The Bone Shard Daughter (The Drowning Empire, #1)(82)

“None that he’s felt safe to give us.”

Stealing things was more straightforward. Go in without a thing, leave with a thing. I nodded. “I’ll leave now.”

I turned to go, but Gio’s voice stopped me. “You can’t take him with you.”

It took me a moment to understand what he meant. Mephi. I’d grown so used to having him at my side that it had never occurred to me that he wouldn’t always just be there. That he couldn’t always be there.

“People will notice,” Gio said when I pivoted back to him. “You’ve garnered a reputation. And your pet is unusual. They don’t mention your pet in the songs perhaps, but the gossip is a different matter. I’ll meet you by the entrance. Cutting your hair after the Empire painted your portraits was a good move, but we can disguise you a little more in case anyone’s seen the posters. There are fewer here.”

He was right, though I didn’t much like it.

The rebels had set me up in a room near the main cavern. It was carved so neatly it could have been formed from a mold. A relief was carved into the ceiling of a woman in flowing robes, a swirling ball hovering over her left hand and water dripping from her right in a flow heavy as a waterfall. A mountain stood behind her. The artist had carved the mountain to be almost as imposing as the woman – a tall and jagged thing, capped at the top with what looked to be a cloud juniper. The tiny lamp in the corner cast angry shadows across the woman’s face.

It was a fearsome thing to be stared down by when one was trying to sleep.

Mephi nudged my hand with his head. His head was now nearly to my waist, which made sense when I saw how much he ate every day. He’d be the size of a small pony a few months into the wet season if he kept this up. The fur on his horn numbs had rubbed completely clean, leaving dark, shiny patches of skin. “I should go with you,” he said.

I stared down at him, astonished. “Are you speaking in complete sentences now?”

“Sometimes?” He leaned against my leg and peered up at me, his black eyes like river-polished stones. “I should be with you.”

“Just nine more days and we’ll be gone again.” I scratched at his cheeks. “We’ll be out on the Endless Sea and you can go fishing off the side of the boat.”

He let out a heavy sigh – the sort a husband might when his wife said she was well and truly done sailing in storms, after she just sailed into this next one. He shook his head and began to dig at the blankets. “You are doing a good, but you are alone. Alone is bad. Alone is not good.” He made a hollow in the blankets and settled into it, his tail curling about his nose. We’d just woken up. Was he tired again already? “I am alone.”

The creature sounded so dejected, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. I knelt and cupped his head in my hands. His head was now as heavy as a dog’s, his jaw wider and heavy with muscle. The bite he’d left on that Imperial soldier must have hurt. Pride filled my chest. He’d come a long way since the ragged little kitten-thing I’d plucked from the ocean. “Don’t bother the cook, and I’ll be back tonight.”

I gave him a last pat on the head and left before he could entreat me again to stay. Ranami hovered outside the door, a sheet of parchment in her hands. Had she heard me talking to Mephi? The doors here were all stone – she certainly didn’t look at me as though she’d heard Mephi talk.

“Here,” she said, shoving the piece of parchment at me. “It’s a map. You’ll need to know how to get to the city from here. Take the long way – don’t lead anyone back to us. Gio is waiting for you.” She seemed agitated, her hands smoothing the front of her dress as soon as I’d taken the map.

I hesitated. “Is something wrong?” I shouldn’t have asked. Asking meant I might feel sorry for her, and then I might offer to help. I’d done enough helping. Emahla was out there, and it had been seven years.

She closed her eyes for a moment and shook her head. “It’s fine. It will be fine, as long as you do what you’ve promised to. Better men and women than you have fallen to spies or constructs. Watch your back.”

“Wait,” I said before she could leave. “My pet, Mephi. Can you watch him while I’m gone? Make sure he eats enough? He’s been more hungry than usual lately.”

Her expression softened. She might not have liked me, but there were few who didn’t like Mephi. “He seems very attached to you. I’ll do my best.”

Gio waited for me near the entrance, his cloak wrapped around his shoulders, his beard nearly hidden in it, a leather bag at his side. He looked like only one dark eye and a scar. “Good luck,” he told me.

“I don’t need luck,” I said with a dismissive wave. “I need skill.”

“Good skill doesn’t have quite the same ring,” Gio said. “And it’s not something I can wish upon you.”

I stopped and waited as he applied putty to my face to hide the shape of my nose. “This rebellion. You’re playing a game with long odds,” I said. “Are you planning on winning, or are you only planning on making your opponent miserable before you reach the end?”

“I only play to win.” Gio’s gaze focused on the bridge of my nose, his thumb pressing near my eye. “And we will win. The Emperor isolates himself. He is dying and no one really knows his daughter. What do you think will happen when he dies? What will happen to all the constructs spread across the islands? They will no longer have any direction. And the rebellion will be there to pick up the pieces.”