He blinks at me, unmoved. “Do you truly wish to visit a temple?”
A change of subject? Unsurprising. “It might be useful to check out the city. Get the lay of things. Figure out what our options are.”
The truth is, I don’t know what to do now that we’re here. I’d thought of Balsingra as some sort of safe haven. That we’d be able to blend in, get a decent room at some quiet inn, and just hide out for a while. Obviously, that was too much to ask for. I should have known that plague would be everywhere, left in his wake. I should have known that I wouldn’t feel safe or settled, because being here doesn’t solve anything. We walk past one temple with grand steps and a statue of someone I don’t recognize. I glance at Kalos, but hedoesn’t bat an eye at the sight of it. Not one of his enemies, then.
“You have any ideas?” I ask him, fingering the straps of the supply pack, now back in its spot upon my back.
He glances over, pausing in his tracks. Dingle’s leash is still wrapped around his hand, and the goat bleats a protest. “Ideas about what?”
“What we do now.” I glance around, but even the temples feel empty.
They also feel wildly conspicuous, like if we walk inside one, someone’s going to point a finger, shriek “Aha!” and pounce upon us. Temples might be something we need to avoid in the future.
“You’re the one in charge,” he says, tone bored. “You lead and I shall follow.”
I turn and look at the empty streets, wondering if it’s my imagination or if it feels as if someone is following us. Probably just paranoia, considering we’ve guiltily crept out of two cities now. “This feels like a bad idea, that’s all.”
“This was the only idea we had,” Kalos points out.
“I know, but it still feels like a bad one.” I cross my arms over my chest, hugging my cloak tight. “I didn’t think about the plague. I didn’t realize he’d spread sickness all over everyone in his wake. Do you think we’ve been doing that, too? In more places than just the festival?”
Kalos shrugs, and I’m reminded that he doesn’t care. It’s my job to make him care. Actually, no, my job is to keep Apathy alive. No one said anything about caring, though that feels wrong somehow.
I’m also suspecting that we’ve been pollinating plague dust wherever we go, like shitty pixies. We’re a problem. I don’t want to go around making innocent people sick, so we need to figure out the supply issue and find one place and staythere. “I didn’t think about sickness,” I admit to him. “The more we wander about the countryside, the more we could harm people.”
“Who cares?”
“Me, Mr. Apathy.” I nudge him with my arm. “And I’m the one that makes plans, remember?”
He sighs heavily.
I glance around at the deserted streets. “Okay, new plan. We’ll find a tavern or someplace where we can spread out the map and pick someplace new to go. Someplace preferably remote and deserted.”
“We could get a room somewhere,” Kalos comments. “In fact, weshouldget a room. You can bathe me.”
Bathe him? When I look over at my companion to see if I’ve heard him correctly, he doesn’t meet my gaze. He just continues to study the streets around us as if they’re fascinating. “You want a bath?”
“I do.”
“Rightnow?”
He shrugs. “Unless you want to go see my temple first.”
Oh. Strangely enough, I do. I wonder if it’ll match the swamp temple or if it’s different in every city. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to find out. It also wouldn’t be a bad idea to see if all his statues have his face on them or not. If they do, we need a plan…and a face scarf. And maybe an eyepatch. “Let’s go look at your temple, yes. Then I guess we can find an inn.”
“And bathe,” he agrees, sounding almost cheerful.
I don’t trust it.
I gesture at our surroundings. “You want to point out which temple is yours, then?”
“Oh, it’ll be the smallest one, for certain.” He flashes a hint of a grin that steals my breath. “No one likes to pray to me. They only include me out of fear that I’ll retaliate if they don’t.”
“And would you?”
He shrugs. “If I felt like it.”
Good lord. “You’re something else.”
