whether she wanted to be or not. She’d fallen more often than she cared to remember, knocked herself out three times and fallen into the inner workings once, where she’d almost got herself crushed between two cogs and scared herself stupid before she’d managed to get out again. There was a reason most people stayed indoors during the change, and it wasn’t just because the priests said to or risk displeasing the Clockwork God.
Finally she’d got the trick of moving on surfaces that were themselves moving in contrary ways, up, down, sideways. She’d learned those movements by heart, knew which building would move where, and that had come in handy tonight.
She’d run the rooftops while her quarry had contented themselves with the safer option of the streets, which mostly stayed intact during a change except at the ends. Kacha had to jump from one building to the next as they moved past each other, changing streets and addresses, but she’d kept them in sight.
Right into Nob Hill – or more properly King’s Row. The men stopped at a doorway that opened blackly for them and let them out a few moments later, and they weren’t smiths now; they were councillors’ men, with fancy tunics and feathered hats and lacy cuffs. The only question was, which councillor? It was too dark to see the colour of the flash on their tunic.
The answer to that came quickly enough. The men moved smoothly along the broad avenues, and Kacha had to abandon the rooftops – here the buildings were fewer and farther between. There were trees and scented gardens to hide in and creep through, but the men hadn’t looked back once since they left Soot Town so she abandoned stealth for speed and took to the street herself. She didn’t look too out of place. Her tunic wasn’t guild but it was serviceable enough, and the sword marked her as a lady of at least a little wealth if no particular refinement – clocker ladies didn’t wear swords as a rule, or breeches, but there were enough who did that she wouldn’t cause much comment.
She kept back and as far in the shadows as she could. Easy enough – the moon was only a quarter full and fitful behind scudding clouds, and lamps were generally extinguished before the change and not lit again until the next morning so she had plenty to choose from. Besides, the men she was after didn’t have far to go.
A large house, a newer one built after the revolt, with a dragon rampant on a pedestal by the gates. The men showed at last they were definitely more than they’d looked. Any smiths who’d tried dressing up as councillors’ men would have been turned away at the gates, but these two were hailed like old friends, and as they passed beneath a rare relit lantern, she caught the flash of purple on their tunics. King’s men.
That dying prelate’s man hadn’t been wrong.
She was about to turn away when the men reached the door, and it opened to reveal Petri Egimont, who welcomed them in with one of his restrained smiles, like he was thinking of something else. Knowing Petri, he probably was – he thought much more than he spoke. She’d always liked that about him, but it made him a dangerous opponent.
Seeing him made her careless. He glanced over and saw her, she was sure of it, and she cursed her stupidity. His whole body tensed. For a moment she thought he’d call the guard, but he did and said nothing. Only stared for long seconds as she stared back, conflicting emotions making her clamp her teeth.
Days when just a look could make her smile. Nights when no words were exchanged, the shiver of her skin when he kissed it. The smell of him on her pillow, in her bed when they were done. Him finishing her sentences, showing her other ways to think, to be. Him not expecting her to be perfect, just her. The sudden jarring shock of the note, double-checking the writing, the seal, the words. The blinding pain that had followed it, the anger. She wanted to run up and kiss him, and she wanted to kick him right in the cogs too. Petri Egimont – love him or hate him she couldn’t stop thinking about him.
Finally, after it looked he might come down the steps and call out to her, he just nodded in her direction and shut the door, leaving