Slate slunk from doorway to doorway, peering inside. Each hut had been dug down, some of them quite deep and surprisingly spacious. A few had hide curtains in the doorways, and she had to twitch them aside a fraction to peer inside.
The smoke holes at the top of each building provided a circle of moonlight, and a good thing, too, or she would have had to go through and check by feel, and that didn’t bear thinking about. Slate got through eleven houses, seeing nothing but firepits, bedding,baskets, and all the various flotsam of people’s lives. No one appeared to have thoughtfully left an assassin and a paladin out.
She peered into the twelfth, saw what looked like a pile of rags in the moonlight, and was dropping the curtain back when the rags said, “Hssst!”
There was a knife in her hands. She didn’t actually remember drawing it.
“Brenner?”
“Hey, lady! Help me out here!”
Slate winced.That’s definitely not Brenner. Whatever it is, it’s seen me…
She couldn’t risk it yelling and raising the alarm. She let the curtain fall behind her and slid quickly into the circle of moonlight, where the pile of rags was sitting up.
It wasn’t human. It looked like a cross between a badger and a haystack. It had a broad striped head, small almost-human ears, and a dozen layers of different bits of clothing. They were wrapped and tied and bound together in an intricately knotted tangle. Slate had never seen anything quite like it.
“Do you live here?” she whispered.
“God’s claws, lady, do I look like I live here?”
“I have no idea! What are you?”
“I’m a gnole.”
“What’s a gnole?”
“One of me! Please, lady, untie me quick before the rune come back.”
“What’re rune?”
The gnole rolled its eyes wildly and wiggled. Its hands emerged briefly from the tangle of rags. They looked to be roped together,although the gnole’s eccentric clothing made it hard to tell what was rope and what was more rags. “Rune are the things that live here, and they’ve gone crazy, lady! Now untie me and let’s get out of here!”
“I’m looking for some friends of mine—”
“You come back to Anuket City with me, lady, I’ll get you all the friends you want! Hurry up!”
Slate’s lips twitched. She crouched down and cut the creature’s bonds.
It rolled to its feet, wringing its hands frantically. “Thanks!” It was only about three feet tall, which put them at eye level when she was on her haunches.
It leaned in and a tongue swiped over her cheek, a warm, doggy kiss. Slate choked back a laugh and raised her hands to fend the gnole off. His breath stank of garbage and old meat. Also, it tickled.
“Come on!”
“I can’t leave yet, I have to find my friends.”
“Lady, you don’t want to stick around here—”
Something happened. The air seemed to change, pressing down around them. It took Slate a minute to realize what it was.
The music had stopped.
The gnole flattened himself to the floor and moaned. Fur spiked along the thick neck.
“Oh, god, she’s doing it again…”
“Who’sdoing it again?”
