She heaves the sigh of a warrior surrendering his weapons, before doing a very un-Giana-like thing. She steps forward and traps me in a hug. “Don’t die, you crazy girl.”
“Right back at you, Gia.”
After another deep exhale stirs the tendrils of hair beside my ears, she releases me.
“So this is how you get me on Antoni’s boat without anyone noticing?” As I slide my satchel over my flattened chest, I give my mirror image another once-over. She’s managed to make me resemble a prepubescent boy.
“No. That getup is so you don’t catch the eye of the patrols in Rax. Not to mention, it’ll make riding a horse much easier.”
She talks like someone who’s been there and done that, surely because she hasbeen there and done that.
At my raised eyebrow, a twinkle lights up her eyes and spreads to her mouth. “Hope you’re not the type to get dizzy.”
* * *
Apparently,I’m very much the type to get dizzy. Then again, I’d wager the few coppers jingling in my belted purse that the organs of anyone stuffed inside a wine barrel and rolled across cobbles would rumple and spasm.
I rue myself for having gobbled down the bowl of raisin-flecked polenta Sybille carried up to me when I awoke in the middle of the afternoon. The softened cornmeal was supposed to stick to my bones, but it’s not sticking, unless there’s a bone in my throat I’m not aware of.
I clench my teeth as we go over another lumpy patch. Tarelexians really need to level their roads.
“Signorina Amari.” Silvius’s smarmy voice penetrates the curved slats that keep me hidden.
My heart jostles. Since I’m facing up, I squint to make him out through the slats but the outside world is already thick with a darkness that rivals the one inside the barrel.
“Commander.” Giana’s voice is tight but steady, betraying no emotion except her tangible loathing for the man she threw out of the tavern last night. “We’re looking for your little round-eared friend who didn’t make it home last night.”
I work hard on quieting my breaths, grateful for the clamor of the wharf. I understand why they chose dusk to roll me out to Antoni. The fishermen and merchants are all out, getting rid of what they weren’t able to sell in Tarecuori.
“I’ve many little round-eared friends. You’ll have to be more specific.”
I can just imagine Silvius grinding his teeth. “Fallon Rossi.”
“Fallon crashed with my sister last night. She was exhausted from her . . .livelyday, so my guess is, she’s still lying in Morpheus’s arms.”
“Your guess?Don’t you live with your sister?”
“We Tarelexians may lead modest lives, but we do have separate bedrooms, Commander. Now if you don’t mind, I need to get rid of this wine that’s soured instead of matured.”
A pause.
“And how will you be disposing of it?”
“The usual way.”
“Enlighten me?”
“It’ll be brought to Rax, where all Tarelexian garbage goes.”
It’s hopefully no more than my runaway imagination that makes me think the barrel trembles beneath Giana’s hands.
“Fetch me a glass!” I hear the commander shout.
My heart stops beating.
“I want to sample your soured wine, Signorina Amari.”
Oh Gods . . . Oh Gods.
