Page 56 of Kept to Kill
As the white spires of the king’s residence and the Great Library came into view, he heard Lily gasp at the sight below them. The city was larger by far than all the others in their realm, a sprawling behemoth of whitewashed state buildings, the rest the color of golden sand.
They descended the last of the winding paths and reached the end of the hills, the trees thinning out as they rode, unencumbered, to the practically empty southern gate. A soldier leaned just inside the stone gatehouse, whittling a stick to nothing out of boredom. When he saw them, he stood to attention and shouted something through a doorway.
Another soldier came out, the black stripes adorning his red uniform indicating his higher rank.
‘The pass opened, then?’ he asked cordially.
‘Not yet,’ Quin answered, his tone just as friendly. ‘We were ship-bound, but we wrecked off the coast. Came over the last of the mounts and through the flats.’
‘Oh, aye? Lost a few ships this season, I hear. So what’s a unit of Brothers doing up here, then?’ The soldier hid any suspicions well under his mask of amiability, but Quin was anything but fooled. A whiff of anything untoward and they’d be in the deepest of the king’s dungeons before they could blink. And they’d spend months there awaiting trial.
‘We have business with the king,’ Quin said. It was half true.
‘At your service,’ the soldier said with a flourish so nicely performed that Quin was hard pressed to determine if the man was taking the piss or not.
He nodded once as the soldier let them pass with a recommendation of a good inn – which they would definitelynotbe staying at. Once they were out of the man’s sight, they veered off the main road and into the winding, cobbled backstreets, Quin taking a roundabout route and doubling back as Mal went in another direction, looping around behind them to ensure they weren’t being followed.
They arrived at a nondescript door that looked just like all the others in the neighborhood. Quin got off his horse and knocked twice in quick succession and the door opened. An old woman poked her head out and he grinned in disbelief.
‘You’re here,’ she croaked with a smile.
‘I didn’t think it would be you,’ he said, surprised, and pulled her in close for a hug.
‘Enough, boy, enough. You’ll crush me old bones.’ She chuckled as he squeezed her. ‘When we got the bird that you were coming, I thought I’d sort things for you myself. I wanted to see you. It’s been an age, boy, an age.’
‘Aye, it has.’
‘And who do you bring with you? I heard about Payn. I’m sorry.’ She squinted behind him. ‘Mal,’ she greeted coldly. She’d never liked him, Quin recalled.
‘This is Bastian. And Lilith.’ He gestured to the old woman. ‘This is Del, my mother’s aunt.’
Del grinned at them. ‘Come, come, I’ll have one of the others see to your horses. Just leave them there for now. Probably get a fine for it, but,’ she waved a hand as he turned and hobbled inside, ‘get fines for everything in this city these days. Can’t piss in the gutter without someone reporting it.’ She made a sound of disgust from inside. Quin turned back to the others and watched Bastian help Lily down from his horse. She was looking around with trepidation.
He turned his back on them as he followed Del into the dark hall of the house. The front rooms were mostly for appearances. It was a small, sparse parlor in the back that Del led them to, with a few comfy chairs and a couple of tables.
‘This is a safe house,’ Bastian murmured to Lily from behind him.
Thinking about how worried Lily had looked, Quin felt the need to elaborate to put her mind at rest. She was safe within these walls and it was important to him that she know that. He’d chosen the house and not one of the other, more secure locations available to them in the city because of Lily. After last night, after their journey here and with the reason they’d journeyed north, he wanted to see to her comfort.
‘The Army has safe houses in some of the larger towns and cities, much like the caches where we resupply ourselves when we’re away from the Army itself. There are caretakers that look after them, get them ready for when we arrive. That’s why Del is here.’
‘Why?’ she asked.
‘When we’re far from the main force of the Brothers, its best to have options,’ Quin answered. ‘There are other places we could go besides the houses that would be more secure, but,’ he gave her a slow perusal,’ this is the most comfortable.’
Quin sat, Bastian following suit. Mal ignored the chairs, instead prowling around the room, looking at everything as if he’d never been inside a safe house before. Lily eyed the chairs but stayed as she was, moving away from their group to stare out of the casement overlooking a small enclosed garden.
Quin frowned. He knew why she wasn’t sitting down, but she hadn’t shown any pain on her face since this morning either. She looked strained. Tired.
‘Perhaps you could show Lily to her room,’ he suggested to his aunt, and Del nodded.
‘The boy will bring food and drink in a moment. Then, Quin, we must talk about the reasons you’re here.’
He nodded and watched Del lead a more and more subdued-looking Lily out of the room to the bedchambers that were located up a narrow flight of stairs, if he remembered rightly. All three of them marked her leaving. She didn’t look at them once.
Bastian sighed heavily. ‘She isn’t right.’
Mal snorted from the corner, where he leant against the wall, cleaning his nails with his knife, but said nothing.
