The Shadows of Dust by Alec Hutson

Author:Alec Hutson [Hutson, Alec]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bowker
Published: 2021-01-02T22:00:00+00:00

When Bas Jelaska opened the door, Sep fairly threw herself into the old woman’s arms, babbling excitedly.

“Careful, child,” Bas Jelaska said sternly, staggering back a step, but Kerin could hear the warmth in her tone. She met Kerin’s eyes over Sep’s shoulder, her brows raised in surprise. “Good to stand in the Light again, I see.”

“Not the Light!” Sep said, her words tumbling out faster than Kerin had ever heard before. “The hairless man! And his little friends! He promised me he could fix my arm, make it like it was before. Oh, his friends are so wonderful! And the things he has in his house . . .” Her words trailed away as she struggled to summon up the proper descriptions.

“Ah. You visited the Antiquarian,” Bas Jelaska said more coolly, extricating herself from Sep’s grasp.

“Yes! The ceiling is covered in stars, and they float down but they don’t burn when they touch you! And there’s a mirror that sings when you get near it, and there are planets spinning around . . .”

“Planets?” Bas Jelaska said in disbelief. “But we’re standing on a planet.”

“Not real ones! They’re made of metal, and so are the suns . . .”

Kerin shut the red door behind him and made his way towards the divan on the far side of the living space. He badly wanted to throw himself down on the cushions and sleep for a day and a night. What had happened in the Antiquarian’s lair may have filled Sep with hope, banishing the darkness that had been crowding around her ever since she’d seen a Shadow, but he felt emotionally emptied. His mind had been in a tumult ever since meeting his grandfather, and he could barely remember them leaving the broken spire and making their way back to Bas Jelaska’s home.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Nala skulking in the corridor leading to the bedrooms. He was about to call out to her, but something about the way she was standing kept him quiet. Kerin could see how tense she was, her shoulders hunched and her tail lashing about. She saw him looking at her and crooked a claw. Concerned, he followed the kyrathi into the bedroom she shared with the girl.

Nala whirled on him before he could ask her what was wrong. “We have a problem, Kerin,” she hissed quietly, glancing at the open doorway behind him.

He could think of several large problems they had, but this sounded like something new. “What?”

She licked her paw and smoothed down her trembling whiskers. “I wandered around today, to the Whimsy and through the trade halls, kept my ears up for whispers of work. But no one is talking about jobs right now. The entire cluster is paralyzed with fear.”

“Why?”

Nala bared her teeth. “H’shen’s system has been invaded. The qan tried to put up a fight and sent out a school of their biggest, meanest fish, but apparently they were quickly turned into bait.”

Kerin put his hands on the kyrathi’s shoulders, trying to calm her.

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