Knot of Shadows by Lois McMaster Bujold

Author:Lois McMaster Bujold [Bujold, Lois McMaster]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Spectrum Literary Agency, Inc.
Published: 2021-10-21T05:00:00+00:00

* * *

Their bizarre procession then began what seemed to Pen an utterly random jaunt around the maze-like neighborhood. They passed a few folks carrying out errands or hurrying home by lantern light through the narrow, wet streets and alleys, but everyone who could be inside, was.

Getting probably-Agno to want to find his body was the catch. Leading questions elicited nothing but vague distress. Pen and Alixtra both walked by Sight, faintly dizzied and finding plenty of live people behind the walls that lined the passages, but that wasn’t what they sought.

By the second or third round through what proved a relatively limited area, the ghost was starting to grow bored with its game, and less responsive to Alixtra’s coaxing. Pen made to go down a slightly wider street they hadn’t yet traversed, its central gutter running a small stream that glimmered in the lantern glow.

Not-Vissa stopped short.

“No. Doan wanna.”

Alixtra, leashed, obediently wheeled, but Pen said, “Wait.”

He turned to their erratic guide. “Agno, why don’t you want to go down that way?”

Pouting lip-jut. “Doan wanna.”

Pen held up a hand to stay their progress, and explored it himself. High, plain walls lined this section, broken only by a few entryways closed for the night. No odd recesses or damaged spots where a small boy might delight to hide himself. No places to climb.

What he found instead was a loose grating over a hole down into the old Cedonian sewer system.

He extended Des’s Sight. The drain here dropped about six feet to reach the brick-lined channel that descended to the river. It wasn’t one of the accesses made for workmen to get in to clean or effect repairs, being barely large enough to admit a skinny person and without handholds; it was only intended to accept the water and waste from the gutter. Fairly unappetizing waste, most of the time. Pen eyed the opening without favor, then walked back up the block.

“Otzos. Do you have some rope at home? And a sheet, I think. One from Vissa’s bed would do.”

“What for?”

“There’s a drop into the drains along that way. I’m going down to look. I’d like to be able to get back out, eh?”

“Rope I have. But why a sheet?”

“If I find what I think is there, it’s not going to be in good condition, and I’d rather not sacrifice my cloak.”

“Well, you can borrow it for this”—a pained look as he perhaps visualized what Pen did—“though I’m not sure we’ll want it back. You’ll still have your cloak, but what’s Vissa supposed to sleep on?”

Pen grimaced. “Can we deal with that later, please?”

Otzos made a frustrated noise, but, after assurances that they wouldn’t let his distraught sister wander off, he did start back toward his home. Alixtra meanwhile finally persuaded the hesitant not-Vissa to follow her and Pen down the length of the cobbled street. There was definitely something Agno didn’t like around here…

They fetched up back at the drain. Pen pulled out the grating.

“Are you going to fit in there?” Alixtra asked in concern.

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