The dwarf nightwatchman sat on the floor, breathing slowlyand evenly and looking very green. Iridia had already directed a few sharp words his way, and Viv didn’t know if his current state owed more to that or whatever had knocked him senseless in the night. He hadn’t seen anything, though, and couldn’t remember much before his unconsciousness. He complained about an all-over headache, but the tapenti wasn’t much interested in his excuses.
Iridia considered the bars, and then Viv. She did not appear concerned.
“Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? If you help me make sense of this, then maybe I’ll take a less dim view of your continued presence in my city, given the trouble you have clearly invited.”
Viv barely kept her frustrated oaths behind her teeth as she paced in her cage. She glared at Iridia, and then with an effort of will, unclenched her hands and swallowed her curses.
She sighed and settled back on the cot. Kicking her leg out, she tried to find something to do with her hands that didn’t put pressure on it and didn’t crush anything else. “I was at Thistleburr—”
“Thebookshop?” interrupted the Gatewarden incredulously.
“Yes. The bookshop.”
Iridia blinked slowly at that, and then gestured for her to continue.
“Anyway, he was messing around in there, and then Potroast—”
“Pot—?”
“He’s a gryphet. Fern’s gryphet. Anyway, he comes tearing out of the back, absolutely losing his little mind, and leaps at the guy. Who just… casually slaps him aside.” Viv replicatedthe motion. “And yeah, that’s not great. Who hits little animals? I’d toss him out on his ass for that alone, but—”
When Viv didn’t continue, Iridia prompted her. “But?”
Viv sighed. “I don’t know how to say this so you’ll care or pay attention. Look, I smelled him, and he smelled like…” She returned the tapenti’s fierce gaze. “You know who Varine the Pale is? You’ve heard of her?”
Iridia pursed her lips, and her gaze became more considering. “The necromancer?”
“That’s who we were after, before I ended up here.”
“Oh, shit, really?” asked Gallina. Her eyes were round. “Rackam is huntingVarine? TheWhite LadyVarine?”
The Gatewarden hissed at the gnome’s interruption and returned her attention to Viv. “What are you getting at?”
“You ever been around a wight?”
The tapenti shook her head.
“Well, I have. Lots, at this point. They smell like death. You’d figure that part, right? But there’s something else, like… frozen blood. The way your nose goes all dry in winter and you can taste copper when you breathe. If you get right up on them, they smell just like that.”
Viv gestured at the empty cell. “That’s the wayhesmelled.”
“He was no wight. He definitely had a pulse.”
“Yeah, I know. But I know that smell, and I knew something about him waswrong. All the way through me, I knew it. And if he has anything to do with Varine… ? Well, I was going to find out if that was true, one way or another.”
“That’s why the city has Gatewardens.”
Viv snorted. “Didn’t see any close at hand, or I would’ve flagged one down.” She patted her leg. “And I wasn’t going to run inside the fortress walls to find one, was I?”
“It didn’t stop you from leaping into the fray.”
Viv tossed her hands up. “And if I’d had my sword, maybe things would’ve gone different. What do you want from me? He slipped out ofyourcell, knocked outyourguard, and it didn’t seem to cost him a lot of trouble. He’s a threat. If not to us, then to somebody else. You leave a snake in your tent, you’re asking to get bit.”
“Pretty shitty analogy,” hissed Gallina as Iridia’s expression darkened.
“Howdidhe get out?” asked the tapenti, with a precision that bespoke a temper held in check.
“How the hells should I know? We were asleep!” Viv couldn’t help raising her voice. “Neither of us saw a gods-damned thing, but now he’s out there, and we’re in here, and I figure he has his stuff back to boot, yeah?”
