But none of those things could happen if I were to honor her wishes. If I were to make her death mean something.
Blood now saturated the front of my cloak. So I almost welcomed the rain when it started to sheet down. I squeezed the moisture into the heavy fabric, and red-stained drips ran through my fingers.
My hands shook. I needed to get a grip, or I wouldn’t survive her by much.
Nemi hovered in front of my face and chirped at me. I pulled my hood wide, and she darted in to curl up against my neck. When she stroked her head along my jaw, my pulse rate dropped, just a fraction.
I re-entered the marketplace. The rain, a common occurrence in this jungle city, was largely ignored by the locals,but the visiting shoppers shifted to beneath the tents and overhangs. It left the aisles a little less populated than usual.
Which was why, even walking in a daze, I spotted the flash of crimson. I ducked into a booth selling fruit, and peered through the baskets hanging from the ceiling.
Fucking hell. Two Gretik Priests. And they weren’t there to shop. For just an instant, the rage rose and threatened to choke me. I wanted to kill them, for what their brethren had done.
Nemi chirped and poked me with her beak. I took a deep breath, and another look.
They were walking side by side, but a perfect distance apart to fight if they needed to. As I watched, one pulled something from a pocket, and they both paused to stare at a crystal that glowed red.
My pulse accelerated. I bolted through the booth, past the startled vendor, and out the back of the tented space. I didn’t stop moving until I’d reached the end of the market. Then I stepped into an alcove, and watched.
They didn’t follow. But their presence was a clear indication that they were looking for me. Or rather, for the surge their crystal had sensed, when I’d called on my power to kill.
I couldn’t stay here. Even with the distraction of my grandmother’s death—and the feathers I’d left scattered around her—if their crystals detected me in the proximity, I was toast.
But where could I run? I didn’t even know the realms’ names. I could return to my grandmother’s friends, Sama and Byrt, and get more information from them as to where to hide… But I couldn’t risk bringing danger to their doorstep.
If I was going to survive, I needed to man up and forge onward.
I had resources. My hand slipped to Byrt’s moneybelt beneath my cloak?—
My thoughts slammed to a halt. Because until that moment, I hadn’t recognized my grandmother hadn’t been wearing hers.
The Priest had sliced her wide open—I’d have seen it if she’d been wearing it, or if he’d pulled it off her. But it hadn’t been there.
She never went anywhere without it, and now I remembered how she’d paid for our breakfast by pulling money out of her pocket. Why hadn’t she been wearing her belt?
I moved out of the alcove and down the street, heading for the hotel. Because if it hadn’t been on her, she must have left it there. But why?
My thoughts tumbled over and around each other as I made my way to the inn, and they switched fromwhytowhere? My grandmother wouldn’t have left it in the room. There was no doubt the rooms were rummaged through regularly, so nothing of value would last long in there.
By the time I reached the inn, thewherehad turned to awhom.
The bar was as yet closed, but I wasn’t about to go parading through the back door. I didn’t want to run into the owner and have to explain that neither my grandmother nor I would be remaining in his employ. So I slipped down the alley running alongside it…
I’d escaped out the hall window once before, but down was easier than up. Climbing the exterior wall would be difficult so I looked for another way. Fire escapes were not common in this realm, but ladders to the roof were. The inn’s wasn’t in the best state of repair. After a few hairy moments with creaky rungs, I reached the roof and used my lockpick to jimmy open the stair access door.
Darkness lingered in the stairwell. I descended one level and entered the first room off the hall.
Our room.
As expected, the moneybelt wasn’t there. I turned away from the shirt my grandmother had left on the bed, grabbed the pack, and shoved the few clothes I’d brought with me into it.
I then stood in the center of the room, looking at her bed. All my life, she’d been there. And I had nothing of hers to show for it.
Nemi trilled at me. I turned, left, walked down three doors, and then knocked.
I knocked again, harder and faster, before she answered. With hair radiating in a cloud, and a sleep-lined face above a loosely wrapped robe, Cuatro Knockers blinked up at me.
Then she smiled. “Hiya, handsome. Don’t need rescuing at the moment, but you’re welcome anytime.”
