“Who did this?” He hissed.
“A noble in the city,” I panted, “Has it out for us. For Seraphim in particular.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t recognize his face, and he didn’t mention his name.”
Eleos glanced around the wagon. “Nobody should know about us. Not by name.” Tearing off his sash, he wrapped it around my chest and bound it tightly. “We need to get back.”
He offered me a hand, but I shook my head. “We’ll attract too much attention, running through the streets like this.” Raising my chin, I studied a nearby street sign. “I know this place like the back of my hand. There’s a brothel nearby we can shelter in.”
“Is a brothel really the best-”
“The women there will help us.” I staggered to my feet, shimmying around the wagon to check for a man dressed in red. A few people came and went, but none wore masks.
Taverns and whorehouses adorned this road; the crowds would arrive with the setting sun. That gave us only a few minutes before we’d find ourselves surrounded by onlookers. Limping from behind my cover, I hurried down the street. Eleos followed me, hand hovering behind me as though worried I’d fall.
A ‘closed’ sign hung from the brothel’s dirt-smeared door. Leaning against the stone building, I gestured for Eleos to knock. “I’ll talk to them.”
He hesitated before knocking heavily. A few moments passed before the door unlatched, and a woman, tangled hair bound in a bun, peered through the crack.
“I need a room and a change of clothes,” I said. “I’ll pay whatever you like.”
The woman studied me quickly, eyes darting to my bloodied gown before settling on my face. “The second room on the left isempty. I can let you have it for an hour.” She said, pulling open the door.
* * *
I hadn’t expected to lie topless in a brothel today. Stranger things had happened in my lifetime, I supposed.
Ainwir and I had hidden in this place once before. He’d taught me a valuable lesson: most women will aid other women. Learn to tell which will throw themselves into danger without a word, and which will turn you away.
I’d like to think I was the former, but had yet to find a distressed young woman at my door.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I winced as Eleos poured a bottle of cheap liquor over my gash. I took a glance at the jagged wound and decided I didn’t need to see it again if I wanted to keep my lunch.
“Sorry,” Eleos murmured. “You’re sure you didn’t recognize him?”
“I didn’t exactly brush shoulders with the highest of society,” I said, pointedly staring at the brothels’ stained wall.
The thorns had ripped across my chest, meaning there was but a thin sheet preventing us from getting to know each other a whole lot better. Wiping off the alcohol, Eleos retrieved a bandage from the end table and hesitated.
“Do you mind?” He asked, reddening as he reached for the sheet protecting my modesty.
“I thought healers were supposed to be professional.”
“I’m not a healer.”
“Or a priest or a scholar.”
“You remember wrong. Iama scholar.”
“Right. The only scholar of the Empty.” I said, trying to lighten the mood. “But tonight,learned of the female form.”
“I’m already familiar with the female form.”
“Oh? Are you?” I grinned.
“Yes.” He said calmly. “I studied anatomy in my youth.”
