Chapter 62: Night life

"Why did you decide to help me?" Since I awoke from my poisoning fully rested I didn't need any sleep. Yolanda, my little ball of energy, finally crashed a couple of hours before dawn and I let her sleep until the sun broke the horizon.

"Because, you wonderful man, you returned my best friend. When I was married to that..." Her face clouded over. I just held her close. She was so tiny, I was afraid that I was going to break her. Even though she was stronger than she looked. "Megan was there for me. We were always close but when I needed help she always came. I hated that her father used her and then gave her away like that. I met Duke Steven before he was a duke, I disliked him then and so did Megan."

"Is there a way we could take her with us?"

"No. I tried to tell her about her father, but she wouldn't listen."

"Maybe you can send for her after we leave, she might come then."

"I'll try," she sounded dubious.

"Do you have a carriage here?" She said that she used the prince's. "That will give us an excuse to use mine. Change of plans. We are going to leave tomorrow first thing. There is something that I need to do tonight." She looked worried.

I leaned to her ear as to kiss it. "The ambassador and his household disappearing won't look good will it?"

"Too dangerous," she replied in the same fashion.

"Not for me, I will leave Chandra here with you," I continued in a normal tone of voice. "Get up, sleepyhead, time to go shopping." I promptly smacked her on her bare ass and hopped out of bed before she could swat me back.

I told her that I was off to get Chandra and we would eat at the bazaar. Making sure that she got my meaning. I was not about to give the prince another go at poisoning me. She did.

Yolanda and Tate! I had forgotten!

I stopped just short of leaving Yolanda's suite, turned around and walked back in. "Yolanda," I asked, sitting down beside her on the bed and brushing the hair off of her face, "why were you in Silverdale?" I searched her face for anything that might ake me doubt her. I hoped that I was wrong and that she had a good reason for being there.

Please, Bright Lady, let her be innocent.

I felt like I was about to throw up.

"Uncle sent me to see what was holding up production. Why?"

Damn.

"What did you find?"

"Why, Charles?"

"What did you find, Yolanda?" My stomach sank at her attempt to change the subject.

"Wizard Bertran arrived and said that he was working with Sergeant Tate and that they had everything in hand. The Wizard handed me a scroll to deliver to my uncle and I left. Grant is such a worthless administrator that I thought uncle should replace him. He agreed but something changed his mind later. What, I don't know. Why, Charles?"

I believed her, I had to. I just couldn't conceive her being involved with that mess.

"Bertrand and Tate were the cause of the problem. I took care of it, so it will not happen again." My face must have revealed the horror that always came to me when I thought of that house for she shrank back from me.

"I didn't know. You have to believe me."

Sigh.

I released the breath that I had unconsciously been holding. "I believe you." I bent over and kissed her. "Get dressed. I'll fetch Chandra."

She sounded sincere and I couldn't picture her organizing it or even following someone else's orders, she was too intelligent. Goddess, I pray that I'm right.

Chandra was moving slowly, but I made her hop with a look and a gesture.

The three of us were out of the palace before the sun fully crested the horizon. We passed through the skilled tradesmen's district and into the Bazaar itself. I lightly enhanced my senses, and let the women shop and talk among themselves, both understood what I was doing and did not call me out for it.

Yolanda was right, everywhere we went the topic was about the return of Megan, the lack of new slaves and the upcoming war. Not necessarily in that order either. I had never been at an outdoor festival before, let alone a bazaar of this sort. Every kind of thing was for sale, from people to finest silks to the lowest burlap to fine china to cheap pottery. If we had planned on staying even I would have ended up buying something. The ladies were content to bounce from stall to stall.

The tails that we picked up were quite good and I would not have noticed them without my enhanced senses. I managed to elude them for a minute while they followed the ladies. I knocked them out from behind causing a stir until I waved over a pair of solders and told them that they were following us and I pointed to Yolanda as one of their targets. Using her name gave the soldiers enough reason to take the miscreants away without questioning me further. My guess was that they were agents of the prince.

That was the only hitch to an otherwise fun day at the bazaar. My heart was not really into it. I was too intent on protecting Yolanda and Chandra. Most of the day was a blur and my eyes and ears rang long after we returned to the palace.

I had Chandra find Hector and Armand to have the carriage ready early the next morning. She returned a few hours later after finding Armand saying everything was in place. Most of our possessions were loaded on the carriage by the time she returned. I felt that we were on a clock, I just did not know whose clock we were on and how much time we had left.

The prince did stop by saying that they had not found the poisoner yet and did not think that they would find him. I shrugged him off and asked him to keep looking. I did not like to be poisoned.

"If I find the poisoner before you do, Prince Konnor, I will make sure that their household pays in full." He just lied and assured me that they were doing all that they could.

"Did you have to threaten him like that?" Yolanda asked after he left. We were in her room when he found us.

"Yes, I wanted him to know that he hadn't gotten away with anything."

"You risk too much," she whispered. I just kissed her forehead and waited until midnight for Chandra to arrive. She was to guard Yolanda while I was gone.

Chandra showed up with Katra, her designated slave girl, in tow. Both girls, hers and Yolanda's were ushered into the bathroom and had the door closed on them.

Yolanda had earlier given me directions and clues to look for in my hunt for the ambassador's house. I couldn't miss it, according to her. That brownstone was the only one guarded by men with swords like mine.

"I'll be safer than you will be. Bar the door after I leave." Neither looked happy with my night excursion. I felt that I needed to do it though.

I slipped out the window and headed west to the Foreign Quarter. The moon was cooperating as the sliver was falling away from the city. I had eaten my fill before I left and had picked up an emergency ration of dried apricots from the bazaar earlier.

With my enhanced vision I had little problem avoiding the sentries and skulkers that were out this late. Yolanda's directions were spot on. There were two barbarian guards standing in front of an old three story brick Tudor. The house looked dark from my perspective across the street. I flanked the house and climbed the wrought iron fence. Following that around the house to the front entrance I came at the two guarding the gate from opening. Neither of the two was particularly awake so my attacks were very effective. Both soldiers dropped without making a sound except the soft slither of their lifeless bodies sliding to the ground. I tossed the two of them into the rosebush under the window, believing that that would hide the bodies until morning.

I calmed myself before entering the house. I was here for one reason and one reason only. To kill the men of Kalabar and postpone the war. If there wasn't an ambassador then there could not be any negotiations.

I almost laughed out loud when I found the front door unlocked and unbarred. I needed to calm myself more at that realization. I enhanced my senses and all of my physical attributes to a minor degree. According to Yolanda, the Ambassador had seven attendants that she knew of. Two were dead. Using my enhanced sight, I spotted one on a chair drunk. I snapped his neck quickly making sure that he did not fall out of his chair. That was harder than expected, it took me two tries. Luckily he was stone drunk.