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warmth and the bitter scent I now knew to be evanshaff. “She would have perished. Why is it that she did not?”
    “Because I was there.”
    “Yes. Do you think that chance?”
    I had, but now I had to wonder. “Are you saying I was meant to find her? How would anyone have known that I would bring her to you for healing? How would anyone have known that there would have been anything to be done?”
    “Excellent questions, Galen of Elaeavn. Do you think it chance that you were attacked only the day before?”
    My mind still felt as if it were stuck in mud, the lingering effects of the evanshaff holding me back. Why had Talia been attacked? Random attacks weren’t unheard of within Eban, but it didn’t make much sense that Talia would have been attacked so suddenly after leaving the tavern. It could have something to do with what she carried, but then, that had still been in her pocket. Was there another possibility that I might have missed?
    Could Natash have attacked Talia to get to me?
    “What are you implying?” I asked.
    Carth studied me and then tipped her head toward the window. “The days grow cooler. This weather does not suit me. Soon I will be moving on.”
    “That’s no answer.”
    “Isn’t it? I think I’ve given you all that you need to know.”
    I wasn’t convinced, but then, I didn’t really expect a full answer from Carth. And if Natash were responsible for Talia, I knew what I needed to do next. “Where will you go?”
    “Where I am needed.”
    “How many cities have a network of Binders like Eban?”
    Carth offered a smile. “You do not think Eban is unique?”
    “I think you are unique, Carth, but I don’t think that Eban is. That’s what Orly wants, isn’t it? He wants access to your women.”
    Her eyes darkened. “He doesn’t want access, he wants control. There is a difference.”
    That fit with what I knew of Orly. He was not one to be satisfied knowing that the network existed, especially if they posed a risk to him and his plans. “Would you grant him access were he to ask?”
    “There is a price to what you describe.”
    “And what is the price?” I was beginning to think this the real reason that Carth had come to me. She might have been interested in seeing me to my home, but had she only worried about my safety, any of her healers could have brought me back into her hospital and set me onto one of the cots there until the evanshaff wore off. She had brought me to my home, had revealed a secret of the Binders as if to provide warning, and then had remained. I’d learned that Carth didn’t do anything by accident, but what intent did she have?
    Was this all a part of the strange game that she played with Orly? And how did I fit into it? She’d once called me a piece in a game of Tsatsun, one that was expandable. Somehow I had to maneuver myself into a position where I wasn’t an expendable piece. Orly viewed me as hired help, and Carth had already shown that I wasn’t someone she feared, regardless of how much she claimed to respect my skills. And now she spoke of a price to access the Binders.
    “You would have access?”
    “Do I have need of what you know?”
    Carth smiled. “In your line of work, there is always a need for information. Do you not think so, Galen of Elaeavn?”
    There would be, and it would make me even more valuable to Orly if I were able to use what he could not. He would have incentive to keep me around, but I wasn’t sure that I wanted him so incentivized. Knowing Orly as I thought that I did, he would likely make a point of keeping me even closer than he did now. At least now I had a choice of whether I would work with him.
    “There is always value in knowledge,” I said.
    “See? You have more than Sight. You have insight.”
    She started toward the door to the small room and pulled it open. Just beyond the door, the floor dropped off, leaving a gaping hole. The apartment was set atop an abandoned tavern near the edge of town, a place