The Witch's Betrayal

"So you do know him," I said.

"Everyone knows him. Everyone down here, in this charming piece of the city." He wriggled beneath me. "Do you think you could get up? Your knee's causing me a bit of pain -- "

"No. Why isn't partners the right word?"

"Because we weren't bloody partners. Why are you asking after him?"

I didn't say anything.

"You want to recruit him, is that it? He'd be good for your sort, I imagine, the sort of things he's done. I hear the assassins are always looking for the cruelest killers."

I hit Ajeeri in the nose, a short sharp jab. I did it without thinking. Blood flowed over his mouth and I added its strength, its life's light, to the magic already shimmering in his apartment.

"Curse you," he muttered.

"I don't kill dancing girls," I said.

Ajeeri glared at me overhissmeared blood. "Not just dancing girls he's killed. Anyone he can find down here. Sailors, children…"

I thought of Leila.I almost have enough money to move out of the city. She knew who she’dhelped. She’dcalled him a dangerous man. I felt vaguely sick. My magic rippled with spots of weakness.

Focus.

"If you weren't partners, what were you?"

Ajeeri sighed. "I mentored him, for a while. Taught him a bit of city magic. I'd the intention of letting him take over the nightmarket when I couldn't stand it anymore. But he had a streak of darkness in him. Some people do. I should have recognized it earlier, but he was charming enough that it was difficult to see." Ajeeri paused and stared up at the ceiling. "It's not a good combination with city magic, that darkness. The worst parts of the city'll get under your skin and bring out the worst parts of you. That's what happened to him."

I eased my knee off his chest,but kept the sword at his throat.

"Why does he kill people?"

I hadn't meant to ask it. I didn't need to know his reasons. I only needed to know where to find him.

Ajeeri looked at me. "I don't know," he said. "You're the killer here. You tell me."

My magic trembled. Ajeeri gri

"Where is he?" I said, pressing the sword more firmly against his neck.

"I don't know!"

I tilted the sword, enough that he'd feel the pressure of the blade but not enough to cut him too deeply. A few drops of blood appeared. My magic swelled.

"I don't know! I don't keep in contact with a man like that. You want to find him, follow the damned bodies. We've gone a few weeks without one. It's won't be long, I'm sure."

I pulled away from him, leaving him sprawled on the bed. He lifted his head a little. My magiccoruscatedaround us.

He was telling the truth.

#

Outside of Ajeeri's apartment, the sun was blinding, bouncing off the whitewallsof the houses and the far-off sparkle of the sea. For a moment it seemed like all the shadows had been wiped away, and I felt aloneand vulnerable.

I walked to Leila's house. I didn't intend to; I intended to make my way to the city's center, where I could access the hall of records to investigate the murders. To follow the damned bodies, as Ajeeri had said. But I didn't have time, and after speaking to the woman in the dancehall, I didn't want to read about his murders anyway. I could imagine the sort of thingsdarkness might draw out of a man like that. What abominations he'd create out of the magic of sacrifice.

Leila's house was closed up tight against the afternoon sun. I hadn't bothered to shift into the shadows on my waythere, and I was soaked in sweat, my hair sticking to the side of my face. Penance, I suppose, for being what I am, for being something so close to Sarr. Blood magic is a sort of darkness. Maybe not the same, but close enough.

I banged on Leila's door until she answered. When she saw me standing on her porch, she didn't say anything, only held the door open for me. I went inside and stripped off my armor and collapsed on the divan she kept in her main room. She brought me water in a simple wooden cup. I drank it down. She sat down on the divan beside me and tangled her fingers up in my hair.

"Why did you walk here?" she asked.

"Why did you help Sarr?"

Her hand froze against the crown of my head. Silence swallowed us both.

"I told you not to track him," she whispered.

I sat up, pulling away from her. She didn't reach for me.

"Why did you help him?"

"I explained that to you."

"You knew what he did. You had to, if you were warning me away from him --"

She looked away.

"Did you?" I said. "Did you know?"

She lifted her head and stared at a point in the distance. Sunlight poured around her, casting her skin in a soft golden glow. "Of course I knew," she said softly. "I didn't think they'd send you." She paused. "You shouldn't go after him anyway. Take the punishment from the Order and tell them to send someone else."

"This isn't about me being in danger!" I stood up, anger pumping through me. "You know how few times I get to do something -- somethingworthwhile? That my work can keep people safe?"

She didn't answer.

"I'm not completing the commissionmerelyso I can avoid punishment. I don't know why you'd even think that." I could hardly look at her. The past three years I'd spent my life ru

"You disgust me," I told her.

She looked at me, then, and I was startled to see she was crying. I'd never seen Leila cry. I didn't think she was capable of it.

"What was I supposed to do?" she asked. "If I hadn't taken his offer it would be another four years before I could move. I'mdyinghere, Naji. Literally. I need the river."

I stalked away from her, heat rising up in my veins. "You have the money," I snapped. "Just tell me where he is."

"I don'tknow."

I stopped, staring at her door.

"I cast the spell, but he drew up his own magic at the last minute and it wiped my memory clean. I have no idea where I sent him. That's why I didn't tell you earlier."

The room wrapped around us.

"I'm never going to find him, am I?" I said.

"Not asking after him. It won't work. He's got my magic and his, and I can't undo my own spell. I don't even remember what I cast. He took it all away."

I continued staring at her door, my thoughts heavy. I had the afternoon;I had the nighttime. And then the Order would punish me, and I would have let a murderer go free.

The thought twisted me up.

"I'm sorry," Leila said behind me, "But there's nothing --"

I turned to face her. "Can I borrow one of your rooms?"

"What?"

"One of your rooms. Can I use it safely? I need to slip away."

She stared at me like she didn't understand. "I told you, it's impossible --"

"Darkest night, Leila, just answer my question."

She sighed and fell back on the divan. "Of course you can use one of my rooms," she said, and she wiped the tears away from her eyes.

I didn't say anything, only followed the familiar path of her hallway. There was aroomtucked away in the back of her house that I thought would serve my purposeswell. Acloset, really,with no windows and no chances of distraction. I put up a locking charm when I went in—a precaution, although I didn't expect Leila to interrupt.