Before Lukan could say anything, Arienne quickly asked, “Has anyone come looking for me?”
Lukan sighed. “It’s the dungeons of the Office of Truth for you and me. They didn’t come today, but by tomorrow the inquisitors will certainly be knocking at my door.” He shook his head. “To think my only relative so far away from home is a runaway sorcerer.”
Cain glanced at Arienne, his eyes gleaming behind his spectacles, but otherwise did not show any surprise.
Lukan poured himself a drink and drank it in one gulp.
“Look,” said Arienne, “I’m going to leave the Capital, I just need to hide for a little while, just to rest and—” She gestured to her dirty white shift. She would draw attention anywhere dressed like this. “I have some money, Uncle. I just need some clothes and to prepare myself for travel—”
“Six years without so much as a visit, what makes you think you can make these demands!”
Arienne flinched, tightening her grip on the blanket around her.
“Lukan, be quiet,” Cain said in a whisper. Arienne hadn’t noticed that Cain was by the doors and had his ear against them.
“Is someone there?” Arienne asked, her grip on the blanket tightening.
Cain shook his head and stared worriedly at Lukan. “I don’t think so. But if you shout like that, they’ll hear you all the way up there in the Office of Truth, one way or the other.”
Lukan sighed. Silence followed.
The situation was getting out of her control. All Arienne had thought of was to ask Lukan for help, to give him some money, get new clothes and travel gear, and escape the city. She had no idea she would be treated like an unkempt fugitive by her own blood, or would accidentally involve a stranger who had nothing to do with her save for their shared homeland. She had made quite a mess, and she was angry at Eldred.
Arienne couldn’t trust Cain completely either; all he’d donewas give some bread to a person he pitied. To him, it must have been like throwing a coin to a beggar.
But this man looked serious. Cain wasn’t blaming Arienne. He wasn’t panicking or showing regret, instead just making sure no one was listening in on them.
Arienne looked at Cain again. The man’s demeanor made him look older than when she first saw him in the alley. She recognized the type, not from real life, but from the stories she liked to read, a protagonist wise beyond his years, thanks to a hard life on the mean streets. He even had dark, tired eyes behind his spectacles, like many such heroes.
“That one looks useful.”
Arienne jumped at the sound of Eldred’s voice. With everything happening, she’d almost forgotten she was playing host to a long-dead Power generator. She opened the door inside her mind to see Eldred sitting up, his bandaged face turned in her direction.
“Ask that one for help,”he said, referring to the man who’d given her the bread.“This uncle, while a blood relation, seems only keen on saving his own neck. I would be relieved if he didn’t do anything more than report you.”
The tavern was quiet and both men were looking at her, so she couldn’t respond.
After inspecting the windows, briefly opening each of them to peer outside, Cain nodded in their direction. Lukan poured himself another drink.
Cain said, coming back to the bar, “Look, sheisfamily—”
“Youdon’t have family, that’s why you would say such a thing,” shot back Lukan. “Look at what the one family I have in the Capital is doing right now.”
Cain turned to her and said, “If you really have no one else, I can try to help you at least.”
She didn’t know what to say. Cain’s offer was like sweet rain in a long drought. After a moment’s thought, she said, “I would need a place to sleep for a little while, some clothes, and if you could help me get ready to travel…”
“I know a place you can stay for a couple of days. The rest I can get for you tomorrow. I’ve some business all day and it’ll be evening by the time I come back, but you should probably leave at night anyway.”
“He’s putting himself forward, this is good,”said Eldred.“But you don’t know how he’s going to turn. Tomorrow I shall teach you a spell that can kill a man in a second.”
It disconcerted Arienne how Eldred could say such horrifying things, when all he had talked about in the Academy were hopes and promises… What would happen if she failed to learn the sorcery he was willing to teach? What was he capable of, sitting there in the room inside her mind?
But that was not something to worry about right now. Her priority was to leave the Capital. Arienne nodded at Cain. “Thank you.”
Cain shrugged.
Lukan lifted the glass to his lips, but stopped as if he remembered something. He said, with suspicion in his voice, “This girl has the nerve to expect things from me because I’m family. But why areyouvolunteering?”
