Nice addition. A handy bit of knowledge volunteered by one of the guards back at Starworth Tor that makes us seem more legitimate than we truly are.
“Oh, don’t I,” she replies with a purposeful quiver to her voice as she stands. And then, “Come. I’ll walk you back.”
Eryx’s scent wafts around me the moment we enter his darkened office, notes of musk and beach wood twisted with the salty fragrance of the sea. While Thibault sets the scroll in an already overfilled crate on the vice admiral’s desk, I step close to the jacket the man in question left hanging on a hook by the door. All that’s required is a long inhale, and I’ve caught his smell.
“He hasn’t been here in days,” the woman offers, wringing her hands. “Not since that horrible incident with Admiral Rooke.”
Thibault reaches for a quill and ink pot and begins completing the visitor log with fake names and information that will eventually be found out. “I’m sure he thinks it best to remain hidden,” he says. “Until everything is sorted out.”
“Will it ever be?” she whispers, her thin brows drawing together as she leans closer to Thibault. “His mind has been turned by that man from the East. You’ll never convince me otherwise.”
He puts the quill away and faces her. Folding his arms, he sits on the corner of the desk and crosses his feet at the ankles, eyes curious. “You mean General Vexx?”
She shakes her head adamantly. “No, no. The other one. The smaller one. There’s something not right about that man. Gavril, I think they call him.”
Thibault’s cold eyes blaze. “I wasn’t aware he was still here.”
She widens her stare and suffers a whole-body shiver. “Oh, he is. He was seen just last night over at the White Wolf with the vice admiral. I can’t believe you haven’t heard. The gossip started spreading immediately.”
I don’t even finch at the ironic name of what I assume to be a tavern. But I do speak up. “We’ve heard nothing, surprisingly. A public outing seems quite unwise given that he’s trying to lay low.”
She looks at me. “Word is that they showed up to bolster confidence among the members of the Watch and convince the people of the need for the North to choose a side. Preferably the one who wants to see Tiressia united.”
I scoff, tucking my hands behind my back again. “Yes. United under the cruel hand of—”
“The Prince of the East,” Thibault interjects before the wordThamaosfalls from my lips.
The woman glances between us. “Yes, well, we Malgrosians are not in the best circumstance, to say the least. I’m certain you both understand that, though.”
Thibault straightens. “We do. Too well.”
The woman escorts us from Eryx’s office. We easily make it past the guards at the main doors and step out onto the busy city street ahead. Thibault, still wearing another man’s visage, squints up at the sun with less misery than when we left the tor this morning, a man who just found a new purpose.
“Looks like you might get that kill sooner rather than later.”
He rubs his hands together, a small curl at the corner of his mouth. “Yes. Looks like. And better still? If we remove the sorcerer and his poison, reclaiming Malgros will go smoothly. We just have to find the bastard first.”
“Well, there’s only one way to find fresh meat, Un Drallag.” I sniff the air and turn eastward toward Eryx’s first possible hideout, an old fleet warehouse near the barracks and command post. “We hunt for it.”
III
BLOOD FOR BLOOD
15
NEPHELE
I’m dreaming of my mother.
She’s laughing and smiling, her floral sundress billowing wildly in the wind as I chase her along the beach, the sun beating down on our faces.
Those long, dark curls bounce around her shoulders as she twists to see me, her tanned skin so much different than mine. More like baby Raina’s. I don’t expect it, but she lets me catch her, and we tumble to a blanket spread across the sand, where she folds me in her arms and pecks kisses over my face. I love her. I love the way she smells like sunshine and sea spray and home.
With a giggle, I slip free and crawl over the blanket to snatch a book from our basket.
“Read to me, momma?”
“Of course.” She sits up and pulls me into her lap, her skin warm against mine.
