“Do not bother to seek within for the slow-witted scribe,” Iskondra Devalion herself said, stepping through the curtain with a single long stride, her blade in her hand. “I’m afraid the stubborn fool has wisely absented himself from the premises, by way of a staircase in back of his living quarters.” She held up a book in her left hand. “Fortunately, not before he had all but finished the work I required of him… under considerable protest, of course, but I was able to make myself quite persuasive.”
“Should have joined him,” Tauri said.
“Oh, believe me when I say to you that I strongly considered it,” she said. “I was in the process of weighing the benefits of exercising the better part of valor myself when you took the decision out of my hands by involving the boy. I want you to understand the difference between yourself and me… well, one key difference among the many, which include but are hardly limited to our comparative levels of education, breeding, skill at elocution and general deportment, hygiene… that would be quite a large one and all the more unfortunate as unlike most of your defects it is something that would be entirely within your own power to redress…”
“No lists!” Tauri growled.
“Well, to be very brief, then,” Iskondra said, “the key difference with which I am concerned for the moment is that while I may have fallen into desperate circumstances, I am still essentially a woman possessed of her honor, while you are nothing more than a common criminal.”
“Criminal?” Tauri repeated. “Broke no laws yet in pursuit of goal. Not run out on debts. Not steal tomes. Not extort work from shopkeepers. ”
“Yes, I may have been forced into a position where it was not possible for me to meet my lawful obligations, and yes, I may have taken one or two morally ambiguous shortcuts in pursuit of my ultimate goal, but as that goal is itself the redress of the original error–in which I am essentially blameless–then I think I can fairly say that my conduct is ultimately lawful, whereas your ultimate goal in reference to me is most decidedly contrary to law,” Iskondra said.
“Montport law, maybe,” Tauri said. “Try not to involve self in jurisdictional quibbles, mostly.”
“Murder is not simply a jurisdictional quibble… particularly the murder of a child,” Iskondra said. “Even in the absence of codified statues expressly prohibiting it, such an act is against natural law.”
“Think so? Must not spend much time with nature,” Tauri said. “No soft spot for children in nature. Except maybe top of head, when very young.”
“I had no intention of confronting you, Tauri Quick-Claw,” she said. “I still harbor no intention to kill you… though if you press me to the point I can assure you that I will not hesitate to press mine to you. Let the boy go unharmed and we can avoid much in the way of regrettable violence.”
“Not interested in harming boy,” Tauri said. “Only look for connection. Unnecessary, it seems. Go, boy.”
Jace and started turned to run.
“You may have just saved your own life, honorless scoundrel,” Iskondra said. “Because I have no interest in staying to fight you once he is no longer in peril.”
Tauri’s tail shot out behind him, knocking into Jace’s ankles and sweeping him off his feet.
“Changed mind,” Tauri said. “Stay, boy.”