No Quarter by Tanya Huff Page B

something she'd thought up on her own. "He's one of my name-fathers. Tadeus, this is…"
    "The young Imperial citizen who carries the two kigh." His smile held a warmth Vree felt herself responding to. "It's actually you I've come to see."
    "Tadeus!"
    Ignoring Magda's exaggerated protest, he half-turned toward the Southerner and beckoned him forward. "Ullious here is one of the four remaining Imperial fledglings, and when he heard you were in the country, he expressed a very natural desire to meet you." A breeze ruffled silver-shot curls as he reached out an unerring hand and pulled the fledgling to his side. "Ullious, this is Vree and Gyhard who are sharing a body. Vree, Gyhard, this is Ullious who has an astonishing command of air and a truly amazing tenor."
    "Better, than yours?" Magda dug an elbow into his ribs.
    "Don't be impudent, brat, or I'll tell your mother you've quit your studies, taken up hayla dancing, and are living with a drunk who beats you."
    "She'd never believe that."
    "You're right." Garnets glittered in his ears as he cocked his head to grin down at her. "But I could always tell her you were looking pale and I didn't think you were eating properly."
    Magda winced. "She'd be here the next day."
    "Or sooner," Tadeus agreed. He pinched her chin.
    "So why don't you tell me what you have been doing, I'll pass on what I think Annice should know, and the rest can be a secret between us."
    "But Vree…"
    "Can spend a few moments with Ullious who I'm sure would love to speak his own language with someone who doesn't confuse verb tenses." Tadeus turned and Vree had the strangest feeling he was smiling directly at her although he couldn't possibly see anything through the leather band. "You don't mind me stolen my name-daughter away for a little while, do you?" he asked in Imperial.
    "Stealing," Ullious murmured. "Not stolen; stealing."
    Tadeus winced. "Verb tenses," he muttered. "Hate 'em. Come along, Maggi, we'll sit over here and you can tell me all about the hearts you've broken while I was gone."
    "I'd rather hear about the hearts you've broken," Magda declared as they walked toward a bench set into the far wall of the courtyard.
    Vree thought she'd never heard anything quite so engaging as Tadeus' laugh.
    "When you're older, child," she heard him say. "When you're older."
    "He's still friends with every lover he ever had," Ullious observed quietly. "And he has a lot of friends."
    *I'll bet.* Gyhard sounded so appreciative, Vree couldn't help but smile. The expression seemed to reassure Ullious.
    "You're not what I expected," he said, nervously brushing at his narrow mustache.
    The smile faded. "Because I'm an assassin?"
    "No, I've met assassins. I spent four years in the Seventh Army—Third Division, Second Company, Second Unit, First Squad." He looked a little startled at the involuntary completion of the list, then he went on. "It's just that you're you, and Gyhard's himself, and there's so obviously two of you in one body. When the kigh brought us the news about you, I guess I expected things would be mixed up a little more."
    "Does everyone know about us?" Vree growled.
    Ullious shook his head. "Oh, no. Only the bards who Sing air."
    "And there're how many of those?"
    "Actually," he shrugged a bit sheepishly, "most of the bards Sing air."

    Vree couldn't keep from glancing up into the square of sky framed by the courtyard. A shadow flickered on the west roof of the Healers' Hall as an archer moved back out of sight. *I wonder how many of them are watching us now.*
    *You could ask.*
    *Think he'd tell me?*
    "You were talking to him, weren't you?" Ullious leaned a little forward, eyes shining.
    "Yes."
    The blunt monosyllable stopped conversation cold. In the distance, Vree could hear Magda filling the older bard in on the details of her life. As usual, she didn't appear to be bothering to breathe.
    "You're not what I expected either," Vree admitted at last. "I thought fledglings were supposed to be