The Secrets of Solace by Jaleigh Johnson

Author:Jaleigh Johnson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2016-03-07T16:00:00+00:00

Four days later, Lina stood at her worktable, inspecting the hand winch that she and Ozben had risked so much to acquire. She’d removed it from the hidden pocket in the wall where Ozben had left it and brought it with her to the workshop when the two of them had gone into hiding. They’d spent the next few days settling into their new, temporary home and recovering from the turmoil of the assassin’s attack.

Lina knew how lucky she was. She and Ozben were safely hidden in her workshop, they had the hand winch, and they were free to use it. It looked as if they were on the verge of clearing the boulders blocking the airship’s door. The carnelian cat wound himself through Lina’s legs, purring contentedly and leaving little trails of heat in his wake.

Feldwon had been skeptical of her plan at first, but he had a soft heart, and Lina knew he didn’t want to put the cat in a cage by himself any more than she did. He’d given her a mesh screen to block the entrance to her workshop so the cat wouldn’t wander back up the tunnels, and he’d made her promise to let him know at once if the cat became too much to care for. She’d lit a small fire in the fire pit to keep her and Ozben warm, but nothing that would cause the cat to burst into flame if he walked near it.

Everything had worked out the way Lina had hoped.

Yet she felt awful.

Lina reached down to stroke the cat’s smooth flank. When she stood up, she banged her fist down on her worktable. At the sound, the cat darted under the table.

“Sorry, Aethon,” Lina said, abashed. The name had been Ozben’s suggestion, from a book of collected mythologies he’d been reading in the library.

Ozben, who’d been looking at the boulders wedged against the ship’s door, called out to her, “What was that for?”

“Nothing. I’m fine.” She turned and leaned against her worktable, hugging herself and pulling her heavy coat closed to ward off the chill she felt in the absence of the cat’s heat. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I should have come up with a better way to get the hand winch.”

“What do you mean?” He stood up and walked over to her, his brow furrowed. “The plan worked, didn’t it? We got the winch, and the assassin missed his target.”

Lina shook her head. “As an apprentice, the first lesson I learned is to never take anything for granted when dealing with things from other worlds. Don’t assume anything, and be three times as careful as you think you need to be. I should have made sure I knew everything there was to know about the carnelian cats, but I didn’t. I just rushed in and took advantage of them, and look what happened. Aethon might never be able to go back to be with the other cats, and I created the perfect opportunity for an assassin to go after you.

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