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Back at Darht Filima before she hit theto colared atto mouth more stuff I couldn&039;t hear Well, screw hi over The sickly light abruptly winked out
Scooping up Filima, I pushed past the velvet curtains
"What happened?" Shankey dey for eavesdropping, or rather pavilion-dropping
But it was nonstop for ht sun-filled ith lots of fresh air co in Perfect, we needed both I put Filima down, then sat rather suddenly on the floor next to her There hadn&039;t been a lot of lifting effort involved since she didn&039;t weigh much, but I felt like I&039;d run for miles
Shankey patted her cheek "Lady Filiasped "Don&039;t Knohy"
"What did you do?" Debreban wanted to know
"Nothing Just Rescued her Is all"
Shankey snarled, yanked on the bell pull, and yelled orders Definitely a man of action For the next few , waving their ar around Very intense Finally, a matron-type woman came in, sensibly told everyone to calm down, and passed an open vial under Filima&039;s nose It must have been the saht I sniffed ah! Foo!" she said, waving it away
Now they were asking her if she was all right, and she had no iure it out herself No one asked about ive off that makes people think I&039;m a hundred percent all the time I shut ht caress Nice The kind that makes me purr
Then an i
"You all right?" Fili by the ashy tint of her cinnamon skin
"I think so What was that all about? And please don&039;t tell me I should know, &039;cause I don&039;t"
"Thatlike it before Had no idea the mirror could do that"
"Who was he?"
"He?"
"The face in the uy?"
"I saw no face, only a horrible cloud thing coan Shankey, asn&039;t happy, "ent on in there?"
"I&039; to contact us In e, perhaps"
"More like a psychic- all three-diot the i you to do it"
"Me?" Filied looks The worried kind
I could relate "I think it was taking strength from you That&039;s probably what made you faint"
"But how? My mirror has only ever shownlike that&039;s happened before Where did it co- Hell-river situation, lots of spooky stuff that could connect together way too well I decided against sharing; things were stirred up enough for now
A scowl from Shankey, directed at Filiest you leave that ic stuff the hell alone?"
A shocked look froe She started to reply, then zipped up "Sounds like a very good idea, Captain" She addressed the rest of the crowd of servants "Show&039;s over, gang, beat it"
She was in quite a state Her for with some of those dulcet tones I couldn&039;t bla pretty shakenher teet e a bunch of other servants ahead of her, until the room wasthe pavilion as though he expected so to jump out of it at hiht do him In my experience not a lot of h cold iron would be a help I wondered if his sword had any in it A ain Lady in distress And a nice distraction froether and stood, going around to the end of the couch so I was behind Filima "Sit up," I ordered
She did so, no questions Made for a nice change
"Now close your eyes and relax"
"What are you doing?" Shankey asked as I was about to lay hands on his lady
"I know a couple of pressure points that should help her head It&039;s okay, I knohat I&039; or three, but I think I already had an inborn instinct about therapeutic e It made me very popular oht thu my way around the nerve clusters (Don&039;t try this at home, people, this is for trained, professional stunt-Myhrs only) Alave out with a delicious s I could do for this babe
Shankey kept up with the suspicious bodyguard thing for awhile, then eased back as he saw her obvious enjoyoing all liranite-hard when I&039;d started; it&039;s very gratifying to get an immediate and positive result fro to follow through on theh if she named a time, I&039;d pick a place Rowhr-rowhr!
Man, was this fun Took ht off that terror in the tent A little too entleood No baseball scores ca at the black velvet curtains helped calm me down a bit I&039;d stand up later
"Thank you!" she cried "I feel fantastic!
Always good to hear that froone It&039;s a miracle"
"More of a Myhr-acle," I chirped "And you&039;re welco down the shop for real like the captain wants?"
She swung her legs to the floor, turning to see me "What do you mean?"
I motioned at the pavilion "Take down the curtains, put the furniture in the attic, duic-free vacation"
"I can&039;t do that!"
"Sure you can I bet the captain here will be the first volunteer for the dis crew"
Shankey nodded enthusiastically
Filima&039;s voice went up a notch "But I need theon!"
"It pointed me out, didn&039;t it? You want my help, don&039;t you? Trust ain Even if you don&039;t sink it, I want your word of honor as the best oochie-coochie dancer in five provinces that you won&039;t go in there again for any reason"
A protesting noise frorowl this ti kind "Very well"
"Maybe after we get this Hell-river business sician, but until then leave that kind of play to the experts"
"Experts? Does thatlunch she&039;d gotten the idea I was a Talent in the ic sense It seemed best not to correct her "Last ti where I am Clem, too The sooner I&039;m out of here, the sooner Terrin and I can return and look into things"
A maid came in with a drinks tray Mint tea for two I helped oblet, probably not tasting it Sheinstead When she put her tea back on the tray, she was sitting up straight, like for a piano recital, and had recovered her posh tones
"Captain Shankey, you&039;re to escort Mr Myhr wherever he wants, then guide hiuest"
His chain of command reestablished, he came to attention "Yes, o out as a celeb Nothing like a little rescue derring-do to put a fella in good with the boss-lady I just hoped Terrin could figure things out for her or it could becoain For us both
"You&039;ll be back soon?" she asked
I love when a woman says that to me "Soon as I can"
She smiled Mmm, you could have used it for rocket fuel to the moon and back Then her smile faltered She looked narrowly past my shoulder at Debreban "Excuse me, but don&039;t I know you from somewhere? You&039;re not on the house staff, are you?"
Debreban started to open hishis foot into it "He&039;s sort of with uide in the city Don&039;t think I&039;ll need hiht&039;s burning"
We all hastily bowed good-bye to Filih the doors
"Thanks," Debreban muttered out of the corner of his mouth
"You&039;re welcome," I muttered back I didn&039;t knohy he was so hinkie about her knowing hiood old trustworthy instinct said I should do him a favor I&039;d collect an explanation later
With e of status in place ould use the front door, but noas my turn to take a detour to the baseiven me a buzz, but it was liquid, and I had plenty of it on board, plus the tea The guys were polite and didn&039;t stare while I did my business - sooes - and looked out the basement s instead
"Wonder why they&039;re here?" said Debreban in an idle tone
"Who?" asked Shankey
"That lot just outside your lady&039;s gate are all in Overduke Anton&039;s colors They&039;re not doing runted "Pretty odd"
"Think it&039;s to do with Lord Perdle seeing o ask theet back toon"
"It&039;s probably nothing to do with you"
"I&039;d better h"
"Debreban, you and I may have a fine opinion of you, but to the clan lords you&039;re just a face in the crowd"
"Until you get noticed Like Lady Filima almost did I don&039;t want to be noticed by Lord Anton"
"What have you got against hi quietly so as not to interrupt
Debreban shrugged, apparently not possessing an easy answer "His eyes Ever see theh a man They say he can turn a person to stone when the er stuff than scrying Lord Cadmus says he has visions Bad ones"
"So I&039;ve heard, but there&039;s never been anything harood of him She&039;s best friends with that new lady he&039;s been seeing The talk I&039;ve heard is he&039;s a decent enough fellow That troop out there probably has athe bell and hand it over, not stand around like a raiding party waiting to be called"
Shankey frowned "You&039;ve got a point there, o up and see what they want"
"It&039;s your house"
"That it is You hang back and watch o talk with them They&039;ll expectover their shoulders with interest When they turned to find theave a little juuard He should switch to CPA work
"What&039;s the deal?" I asked Outside, beyond the gated opening to the grounds of Daruys in black-and-silver cloaks
"Nothing you need trouble yourself about, Mr Myhr," said Shankey "If you don&039;t o see what they want"
"It&039;s all one to me, fellas"
We went upstairs Debreban and I cooled our heels in a big hall
"So who do you work for again?" I asked