Witchy Eye by D J Butler

Author:D J Butler [Butler, D J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781476782119
Publisher: Baen Books
Published: 2017-03-07T07:00:00+00:00

“You ain’t exactly short of guns ’round here.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Cathy Filmer told them William’s usual source of cash in desperation was a pawnbroker named Hackett, and then led them to his shop, but by the time they arrived the sun was setting and Hackett was gone. Thalanes thanked Cathy and then suggested that she might go home.

She stayed.

Thalanes worried the expedition was out of his control. On the other hand, it was good that Sarah was taking command. She was his queen, and if she were really going to rule a kingdom—or two powers at the same time—or the empire—she must learn to govern.

So he was challenging Sarah, and she was fighting him back as an equal. And her choices had been as good as any decisions could be, given how blind they were and the dangers that beset her. They seemed close to finding William Lee, and once they’d found Will, they’d find the other Penn children.

Thalanes would hide them further away this time. New Muscovy, or among the free horse people, or somewhere in the Old World, if he had to. The Caliphate and the Ottoman Empire had their own risks and dangers, but he was reasonably sure that their lands were beyond the reach of Oliver Cromwell.

He worried about Cathy Filmer. They didn’t need her anymore, and bringing her along meant one more person’s safety to worry about and one more person who might betray them. He thought Cathy’s interest was in William, but that mollified him only slightly.

They returned through the Quarter and across the Place d’Armes to the Bishop’s Palace. The beastkind didn’t rejoin them, but Thalanes saw, from time to time, the two hooded, robed figures of the Heron King’s emissaries, trailing them.

The beastkind added another unknown quantity to worry about. What did the Heron King want? Who was he, really? What was this strange announcement of the death of Peter Plowshare?

Cathy Filmer walked side by side with Sarah and engaged her in conversation, which was slightly disquieting to Thalanes but which made Calvin look simply put out, like an unwanted and grumpy hound dog.

The youth might just be the Calhoun Elector some day, despite the monk’s warning to him not to go into politicking. That was possible not because Iron Andy was his grandfather—that wasn’t how the Appalachee selected their leaders—but because he had the nerve, the will, and the charisma that could bring him to the top of the heap in the rough-and-tumble political elbowing that determined who was the head of any of the families of the Ascendancy.

Now, too, he was getting a strong shock of world experience that would strengthen him, and if Sarah ever came into any of her birthrights, his connection with her—whatever exactly it ended up being—could only help him. Thalanes had had many occasions to be glad Calvin was accompanying them, though he foresaw a necessary moment when Thalanes would leave the young cattle rustler behind, the better to hide Sarah.

But for now the little monk had more pressing concerns.

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