Nightsworn | The Whispering Wall #2

Eight: Nict's Secret

"He tried to get in through your window?"

Jordan scowled as he buckled on his weapons belt, but it was no match for the look on Arlen's face. His tutor looked like he was trying to murder Silas through telepathy.

"He's always watching me," he muttered. "He was going to try something sooner or later."

He shuddered. He could still feel that moment of panic when the window squeaked upward, and had spent the whole day trying not to flinch at every noise. Yddris had eventually cornered him when he proved too distractible to train effectively, but even he didn't have solution that wouldn't involve Harkenn, and that was out of the question. If Lord Harkenn mysteriously found out about Silas, then the Devils would be onto Jordan's game in an instant, and he didn't want to find out what that would entail.

His second-best option was to bring it to Arlen, whose reaction was also not encouraging.

"Which is another thing I wanted to talk to you about." If it was even possible, the assassin's mood had darkened further at that statement. "Why did Usk know Silas had been watching you and I didn't?"

Jordan blinked. "I assumed he'd tell you."

Arlen's lips disappeared into a grim line. "I expect you to tell me this shit, kid. Those fuckers," he gestured vaguely at the window, "can't be trusted, okay? Not even the ones who are teaching you. Nict's balls, boy, surely you've been doing this long enough to work that much out."

Jordan's temper flared. He hadn't had enough sleep to be dealing with one of Arlen's tantrums. Still, he forced his voice to stay measured as he said, "And you can be trusted?"

"More than anyone else." Arlen readjusted himself in his chair, not quite hiding a grimace of pain. "When dealing with criminals, kid, it's all about risk and profit. If someone else thinks it's advantageous and fairly low-risk to take you off me, they will try. And they won't necessarily be after teaching you. Just...removing. You understand? I have a vested interest in training you. In criminal terms, that means I'm your lowest risk."

"Somehow the way you worded that doesn't have me overflowing with confidence," Jordan said drily.

Arlen only flashed him a smirk. "In this line of work, coddling makes for an unwise teaching strategy."

Jordan wasn't certain that not turning your apprentice into a paranoid wreck counted as coddling, but he kept his mouth shut. He did up the straps on his boots and then took the chair opposite Arlen. On the table between them were the items Jordan had stolen two nights before from the manor house, and looking at them made him feel nauseous, so he kept his eyes trained on his lap. When Arlen didn't say anything straight away, he glanced up, surprised to find the assassin studying him. He looked sharper than he had in days, and Jordan wondered if Usk had finally run out of places to buy nettle wine.

"You think I'm out to get you, don't you, kid?" Arlen said.

Jordan swallowed. He didn't know how to read the man's tone, and though he could sense his aura around him – all Unspoken could do that – he had no practice interpreting it. The ease with which Nika read Jordan's moods sometimes was a skill that persistently evaded him. He took some consolation in the fact that even if he never learned how to, he wouldn't be as emotionally illiterate as Yddris.

That consolation didn't work in this situation, while sitting across from a man who was still extremely dangerous even while injured.

"I...have pretty good reason to think everyone is," Jordan said. The Devils were one, but the Lord of the Reach had also blackmailed him into contracts more than once. And quite aside from his personal issues, his life as Unspoken put him in the way of a great deal of danger, even before an anonymous group on the loose with unknown weapons started murdering members of his guild.