The Paladin Caper (58 page)

“And I’ll stand helpfully nearby,” Kail added.

“Actually,” Cevirt said, “I spoke with the puppeteers you rescued, and we had some ideas about taking the puppet shows in new directions. They asked about you specifically helping to coordinate some of them.”

“Really?” Kail thought about it. “All right. Soon as Diz and I get back from seeing my mother, I’m in.”

Desidora coughed. “What?”

“No, Diz, it’s good. You’ll like her.” Kail smiled. “She’s a little crazy sometimes, but, well, she’s got a lot of love to give.” Desidora choked on her wine.

“The people of the Elflands look forward to helping you recover,” Mister Dragon said. “Our nature magic may help fill in the gaps as you try to cut back on your use of crystals.”

“We’d be honored to form a closer friendship with your people,” Bertram said, and with a ghost of a smile, added, “and if you were open to formal relations, Cevirt had an idea for ambassador.”

Dairy put his other hand over the hand that was linked with Mister Dragon’s. “I’m staying with him.”

“That was the plan, young Rybindaris,” Cevirt said dryly. “Now, as for the Empire . . .”

“It would do no one any good to fall into our usual hostilities now,” Veiled Lightning said from where she knelt on the floor.

“Truly, as the forest when the rain has doused the flames of the forest fire,” Ululenia said, “this is a time for healing and new growth.” She scooted over on the couch and gave Veiled Lightning a warm smile. “Are you certain you are comfortable down there, princess? There is plenty of room beside me.”

“I guess growing up with a bodyguard with a giant ax,” Tern said, “you never had a chance to”—she blinked as Veiled Lightning, Icy, and Ululenia all looked at her—“see the natural beauty of the Republic!” she finished. “It’s funny, because as I recall from the biography that came with your one-to-six scale doll, you liked rare flowers, and Ululenia is an
expert
on flowers, and I thought maybe she could take you on a tour of the archvoyant’s garden later! For diplomatic peace building.” She bit into her apple rather than talk anymore.

“That sounds lovely,” Veiled Lightning said, smiling shyly as she took the hand Ululenia offered to help her up.

“It is the perfect time of year to watch the petals open,” Ululenia assured Veiled Lightning as the princess settled down beside her. Ululenia’s movements to ensure that the princess had enough room made her clingy white dress show a lot of very pretty leg.

“Tomorrow afternoon, I am to meet Tern and Hessler for drinks,” Icy added to Veiled Lightning, who was blushing a little as she looked at Ululenia. “Perhaps you and Ululenia could join us? I believe Tern had questions about your hair.”

“Yes!” Tern said, wide-eyed, and then, “Yes, that would be lovely, we would certainly enjoy the company.” As Veiled Lightning looked at Ululenia’s smooth and ostensibly innocent leg, Tern shot Icy a thumbs-up.

Loch sat back and watched it all, entirely content to lean against Pyvic. Eventually the talk turned to more drinking, and then people began to leave, Ululenia and Veiled Lightning off to the garden, Dairy and Mister Dragon to the Elflands, Tern and Hessler to their new apartment by the
Lapitemperum
(convenient both for work and for the regular checkups Hessler would be getting to make certain that he wasn’t dangerous to himself or others)
,
Icy to the new Imperial embassy, and Kail and Desidora to wherever Kail’s mother lived.

Pyvic and Loch left last, saying their good-byes to Cevirt and Bertram.

“You found work for them all this time,” Loch said to Cevirt.

“Of course I did.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “Look at what happened when I left them to their own devices.”

“They saved the Republic?”

“Three times,” added Pyvic.

“And their reward is, once again, not being arrested for everything they did and having a seat at the cabinet meetings as we figure out how to put this mess back together.” Cevirt smiled sadly. “Isafesira, about what happened . . .”

“It wasn’t you,
Yeshki
,” Loch said. “It wasn’t Pyvic fighting Desidora, and it wasn’t you fighting Naria.”

“Yeshki,”
he muttered, and wiped at his eyes. “I get a cane, and suddenly you think I’m an old man.”

Loch hugged him, shook hands with Bertram, and headed out.

“How are you, Baroness?” Pyvic asked beside her as they walked along the false-stone streets of Heaven’s Spire.

Loch smiled tightly. She was a baroness now. She thought of Naria sitting on the throne and laughing, and then she thought of Naria lying dead in the too-green grass, Naria who finally didn’t run away. There were snide remarks and cutting words in the past, and now, no future, and Loch damned the ancients to hell for that. “I should have made things right with her.”

“She died saving you,” Pyvic said without looking over, his justicar’s boots clicking on the street. “That’s about as right as you can get.”

“That wasn’t my sister,” Loch said. “That was Archvoyant Silestin’s First Blade, turning invisible and dancing around with an assassin’s knife.”

Pyvic laughed, and Loch looked over. At her look, he shook his head. “The two of you thought you were so different, just because she liked dresses and you liked swords. You think that’s why you didn’t get along?”

“We didn’t get along because she became an assassin for the man who killed our parents.”

“You both looked at a world rigged against you and figured out which rules to bend and which rules to break. Different strengths, different choices, but the same determination.” Pyvic smiled. “Your parents would have been proud of both of you. And angry at both of you.”

Loch smiled back, then wiped her stinging eyes. “You know the worst part? She was a damn good baroness.”

Pyvic took Loch’s shoulders and pulled her in for a quick hug. “You’ll be a good one as well.”

“I suppose we’ll find out.” She pulled out of the hug.

“You don’t
have
to take the title, if you don’t want to,” Pyvic pointed out. “Let the land go free. The guilds would love it.”

“Lochenville needs me.” Loch glared at his smile. “What?”

“Just thinking that the little town around the manor is almost large enough to be considered a city.” Pyvic shrugged. “It could use a justicar presence.”

“They need you up here,” she said. “You’ve got a fair amount of rebuilding to do, given what just happened to the whole country, and why are you still smiling?”

“They need
me
, Lochenville needs
you
.” Pyvic stopped her again, and his smile softened. “You remember that message I sent on the crystal during the battle?”

Loch did not touch the message crystal that was still in her pocket, and would stay there for the rest of her life. “Yeah.”

“Desidora made me send it.”

Loch shook her head. “Desidora is a pain in the ass.”

Pyvic laughed. “You know how hard it was to tell you that I needed you?”

“You said you loved me too.”

“Love is easy. Need, though.” He looked down, smiling tightly. “Need feels like weakness. Need means you’re not all right without someone else, and what self-respecting scout is going to admit something like that? We can’t even say that we miss each other.” He looked back up, meeting her gaze, still smiling and almost angry now. “Kind of messed up, when you think about it. I wouldn’t have said it if Desidora hadn’t basically love-priestessed me into it. I hope it mattered.”

Loch felt Ghylspwr in her hands again for just a moment, on that alien world, ready to blast it all away in one great swing. This time, she looked away from Pyvic. “It mattered.”

“It’s all right to need people,” Pyvic said, and Loch stepped in and kissed him. It was a slow, gentle kiss, with none of the frantic urgency they had had when they’d first reunited.

Then, with a deep breath, she said, “I
can
survive without you. I can go live in Lochenville where I’m needed and leave you up on Heaven’s Spire where you’re needed. I don’t
need
you.”

Pyvic didn’t step away and didn’t interrupt. He just nodded.

She didn’t step away either.

“But I like the world a lot more when you’re here,” she said, and her grip on him tightened.

Pyvic smiled. “Please, Baroness, I’m blushing.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Hey, I only said it because Desidora hit me.”

Loch shook her head, trying not to laugh, and then leaned in again and kissed him messily. “Desidora isn’t a scout,” she said as they broke apart. “She doesn’t understand how we work. What I
need
is a solution that gets me everything I want and doesn’t mess things up for the Republic.”

“That’s kind of you.”

“What I
have
is a very fast airship,” she said as they broke apart. “How do you feel about flying to work?”

“Strongly in favor.” Pyvic smiled. “I’ll have to leave early.”

“That’s a shame,” Loch said, “because you’ll be staying up late.”

They walked off arm in arm, not stuck together but together nevertheless.

Acknowledgments

A
S IS ALWAYS
the case, this novel was the product of many people working very hard on my behalf. David Hale Smith and everyone at InkWell were constant advocates and advisors, while Jason Kirk and all the folks at 47North were incredibly patient with a frazzled author who missed his deadline. Clarence Haynes provided a fantastic edit that helped me do what I wanted to do, only better, and Cameron Harris pointed out some truly spectacular plot holes before the rest of you had to see them. As always, the bits that clunk are mine and mine alone.

My wife, Karin, was, as always, both amazingly supportive of my late-night disappearances into the Writing Cave and tirelessly willing to dual-wield the boys on weekend afternoons. My mother, sister, and new brother-in-law were also extremely tolerant of me spending much of our Maui vacation alternately hunching over my laptop writing and staring into space while tapping an endless rhythm on the table as I
thought
about writing.

In more specific thanks, I am indebted to Greg Rucka and Matthew Clark for their willingness to be used as info-dump pieces and then summarily rendered unconscious, and to Mike Laidlaw, who has coauthor credit for the entirety of Kail’s kahva rant in
Chapter 11
, except for the parts I stole from
The Sting
and that one con-centric episode of
Xena: Warrior Princess
.

Finally, thanks to everyone who pinged me on Twitter to ask when the next book was coming out. It’s coming out because of you.

About the Author

Photo © 2010 Baos Phototgraphy

P
ATRICK
W
EEKES
WAS
born in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended Stanford University, where he received a BA and an MA in English literature. In 2005, Patrick joined BioWare’s writing team in Alberta, Canada. Since then, he’s worked on the Mass Effect video-game trilogy as well as
Dragon Age: Inquisition
, and wrote
Dragon Age: The Masked Empire
, a novel set in the Dragon Age universe.