Page 17 of Crown and Dragon

“Where are the uniforms again?” Tahlia asked. “I can’t remember what he said about that.”

“Kitchen. It’s always the kitchen for some reason. Perhaps because no one tends to search kitchens. I’ll check that the house is clear first. You go on.” He stalked down the narrow hallway that led to two bedchambers. Nothing.

“All clear,” he called out.

“I found cheese!” Tahlia’s voice echoed down the hallway.

The city cottage’s kitchen was small and in need of cleaning, but the armoire was exactly where the contact said it would be—against the wall beside a window that looked out on a shared inner courtyard choked by weeds that nicely blocked the kitchen from view. Tahlia was digging through a smaller cabinet and shoving bits of yellow cheese into her mouth.

“You should eat some,” Tahlia mumbled over a mouthful. “We’ll need energy for this mission. Plus, it’s delicious.”

“I have no time for cheese. The contact will be here soon. We must be ready.”

“It’s like you hate yourself,” Tahlia muttered, joining him at the armoire.

He paused, eyeing the windows to be sure the city guard hadn’t found his way here. Tahlia tugged the armoire doors open, and a mass of fur flew out.

Heart hammering, Marius shoved his way in front of her, his dagger unsheathed and ready. Tahlia grabbed his hand and pushed his weapon down.

“They’re kittens!” she cried.

Blinking, Marius looked at the armoire, the kitchen floor, and then at Tahlia. Furry rodents crawled everywhere. And Tahlia was holding one and cooing at it.

“Aren’t they adorable? Sweet little darling.” She kissed the cat she was holding.

“Get that thing off of you. It could have one of a thousand diseases and we have work to do.”

“Fara would agree, but alas, I do not.” Tahlia stroked the cat’s black fur and bent to pick up another of the small menaces.

One striped creature began climbing Marius’s trousers, and he plucked it off. He held it aloft to study it. “They definitely have fleas, as well as claws as sharp as a youngling dragon’s.”

Laughing, Tahlia took the striped nightmare from him and added it to the collection currently on her shoulders and in the crook of her arm.

Marius shook his head and growled. “Shoo the small demons away. We have work to do.”

“Demons.” She laughed harder. “Your face right now is making this entire mission so worthwhile.”

He gritted his teeth and turned back to the armoire. Lifting a basket, he searched for the uniforms. Another furred devil shot out of the shadowed back corner of the cabinet and latched onto his tunic. It smelled like a sewer rat. He detached the beast with careful movements.

“You’re treating that demon awfully carefully,” Tahlia said snidely.

A growl echoed from him as he passed the creature to her.

Under a stack of folded linens, the uniforms caught the sun from the window and sparkled. Marius swore.

Tahlia slid under his arm to look. “Oh. Those are…”

“Horrifying.”

“Fantastic! But that’s not what the other city guards were wearing.”

“No, these are specifically for the parade guards, so we won’t see them until we join the madness in an hour.”

He pulled them out and handed her the smaller trousers, tunic, belt, and cloak. She took them with a grin that had no business here, then shouted, making him go for his blade again.

“A tomato hat!” She lifted a round sort of cap that had been stuffed between the trousers and tunic.

Could this get any worse? He doubted it.

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