"You think Tusks did this?" Vaerana scoffed. "And I

was beginning to think you might not be such a bungler!"

Ruha bit her tongue. A sharp retort would do nothing to bring Fowler back, and even less to convince Vaerana ofTombor's betrayal. The Lady Constable would realize the truth for herself soon enough.

Jarvis returned with a lit candle, which he promptly used to find and light several tallow lamps. As the flick- ering light illuminated the room, it became apparent that Silavia had been struck down as she fled, for she had left a short trail of bloody footsteps behind her. The rest of the kitchen looked normal enough; there were no tables overturned, the room was not strewn with uten- sils, and the walls were mercifully unspattered with blood.

Ruha took Jarvis's candle and led the way toward the pantry. The oil press was not on the table where it should have been, but she quickly forgot about that as she stepped around the corner of the table and saw Fowler's stout body sprawled on the floor. The captain was lying amidst a pool of dark blood, with the handle of a long butcher knife protruding from the middle of his back. His neck was turned at an impossible angle, and his aston- ished gray eyes were staring straight ahead.

Vaerana slipped past Ruha and crouched down beside

Fowler. "So much for your spy."

"I did not say that Fowler was the spy." Ruha's tone was sharper than she intended, for she was boiling over with anger and guilt. "I was speaking of your friend,

Tombor the Jolly."

Vaerana's jaw dropped. "You think Tombor…?"

Ruha nodded. "He was the only one in the room."

The Lady Constable rose, shaking her head. "Not Tom- bor. He saved-"

"I know; he saved you from the cult's assassins, more than once." Ruha paused, giving Vaerana time to draw her own conclusions. When the witch saw no sudden gleam of understanding in the Lady Constable's eyes, she

said, "The attacks weren't real. They were a trick to win your confidence."

A look of humiliation flashed across Vaerana's face, but it vanished as abruptly as it had appeared. "You don'tknow that."

"Don't I?" Ruha waved her hand around the kitchen

"Where are the ylang blossoms?"

Vaerana's gaze roamed across the chamber, her com- plexion turning as white as alabaster when she did not find the eight bulky sacks. Finally, the Lady Constable whirled on Ruha.

"You knew he would steal the blossoms-and you let him?" Vaerana looked almost relieved to have someone upon whom to vent her anger. "You let him kill Fowler?"

"I did not let him kill anyone!" the witch snapped

Vaerana's words hurt more than they should have, per- haps because Ruha feared there was more truth to them than she would have liked. "I had hoped we could follow him to Yanseldara's staff-which we might have done, had you bothered to awaken me and hear my plan!"

Jarvis interposed his armored bulk between the two women. "Tombor was gone by then. I doubt he stayed much longer than it took him to kill the half-ore and

Silavia."

Ruha turned to the empty table and, seeing no mess upon the surface, nodded. "He was in a hurry to get out of here. He took the oil press with him."

"The press maybe, but not even Tombor could sneak eight sacks of ylang blossoms out the gate," said Vaerana,

"The sentries would ask too many questions. They saw what you went through to bring those sacks to us."

"Perhaps he took them out some other way," Ruha sug- gested.

"Yes, and I think I see how," said Jarvis. The burly guard took Ruha's candle and went to the back wall, where a mass of roofing straw lay scattered around a butchering bench. He climbed onto the table and stuck his head up between the rafters, then raised the candle

hieh enough to illuminate his shoulders sticking up through a hole in the roof. "He climbed onto the roof and threw the sacks over the wall."

"Fowler's tnck!" Ruha gasped.

A long, heartsick groan slipped from Vaerana's lips.

She hung her head and braced her hands on the table edge. "I failed her."

"Not yet." Ruha went to the Lady Constable's side and, rather uncertainly, laid a hand on her shoulder. "Tombor took the wrong blossoms."

Vaerana raised her brow. "The wrong blossoms?"

Ruha nodded. "The ones Tombor took were only bait.

They were picked in the evening, and they are not potent enough to serve the dragon's wishes. Cypress needs blos- soms picked in the morning, and those remain at the

Ginger Palace."

Vaerana stood up straight. "Then what are we waiting for?" She turned to Jarvis. "Find Pierstar and tell him to call out the Maces! We've got a palace to storm!"

Ruha caught Jarvis's arm. "That won't be necessary.

Minister Hsieh has promised to give us the blossoms, in exchange for returning Lady Feng to him unharmed."

"How are we going to do that?" Vaerana demanded.

"Isn't she with Yanseldara's staff in Cypress's lair?"

Ruha nodded. "When we recover one, we rescue the other. It costs us no extra effort."

Vaerana considered this for a moment, then scowled.

"That'd be fine-if we knew where to find the lair. And since you were trying to trick Tombor into leading us there…"

Ruha raised a hand to silence Vaerana. "There may be another way. In my room, I have a potion. If we can get

Yanseldara to drink it, we can contact Lady Feng and perhaps discover the location of Cypress's lair."

Vaerana studied Ruha out of one swollen eye. "Where did you get this potion?"

"From Minister Hsieh," Ruha answered. "Now that he is helping us-"

"Helping us!" Vaerana thundered. "It's Shou mag that's done this to Yanseldara!"

"Yes, but-"

The Lady Constable shook her head. "How do you know this won't hurt her?"

"I do not," Ruha admitted. "Minister Hsieh said that if the connection between Yanseldara's body and spirit is too weak, we could sever it entirely-but that is unlikely as long as she remains strong enough-"

"No!" Vaerana shook her head vehemently, then stepped away from the table and started toward the dooi

"When will you learn? You can't trust a Shou-ever."

"What other choice do we have?" Ruha started after

Vaerana, who did not even acknowledge the question

"Wait! Where are you going?"

The Lady Constable did not even slow down as shf stepped through the door. "Where do you think? To have

Pierstar wake his trackers!"