The Beauty of Darkness - Mary E. Pearson Page 0,90
horses tethered at posts. No laughter or conversation came from the dining room. There were no tavern guests, and it was the dinner hour. The sickening pall of quiet held the inn like a shroud.
I jumped from my horse and ran up the front steps. Kaden was right behind me, telling me to stop, yelling something about caution. I flung open the door, only to find chairs stacked on tables.
“Pauline!” I yelled. “Berdi! Gwyneth!” I traversed the dining room in leaps and pushed open the kitchen door, sending it slamming against the wall.
I froze. Enzo stood behind the chopping block, a cleaver in hand, his mouth gaping as wide as the fish he was about to behead.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Where is everyone?”
Enzo blinked, then took a harder look at me. “What are you doing here?”
Kaden drew his knife. “Set it down, Enzo.”
Enzo looked down at the cleaver still poised in his fist, first surprised and then horrified to see it there. He dropped it, sending it clattering to the butcher block.
“Where is everyone?” I asked again, this time with threat.
“Gone,” he answered, and with shaking hands, he waved Kaden and me to the kitchen table to explain. “Please,” he added when we didn’t move. We pulled out chairs and sat. Kaden kept his knife drawn, but by the time Enzo was done explaining, I rested my head in my hands, and could only stare at the scarred wooden table where I had eaten so many meals with Pauline. She had left weeks ago to try to help me. All of them had. I couldn’t hold back the groan swelling in my throat. They were in the heart of Civica. Dread gripped me.
Kaden put his hand on my back. “She’s with Gwyneth. That’s something.”
“And Berdi,” Enzo added. But both of their reminders seemed only to confirm our fears. Pauline was trusting—and a wanted criminal just like me. She could already be in custody. Or worse.
“We have to go to them,” I said. “Tomorrow.” There would be no resting up.
“They’ll be all right,” Enzo said. “Berdi promised me.”
I looked up at Enzo, hardly recognizing him as the shiftless boy who could barely be relied upon to show up for work at all. His expression was earnest, one I had never seen on him before.
“And Berdi left you to run the inn?”
He looked down, brushing an oily strand of hair from his face. I hadn’t tried to disguise my suspicion. Pink colored his temples. “I know what you’re thinking, and I don’t blame you. But that’s what Berdi did, left me in charge, keys and everything.” He rattled the ring of keys hanging from his belt, and I saw something akin to pride in his eyes. “Really. She said it was long past time for me to step up.” He suddenly startled, twisting his apron in his hands. “That other fellow could have killed me. He nearly did. He heard me and—”
He swallowed, and the large apple of his skinny throat bobbed. He stared at my neck. “I’m sorry. It was me who told that bounty hunter about you walking on the upper road. I knew he was up to no good, but all I could see was that handful of coin in his palm.”
Kaden sat forward in his chair. “You?”
I nudged Kaden back in his seat. “The other fellow?” I asked.
“That farmer who was staying here. He cornered me and threatened to cut out my tongue if I ever said your name to anyone again. Said he’d stuff it down my throat along with the coin. I thought for sure he was going to. I thought about how close I’d come to—” He swallowed again.
“I knew I was running out of chances. Last thing Berdi said to me before she left was that she saw something good in me, and it was time I find it too. I’m trying to do better.” He rubbed the side of his face, his hand still shaking. “I’m not doing all this half as good as Berdi, course. All I can manage is to keep rooms clean for the boarders, make a pot of parritch in the morning and a pot of stew at night.” He pointed to the wall at the far end of the kitchen. “She left me directions. For everything.” There were at least a dozen pieces of paper tacked to the wall scribbled with Berdi’s handwriting. “I can’t serve dinner for a whole dining room yet. But maybe if I