Crucible of Fortune by Andy Peloquin

Author:Andy Peloquin [Peloquin, Andy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-02-04T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Evren awoke with a start. His hands dropped to the hilts of his jambiyas tucked into the back of his belt, every sense immediately on full alert for any danger.

Silence and cool darkness met his eyes. He had slept for hours, long enough for the sun to have set. The others had let him sleep, tucked into his little corner of Briana’s house. Such a strange sensation, like the moment of relaxation after letting out a slow breath. No danger, no threat, no daggers poised to kill him.

With a yawn, he climbed to his feet and stretched out the kinks in his back and neck. His eyes roamed the shadows of the upper floor. The room where Kodyn had been now stood empty and dark, but the light of a candle flickered in Briana’s room. Hailen and Briana were still studying Suroth’s journals.

He slipped toward the door and gave a polite, quiet knock before opening the door. Briana and Hailen both looked up from their positions hunched over Suroth’s journal as he entered.

“You’re awake.” Briana smiled at him.

“Yeah, thanks for letting me sleep.” Evren found his face stretching into an answering grin. “Where are the others?”

“Kodyn and Aisha went off to Angrak’s,” Briana replied. “Issa’s downstairs standing guard.”

Hailen shook his head. “No, it’s Hykos again.”

Briana raised an eyebrow at the boy.

“When I went down for dinner,” Hailen explained, “I saw Issa running off and Hykos taking up guard position.”

Evren’s eyes went to the plate sitting abandoned on the floor beside the bed. Bits of cold chicken lay beside an untouched loaf of flatbread and a pile of mixed olives, nuts, and dates.

“Go ahead,” Hailen said.

“I can always have Nessa bring you up some proper food,” Briana said, frowning.

“It’s okay.” Evren shrugged. “You live on the streets long enough, you stop being picky.”

Briana’s brow furrowed. “How long?” Her voice was quiet.

Evren thought back to the years he’d spent on the streets—hungry, cold, scared, desperate, never certain who to trust or who would stab him in the back. “Four years, give or take.” He bent, picked up the plate, and set about demolishing the scraps. “They weren’t all bad, though. I got pretty good at picking pockets. That’s how I ran into the Hunter, actually.” He chuckled. “I chose the wrong pocket to pick.”

“Or perhaps, given how it all turned out,” Briana said, “you chose the right pocket.”

Evren inclined his head. “Fair enough.” Abashed, he quickly looked to change the subject. “How’s the work on the journals going? Find anything interesting or useful?”

Briana grimaced. “Plenty of interesting, though not much useful.” With a sigh, she lowered the journal and rubbed her eyes. “Hailen’s making good progress learning my father’s cipher, but for me, trying to understand his writings on the Serenii is slow going.”

She flipped through the pages and settled on one that, to Evren’s eyes, was identical to the rest. “Look at this. He spends two whole pages talking about the Serenii air canals that draw heat from the underground geysers up to the Palace of Golden Eternity.

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