Part 41 (2/2)
”Or lying,” I said. ”If we could talk to her, figure out what she really saw, or why she'd lie about it -”
It was like a shaft of light had broken through the gloom of the cell. ”Celyn, that's brilliant. But the servants are long gone, it sounds like.” And just like that, the shadows fell again.
”Maybe Koya knows what happened to her. I'll see what I can find out.” Below us, the ugly bell clanged out the hour. The visiting period was ending. ”Pox. I have to go. Do you need anything?”
”I need to see my father.”
”I'm working on it. He's not so easy to reach, these days.” I explained about the guards at Charicaux, but Durrel only looked more confused.
”No, you must have been mistaken. We - my father doesn't have any retainers like that.”
The pistol carried by the guard at the gate had seemed pretty conclusive, but I let it pa.s.s. ”Don't get discouraged. We'll figure this out.” I forced more confidence into my voice than I felt.
He reached a hand out the small window, and my fingers brushed his. ”Thank you,” he said faintly, but I heard him.
Behind me, Wet Onions had awakened again. ”Lift your skirts up a little more, girl. I can't see much from here.”
I was tempted to give him a taste of what I kept under those skirts - a three-inch steel blade that I was getting pretty good at throwing - but I just gave him a tart look as I pa.s.sed by. ”Watch your fingers,” I said. ”Someone might come by and bite them off.”
He gave a cackling laugh, but it was Durrel's small chuckle I heard, all the way down the stairs and across the bridge.
About the Author.
Elizabeth C. Bunce is the author of A Curse Dark as Gold, which won the William C. Morris YA Debut Award. StarCrossed was inspired by her pa.s.sions for Renaissance life and cla.s.sic fantasy, as well as an obsession with cat burglars, and its s...o...b..und story was written in part during the coldest Midwestern winter in thirty years. Elizabeth lives near Kansas City, Missouri, with her husband and their dogs. Visit her online at .
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