky ones, sir,” Thame said, gulping. “They have their own money. People will work with anyone who has money. If you’re just an ordinary man, things are different. People look at your clothing, listen to your accent, and they find others to do their work. They say we’re not trustworthy. Or that we’re boring. Or that we steal.”

“And do you?” Vivenna found herself asking.

Thame looked at her, then glanced down at the building’s dirt floor. “Sometimes,” he said. “But not at first. I only do it now, when my boss asks me to.”

“That still doesn’t answer how you knew where to find us, friend,” Denth said quietly. His pointed use of the word “friend,” when contrasted with Tonk Fah on one side and the Lifeless on the other, made Vivenna shiver.

“My boss talks too much,” Thame said. “He knew what was happening at that restaurant—he sold the information to a couple of people. I heard for free.”

Denth glanced at Tonk Fah.

“Everyone knows she’s in the city,” Thame said quickly. “We’ve all heard the rumors. It’s no coincidence. Things are bad for us. Worse than they’ve ever been. The princess came to help, right?”

“Friend,” Denth said. “I think it’s best that you forget this entire meeting. I realize that there will be the temptation to sell information. But I promise you, we can find out if you do that. And we can—”

“Denth, that’s enough,” Vivenna said. “Stop scaring the man.”

The mercenary glanced at her, causing Thame to jump.

“Oh, for the Colors’ sake,” she said walking forward, crouching beside Thame’s stool. “No harm will come to you, Thame. You have done well in seeking me out, and I trust you to keep news of our meeting quiet. But, tell me, if things are so bad in T’Telir, why not return to Idris?”

“Travel costs money, Your Highness,” he said. “I can’t afford it—most of us can’t.”

“Are there many of you here?” Vivenna asked.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Vivenna nodded. “I want to meet with the others.”

“Princess—” Denth said, but she silenced him with a glance.

“I can gather some together,” Thame said, nodding eagerly. “I promise. I’m known to a lot of the Idrians.”

“Good,” Vivenna said. “Because I have come to help. How shall we contact you?”

“Ask around for Rira,” he said. “That’s my boss.”

Vivenna rose and then gestured toward the doorway. Thame fled without further prompting. Jewels, who stood guarding the doorway, reluctantly stepped aside and let the man scuttle away.

The room was silent for a moment.

“Jewels,” Denth said. “Follow him.”

She nodded and was gone.

Vivenna glanced back at the two mercenaries, expecting to find them angry at her.

“Aw, did you have to let him go so fast?” Tonk Fah said, sitting down on the floor, looking morose. Whatever he’d done to look dangerous was gone, evaporating faster than water on metal in the sun.

“Now you’ve done it,” Denth said. “He’ll be sullen for the rest of the day.”

“I never get to be the bad guy anymore,” Tonk Fah said, falling back and staring up at the ceiling. His monkey wandered over and sat atop his ample stomach.

“You’ll get over it,” Vivenna said, rolling her eyes. “Why were you so hard on him, anyway?”

Denth shrugged. “You know what I like least about being a mercenary?”

“I suspect that you’re going to tell me,” Vivenna said, folding her arms.

“People are always trying to fool you,” he said, sitting down on the floor beside Tonk Fah. “They all think that because you’re hired muscle, you’re an idiot.”

He paused, as if expecting Tonk Fah to give his usual counterpoint. Instead, however, the bulky mercenary just continued to stare at the ceiling. “Arsteel always got to be the mean one,” he said.

Denth sighed, giving Vivenna a “This is your fault” look. “Anyway,” he continued. “I couldn’t be sure that our friend there wasn’t a plant arranged by Grable. He could have pretended to be a loyal subject, gotten inside our defenses, then knifed you in the back. Best to be safe.”

She sat down on the stool, and was tempted to say that he was overreacting, but . . . well, she had just seen him kill two men in her defense. I’m paying them, she thought. I should probably just let them do their job. “Tonk Fah,” she said. “You can be the mean one next time.”

He looked up. “You promise?”

“Yes,” she said.

“Can I yell at the person we are interrogating?”

“Sure,” she said.

“Can I growl at him?” he asked.

“I guess,” she said.

“Can I break his fingers?”

She frowned. “No!”

“Not even the unimportant ones?” Tonk Fah asked. “I mean, people have five after all. The little ones don’t even do that much.”

Vivenna paused, then Tonk Fah and Denth started laughing.