.:Chapter 18:.

He was gone before she could ask why. Amy let out a puff of frustration, and without unbuttoning her pocket, went to the door of the inn and chucked the dead rat outside.

“Alright, you can come out now.”

Rat’s head popped up as soon as the pocket opened. He was human almost before Amy could pull him out of her pocket.

“He doesn’t want us helping Bernard,” she said. She might as well have just confirmed that Schreber was the spy.”

Rat quieted, and wrapped his arms tightly around himself. “I don’t want to work for Schreber. All he does is pick on us anyway. Why can’t you get Bernard to banish him?”

“Because we don’t want the stronghold coming down on the lowly people of Outer-Kaluna. Haven’t you been paying attention the last three days?”

“Well you’d better do something, or he’s gonna come down on us anyway—or Bernard will. You sure pick some lousy friends, Amy.”

“Considering you’re one of them, I’d have to agree.”

“Hey!”

Rat tackled Amy, and soon they were both giggling and wrestling in front of the door. It felt good to let go of some of the tension and forget their problems for a moment, but at last Amy had to put a stop to it.

She lay next to him, looking out at the snow, and then spoke. “If I give you half a silver to keep your mouth shut, will you promise to stay here a couple of days? Stay, and don’t go anywhere else at all, even if Bernard asks you to.”

Rat’s eyes opened wide. “You’ll pay me a silver just to stay here?”

She shot a bitter glance towards the stairwell leading to Bernard’s room. “You might think yourself underpaid by the time I get back.”

He saw the direction of her gaze. “A couple days meaning two, or whenever you happen to get back?”

“Smart boy, you’re learning to count. A couple days meaning until either the assassins or the Duke makes a solid move.”

Rat’s lip pooched out, but he nodded. “Half a silver—and I want to know where you’re going.”

There was real concern in his voice, and a hint of the boy that died long before she had met him. It touched something deep down in Amy. She drew an arrow into Rat’s palm. It was too dark for a spy to see what she had drawn, and the keenest ears could not take knowledge from silence. He thought about it, and squeezed her arm in thanks.

She put the silver in his hand, and turned away so she wouldn’t see the angry swipes he made at his eyes.

“Don’t worry. I have a feeling it will be soon” she whispered.

Amy stayed only long enough to slide her winter clothes on and scrape all of her coins into her coin purse. No one disturbed her as she left the inn, savoring the cool fresh air as much as she also hated it. There was something about the soot-streaked whiteness that appealed to her inner nature. She closed the door behind her, and stepped boldly into the snow.

She never stood a chance. The only hint Amy had that the cat had not continued on across the clearing the way the scent trail claimed was a dark shadow over her head before he landed on her. The force of his attack drove her into the snow, and only the open mouth of an old badger’s den kept her from death right then.

She screamed when a translucent claw raked across her face, catching at her skin in an effort to pull her back up. Behind her, something was stirring. The badger was waking up.

“Amy!”

The unfamiliar voice made her ears roar, but the cat folded under the force of it, and suddenly she was blinking up at Bernard from the bottom of the stairs. His hand had slipped over her tattoo, and his touch made it burn like fire. “Get off. You’re hurting me,” she said, giving him a shove that ought to have been stronger than it was.

He let go, but he didn’t back away. “Tell me what this is. Every time you get so much as a flake of ice on you, you faint. The only time you relax is when you’re so close to the fire it looks like you’re going to burn up. I’m an Invoker. I can help you.”

The strange animal that lived in her heart was gnawing at the edges of her mind again, demanding to be let loose. There wasn’t much she could do if she didn’t trust him, but something also told her that if she did, it would hurt her in the end.

“That’s a big promise considering you don’t even know what it is.”

“I can guess,” he said. He searched her face, but Amy couldn’t return his gaze for long.

“Just give me a chance.”