The Ghost. It was him, and he was running into the breeze that took his image to Tris.
She ran, her eyes fixed on that current, following it along Kettle Court. Her feet pounded along the cobblestones. Rounding a corner she stepped in rubbish a nd slipped, the movement jarring the image from her eyes. A thick hand gripped her arm. A yellow scarf-wrapped around her neck.
Dema paced as the arurim healer examined the rescued yaskedasu. If the healer pronounced the girl fit to-bear it, Dema would try a spell to enhance her memory of the attack, to see if she could describe the man who had so nearly killed her. In the meantime, he alternated between chewing his nails and berating Keth. For his own part, Keth understood Dema s frustration, but he was preoccupied. The globe, which had earlier cleared to show the yaskedasu under her willow, had clouded again. Keth sat with it gripped in his hands, Dema s words falling on inattentive ears. Sparks of lightning flowed from Keths fingertips, lancing through the mist inside. There was a new image in the globe. He could see the outlines of it, dark buildings, a back street, wooden fences.
A girl raced down a street, sling around her torso, twin braids flapping against her cheeks. She wore no spectacles, but Keth had no trouble recognizing Tris. If these globes were connected to the Ghost, then Tris was in danger.
is this?he demanded, trying to recognize her surroundings.
Tell you we dont have time to deal with whoevers in charge!a clear, crisp voice shouted. The speaker was downstairs in the Winking Eye, where Dema had his command post. woman s in danger now, you bone-headed behemoth!
Dema looked at Keth. they chorused. Both ran for the stairs.
Below stood the arurimi Brosdes and Majnuna. Each of them held one of Nikos arms, impervious to the mages fury. says he knows where our boy is and whos the next victim, explained Brosdes. us to turn out the whole force to track em.
him go,ordered Dema. is it, Dhaskoi Niko?
muttered the taller of the arurimi. never said nothin about bein dhaskoi.
Keth thrust the globe at Niko. this it?he demanded. this why youre here?
Did that come from?Dema wanted to know. - Tris?
made it clear again,Keth explained.
is why Im here,snapped Niko. was scrying for the future, and this time the images came together.Hands trembling, he laid them over the globe, his fingers touching Keths. Both of them concentrated, Ke th letting what power he had left pass into the glass. The image of Tris shrank as the vision grew wider and wider. is that?demanded Niko. is she?
Strut?asked the thick-voiced Majnuna, squinting at the image.
Strut,confirmed Brosdes. Silkfingers Lane.
ve frozen it where she is right now. She wont be there when we arrive,Niko said hurriedly. need Little Bear. He can track her. We need him and we need to move. This takes place in fifteen minut es, twenty if we are fortunate. Her life is about to intersect with the Ghosts I dont know how, but if you want him to be alive when you question him, we must go!
Bears at Ferouzes,Keth told Dema. get him and meet you at the corner of Chamberpot and Peacock.As he raced out of the inn, Keth heard Brosdes mutter, we want him to be alive?
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Tris, dazed by her wind-scrying, hadnt even heard the man. As she dragged at the cloth he fought to twist around her neck, Chime lunged up from her sling over Triss shoulder and spat needles into the man s face. He screamed, clutching a punctured eye, and staggered back, releasing the girl. Dragging the cloth from her throat, Tris kicked out, hard, catching the man between his legs. Down he went into the gutter muck.
She blinked hurriedly, clearing her vision of magic, and yanked her spectacles from her sash, putting them on. At last she could see what she and Chime had brought down: a prathmun, wearing the dirty, ragged tunic and the chopped haircut decreed for all of his class. Tris pulled a length of yellow silk off her neck and clenched her fingers around it.
I look like a yaskedasu? she wanted to know.
He scrabbled back, away from her, his right eye a ruin. Tris closed on him. re here, aint you?growled the prathmun. after night I seen you, out walkin where none of the outsiders go. You consort with them, youre as good as them, ugly little filth-wench to be left all dirty on their nice, white marble.He tried to pull the needles out of his face.
Did the yaskedasi do to you?demanded Tris. arent that much better off than you, or much more respected.
whelped me!the Ghost snarled. and her Assembly lover, they got me, but they wouldnt keep me. They throwed me into the sewer to live or die, till the other sewer-pigs found
She wasnt expecting it; later she would scold herself. He slammed her in the chest with both bare feet. Triss head cracked on the cobblestones as she fell, adding the white flare of pain to the coloured fires that remained from her scrying.
Chime leaped free as Tris went down. Now she swooped on the killer prathmun, spitting needles into his scalp as he crawled toward Tris to snatch the yellow veil from the girls h and. He jumped to his feet with a snarl, arms flailing as he tried to knock the glass dragon away. With no torches to illuminate her, Chime might as well have been invisible. She swooped again, raking the Ghosts head with sharp claws.
Tris kicked out, catching him behind the knees. He stumbled, lurched, gathered his feet under him and ran.
go!Tris ordered. him down!
The dragon followed the Ghost, her glass body silent-and hidden in the night. Tris got to her own feet, passing her power ove r her eyes again and again to clear her vision. All of her braids sprang from their pins, hanging free. The ties popped off her two lesser lightning braids.
Tris reached to the top of each thin braid and ran her hands down, sparks leaping under her fingers . She moulded them into a ball to see by and let it hang in the air as she drew a good, stiff breeze from two wind braids. She sent it after Chime as a living rope, so she wouldn t lose the glass dragon, then followed. As she trotted along she thanked the gods of earth and fire for Chime. If not for the dragon, her corpse might be on its way to defile one of Tharioss proudest places right now.