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CHAPTER 18
Simon’s eyes widen in panic, and he leans backward too far to hold on. I have just enough time to change my direction to go straight at him. My shoulder hits the lantern and sends it flying as I seize his wrist. Glass shatters as what little light the lamp provided vanishes. He swings around and slams against the pole below me but manages to grab on to it, relieving me of having to support his full weight.
“Sky on fire!” Simon gasps. “Is that you, Cat?”
“Yes,” I answer, my heart beating so hard my chest pounds into the platform under me. “Can I let go now?”
“Yes. Please.”
I release him and scoot up to peer over the edge as he grips the pole and looks up at me. “What in the Light are you doing up there?” he asks.
“I work here, remember? Why areyouhere?”
Simon lowers himself to a squat and hops back to the ground. “I was doingmyjob.” He flexes his wrist and glances up again with a frown. “Trying to get a feel for what the city was like that night.”
I swing my legs over to climb down. “You know there are easierways to get to the top of the Sanctum.” I land lightly in front of him and deliberately dust off my hands.
Simon’s grimace deepens. “Hell Beyond, woman, you’re like a cat.”
His annoyance only makes me grin. “If the high altum heard you cursing like that in the Sanctum, you’d be chanting penance till sunrise.”
“Good thing I’m not in the Sanctum.” Simon heaves a sigh and nudges what’s left of his lantern with his toe. “How can you seeanything, let alone well enough to do an inspection?”
I shrug against the sudden tension in my shoulders. “There’s plenty of moonlight up high.” I bite my lip, knowing just how well I’ll be able to see. “Do you want me to take you up there?”
“That depends.” There’s a touch of a smile in his voice. “Is the way you mentioned truly easier, or is it designed to humble me?”
I chuckle. “That depends. Do you enjoy stairs more than ladders?”
Simon kicks the shattered lamp aside and bends over to pick up his cloak. “Stairs I can handle. Lead on.”
The Sanctum doors are locked, but I know which windows can be opened. I gesture for Simon to follow me. While I have no problem wending my way through the shadows without a lantern, he keeps tripping and stubbing his toes. Eventually, I grab his hand to guide him along.
It’s a long walk to the western end of the Sanctum, and I’m aware of every second. I stop when we reach the carved stone blocks piled against the back side of the facade towers for later use. When I release his hand, Simon immediately wipes it on his trousers. Mortified, I turn my back on him without a word and climb up the stack to the ledge about eight feet off the ground. It’s barely wide enough to walk on, and I wouldn’t want to doit in a skirt—or while holding a cloak. “I suggest you drop that here,” I tell him, and he does.
Our destination is a tall, peaked window facing east. Few realize it pivots around the center, and, after pushing it open a few inches, one only has to slide their fingers up the edge to pop the latch. I explain this to Simon as I rotate it and slide through. He quickly follows, though he has to suck in his breath to squeeze between the panes and the iron frame.
“I can’t see a thing,” Simon murmurs as I reclose the window. “Where are we?”
“On the stairs in one of the front towers,” I whisper back. “We’ll go partway up from here.”
Simon grabs my hand before I can get too far away, which is reassuring but probably so he doesn’t trip over his own feet. The stairs turn with the wall until we reach the landing which opens to overlook the Sanctum interior. Simon pauses to peer up into the darkness of the tower. “Do these stairs go all the way to the top?”
I nod, then remember he can’t see it. “Yes. Once you get above the main roof, the tower is open to the air, and there’s a spiral stair tucked into one of the corners.”
He looks down at me. “Have you ever been up there?”
“Of course,” I answer. “It’s beautiful when the sky is clear, like lying in a cradle among the stars.”
“You go at night?”
“Sometimes. When I want to think or be alone.”
The best nights for the stars are moonless. Now I wonder if I might have discovered my strange abilities sooner if I’d gone up there at other times.
“You’ll have to lead again.” Simon squeezes my fingers. “I have no idea where I’m going.”
The colored glass windows along the nave mute the light inside to wavy shades of blue and violet, like being underwater. Simon can probably see well enough to let go of my hand, but he doesn’t this time. I tug him along the gallery level balcony which runs the whole length of the Sanctum. A part of me knows the darkness makes this even more inappropriate than it would be in daylight. The other part doesn’t care.
