"yes," she quavered. "many times. he paid me."

"what did he do with them? the girls you brought?"

"i never saw them again." the woman sobbed. arvil still looked like a thundercloud, but he was staring at the waitress, now.

"so anybody who learned what he did to those women could have been out for revenge. pull the vids," arvil ordered. "now. teeg, hire bodyguards for reah. delvin?" delvin and milus had arrived and were surveying the murder scene.

"master arvil?"

"did you know anything about haral? what he was doing?" all of us turned toward delvin.

"no, master arvil. i never guessed." i knew right then, even if arvil and the others didn't. delvin was lying.

"it looks like a warlock's work. or a powerful wizard's." arvil ran the vid over and over again. it went blurry at the same point every time. when it cleared-haral was lying on the floor and there was blood everywhere. "look into the disappearances for the last full turn-see if any of the missing women had a wealthy family. someone who might have been able to afford this," arvil ordered.

i watched arvil as he fretted. something had slipped past him and he didn't like it. it had been right under his nose, too. not only had women been disappearing, but his pet wizard had been responsible. the waitress had been handed to the constabulary-at arvil's insistence. she'd be charged on campiaa. perhaps sentenced to lengthy jail time-if arvil didn't order her death. it wouldn't surprise me if he chose to do so.

haral had been waiting to do the same with me as he'd done with countless other women-abduction and poisoning. the chief of security had found the vial of poison, handing it to arvil after it was analyzed. arvil pocketed it. delvin had remained silent while all this was happening. milus hadn't said a word. teeg ordered a security team and a special housekeeping detail to get rid of the body and clean up the mess.

"i'm going to contact wilffin-i think i need his warlocks," arvil muttered after a while. "reah, teeg, have you had anything to eat? come with me."

i didn't want to eat and picked at my food. arvil and teeg managed to eat. delvin and milus also ate a meal in kiasz's restaurant, but i hadn't failed to notice the brief look of dismay on delvin's face when arvil mention wilffin's name.

"reah, sweetheart, i'll hire security for you tomorrow. until then, i don't want you going anywhere without me, all right?" teeg pulled me against him the moment we shut the door of our bedroom.

"teeg, i'm just shaken up," i said. teeg wasn't satisfied with that. "come on, let's use that spa tub in our bath," he coaxed. i wanted to tell teeg that delvin had been lying to arvil earlier while i leaned against his wide chest in our tub. how could i tell him that? how could i explain that i knew when people were lying? there wasn't any good explanation for it. it was just something that was.

i worried, too, over teeg's interrogation of the waitress-it looked as if he'd done that sort of thing before. he'd known what questions to ask. it made me want to ask him about his background. why he'd come to campiaa-what he'd done before. i didn't. that might open up questions about my life-questions not covered by the information on arvil's comp-vid. i didn't want to lie to teeg. i loved him. that's what i ended up saying instead.

"teeg, i love you." i turned in his arms so i could look up at his face. his lips curled into a heart-twisting smile as he leaned down to kiss me.

i had to use the vid-communicator to talk to kiasz the following day-he was beginning to make preparations for the wine, cheese and dessert gathering. i was fretting-i wanted to be there to make the oxberry tarts. instead, i was held captive inside the palace-neither teeg nor arvil wanted me to go out unless someone was with me. teeg said absolutely not unless he was with me. he'd gone off to interview potential guards. hoping he'd come back soon so i could make tarts, i sent mindspeech to lendill instead.

i can't leave the house, vice-director, until i have guards. that idiot wizard haral wanted to kill me yesterday. somebody else got to him first. nearly took his head off and sliced him up pretty good. they must have used a really sharp knife to do that kind of damage.

reah, i'll inform erland morphis-i know the king of karathia had a price on that one's head-he was a warlock, not your garden-variety wizard, lendill told me. well, that explained a lot. warlocks tended to be worse than wizards if they went bad. it made me wonder about milus and carthin. they were the wizards, in addition to haral, whom bel said weren't native to mandil.

does wylend have a bounty on anyone named milus or carthin? i asked.

you know wylend? well enough to call him by his first name?

probably not to call him wylend, but we did meet-i cooked for him when ry, tory and i were on tulgalan. he came to check on wyatt.

i forgot about that, lendill said. it sounded as if he were mentally chastising himself. i'll ask about those two. that may not be their real names, reah. many of them have so many aliases we can't keep track of them. if you meet with ry soon, perhaps he can get a look at them. he's aware of those wanted by wylend arden, just as well as his father erland is. in the meantime, don't trust your bodyguards. don't trust anyone there except tory and ry.

don't worry, vice-director. there aren't that many anywhere who deserve my trust.

slamming things around in the kitchen helped with my frustration, and that's where teeg found me later. my new bodyguards were right behind him. he'd hired two. those two were tory and ry.

consciously closing my mouth (it hung open for several ticks, i just know it), i listened while teeg introduced my new bodyguards. at least they'd kept their first names. ry was now ry nolin and tory was tory lathif. i wondered if lathif was tory's bending of the term thifilathi, but i sure didn't want to ask. not out loud, anyway. teeg grinned at my discomfort. ry and tory were disguised, but i could see right through that. a bit of shimmer lay about them, just as there had been when they'd been on mandil. i'd learned that meant that ry had used the ability he had to create the disguise.

"don't go anywhere without at least one of them," teeg gave his instructions to me. "don't let her out of your sight unless she's with me," teeg instructed ry and tory. both nodded. "now, go make those tarts, i know you can't stand it," teeg gave me a quick grin and stalked out of the kitchen.

"he thinks this is funny," i muttered, crossing arms over my chest.

avilepha, if i could, i'd be kissing you breathless right now, tory sent.

i love you, too, i returned. the kissing will have to wait. tory grinned. ry was watching tory and grinned when his brother did. "come on," i sighed. "let's go to the restaurant. we have oxberry tarts to bake." i led them downstairs and out the side door to get to the san gerxon.

the private party was very successful. arvil came, as did his hired celebrities. i stayed in the kitchen, making sure we had enough of everything. the salmon pastries went over very well, as did all the entree samples. we'd pulled out the best wine we had in stock, and when the desserts came, i was baking more oxberry tarts quickly. everybody loved them and wanted more. arvil brought people into the kitchen after the third batch went out.

"reah, this is wilffin and wilffox, the brothers hardlow," arvil smiled as he introduced the two most notorious criminals in and out of the alliance. now i knew who arvil's partners in the drakus seed enterprise were. tory and ry, both of whom stood against a wall and out of the way, never blinked when those two names were announced. it was my bet, though, that one or the other was sending mindspeech to lendill just as fast as he could.

"a pleasure to meet you, lord wilffox, lord wilffin." i nodded respectfully to both of them. i knew, as did almost everyone, that wilffox was older and even more murderous than his murdering younger brother, wilffin.

"you're the one who made these wonderful tarts for me last time. and that bit of chocolate cake with the cream center and the caramel," wilffin was smiling. i'd unwittingly pleased one of the worst criminals, ever.

"yes, lord wilffin," i nodded to him again. "i'm glad to hear you liked them."

"it's the best thing i've ever gotten here. might i hope you'll cook for me again while i and my brother are here? i don't wish to impose-arvil tells me you're one of his heirs."

"yes, lord arvil has been very kind. with his permission, i will be happy to cook for you again."

"they'll be staying at the palace," arvil was smiling graciously. "we can make dinner arrangements, most certainly. have whatever you need brought from the restaurant, reah. we'll make sure our guests are served only the best."

"of course." i smiled at the brothers hardlow. it wasn't until i watched them walk out of the kitchen with arvil that i noticed the four-yes, four-warlocks who closed in and walked out behind them. each hardlow was protected by two warlocks. i'm not sure how i knew what they were, i just did.

holy crap, tory's voice sounded in my mind as i busied myself at the prep table.

did you send mindspeech to the vice-director? i returned.

in less than a heartbeat, ry's voice sounded in my head.

don't worry, baby, we'll do our best to keep all of us safe, tory said. i shivered slightly-mothers frightened their children into obedience by telling them the hardlows would come get them if they didn't behave. we'd all heard horror stories and seen vids of horrible crime scenes, on and off alliance worlds. no place was safe against them. they'd even been accused of starting wars on non-alliance worlds. this worried me. were they attempting to take the alliance down with drakus seed? prove that the alliance army and the asd were powerless against them, so it should be every planet for itself?

that would be an effective way to annihilate all of us. divide and destroy. the hardlows might be the biggest master strategists ever. i hadn't seen farzi and the other reptanoids recently, either. arvil must have sent them out to look for new planting fields again. the ground suddenly felt shaky beneath my feet-this was a game too big and too deep for me to be playing. i had no experience with this sort of thing. why had lendill demanded i stay here? i was completely out of my element.