Trail of Pyres by L. James Rice

Author:L. James Rice
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781732408357
Publisher: L. James Rice

36

Clouded River

A Tingle a Tangle,

twist spin burn never learn.

Into which eye do you stare, blue, green or black?

Which of the three do I lack? Ha ha!

Mmm, dastard bastard, fasted and lasted.

Did I? Did who? Did you?

I fasted and I feasted; I mosted and leasted!

I take the cake and eat the cake!

But never a cake did I ever bake.

What cake? I don’t like cake. Give me rum!

Then Run.

–Tomes of the Touched

Two days of floating down the river and Meliu’s stomach eased into a quiet grind. The river was kinder to her belly than the Parapet Straits. She ate little, but managed to keep it down. Storm Tea still rested in her pack, but brewing the concoction might raise questions of its origin, so she suffered with Ivin perched nearby. She checked her body every day: No boils, for this at least she was thankful. No one knew how Rot spread, but for godsdamned sure she’d been close enough to fall ill. Hells, if her suspicions were right, she’d packed the disease for a hundred horizons. I didn’t, and even if… Ulrikt’s doing, not mine.

She sat up, drank water from a decanter intended for wine, and yawned before whispering: “I need to get up and move.” The muscles in her legs ached with discomforting tingles from sitting about so long, and the flow of blood felt good when she stood. “You stay here, guard the whiskey.”

He stayed silent, but his eyes spoke of something bitter in his mind. Meliu grinned, strode to where he sat, and without a thought to what she was doing, put her lips to his. Lingered, before pulling back. She cleared her throat. “You be good, Tulk.” What the hells am I doing? He’s in love with another woman.

She turned and stepped to the door, embarrassed, waited to see if he stopped her, but he kept his pledge of silence. She turned the handle and stepped into a gray day with heavy air that threatened rain. Much of the crew lazed about, many slept beneath makeshift lean-to tents fashioned from stick and cloth, just large enough to shade their head and eyes. A feline paced in the cage, it must be huge, and a woman shoved a hunk of meat and bone through a one-way door on the cage. The big cat’s meal looked larger than her leg, a haunch of some breed of deer she guessed.

Her eyes didn’t find Loduma, so she meandered to the crate with cautious strides and dared a glimpse. Her breath caught, and she jerked back. Leonine, yes, but this was no four-legged beast. It bore thick golden fur, and a mane framed a head with giant green eyes and a mouth full of flesh rending teeth, but so too did it have hands of a sort, and it stood upright. Much like a man. She leaned forward, unable to peel her eyes from the creature’s emotionless stare. It was more beautiful than any cat she’d seen roaming Istinjoln and weighed a hundred bricks more.

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