City of Gods [Book 3 of the Teadai Prophecies] Read online

  “Make another sound and I’ll gut you right here.” She kept her voice as raspy as possible. His drunkenness obviously didn’t make him stupid because he grew quiet. “Now, we’re going outside. If anyone asks, you need to walk off your drink. Got me?”

  He hesitated and she pressed the blade into flesh to draw blood. He grunted and nodded. Cass kept her body pressed against his so that anyone looking their direction might think her one of the tavern whores. She slid her knife hand down to his gut and kept her cloak covering the blade. They walked down the hall, past the other curtained rooms. She started to turn her root father toward the music and laughter, but the girl she had paid to keep quiet stepped in front of her.

  Blazes! The little imp told!

  The girl waved her the other direction. “Come,” she said in a thick accent. “Back way.”

  Cass could have cheered. The child guided them down another hall she hadn’t even noticed. Careless. This hall led to the back entrance, a thick wooden door with iron bars that crossed its center. The carved head of a wolf adorned the circular handle. There was another problem, though. A man stood guard at the hefty door, probably to keep girls from escaping and patrons from sneaking out without paying.

  The child said something in another language and the guard looked Cass up and down. Then she lifted Cass’s skirt and made a face that told her not to protest. Cass simply stood while the doorman gawked at her legs and licked his lips. She made a sultry circle with her left ankle and the man smiled. The girl opened Cass’s purse with an apologetic look on her face, drew out a silver coin and offered it to the guard. The guard nodded and opened the door, letting in the frigid wind, and stepped aside to let them pass.

  Once outside, the door slammed shut, taking the music and laughter with it. Cass immediately moved her knife to her root father’s throat.

  “Where are you taking me?” he said. “I’ve done nothing wrong. I paid for that whore.”

  She spun him around to face her. “What’s the matter, old man? Don’t you recognize your own flesh?” She used a slight amount of transference Energy to push off her hood.

  His eyes widened. “Cassbet? Is that you, girl?”

  “So, you haven’t drunk your brain to mush, yet.”

  “You put that knife away. I’ll beat you, girl. You hear me?”

  “That’ll be very difficult to do with your life vein severed.” She’d never spoken that way to him except in her dreams. “I’m not that defenseless child you abused all those years ago, you son of a goat.” She kept the knife at his throat and pushed him toward the forest. Only then did she realize that the child followed. “Thank you.” The girl smiled but continued to follow. Once near the trees, Cass stopped. “Is there something else? Do you need more coins?”

  The girl hadn’t taken more than one silver to pay off the guard. Probably thought Cass would gut her if she did.

  “I go with you, Mistress.” The girl’s thick accent made several words sounded as though she spoke with a mouthful of stones as she stepped quicker to keep up. She had to feel the cold in that thin tunic, yet she didn’t show it. “You help me. Back there. I go with you.” She pressed her fingertips to her forehead then opened palms up toward Cass as though the gesture meant something precious.

  “You need help escaping? Is that it?”

  “No escape from you.” She made the gesture again.

  “I don’t understand.” Her root father tried to pull away but she held him fast and kept them moving at a quick pace into the trees. He seemed even more startled by her strength than the weapon she kept at his throat. Thank the Goddess for the Energy.

  The girl repeated the hand gesture as she ran to keep up. “I’m yours.”

  The man laughed.

  “What in blazes is so bloody funny, you old goat?” Cass had to raise her voice above the bitter wind and flurries that left cold spots against her cheeks despite harnessing the Energy. “You’re about to be worm food.”

  “The little whore—”

  Cass pulled him up short and pressed her blade into his flesh. “She’s not a whore. She’s a child.”

  He gasped and sucked in an audible breath of pain. “The child wants to serve you. You should let her. She could teach you a few things. You weren’t near as good in bed as she is.”

  He’s trying to goad me into letting my guard down. Well, it won’t work. Trickles of warm blood fell onto her fingers. He seemed to realize his mistake and kept quiet. She raised her brows and focused on the girl. “You want to be a servant? My servant?”

  “Yes. You help me in tavern. I serve.” She pressed her fingertips to her forehead then opened palms up toward Cass again.

  Well, the Vedi had ordered them to take servants. But this was a child. She couldn’t accept a child as a Gypsy servant. And there was no flickering against her senses. This girl was a middling. At least, for now.

  “You’re too young. Go. Hide until the weather clears. I’ll give you enough coin to buy eats.” She pulled her root father close, knife still at his flesh, and picked out two more silver coins from her purse. Then she tossed them to the child.

  The girl scooped up the money from the snowy ground but looked appalled. She pressed her fingertips into her forehead again.

  “You’re too young. Understand? Now get.”

  “You throw me away?”

  Cass didn’t have to see the girl’s face to know that tears ran. “Blazes! I can’t take a servant so young.”

  “Then I die.” The girl reached for Cass’s boot knife.

  Before she could reach it, Cass brought her foot behind the girl’s knee and knocked her to the snow. Widened eyes gazed up as the retreating daylight left shadows on the white ground. “Try that again and I’ll thrash you. You won’t kill yourself. Understand?”

  The girl nodded.

  Cass started farther into the woods. The girl got to her feet and began to follow again. This was obviously not going well. She allowed the child to trail her, out of site of any villagers that might happen to venture out in this bloody cold. Her root father chuckled but her knife persuaded him to keep his mouth shut. Once she felt at a safe distance, she tied the old man to one of the trees, using the length of rope she had taken from a supply wagon earlier that day. He winced as she pulled the ropes especially tight. To keep him quiet, she tied her crying cloth in his mouth. Of course, she never used it for weeping the way some kin did. Cass hadn’t wept since the day her Gypsy mothers gave her control of her nightmares.

  For the first time, she took a good long look at her root father. His gaunt cheeks made him look frail as he hung against the tree. Thin muscles added to his feeble appearance and he shivered as the biting wind blew through the trees. But his eyes. Those hadn’t changed. In fact, he looked at the tavern child with lust even now.

  Cass raised her knife to get his attention. “Perhaps I should just let you freeze.” More flakes of snow drifted down.

  The girl began to shiver and hugged dark arms around her plump body. Despite her large size, she had only the slight bosom of early adolescence. “You should find shelter.” Cass realized she didn’t know what to call the child. “What’s your name, girl?”

  “Ebbi.”

  “Do you have another name?”

  The girl shook her head.

  “Well, Ebbi, I’m Cassbet Legrange. Cass to most.” A particularly brutal wind caught her cloak and she fought to keep it in place. Her ears and nose began to sting, despite holding the Energy. “You really should get inside.”

  “I go with you.”

  “I thought we settled that. You don’t owe me anything.”

  One dirty hand reached for Cass’s boot knife again, and she slapped it away, using a bit of sparking to make her point with the child. “No. You’re not to kill yourself.”

  Ebbi swallowed hard and rubbed at her hand. “You take me.”

  “I can’t take you as a servant. You’re too young.”

  “Then I die.”

 
Cass wanted to scream with frustration. All she intended to do was get her poor excuse for a father out here and repay him for years of suffering.

  Ebbi, who was almost as tall as Cass, pointed a dirty arm to the tree. “You gut him? I help.”

  That brought her up quick and she narrowed eyes on the girl. The sun had just passed the horizon and the gray sky kept everything darker than usual despite the white ground. And with the shadows of the trees, she didn’t know whether Ebbi could see her clearly. “What I do to him is not your business. Go find shelter before this storm gets worse.”

  “No,” came the snippy reply. “I stay with you.”

  Frustration built and she took in a long breath. She couldn’t kill her root father in front of a child and she was beginning to tire from holding the Energy. Just then, she felt something move toward her through the trees. These were no animals. She counted five, no six. Six Energy heats against her senses. Blazes! They must have noticed her missing. How long had she been gone? The sky grew darker by the heartbeat. They would find her through the awareness with little trouble since she was the only Gypsy out here, not to mention any prints the new snow didn’t cover. She cursed several times but Ebbi didn’t seem bothered.

  Quickly, she untied her root father from the tree, bound his hands behind his back then dragged him further into the forest with Ebbi on her heels. Perhaps she could do this before anyone caught up with her. She could always create a distraction, use the transference to topple a tree or something. That would take a lot of effort. Before she could take another step, several tree branches bent to block her way. Bloody wind! It was strong now but not enough to knock her off her feet. She made a right turn. More branches. The way behind her was blocked now too.

  “What the—” Fear grabbed her gut as she realized this was no act of wind. “Eletha.”

  “Ebbi,” the girl corrected.

  Cass ignored the child and searched for a way around the trees but the heats came closer. She now felt several large animals in the forest. Wolves. She brought the blade down to sever the branches and moved forward, taking her reluctant father with her. At least he couldn’t cry out. He stumbled but she righted him easily. Ebbi stayed close, probably to keep warm, or because of the waning light. Another few paces and the trees closed around them again.

  She couldn’t keep severing branches forever. And the heats were within earshot, she was certain. She shoved her root father to the ground between the trees, far enough away so their branches couldn’t disturb her. He fell facedown with a grunt, and she flipped him onto his back then straddled him, knife at his throat.

  “Turn around, Ebbi.” The child obeyed. Cass glared at her root father, who finally showed fear in his old eyes. Pathetic son of a goat. The blade rested against his throat, which already bled from two small cuts, and she pressed harder, causing him to moan. “This is for everything you did to me, you flea-ridden snake. And for all the children like Ebbi.”

  Blood trickled from the new wound and turned the snow dark. His eyes widened with genuine fear. He tried to struggle but she put all her weight onto his hips and took a handful of hair to steady his head. He grunted and squeezed his eyes shut. She pressed harder with the knife. All she had to do was swipe it across his neck. One good slice and he would writhe until Death came for him. Her hand began to shake. This was what she had longed for her entire life. Why did she hesitate? She took in a long breath and determination filled her as she remembered her dreadful childhood.

  She moved the knife to a better position, right over his life vein. One slice, just one, deep and quick. But her hand wouldn’t budge. Movement caught her vision and she looked up to see three wolves gazing at her, heads low. Yellow eyes seemed to reflect the dim light even as shadows covered the area now. Someone stepped to Cass’s right and she saw skirts beneath a cloak. She could feel her kin through the awareness. She wouldn’t let them stop her, though.

  “Go away, Taniras.”

  “Not bloody likely. You don’t want to do this, Cass.”

  “I sure as bloody blazes do!” She pressed the blade enough to make another shallow cut and more blood seeped from her root father’s neck. Even in the cold, she smelled urine. Good. He’s terrified of me. Or perhaps he feared the wolves.

  “Cass,” another voice said, this one male. Thad. “I don’t know what he did to you but you can’t kill him this way. That not a good idea.”

  “You’re right.” She looked at him and relief filled his face. “You don’t know what he did. Even if you knew, you couldn’t possibly understand.”

  Thad’s face tightened again. “Please, Cass. Let the Elders deal with him.”

  She shook her head. “Why did you look for me so soon, anyway?” Her ploy should have kept them from searching for her until well after sundown, since they’d already eaten evening meal.

  “Thad saw you in one of his visions.” Taniras this time.

  “A repeat of one I had back at Dom’s place. Only this time, I saw your face beneath that hood. That the truth, Cass.”

  “Bloody blazes.” Had the man been watching her because of his visions? She tightened her grip on her root father’s hair until he grunted again. The wolves moved closer. “What’re you going to do, Taniras?” She allowed the anger into her voice. “Let them rip me apart?”

  “Of course not.” The singer sounded disgusted at the thought. “But they can restrain you, if necessary. Until Haranda gets here. She’s close.”

  “He’s just a bloody middling. Why do you care about him?”

  “I care about you, Cassbet Legrange. We were clan sisters.”

  She fought for emotional control.

  Taniras stepped closer and crouched so she could see that dark face in the shadows. “Have you ever killed a man?”

  “What? What in blazes does that mean?”

  “Have you ever killed a man? It’s a simple question, Cass.”

  “I’ve saved that honor for him. The bloody, rat-sucking, puss-ridden scoundrel.” Cass’s hand began to shake again, and she gazed at her former clan sister through blurred vision. Why in blazes was she crying? She blinked to clear her vision and saw Snowy several paces away. When did he arrive?

  If she hesitated any longer, Haranda would use the urging on her. She lifted her shoulder to wipe her eyes and focused on her root father again. His gaunt face looked so old, so frail. Blood trickled from several shallow cuts along his neck, cuts from her blade. He looked helpless now. Not at all the vicious monster she remembered from her childhood. She had beaten him in her dreams. There he had cowered from her much like he did now.

  Cass had the power. She had taken it from him. Power. That’s what this is about. His actions aren’t about lust. Just power. If he simply lusted, he would have chased tavern women, not helpless children. I have that power now. His power. She could kill him here and now, or let him live to face the Elder’s tribunal. Her hands controlled his very life. “Bloody blazes in the underworld.” She fought to keep her knife hand steady. If she killed him, would she be no better than the murderers and rapists she despised? Why does this have to be so complicated? Why must I hesitate?

  Another person moved beside her. Ebbi. The girl crouched and reached out her hand for the knife. “I gut him.”

  Cass gazed at the shadowy face of a child who had seen too much in her short life. A face that reflected her own childhood. Ebbi would slice his throat. Cass didn’t doubt that for a single heartbeat. But what would the girl do afterward? Kill again? Despise herself? She was a child. Something Cass had left behind long ago. Ebbi wiggled her fingers in beckon of the weapon.

  Cass shook her head and asked the same question that had been put to her. “Have you ever killed anyone, Ebbi?”

  “No. But I kill for you.”

  “I’ve never killed, either. I thought I wanted him dead. But I really just wanted him to suffer. Terrorize and hurt him the way he did to me. The way he did to you. I wanted him to know what it was like to be powerless and afraid.”
Why was she confessing this to a child?

  “He hurt you.”

  “Yes.”

  “He hurt me. Men hurt me. Gut him.”

  “No.” Ebbi didn’t understand. That much was obvious. Could Cass make a child comprehend when she wasn’t certain she understood herself? “Killing him won’t take the hurt from either of us, Ebbi. And we would have his death, his blood, on our hands.” She released the Energy and the cold slammed against her. She welcomed it.

  Ebbi placed a hand on her arm. “He hurt you.”

  “Yes. But he’s pond scum. I’m not. You’re not.”

  “I’m a whore.” The matter of fact tone cut Cass deeper than any knife could.

  “No, Ebbi. You were forced to do those things by men like my father. You’re a child, not a whore.”

  “We don’t kill him?”

  “No.” With that, Cass wiped her blade on her root father’s tunic and sheathed it.

  Then she took Ebbi’s chubby hand and stood, stepping to the side of the prone man. The girl’s skin was cold. When she turned around, Haranda and Wren stood not five paces from her. They could have used the urging on her but they hadn’t. Taniras, Snowy, Thad and Tsianina watched her too. Her eyes drifted to the taverns but she couldn’t see anything beyond lights in the windows and the snow covered ground. It was nearly dark now and very cold. Snow began to seep into her boots.

  Ebbi shivered. Cass pulled the girl close and wrapped her cloak around them both. She drew herself up and looked into the eyes of her former clan mother. “These children need our help. Middlings or no. We can’t turn our backs on them. I won’t be that kind of Gypsy.”

  “They’re not our concern,” Haranda said in a soft voice. She held a lantern now instead of using an orb. “I’m sorry.” She sounded sincere, torn even.

  “Then we should make them our concern. If we’re to share this world with middlings and get their respect then we should help them. We have the means to help them.”

  “We must protect our own, Cass. Kin come first. You know that.”

  “And how many children will get the calling, Haranda? Middling children can be called into the Goddess’s service in a heartbeat. Future kin. And they come from middling families.”