Page 68 of Thief of Night
Maybe Malhar was used to Red being scary at him, because he didn’t look at all disturbed by that comment.
“Okay, little Blight,” Charlie said. “Sorry we stuck you in a backpack for a full day. How about this? I’ll give you a little blood if you, uh, hiss three times.”
The shadow didn’t hiss, although it did press eagerly against the netting as though straining to lick the proffered finger.
“Let’s try again,” she said. “I’ll give you blood if you lie down.”
The shadow only strained harder against the netting.
With a sigh, Malhar reached for a plastic wrapper from among the detritus on his desk and offered it to Charlie. Smearing her blood on it, she pushed the wrapper beneath the netting. Immediately, the shadow covered it, making wet noises.
“I think we eliminated the theory it can understand you,” Malhar said. “But that could be that it’s too distracted by hunger, or that it isn’t fully manifested.”
Red regarded the Blight with some curiosity.
“But I could control it if it were tied to me,” Charlie said. “Could a personattach more than one shadow to themselves? A boy said he saw the Nine-Shadow Man, like from a fairy tale. Is that possible?”
Malhar sighed. “That would be an incredibly unethical experiment to undertake, but if you consider the energy that shadows consume to be measurable, I don’t see how one gloamist could sustain two, much less more shadows, without being drained.”
“If it’s an unethical experiment, the masks have already done it,” Red said.
Asking Bellamy might give her an excuse to be inside his stronghold, close to where her map said that piece of Red was being kept. But it would be tricky for her to explain why she wanted to know, since this job for Mr. Punch was off the books.
Which made her wonder againwhyinvestigating a massacre was something he wanted none of the other Cabal leaders to know about. Sure, it wasn’t technically her job unless Blights were involved, but it wasn’t like the Cabals would mind getting extra work out of her.
There are people in my circles with Cabal connections, ones who’ve bought shadows at events held for that sort of thing.That was what Fiona had said. Her words had gotten lost after Red’s revelations, but there was something there.
Was Mr. Punch getting her to investigate another Cabal member who’d been selling shadows? Was he planning some blackmail of his own?
As her thoughts returned to Bellamy, the missing part of Red, and unethical experiments, Malhar continued studying the Blight.
“A little parasite,” Red said, looking down, his gaze going to Charlie’s bleeding finger.
“We’re all parasites when we aren’t fully developed,” Malhar said.
“It’s old,” Red said. “I can tell that much about it.”
“How?” Charlie asked.
He blinked at her. “I… I don’t know.”
“You sure there isn’t some secret shadow language?” Malhar asked.
Red gave him an exasperated look. Then he turned to the shadow. “Hiss or I will rip you to pieces and devour the pieces,” he said, in a voice so sweet that the contrast between his words and tone made the hairs stand up all along Charlie’s arms.
A small hissing sound came from the shadow as it flattened itself low in the netting.
Malhar raised his eyebrows.
“What was that?” Charlie demanded, mightily unnerved.
“Secret shadow language,” Red told her with a small, amused smile.
Charlie sighed and pointed toward Malhar’s computer. “Can I use that for a second? While you two do whatever it is you’re going to do to that thing, which clearly can understand us after all.”
“Sure.” Malhar leaned across her and typed in his password.
Charlie sat down and cracked her knuckles. Although she played through her cons in person, the lead-up to each required a lot of digital research. Usually she did it at libraries when she was sure she could stay out of the range of cameras. Sometimes, when she was really worried about being found out, she would break into office buildings and do her research there.
