Time's Fool by Karen Chance

Author:Karen Chance [Chance, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-03-29T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Two

The street with the little ale house was much as I had left it, and yet completely changed. The houses, formerly dark and closed up, had wide open windows and doors, and lights blazing everywhere. And the cobbles, once so deserted, were awash with activity, as mages searched the houses in between attempting to corral the locals.

Some of those had come from the surrounding area, braving the storm in fear that lightning had set some of the nearby houses on fire. That was always a danger in a city mainly built out of wood, where a spark could cause a conflagration. But they were intercepted by mages stationed at the peripheries and soon sent off again, their foreheads smoothed out and their eyes unworried, as pretty little lies wormed their way into their brains.

Those who lived on the street, on the other hand, weren’t being dealt with so kindly.

Possibly because, while they didn’t appear to be magical themselves, they obviously knew someone who was. And as the Circle had demonstrated ever since their arrival, magic could be stored up in all sorts of ways, and somebody had stored a good deal of it. It looked like this attack wasn’t completely unexpected, because the residents had magical weapons, and they weren’t afraid to use them.

“Down!” I yelled at Rhea, jerking on my tether, and causing her to hit the cobbles again.

An ear-splitting crack was followed by a dust cloud, and when I looked again, the building behind us had a bite taken out of it, as if a passing giant had gotten hungry. Rhea stared at the smoking remains, her eyes huge, and didn’t say thank you. Although that could have been because she was busy scurrying to the building on the opposite corner.

It had a dark shadow to help hide us, which was basically the only option. I found myself wishing for some of the many choices the bridge had afforded for cover, only these streets had none. Anything not nailed down around here soon went missing.

“The alehouse is on the other end of the street,” I told her. “I’m pretty sure that’s where Morgan was headed.”

“Where is it?” she asked, trying to see past the storm, which was still bucketing down, and the yelling, crying people, many in shifts and shirts and nightcaps, huddled together in bunches on the flooded street. Or desperately splashing through the rain, clutching prized possessions and trying to save what they could. And being taken down by magical snares, which wrapped around their ankles and dumped them in the road, before dragging them back from the fray.

“That way,” I told her, pointing toward a bend in the road, which was mostly obscured by the smoke from several burning buildings. “T’is round the corner; you can’t see it from here.”

“Can we shift?” the librarian screeched, ducking as a spell flew overhead, burning through the rain and causing it to turn into steam, leaving a trail behind like a comet. She stared after it, as if she’d never seen that before, and perhaps she hadn’t.

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