A Flight of Ravens by John Conroe (books to improve english .TXT) 📕

think I will.  But I’d also like to assign a couple of my people to your staff.”

“You think you could get them past Erser or Slinch?”

“Actually, I do.”

She stopped working and turned to me, openly curious.  “Who do you have that you both trust and is unknown to our paranoid protectors?”

“Well, now see, if I told you, then it wouldn’t be a secret at all, now would it?”

“You ass. I won’t allow anyone to be hired near me or Father unless I’ve cleared them myself.”

“Meaning eslling cleared,” I said.

“I have other ways but yes,” she said impatiently.  “Now, who and what are you hiding?”

“You have your strays and I have mine,” I said, watching as she processed my words.  Her eyes shifted back and forth between each of mine as she thought rapidly.

“You’ve picked up someone new… not ex-RRS!” she guessed.

“Hmmpf. Like I’d trust your safety to a newbie,” I said.

“Wow, now I really am intrigued,” she said, and I could tell that she was.  Secrets drive Brona crazy.  Puzzles, codes, tricks, and cyphers, all absolutely must be solved or she can’t rest.

“Hey, looks like we’re done here.  Want me to carry these crates out?”

Her eyes narrowed and the hand holding the pruning blade tightened.  “I’d stab you myself if I thought it would do any good,” she said, then sheathed the blade as if to remove temptation.

I went to grab a crate and she put her foot on the edge of it.  “Savid Thomas DelaCrotia!”

Some secrets I never tell her, like gifts and surprises of a good kind.  But I started this little game knowing that she had to know or I’d never get my agents planted near her and her father.

“I have a couple of young assets, one male, one female.  The lad is Paddy’s eldest boy, Brent. Sixteen and very well trained already.  He’d be going for this year’s enlistment, but I held him back, thinking he’d make an excellent unknown agent.  The girl is a true stray, a street kid that Soshi took in.  Rose.  She’s fourteen.”

“I know who Brent is; he’s Welton’s older brother.  I think that would be an easy fit.  If anyone presses me, I tell the truth—son of one of my people.  Could he learn to be a page?” she asked.

“Already knows quite a bit about it.  We expose a lot of our people to the court so that they know how to blend in.  I’ve had Brent with me in the castle several times, as has his father and his Uncle Ash.  We’ll say he’s fifteen and not yet ready to enlist, but with Paddy missing and presumed dead, he needs to help his mother.”

“Is that true?  Does Paddy’s widow, Treena, need help?” she asked, a furrow between her eyes.

“No, we’ve made sure that’s the least of Treena’s worries, although extra money never hurts.  I take care of our people to a greater extent than anyone knows.  Sissa too.  I’ve actually had Welton and Brent helping their Aunt Sissa as well, what with the pregnancy and all.”

“How is Sissa?” Brona asked.

“Well, she’s getting later in term and her husband is almost certainly dead.  We check on her constantly, as does Treena, and the boys.”

“Is she working still?  She’s so very gifted with a needle.”

“As much work as she wants or can handle.  She’s as good with leather as she is with fine cloth, so we have lots of sheaths and weapons harnesses for her.”

She smiled at that, then got serious again.  “Tell me about this Rose.  I’d heard something about Soshi having a foster child.  What can she do?  Fourteen is pretty young.”

“She’s an orphan.  Taken in by a thief’s den at about five years or so.  They trained her along with the other urchins.  She tried to pick Soshi’s pocket.  That didn’t go well, or you could say it was the best thing she could have done under the circumstances.  That was four years ago.  She does all kinds of odd jobs for us; everything from cleaning rooms at the Knife and Needle to running messages to lookout duty and some light undercover work.”

“You’re working the poor girl that hard?”

“Don’t judge till you meet her.  We call her Rose because she’s pretty, but wicked thorny too.  She was already pretty good with a knife when we got her; now she’s lethal. And a bit of an actress.  Any warrior or assassin who discounts her will pay the price. And if we didn’t work her, then she’d get bored and into trouble.  But give her a task, even menial, and she’s all over it.  And she likes to earn money.  Building herself a Go to Hell fund, as she calls it.  Bright as the sun, interested in business, loves working for us.”

“I’m supposed to be in charge of the Shadows.  How come I didn’t know about her?”

“Because she’s not a true Shadow… not yet.  She’s been headed that way all along.  There are all kinds of assets you don’t know about because that’s what you have me for.”

“Hmm.  What’s your play?”

“That will be your call, but I was thinking you might need a new chambermaid, or at least an extra one.”

“You were going to tell me all along, weren’t you?  I’ll have to meet her.  Chambermaids don’t get to stay close enough all the time.  How much education does she have?  How does she talk?”

I frowned at her.  “You know better than that.  All my people’s kids have to take lessons. She could read a bit and was great with numbers when we got her.  Now, reading in her spare time is one of her favorite things.  And for the last month, Trell has been teaching some of our people.  He tells me she has a good ear for accents and potential to learn the flute.  She won’t sound like a gutter kid, but I don’t know that you could pass her off as one of your ladies, at least not yet, but she can ride a horse, use a crossbow,