Page 10

"Details."

I looked away before Alex could pull me further into it, but the laugh had done something useful. My chest loosened, and for the first time since we'd left the Citadel, I looked around without tracking every person near me.

Residential housing was still busy, just differently. People crossed between houses carrying gear, food, and arms full of laundry. A group sat at a table outside one building with cards spread between them. Near the center of the district someone had taken apart half a crossbow across a low wall while another person watched and ate an apple. No order to any of it, but the longer I watched, the more I sensed a pattern I didn't understand yet.

People knew each other here.

They called through open windows instead of knocking. Someone walking past reached over a low wall and stole food off another man's plate without breaking stride, and the shout that followed made three people laugh. Two soldiers carried opposite ends of a broken chair across the road, arguing about whose fault it was.

Corian turned onto a quieter road off the main circle, and within a minute he slowed in front of a two-story stone house set back from the path. It was broader than most we'd passed and had dark roof tiles, tall windows, and a low wall around a strip of grass in front. A pair of boots sat by the door. A jacket hung over the railing near the steps.

Alex walked past both without a glance.

Corian climbed the first step before he noticed I hadn't followed.

Again. I was starting to sense a pattern. I'd learned to walk as a child. This shouldn't be difficult.

I stood on the path and looked at the house.

My things were already inside. Somewhere past that door sat clothes I'd folded that morning expecting to put them back in the same drawers that night, books that had lived on the same shelf for years, probably Ashter's collection of things he'd stolen from the Menagerie and had hidden badly enough that I'd always pretended not to notice.

My room in the Citadel wasn't mine anymore.

The thought settled strangely.

I'd wanted out.

That was the stupid part.

I'd spent years resenting it. I'd pictured leaving the restricted Citadel often enough that I should have known better than to be caught off guard the moment someone actually moved my whole life through a door.

Except I hadn't chosen this either.

The Council had.

Different building. Different people.

My hand rose toward the collar at my throat and stopped halfway. Ashter stirred against my wrist instead, warmth spreading under my sleeve.

Corian stayed on the step with my file under his arm. He could have told me to hurry. Janus would have, eventually, once he'd decided I'd sulked long enough. A Master would have asked what I was waiting for.

They just stood there.

I looked at the space between me and the front door and realized that nobody was going to tell me when to cross it.

I walked up the path, passed the abandoned boots, and stopped beside Corian. He opened the door but didn't step through first, leaving room for me to go in.

I looked into the unfamiliar house, then at the four men who already lived there.

New squad. New room. Rules I didn't know yet, at least somewhere there was probably a window.

The house smelled of woodsmoke, soap, and whatever somebody had cooked recently, more personality than I expected. The Citadel always smelled like stone, polish, paper, or whatever room I happened to stand in. This place smelled and looked lived-in.

Corian stepped aside once I was through, and the others filed in behind. I stood a second too long before following them through a short passage into a large common room.

My belongings sat in the middle of the floor. All of them. One black duffel bag and a long weapons case.

I crossed the room before I gave much thought to anything else and crouched over the case. The clasps were still shut. The reinforced corners looked whole. No dents along the sides. I ran my fingers over the lid, checking the surface out of habit.