Deathmaker by Lindsay Buroker

Author:Lindsay Buroker [Buroker, Lindsay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy
Published: 2014-05-21T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

A few minutes before midnight, Tolemek led Cas out of the maze of ductwork and into the streets above. The fog had not only diminished; it had been turned off. Stars glittered overhead, and the horizon stretched for miles without a cloud in the sky. He supposed the administrators saw little point in expending energy to create the fog when the Iskandians knew exactly where they were. Presumably the outpost would move soon, but for now, repairs were underway. Lights burned on the ships in dock, and the sounds of hammers and rasping saws drifted on the breeze.

Tolemek hoped the industriousness meant that the bounty hunters had been called off Cas’s trail, but he stuck to the alleys anyway, walking with caution toward the tavern the captain had named as a meeting point. Cas walked at his side, or slightly behind, not saying much. She hadn’t since she had made the suggestion that he leave the pirates—and he had rejected it.

It was something he had considered in the past, after Tanglewood and Camp Eveningson in particular. He had gone off on his own for a month that time, but he had been hunted relentlessly by Iskandian and Cofah spies. And more than that, he had learned he hadn’t the stomach for a life of solitude. When he had started to grow excited at the appearance of bounty hunters, realizing that they and their pursuit represented an odd sort of company, he had known he had to return. What was the point of creating and inventing if there was no one to share the results with? When Goroth had sent that note, saying he hadn’t given away his cabin yet, Tolemek had been back within three days.

A part of him wondered if he should have been less honest with Cas, maybe playing along with the notion of leaving Goroth in the hope that she would consider arranging the meeting he sought. Or maybe in the hope that she would go back to leaning against him and letting him nuzzle her hair. That had been... pleasant. And she hadn’t pushed him away. Of course, she hadn’t exactly given the impression that she was enjoying his touch either.

Even so, when she had mentioned the idea of him leaving the pirates, he had found himself wondering what he would do if she offered him a home in Iskandia. Not that she could. A lowly lieutenant would have no sway with her superior officers and certainly not with her government. She couldn’t offer him refuge. To even defend him to her people would get her in trouble. Did the Iskandians have courts-martial? Probably.

“There’s the Crow,” Tolemek said, drawing her into the shadows of a dark storefront a couple of buildings down. “It’s still standing, even if it doesn’t look very busy. That’s our meeting spot.” He didn’t head for it immediately. He had a feeling he shouldn’t stroll in, not after he had been running around the station, knocking out pirates and helping a pirate enemy evade capture.

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