Dream of Death City by PJ Nwosu

Author:PJ Nwosu
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Small Heart Press

16

It is forbidden for a Moon-Caste or Dust-Caste person to cause offence to a Sun-Noble. Punishment for such a crime will be in accordance with the severity of the transgression, to be undertaken by the wronged Sun-Noble to their satisfaction. No outside Investigation or Law House officials need take part in the matter. No records are required to be made.—Red Reform laws

The face was drawn in inky strokes, its eyes painted wide and deep. Diem leaned against a wooden pillar on the porch and waited as Thora held the loose sheet of paper aloft, considering the likeness. He grimaced at her next words. Not quite right, apparently. But it would have to do.

They were running out of time.

Diem took the drawing, squinting at it as the artist retreated into the viceroy’s office to make copies with his team. Settling himself on the porch at Thora’s side, Diem stared at the poster in the low light of morning.

‘My papa told me ghosts look just as people do.’ She gazed into the distance. Thora appeared paler today, the bruises stark against her skin. She looked like a ghost herself.

Her words made Diem’s mind wander back to the mountains and that shell of Shea Sandin they’d found. He shook away the images of her clutching hands and frozen feet. Diem angled the paper again, peering closer at the man painted on its surface. He didn’t look like anything much. A broad face and high cheekbones. Pale skin.

‘I reckon men are more frightening than ghosts,’ Diem muttered.

‘Just so.’ Thora lifted her face to the weak sun, lashes fluttering shut. ‘And there are men a plenty on this island.’

She didn’t look too well to Diem. But he held himself back from saying so out loud. They’d returned to a tentative peace these last few hours, and he didn’t wish to break it. He knew Thora didn’t like it when he worried for her. Though when she winced, touching the bruises that flowered like paint across her throat, he couldn’t help himself. Diem placed his sword on the polished wood and carefully peeled Thora’s high uniform collar from her neck.

‘Looks worse now than what it did,’ he said with a frown. The bruises blossomed like handprints, turning his belly sour. She’d come closer to death than he cared to think.

Thora coughed. ‘Coming along nicely, so Honnan Skyin tells me.’

‘Did you sleep, then?’

Thora snorted.

He shouldn’t have bothered asking. He knew she hadn’t because he hadn’t either. An hour or two at best before the artist arrived to draw the face of Shea Sandin’s kidnapper. Diem kicked his heels against the scuffed tower porch. Soon the artist would finish his copies, and the posters would be given over to Polity House horsemen to ride across the island to show the citizens. Soon the quad would be filled with bustling soldiers from Death City and the next town over, ready to help search for the lawbreaker.

A chill wind carried the briny scent of the ocean as a group of pale moths fluttered across the vast quad.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.