Levitt glanced over at me, and his brows pinched together.
Rather than defend myself to him, I turned to Penny. “I was making it for you, so you’d have protection when we’re out on the road for the second Oath.” I cut my gaze to Merrick and Levitt. “Unless these gentlemen intend to confiscate it.”
“How many have you made?” Levitt asked.
I gestured at the knife. “That’s the only one. There’s no grand conspiracy or seditious plot here, Levitt, just preparation for going outside the walls.”
“Excuse me, Your Eminence.” A voice came frombehind the Right Hand, and I could barely see beyond him to three figures gathered outside the shop. Their faces were distantly familiar, and it took me a moment to realize they were the remaining three Sentinels.
Levitt turned to face them. “Yes?”
“The house is clear, sir. No weapons.”
Penny went rigid beside me, and I squeezed his wrist to stop him from speaking up. Knowing our house had been rifled through without us present was a betrayal I wasn’t sure I could forgive. The least Levitt could have done was ensure we’d witnessed the search of our home instead of the forge.
“Thank you. Dismissed.” Levitt returned his attention to Merrick as the three dispersed through the growing crowds out in the square. “Satisfied?”
The elder Oliver scowled and shouldered past him and out through the doorway.
Levitt shook his head and gestured to Matina. “Please return the knife. We’re through here.”
She hesitated before handing the knife to Penny with her sharpened teeth bared.
He took it and immediately shoved it and his sketchbook into my free hand, then jerked his wrist out of my grasp and darted out of the shop after his brother. I set both items aside on the lip of the unlit firepot and made to follow, but Levitt caught my arm and pulled me up short.
“Kit, will you be home later? I’d really like to talk.”
The regret on his face was obvious, but I couldn’t find it in myself to care. He’d allowed what little privacy I had to be invaded on the whim of man who he knew had a personal vendetta against me. There was no telling what sort of mess Penny and I would return home to. The thought lit yet more fire in my veins.
I tugged my arm free of his grip. “Respectfully, I don’t have time for this. Don’t come to me; I’ll come to you.”
I didn’t give him a chance to respond.
I needed to find Penny before he started trouble I wasn’t sure he could finish.
36
Penny
My boots pounded the dusty ground as I chased Merrick into the square. His robes flowed out behind him, still jarring after having only seen him in trousers and tunics working the fields back home. He was an entirely different man here. Shades of my older brother remained, but without our father’s influence, Merrick had become something else. Instead of growing, he’d shrunk, boiled down into the most bitter, spiteful parts of himself.
I hardly recognized him.
He must have known I was following because he sped up, walking fast with his head high and eyes fixed ahead. He was making rapid progress back toward the Ossuary, scurrying away from the wreck he’d made of Kit’s shop.
“Merrick!” I shouted after him, my voice gruff with simmering rage.
His stride faltered, and his hands fisted at his sides as his pace slowed.
My hands were clenched, too. They hadn’t relaxed since I’d stood beside Kit in the smithy and watchedMerrick’s lackeys toss the place on false charges. He always said I spent too much time dreaming, imagining. Now,hewas the one making up stories.
I called my brother’s name again, so loudly the passing townsfolk stopped to stare. This time he didn’t revel in drawing their attention, and his steps grew heavier. I’d closed on him, nearly to his turned back when he whirled around with ire in his green eyes.
“Whatever grievances you have to air can be brought to my chambers in the Ossuary,” he hissed. “Inprivate.”
“You didn’t give Kit the benefit of privacy.” I swung my arm toward the blacksmith stall and the strangers gawking from afar. “Didn’t go to him to airyourgrievances. Instead, you made a godsdamned spectacle, and I think I will, too.”
I set my stance, well within striking range if he decided to raise a hand to me. I half hoped he would. It would show these people another side of his nature, then maybe they wouldn’t think so highly of their pompous Shroud Warden.
