Deffona beamed.
They chatted for a little longer before Avena’s eagerness to confront Ōbhin and put this entire mess behind them grew too much. She embraced her friend, the pair exchanging kisses on the cheeks, then Avena departed.
Ōbhin occupied her thoughts. Being around him was exciting. A joy. She didn’t feel that bit of her scraped out by Evane’s death around him. Like with Chames, Ōbhin filled something in her. What she’d felt for Miguil was a pale thing. She’d been tricking herself into thinking she loved him.
If Ōbhin had kissed me that night in the inn . . . Avena smiled. Maybe once they had made up, they could start doing things like kissing. Maybe other things. She swept out of Parliament and navigated through the protesters.
There seemed like more of them than before.
She reached the street, her skirts rustling as she moved through the afternoon traffic. The day’s heat roiled around her. She fanned her face and shifted her satchel. When she was about halfway to the city gate, the Rainbow Belfry chimed. A loud note washed over her. This close, she felt it dancing across her skull.
She swayed, almost disoriented by the sound of the artifact ringing in the house. The fuzziness returned to the tips of her fingers. She gasped as a dizzying wave flooded through her. She stumbled, clutching at her temples. Her fingers felt alien as they squeezed her skull. Sounds grew muted, like she’d ducked her head underwater. Her legs wobbled. She lurched to the right. She stumbled into an alley before catching herself on a building’s wall.
Cool darkness.
She staggered forward two steps. The world swam as she passed a stack of old crates. She grabbed one for support. Darkness rippled across her vision. Fear gripped her in slimy hands as her flesh felt more and more unreal.
Her thoughts were mist about to blow away.
She sank down the wall to crouch, whimpering. The world spun around her, the alley flipping topsy-turvy. Her body felt remote. Distant. Then she felt shorn from it. Darkness plunged over her as she lost all connection to her flesh.
Her thoughts drifted through a void until a bright, white light gleamed. She tumbled towards it, drawn to it like a diamond lamp illuminating a dark street. She reached out for it, touched it, and fell into a dream.
Chapter Ten
“She hasn’t returned yet?” Ōbhin demanded of Cerdyn as he stood guard at the main gate. The sun was sinking to the west, shadows growing long, the world staining red.
“No,” Cerdyn said, the grim-faced guard scratching at his neck. He wore his chainmail coat, a binder hanging from his left hip, a backsword on the other. His brows knit together, squishing his thick, black eyebrows into a single, fuzzy line. “Would’ve told you.”
“Niszeh’s Black Tone!” Ōbhin spat, icy fingers clawing at his guts. He’d heard the Rainbow Belfry chime five times since she’d left.
“No sign of riots,” said Smiles. “Maybe she’s stayin’ in Kash. She’s meetin’ with her friend. Least wot my Jilly said.”
“She wouldn’t stay the night.” Ōbhin rolled his shoulders. His leather jerkin clung to his sweat-soaked skin. “She’s just delivering a letter, right?”
“Accordin’ to my Jilly.” The fake Smiles rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe we should go look for her. Night’s fallin’. She gotta pass through dangerous slums to get back.”
Ōbhin nodded. He wanted to avoid Avena, but he couldn’t let her get hurt. I should have just gone with her. If she’s hurt . . .
Pain punched him.
“Let’s go,” Fingers said, stepping out. “Light’s fadin’.”
“Right,” Smiles said. “I can get my binder. Be back in a lightnin’s fart.”
“No,” Ōbhin said, glancing at the guards. Bran and Dajouth stood nearby, both looking worried. “Bran and Fingers, with me. Smiles, you have the command.” The words tasted bitter, but Smiles was here to protect Dualayn, or so Ōbhin believed. Until Dualayn stopped being useful to the Brotherhood, Smiles wasn’t a danger.
When that day came . . .
“Ain’t nothin’ gonna happen here,” said Smiles. “Unless there’s another bandit chief you done pissed off and who knows a sorcerer to enchant him.”
“Only one of those,” Ōbhin muttered.
The Rainbow Belfry’s resonating note drifted through the air from Kash.
Ōbhin marched out of the gate, his shadow stretching long before him. Fear squeezed his chest. He struggled to breathe as he marched forward. He shouldn’t have let her go off alone. He should have gone with her or sent Fingers or Bran to be a second pair of eyes.
Bile tickled the back of his throat with every step he took. The pressure crushing his chest grew and grew. Panic nibbled on the edges of his self-control. He forced his back straight as he tromped across the Tendril Bridge and entered the Breezy Hills Slums.
*
Avena kissed a man in her dreams.
She held him tight as she lay beneath him on a bed. The sheets were sleeker than anything she’d felt. Smoother than the Demochian silk gowns that hung uselessly in Bravine’s wardrobe. The cloth set her skin alive; almost as exciting as the man upon her.
He had brown skin and coal-dark hair. She shivered in his embrace. They were naked, bodies pressed tight. She felt the cooling heat of passion dying in her nethers. For a moment, she thought it was Ōbhin she kissed, but when he lifted his head and opened his eyes, they were sapphire. A pure blue instead of Ōbhin’s dark brown. This man had delicate features, handsome, almost beautiful.
He spoke; his words were musical, a language Avena didn’t understand, but they were reassuring words. Loving words. He stroked her cheek as he stared down at her. Then his fingers drifted to her hair.
He brought a lock to his lips, kissing not
