There was a beat of silence.
“So, did I ever tell you about my metabolism?” asked Gallina.
* * *
The biscuits and buns didn’t last long. Viv split the sackful evenly between them.
Gallina licked her fingers for the last crumbs. “Eight hells, how’d you rate delivery of those?”
“Be damned if I know,” said Viv.
“Lemme see that book.”
Viv hesitated but then handed it over.
The gnome’s eyes widened as she scanned the cover. “Wow. Pretty lucky with that wave, weren’t they?”
“Give me that.”
“I will!” She lifted it away from Viv’s reaching hand. “So, you’ve been readin’ this? Any good?”
“Why, you planning to pick up a copy?”
Gallina grinned at her. “Nah, I get antsy when I read. You could read it to me though. What else we got to do?”
Viv thought about the chapter she’d left off on. “Uh, yeah, I don’t think I’d be any good at that.”
“I’ll make a deal with you.”
“Again with the deals,” muttered Viv.
“You read me some of this, and I won’t mention this whole thing again. Ever.”
She gave Gallina a speculative look. “This whole thing? As in … ?”
“As in me savin’ your ass from a bony little guy in gray.”
Said bony guy didn’t twitch at the mention. By now, Viv had almost forgotten he was there. Almost.
After careful consideration, and a quick mental review of when things got really spicy, she said, “One chapter.”
“Three.”
“Two.”
“Deal.” Gallina tossed the book back, and Viv snatched it out of the air.
“I’m warning you, I’m not much of a storyteller,” said Viv.
“You gotta actually try though. I’ll know if you don’t.”
Viv waved the book airily. “Deal’s already made. Can’t add terms now.”
Gallina blew another raspberry at her, and Viv couldn’t help cracking a smile.
She settled back against the wall and arranged her wounded leg as best she could.
Clearing her throat, she began, haltingly at first.
“Raleigh spent most of her life at sea until she was tall enough to grip the wheel. Even then, she was so willowy that—”
“Willowy?”
Viv made an exasperated sound. “It means thin. Are you going to let me read this?”
“Are you gonna do voices?”
“No.”
“Huh. This wasn’t a very good deal.”
“Do you want me to read it or not?”
Gallina grunted but gestured for her to carry on.
Viv resettled. “She was so willowy that her mother feared she’d be washed overboard in a bad squall. She was beautiful, like the first sight of land after a hard journey. She’d never be a proper seawoman, though; everyone knew that. It wasn’t until Tesh boarded with his books of magic that the weather turned for Raleigh. The seas were never calm afterward, not for her, but they took her to interesting places indeed.”
The gnome was softly snoring before she’d reached the fourth page. With a hard glance at the man across the way, Viv flipped to where she’d left off earlier in the afternoon and began reading to herself.
It’d been an exhausting day, though, and she was wrung out. It wasn’t long before sleep dragged her down as well, and the book fell open across her lap.
14
“Where the hells is he?”
“Wuh?” Gallina mumbled groggily.
Viv grabbed the edge of the gnome’s cot and shook. That woke her up fast. “He’s gone.”
“Wh—who?”
“Who do you think?”
Gallina ran to the bars, peering into the hall. “Nobody at the desk neither!”
It was still dark out, a predawn indigo just visible through the windows. The door of the cell opposite remained shut tight, but Viv couldn’t believe she would have slept through the commotion of releasing him. No matter how exhausted she was, the throb in her thigh hadn’t let her sink too deeply into unconsciousness.
“Hey!” shouted Gallina in the direction of the watch desk. “Who let him out?”
There was no response.
Viv lurched to her feet and stumped over to join Gallina at the cell door. The gnome stared up at her wide-eyed. “Think he killed the guard?”
“And we didn’t hear it?” Viv shook her head grimly. “I dunno. Don’t smell blood either.”
“Then they gotta have just … let him out?” Gallina screwed up her face and hollered through the bars again. “Hey!”
Viv’s voice was considerably louder. “Anybody up there? Warden!”
They bellowed until they were both going hoarse, and then Viv held up a hand to forestall Gallina, cocking her head to listen.
A breathy groan issued from out of sight, followed by the scuffle and slap of someone struggling to their feet.
The dwarven nightwatchman staggered into view, holding himself upright against the wall. He stumbled into the hallway, glancing between the cells and gawping at the empty one.
“Oh, shit,” he rasped. “Where’d he go?”
“You better find Iridia,” said Viv flatly.
* * *
“Who was he?” asked Iridia, her voice dangerously toneless.
“I guess you should have asked him yesterday,” replied Viv, every word dripping with disgust.
Gallina shot her a warning look.
“He wasn’t forthcoming,” replied the tapenti, though she was clearly loath to explain. “A hungry night in the cell usually rectifies that. In my experience, patience and time solve most problems.”
“Except this one,” said Viv, slamming a hand against the cell door and rattling it on its hinges. She felt hot all over, and a fierce urge to try her strength against the bars.
The dwarf nightwatchman sat on the floor, breathing slowly and evenly and looking very green. Iridia had already directed a few sharp words his way, and Viv didn’t know if his current state owed more to that or whatever had knocked him senseless in the night. He hadn’t seen anything, though, and couldn’t remember much before his unconsciousness. He complained about an all-over headache, but the tapenti wasn’t much interested in his excuses.
Iridia considered the bars, and then Viv. She did not appear concerned.
“Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? If you help me make sense of this, then maybe I’ll take a less dim view of your continued presence in my city, given the trouble you have clearly invited.”
Viv barely kept her frustrated oaths behind her teeth as she paced in her cage. She glared at Iridia, and then with an effort of will, unclenched her hands and swallowed her curses.
She sighed and settled back on the cot. Kicking her leg out, she tried to find something to do with her hands that didn’t put pressure on it and didn’t crush anything else. “I was at Thistleburr—”
“The bookshop?” interrupted the Gatewarden incredulously.
“Yes. The bookshop.”
Iridia blinked slowly at that, and then gestured for her to continue.
“Anyway, he was messing around in there, and then Potroast—”