The Mirrored City by Michael J. Bode Page B

her hands, but the women were much faster and better trained. They slashed at her mercilessly, ruining her dress.
    Lyta punched two fingers into each of their chests, breaking their ribcages. The slashes on her skin were already closed.
    Lyta ripped open the door to the basement, shattering the lock.
    Upstairs, she made her way toward Shannon’s room.
    The halls were ornately inscribed with geometric patterns that danced in the flickering light of the lamps. The floor was mirror polished marble that made little sound as her bare feet padded across it. Lyta found herself in the men’s wing of the Ibazz compound. Although it was a mirror of the women’s, she had never been allowed here and the layout disoriented her.
    She made a wrong turn into a library. Seventh Brother Hazim sat at a long table surrounded by a pool of open books. The fourteen-year-old looked at her in utter surprise.
    Lyta placed a single finger to her lips. He did the same.
    Out of the library and down a long empty corridor. Hearing the approach of footsteps ahead, she ducked into an alcove, pressing herself as tightly as possible against the wall.
    Vyzad’s voice carried through the marble hall. “The heretic is playing this well. He’s been meeting with the houses which have the greatest rivalry. He’s saving the Patriarch for last. He’s a smart man, and I have every belief he will get what he wants.”
    “But Father,” the voice of First Son Jad protested, “he is doubly an abomination. Not only is he a priest of a false god, he is a former Inquisitor. They would have us burned for rejecting their false doctrine.”
    Vyzad and Jad walked past the alcove. Vyzad intently explained, “He is a politician. He uses his religious office when it suits him. All that matters is that he believes we will be sympathetic. He will remove our obstacles for us…”
    Lyta waited for them to pass and then quietly crept down the hall as they continued their discussion.
    She found the door to the inner courtyard and sprinted over to the women’s wing. Making her way to Shannon’s chambers, she threw open the door.
    Shannon spun around. “Lyta?”
    “I didn’t abandon you. The letter was a forgery.”
    Shannon rolled her blue eyes. “Obviously. The letter said you poisoned Bejia out of envy. And I saw that whole wretched conversation with Safina when I was in Dessim. I do check in on them regularly.”
    Lyta smiled and reached for her lover. “Thank Ohan. I thought I’d lost you.”
    Shannon stepped back. “You broke a Patrean’s neck and killed a confessor.”
    “I can explain, but we need to get out of here,” Lyta urged. “We need to go now.”
    “Clearly,” Shannon said. “That’s why I’ve been packing for the both of us. But I want the truth when we get to Dessim.”
    Lyta sighed. “You will have it. All of it.”

E LEVEN
    Honest Work
    M ADDOX
    TASTING MENU
    First Course
    Crispy Fried Scorpion with Lemon Aioli
    Second Course
    Chilled Melon and Potato Vichyssoise
    Third Course
    Live Baby River Eel, Served in Seasoned Wine Broth
    Fourth Course
    Lamb Rack, Seared with Liquid Sunlight and Leeks
    Fifth Course
    Crystallized Sheep’s Milk and Honey
    — TASTING MENU, THE HORRIPILATED GOURMAND. PRICE 280 DUCATS (DOES NOT INCLUDE WINE PAIRING)
     
     
    “HOWDY, ISIK,” MADDOX said cheerfully as he strolled into the coroner’s laboratory. The smell, though dampened by medicinal preservatives, was like walking into a Backwash butcher shop in summer when meat in various states of rancidness was sold out of the back door. “Gross.”
    Three tables were piled with the meticulously rendered bits of flesh from the grisly feast. Isik was hunched over one of them, separating the tissues into piles. He stepped back. “I told you I want nothing to do with your craziness.”
    “Relax. I’m here to help your investigation into my murder,” Maddox explained.
    “You have to have a license for that,” Isik said. “And a formal commission from the