Hand and Talon (World of Kyrni Book 1)

by Melonie Purcell

  Krea looked back over the field. “It may not be so great for me.”

  “Oh, don’t worry. Sorin won’t let you lone shift.”

  “How can he help it? We’re not bonded.”

  “He and I aren’t bonded, but I didn’t lone shift, did I? He’s still a caller, and a powerful one at that. He just has to be sure he is touching you when you shift. If you were bonded, it wouldn’t matter. The chant would be enough, but without the bonding, he has to touch you.”

  “You make it sound so normal.”

  “It’s like breathing. Are you headed to the dining hall?”

  “Aye. Do you know who you are?”

  He smiled wider. “Aye. I am Feydrhin, but I would be glad for you to call me Rhin. And who might you be, milady?”

  Heat flashed up her neck, and Krea knew she must have blushed the color of Kinara’s dragon. “I meant when you change to your bea…to your link, do you know who you are?”

  “Our counter,” Rhin corrected, still grinning. “And aye. When I’m winged, I still know that I am Rhin, and I still know now that I am hungry and would be honored to escort you to the dining hall.”

  Krea laughed. “That would be wonderful. My thanks.”

  “Ah, no. My thanks. But we need to go the back way so no one sees me and gives me another job to do before I get there. With Jaydar away, everyone seems to think I’m bored and need to be kept busy.”

  “Will he be here soon?”

  “Kinara came by not long ago. Said they should be here late tomorrow. Maybe the day after. No proth, though.”

  “Good.” She would be glad to get her clothes back.

  “This way.”

  ###

  As expected, people packed the dining hall. Some even stood against the walls holding their plates and bowls, but when Krea and Rhin started looking for somewhere to sit, people squeezed together to make room. The conversation stayed light and she resisted the urge to share what the lift in the city had told her about the prince. Rhin endured several rounds of stories in which his blunders were starred, and when Krea finally left for her room, for the first time in her life, she felt as if she might be part of something. Not until she opened the door did she finally find Dane.

  “Where have you been all day?”

  He was lying on the mat he had pulled off the bed, staring at the ceiling and rubbing his burl. He didn’t even look over at her. “With the witch.”

  “You mean mage.” After spending the day with a mage, she’d have thought he would know the difference by now. Dane didn’t answer. “I looked for you in the city. It’s probably a good thing we didn’t try to meet. You should have seen it, Dane. They didn’t have one merchant row. They had four, no five. There were street performers. A man walked on legs as tall as a horse’s back right down the middle of the road.” She paused and walked over to him. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”

  Dane smiled and sat up on his elbows. “No. I ain’t hurt. Them wasn’t his real legs, was they?”

  She watched him for another moment and went back to pulling off her knife and dagger. “No. Some kind of sticks that he had stuck to his feet. Maybe he will be there tomorrow. Do you want to come?”

  “Aye, but I got to go see the…see the mage again. I can’t say if I is gonna be there all day.”

  Krea finished sorting her things and sat on her bed. “Did you eat?”

  “Aye. She fed me real good, and I didn’t have to pay for none of it. I still got the money you gived me. Does you want it back?”

  “No. It’s yours. I swear on the goddess there are people down in the city begging to lose their money.”

  “You lift some?” Dane sat the rest of the way up.

  “No.” She leveled Dane with one of her sternest glares. “And don’t you go lifting any, either. The last thing we need is one of us in prison. I’m just saying it’s hard not to. I did hear some news, though.” She decided not to tell him that someone had lifted her knife. She’d never hear the end of it. “The rumor on the street is that the prince is missing. And that there are torbadyn right inside the palace.”

  Dane didn’t say anything for a long time. Then he dropped back on the mat and grabbed his burl. “Does you believe it?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe. Seems like someone would notice evil, twisted elves walking around.”

  “Maybe they ain’t like that.”

  “Evil, or twisted up?”

  Dane shrugged, but didn’t speak.

  “Did you learn how to use your magic today?” she finally asked, falling back on her bed.

  “Aye. Lots more than Sorin ever showed me. That’s ’cause he’s scared of me. And he should be, too.”

  Krea pulled her last boot off and let it drop. “I don’t know about that,” she said after a long pause. When the boy didn’t answer, she tucked her boots under the cot and said, “Night, Dane.”

  “Night.”

  She watched him for a long moment, but he didn’t speak. His eyes were closed and the blanket was tucked under his chin. More than a little unnerved, she dimmed the lamp and tucked the dagger in against her side. It took a long time, but she finally fell asleep, wondering again about the mage she had seen on the hill.

  ###

  Dane woke before Krea the next morning. He was dressed and heading out the door before she managed to even pull on her boots. “What’s your hurry?”

  “The witch said I was s’posed to be there early. Besides, you was snoring like a old dog.”

  “Dane, she is going to whip you good if you call her a witch. You remember what Arie said. And I don’t snore.”

  He tucked the bag of money into his tunic. “You does, too. I thought maybe you was gonna die from sucking your tongue down your throat.”

  “Shut up.”

  He ran out the door, laughing.

  She pulled the rest of her belongings on. The dagger looked like its old dinged up self as she strapped it on and pulled it from the sheath. Are you hungry? she thought to it. The dragon appeared on the handle, black and menacing, but it didn’t move. The blade didn’t pulse. It didn’t fight her when she slid it back in the sheath. That had to be a good sign.

  When she finally stepped into the hallway, she noticed Sorin’s door was ajar.

  “Sorin, you still there?” She knocked lightly. He didn’t answer. “Sorin?” She knocked again. When he still didn’t answer, she pushed the door open.

  The bed lay toppled against a wall, the bedding crumpled beneath it. A rug was bunched up against the chair where it looked like someone had slid across the ground. Half expecting Sorin to jump out and grab her, she crept into the room. Someone had been in a fight. Blood streaked across the wall. A dark stain also marked a broken chair leg that must have been wielded as a weapon. The question was, by whom? Against the wall, the glint of steal caught her attention. She flipped a rug over and found Sorin’s sword. Not good. He didn’t relieve himself without taking his sword. Not good at all. She pulled both their doors closed and hurried down the hall to find help. Fortunately, Rhin was trying to find her.

  “Perfect,” he said. “Want to go sneak some fruit out of the orchard and watch the chaos in the fields this morning?”

  “No!” She nearly screamed it, and pulled him over to the wall.

  “It’s not like it’s stealing exactly, not really. I mean, it’s the same food they’re going to serve the nobles, so…”

  Krea waved him off. “No, I don’t care about stealing. It’s what I do. Sorin is missing.”

  Rhin stared at her for a moment before answering. “He’s probably just in the dining hall.”

  “Without his sword?” That got Rhin’s attention, so she pressed on. “His room is a mess like there was a fight in there, and I saw blood on the wall. Besides, he wouldn’t have left without at least waking me and Dane.”

  Rhin’s smile disappeared. “When was the last time you saw him?”

  “Yesterday before he left me with Bri, but she said she saw him in t
he afternoon. I didn’t, though. I need to talk to that man we saw when we came here. The one who yelled at you.”

  “Elder Royden? Why?”

  “That’s who Sorin was going to meet yesterday.”

  “What if Elder Royden is who had him taken?”

  “I don’t think it was him. My dagger…” She broke off. What was she going to say? Her dagger liked him? “He’s a good place to start looking, don’t you think?”

  Rhin nodded. “Aye. I just saw him going into the dining hall. You look for him, but don’t go with him anywhere. Stay out in the open. I’m going to the fielding room. No secret is safe there. We’ll meet back here at lunch.”

  “My thanks, Rhin.”

  “Just be careful who you call friend. Something isn’t right around here.”

  “I will. Lunch.” She started jogging down the hall, but thought better of it and slowed to a walk. Maybe whoever took Sorin didn’t mean to leave the door ajar. Maybe she wasn’t supposed to know he was missing.

  Royden was just leaving the dining hall as she rounded the corner. She hurried to catch him. “Elder Royden, I pray a word, if you would honor me with your time.”

  The man turned, a look of mild surprise on his face. She hoped for as much. Formal speech from her usually had that effect. It also led, more often than not, to a clean lift, but this was different.

  “May we step away from the door for some privacy?”

  Royden didn’t move. “I don’t know how I can help you, Krea. Sorin already had his say yesterday. The situation is out of my hands. The council’s decision is final.”

  Well, that didn’t bode well. Krea pushed thoughts of lone shifting out of her mind. She watched his face closely and lowered her voice. “This isn’t about me, Elder Royden. It’s about Sorin. Have you seen him since last night?”

  The man frowned. Irritation clouded his features, but not before a flash of alarm. “Do not take up my time with such trivial matters, child. I’m not his keeper.”

  He started to walk away, but Krea rushed on. “He is missing. His room is torn apart. There’s blood all over the wall, and he left without his sword.”

  Royden paused. Krea waited. Finally, without turning, Royden said, “I’m sure he’s fine. Probably ran off again. It’s what he does.” But as the man walked away, his hand clasped the hilt of his sword.

  Royden’s answer was not nearly good enough, and waiting around the hold for Rhin grated on her last nerve. Somebody had taken him. If that somebody was in the hold, Rhin would find out who it was. If that somebody was in the city, nobody on the hill would have a notion where to look. But she knew who would. She set out for the city at a jog.

  As she hurried down the trail, a flash in the trees caught her attention. She turned, but saw nothing. Two more times, movement in the corner of her eye made her spin, but only trees greeted her. “You’re acting like a scared kitten,” she whispered, but she watched the trees just the same. If someone followed her, they slipped through the forest like a shadow, because she never saw them move.

  If possible, the city streets were even more crowded than the day before. Traders squeezed their carts into any empty space, and the merchants who owned the buildings did their best to run them off. Tempers ran thin. In one direction, a street performer drew a small gathering of onlookers. In another direction, an argument drew a similar crowd. And through it all, like minnows darting in and out of the moss, were her people.

  She spotted Digger right away. The pelt was going to have to get better, or he was going to get caught. Once she set him, all she had to do was follow him to the leader. She didn’t wait long. She checked the loop thong on her knife for at least the third time and headed for cart he was using for cover.

  “I thought we was even,” he said when she got close enough to hear him.

  So he had spotted her, too. The money she could make with a partner like him. Just thinking about it made her fingers tingle. “We are. I need more information. I’m willing to pay for it. Is your runner around?”

  “Who says I got a runner? Is that what you is? Is you some sort a runner lookin’ to make a new stake in Shaylith? You ain’t going to have a easy go, if that’s what you’re about.”

  “I’m not a runner, and I don’t want to deal with yours, so is he here or not?”

  The leader continued staring across the street, presumably watching Digger trying to set another mark. After a few moments, he spoke, but he didn’t turn his head. “You see that big guy what’s wearing that green tunic and talkin’ to them merchants over by the granary?”

  Krea reached down to tie her boot and glanced over through her hair. The man was massive. Runners usually were. He seemed to be involved in some sort of intense debate, but runners had eyes that saw everything. She needed to be careful. He stood too far away to hear, though. At least she had that.

  When she stood, Krea slipped two shol into the leader’s hand. He didn’t look down, but his thumb rubbed the coin before he slipped it into his tunic. He knew what they were.

  “I’m looking for a caller. He was taken sometime last night, or maybe this morning. I think he may have been brought to the city. Did you see anything like that?”

  “I ain’t sure what you got yourself messed up in, but you best get clear. Your caller is in the dungeon. I seed him dragged there last night. Heard them say they wasn’t to kill him till someone got him to talk. It must be him. I knowed it were someone important, ’cause ain’t no thief would get that many guards and torbadyns on him.”

  Her heart tried to race out of her chest. “I have to get in there.”

  “To the dungeons? Is you stupid? Ain’t no getting in there.”

  She looked over at him, and for the first time, he looked back. “Ain’t no getting out, but there’s always a way in.” She turned back to the street. Digger had set a young woman walking with a basket of fruit. She was a bad mark. The basket would topple and the man across the square trying so hard not to look like a guard would have Digger in an instant. And that meant the runner would have the rest of them.

  “You better get your pelt,” she said, jutting her chin toward the street. “He’s about to get himself caught by that guard over there.”

  The leader glanced back to the street and swore. “On the goddess, he’s going to get us all killed!”

  He started to move, but Krea stopped him. “I’ll do it. I don’t live here. It doesn’t matter if the guard sees me.”

  Before he could argue, Krea slipped out onto the street. An instant before Digger hit his mark, Krea stopped in front of the woman to ask where she had purchased her fruit. Digger veered off and faded away, probably following some hand signal from his leader. Krea walked right by the disguised guard, paused to look at a trader’s cart, and paid for a small carved wooden dragon. When she circled back around, she found the leader waiting for her by a tree near his alley, his relief as obvious as his suspicion.

  “Ain’t no way I can get you right into the dungeon, but I can get you real close. Maybe you can figure a way from there.”

  “My thanks. It’s more than I hoped for. How much?”

  He watched her for a moment before shaking his head. “What you did with Digger makes it even. We’d of all had hide put to us if he woulda got caught, and ain’t no tellin’ if we’d a seed Digger again.”

  Krea smiled. “Fair. I’m Krea, by the way.”

  “Spider. You know Digger, and the girl is Tripp.”

  “How’d you get a name like Spider?”

  “When Stick found me, I was hiding up in a roof holdin’ on ’tween two wood beams. He just called me that since. Stay here. I got to tell him ’bout that guard and that we is staying clear till he’s gone.”

  Spider faded into the crowd. She didn’t see him standing near Stick, but the runner cocked his head, then turned to pick out the guard. She wouldn’t admit it aloud, but Spider was a better thief than she was.

  “Come on,” he whispered before slipping into a group of
people. “I sent Dig underground, but Tripp’s gonna meet us at the stump.”

  She didn’t ask. They drifted from group to group until Spider finally veered off to a side street. They walked in a field for what felt like forever, and they finally came to the stump of what was once a massive oak. Tripp sat cross-legged on top of it, and she didn’t look happy.

  “Why is we doin’ this?” she asked.

  “’Cause she stepped in for Digger and ’cause I said we is. Besides, them torbadyns is trouble.” He walked over to the stump and handed her one of the two shol. “Here, have your cut; now let’s get.”

  Something moved in the grass. Krea spun, but still didn’t see anything. To her relief, Tripp turned at the movement as well. At least she wasn’t imagining it.

  “You see that?” Tripp said. “Was you followed?”

  Spider shook his head. “I’m sure we wasn’t, and I didn’t see nothing. We got to move.”

  They held to the field as long as possible before finally running over to the wall and following it along the backside of the sprawling manor. Ironically, the few guards patrolling the wall spent their time looking out, not down. When the group stopped in front of a small wood door mounted halfway up the wall, Krea was sure they had arrived clean.

  Spider boosted Tripp up on his shoulders so she could reach an old rope that was hooked on a peg. The rope ran up through a pulley system to the door, allowing it to slide up and down along the wall. A glance at the rusted metal wheel did not inspire confidence.

  “When was the last time you opened that door?”

  Tripp jumped down. “Been a while. This side of the manor needs fixin’, so there ain’t no one in there. No point in sneaking in, really. It’ll work. We was told this here was like a trash tunnel where they would dump stuff from the palace, but a ways back they stopped using it ’cause it smelled and the fluffs didn’t like seeing townfolk picking through it.”

  The pulley squeaked so loud at the first pull, Krea nearly jumped out of her skin. All three of them pressed themselves against the wall in anticipation of the approaching guards, but none came. After a few tense moments, Spider pulled again. The pulley stuck, but the rope slid over the top of it. It took all three of them pulling, but the door finally started sliding up along the wall.