—
Unfamiliar with that section of the city, Brin followed Tesh. She watched him stop and pivot around more than once. The streets in the city of Rhist were a haphazard maze, the houses packed close and set on tiers such that Tesh often looked down at a street he wanted to get to, but he saw no means to reach it. Brin was starting to worry that they wouldn’t be able to find the place when Tesh abruptly stopped.
“That’s it,” Tesh said. He was pointing at a home with a sword and shield for a door knocker.
“We walked by this twice,” she told him.
“Yes, but from the other direction,” Tesh explained, but Brin didn’t think that explained anything.
By then, all the other homes had lights burning. This made Meryl’s house stand out all the more. The place was dark.
“Do you think it’s empty? Abandoned?” Brin asked.
Tesh pointed at the flower boxes under the windows. “Nope. Someone has been taking care of those.”
“Then why so dark?”
“I think there are blankets over the windows,” Tesh said.
“The Fhrey call those drapes,” Brin explained. “Have them in the place I live, too. They’re nice, but they don’t block out all the light. If lamps were lit, you could see it. Is it possible no one’s home?”
“Could be, but I doubt Meryl takes it for walks. Probably just likes it dark. Do raow need light?”
“I don’t think so. The one that grabbed me didn’t. I think it could see just fine in the dark.” She looked at his swords again. “Those might not be as useful when you’re blind.”
Tesh grinned at her. “I think you’d be surprised.”
This should have made her feel better, and it did, sort of, but Brin could still remember the feel of that hand on her face. Strong, cold, and damp, the long bony fingers squeezed her cheeks, and she had felt the sharp points on its fingertips.
“Really? You’re that good?”
“Good enough to only be concerned about you.”
Another warm flush bloomed on her cheeks. She was glad it was dark.
“So, what’s the plan?” Tesh asked.
“How about we knock?”
Tesh raised his brows. “Best advantage in battle is surprise.”
“This isn’t a battle. I think we should start by speaking to this Meryl fellow. Challenging him. Even ask to search his house. If he refuses, or acts suspiciously, then we can go back and tell Persephone.”
Tesh shrugged. “Okay, we’ll do it your way.” He knocked.
There were a few faint, unseen voices speaking in Fhrey down the street. Funny, she thought, how sounds carried in the night in ways they didn’t during the day. Brin rarely saw, or even heard, the natives in whose homes they lived. The Fhrey were excellent at hiding. They came out at night after the streets were empty. For some time, Brin had been convinced the Fhrey could see better in the dark than humans. They were certainly faster and more agile. On occasion, she thought she saw one out of the corner of an eye, but when she turned, all she saw was a shadow. She thought of them as ghosts, spirits that she heard at night. She imagined they came to the Rhune District in the late hours and gathered to complain about how the Rhunes were ruining the place. The idea of them coming out at night made her think all of them were a kind of raow.
Standing in the street in the dark in a populated Fhrey section of the city, Brin knew this was a place she shouldn’t be.
Am I insane? she thought. Maybe.
Almost nine months had passed since she was taken, and she was still having nightmares. The raow hadn’t so much as bruised her, but it had left her broken. As a little girl, Brin used to be afraid of the dark, and her mother had let her fall asleep with the lamp burning—a costly custom to ease a child’s fear. Brin had forced herself to face it, to lie stiff in her bed shivering, listening to every creak or gust of wind, waiting for…she never knew exactly what. The next morning, she felt free. Brin was hoping something like that would happen with the raow. That she would grit her teeth, face it, and finally be free. Even so, Brin wouldn’t have gone to this house alone. I might be insane, but I’m not crazy. She had pretended ignorance when speaking to Tesh. She had spent all winter watching him train; she knew he was a superb warrior. Brin couldn’t have a better protector. And yet…
The last time it took a dragon—no, she thought—a Gilarabrywn.
No one answered the door. Tesh rapped again. Again they waited. Nothing.
Brin sighed. “I guess we’ll have to come back at—”
“You should wait here,” Tesh told her.
“Wait? What do you mean wait?”
“It will be safer.” Tesh lifted the latch, and, laying a hand on a sword, he pushed the door open.
“You can’t go in!”
“No one is home.”
“I know. That’s why you can’t go in!”
Tesh looked at her, puzzled. “It’s probably listening to you.”
This shut her up, and Brin clamped both hands to her face.
Raow love faces.