in his side, he bent over the fallen man and put the point of the blade to his throat.
The hand holding the knife quivered, just a little, but to Caim it was like the tremor of an earthquake. His emotions were raging out of control. He wanted to kill so badly he could do it without thinking, without caring.
A pair of small arms tugged at his leg. Caim looked down into a pair of wide brown eyes, and he remembered the night, long ago, when he had watched his father die.
Go ahead, hero. Destroy her world, too.
He put away his knives and picked her up. She squirmed for a moment, but then buried her face into his shoulder with a shudder.
"Shhhh," he whispered. "It's over."
Josey waited for him at the end of the lot. She didn't say anything as he carried the child away from the burning building. Together they walked the narrow streets of Low Town, three ghosts alone in the night.
CHAPTER TWENTY
aim drew the suete blade across the smooth river stone. Steel whispered along the grains of the stone, turned over, and came back in the opposite direction. When the edge shimmered like foxfire over the moors on a cool summer evening, he put it away and started on the other knife.
The girl's name was Angela. She sat at a table in Madam Sanya's kitchen, fast asleep beside a half-empty bowl of apple slices and clotted cream. Cleaned up and wearing a fresh smock, she looked a damned sight better than the waif they had found outside his ruined apartment building.
Madam Sanya crossed the kitchen in her nightgown to hand him a cup of warm tea. "Sure, she's welcome to stay here, Caim. It's no bother. I've had a gaggle of little ones running through this house before, and our business being what it is, I gather I'll see more before they put me in the ground. That is, if I can stay in business."
Caim accept the cup with a nod. "Getting bad?"
"As bad as I've ever seen. Parnipos came by today with news. Seems some citizens tried to stop a band of Flagellants from burning down a tavern on Rye Street. Just everyday folk, but they had the Beaters hemmed in tight until the Brotherhood arrived. Fourteen dead, all told. The bells on Septon's Chapel have been ringing all afternoon, and now there's talk that the holy prelate has died, God rest his soul." She drew a circle over her breast. "We've gotten more people at the door looking for a safe place to hide than actual customers these past few days, but things will look up."
Caim reached into his tunic and took out a leather purse. It was the last of his money. The rest had been hidden in the floors and walls of his apartment.
"This is for taking in the girl. See that she gets some learning. And I don't want her working a room here, Sanya. Not ever. I'll have your word on that or I'll take her somewhere else."
Madam Sanya made the purse disappear inside the folds of her gown. "I promise. She can fetch and cook until she's old enough for schooling. I know just the right teacher. He's retired from the university, a real scholar and a gentleman. No, she'll be fine as a spring rain, but what about you two? Need to borrow Kira's room for a while longer?"
Caim looked over at Josey, sitting across from Angela with her head nestled in her arms. She looked almost like a child herself, despite the blood and soot marring her borrowed clothes.
"No," he said. "It isn't safe here, for us or you. We'll be moving on."
Madam Sanya observed him over the rim of her cup. "By the way you speak, doesn't sound like you intend to be back."
"You never can tell, can you?"
Caim went over to Josey and woke her with a gentle nudge. She looked up with squinty eyes. "Hmm?"
"It's time to go."
Madam Sanya gave them each a hearty embrace before they shuffled out the back door. Outside, the deep purple of night's final hour lightened into the faint glow of dawn. Umber streaks etched the sky, forecasting poor weather ahead.
Caim led Josey out the fence door and down the narrow alley behind the brothel. Their situation was bleak, to say the least. They couldn't trust anyone now, couldn't go anyplace he normally frequented. Not even his secret bolt holes in dives across the city were safe. He was known throughout