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CHAPTER 3
My arm is frozen in midair, reaching for the wall, and still the entire scene is bathed in light as bright as day—brighter, perhaps, for it is a place the sun rarely shines.
I’ve seen dead bodies before. I’ve seen death from sickness, from accidents, and even from violence.
I’ve never seen anything like this.
Please. Anyone. Help me.
A wetness seeps into the toes of one of my leather boots. When I realize my right foot is standing in a puddle of blood, I recoil, drawing my hand back just as the alley plunges into darkness once again. Unseeing and disoriented, I trip over my own feet and fall in my haste to get away.
Help me…
The jolt from hitting the ground jars my teeth and sends a painful shock around my already-bruised waist, but I don’t care. I know what soaks the ground and into my clothes. Rolling over, I push to my hands and knees, scrambling for the entrance to the alley.
… someone…
Screams echo off the walls, and I only realize the shrieking ismine when I reemerge onto the street and the sound expands to fill the open space. I collapse to my knees and vomit on the cobblestone, heaving and sobbing until I’m empty of everything but the memory of what lies behind me.
As I sit back on my heels, a shutter on the second floor several buildings away crashes open, and a woman I can see with startling clarity peers out. Her eyes are ringed with dark circles and the top of her dress is loose. From behind her comes a soft wailing.
“Silence, you drunkard!” she shouts. “My babe was just asleep!”
Before I can react, she slams the window shut, and I’m alone again.
I look around. No one else appears disturbed by my noise, but I suppose if no one cared enough to investigate the screams of a woman being murdered, I shouldn’t be surprised that no one is reacting to me now. The heavy taste of blood in my mouth tells me I bit my tongue when I fell, and I wipe my face with the back of my hand, leaving a trail of scarlet from my wrist to my knuckles.
What should I do? Perrete is dead. No one can help her now, yet leaving her feels wrong. Magister Thomas would know the right course of action.
Grace of Day! If anyone knows Perrete went to see the magister tonight, he’ll fall under suspicion. His innocence won’t matter. Just the taint of accusation and his association with her could cost him his position as master architect. I need to warn him.
The scattered clouds of the storm finally cross over the moon, briefly extinguishing its light. A cold wind sprinkles the ground in front of me with the first drops of rain. I put my hands down to push myself to a stand, and one brushes my blood-soaked boot.
Please. Anyone. Help me.
“All right!” I shout back at the sky.
My voice is lost in a roll of thunder. I wipe my fingers clean, leaving bloody streaks on my short overskirt. Madame Emeline’s isn’t far. She’s likely one of the few who will even care what happened to Perrete.
I turn and run down the road as the moonlight vanishes again, making the world dark and muffled, this time for good. The downpour catches up to me just as I arrive on the madam’s doorstep. Emeline herself answers, and I push my way inside, half soaked.
“Perrete,” I gasp as she closes the door.
“Doesn’t work here,” Emeline finishes. Her hair, bleached to a shade of orange, is curled and mostly in place, and her face is fully painted. The makeup exaggerates the pinch of her thin lips as she raises a candle to peer at me. Concern quickly replaces irritation. “What about Perrete?”
“She’s dead,” I say. “I found her body.”
Some of Emeline’s alarm eases. “Are you sure she just wasn’t passed out fromskonia? It wouldn’t be the first time.”
The madam’s own voice is husky from use of the euphoria-producing drug, which is burned and inhaled in its cheapest form.
“I’m sure. She was—” I choke, but manage to finish with, “It was horrible.”
Emeline sighs. “You can tell the night watchmen. They’ll inform the provost.” She turns to the stairs in the back of the room.
“I, ah, couldn’t manage to find any of them before the rain started,” I say, though I hadn’t searched for them at all. “That’s why I came here.”
The madam glances over her shoulder. “Then it’s fortunate that two of them are upstairs now.”
