Page 101 of Stars May Burn

My detector quickly directed me to my target: a dark shadow hunched between barrels in an empty, dirty street that stank of fish guts. If it weren’t for my device, I would have missed him completely. This was an ambush spot.

I approached cautiously, my sword in one hand, freisk knife in the other. The blow dart pipe stayed in my belt for now. I hadn’t got within five paces before the creature launched itself at me with a scream. My heart froze for a split second at the pale skin and gaping mouth, then my body responded automatically, dipping to one side and raising my sword to block its arms while I kicked the halfsoul in the chest. It staggered to keep its feet before flinging itself back at me. I ducked, sweeping a kick at its ankles and springing out the way as it fell on its back with a grunt.

Before it could scramble back to its feet, I grabbed a dart with the sedative and stabbed it into his arm. I waited until it stopped thrashing, my sword ready as its movements grew weaker and weaker. I cursed as I took in the extent of its haggard appearance. My scouts had been right; it wasn’t going to make it. The whine on my detector sputtered out as the creature fell limp. Dead. I stepped back and dropped my guard, running a hand down my face. At least there would be more to keep trying.

I stepped over the dead body and switched on my small kryalcomy lantern to see his face clearly. Even with the pale and distorted features, I recognized him. Jack Nettle. The young Red Man who’d been caught alongside Robert…who I had broken free. It looked like he hadn’t followed my advice to keep out of trouble.

I sighed into the rotting darkness before pulling the sedative needle free to dispose of it safely. I wiped my sword on Jack’s jacket. I couldn’t take responsibility for them all.

I lifted my hand to my device to issue a signal for scouts to come and retrieve the body, but before my fingers found the switch, I heard a faint keen on the detector suddenly snuff out. Had that been a faint signal from a distance halfsoul that had also met its end? I stayed still to see if the detector would pick up the signal again, instead I startled at the soft scuff of a boot. I froze and waited three heartbeats. There was no other sound, and my detector remained silent.

I stood slowly and readied my grip on my sword. “Who’s there?”

Silence except for the scurry of rats’ paws. But I knew what I had heard. “Show yourself.”

“Drop your weapons,” a woman’s voice commanded from behind.

I frowned and turned toward the noise, making out a shadowy figure as she became highlighted in yellow by the murky oil lamp that passed as a streetlight.

I tilted my head trying to identify her. “Not likely with this lot around.” I nodded to the corpse. “I’d rather stay alive.”

The woman took a purposeful step forward, her face shadowed by her dark grey hood and half covered with a scarf. She held a loaded crossbow aimed at my chest. I remembered the scout reporting the halfsoul slain by an unknown crossbow bolt. Had that been her?

She sounded confident and victorious. “I knew it was you. I knew you were behind this.”

It took me a moment to understand her accusation. I looked down at the dead body. “If you mean I am the one stopping these creatures from killing the local populace, then yes, you’re welcome. But it’s not me changing them. It’s Lord Lyrason.”

She scoffed. “Of course, you would say that. Everyone knows you two don’t get on.” Her accent was unusually refined. It looked like I wasn’t the only noble sneaking around at night.

I sighed and massaged my forehead, still watching her out of the corner of my eyes. “Why would I make them, let them onto the street, and then kill them where all could see?”

“You weren’t trying to kill it. You were trying to drug it—I assume to take it back to your estate. Lost control of it, did you?”

She motioned to the sheathed needle in my hand.

I put the needle and syringe back in their pouch in irritation. “As I said, Lord Lyrason created it. I’m trying to drug one to take to the Maegistrium and the king as evidence.”

“Oh really?” She took another step forward, not lowering the crossbow. “And why would Lord Lyrason let them loose for all to see?”

I hesitated. “This is one of the Red Men. I think these are a warning. They did try to assassinate him, after all.”

“And the others? Have they all been Red Men?”

I sighed in annoyance. “No.”

She leveled her crossbow up to my face, taking another step forward. “Everyone knows you do some sort of illegal kryalcomy, they just don’t know what. But this is too much of a coincidence for you to palm the blame off.”

I sighed and turned away from her, calling her bluff by exposing my back to her crossbow. “Look, I don’t have time to explain myself to strangers on the street. Believe what you will. Nobody cares about the truth anyway, unless they’re forced to confront it. Now go home before you get yourself killed.”

I started to walk away.

She spoke a little too fast, her casual control starting to slip. “Stop. I said stop right there.”

After a moment of clear indecision, she slung the crossbow across her back and ran to block my path, holding up a rapier instead. She held it inches from my chest. “You should come with me now and explain yourself properly. We can take the dead body.”

I shook my head. “You really think…” Something clicked in my mind. Her height. Her voice. I froze. “Princess Annabelle?”

Her surprised step back was all I needed for confirmation.

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