Covenant's End - Ari Marmell Page 0,42
I both needed that. Hasn't been a great deal to laugh about these days.”
Shins elbowed him—so weakly it really wasn't much more than a faint brushing, but all she could manage for the nonce. “If you've been trying to lie low,” she scolded, “those colors aren't exactly the most inconspicuous. You look like a birdhouse. Without the house.”
“I do not, alas, dress so fashionably on a daily basis under the circumstances. Tonight, however, was a special occasion.”
“I can't imagine why,” Igraine interjected. “It's not as though you needing to be rescued from obscene quantities of danger is an uncommon occurrence.”
“Hey! I resent that uncomfortably accurate assessment! Guys…Renard…” The passageway tilted, perhaps attempting to buck her off, and her head and body began once again spinning in multiple directions at once, including a few she'd never heard of. “I need…I need a few minutes. I'm sorry.”
“No apologies.” The priest and the former Shrouded Lord carefully sat Shins down on the gritty floor. Renard swept his half-cape from around his shoulders and draped it across hers, so she need not lean her lacerated back against the unyielding and rather dramatically dirty wall. She offered him a soft smile and a grateful nod; even that was nearly enough to make her topple over, vomit, or both.
Renard's fingers twitched with every wobble, reaching to catch her. “Gods, you…Igraine, can't we do something? I don't understand how she's conscious, let alone at all mobile!”
“Well, we all know Widdershins isn't a normal girl, don't we?” The priestess knelt, gently prodding at the younger woman's injuries. “If she…Heavens and hells, you should be dead!”
“It's almost…hurtful how many people…seem to think that of me,” Shins gasped, flinching at every poke.
“I have some clean rags, enough to slap a few makeshift bandages on the worst of these, but—”
“Just keep me from…falling apart for a few days.”
“Olgun can handle the rest?” Igraine asked. Then, at Widdershins's start, “This entire city is in turmoil, not just the Guild. I've been spending a great deal of time consulting with His Eminence Sicard. I have a much better understanding of your—situation—than I did.”
“Sicard has…a big mouth.”
“I'm sure you'll have your chance to yell at him.”
“Can we,” Renard begged, “discuss this someplace where we can all be a bit less filthy and bleeding?”
“You're starting to talk like her,” the priestess accused.
Shins snorted, winced, tried to think of a term to encompass both, and gave up. “He should be so lucky.” Another rough gasp. “He's right, though. It shouldn't be too hard to get to the Witch from why are you all giving me that look?”
Indeed, not only could she see it from her two fellow former Finders, she felt it from her third companion as well.
“Widdershins,” Renard pointed out gently, “the very first place Lisette is going to try to find you would be…” He finished with a shrug, clearly feeling it unnecessary to spell out any further.
Shins wondered if she had enough blood left to blush. Her cheeks certainly gave it a solid effort. “I knew that,” she grumbled. “I just wanted to see if you remembered.”
“I know I'm going to regret asking, but why, by the entire Pact, would I have forgotten?”
“Well, you and Igraine are both all blurry, and have been since you showed up. How am I supposed to know what else might be wrong with you?”
Renard and Igraine shared a wry and somehow vaguely resigned glance. “It's like you foresaw the future,” the woman said blandly.
Shins's own expression, however, had fallen dramatically. “We still need to go, though,” she insisted. “If Lisette shows up and I'm not there…Robin, and the others…”
“You're in no shape to help them,” the foppish thief replied.
“No, but you are!”
“Shins—”
“Look, you and Igraine and the others have been in hiding for a while. You have safe houses and message drops, yes? So she and I'll find somewhere to hole up and then let you know where. But I need you to do this!”
She can't get hurt because of me. Not again…
“Okay, but…Igraine can go just as easily as I can. I'll take you to—”
“No. Robin, may—need a lot of convincing just now. And she knows you. She trusts you. Ish.”
“Trustish?” Renard protested, his tone forced and weak. “I don't believe that's in any way a legitimate word.”
“And now you're talking like someone else I know,” Shins sighed, ignoring Olgun's own somewhat strained chuckle. “Renard, there's nobody else. I'm running out of allies. I can't ask the Guard to protect her. Even if anyone there would