Page 38 of Mistress of Bones

XXVI

THE DREAMER

A YEAR AND A HALF EARLIER

“What exactly is the problem?” Sío asked Edine de Guzmán, the

youngest of his sisters. Irritation laced his voice like it laced the way he tapped

his fingers against his thigh. He sat on a stool at his usual spot inside one of the

blue tabards’ posts throughout the city. His partner had left to do some

rounds—of the taverns, Sío assumed—the moment Edine arrived.

“Iriana has me delivering messages in secrecy.”

A heavy sigh escaped Sío. Why had the gods shackled him with not two but three sisters in the city, always complaining, always squawking about one thing or the other? “You came to Cienpé to help Iriana and get away from Mother, so what did you expect?”

Edine hesitated. “That’s not… I didn’t think I was to act as some sort of furtive messenger.”

“There is nothing furtive about it. You are not a fool, Didín. Some business must be dealt through back doors. You thought you would come and take charge like you do back home, and now you’re a simple errand girl.

Well, that is the way things work here in the outside world.

It’s not like in your odes of adventure. ”

“As with you?” she asked, looking pointedly at the blue tabard Sío wore. It was of better quality than the ones other guards owned, but a tabard nonetheless.

Sío didn’t care for her look of pity. “Yes, I, too, must work my way up the ranks. Or you can go back to Alemar and find your fortune some other way.”

“No,” she said obstinately. “I will find it here. But hear me, Brother, that’s not why I’ve come to you.”

“Is it Esparza?” Sío tensed. He had seen them together when Edine came to the blue tabards’ headquarters.

He had done his best to squelch the rumors stirred up that day, but everyone knew of Esparza’s reputation.

“I told you he would break your heart.” A bitter taste filled Sío’s mouth.

Now he’d have to call the man out for discarding his sister.

His heart began to beat wildly and his fingers trembled against his thigh.

He could sometimes hold his own against Nereida with a rapier, but Esparza had a lot of experience and—

“No!” Edine said, offended. “Why would you think that? He’s a good friend. I’m not here to fall in love, Si-so.”

The darkening of her cheeks belied her words, but Sío was happy to accept them at face value. Stopping a smile of relief, he forced his features into a severe expression. “Keep it that way, Edine. I meant what I said. He has a reputation for—”

“He’s not like that.”

Sío arched his brows. “You will allow me to finish.”

Edine rolled her eyes but nodded.

“He has a reputation for liking shiny things and discarding them the second another comes around. And I don’t only mean women, so do not look at me that way. His loyalties shift easily, Edine. You must take care around him.”

A sudden grin broke her pouting. “One cannot find one’s fortune without taking some risks.”

Perhaps it was he who should go back to Alemar , Sío thought with no little gloom. He ran his hand over the stiff fabric of his tabard. It wasn’t as if he was getting anywhere anyway, even with the commission his family had bought for him.

Edine approached and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

After a soft squeeze, she stepped back and paced the small space inside the booth.

“This is not about Esparza. I haven’t gone to him yet, because even though I enjoy his company, I am well aware of his faults.

” She stopped to wink at Sío. “This is a family thing and I need your help.”

Sío nodded, shifting in his seat to better track her movements.

“Iriana has me working as her delivery donkey, going back and forth with her contacts. I have looked into some of them, Si-so, and they have a bad reputation.”

“Edine—”

She lifted a hand to stop his words. “I know that’s how a city like Cienpuentes works.

I’m not so innocent, for all that you’d like to think so.

But while investigating one of these deals Iriana has going, I stumbled onto something suspicious.

” She grimaced. “More suspicious than all the other secret things she has me delivering.”

“Does someone mean her harm? You should tell her immediately.” The cold sweat was back to dampen Sío’s nape. “Let her deal with it.”

“No. At least not immediately. But I think she might have involved herself by mistake in some sort of court ploy.”

“Most of the business in Cienpé is some sort of court ploy, Edine.”

“This one… well, I think it involves someone in the Heart.”

“The Heart is the court.”

Edine huffed in frustration. “The Heart is the king.”

He stared at her in disbelief. “You think Iriana is involved in a plot against the king? No. She’s not that greedy.”

“She does like her Anchor.”

“And she can well afford it without the need to risk her life by plotting treason.”

“You are not listening, Si-so. I don’t think she knows what she’s involved with.”

“And what is your proof? Show it to me.” He extended his hand, palm up.

Edine hesitated. “I cannot. It’s a feeling I have from what I’ve overheard while delivering her messages.”

“If you’re that worried, talk to her, explain the situation.”

Edine shook her head. “She won’t believe me. She will assume I read everything wrong.”

“It will give her an excuse to revisit the loyalties of those she does business with.”

“It’s only a suspicion. If I go to her and I’m wrong, it will follow me.”

Sío crossed his arms in irritation. “You came to me for advice, and that’s the advice I’m giving you.”

Her easy grin came again. “You are wrong, Brother. I came to you to see if you’d like to accompany me in some late-night spying.”

Unease grew at the dare in her words. “What do you mean?”

“I think something is going to happen in a week, and I mean to be there to see what it is. Cienpuentes can be dangerous at night, and I could use another rapier to go with mine.”

“No,” he said, resolute. “Tell Iriana and step aside. This is not your fight. And,” he added, pointing at her, “do not go to Esparza for help.”

“Bah!” she exclaimed. “If you don’t want to go with me, I will go myself.”

“Don’t!”

“We must both do as we see fit,” she said haughtily before whirling on her heel and leaving the room.

“Didín,” he called after her. “Don’t do anything foolish.”

Edine didn’t hear or didn’t care to answer.

Once more, Sío asked the Blessed Heart why they had given his mother four children instead of simply his person.

He resigned himself to having to follow his younger sister late at night in a week to make sure she didn’t come to harm.

He returned to his stool, intent on catching some sleep while leaning against the windowsill, the safety of Cienpé’s citizens be damned.

THE PRESENT

Sío woke up to a scream—his own—and a sensation of having been thrown into a lake—his sweat. Cold, it stuck his shirt to his flesh like a second skin. Unnerved, he tore the shirt off his back, balling it into a bundle and throwing it to the corner of the room.

The action didn’t make anything better. Trembling, he brought his fingers to his face. The mask was still there, as soaked as his shirt had been. Where was the Witch?

He tore off that piece of fabric, too, and went to splash some water from the basin onto his face.

It didn’t help either.

Sunlight shone outside, although he could not tell the exact time. All he could tell was the vague reflection of his face on the glass pane. It was the face he had seen in his nightmares.

Heart pounding, he retied the mask and sat on the edge of the bed, praying for the Lady Dream to come save his mind before he remembered anything more.

“Witch,” he let out in a savage growl. “We had a deal. Take me.”

Not a moment later, she did, and Sío de Guzmán was free to lose himself in his dreams instead of his nightmares.