“Who says it’s been set?” Laurent asked, but Charon knew he had to have noticed that the fire had come from the outside in. Laurent turned toward the woman Charon had rescued, and Yves, who’d refused to let go of Charon’s arm, feebly tugged him toward the other side of the street.
“We’re too close,” Yves said. There were tears in his eyes, and his voice shook. “Please, Charon.”
“I’m all right,” Charon said, but he followed Yves to safety regardless. Guards had finally arrived to douse the fire, but Laurent had gathered enough onlookers to quench the surrounding flames that the other buildings were only slightly charred.
Charon helped Yves sit down, but Yves still wouldn’t let go. “You could have died,” he said. “You know that, don’t you? You could have died in there.”
“Yes. And that woman would have died if no one had gone in there to find her.”
Yves breathed in heavily. “Can you stop being so…soCharonfor a minute and think about the fact that maybe people don’t want you to get eaten by a fire?”
Charon touched Yves’ cheek. “I know. Thank you for thinking of me.” He’d put so much dominance into his voice to get thecourtesan from the House of Silver on her feet that it came too easily now. Yves blinked slowly, likely lulled by the need to submit. “Let go, Yves.”
Yves gently loosened his grip on Charon’s arm. “Yes, sir.”
Something stirred low in Charon’s belly at that, and he tried to force it down. Yves didn’t call anyonesirunless they’d thoroughly spanked him first, and even then, it was a rare thing. Of course it would take Charon charging into a fire for him to say it unprompted.
Percy ran over, wearing only a robe and slippers. His yellow hair was a mess, and he had the wide-eyed look of panic. “Yves. They caught the man who started it.”
Yves used Charon to get to his feet. “What? Who? Is it someone we know?”
“I don’t think so.” Percy gestured toward the guards’ cart. A pair of guards pushed a young man into it, and Charon stood to get a better look as murmuring spread through the crowd. The man was young, barely out of his teens, with shaggy black hair and raw, dark bruises around his wrists. Charon moved closer, drawn to the cart as though pulled by a tether, and the boy raised a hand to shield himself as one of the courtesans from the House of Silver threw a stone. It went wide, smashing into the cobbles on the other side of the cart, but the guards didn’t so much as look at the courtesan who threw it. The boy had bruises on his hands as well, and old blood stained his nails dark in the flickering streetlights.
“That boy’s been tortured,” Charon said.
Yves sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth. “You’re sure? How can you tell?”
“I’ve seen it before.” The boy was young enough to resemble Aster, though his skin was pale and he looked underfed. Another courtesan threw a stone at the cart, and the boy cringed as though he’d been whipped.
“They’ll kill him if the guards don’t hurry,” Yves said. Charon was inclined to agree. The crowd was starting to turn ugly, terror twisting into something dark and bestial now that they had someone to blame. The guards slowly started to move the cart away from the smoldering wreckage, but some members of the crowd followed, their eyes blazing. “What are you going to do?”
Charon turned to look at Yves. “What makes you think I’ll do anything?”
“Because he’s a kid, and he’s scared,” Yves said. “Because I know you.”
He was right. As the cart trundled too slowly away, Charon could feel the compulsion to follow. Whatever had led the boy to set fire to the Pleasure District lay in the haunted shadows in his eyes and the bruises on his fingers and wrists. At least one of his fingers had looked swollen and broken. Setting a fire with broken fingers had to be painful.
“All right,” Yves said. “We’ll meet them at the guard house.”
“We?” Charon asked.
Yves gave him a dubious look. “Did you think I’ll let you go alone after I watched you run into a burning building? Really?”
“I could order you,” Charon said.
Yves narrowed his eyes. “Oh, sonowyou threaten to sling me over your shoulder.” He turned around and walked after the cart at a brisk pace. Charon could understand why so many of Yves’ clients were so inclined to spank him senseless. He caught up with Yves easily, pitching his voice so only Yves could hear.
“If I tell you to leave, you leave,” he said. “Do you understand? That boy may have been working on someone else’s orders.”
“Or whoever pissed him off is in the crowd,” Yves said. “Convenient for them if a mob kills him off, isn’t it?”
Charon was impressed. For someone who grew up in the country, Yves had the right turn of mind to guess what Charonwas thinking. “I don’t trust the city guard to treat him gently, either. There could have been noble clients in the House of Silver. They’ll want a quick ending.”
Yves shuddered, but he kept walking. A few others in the crowd tried to follow, but Charon could hear Laurent barking orders in the distance, and the crowd slowly drew back.
The guard house wasn’t far from the Pleasure District, and since most of the people who spent a few hours inside were drunk nobles who’d been kicked out of the various establishments, it was well-maintained. The guards at the entrance shifted uncomfortably when they saw Charon and Yves, but Yves just smiled.
“His Grace, Duke de Valois, asked for us to interrogate the man who came in from the Pleasure District,” Yves said. Charon tried not to register his surprise. Using Sabre’s title and his close proximity to the king was a risky gamble. Still, it made sense that Sabrewouldsend someone like Yves, who held no title and wouldn’t intimidate the prisoner.
