“You vowed to catch Alfred Brewer as well!”
“What has that got to do with any of this?”
“If you shut up and listen for a minute I’ll tell you!”
She glared at him, fists clenched at her sides. She was so angry she could slap him.
“All right,” he said at last, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m listening.”
Lily blew out a breath, trying to calm her anger. “I didn’t just go sightseeing you know? I do havesomesense. I spotted someone through the window, someone I didn’t expect to see.” She met his gaze. “Oskar, it was Alfred Brewer. He’s here, in the city.”
THE SILENCE STRETCHED. Oskar’s brain seemed to be struggling to process the words Lily had just spoken. Alfred Brewer? Here?
“Nay, lass, ye must be mistaken—”
“I know what I saw!” she snapped. “It was Alfred Brewer I tell you! He even had the limp and was walking with the crutch I had you make for him!”
Oskar turned to stare into the fire. He was sitting too close to the flames and he could feel heat prickling up his skin, but he ignored it. In fact, he barely felt it. His thoughts spun in a whirlwind, tossed like leaves on a breeze.
Alfred Brewer was here in Edinburgh. That meant Alice, his wife, was likely here too. Which meant, in turn, that other members of the Disinherited—the Order of the Osprey’s most hated enemy—would be here as well. But why? What were they planning? Whatever it was, the Order had obviously misjudged their intentions badly. And now, he and Torvik were the only ones here to deal with it.
He was no tactician, no strategist able to weigh up options and determine plans. He was hired muscle. He was the one yousent in to do the bloody work nobody else had the stomach for. Hadn’t he proven that by what he’d done today?
Bryn Fletcher had the right of it. Hewasstreet-scum.
“Was he alone?” he asked at last.
“Yes,” she nodded. “I followed him into that scummy part of the city you found me in. He spoke to a man in a cowl and gave him some money. Then I lost him and ran into that scarred man and his gang.”
“Bryn Fletcher. The scarred man’s name is Bryn Fletcher.”
“Right. That’s when I ran into Bryn Fletcher and his gang. Do you think they’re in on it? Do you think Alfred Brewer saw me and set those men on me?” She was pale and frightened-looking.
“No,” he said, his jaw tightening. “I dinna think they had anything to do with Alfred Brewer.”
But they had everything to do with me,he thought.Bryn Fletcher attacked ye because of me.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. How close they’d come to hurting Lily... If he hadn’t found them when he did...
“Did ye see anything else?” he forced himself to ask. “Did Alfred speak to anyone else? Go anywhere else?”
She shook her head. “That’s all I saw.”
“So Alfred Brewer arrives in Edinburgh the same time we do,” he breathed. “Which means Magnus and Emeric clearly didnae catch him. So where are they? Where is Alice? And what are they up to?”
The question hung in the air, heavy with implications, and Oskar felt a chill run up his spine. It was dangerous in the extreme for Alfred Brewer and his associates to come to Edinburgh. They must know the risks, so why would they come here?
Only if the benefits outweighed the risks, he thought.So what they are planning must be big. Very big.
“I have to tell the Order about this,” he said, heaving himself to his feet. “And they’ll want to speak to ye. We need to go to the guild house.”
“The guild house?”
“It isnae far.”
He held out his hand to Lily, an invitation for her to take it. She hesitated for a moment before placing her small hand in his, and he pulled her up to stand beside him.
“Let’s go,” he said with a nod.
