Ace gathered me in his arms and pulled me into the heat of his body. He held me like that, not speaking, not trying to fill the silence with words or promises. Instead, he anchored me and provided comfort with his presence.
After a while, I pulled back and sniffed. I needed to push the feelings of betrayal and anger aside. There would be time for that later and I couldn’t afford to let the intense emotions cloud my judgement.
“Let’s pick a cabin to make our home for tonight,” Ace said. “I’ll help you forget everything and we’ll head for Vitor tomorrow.”
“Deal.”
25
I waved at the air in front of my face. “What is that smell?”
“That…” Ace waved at the path ahead of us. “Is Vitor.”
I wrinkled my nose but kept walking toward the offensive smell.
“You get used to it,” Ace said, as if that made everything better.
The narrow path through the forest led us uphill where the trees thinned out. As we crested the bank, the trees gave way to provide my first glimpse at the city of Vitor. “Why does it smell so much?”
A crumbling wall surrounded older buildings with mossy rooves. The dirt road leading up to the city ended at a large, unmanned gate.
“They weren’t cable to use magic to resurrect their power grid or sewage system like Wast and Perga. Vitor also lacks a nearby river to take away all the waste,” Ace explained. “There’s an underground system that funnels rainwater and helps move everything to the waterways, but the air gets particularly nasty by the end of summer. Now that the rain has started, things should get better.”
“Great.” I looked at the gray skies above. The rain had let up quite a lot since last night and for the first time ever, I wished it would come back.
“Shall we?” Ace held out his hand.
I clasped it and we strolled down the hill to the main road. “Why aren’t there any guards?”
Ace scanned the open gates, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “Why would anyone attack Vitor?”
“They have a library?”
“Not everyone is prepared to go to war for their dirty books, Mouse.”
“My books are not dirty.”
Ace’s grin grew and he flashed his white teeth at me.
“Well…not all of them, at least,” I grumbled and let go of his hand to cross my arms over my chest.
He laughed and pried my hand free to hold it again. “I like your dirty books, Mouse. They’ll get you all hot and bothered and give you ideas that I’ll be more than happy to help with. But dirty books aside, Vitor isn’t ruled the same as Wast, and I don’t think King Oberon and Queen Titania are interested in expanding their control to this area as long as Vitor doesn’t overstep or cause problems. This is more like a free town with a peacekeeper in place to maintain order, not act as a politically competent rival. Besides, I don’t think our king and queen have as much control over their current territory as they would have everyone believe.”
He had a point there.
The king and queen couldn’t spread themselves too thin or they’d lose control of everything.
“You worked for the king as an assassin.”
He pressed his lips together. “There’s a reason Vitor is not a threat. The royals may not wish to rule this town, but they had a vested interest in keeping Vitor tame.”
We stepped through the gates and onto the cobblestone main street of Vitor. “What now?”
“We ask for directions,” he said.
“You don’t know where it is?”
“I didn’t come here to read, Mouse.”
