Page 109 of Keeping Sarah

Silence came out with the twins on her hips and smiled. “Glad to see you all are in one piece.”

“You were almosteaten?” Sarah blurted out.

A confused Silence looked to me for a translation. I explained, “We just told her about Illiapol.”

“Oh!” She laughed. “Yes, well, notalmost, but itwasup for discussion.”

Sarah looked at her in awe. “Girl. We need to talk.”

Silence shrugged. “I was a teenager, making a statement. I didn’t know my father would take me up on it.”

“Okay, well, here’s the deal…” Sarah began explaining all pertinent details which had occurred since our absence, to update Silence and my father, and ended with a surprise, “…so I was thinking that if you would like a bigger place for you two and the twins, you could take Rex’s manor, if you don’t mind the three of us using part of it until our home is built.”

I had no idea that was her plan, but it sounded good to me, so I said nothing.

Silence’s brow furrowed as the twins on her hips watched everyone with big, curious eyes. “That is extremely generous of you, ofallof you, to offer such a thing, but a part of why I am still alive is the fact no one knows where I am. If we were to move into such a high-profile place, then—"

“Justice would not hesitate to level it to the ground,” Father finished.

The conduits—or rather, thesilverguard—landed moments later on Omen’s ship, with Jenny and Elizabeth, and Sarah went to greet them. Once again, I noticed Jenny eyeing Tiger, and once again, he responded in kind while pretending to check onSovereign’sexhaust ports.

I mumbled to Jac, “They are like two drecks at mating season.”

“Hmm?” Jac asked.

I glanced toward Jenny and Tiger to be subtle, but Jac had been born with no such reflex.

He hollered, “Hey, Tiger, come here.”

“I was trying to not interfere,” I muttered, as Tiger headed our way.

He grinned. “Fuck that. The kid has a job to do.”

“Yes, Jac?” the young man asked.

“I’m giving you your first scouting mission,” Jac told him, clapping him on the back. “If you’re up for it.”

Tiger’s eyes went wide with excitement. “I’m up. I’m definitely up.”

Jac nodded his approval. “Good. Tomorrow, I’ll need you to takeSovereignand go to Ladrille. After everything that’s happened with Rex and Faithless, we need some boots on the ground to find out what the chatter is on the streets of the capital. If you can get some information from any classed person, that would be good, too. The good thing about this being your first mission is that no one really knows you yet. Use it toyour advantage with anyone you’ve never met. Don’t mention who you work for. Use the documents we forged six months ago, the ones we used when we reclaimed those children from the orphanage—"

“They are still selling children?” I asked in horror.

“Theywere,” Tiger said with an edge in his voice and pride in his eyes, since he’d been on the mission that had saved a good lot of them.

He glanced back at Jac. “Anyone to avoid on the job?”

“Anybody who works for Justice Bateen, down to the city patrols,” Jac said, his tone firm. “Use our old contacts, anyone you’ve seen me reach out to. Don’t be shy. They should all talk to you. And don’t contact us while you’re down there. With Illiapol coming up, the palace employees should be busy, but they would love to make time to torture the people who rescued Silence, I promise you.”

Tiger stood taller than I had ever seen him. “You can count on me.”

Jac squeezed his shoulder. “I know I can.”

Tiger smiled one more time, before he went back to checkingSovereign’sexhaust ports—this time, for real, since he’d be taking the ship to Ladrille.

I glanced at Jac and grinned. “I think you just made him very happy.”

“He’s a good kid, good instincts.” Jac shrugged. “I’m sure he’ll do fine.”

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