Savage Skies by Kat Ross

Author:Kat Ross [Ross, Kat]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kat Ross

Chapter 21

Cas knelt among the rocks at the edge of the stream and upended the bucket over his head.

“Feck, that’s cold,” he gasped.

After a sleepless night waiting for someone to slit his throat, he was feeling every ache and bruise this morning. The woman, Mina, refused to say much other that Delilah would be treated well. Then she’d untied his hands, given him food, and let him roll up in his blankets inside one of the houses.

Half the brigands seemed to be women, including his guard. She was short and dark-skinned and wore a leather vest that exposed sinewy arms covered in tattoos of sea monsters. A many-tentacled kraken and other aquatic beasts he’d never heard of. The brigands spoke his tongue but with strange accents like Delilah’s.

After a few hours, the guard had roused him and said they would be free to leave. The abrupt reversal of fortune made him even more paranoid. He’d asked why, which earned an amused grin. The lady you travel with is known to us. The guard had returned the rest of his belongings and waved him from the stone hut. When he asked for the nearest stream, she handed him a bucket and pointed the way. She’d faded into the trees, but no doubt she was close by, spying on him—

“They would have warmed some water for you. I had a hot bath.”

He shook wet hair from his face and glanced over a shoulder. The mysterious lady herself.

“Do you make it a habit of creeping up on naked men?” he asked.

“You are wearing pants.”

Delilah looked clean, though shadows lurked beneath her eyes. So she hadn’t slept well, either. The presence of so many women in the camp had reassured him, but he still felt a powerful surge of relief to see her unharmed.

“Do you mind tossing me my cami?” he asked.

“What’s a cami?”

He squeezed water from his hair. “My camicia.” She looked clueless. Cas pointed. “That.”

Delilah handed it to him. “I call it a shirt.”

He snorted. “Shirt? Sounds like . . . never mind.” He tugged it over his head and tied the lacings. “So you know these brigands?”

“They’re not brigands.” Her voice was dry. “They’re only hiding here because your people hate and fear outsiders.”

The dart found its mark. “Yonders,” he muttered.

“Pardon?”

“That’s what they used to call me in Swanton. It’s a village I lived in before I became a Quietus.” Cas pulled on his boots. “Longest three years of my life. So . . . are they really letting us go?”

“Yes. That’s what I came to tell you. Their leader is a merchant from Solis. They came on ships, hoping to trade, and were treated in the most hostile fashion. So they’ve been lying low until they’re able to leave again.”

“That’s quite the lucky chance,” he said, watching her expression closely. “That you happen to know them.”

“Not as much as you might think. The Merchants’ Guild in Samarqand pays taxes to my uncle, the king. The wealthiest traders are often at court.

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