Chapter 332: The Meeting.
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They left Dawn House by the inner front road rather than the side service routes, which Kess noticed immediately and understood as deliberate. Not a secrecy, then. Or not only secrecy. Visibility where chosen. Lower Dawn house moving openly enough to claim confidence, not enough to create spectacle.
Outside the estate, the lamps cast long warm light across the path as they exited the main grounds. The city beyond the house was fully night now, but Slik City did not die in darkness. It merely changed shape.
Day trade folded inward, but movement did not vanish. Shadows thickened. Lantern glow deepened. The honest noise of markets gave way to the quieter sounds of guarded wealth, late wagons, drinking houses, secret deals, and people who only worked when respectable people pretended to sleep.
They had not gone far from the gate when the sound of wheels reached them from behind.
A carriage. Which they will ride to meet Mihos Dawn.
Sekhmet did not turn. Because he knew whatever or whoever was inside Elena will take care of it.
Elena did, because Elena noticed something. Someone was inside. When it is supposed to be empty. The three rank-three maids shifted only slightly, because they were looking at Elena’s face.
But Kess saw the change in them immediately. Shoulders altered. Weight redistributed. Not enough to alarm an ordinary watcher.
More than enough to tell anyone with sense that if danger came out of that carriage, it would not survive the attempt.
The carriage rolled up under the estate lamps and stopped beside them.
The driver bowed from above.
Elena’s eyes narrowed by a degree. She now felt the chaos energy of someone very familiar. Someone very naughty.
Then the side door opened from within, and Bat Bat leaned out with all the shameless confidence of someone who had already decided that the world was better when she was part of every important event.
"Master, I am here," she announced.
Kess stared.
One of the three maids looked ready to swallow her own soul to prevent herself from sighing.
Sekhmet slowly turned his head.
Bat Bat brightened when she saw his face. "Master. Wonderful. You found the carriage."
Elena spoke before he could.
"You were told to remain in the house. Why did you ride the carriage?"
Bat Bat stepped halfway out of the carriage and put one hand over her chest as if personally wounded by the memory. "Yes. But I thought about it very deeply and concluded that it was a bad instruction."
Elena’s expression did not change.
Bat Bat continued with complete sincerity, which made it worse. "It will be good for my growth to learn about politics. Also I promise not to do any silly things."
The silence after that promise was so complete that even the night road seemed unconvinced.
Elena looked at Sekhmet. "Although it might, in theory, be useful for her to observe, I do not trust her to keep her mouth shut."
Bat Bat looked offended. "I can be extremely silent."
No one believed that.
Not Kess.
Not the driver.
Certainly not the three maids who had already watched Bat Bat become human, try to kiss Sekhmet, and nearly destroy the morning.
Bat Bat quickly changed tactics and looked straight at Sekhmet. "Master, please let me come. I will behave. I will say only wise and necessary things. Mostly nothing. Almost nothing. Very near nothing."
That was somehow less reassuring than if she had threatened to bite someone.
Sekhmet studied her for one long second.
Bat Bat held the expression of an innocent woman of excellent judgment and promising restraint.
It was a terrible performance.
He still said, "Let her come."
Elena turned her head slightly toward him.
No objection from her. Because Sekhmet’s decision is the final one.
Bat Bat’s whole face lit up with victory.
Sekhmet raised one hand before she could start celebrating audibly.
"Bat Bat."
She straightened at once.
Sekhmet said, "You will behave."
She replied, "Yes, Master."
"You will not interrupt when people more important than you are speaking."
Bat Bat hesitated just long enough to reveal that she had immediate internal objections to the phrase people more important than you, but she controlled herself.
"Yes, Master."
"You will not mock nobles to their faces unless I permit it."
Bat Bat blinked. "What about behind their backs."
One of the maids looked at the sky as if asking the heavens why human-sized Bat Bat had been allowed to exist.
Sekhmet’s gaze did not move. "You will not test my patience tonight."
Bat Bat pressed both hands together. "I understand. I will become a model of refined political education."
That alone told everyone present she would absolutely become a problem before the night ended.
Still, she had been permitted.
That was enough to make her glow with triumph.
Then Kess, seeing the carriage and understanding its obvious purpose, moved instinctively toward it.
If he was expected to lead them beyond the western gate to Mihos’s camp, then naturally he would ride and point the way. He had just taken one step toward the rear side when Sekhmet’s voice cut through the movement.
"Where are you going? You will run."
Kess stopped. He turned to Sekhmet. For one second he thought he had misheard.
Sekhmet looked at him with the complete calm of a man who had not misspoken at all.
"We will follow by carriage."
The night air seemed to grow colder around Kess’s ears. He felt the insult before he fully processed it.
He had to run. Not ride... Not sit in the back under watch. Not even stand on the rear step like an armed servant being tolerated.
But Run all the way.
In front of them.
Like a guide dog being reminded that it was not being mistaken for company.
His jaw tightened.
He was careful not to let his face change too much. Mihos’s servant he still was, and if tonight became a contest of slights between branches of Dawn blood, he could not afford to become the weak point everyone tested for amusement.