I peered over his shoulder to see King Harrow’s face on the coin. After putting them into his pockets, he pulled his hood up over his head. I did the same, grabbing some coins for myself and pulling up my hood. I’d never stolen money before, butGodric just had, and I figured it was going to sit here and gather dust for eternity anyway. We’d eventually need food today.
We ducked under the red ribbon that was tied in front of the open tent flaps in an effort to keep people out. The second we hit the street, Godric turned left.
I kept my hands loose, ready to draw Valkaryn if we needed her, listening for the slightest change in the city’s rhythm.
We let the early light become a cloak. Our footsteps matched the city’s pulse, so we looked like any other pair of laborers passing through. We moved along the alleyways with our heads down, letting the morning bustle wash around us while we kept to the edges.
“If anyone asks, you’re my niece. Your mother named you Daisy after the flower, and she died when you were young,” he told me, and I nodded.
“Yes, Uncle Peter.”
“Peter? That’s not a warrior’s name,” he grumbled.
I smacked his fake fat belly. “You’re not a warrior, you’re a farmer.”
Despite the circumstances, he grinned.
Two men turned down the street in front of us, and I slowed my steps, but Godric kept walking confidently. The two men wore warrior’s leathers and had swords at their hips. I made sure Valkaryn was tucked deep into my cloak, having to pivot her in line with my leg so she didn’t stick out the back.
The men didn’t even look our way. They faced forward like bodies with no souls, staring into the void.
‘Stop and pretend to have a pebble in your shoe. Something is wrong with them. I see the magic King Harrow has over them, but I need to stay close.’
“Uncle Peter, there’s a rock in my shoe,” I told Godric, and stopped, pulling my foot up to fiddle with the laces.
Godric stopped, facing me with concern, and I realized he was very good at this role-playing thing.
The men slowed as they passed us, and I flicked my gaze to them just as their heads turned in unison to look back at me.
I nearly screamed; the motion was not normal. It was orchestrated like a puppet master was pulling the strings. I peered down at my shoe and winced, pulling it off and shaking it out. “Got it,” I exclaimed.
‘Oh heavens,’Valkaryn breathed.
The men’s heads snapped back forward, and they walked down another alley.
‘What is it?’
‘I don’t want to say yet. I need more info. When the city opens up fully, go into some stores and interact with more people.’
I whispered the instructions to Godric, who nodded. “I could eat.” He tapped his fake belly.
I sent Kaelric a quick mental check-in that I was safe and inside. He made me promise to check in every ten minutes.
We did about a ten-minute walk through the city, all of which Godric seemed to know by heart, twisting down alleyways and between buildings like he was walking home. People began to come out of their homes in human form, opening up shops, walking their children to the schoolhouses, but there was something amiss with everyone. Though they weren’t soulless like the two guards, they were… paranoid? Scared? I couldn’t put my finger on how they acted weird.
We turned a corner to find a man with a toothbrush aimlessly scrubbing a dirt-packed wall, the tips of his fingers bleeding. There was a sign on his back for all who passed.Insurgent, it read.
Godric and I shared a look and kept walking. Was that a punishment here? Scrubbing a wall until your fingers bled?
‘Hmm, interesting,’Val said.
‘What? Tell me what you see already.’
‘It’s like looking at the thin strands of a spiderweb. Every person you pass has one connected to them. It would be on you and Godric, too, had I not been shielding you since we entered this city.’
My eyes widened.What?
‘So you can block it?’
