Страница 70 из 93
Heads turned their way, and Wy
Wy
"There's no such thing! It's just a wolf."
"Kyne, don't get stupid!"
"Let go!"
"That thing could eat your whole head."
"Oh yeah, well… you're just a big, ignorant coward… Let go of me!"
Wy
"Is she really… a majay-hì?"
Wy
The girl in an initiate's tan robe and smudged apron couldn't have been more than thirteen. Her wonder-struck eyes peered cautiously at Shade, now with the mutton pulled off the plate and trapped between teeth and forepaws.
Wy
"Reading," the girl answered, still staring at Shade.
Wy
"Can I pet her?" the girl asked.
Wy
"She's still getting used to things here," Wy
The girl's expression fell, as overcome fear washed away in disappointment. She backed up and scurried off.
Looking down into her spoon, Wy
Probably.
Shade renewed chewing her mutton, all the way down to the bone, and then rose on all fours to lap water from the bowl.
Wy
Shade raised her head with pricked ears and whined. Perhaps privacy seemed welcome to her as well.
Wy
Shade padded past, giving them no notice, and Wy
She breathed a sigh as she reached her room. But when she slipped inside and Shade pushed in around her robe's skirt, Wy
Someone had pushed it under her door—a common practice when a message was clearly addressed and the recipient couldn't be found. Leaning down, she picked it up and unfolded it. Her breath caught when she saw the handwriting and the message written in Belaskian.
I need to know you are all right. I am at an i
Wy
She didn't want to think of what might've happened from that. At least he hadn't been badly injured or was well enough to write. Yet he'd told her where he was, after insisting it was better she didn't know.
What had she done to him with the sun crystal?
"Shade," she called. "We must go out."
The dog poked her head out from beneath the table-desk. For an instant Wy
What might Shade sense—or see—in such a memory? Somehow the majay-hì hadn't picked up Chane's undead nature last night. Strange as that was, Wy
But she couldn't leave Shade locked in her room. If the majay-hì became agitated, and someone came at any sound of commotion, it would just cause more trouble. She would have to figure out how to keep Shade away from Chane when the time came.
Wy
She paused, staring at the leather sheath protecting the crystal.
If Domin il'Sänke found out, after her renewed promise, she might never learn how to use it correctly. But what else could she do? She couldn't go out without some means of defense. Though she still didn't know for certain what the black figure was, it had vanished after the crystal flashed. Sunlight drove all vampires into hiding.
One more thought occurred to her.
She dashed to her trunk, pulling out a tiny jar of healing salve. Would it even work on Chane? Either way, it wouldn't hurt to try. Then she spotted Magiere's old dagger tucked in the chest's side—given to Wy
Wy
Shade slipped under Wy
She saw the black figure.
Like a cloth-draped column of solidified night, it slipped straight through a building's back wall.
Wy
And then everything in the alley suddenly raced by. She bolted, swift and low, along the alley floor, charging by the building and out the alley's far end. Swerving through the empty street, she rounded the city block to its front side. There she slowed, creeping along the buildings, finally coming to a stop. Above the peeling door of a garish and weathered shop, Wy
Shilwise's Gild and Ink—the scriptorium where a folio had been left overnight and stolen.
She was crouched two shops down from it, but the scribe shop was now silent.
Until the weathered front door exploded outward in the night.
Shattered wood shards scattered over the porch and street as Wy
It didn't waver in Wy
The figure looked as solid and real as anything along the street. But when it turned, gliding along the buildings, it passed straight through a lantern post, as if the stout iron pole wasn't even there.