Page 112 of The Sorrow of Shadows

“I’m afraid I don’t. There’s a lot of us in this neighborhood. Hard to know everyone.” She shrugs, shifting the baby from one hip to the other.

“Of course, thank you,” I say, and she nods, moving to close the door.

“Can I ask you one other thing?” I ask, using my hand to stop the door from closing.

“Of course, Your Grace,” Emilia says respectfully.

“Is there anything you need help with?”

“I don’t understand what—” she starts with a confused look on her face.

“Like anything that needs to be fixed on your house, more food, or clothes for your children? Anything like that?” I clarify.

“I, um...I don’t...” Her voice trails off.

“You can be honest with me, Emilia.”

“Yes. We always need more. My husband works from sunup to sundown every day and still we struggle to make it. But we aren’t the only ones. Everyone here—in this part of the city—we could all use more. We’re hungry, and cold, and tired.” She finishes, and my face falls at her response.

“Thank you, Emilia. You’ve been a great help. I hope you have a good evening,” I say solemnly.

She closes the door, and I continue to the next house. I talk to several more people, but none know where the Howards live. After a few more I catch up with Elijah and Aurelius.

“Have you found anything?” I ask them both.

“I talked to one male who said he didn’t know where they lived but had heard they had left town suddenly. No one has seen them in at least a week,” Elijah supplies.

“I spoke with one family who said they lived a few streets over and several others who have complained about the smell of this area,” Aurelius adds.

“Well, both of those are far more than I found. Let’s start with the houses nearby. Not sure what we can really do about how this area smells. I can’t say I’ve noticed anything, though.”

They both shrug, and we head toward the street Aurelius indicated. As we approach, I start noticing an odor, but I can’t place what it is. I ignore it as we knock on the first door.

An older male, with graying hair and bright eyes, answers the door.

“My Lords, Your Majesty, how unexpected. Is there something I can help you with?” he asks.

“Yes, sir,” Elijah says, smiling at him. “We’re looking for the Howard family. Have you seen them?”

“Not in several days, I’m afraid. The others say they came into some money and disappeared into the night. Off to better places, I suppose.”

“Can you tell us which house was theirs? We’d really like to locate them, so maybe they left something behind to let us know where they went.” Elijah just has a way of getting people to open up to him.

“Sure thing, they lived in the house three down from here. The one with the red door,” the male answers, smiling at us.

“One last thing—does it always smell like this?” I ask.

“No, not usually. That’s a pretty recent development.”

“Very well, thank you so much for your time,” I say.

As we near the house he specified, the smell intensifies. It’s rather unpleasant and has my stomach rolling. I don’t bother knocking, since everyone here seems to think they disappeared. The door opens easily and swings open. The stench becomes unbearable, and I suddenly realize what it is we’re smelling.

It’s the scent of decaying flesh, and I don’t know why I hadn’t recognized it sooner. I gag, trying to keep the contents of my stomach from coming back up. Raising my arm to my face, I try to block out the smell of putrid flesh. My eyes water as I attempt to breathe through my mouth.

“Dear gods, this is awful,” Elijah remarks, covering his nose as we enter the home.

“It doesn’t matter how often you smell rotting flesh, you never get used to it,” I remark.

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