The Golden City Read Online Free PDF

and her hand did as well. Blood leaked from the palm of her right hand, but she didn’t dare look. If she opened her hand to check the wound, her captors would surely see the webbing. Who were these men out on the water in the dark?
    The boat rocked as the man who’d pursued her into the river climbed back aboard. She had to face them eventually. Oriana took a deep breath and st ruggled to right herself between the planks of the rowboat. A moment later she was seated on a bench, wet skirts tangled about her legs, facing an older gentleman. Her pursuer settled behind her. The man before her was sixty or so, st ill handsome, with gray hair and a st ern, square jaw. She recognized his face but couldn’t place it. Where had she seen him before?
    “Are you well, miss?” The older man had a blanket in his hands. Oriana flinched back as he leaned forward. He persi st ed, wrapping the blanket about her shoulders.
    Oriana began to shiver. Her garments and shoes were soaked through. She lifted one hand to push her hair from her face, remembering to fold her fingers to hide the webbing. Where she’d banged her forehead again st the side of the boat, it was already tender.
    Had they seen her hands? When they’d pulled her into the boat, had she had her fingers spread? She buried them in the blanket. Perhaps they’d been so busy they hadn’t noticed.
Please, gods, let that be the case.
    The man repeated his que st ion. He sounded kindly. He sounded concerned.
    He thinks he’s rescuing me.
Oriana nearly laughed at the thought. She cleared her throat in st ead. Her breath st ill came shallow, and too fa st . “Yes,” she mumbled. “I’m . . . well enough.”
    “That’s good,” he said. “We were worried when we saw you in the water.”
    Her hands balled into fi st s again under the cover of the blanket. She needed to think fa st er, smarter. Why was this man out on the river? The Special Police patrolled the waters of the Douro every night, and she thought they had extra patrols over
The City Under the Sea
, but this little rowboat wasn’t one of theirs. Had these men slipped pa st their patrols? The moon hadn't risen yet, and the only light came from a shuttered lantern set on a hook at the fore of the little boat, so it was possible they might not have been seen. The boat began to move, the large man behind her handling the oars, smelling of river water and musk.
    The gentleman laid a gloved hand on her sodden knee. “Now, miss. How did you get out here?”
    Oriana tried to gather her wits. She shook her head jerkily.
    “I had a vision,” he said then, “that there would be a girl in the water. I came here st raightaway to see you safe, miss.”
    Vision?
With a sinking in her st omach, Oriana suddenly placed his face. The man before her was Paolo Silva, one of Prince Fabricio’s favored seers. She had seen the man before, although at a di st ance, at more than one of the balls she’d gone to with Isabel. She hadn’t wanted to attra ct his attention then, and she didn’t want it now. Her lips trembled. The shivering was worse now, and not ju st from the cold.
    This man was close to the prince who so hated her people. If Silva knew what she was, he would surely turn her in. She could try to dive back into the water, but she wasn’t sure she could get into the river before the oarsman grabbed her. Her twi st ed skirts and the blanket would make that easy for him. And attempting escape would confirm that she had something to hide. She swallowed hard. There was st ill a chance they hadn’t realized her true nature.
    Oriana tried to keep her voice from shaking. “Thank you, sir,” she managed.
    “Good,” Silva said. “You’ve found your voice. Now, do you recall how you got out here, miss? I’m amazed you managed to keep your head above water.”
    Her head
hadn’t
been above water. If she told this man she’d been trapped in the houses below, he would know for certain she wasn’t human.
    “I was dumped