His mask broke the surface, his hands splashing as he fought against his numb limbs to reach the edge of the canal.
“I’ll kill you!” he shouted as I drifted farther away. He struggled to pull himself out of the canal. Finally he managed to flop onto the street. “You’re dead for this!”
I pushed the boat around a corner. His threat held no new fear for me. The Da Vias already wanted to kill me.
My ankle pounded with pain, but when I tenderly put weight on it, it supported me. Not broken then, only twisted. Of course, it didn’t really matter. The Da Vias were in Yvain, and they knew I was here.
I’d run out of time.
I steered the boat as close to my safe house as I could, then let it go, to drift freely on the canals. I stumbled onto the street, my ankle giving beneath me painfully. It would be a problem. I’d have to wrap it tightly and hope to avoid another fight until it had healed.
The sun had crested the horizon. Taking the roofs would have gotten me back sooner, but the Da Vias could be looking for me. They wouldn’t be watching the canals, though. Like me, they’d assume clippers wouldn’t use the waterways.
One more day. If I’d had one more day before the Da Vias had showed up, I would have been gone from here. They could have searched Yvain to their heart’s content and never found me.
I limped down the alley toward the street that connected to my safe house.
I would need a disguise, now, to get out of Yvain. They would be watching the gates into the city.
Brother Faraday’s robe could work again. Maybe. I’d have to be careful, though.
I turned the corner.
In front of me stood Lefevre in uniform and four other lawmen.
“Well, well, Lea. It seems we’ve caught you in a bit of a predicament.” He smiled and tapped the basket of his rapier with a ring on his pinkie.
My first instinct was to run. To flee the way I’d come. But the alley ended at the canal, and I’d set the boat free.
I could fight them. I could kill them or disable them.
But I was exhausted and injured. Lefevre and the others wore rapiers, and though I had my sword and usual stiletto, I’d just fought with, and nearly lost to, Nik Da Via.
“What do you even want?” I asked Lefevre. “The Da Vias already know where I am. There’s no money anymore.”
Lefevre’s face darkened at my news.
Another lawman shifted. “Did you honestly think you could come to our city, commit murder, and leave the bodies lying around and we wouldn’t notice or care?”
They didn’t understand. They thought me a common murderer. “I didn’t kill that boy in the alley. The gold was a kindness I did for him,” I said. “To grant him favor with Safraella, to earn him a fast resurrection. The only crime I saw was a lawman stealing a holy coin from a corpse because he wanted it more than a god.”
“There were other murders,” the lawman said.
He was right, of course, there were other murders. Lefevre’s men. “They attacked me.”
Lefevre’s smile faded, and he dropped his hand from the basket of his rapier. “So, how do you want to handle this?”
I had nothing left. “I’ll go quietly.”
Lefevre scowled. He’d actually been looking forward to a fight. He grabbed my wrists and bound them behind me, then pulled off my mask. He was not gentle.
He leaned closer to whisper in my ear. “Maybe you could run from my men, but you couldn’t run from me. Looks as if the little girl didn’t know the rules of Yvain. My rules.” His hands brushed the nape of my neck and I shivered. He chuckled.
“Touch me like that again,” I hissed, “and there will be nothing quiet about what I’ll do to you, and you’ll find no peace at the end of your life.”
“What do you mean by that?” he growled.
“I am a disciple of Safraella, and I don’t think She will look upon you with mercy.”
“Is that true?” one of the lawmen asked, stepping away from me.
“Don’t listen to her tales.” Lefevre grabbed my arms and pushed me forward. “She’s just a stupid girl.”
“But all those men she killed in that alley . . .”
Lefevre laughed. “You really believe what those survivors told you? That she did it by herself? No. She had help. A man, I’m sure. Even the survivors said there was someone with her. I doubt she did anything more than cower in a corner.”
A few of the lawmen nodded, but the worried one kept his distance. Smart of him. The more Lefevre talked, the more I regretted not sinking my stiletto into his heart when I’d had the chance.
He pushed me across the street, and the morning sun poured over us.
thirty
LEFEVRE AND THE LAWMEN TOOK EVERY OPPORTUNITY to parade me through crowds of people as we headed west into the city. There was no real point to the charade. The people didn’t know me or what I’d done. All they saw was a limping, dirty girl wearing strange leather clothing. But Lefevre enjoyed the spectacle of it, enjoyed how people looked at him with respect and a touch of fear.