Glass Swallow (16 page)

Mikel’s eyes filled with tears at Peri’s display of affection but he tried to disguise it with his usual bluff manner. ‘Had a blooming cold but I’m over that now. In fact, I’ve had a nice few days.’

Peri rolled his eyes. ‘The city descends into chaos and you are enjoying yourself!’

‘Take your pleasures where you can, my friend.’ Mikel halted outside the cabin and coughed. ‘It’s all right, lovey: you can come out now.’

Peri heard the bar on the door being lifted and the creak as it swung open. A nervous face peered out at them.

‘Rain! You’re here too!’ exclaimed Peri, striding to give her a hug before he questioned what he was doing. She was engulfed in the circle of his arms and he felt her give him a slight answering squeeze before pushing him away.

‘Master Falconer,’ she said primly. She then noticed his companions and dipped a curtsey. ‘And company.’

Peri quickly introduced Conal and Sly. They were staring at her with rather more interest than he wished.

‘I looked for you at the House of the Indigent that first day but there was no one there,’ he explained, catching her hand as if to reassure himself that she wasn’t going to vanish again.

‘Well, it closed.’ She tugged her hand free.

‘So I gathered. But don’t worry: I’ve come to rescue you both.’

Rain shrugged. ‘I don’t think we need saving, do we, Mikel?’

The bondsman laughed. ‘Not today, but you never know.’

‘Would you like some tea?’ Rain asked Peri’s companions politely. Her eyes fell on the beagle and her manner transformed. ‘What a beautiful dog! I’ve so missed seeing animals around Rolvint. Does he have a name?’ She knelt beside the creature and began scratching his neck, drawing whimpers of ecstasy from the hound.

‘I think Sniff has fallen in love,’ remarked Conal. ‘Doesn’t Mistress Rain know that only scavengers touch dogs?’

‘Rot!’ snorted Rain. ‘Only a really stupid person would think there was anything unclean about this dog.’

‘You should see him after he’s rolled in all the puddles between here and the marshes.’

Rain laughed and stood up. ‘Tea?’

Peri struggled with a growing sense of annoyance as he watched Rain charm his friends. The fact that Mikel and she had clearly fended well for themselves without his aid added to his bad mood. Mikel had them laughing with the tale of fey folk that Rain had spun—merriment that Peri did not join in because he was calculating the danger she had been in testing a looter like that.

‘So you flashed those big blue eyes of yours and invited him to visit the realm of the Fey?’ chuckled Conal. ‘I would have loved to have seen his face.’

‘He changed his mind pretty quick.’ Rain passed round the cups. ‘Sorry, I’ve no sugar to offer. Supplies at this establishment are a little limited at present.’

Pushed beyond what he could bear by her lighthearted manner when he had been having nightmares about her fate, Peri rounded on Mikel. ‘You shouldn’t have let her go up against a thief like that. What would you have done if he had called her bluff?’

‘Er, excuse me, falcon man, I am here, you know.’ Rain waved a spoon under his nose, her tone sarcastic. ‘I have a brain and decided that it was the best thing to be done in the circumstances. Don’t turn on Mikel for something that was my choice.’

‘So what would you have done, Rain? They could have taken everything—hurt you—’ Peri’s mind whirled with the possibilities for disaster.

‘But they didn’t. Besides, I would’ve thought of something else if it had gone wrong.’

‘Oh yes? A midge like you take on a grown man—many grown men by the sounds of it. You’re stupid even to think you’re a match for them!’

‘Stupid!’ Rain stood up, one hand fisted on her hip as she brandished the spoon at him. The other three fell silent, watching the usually unruffled Peri provoke an argument. Conal raised an eyebrow at Sly. Sniff whined and pushed his nose into Rain’s hand to comfort her. She stroked his head distractedly. ‘How dare you!’

‘Yes, stupid. You clearly can’t look after yourself. You’ll have to come back with us.’

Mikel shook his head, hiding a smile in his tea cup.

‘And who made you king? I don’t answer to you, scavenger.’ Rain’s eyes flashed blue fire.

‘I’m not listening to this rubbish. Conal, Sly, help Mikel pack; we’re taking them with us.’ He grabbed a bundle of Rain’s clothing from the mattress she had been using.

Rain took a step forward and rapped him on the back with the spoon. He barely noticed her assault.

‘Look, you cloth-eared birdman, I’m not going anywhere I don’t want.’ She kicked his shins for good measure.

‘Yes, you are,’ he ground out through gritted teeth.

‘No, I’m not! There’s no point. We’re comfortable here; no one’s bothered us, have they, Mikel?’

The bondsman was looking fixedly out of the door, refusing to enter into the row.

‘That won’t last. Fey tales only buy you so much time, Rain. Tell her, Mikel.’

‘Looks like it might be showery later,’ observed the old man to no one in particular. Conal grinned and Sly did not bother to disguise his laugh.

‘You can’t hide out here for long. And my family is expecting you,’ Peri announced as if this was the clinching argument.

‘Well, how nice for them.’ She threw her weapon on the table and folded her arms stubbornly. ‘Don’t get me wrong: I’d be delighted to meet your family, Peri, but not tied up and under armed guard—and that’s the only way you’ll get me to leave here!’

‘All right.’ Peri gave a nod to his companions. ‘I’ll see to the first part; you get the stuff.’ He pulled some leather jesses from his falconer’s bag. ‘These will do.’

‘What!’ Rain’s cry of anger made Rogue screech and mantle his wings on his perch by the door. Peri made a grab for her, but she slipped free. ‘You wouldn’t!’

‘Calm down!’ Peri said heatedly, shaking the jesses in frustration. ‘This shouldn’t be necessary if you saw sense. You made your position clear; well, this is mine: I’m not leaving you here.’ He lunged again, but she evaded him and ran for the door. He pursued her and the pair of them disappeared into the building site, Rain with only a few paces lead.

Furious at Peri’s highhanded treatment of her, Rain dodged the falconer and dived into a gap left between two walls, hoping it would be too narrow for him to follow her. This had been her back-up plan if the rioters came back: to hide in the building site somewhere a grown man could not reach.

‘Rain, you’re wasting my time!’ shouted Peri, thumping on the wall in frustration. He could see her huddled out of reach like a wild creature taking refuge in its den. ‘We’ve got to get back.’

‘Wonderful. Go back then.’

‘You’re being childish.’

‘I’m not the one threatening to tie someone up!’

‘It’s for your own good.’

‘I decide what’s good for me, not you.’

Peri slumped by the entrance to her bolt-hole. ‘How would it be if I promise not to restrain you?’

‘I’m not going.’

He ran his hands through his long hair. It had escaped from its tie in the scramble over the site and flopped annoyingly over his face. She was scared, he reminded himself; he needed to be tactful.

‘Look, Rain, I was just joking. Of course, I’m not going to tie you up. I just want you safe. Come out here and we’ll talk.’

‘No. You’ll jump me, I know you will. You can’t bear anyone having their own mind.’

So much for tact.

‘Rain Glassmaker, you get out here now and deal with this.’

Silence.

‘I’m taking Mikel. He won’t make such a fuss. Surely even you realize you can’t stay here alone? What’s so attractive about here anyway? Is it because we’re scavengers? Don’t you want to mix with the likes of us?’

‘You know that’s not the case.’ Her voice was less defiant now. He could hear the doubt so he drove home his point.

‘Think what’s best for Mikel. With us, he’ll have people around to look after him and he won’t have to worry about you. You must know that he’s anxious, wondering what would happen to you if something put him out of action. He might get into a fight to protect you—get hurt. How would you feel if that happened?’

She didn’t say anything but he could hear her moving around. He hoped it meant she was coming out.

‘I’m sorry I went after you like that in the cabin, but I’m worried too. I’ve seen what it’s like outside. I’d hate to think of you coming to harm when I can protect you.’

‘But how will they find me if I leave here?’ she asked quietly.

‘Who?’ Peri didn’t understand. ‘Someone’s searching for you?’

‘My father—maybe. I told the glassmaker I’d be here if Papa came asking. I’ve been gone over half a year and sent no word. He’ll come after me—I’m almost sure of it.’

‘I see.’ Peri rested his head against the wall behind him, trying to imagine what it must be like for her, a foreigner lost in a city in collapse, her one frail link to home a half-built palace that would never now be finished. No wonder she had been so stubbornly attached to the place. To her, it was like the piece of driftwood keeping a shipwrecked sailor afloat. If she let go, she’d sink without trace.

‘They broke the glassmaker’s window,’ Rain added plaintively. ‘Why did they do that? I collected the shards. They’re beautiful—lovely colours.’

Peri shrugged. ‘Fancy windows don’t bring food to the table. I never understood why the jettan families went to all that expense when the people were starving.’ From the stony silence, he realized he’d made a mistake dismissing her craft. ‘I suppose they were all right in their way,’ he conceded swiftly. ‘I would’ve let it be myself, not destroyed it.’

‘Beautiful things are not a luxury: we need them to remind ourselves that we’re more than just bodies wearing clothes,’ she said fiercely.

He held up his hands. ‘All right, all right: I allow that they do some good for some people. Will you come out now?’

‘I don’t like you very much at the moment.’

He almost smiled at her grumpy tone but feared she would see and further delay their departure. ‘You don’t have to like me; you just have to trust me. Do you trust me, Rain?’

She remembered how he had intervened on her behalf with the bandit even before they had met. He might have left her but he had apologized for that and now he had come for her, even if his manner had left much to be desired. She still didn’t want to leave here, but his motives for wanting her out were selfless.

‘Yes, I trust you,’ she said finally.

‘Then take my hand.’ He held out his palm.

‘You’ve put those leather things away?’

Tucking the jesses in his pocket, he held up his other hand to show her it was empty. ‘See, all gone.’

She touched his fingers tentatively, but his grip firmed immediately, not giving her a chance to retreat again.

‘Out you come.’ He pulled her from the narrow gap until she stood in front of him, her grey gown floured with stone dust. She had a white smudge on her cheek. Cupping her face in his hands, he brushed at it with the pad of his thumb. ‘You look like a ghost.’

‘Do not!’ She rubbed her face with the corner of her sleeve.

‘You do.’ He kept running his thumb over her skin, marvelling at how smooth it felt, like the softest feathers of a barn owl—a thought he’d best keep to himself as she might not appreciate the comparison. ‘Has anyone told you that you have quite a temper?’

She arched a brow. ‘My recollection is that it was you who started the argument, so who’s the one with the temper?’

He smiled, his thumb coming to rest by the corner of her mouth. ‘My family and friends will tell you that I am known for my calmness.’

‘Perhaps they just don’t know you very well.’

‘Perhaps.’ Unable to resist, he dipped his head down and stole a kiss, taking them both by surprise. ‘Now where did that come from?’ he murmured.

Rain blushed and pulled away, her fingers touching her lips. ‘Why did you do that?’

‘Good question. Shall I try it again and see if I can find out?’

‘No.’ She started heading for the cabin at a fast pace. ‘I don’t … no, thank you.’

Peri followed more slowly, savouring the odd sweetness of the moment. She’d just politely refused another kiss when he had anticipated that she would slap him for his boldness. His little foreigner was a bundle of contradictions, never quite doing what he expected, which made her all the more intriguing.