Page 74

“Sea urchin.”

Instead of disintegrating into a shriek of laughter, as she wished to, Aurienne said, “A sea urchin. Naturally.”

“Naturally.”

“Do advise him that testicular asymmetry is normal. However, he ought to see someone if he’s in pain, or if he notices any new lumps.”

“I willnotbe telling him any of that. Can we carry on with your primitive coercion attempt?”

Aurienne recovered her self-possession in the face of this condescension. Primitive? How dare he?

“It’s anegotiation,” she said. “And I’m keeping the terms basic, given my interlocutor’s limited capabilities. I help you with your embolus; you help me find out what those people wanted.”

In the face of this—in Aurienne’s opinion—eminently fair exchange, Mordaunt let out a dramatic sigh. “If they were as well funded as you say, and bold enough to attempt Swanstone, anyone could be behind it. This could take ages. And be exceptionally risky.”

“May I remind you that you’re an expert at intelligence gathering?” asked Aurienne.

“May I remindyouthat I’m paid handsomely for that particular skill set?”

“Is healing your embolus not handsome enough a payment?”

Mordaunt looked provoked. Aurienne blinked at him with all the innocence in the world.

“You’re lucky I need you,” said Mordaunt.

“So we have an agreement?”

“Yes, but it’s a shit agreement and I’m not happy about it.”

“I’m familiar with the feeling,” said Aurienne.

Mordaunt narrowed his eyes at her. “Let’s get on with it, then.”

They resumed their positions in front of the fire.

Aurienne paused before pressing her tacn to Mordaunt’s chest. “I should note—simply because I don’t trust you—that, as your conditionprogresses, you’ll have a significant risk of recurrence for more blockages like this one. I hope you’ll keep your word, otherwise I won’t help you next time this happens.”

“Oh?” said Mordaunt. “It’s threats now, is it?”

“You may blame yourself and your noxious influence.”

“Congratulate myself, rather,” said Mordaunt, like a smug earwig.

Aurienne pressed her tacn to the spot just under Mordaunt’s clavicle and drifted back down his seith lines towards the blockage. She was fatigued, and her seith flowed slowly, but this particular procedure required finesse over force. She sank into him until she found the blockage again. With an infinitesimally gentle push of her seith, she broke up the embolus.

The effect was immediate. Mordaunt held out his hand. His hellhound tacn glowed red in all its dead-eyed glory.

“You did it.” Mordaunt’s smile was back, swift, wide, bright. “Hel’s tits, you made that look easy.I thought I was done for. You’re brilliant.”

The red glow of his tacn left Aurienne torn between satisfaction at seeing the thing work as it should and dismay that she had just put an out-of-order Fyren back in order. He’d had a Murder-Suppression Clot and she had removed it.

The dismay outweighed the satisfaction. That tacn was an instrument of slaughter. Her spirits plummeted lower than Leofric’s ball. She wasn’t certain, suddenly, that she had made the right call. It was one thing to play along with a deluded moon ritual that would never work; it was another to actually heal him.

Mordaunt noticed her discomfort. His smile disappeared. “You’re positively dripping with regret.”

“I’ve put a killer back in business.”

Mordaunt pulled his gloves on to hide his tacn, as though Aurienne were a sort of ostrich that would forget which Path he walked if she couldn’t see it.