The Iron Bells
Page 19
Chapter Fifteen
I start the smudge stick in my room, the sage-scented smoke dancing on the light breeze from my open window. I've been smudging like a mad thing since the Sniffer's appearance on the street. I don't want to risk the Inquisition coming back, so every other day I take out another bundle of string-wrapped herbs and use the smoke to cleanse the boarding house. I'm not sure what the Sniffer might have caught scent of--me, the book, the messenger's scent from his bag--but I'm not going to risk being unprepared.
I wave the smoke at each of my windows, at my door, and then move to the outside of the building. Out in the open I have to be more careful, so I put the stick in a votive holder and carry that around to the front of the building. I smudge the front steps and door before going through the house and into the back garden.
I'm almost finished when I hear Cat's voice behind me. "What are you doing with that?"
I complete my circuit of the top of the back wall before I answer. "It's a smudge stick."
She walks over to inspect it as I hop off the wall. I hand it to her and she turns it in her hands, watching the smoke drift lazily away. "What's it do?"
"You don't use them in your village?"
She takes tentative sniff of smoke up close. "Gah," she says, rubbing her nose. "Never smelled that before." She hands it back.
"It's sage and other herbs. It's used to cleanse an area. Great stuff against Sniffers." I lay the smudge stick in a bowl under the tree to burn out.
"We don't have Sniffers where I'm from. Guess we're too small to warrant it." She shrugs. "Until the night shamblers came, we didn't really have much cause for any of this." She walks over to the bench and sits.
I follow her. "Do you miss home?"
She looks out at the garden, suddenly looking very small and alone. I think about how hard it must be for her to come to somewhere so completely unknown to do such a dangerous job. Again, I'm grudgingly impressed by her courage.
"Sometimes," she admits, tucking her legs underneath her. "I wonder how they're all doing."
I don't have an answer for her and I don't think she wants one. I'm not sure what to say next. I've never been good with people or conversations. Probably why I have so few friends. Still, Cat is talking to me. I should at least try to come up with something. "What's it like--your home?"
Cat glances at me, as if trying to figure out if I'm serious or not. I sit, waiting, until she finally says, "Small. A quiet little place. Not much to recommend it, but I love it there." Her mouth quirks up in a private smile. "My friend, Margaret, was so jealous that I was getting out. She didn't speak to me for a whole week. She so wanted to come along to London."
"She did know that you were coming here for a mission, right? One that you might not come back from?" I can't understand how anyone would envy a job like Cat's.
Cat frowns. "I'll make it back." She glares at me, daring me to deny it.
I've offended her. No one wants to hear that they could die, even if the possibility is so very real. I shouldn't have said that to her, shouldn't have brought it up. I incline my head in silent apology.
"Besides," she continues, as if I've never said anything, "she should be jealous. I get to see the world outside of our village. And I plan to enjoy it."
It reminds me of what Dham told me days ago in this very spot. We don't know what the future holds for us, so why shouldn't we take advantage of the time we have now? I wasn't raised with that attitude; for me, it's about mitigating risk and protecting myself. The few enjoyable moments of the last seven years have been with Pat or on the roof of the boarding house. I have a hard time thinking of Rome as a pleasure trip.
She and Dham are more suited for each other. They have far more in common than he and I do. It makes my chest feel strange to admit that, like I'm short of breath after a sprint. "That's sounds like something Dham would say."
Cat nods, eyes again on the garden. "The world's dark enough, Amaranth. And it's getting darker. I want to enjoy as much light as I can while I have it."
I sit in silence next to her until the sage from the smudge stick burns away completely.
Chapter Sixteen
I need some time to clear my head after my first lecture with Trick. Between his admonitions and what I was able to read in the Key so far, my brain is so full that I'm certain grey matter will begin to leak from my nose. I head to my favorite quiet place, hoping that some peace will ease my headache and my frazzled nerves.