Gilan was resting with his back against the solid wall of the House, his long legs splayed out in front of him when he heard the first thud. It was a faint sound, one that he felt through the boards more than he heard. Gilan ignored it and nodded at Fell, who was still leaning on the post across from him.

"Who trained you?" The Ranger asked. They'd already covered who'd trained Strider and Gilan, but the Ranger hadn't heard from Fell. The Shadow had never used a sword but carried twin blades that had become a trademark for the group of thieves. It had never occurred to Gilan to ask where Fell had learned to use the unusual blades. They weren't quite long enough to be considered short swords but were too long and thick to be daggers. Fell had always wielded them with a practiced ease that suggested formal training.

Fell shrugged. "Other Shadows mostly," he said, which was true, mostly. He didn't volunteer to add that he could hold his own long before he'd joined the Shadows. While he'd certainly learned a thing or two after taking up with them Fell had done far more teaching than learning.

Before Gilan could pry any further there was another thud, this one much louder than the first. "What was that?" Gilan asked.

Fell finished off the rest of his coffee and frowned at the door. "We forgot to tell Strider about Leena," he said. When they'd reached the House Leena had passed on the coffee and asked Fell if there was a place she could rest instead. Fell had shown the exhausted woman to an empty room reserved for Shadows to stay between missions and left her to sleep off the worst of her day.

"Doesn't sound like they're getting along," Gilan said as he began to rise to his feet. A door slammed followed by a muffled scream and a series of thuds. The final was the loudest, a heavy resounding crash that shook the boards beneath Gilan's feet. Fell dropped his mug and burst into the House with Gilan on his heels.

Gilan didn't know what he'd expected to find, but the scene that greeted him certainly wasn't it. A chair had been overturned and the table knocked askew. Strider was straddling Leena on the floor, a thin blade in one hand. Leena was shrieking as she fought to keep Strider from driving the knife down towards her throat.

"Strider!" Fell shot forward and wrapped his arms around his Deputy's waist to haul her off Leena.

"Let go, Fell! She's going to—" Before Strider could finish Leena sat up and whipped another thin blade from her smock and hurled it at Strider's head. Fell jerked Strider to the side and felt the white-hot sting of the blade as it buried itself in his shoulder. He grunted in pain and lost his grip on Strider, who lunged for Leena to stop her from drawing another knife. Leena was ready for her and shot out a kick that connected squarely with Strider's side and sent her crashing to the ground.

Leena reached for another knife, but Gilan was faster than she was. He caught her by the wrist and hauled her to her feet. He twisted her wrist until she let go of the knife and it clattered to the floor. She fought the Ranger at first, jerking and struggling in his grip. "Enough of that," Gilan said firmly. He waited until Leena stilled, then kicked the knife on the floor out of her reach and pulled a leather cord from a pouch at his waist to bind her hands.

"Fell, Strider," he called. "Are you alright?"

Fell pried one of Leena's thin blades from his shoulder and bit back a cry of pain. He threw the knife to the ground and pressed a hand to the wound to stop the bleeding. "I'm okay," he said. His eyes were on Strider who lay on the floor, her arms hugged loosely around her right side. She coughed and began to push herself into a sitting position. Fell went to her and gently guided her to her feet and to a chair.

Leena began to shake then as Gilan tied her wrists together, her hands and arms trembling under his. Gilan frowned at first, unsure if Strider had injured Leena before they'd intervened. Then Leena's shoulders began to shake harder and she began to cry, letting out soft sobs that grew in volume the longer she cried.

"I'm sorry," she said, the words nearly unrecognizable between sobs. "They made me."

Gilan was still working on tying off the cord, and his hands slowing as Leena cried. "Who?" he asked. Leena's sobs abruptly stopped as she ripped her hands free of Gilan's hold. She drew another knife and spun around prepared to throw it, but Gilan wasn't about to let her hurt anyone else. The Ranger surged forward to grab hold of her and preventing her from winging another deadly little blade at Fell or Strider. He shoved Leena against one wall and made her drop the knife, then quickly bound her hands tightly behind her back while she struggled to get free.

"You're a coward," Leena shouted as Gilan restrained her. Gilan pulled her off the wall and began to walk her out of the House. She allowed herself to be guided long at first, then lunged towards Strider as they passed her. She was sitting slumped forward in a chair, both arms wrapped around her side. Her face was as pale as it had been the morning in the medical wing.

"You ran like the scared bitch you are!" Strider began to rise to her feet, her face twisting with rage. She made it halfway to her feet before she grimaced and sat down hard again with a cry of pain. Fell moved to block Strider's view of Leena and began speaking softly to Strider while Gilan lead Leena to the porch of the House.

The Ranger sat her down against one of the posts and tied her to it before carefully searching her for any more knives. He found several more, all in the same flat thin style as the others. Leena opened her mouth to complain or object, but Gilan silenced her with a look.

"You can be quiet, or I can gag you," The Ranger told her in the same deadly calm voice he'd used on Arman earlier the same day. Leena promptly snapped her jaw shut and glared at Gilan until he disappeared back inside.

"You know her?" Strider was saying as Gilan walked in. Her face was so pale that her lips were nearly white, as if the struggle with Leena had sapped every drop of color from her skin. She was glaring at Fell who had pulled up a chair to sit across from her. The cut on Strider's hand had reopened during the struggle and begun to bleed freely down her arm. Fell had taken the hand in his one of his own and was holding a cloth against the cut to stop the bleeding.

"We just met," Gilan answered for him.

"First impressions were misleading," Fell muttered.

"You met a strange woman and brought her back here, then left her in my room." Strider didn't have Gilan's knack for remaining calm when angry. She looked as if she wanted to wrap her hands around Fell's neck and squeeze.

"She needed help, we didn't think she was insane," Fell said. He cursed quietly and rose to his feet. "Hold this," he told Gilan. "I need another cloth or bandages."

The Ranger held the cloth against Strider's hand while Fell went off to rummage for supplies. "I don't think she's insane," Gilan said. "I think this was all a plan to get to you, Strider."

Fell returned with a small box of supplies. He began pulling bandages, a pot of salve and various other odds and ends from the box. He filled a bowl with clean water and Gilan began to unwrap Strider's arm and tend to the wound.

"You think it was all a ruse," Fell said as he passed Gilan a clean cloth to clean the cut. "Arman wasn't really her boss and she's not really a serving girl. They were pretending because they knew we'd intervene."

Gilan nodded and gestured to the handful of thin knives he'd pulled off Leena. They were flat blades with no handles, only a thin wrap of leather on one side to prevent the user from cutting themselves. It was an easy weapon to conceal, especially in the folds of a long skirt or pocket of an apron or smock. "These are the types of knives assassins carry. This wasn't random, it was planned. She was sent by someone."

"How do you know she wasn't after one of you?" Strider asked.

"She hit Fell by accident," Gilan said as he worked. His hands were firm but gentle, his fingertips light against Strider's skin. "When she pulled that final knife she could've slipped it right between my ribs, but she didn't, she looked for an opening to throw it at you."

Fell had picked up one of the blades and began turning it over in his hands. Strider couldn't read his face or his expression, but she could see the gears turning behind his eyes. "Why?" Fell asked. "Who would send someone to kill you? Do you know her? Did you do something to upset her or someone else?"

Strider scoffed and rolled her eyes so hard Gilan thought she might fall right out of her chair. "Yes, that's exactly it. Now that you mention it I think I bumped into her at the castle and…" Strider stopped abruptly and stood, pulling her hand out of Gilan's as she headed for the door.

"Strider, I'm not—" but Strider was already out the door, her half bandaged hand the last thing on her mind. Gilan and Fell hurried after her.

Strider stopped in front of Leena and gestured at her with her chin. "Look at me," she said to the woman. Leena hmphed and turned her head away, her raven dark hair falling over her face.

"So now the coward is interested," she murmured half under her breath.

Fell and Gilan joined Strider on the patio just in time to see her stride to the far side and retrieve her sword from earlier. She gave it a violent shake to free the scabbard and send it clattering to the porch before walking back to Leena with the bare sword in hand.

"Strider," Fell warned, but his Deputy ignored him. She placed her sword against Leena's neck, the point close enough to graze the skin there. Gilan saw Leena flinch as Strider let the blade waver a little too close.

"The only thing I'm interested in is severing your head from your shoulders," Strider said.

"Like the Ranger would let you," Leena sneered. Gilan hesitated and took a half step forward. He didn't think Strider would kill her, not really. It was an act, he told himself, but he'd never seen this look on Strider's face before. Her eyes were steady, her face hard and devoid of any emotion Gilan recognized.

Strider pressed the blade forward until it drew a thin line of blood that ran down Leena's skin to the neckline of her worn smock. "I don't answer to him," Strider said. "Look at me." She moved the blade again and forced Leena to turn her head and raise it until she was looking up. The raven dark hair fell away from her face, revealing a tear streaked face that Strider had thought was familiar in the dim light of her room. She hadn't been able to place her before, but now Strider recognized the raven dark hair and the smock. The last time she'd seen Leena she'd been puddled on the floor of the castle kitchens, crying her eyes out at the feet of Mortimer Gladstone.

"She's part of the Cult," Strider said before reluctantly pulling the blade away from Leena's neck. The woman had begun to smile ruefully up at Strider, and it was taking everything in her not to follow through on her earlier threat. Her hand clenched and unclenched on the grip of the sword in her hand, and she felt Gilan take another step closer to her. She turned abruptly and shouldered past Fell and Gilan until she was inside.

Fell and Gilan followed, keeping their distance as if Strider were an animal. They were wary of what she might do next, of the sword she still held naked in one hand. Finally, she laid in on the table and quietly relayed what she knew of Leena.

Gilan nodded and turned to leave, but Strider called after him, her voice low but serious. When he turned to look at her, her eyes still burning with the same strange expression. "Take her with you, Gilan. Throw her in a dungeon, execute her, sell her to Skandians—just get rid of her."

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