The Blood Tartan: Quest of the Five Clans by Raymond St. Elmo

Author:Raymond St. Elmo [St. Elmo, Raymond]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-07-13T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

The whispered wisdom of old bone, cold stone

Flower led through dust and dark, her dragging broom singing its sad wisp, wisp. She glowered and muttered, doubting the wisdom of meeting Stephano. Brick kept a silent shrug, swinging the lamp to set shadows dancing. The two walked catacombs confident as I my front hall. My former front hall. I listened for hunters, for red-dressed phantoms, for the slither of scales.

“Might have been a dream,” I commented. “But in the night, I swear I saw a creature half-snake, half woman.”

Flower stopped, examined me in pitying wonder.

“A what?”

I have never stuttered in my life. In that child’s gaze I found I could stutter.

“I saw, well, a woman. White hair waving on its own. And she was all giant loops of snake and, and scales, from the belly-button down.” Put to words, it sounded unlikely.

Flower nodded, fascinated. I was an exhibit of lunacy to replace the lost puppet show. While Brick goggled astonished, peering into the dark, scanning for circling chimaera. Flower tried to lighten my shame.

“Perhaps a woman in tight lace dress with a long train?”

Of course. Absurd that someone wandered catacombs dressed so. And yet possible. Snake-women were not possible. I wondered how much in the last few days had been visions of a sleep-starved mind. An imagination drowning in a surfeit of Blake.

“Just a dream,” I said. “Been a strange few days.”

“Oh, no, that was cousin Dema right enough,” said Flower. “Dances on feet when she wants, coils when she doesn’t.” She limped, hopped to imitate a coiling progress, then strode on.

“Waltzing about outside her blouse again,” snickered Brick. “Waving her ciochan.” I wondered what ciochan were. One could guess. Flower sighed low in Gaelic. Brick sniffed unconcerned. Flower returned to fretting over things more serious than waving ciochan.

“The man’s your known servant. How does he leave bed to sit in the street, and not be seen? Followed? Watched?”

I considered. Stephano was a rough sort. He would not make it easy. But no doubt hunters would eye where he went of nights. Still, they would have done so three nights now. Grown bored, nodding at their posts.

And working past guards was the Seraph’s forte. A better strategy than lurking in alleys and cellars, stealing bread till arrest for high treason or petty larceny. With the wealth Stephano safeguarded, I could purchase time and opportunity. Better odds. Sharper weapons. Cleaner clothes.

“I never said he would be there. He may well have sent another.”

“Giving them your treasure to sit on?” scoffed the girl. “Or waiting to lead you to him? In which case, they bring you where the hunters also wait.”

Annoying to be questioned by a child. Did she think me ignorant of guards, hunters, spies and treachery? Me, the Seraph? I turned, sat on my haunches, grateful for the rest. I studied my rag-and-tangles companions. Mystic as cats. And feline-like, inclined to give themselves airs. Well, bah to their lost glory. I had my own. Had they been in war? Held

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.