A Dance of Cloaks - By Dalglish, David Page 0,75

Delius was a noble who turned to the priesthood only a few years back. He has a mansion in the western district. It’s sparsely furnished and poorly staffed. He gave away much of his wealth to the temple. The girl might be there, or she might be in the temple. If she’s in the temple, you haven’t a prayer of getting to her. Either way, that mansion is the first place Dustin will look.”

“Thank you,” Aaron said.

Kayla gave him directions to the mansion, as well as a brief description of what it looked like from the outside.

“Dustin’s started ahead of you,” Kayla said. “But he’ll need to ask around first to find out where they live. You might be able to beat him there. Hurry out, and try to be back before sunrise. And for the love of all that’s holy, don’t let anyone see you.”

After he had been gone for about ten minutes, a hard knock roused her from her thoughts. Her heart leapt into her throat. She grabbed one of her throwing daggers and held it tight in her hand. If Thren wanted her, she would die fighting him. She wouldn’t let him torture her.

Body tensed for combat, she flung open the door. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when she saw Senke standing there looking baffled and worried by the dagger she held in her hand.

14

Aaron felt oddly exhilarated. He’d never been out at night on his own. Thren had always insisted someone accompany him on his rare excursions out of the complex. Usually the reasons involved safety, the Trifect, and rival guilds wanting to settle a million old grudges. More and more, though, Aaron thought that his father wanted to keep him from feeling a taste of freedom.

He ran along the rooftops. With so many nearby logging towns, especially those on the northern edges of the King’s Forest, the houses were built sturdy, tall, and with mostly flat roofs. With his weight, the wood and plaster easily held him. He landed softly as he could, but he also ran fast. Bits of gray cloth trailed in the air behind him, the ties to the mask that covered his entire face. Only his blue eyes were visible.

As he neared the western district, the going got rougher. The west was far from the wealthiest of districts, but every part of the city had its betters, and they always clumped themselves together. As the buildings grew fancier, the roofs grew more slanted, with multiple floors, odd decorations and stone creatures, as well as the sharp triangular rooftops that had been fashionable at some point. Instead of racing along, he leapt and climbed. Sweat poured across his skin, the air was devilishly cold, but through it all, Aaron smiled.

I’m not Aaron, he thought. Haern. Haern can rebel.

It was strange thinking like that, but it made sense somehow. Let Aaron be shy. Let Aaron cower to his father and steal as ordered. Haern would hide, and he would survive. And tonight, Haern would kill, but unlike Aaron, it’d be for good. He knew just enough about sex to know that whatever Dustin planned to do, it’d be horrific torture before he actually killed the girl. He couldn’t let her go through that, not because he didn’t have the courage to lie to his father.

At last, he found the mansion. He was atop an even larger home on the opposite side of the street, his arms wrapped around a stone statue of what looked like a deer crossed with a man. His fingers drummed against the antlers. Despite the darkness, he could see far. The moon was bright, the clouds only wispy ghost fingers stretching across the sky.

There was no sign of anything amiss. No windows were broken, the door was shut tight, and he saw no shadows skulking around the sides. Of course, based on what Kayla had said, he had to assume that Dustin would be a bit more subtle than just walking up to the front door and kicking it in.

If the girl was there, she most likely wasn’t alone. Or she could be in the temple of Ashhur. Sitting there across the street, there were a million things Aaron didn’t know, and he’d find out none of them from his current perch. Tapping his dagger to give himself courage, he climbed down and approached the mansion.

The place lacked the security of higher wealth. No worn paths circled the building from a patrol of guards. No fence