The Twistrose Key by Tone Almhjell

Author:Tone Almhjell
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2013-09-24T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

The lake was dark and free of snow, and Sylverings skated around the Wanderer’s reflection like silver moths circling. A cold breeze came sweeping over the ice to tug at the low houses along the Winderside shore. Lin and Rufus huddled by the outmost building of them all, the mead house called the Burning Bird, Rufus’s favorite.

“I told Doctor Kott to meet us here.” Rufus peered in through a window. “But I had no idea your cover would be blown so spectacularly. Everyone at the Observatory saw you. Someone might very well have made it here with news already.”

He was right, their careful route through Sylveros had cost them some time. Lin frowned at a Rodent with flaring pink ears who gesticulated eagerly to a group of Hoofs at the bar counter. Was he talking about her? Warning them that a Twistrose had been called?

“Then maybe we shouldn’t risk it,” she said wistfully. “Didn’t you say Figenskar is a regular here? I don’t want word to reach him that we came this way.” She would have loved to go inside. Laughter and fiddle tunes drifted out from the rose-painted booths, along with a lovely smell of savory pastries.

“Well, it’s true what they say,” Rufus muttered. “Rumors spread faster than fleas, especially here at the Bird.”

“What a gruesome name, the Burning Bird.”

“True, but it’s the best place for storytelling in all of Sylver. The name is taken from a legend about a screaming red bird, who flies through the heavens with wings on fire. If you betray someone, and the betrayal is horrible enough, the burning bird will come plunging out of the sky to die at your feet.”

“That is gruesome.” Lin cradled her injured arm. The cut throbbed viciously now.

Rufus saw. “Come on. I have an idea.”

He took her to the back of the building and into a storage room that smelled of old skates and sawdust. Yellow light spilled under a door on the opposite wall, highlighting a chopping block on the floor. Rufus barred the exit and blew life into a lantern on the rough block.

“Now, I really wish you didn’t have to wait here,” he whispered, listening at the entrance to the common room. “I wanted you to hear the seven Twistrose legends.”

“Eight,” Lin said. “Eight with the boy by the Red Cat. There’s another statue hidden in the lane outside.”

“There is?” Rufus wrinkled his brow. “I’ll have to take a look at that. I don’t think I’ve heard of an eighth Twistrose.” He laid a finger over his mouth and cracked the door open for a very quick moment, letting in a burst of loud voices and delicious smells. “All clear. I’ll just go right inside, fetch the doctor and the key to this door. But I won’t turn my back for a heartbeat. I promise.”

He snuck through. Just as the crack closed, a guitar chord strummed and a voice began to sing. It was a melancholy tune that rose from dark to light and ended in a deep sigh.

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