Croak tugged on Orry’s sleeve and made to leave when one of the guards shoved him in the shoulder. Stumbling back, Croak sighed and closed his eyes for a beat.
“Not until you tell me what you’re doing here. This is the clerics’ residences.”
“Oh!” Croak said, slapping his forehead as he looked at Orry in feigned shock. “You told me this was the brothel with the contortionist from Boha!” Turning to the three guards, Croak put a hand to his heart and graced them with a sheepish smile. “Sorry, boys—guards!—apologies. My friend obviously doesn’t know the difference between a whorehouse and a cleric’s asshole. Excuse us.”
“I wish I could,” said the one with his sword out. His apologetic smile was about as genuine as the shroud they’d given Duke Aurora all those months ago. “But you see, we’ve been looking for Ormano Peredor,” he brought up his sword to point at Orry. Like an idiot, Orry raised his hands and squeaked. “So if he’s Ormano Peredor, the cleric, then you must be…”
Before Croak could protest, his hands were grabbed by a guard who’d surreptitiously snuck up behind him. He’d been so worried about what Orry would do, he hadn’t seen the guard at all until it was too late.
“I don’t know who this ‘Ormano Peredor’ is,” Croak called out as the guard bound his hands. Another did the same to Orry who looked at him in terror. “If you knew us at all, you’d laugh at the idea that I’d ever be friends with a cleric.”
Orry’s expression became mulish, and Croak closed his eyes as he bit off a curse.
“Is that right?” The leader of this little group of assholes tapped his lip as if in thought. “Then why is this fat fuck wearing the robes of a cleric?”
“Hey!” Croak shouted, bursting forward, his face heating and his heart pounding murderously. “Only I get to call him fat, you fucking waste of sperm!”
“Croak!”
Croak shut his eyes again as the guards broke out in surprised laughter.
“Croak? As in Croak Luca?” The ringleader cackled like a loon. “Oh, this is a good day, boys.”
As they pushed Croak and Orry out of the alley, their laughter rang in Croak’s ears, making his blood boil.
Orry nudged him and smiled wanly at him. “Sorry, Croak.”
Croak shook his head. “Not yet, Orry. But I have a feeling we’re going to be.”
Terena walkedout of the Boar’s Head Inn with Gabriol, Cassandra, and Migela, heading for the apothecary.
When Croak was four, he’d fallen into a patch of rattleberries and almost died. Her mother had a basic knowledge of medicinal herbs but nothing that would save her son. Lorence, their father, had taken Croak to an apothecary named Neokles, on the advice of Empress Adanna. She used the apothecary’s services, despite his being a disgraced cleric.
After saving Croak’s life, he’d become a regular fixture at family meals, teaching her mother more about herbs, to the point she became his assistant.
“I’m worried about Croak and Orry,” Terena grumbled as they walked. “They should’ve been back here by now.”
“Must have stopped at a brothel on the way,” Gabriol snorted.
“If they’re not at the inn by the time we return from the apothecary, we’ll go looking.”
They’d been in Metilai close to a week now, and they were finally to meet up with Vassori.
The tiny shop was wedged between a cobbler and an abandoned tea room. It was in a less populated part of the city, which suited them perfectly.
As soon as they walked inside, Terena closed her eyes and breathed in the scents of the cozy shop. Thyme, elerian, lavender, summer wart and rosemary were the ones she could pick out as they walked to the small counter. It was filled with canisters of different herbs and balms, little vials of red, blue, green, dark purple, and clear liquids, some stoppered with corks and others with melted wax over the cork. Terena knew from experience the waxed vials held poisons.
“Ah! Come to rob me blind, have you? Go on, then, take what you want. Too old to bother.”
Terena grinned at the feeble voice as Neokles walked out of the doorway to his sparse bedroom in the back. He walked with a very pronounced hunch, the knotty cane he held thudding with every other step. When he saw who had entered, he managed a wicked smile.
“Well, well. So this is what I have to do to get you to come out and see old Neokles, eh? Agree to let the Captain of the Imperial Guard have a secret meeting in my shop?”
Terena shot a wink at Gabriol who stood with his thumbs tucked into his belt as he smiled at the old man.
Kissing him on his balding head, Terena went on Neokles’s other side and tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow.
“I would’ve come sooner, old man, if I’d known how much you’ve missed me.”
