She only smiled at me, her teeth small and crooked. “You tell me what you want, and it’s done. But this is what Kaphra wants in return.”

The letter had no teeth that I could see, but I knew there’d be teeth in the writing of it. There always was a catch with Kaphra. Never could be a simple job. I reached for it hesitantly, afraid of its bite.

She pulled it back. “Ah-ah, what did you want done?”

I sighed. “A month’s supply of caro nuts, smuggled to Anau.”

She considered, doing the mental math. “Difficult, but consider it done.” And then she placed the letter into my outstretched hand.

I unfolded it and Mephi crouched next to me, his ears flattened against his skull. I needed to relax. Kaphra might just want me to influence Lin to leave the Ioph Carn alone, or to bring some proposition to her attention.

The Emperor has a white-bladed sword in her possession. Steal it and bring it to me. You have thirty days.

–Kaphra

My heart kicked at my ribs. This wasn’t something simple. What sort of foolishness was Kaphra asking of me? First Gio, and now Kaphra. The swords were Alanga artifacts, they had to be.

If I did what Kaphra asked, if I stole an artifact from Lin, she’d find out it was me. I had no illusions about any camaraderie we’d formed. She’d execute me. I’d have to run to avoid punishment. And then the only way I’d be able to live was by smuggling again. Was this what he was aiming for? Get an Alanga artifact and have me back under his thumb again?

I clenched my jaw and tucked the letter into my sash pocket.

“A fair bargain?” she asked.

“It never is with Kaphra.” I swept from the house, my mood darker than the burgeoning clouds.

Mephi jostled me as we walked back toward the ship. “Is it bad?”

“Very bad,” I said. I had to find a way around this. I still wanted to make sure Anau got its bog cough cure, but how could I manage what Kaphra wanted without playing right into his hands?

The sword – the one I’d found in the Shardless Few hideout. It was a white-bladed sword too. Perhaps I could substitute it out. Gio had warned me to keep hold of it, but hadn’t bothered to tell me why. If I could even catch a glimpse of the one Lin ostensibly had, I could tell if it was similar to the one I’d taken. I’d not seen any such weapon in the hold, but perhaps she was keeping it in her room. There had to be a way I could check.

Mephi and I were the first ones back to the ship.