The Bridge Kingdom (The Bridge Kingdom #1)(49)

Jerking her hand out of the old woman’s grip, Lara glared at her. “I’m going to bed.” Her boots thudded imperiously as she made her way over to the cot that had been made up for her, and she curbed a smile as, from the corner of her eye, she watched Nana down the contents of her cup.

Now to wait.





19





Lara





Not an hour later, the home dark, Nana’s groan split the silence. A moment later, the old woman climbed from her bed and staggered out the door. On her feet in a flash, Lara went to the wall of vials, plucking up one she’d noticed earlier. Measuring out a drop, she held it beneath Taryn’s nostril, silently apologizing for the headache it would cause in the morning as the gently snoring woman snorted it up.

Lara stepped outside into a pool of lantern light. A gentle breeze tugged at her hair, smelling of jungle and rain, the stars overhead only visible in patches through the growing cloud cover. Lara took the lantern, turned the flame up as high as it would go, then strode toward the small outbuilding where the toilet was located.

Stopping outside, she smirked at the sounds coming from within, then rotated in a circle, peering into the darkness. As predicted, a tall Ithicanian man appeared. “Is there something I can help you with, Your Grace?” He hooked his thumb on his belt as he eyed her.

“Oh!” Lara jumped, then pressed a hand to her mouth as though startled. “Well, I needed to . . .” She gestured at the building right as a tremendous fart reverberated from within, followed up by a groan of dismay. Lara might be out of her element in Ithicana, but when it came to narcotics, she was right at home. Nana was exactly where she expected her to be.

The guard’s eyes widened in the lantern light. “Right.” He was obviously trying not to laugh. “I see. Well, perhaps you could . . .”

“A bush will do.” Lara giggled, pushing the lantern at him. “Can you hold this for me?”

Relieving herself behind the cover of a tree, Lara returned to the guard and retrieved the lantern. Holding it up, she marked how he squinted and blinked from the brightness. “Do you suppose she’ll be all right?” Lara gestured to the outhouse. “Do you think we should . . . ?”

“No!” The thought of interrupting Nana in the toilet was clearly not something he cared to risk. “I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

“I hope so.” Lara gave him a winning smile, then retreated to the house. Nana would be shitting for hours, but she’d be fine come morning. Snuffing the lantern, she hung it on the hook and went inside.

But she didn’t shut the door all the way.

Counting to five, she eased it back open, greeted by nothing but blackness. Her eyes hadn’t adjusted from the brilliant light of the lantern, but that meant neither would have the guard’s. Moving blind, Lara edged around the corner of the house where she waited until she could make out the shadows of the trees, then she dropped to the ground, crawling silently next to Nana’s garden wall until she was in the jungle.

The trees on this island weren’t nearly as thick as they were on Midwatch, faint moon and starlight filtering through the leaves, allowing Lara to move at a slow trot up the path toward the bridge pier. Any sound she made was covered by the ocean breeze, but she paused occasionally to listen for sounds of pursuit. There were none.

The faint scent of wet rock drifted over her nose, strange and yet familiar, and after a heartbeat, Lara recognized it as the unique odor of the bridge stone. Moving more cautiously, lest there be guards, she crept up the path until, through the trees, she made out the large shadow of the pier rising up into the night. A shadow that spread out north and south: the bridge.

Picking her way through the trees, Lara searched for any sign of a guard, but there was none, so she made her way to the base of the pier. It was constructed from the combination of a natural rock outcropping and bridge stone, and it held the bridge perhaps twenty feet above the ground. The terrain around it was rocky, so there was no obvious path leading to the entrance she knew was there. Lara ran her fingernail against the expanse of bridge stone that made up the pier, searching the base for the outline of the door, but she soon gave up. There were too many scratches and marks, and she didn’t have that much time. So she resorted to pushing on the surface, throwing her weight against the stone in the hopes it would open.

Nothing.

Swearing, Lara went to the part of the pier that was natural stone. Kicking off her heavy boots and tucking them into a shadow, she started climbing. Higher and higher she rose, back and shoulders burning from the effort. She reached the bottom of the bridge, feeling along the side of it and smiling as she found linear striations in the stone that provided just enough handholds for her to climb. Her fingers screaming at her, Lara scrambled up the side of the bridge, rolling onto the top.

Darkness spread out beneath her in an endless sea of night, only a few pinpricks of light from the island’s interior breaking the velvety blackness. Moving slowly, Lara trailed her fingers down the middle of the bridge, knowing that she’d eventually find a mile-marker twin to the one inside.

Sweat dribbled down her back, her internal clock telling her that she needed to get back to Nana’s house, but she pressed on until she found it. Then she strode back to the pier, counting her carefully measured paces.

Only to hear voices coming from the opposite direction.