Wintercraft: Legacy Read Online Free PDF Page A

‘The others shall accompany you.’
    ‘Discreetly,’ added Dalliah.
    ‘Of course.’
    Dalliah and Kate dismounted and walked towards a rough fence encircling what looked like a small trading village. A few silver coins bought them entry past the guard on the gate and the eyes of the few people still out in the cold fell immediately upon their visitors. Dalliah was not the kind of woman to pass unnoticed. Her presence alone made people uncomfortable. No one stayed near her for long.
    The only stone building in the settlement was an inn with a red rose painted on a swinging sign. When Dalliah stepped inside, everyone huddled around the fire fell quiet. She paid for a room and took her bag of papers from Kate.
    ‘Servants belong downstairs,’ she said. ‘We will leave at sunrise.’
    ‘I’m not your servant.’ Kate’s voice was loud enough to be heard by most of the people in the room.
    Dalliah took hold of Kate’s arm in a way that could have looked gentle to the onlookers, but her fingers wrapped around Kate’s wrist and twisted hard, just enough to crick the bone and hold her attention. ‘You will do as I say or you will spend the night in the gutter.’ She spoke through a well-practised smile, but her eyes were filled with a venom that Kate had not noticed before. ‘Sit down and do not talk to anyone,’ she continued. ‘You will stay silent. Do you understand?’
    When Dalliah took her hand away, a bruise blossomed around Kate’s wrist. ‘Yes,’ she said.
    ‘Remain here. If you wander, you will regret letting medown.’ Dalliah turned to the innkeeper, who was staring at her warily, in case she turned her anger upon him next. ‘This girl is to be left alone,’ she said. ‘When I return, she will be waiting for me, unharmed and untouched. You will watch her.’ She scattered a handful of silver on the counter and the innkeeper’s eyes widened when he spotted three glimmers of gold among them.
    ‘Y-yes, ma’am.’
    ‘Good.’
    Dalliah climbed the steps to the upper floor without looking back and the man scooped up the coins at once, hiding the gold pieces in his palm before the people round the fire could spot them. He smiled at Kate, recognising her as a route to quick money. She turned away from him, looking for a seat well away from everyone else, and found one with its back to a corner of the room.
    The inn was draughty, but infinitely more comfortable than hours spent sitting on a horse’s back. A small fire was burning steadily in the grate, and when the flames threatened to burn too low an old woman knelt down to tend it. The flames dulled a little as they caught on the leathery edges of what had once been books, now torn apart and good only for kindling. The old woman pushed the books in one by one, and the sight of the flames chewing around the edges of the papers stirred an uncomfortable feeling within Kate. Something twitched in her memory. The smell of burning paper . . . kneeling in a small space . . . someone beside her, whispering in the dark.
    ‘Been travelling far?’ Kate had not noticed the innkeeper walking up beside her, carrying a tray with a mugand slices of buttered bread. ‘You look as if you could do with this.’ He put the tray down in front of her and refused to be discouraged when she did not speak. ‘We’ve had a few like you in here. Travelled in from Fume, I suppose. It’s not a place many people want to be right now.’
    Kate looked up. She wanted to ask questions, but knew that for the right coin this man would tell Dalliah everything about their conversation, so she stayed quiet instead.
    ‘Eat up, then,’ he said. ‘I won’t tell her upstairs.’
    Kate was too far from the fire to feel much more than gentle warmth, but it was enough. The herby drink warmed her from the inside and the food settled her stomach while the people around her talked amongst themselves, chattering about their lives and speculating about the ‘servant girl’ and her mistress.