HAWK & SABLE | TWENTY-THREE

DANNA PANG HAD realised how satisfying it was to watch her friends work long ago. She stood next to Malcolm, who was frowning as he glanced around the corridor Rhys had led them down to. Truth was that they'd probably have better luck on the roof, but Io and Ronan had already taken those, and those two would know what they were doing.

Hence, why they stuck to the ground.

"Anything?" Danna called out, rubbing her arms.

"You two could totally shut up and start helping me out."

Malcolm's brow raised. "I haven't uttered a single word since I've arrived."

"Well, then start helping!"

Danna turned to her friend with a smirk. "She always becomes grumpy on missions, have you ever noticed?"

Malcolm snorted. "I have to deal with her far more than you do."

Malcolm Man. Captain in the navy, Ryan's close friend, a well-known lover of women whose affairs were numeral. A steady ally who never failed to step up when necessary.

"Fair." Danna flicked a finger out. "We should help her."

"Yes you damned should!" Came Rhys's shout from down the corridor. Well. Super hearing. Danna should have expected that.

"It's far more fun watching you suffer alone, to be quite honest," Malcolm shot back, grinning. Danna laughed but stepped forward to follow the Iron Wolf, gesturing for the captain to follow.

Rhys was staring upwards, at the yellow roof of the building besides the corridor. Hearing them approach, she lowered her head. "Ciri says she walked by here. I'm assuming the Panther was already following her the moment she left Bai Lu Gong."

"He'd have gone by this path, then," Danna nodded, "but I don't see how this helps you track him."

"It doesn't, to be honest," Rhys admitted. "Likely chances are he isn't even in the Palace right now. But I'm hoping to find where he's breaking in to avoid him getting in again."

"Hence why you're tracking his trail," Malcolm finished with an approving dip of his head. "We should get the two kids to check out these roofs, then?"

"I'm hoping to map out all potential trails first. Let them traipse around for a while before narrowing their search. Maybe they'll strike gold."

"We all know the chances of that," Danna snickered. "Come on, let's keep searching."

"Wouldn't know about that." Malcolm shrugged besides her, fingers trailing the wall of the building. "Those two are miracle workers, pure and simple. Don't know how they do half the stuff they do."

"One word. Wiccai. For Ronan's case anyways," Rhys knelt down, something having attracted her attention. "For Io's, dumb luck and training from infancy, apparently. Hey, look here."

Danna knelt, holding up her dress. Malcolm followed suit. Rhys had picked up a small piece of yellow glazed tile. Danna frowned. "Chipped off from the roof. Are renovations in order?"

"These were fixed less than a year ago. Someone's been up there."

Danna exchanged a look with Malcolm. "So. Panther's been here, then?"

Rhys stood up and pocketed the tile. "Probably. For all his skills, the Panther is said to be a heavyset man. Muscled and brawny. Let's see if we can find any more of these down this trail. Come on, folks."

✢

"SLOW DOWN," IO whisper-shouted. They kept carefully out of sight since it was the middle of the day. Ronan running across the rooftops could be explained. Her doing it couldn't.

Ahead of her, the older boy smirked. "Hurry up, ben dan."

"Wo ben dan?" she snarled, feet as sure and steady as a cat's, "Ni ben dan cai dui ne!" Him calling her stupid! Ha, he wished! She was catching up now. Once she got close enough, he shot off like an arrow again, leaving her huffing with frustration. Why was he acting like he wouldn't be able to speed past her with ease? He was a bloody wiccai!

"You know sometimes," she said between breaths, "you're really immature!"

"Says the twelve-year-old," he snickered.

"Turning thirteen in like a week," she shot back.

"Two weeks, actually." Because of course now he remembers. She bet that when it was actually the day, he'd conveniently forget and hence not get her a present. Ronan Tang was just that kind of person. Sometimes she wondered why they were friends. He was closer in age with Danna or Asteria than with her, really, but the two of them always stuck together in this rowdy pack. Perhaps because they all treated them like proteges.

Please. Io was better on the field than Asteria, and could all but match Danna's ingeniousness in the field. She's not even bragging. The girls said so themselves.

"I'm still, what, three years older?" He shrugged. "You know what they say—"

"If you say what I think you're about to, I will stab you," she hissed, head snapping up. The amount of times she'd heard Lady Kuroki say that line already... No. If Ronan did it, she might actually make good on her promise. She was capable, probably, especially if she had the element of surprise on her side. She might be able to convince Rhys to help her.

As if he was reading her thoughts, he snorted. "You're good, but not good enough to jump a wiccai."

She smiled sweetly, one of her many talents. "Want to bet?"

He raised a brow. "Now I know better than that—"

"Ha! See? You'd be willing to bet if you were completely sure I couldn't." He was still a good few feet in front of her, but neither of them were pushing themselves to their limits anyways. She grinned. "By the way, I'm pretty sure we were set on this for a reason."

"To investigate. And to make sure the Panther isn't dumb enough to be walking around here in broad daylight. Can't we just climb the roof of the main hall for a bird's-eye view of this entire damned palace?" Ronan leaped from one nearby roof to another. Io stopped a good ten metres away before gaining speed for the jump. He snickered at that.

"At least I made the jump," she hissed. "I don't fancy my brains being splattered on the grounds." He'd slowed down. Whether this was for her to catch up or because he was getting tired, she wasn't sure. She didn't bother speculating, she'd get no answer anyways.

In disbelief, he said, "The jump wasn't even like, two metres!"

"Shut it." She glanced around. "I don't see any mercenaries jumping around. Do you?"

Ronan scoffed. "It's obviously not going to be as easy as that."

"Isn't it?" Her hand flew to her chest in mock surprise. "Oh, I thought this would take less than an hour! How stupid of me!" He rolled his eyes and started walking again, keeping his steps light to not disturb whoever was underneath. Besides, neither of them fancied falling through the roof onto the floors beneath. Extremely awkward, and a lot of bones would be broken. Io was quite fond of her bones. They've served her very well so far, and she wanted to keep her skeleton intact.

"Stop being sarcastic," he commanded. "We have a wild cat to hunt down."

"That sounds really stupid," she told him bluntly. "We need to work on your creativity. I mean, the Crow? Really?"

"Do not insult my nickname."

"Now I will really insult your nickname. Look, your power is what, hiding in shadows? What does that have to do with crows? It's dumb, that's what it is."

"You have a better idea?"

"Uh, yes. The Shade. The Nightwalker."

"Those sound even worse, Io. Besides, I don't see you insulting Rhys' name. She's the Briar. What does that even have to do with her powers?"

"Briars are linked to roses, which are red. And her powers manifest themselves in red, duh."

He raised a brow. "So you'll accept that, but you won't accept that crows are generally black, as are shadows."

She grumbled something under her breath. "Fine. I guess that's fair. You win this round, Tang."

Dryly, he replied, "I always win in arguments with you, Io dearest. You'll learn eventually."

When she flipped him off with her fingers, he just laughed. Men, she thought with no small amount of disgust. Such strange, complex figures. As someone who'd grown up around mostly women, she'd never quite been able to understand them. She would, eventually, the way her mother did. She'll have to learn to understand them in order to manipulate them.

Like mother, like daughter.

She fought to keep her expression stable, not showing an inch of her thoughts. The others didn't like it when she compared herself to her mother, for some strange reason, so she usually hid those thoughts. Nothing behind it, she just didn't want to worry anyone. She'd been a burden to enough people in her life, she didn't want to add anyone else to that list.

Ronan didn't notice, thank god. He hummed some tune under his breath and continued walking. She followed, like an obedient lamb. Some day, she'd be the one leading. That was one of those little goals she always kept in mind. Her mother hadn't made it that far, but she would.

"You weren't noticed again?"

The day that Sanchez boy had managed to blow her cover, Io had gone running to Ronan. They'd train restlessly for a bit, until she was able to sneak past without him hearing. It had worked.

She nodded. "To be fair, he was indoors this time, but nope. Didn't as much glance in my direction."

"I'm still puzzled over how he managed to catch you the first time." He scratched his neck, stopping before a ledge. He took a few steps back before making the jump. She did the same. They continued on as if that hadn't happened. "You sure you didn't accidentally give yourself away?"

"Yes." She almost snarled before stopping herself. She'd played that day in her head again and again. Nothing. She hadn't made a single flaw. How had he caught here? It made no sense. "The others suggested he may be wiccai."

"That would make sense," he thought aloud. "Especially why he couldn't catch you the second time. Or every time after. Nothing suspicious."

She shook her head. "I've learnt that he likes reading history and politics, and he adores birds. Also his little sister. Other than that, not much. He's quite the boring character."

For some reason, that made him grin. "It's the boring ones who have the most depth to them. Irina hasn't sent you out again?"

She shook her head. "Too busy with this case. Nothing interesting there. I'm too precious to waste, you know?"

He snorted to that. "Narcissist."

"Honest." She poked her tongue out. He took a few steps forward, then frowned. Io raised a brow. "Found something?"

"These tiles are loose." He didn't nudge them again, just pointed. Io frowned and knelt down, inspecting it, prodding it lightly with her fingers.

"He was here, then?"

Ronan nodded, contemplative, quiet. Io turned her attention back to the roof tiles. "We should continue on this path," she murmured. "Might find more."

"That's the plan, Mi." He scratched his neck. "Come on. I want to beat the others on this one."

"We could totally exploit our certain victory for some present." Io's lips curled upwards. "I was thinking about a new gun. The gunsmith nearby has a pretty pistol with a mother-of-pearl inlay."

"I will settle for one of the others cleaning up my room for a week." He matched her smile. "Catch me if you can." Before he finished saying the last word, he had already bolted off. Io let out a quiet curse before speeding after him.

✢

THE REPORTS WERE mind-numbingly boring. It wasn't Justine's fault: there really wasn't anything interesting to talk about. This was why Irina had shoved these into her hands. Clever girl. Unfortunate for Ciri, though.

Asteria came in and out. With Irina and Ryan handling their other affairs, the countess was in charge. Once in a while, an officer would come in with a message from one of their friends. If Asteria was there, she'd collect the message, read it, and then hand it to Ciri. If she wasn't, Ciri collected them for her.

This went on for almost the entire day. Once or twice, her mind wandered to Laurence, wondering what he was doing and what Lady Kuroki wanted to do with him. She so dearly hoped the baroness would return him alive and in one piece.

Eh, he'll be fine. He dealt with Phillippe Cadieux on the regular, after all. The Arecian (Epimurean? Ciri wasn't sure what he identified as) spymaster was two sides of the same coin with their excitement-loving mentor. Perhaps that was why great-aunt Vinelle wrinkled her nose at the mention of either.

That, or the Duchess of Dai disliked being outclassed. That might be it. She may be assigned to her fate, but damn if she wasn't still bitter over her oust from power.

Slowly, she became aware of another presence in the study she had been presented with. Not looking up from the documents, she said, "Mr Kasongo."

Mwenye Kasongo. The Panther's true name. She heard the mercenary's deep laughter from her seven o'clock. It took considerable effort not to immediately unsheath her knife. Not that it would have been of any use. If the Panther was here to kill her, she'd be dead by now. His Saian was accented, unlike his Arecian. That was good evidence he didn't do much business in Sai. Thank Hongyun.

"Miss Diao. I keep getting paid to hurt you."

"It's beginning to get rather annoying," Ciri mused, reaching out to dip her calligraphy pen in a bit of ink. "Wouldn't you agree?"

"It's nothing personal."

"With you, it never is. Do you have a point, being here? Lady Asteria may enter at any minute, and she doesn't have my leniency."

"I could strike that girl dead in one blow."

"Could you?" Ciri asked, amused. "You do not give the lady enough credit for her skills. But seriously, sir, why are you here? I've taken what was owed to me. You're free to do as you wish now."

He was quiet for a few minutes, but Ciri felt rather patient, so she waited, writing on the paper the summary Irina had asked for.

"I don't like you Saians," he finally began, words slow in that way that let her know this would be a long story. "But I like Meliqueans even less."

"Then stop helping them," she said curtly. "Whatever they're paying you, someone out there could pay you more, without you needing to aid the Meliqueans. Quite a simple solution, really.Not like there'd be any consequences for you."

"It's bad for my reputation, miss, if I start taking sides." He stepped forward. She couldn't hear it, but something in her told her that. She forced herself to stay calm, sucking in a quiet breath, making it sound like an exasperated sigh. If he noticed, he didn't point it out.

"Then don't complain. Now, why are you here, sir? I don't fancy explaining your presence if you're discovered." She raised a brow, as if she was annoyed. Placing down the calligraphy pen, she pushed her hair out of her eyes and leaned back. "We're both busy people, let's not spend all day beating around the bush."

"I know my own strength. You won't be hopping around town for a while, Miss Diao."

"Thank heavens we have a wiccai healer in Palace walls, then," she replied, voice curt.

"Ah. That explains why you're already reading those without a headache, then." He was beside her suddenly, gesturing towards the documents. There was no point in hiding the content. She sighed.

"Do you have a point, sir?"

"I wasn't sent to kill you." Finally, something useful. She huffed.

"If you believe we haven't figured that out yet, you highly underestimate us." She smoothed out the next piece of paper, skimming over it before preparing to summarise. "We know your strength as well."

"Yet you're strangely not terrified." There was a faint hint of... was that approval in his voice? The approval of the Panther wasn't on her bucket list, but she'll gladly take it.

"Fear helps no one. It would be a nuisance to you, and cloud my judgment."

"Excellent philosophy. But yes. I was sent to only hurt you, but not enough to seriously maim or kill."

"A warning. I don't suppose you'll tell me from what."

"I think you know." He stepped out so that he was facing her now. "My employer doesn't strike me as a fool. And he's paid well."

"Yet here you are."

"Yet here I am."

"Why?"

"What was it you said? That I could just stop helping the Meliqueans? Well, I'm not prepared to go that far... but consider this my little act of rebellion. This isn't the last you've seen of me, Miss."

"I was hoping I'd never see you again after our last meeting. We must stop crossing each other's paths like this. What is this, the third time now?" Ciri didn't bother pretending she was still writing. She looked up, brow arched, studying the dark-skinned man standing in front of her, still as a rock, hardly even breathing. He both terrified and intrigued her. Someone of his skills was worth admiring. His morals? He made Irina seem like a warmhearted matron.

"More or less." He tilted his head by the slightest and regarded her, this tiny waif of a girl compared to him. She'd never been able to accurately pin down his age. She'd guess mid-to-late thirties today. He had twice her experience and none of her morals. A dangerous opponent through and through. She was impressed by herself, surviving so many run-ins with him, almost none of them pleasant.

"You may leave now, if you wish, since you apparently seem to carry no useful information."

He seemed amused by that, mouth quirking upwards. "So desperate to get rid of me, Miss Diao. I'm hurt."

"My intent, sir, my intent."

"You know," he drawled, "I never did thank you for rescuing my daughter."

Ciri was barely able to hide her surprise. She blinked once. "She was a child and innocent. I would have done it no matter what. Though I do admit disappointment at you aiding Hua Jueying kidnapping another child almost immediately after that."

"Truth be told?" He tilted his head. "I had a feeling you and that diabolical sister of yours could get the damned child. I'm not soulless, you know."

"Could have fooled me," she replied, tone polite.

This time, he laughed. The Panther bloody laughed. This was truly a day of miracles. First he showed gratitude, now he laughed. Ciri almost shook her head in absolute disbelief. "The irony does not escape me, miss, that you saved my child in exchange for me saving another's."

"Very convenient, I admit. But I wasn't exactly fond of my sister's plan either. It seemed worth the risk, gambling on your conscience. Would have been better if you did not show up at all. Did you know that you were wanted in Arecia?"

He spread his arms wide. "I'm wanted in a great number of places. Your point?"

She stared at him long enough for it to become uncomfortable, then gave a pleasant smile. "You should go, Mr Kasongo."

Miracle number three. He actually listened.