Gilded Latten Bones

96

I did not fall asleep right away, though not because Strafa crawled in and snuggled up. She went away instantly.

She had worked hard.

My mind had snagged on the possibility that the King was involved in the bad stuff to the point of trying to protect the evildoers.

Though there was no testimony yet I was sure the bad guys were buying prisoners from the Little Dismal operation and using them to build their thread men. Why, though, was beyond my imagination. The thread men were not aggressive unless driven. They were less dangerous than the zombies they resembled.

I reviewed each attack, over and over. I came up with nothing new, except that the lines of flight from Fire and Ice not only headed toward the Hill, they passed Knodical, supposedly currently untenanted.

That deserved investigation. The plunder from the Elf Town warehouse had gone there.

Were the Hill folk treading carefully because the King was entangled in something dark?

Waking was brisk but intense. Strafa Algarda turned loving into a religious experience. She whispered, "I can't wait till we can take our time."

"Me, neither." I became part of a strange and wonderful beast when I failed to show character enough to say no.

"So get yourself up, love. We have work to do."

"For example?"

"Today we are going to confound the Crown Prince and all the instruments of the night."

I glanced out the window. It was raining.

"Let's go, sourpuss!" She giggled. "Put on a smile. It will make itself at home. It's going to be a wonderful day."

I didn't want to be that guy who spins around and looks to the past as soon as the future hits. But I wasn't sure I could survive a diet of cheerful, happy, and positive-all before noon-for the rest of my life. And I knew, with no need for an outside consultant, that I'd signed on for the duration.

Strafa was perfect. She was everything a guy wove in his fantasies. Her sole flaw was that she lacked a sense of despair. She couldn't work up a good gloom to save her own delectable patootie.

I nearly laughed. And then found out that I could be wrong.

As we dressed, I said, "We never got a chance to talk about what you found out when you visited Barate. And the kids."

"Nothing useful. Their names may have been used but they weren't the ones wearing them."

The cheer had gone right out of her.

"Barate said he was going to check out some family legends."

"He did. Though they were more like rumors to the effect that some of the old people weren't actually inside their coffins when they went into the ground. The only way to be sure would be to dig them up."

"I don't think it will come to that." I moved behind her and pulled her back against my chest. "What's wrong?"

No artifice. "I saw my grandmother, too."

"Shadowslinger?"

"Yes. She wishes us well. You and me, together."

That came out of nowhere. "She knows?"

"Everyone seems to. I'm not sure how." She pressed back and crossed my arms in front of her.

"Is that a problem?"

She found some slight bounce. "It's a weight off, actually. I was worried about how to break the news."

"Then what's the problem?"

"My grandmother has been under a lot of pressure to use her influence to get me to back away from all this."

"That's it? You have to stop? You can. It's all right. But I won't."

"Neither will I. And nor will my grandmother."

"Then what. .?"

"My grandmother Constance felt obligated to relay the anxious desires of her class. She decided she was on our side only after I described Bird and Penny's artwork. She may come by for a closer look. She wouldn't explain but its obviously old family history. Probably to do with what Barate had in mind."

She seemed small in my arms right then, like a frightened little girl.

She said, "What we're doing may change the city as much as the end of the war did."

"How so?"

"I don't know. I'm not one of the insiders caught up in a froth of anxiety. But I feel the shift lurking out there, waiting to pounce. Why don't we forget all that stuff I said we need to do and go back to bed. Right now I'd be much happier if the world was just you and me."

"It's a temptation. But you know Singe will walk in just when. ."

Singe arrived early, as usual without knocking. "Good. I don't have to throw cold water on you."

And so the workday began.