Sorin smiled and blushed again. “Not exactly. Maybe later. To catch up, I mean. But I was actually looking for Adar. I wanted to leave Krea with him for the day. She has no training and her shift is near.”
“Noooo. No. No. No. When this wedding is over, Adar is being sent to the farthest corner of the Empire for at least two moons to watch wheat grow or pick flowers. Whatever. If we don’t kill him first. Do not leave this child with him.”
“He’s that bad?”
“Everyone’s that bad.” Bri’s voice dropped. “I can’t explain it, Sorin, but it’s like there’s a darkness over the city. Tempers are short. People are…mean, selfish…I don’t know. Angry. Everyone blames it on the stress of the wedding, and maybe that’s all it is, but we’ve been fighting a war. Our friends, our family, have been dying. How can a wedding be more stressful than that? And why am I whispering? Since when did you have to worry about who heard you say such things?”
Sorin nodded. “I’ve noticed.”
Bri turned her attention back to Krea. “Why don’t you join my link, Yiryn? She’s with the hatchlings. You will be older than the rest of them, but you’ll be learning just what you need to learn.”
Krea nodded. “That’ll be fine. Where do I go?”
“I’ll take you to her,” Bri said.
“I can take her,” Sorin offered.
“I can use the break from the smell.” Bri yelled the end of her sentence out into the room. “Water, people, is our friend.” She turned to Krea and smiled. “Mother of mercy, they’re trying to kill me.”
Sorin tried to clasp her forearm, but Bri drew him into another hug. After another round of blushing, he shook his head and smiled. “My thanks. I’m going to try to sort things out with Royden. It didn’t go well this morning.”
“I heard. Go. I will take care of our Krea.”
Krea snapped her head around. Our Krea. The woman had definitely said our Krea. A ruckus on the dais caught her attention, and she turned back to Sorin. “Go. You can get her after evening meals. Krea, come with me. Let’s go see who is trying to kill whom and see if we can beat them to it; then I will take you to Yiryn.” With that, she rushed across the room, leaving a trail of nearly toppled bodies in her wake.
By the time Krea managed to catch up, the debate at the dais had become intensely heated. Her arrival managed to draw some attention, but the two callers went back to their yelling soon enough.
“We are not Her Majesty’s delivery service. We have made two runs to Sra in five days. We will not go again.”
“And my link and I have made three.”
“It is Her Majesty’s will. The nobles cannot get here in time.”
“And that is not our problem. Do I look like a horse?”
“That’s enough. Do you want the council to hear you?”
Bri turned to Krea. “I’m sorry you’re hearing this. Just wait a bit, will you?”
Krea nodded again and stepped out of the way. As Bri entered the fray, more kyrni and callers also joined in until it was hard to make out actual words. Krea waited for a while and eventually faded back to the peace of the deserted bunks. Knives, boots, even money bags lay in plain sight, an easy lift, but Krea punched herself in the leg for even thinking it. When her eyes lingered on an especially bulky bedroll, she punched herself again.
“I hope that leaves a bruise,” she whispered, but the temptation was too much. She followed the wall toward a door, found a stool, and waited well away from the call of easy money.
The argument across the room nearly became physical before Bri and a few others managed to avert disaster by removing the angriest of the group. When Bri disappeared out the door with her arms over the shoulders of a kyrni-caller pair, Krea had a sneaking suspicion she had been well and truly forgotten. When her butt started to hurt from sitting on the stool, she was sure of it. Time to meet up with Dane.
###
Krea realized her mistake almost as soon as she entered the main city. The back door of the field room had dropped her right on the path the callers and kyrni used to get to the city proper, so finding her way out of the hold hadn’t been a problem. Finding Dane, if he was even here, was the problem. Shaylith didn’t have one main road where most of the merchant shops clustered; Shaylith had roads and roads of shops. She counted three different cobblers, and she wasn’t even near the palace yet.
Someone bumped her from behind. “That did not happen!” she said, reaching for her dagger. It almost purred at her touch. Her money pouch was tucked in as well, but when she reached for her knife, she found only her scabbard. “Merciful goddess! That did not happen to me. Not to me!”
She scanned the crowd. Lifts in a city this size probably worked in teams and dressed like she did; they would never know she was one of them. After a few heartbeats and some deep breaths to force her calm, she spotted them. Two boys and a girl, and the girl just handed her knife off to the oldest of the two boys.
Krea looked away and headed toward a group of merchants arguing about a barrel that had fallen from a cart. Disappearing among the angry men wasn’t difficult, and it offered her the perfect view of the square. Her plan had its risks. She didn’t know the city at all. The three lifts could vanish in an instant and she would never find them, but as long as they didn’t know she was watching, they were drawing her a map.
They worked a good game. One would set the mark and acquire the shill, usually food or a knife, sometimes a small money pouch. That person would then pass the shill off to another, who would pass it off again. The third person would take it down one small alleyway and emerge from a different one to make another hit. But they always went down one road and came out another. And they came out dusty. They had a tunnel. With luck, they didn’t have a runner in their tunnel.
She reached back to the pile of empty grain sacks the shop owner had stacked and casually shoved one under her shirt before slowly slipping away from the group. Just as the girl drifted out of the alley and disappeared into the crowd, Krea slipped down the narrow space between the buildings. At the far end, the dirt formed a ditch under what looked like a smooth wall.
“I know you weren’t meant for this,” she whispered, sliding the dagger out of its sheath. “But I need your help. Now, be a good little dagger and don’t kill anything.” The dagger pulsed in her palm and she was sure she felt the dragon’s tail slide along her wrist, but when she looked down, all she saw was the dingy steel handle. “Goddess, you’re scary.”
She pushed in on the planks of wood until one moved. Once she found their exit, it took only seconds to pry the board loose and slip in their back door. The tunnel was lit by small holes from the room above, and not two body lengths in she found their stash. She had to give them credit: A guard never would have noticed the small plank of wood wedged in the ceiling, but she wasn’t a guard.
Krea slid the plank back and grabbed her knife. Then she filled the bag with the rest of their shill and slipped back into the alley, brushing her tunic off as she walked. Except for a brief struggle getting the dagger to go back into the sheath, the whole thing couldn’t have gone better. Now to pray she didn’t run up against their runner before she made her point.
She slid the bag between two barrels and melted over to the neighboring tailor shop to lean against the porch beam just as the youngest boy was setting another mark. He missed. Twice. She had to wait for the girl to lift a roll out of a basket before she had the opportunity to catch the oldest boy’s attention. Just as he was taking the handoff, they made eye contact. Krea flipped her knife over and smiled. The boy stopped and stared for a full breath before catching the younger boy and sending him down the alleyway.
The three made a good team. Their leader waved the girl off with a glance, and they both faded into the busy street to wait for their scout’s report. They didn’t wait long. The look on the oldest boy’s face when he stared Krea down for the second time was a little more murderous than she would have liked, but at least she had his atten
tion.
She nodded her head toward a merchant cart across the road that was collecting a large crowd. The leader nodded back and disappeared.
Apparently some cloth out of Tisher was causing the commotion at the cart. She had seen the material before, but the people in Trasdaak hadn’t been as impressed with it. Who could explain the whims of nobles?
A yelp brought her hand down on the dagger just in time to snatch the girl’s wrist as she was yanking it away. Blood streamed down her palm. Goddess, these three really are good.
Their leader stepped in just as Krea was stepping back. She tried to mask her shock and fear. From where they stood, she probably looked like a master lift who just taught a pelt a lesson. It was better for them keep thinking that than to let on that her cursed dagger had just tried to eat someone. Again.
“This here be our stake. Ain’t no room for you, not even till the carts rolls out, so you just give over our shill and it won’t be no bad blood ’tween us.” The leader stood taller than her, but she guessed he was close to her age. From the fear he struggled to hide, she also guessed he had a runner he didn’t want involved. Neither did she.
“I’m not trying to move in on your stake,” she said. “I just wanted my knife back, and some information.”
“Well, you got the knife,” the girl said. “And we ain’t talkin’ to no fluff, so just give over our shill ’fore something bad happens.”
The leader hissed at her through his teeth. “Just you shut up. She ain’t no fluff.”
“I’m no fluff. And you three aren’t pelts, so do we have business, or don’t we?”
The youngest stepped up. “What does you want to know?”
Krea ignored him. She kept her eyes locked on the leader until he finally grinned. “No, we ain’t no pelts, but Nordu be damned if I know how you lifted our shill right out from under us. We got business, but if it ain’t give over, we ain’t saying we did.”
She nodded. “Fair. See those three barrels by where the grain spilled?” She didn’t turn her head and neither did the leader, but the girl who was already facing in that direction nodded. “The bag is dropped between them.”
“Go,” the leader said, tapping the youngest on the shoulder. “You too. Make sure he gets it clean.” The girl slipped away, and the boy turned back to Krea. “You takin’ a cut?”
“No. Just my knife. Nice lift, by the way. You?”
He smiled. “No, Digger. You shoulda had your loop thong down. Now what you want to know?”
“I want to know what’s going on in Shaylith.”
The leader looked around and spread his hands. “The princess is getting herself married. Ain’t no one what don’t know that.”
“I mean, what’s really going on in Shaylith. Something isn’t right. Something bad is happening. What is it?”
“Why doesn’t you ask a noble? You sounds like one already.”
“Nobles don’t know anything. You know that. That’s why I’m talking to you. So tell me.”
His face grew serious. He glanced around, then stepped in closer. Out of habit, Krea covered her knife and dagger. “We has been took over.”
She frowned.
“Aye. Them torbadyns has took over Shaylith. Moved right into the palace and everything.”
Krea cocked her head. “Dark elves are living in the manor? I think someone would have noticed.”
“That’s just the thing. Ain’t no one seeing it. They goes in and out, mostly at night, but it’s like they is ghosts. Except we see them clear as I is seeing you. And you know what else?”
Krea shook her head. The dagger started to move and she slid her hand down to cover it. Good dagger. Nice dagger.
“The nobles is all saying that no one knows who the princess is marryin’ and they is acting like it’s a big surprise, but they ain’t going to like the surprise. I know, ’cause I seed him.”
The dagger hissed. Krea paled and swallowed hard.
“Exactly. She be marryin’ one of them torbadyn.”
It hissed again. She didn’t want to look down, but she did. Sure enough, the thing had turned as black as a crow. Bad dagger. She yanked her tunic around to cover it as best she could, and hoped it didn’t decide to burn a hole in her borrowed clothes. “Are you sure?”
“Sure as I is boots is best. And there’s somethin’ else, too.”
The dragon’s tail snaked around her wrist. “Oh, good.” She tried to pull her arm away, but the dagger wouldn’t let go.
“I is only telling you all this ’cause you did right by us. And ’cause you didn’t take no cut.”
Krea nodded. At least her cursed dagger didn’t offer any additional comments this time.
“The prince is gone missin’. Been gone for a moon, at least; maybe more. Most likely them torbadyns ate him, bones and all. But what’s strange is that ain’t no one noticed that, neither.”
“Royals stay holed up sometimes.” She yanked again. The dagger answered with a painful prick on her inner wrist.
“Not him. Prince Talyth comed out to visit all the time. People liked him. I even seed him once when he was walking right by here. And now he just ain’t here no more. And ain’t no one said nothin’ about it? Us commoners what got sense talk, but the fluff just yabber on and on about dresses and parties and don’t pay no mind to what’s happenin’ right in front of them.”
Something stabbed her in the wrist. When Krea looked down, the dragon’s tail was buried in her wrist. “This is not good,” she said, giving another yank. “Very bad.”
Ignoring the boy’s confusion, she focused on the dagger just as she had in the forest clearing. Stop this now, she thought to it.
To her surprise, the dagger sent her back a feeling of its own. Hunger.
Well, that’s a problem. She pulled back again and the dagger let go.
“Is you sure you ain’t no fluff?”
“I’m sure.” Krea started to pull her bloody wrist up to her mouth, but decided to leave it pressed against the dagger instead. As she suspected, not a drop spilled down the dingy handle. “My thanks for the information. You run a good team.” Krea reached into her small pocket and pulled out three dalman. She wasn’t about to let him see her money bag. “Here. You did right by me; now I don’t want trouble with you. Are we even?”
He slipped the money into his shirt. “Can’t swears what no one else will do, but you ain’t a mark on my stake.” With that, the leader signaled the other two and they faded away again into the crowd.
Chapter 24 - Missing
Her stomach told her the time long before a glance at the sky. She glanced down at the dagger again, then at her wrist. Already, a small scab covered where the tail had slid under her skin. She shivered. Who ever heard of a bloodsucking dagger?
With considerably more caution, Krea wandered farther into the city, looking for Dane. He never turned up. She eventually abandoned their plan, bought herself a late lunch, and watched several street performers while she ate. As the street began to clear out and shopkeepers began pulling in the shutters, she turned and followed the trail back up to the hold. The sun was reaching for the horizon when she slipped in the back door.
Little had changed. People wandered around, bumping into one another. Although the dais stood empty, someone continued yelling orders from the floor that were just as effectively ignored. Personal belongings were still piled on the bunks with careless abandon. As Krea looked for her stool, a familiar voice called her name. Krea peered across the room and saw Bri heading her way. She hadn’t decided on a solid excuse for where she’d been, but she did have several options.
“There you are,” Bri said. “My thanks for taking it upon yourself to find the others. My hands were full. I hope you didn’t have trouble finding your way around?”
Well, none of her options involved Bri making it so easy. Krea stumbled for a moment and smiled. “I had no trouble at all. Have you seen Sorin?”
“Aye. He was through here a while back. Said he
would see you after evening meals. Wanted me to tell you Dane was already in the commons.”
“My thanks.”
Krea headed off in the direction of the dining hall. The frenzy in the fields had quieted somewhat, but massive dragons still circled overhead, their great leathery wings casting long, eerie shadows in the waning light. She paused near the wall to watch a new creature drop to the meadow. It had the haunches of a massive cat, but its front feet ended in a dragon’s talons. A voice behind her nearly stopped her heart.
“A gryphon.”
Krea spun around and smacked face-first into Feydrhin’s chest.
He didn’t seem to notice. “Looks like Darni from here, but I’m not sure. You’re lucky to be here right now, let me tell you.”
The gryphon’s mountain cat body rippled with sleek, supple power as she stretched her furry legs out in front of her before folding giant hawk wings back to cover her tawny coat. Her feathered neck melted into fur, but her face was definitely that of a hawk, a hawk with long pointed low-set cat ears. She turned and pounced on a passing caller, tail twitching like a playful kitten—a kitten the size of a horse. A huge horse.
“Definitely Darni.”
“Why is it good to be her?”
“Good to be a gryphon. They’re too small to carry two riders.”
“Oh.”
“Don’t get me wrong. We all have our strengths. Gryphons are deadly fast and silent as a snowfall even on the ground. Dragons are like trying to stop a falling tree halfway to the ground. Us Hypps are kind of a little of both. Rukhs can land on anything and take off from anywhere, and they can fly forever. We all do our part, but right now all we are doing is toting damned nobles around.”
Light flashed on the field. Somewhere, a kyrni had changed. “Is it scary? Changing?”
Rhin leaned against the wall. His face markings made him seem dark and intimidating, but his smile ruined the effect. “It’s the best. Wait until you get to let go of all that magic and just…be you.”
Hand and Talon (World of Kyrni Book 1) Page 35
