Page 34 of Degradation

“Are you lying to me?”

Brandle’s hurt and disbelief were real.

“Never. At least, not intentionally. What do you believe I’m lying about?”

“That we’re truly here to gain help for my sister.”

He took my hands in his and leaned down so our eyes were on equal ground.

“As we are now, we are powerless to stand against the person holding your sister. We are here to gain help.”

I let out a slow breath and nodded.

“Come inside,” he said. “You’ll feel better once we’re settled.”

He led me to the door, which Darian hurried to shoulder open.

“Liam and I will work on this,” he said as I passed.

I walked into the main living area of the home. To my right, a broken table sat in the middle of the neglected kitchen. Dust swirled in the sunlight streaming through the dirty window. My gaze swept through that room and the one to the left. No other furniture remained in the lower portion of the home, but I could see where there’d been a lounge and rug near the base of the stairs and how there would be plenty of room for all of us.

“I’ll start sorting the kitchen,” Eadric said, moving around me.

Garron joined him, and Brandle took my hand to lead the way to the second floor. The stairs creaked ominously under his weight.

“They’ve already held me,” he said with a grin at my worried glance.

We reached the top without falling through, and he showed me the four small bedrooms above the main living area.

“You can take this one,” he said, opening the door to a room with a broken windowpane. “The chimney will keep it warmer.”

I glanced back at him. “I’ll be sleeping alone?

“Not if we have a choice,” Edmund said, entering behind us. “Daemon and I will replace the glass.”

He started disassembling the window, and I left the room to look at the others. No beds. No furnishings of any kind. Likely, the owner had sold off what she could to support herself.

“Are the nearby homes occupied?” I asked.

“No. Only the ones at the entrance to the street. An old cobbler and woodcutter.”

“We can finally buy the wood we burn!” Daemon called with joy from my room.

I could feel Edmund’s growing irritation and hurried back to stop a cuffing.

“Think, Daemon,” I said as I entered the room. “How will it look if we buy wood when none of us are employed? Based on the weight of my bag, I would guess half the coins we possessed were used to rent this home. Garron said it would take a fortnight or more to obtain the help we need. Endless days in which we will need to feed ourselves. We’ll need our existing coin for that, assuming we’ll use other means to compensate for the help we acquire.”

Daemon’s playful expression turned contrite. “I apologize, Lamb. I promise I won’t waste any coin on things we can do ourselves. My words were merely meant to annoy Edmund.”

“They worked,” Edmund said, freeing the glass. “While we’re out to find a replacement for this, what else should we purchase?”

“A bed,” Brandle said.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said. “Get the rope we’ll need to make one ourselves and stop at the woodcutters for the timbers, or simply buy the bedding so we can sleep on the floor.”

Brandle spun me about to face him. “We didn’t bring you here so you would live like a com?—”

“Brandle!” Garron called from downstairs. “Have Edmund purchase a hammer along with the bedding.”

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