The sinister pattern returned. She could swear she heard the fiend laughing.
It’s not Fabrien. The dead know more than the living, and they can use it as a weapon. That’s all. There’s logic in that, which I can believe.
But she’d let her imagination run, and the cursed fiend had the stamina of a bear emerging from hibernation, ready to forage.
Before her fiend could finish the next sequence, Elloven’s shaking hand emptied the vial down her throat.
Chapter 4
A Dream of You
Shioven led Jesstin down a long hall, up two short flights of stairs, and into a narrow corridor. There were no sconces to light their path, and the farther they went, the fewer people they encountered in the dark passage.
He couldn’t tear his eyes away from her hair, a rosy cascade of warmth. She couldn’t have been much older than Elloven when she’d died. Their heights were a rough match. From behind, he wouldn’t know them apart at all. Elloven may not remember her, but they had the same direct style of speaking: a sharp wariness edged with pure fire.
A middle-aged man wearing an obscenely wide-brimmed hat stood with a bored young woman outside a circular carve-out of wall that looked like the interior of a turret. He was propped against the wall, reading something on thick paper, but the woman perked like she’d been waiting for them. Shioven nodded at her and said, “Tidings, Alice. Loggia Four available?”
“Usually is. Everyone knows you’re keen on it.” Alice dug out a small leather purse and opened it. “You’re in luck. We’re slow tonight. German’s group made the migration this morning, and the freshlings don’t know about us yet. Four pieces for the hour, twelve if you stay until dawn.”
“Until dawn.” Shioven deposited the coins. “He’ll need his rest.”
Alice grinned and cinched the purse, her intrigued gaze lingering on Jesstin.
Jesstin, amused, realized immediately what was happening—or what Alice assumed was happening.
“Young, for your liking.” Alice smirked.
The man beside her contributed a dutiful chuckle, his nose still planted firmly behind the creased paper.
“But fairer on the eyes than the others. Expanding your options?”
“Might say that,” Shioven answered, a smidge frostier than before. Arms folded, she waited until Alice, shaking her head to herself, unlocked the door to the circular outcrop and stepped aside. Shioven brushed by and started up a narrow, spiral staircase.
“Do this a lot?” Jesstin asked her, his hands pressed to the narrow, damp walls for guidance. He could’ve corrected Alice, but Shioven hadn’t, and he’d have to trust she had her reasons.
“The gold pays for privacy. Speculation is all they have.” She climbed past a narrow arch with a door. Her cloak dusted the steps behind her, disappearing around corner after corner as he tried to keep up. They came to another door, where moans sounded from behind the meager wooden slats. “I like Loggia Four because it’s the last one. It faces the lake.”
“What lake?” Jesstin’s hands slid on the slimy walls. He couldn’t wait to wipe them on something.
“The vigils take their ships along the lake at all hours, and they’re not quiet about it. Unless someone stands right outside our loggia, they’d hear nothing except a mutter of horns, bells, and garbled voices.” Shioven rushed past the third door and finally stopped at the fourth. She pushed on the flimsy entrance, waited for him to come in, and bolted it behind them. “Get as comfortable as you’re willing.”
Comfortable? The place was smaller than some closets. Tattered, moth-eaten blankets covered a bed with uneven stuffing, and a sour stench that could not have come from just one problem permeated the air. There was a table, two chairs, and a decanter of uncapped wine he wouldn’t touch with a sword to his throat. The view from the lone window was a morass of lake stretching so far, he saw nothing but. The distant beats on the ground floor were like a pulse in the stone.
“Can’t imagine being desperate enough to fuck someone here,” he muttered.
“We didn’t come here for that.”
“No kidding.” Jesstin pulled out a chair, tested the legs. There was a wobble, but it should hold. “I’d interrogate you, but I’m not blind.”
Shioven sat on the bed instead of the chair across from him. “I appreciate your trust.”
“Efficiency. We’re a long way from trust.”
“If only we had the time,” she answered slowly, “but I didn’t bring you here to waste yours or mine, Jesstin. I want to give your time weight and meaning. And direction. Without it, you could search for her for years. Years here could be a lifetime out there. Time is unpredictable here. It does as it pleases and explains itself to no one.”
“I was lured here on the promise of answers, and then the coward who begged for my help up and vanished.”
“Edmond? I presume he meant for me to deliver.” She unfastened her cloak and let it fall onto the filthy cover. “I don’t know where Aelloven is. He lied if he said I do.”
