.:Chapter 17:.

<– Chapter 16 ~*~ Chapter 18 –>

Truth be told, when it came down to bad news concerning her, Amy did not want to be found. It would come to her soon enough, and when she did learn the horrible truth, she usually preferred ignorance. The look on Rat’s face told her this was one of those times.

Amy scowled at the boy until he shrank back, and then fixed her gaze on Bernard. “What did you do?”

This time he didn’t look away, or rub his lip, or do any of the things Amy had come to recognize as indecisive. He stepped into the light pouring through the main room’s front windows and met her with a clear and direct gaze. “I went to find help. Rat and I spoke with the Wolf to see if we could get her on our side.”

She didn’t like his word choice. ‘Our’ meant at least one person was helping him. “And were you successful?”

“He did a pretty good job,” Rat said, glancing at Bernard’s hands apprehensively. Until he mentioned some things about Schreber the Wolf maybe didn’t like.”

She raised in eyebrow. Something the Wolf didn’t like about her lover? This could get interesting. “Such as?”

Bernard put a hand on Rat’s shoulder, and the boy relaxed. “I told her I suspected Schreber as the Stronghold spy.”

Amy stared. “You said that to her face?”

“Well, yeah. She said she’d do anything to help. She was on fire about killing assassins till we brought him up.”

If the Wolf knew it wasn’t true, Amy reasoned, she would have denied it and proved it by getting Schreber’s assistance. Since she had run away instead, it was pretty good proof that Schreber was a spy. This meant the odds of him killing her for associating with Bernard improved with every passing hour.

Amy grabbed Rat by the hand and pulled him away as she made mental plans for their escape. “Let me break this to you from the perspective of someone who isn’t afraid of having magic ripped out of my soul.”

Rat cringed at the tone of her voice and mouthed, “Please don’t do it.”

“Go hide if you’re so scared,” she snapped, giving him a shove. “Free information this time, so take advantage of it. Schreber and the Wolf are tight. They’re best friends, maybe even lovers. Indel are loyal. She’s going to go straight to Schreber and tell him all about your plan, and then they’re going to send an attack out on you.”

Bernard shook his head. “I gave them their power, and I can take it away. They’re loyal to me.”

Amy could have poked about twenty holes in that statement, starting with the fact that Schreber was an indel, but decided a hasty exit was the best course of action.

“Then take away Schreber’s powers, and you won’t have a problem,” she shrugged and glanced toward her bedroll laid out next to the bar. She could survive with nothing besides her money and tool bag for a couple of days, just long enough to figure out how to get rid of Bernard.

“Yeah,” Bernard said as he strode past her and up the stairs. “Maybe I’ll do that.”

<– Chapter 16 ~*~ Chapter 18 –>