The Drowning City - Amanda Downum [92]
“The cabins will be in the back,” Vienh said, nodding toward the hall on the right. She drew her knife and took a lantern off its hook.
The floor swayed gently beneath them as the wind gusted. Vienh went first, Adam watching their backs. Vasilios’s diamond all but hummed as they drew nearer to its sister-stone. This close, Isyllt could feel the ghosts in her ring moving restlessly in their prison. And another ghost, free of the stone. Deilin.
“Be careful,” she murmured to Vienh. “Your grandmother is here.”
The smuggler cursed under her breath.
Light spilled from under a cabin door, along with a woman’s voice. Vienh’s shoulders stiffened.
“It’s Kaeru.”
The woman spoke in Sivahran, too low for Isyllt to follow. It sounded like a one-sided argument; then she heard Deilin’s death-hollowed voice answer.
“What are they saying?” she asked.
“Kaeru’s talking about a girl, and about how they need someone. Whoever she’s talking to. I can’t hear the response.”
Beyond the door, Isyllt felt the old woman’s heart, still strong, and Deilin’s icy presence. And someone else, alive but not strong.
The voices rose. “It’s not right,” Deilin said.
“You must. We need you.”
“She’s a child—” She broke off, and Isyllt sensed the dead woman’s attention turning toward them.
Isyllt’s jaw tightened. “Murai’s in there. Let’s go.”
Vienh nodded, passing the lantern to Isyllt as she drew back. The door cracked under the force of her kick, flying inward and rebounding against the wall. The smuggler caught it as she stepped inside.
The scene was all too familiar. Murai lay still, wan and feverish, and Deilin stood at the foot of the bed. Kaeru sprang back as the door opened, the black diamond gleaming on her gnarled hand.
“It was you all along, wasn’t it?” Vienh said. Lamplight rippled along the length of her blade. “You let her through the wards. You let her take my daughter.”
“Better than wasting Xian blood in another generation of collaborators and mongrels.”
“We took you in!” Vienh gasped, sagging against the door, one hand rising to her throat. The ring glowed in Kaeru’s hand.
“Don’t—” Deilin said, but the old woman ignored her.
Isyllt pushed Vienh aside, forced her way into the cabin.
“Company’s coming,” Adam called from the hall.
The lantern kept her from reaching her knife, so Isyllt swung it instead. Distracted by her magic, Kaeru didn’t dodge fast enough; the lamp struck her jaw with a wet crack and slipped from Isyllt’s hand to shatter on the floor. Tendrils of burning oil licked across the wood.
The old woman fell, clutching her face. Vienh coughed and moaned; someone shouted in the corridor. Isyllt crouched, prying Kaeru’s hand away from her bloody mouth and twisting the ring off her finger. Deilin lunged just in time to vanish into the stone.
Isyllt fumbled her ring onto her right hand, sighing as its comforting chill swept through her. Fire crackled at the walls, singed the bottom of the bedsheet. Murai tossed but didn’t wake.
“So the child is a Xian as well?”
“Her mother was, before she became an Assari whore.” The words came out ugly and slurred and Kaeru spat blood. Her jaw was already swelling. A knife flickered into her hand as she sat up and Isyllt rocked backward. “We won’t let them take any more of our children.”
Vienh’s boot caught the woman’s wrist, sent the knife spinning.
“No. I won’t let you take any more of ours.” The smuggler’s blade sank into Kaeru’s throat. With a twist, she pulled it free. A crimson bubble burst on the old woman’s lips as she sank to the floor.
Steel clashed in the hallway. “Can I kill them yet?” Adam shouted.
“As many as you like.” Isyllt pushed herself up; the swaying of the deck rippled her stomach uneasily.
Vienh wiped her blade on her wet trousers and sheathed it. Dodging around the spreading flames, she scooped Murai into her arms. “Bastards,” she hissed.