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Hands on his back shoved him just as a rock exploded into the pole past his head. Eavus tried to look but Revni was tugging him. He could barely see the shape of bodies among the rain and the darkness, but they were moving, fast. A shift of flame.

“Go, go!” Revni shoved again and Eavus’ brain finally got through to his legs. His feet slipped on the slick, but he could hear other footsteps squelching behind them, a shout. At least four of them, pounding faster. A horrible grunt as a body crashed into another—whoever had been in the tavern had come out. Eavus slammed around the corner of a building, another rock sailing past his ear and crashing into a wall.

“Are they just throwing shit at us?”

Revni didn’t answer. She kept running, then turned abruptly sideways and slipped between two buildings.

Dammit. Eavus didn’t know if he could fit. Wet stone and rot filled his nose as he squeezed between the walls, but he stopped with an abrupt jerk. He couldn’t move.

“Revni!” A hard shout of a whisper. She paused, whipping her head towards him. Gods, this rain was something awful. The hood was sending a waterfall into his eyes. He sluiced it away and pulled himself again, before seeing that the sword was the problem. It was caught on the wall.

A shout. Eavus turned his head and froze, one hand on the blade. He didn’t think they’d seen him, mainly because he couldn’t quite see them. They were one massive shadow, a sputtering torch held by spectral fingers. Forms shifted. The shadow divided. Two, then three. The torch took off down a street. The two grew bigger.

Eavus’ shoulder was suddenly wrenched back and his face was filled with Revni’s hair. She smelled like pine and rain. Her body twisted around his, pressing into his chest, and he caught his balance with an arm tight around her ribs. She managed to get hands around the sword and tilt it, and the combination of the sudden jarring freedom and the hard crush of her body left him reeling even when she let go. She shimmied away and he pressed himself small and followed.

“I see you!”

The voice bounced off stone. All was darkness, a long slow scrape of steel.

“Where do we go?” Revni had popped out, her absence clearing the way for a shaft of shadowed light. Eavus pushed himself through.

“I don’t know!” Orange torchlight was bouncing closer, coming around another spiraling street. By Viduus, what a stupid city! The Aleterian section would be in grids, but this mess of twists and turns⁠—

Revni took off to the left, away from the light, and Eavus turned to follow, but he suddenly felt hands slam into his belly.

“No, no, no!”

Eavus almost tripped on the thin girl who was pushing him back. Revni spun, going for her ax, but at the sight of the child she stayed her hands. The girl gave a panicked look over her shoulder and scurried down another alley, waving them to follow. It wasn’t as thin as the last one, but Eavus was still careful to adjust the sword before slipping in. Revni followed, pausing to press tight against the wall. She craned her neck around the edge, whipped back.

The girl was a chestnut mouse, her skin striated like a brindle dog. She gestured impatiently, barely waiting for Eavus to catch up before running to another doorway, beckoning again. Eavus was soaked through. Footsteps splashed through a puddle, an angry curse closer than Eavus expected.

“Come on, it’s not safe.”

Rain had streaked the dirt on her skin. Her eyes were bright. She darted street to street. The buildings grew less demolished and the voices farther away the deeper they got, but doors still hung off hinges, belongings spilled carelessly and ground into the mud. The town was a maze of shadows.

“You Aleterian?” She finally paused at an ajar door, her eyes traveling over him. Maybe it was his haircut, his shoes. Probably the sword. Eavus nodded cautiously.

“What are you?” she asked Revni. “Catavar? Creeni?”

Revni watched her, but didn’t answer.

“She’s Isfolj.”

The girl gave a low exhale that was almost a whistle. “Even worse. Come on, come on.”

She guided them around upturned furniture, leading them toward an interior door at the back. Several of the chairs were broken, but the table was in one piece. Eavus’ natural sense of order wanted to put everything to rights, but the girl answered his questions before he asked them.

“Don’t touch anything. You clean up, that’s how they know it’s occupied.”

“Who?”

The girl turned down a narrow hallway. “It was everyone at first. Eridi, then Aleteria, then every person in Colcium, it seemed like. After it went quiet, it’s been mostly scavengers, but they’ll do anything to get food, money. If they see an Aleterian or an Isfolj?” She gave that low whistling breath again. “There are a few of us that look after each other.” She looked back at them. “I haven’t seen you before.” The room she led them into had two low bedframes, but they were stripped of any bedding. A cracked cabinet lay on its side.

There was a slim door in the far wall, and the girl gave it two quick raps, followed by three more. Metal scraped in the lock, and the girl poked a finger into the keyhole to pull it open.

Eavus had to bite back a surprised shout at the pair of waist-high eyes that greeted them, lit by a flickering candle, along with the sudden smack of spices assaulting his nose.

“That’s my brother. Rast. I’m Kena.”