A Silent Curse by Katherine Gray

Author:Katherine Gray [Gray, Katherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-08-08T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Late Afternoon

The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected. –Robert Frost

When the doors of the college were at our backs, I dared to speak again. “What are the festivities he’s talking about?” I asked Laurent as his eyes narrowed on the piece of paper, interpreting the address.

“I believe,” he said, folding the empty, bottom half of the paper back on itself, “there will be fireworks later. Though I’ll be honest–nobody’s ever attempted them before, and I don’t exactly have high hopes.”

“Don’t you have any faith in your people?”

He laughed gently. “It’s not them. It’s this border. I don’t know how high it goes.”

We made it to the gates again and I held it open for him, but with its fragility I felt like I was keeping it upright, too. “Valid point,” I said, letting the conversation fade away. I waited for him to tell me where we were heading.

Together we stood outside the gates. I braced myself against the oncoming breeze, and Laurent read the paper in his hands. In his concentration, he had failed to notice his shoulders were shaking and his lips had taken on a blue tint after so long in the cold. I drew my eyes away.

I could have laughed, though: we really aren’t cut out for this sort of weather.

“I have no hope of knowing where this is, Evette,” he said.

“Hmph.”

He folded it again. “It’s okay. We can figure it out as we walk,” he said. “It’s somewhere in the residential section.”

I looked up, beyond the prince. From what I could remember from the map, that was the direction we needed to go–in fact, it might not be too far away. But I knew the map didn’t go into enough detail to tell us the location of the address.

“I wonder why that man was so happy to give us this,” I said as we moved off. I motioned to the piece of paper flapping uselessly in the wind, a flag without its pole.

“I was thinking that too,” Laurent added, staring straight ahead, shoulders back, composed as always. “But it’s like I said–they think my tutor did start to go slightly insane. I wonder…if maybe they’re a little wary of her? Or…”

Laurent hardly ever let his sentences go astray, so I wondered what had captured his attention. Looking up, I realised someone was approaching us; as we were walking at such a brisk pace, they seemed to be nearing much faster than usual. I kept my head down.

“Excuse me,” Laurent said, “could you possibly help us find this address?”

The person stopped, and wordlessly took in the address written on the paper. They cleared their throat in an extravagant, almost ironic manner. “Sure. Yous keep heading this way ‘til yous reach the first bridge, and you'll be in the residential area. Rigault Street is the first on your left, if I remember right. Number thirty-three is such a high number, it’ll be somewhere near the end.”

As I stood silently, Laurent thanked them, and they continued on their way, unfazed.

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