Flamebringer by Elle Katharine White

Author:Elle Katharine White
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2019-11-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Salt and Ashes

The Street of Salt wound through the last circle of the city, close to the docks and the maze of streets that formed the Lower Quarter of Edonarle. Most were too narrow for Mar’esh, so he resorted to running along the rooftops. As we traveled, I told Julienna details about our contract in Lake Meera that Alastair had not shared earlier.

“Let me get this straight,” she said as we passed the wheel-and-barrel sign of the Coopers Guild. “A band of Vesh attacked you in Langdred? They knew who you were and they attacked you?”

“Aye.”

She whistled under her breath. “I knew Vesh could be unsavory, but I never figured they’d be so stupid.”

“Unsavory, yes. Stupid?” That front room in the Langdred tavern swam before my mind’s eye and I heard, as clearly as if I was standing there again, the tiny splash and thud of Rookwood’s finger falling to the bloodstained floor. “No, I wouldn’t call them stupid. They were too well prepared for that. It was just bad luck we walked in the door that night.”

She glanced over her shoulder, and I smiled at her look of relief when she realized I wasn’t wearing the brooch.

“Don’t worry, we learned our lesson. Our heartstones are back at the townhouse,” I said.

“Good, because if they weren’t we’d be turning around and taking it back right now.”

“After all that— Hang on . . .” Mar’esh grunted, and we sailed over a wide avenue. “After all that, I’m amazed Akarra didn’t burn that town to the ground,” he said. “I would have.”

Julienna patted his neck and thanked him in Eth.

“Not everyone there was Vesh,” I said.

“Not everyone was innocent either,” Julienna said as Mar’esh drew up short at the top of a broad street overlooking the bay.

“The Street of Salt,” he said. “Do you know which house is this Captain Teg’s?”

My heart sank. I’d not thought this far. “No idea.”

“Your uncle said she was from the Principalities, right?” Julienna asked, and I nodded. “Let’s try that one first.”

I looked where she pointed. Indeed, the house was hard to miss. It had a bright cerulean door, cross-barred and decorated in intricate iron scrollwork in the style of the Southern Principalities. We dismounted and stepped up to the stoop. A heavy iron knocker in the shape of two twined serpents hung from the center of the door. Please be home, I thought and tapped the serpents twice. I counted to twenty under my breath. No answer. Julienna glared at a knot of pedestrians who slowed to gawp at Mar’esh.

“Anything?” she asked.

I started to knock again, but just as I touched the serpentine knocker there came the sound of a bolt being drawn on the other side, then another bolt, then a third. There was the rattle of a chain. At last the door swung open and a woman stepped out onto the stoop.

I reminded myself not to stare. The Southron captain, if it was the captain, was a portrait in opposites. It was impossible to tell her age, for one thing.

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