---
Meanwhile, the people Mihos sent did not arrive like merchants. They did not arrive loudly either. That alone told Iron House how dangerous they were.
It was still early enough in the day for trade streets to remain crowded when the first of them entered the outer business district. A man in dark layered clothes came first, plain enough to pass in motion, forgettable enough to vanish if no one watched twice, but too balanced in the shoulders and too careful in the eyes to be ordinary. He moved like someone used to entering houses already planning how to leave them through blood if doors became inconvenient.
The woman came later.
That was deliberate.
Not together. Not publicly linked. Not careless.
