Page 82 of The Blade in the Ashes
“I think so, but it all happened so fast.”
Nikolai’s weight shifted. “We’re trying to stop him, to fight back. We’re looking for the Blades of Arto. Do you know where they might be?”
Malakai’s eyes went unfocused, and for a moment, I thought we had lost him without any answers to our questions, but he took one final desperategasp and reached out to cling to Nikolai’s hand. “There’s a collector in Rhanport. Check there.”
Nikolai nodded, holding his hand gently. “Thank you.”
“I feared this might happen, so I took some of the rarer mythology books. Things a God might not want in the hands of an enemy.”
My grip on the hilt of my dagger tightened. “Where?”
“My house.” Malakai’s voice was fading, his whispers almost too soft to hear. “Go now before they return.”
Nikolai’s hair fell over his shoulders as he shook his head in protest. “No, we’ll stay with you. At least until…”
Malakai’s dried lips split open as he coughed through a smile. “Staying will not stop this inevitability, my friend.”
Nikolai’s jaw worked, his eyes focused on the uneven movements of Malakai’s chest as the dying man struggled to breathe. Tension coiled across his shoulders.
“Go back to the horses, Iris,” he instructed, reaching for the blade on his hip.
For once, I didn’t fight him. I just stood and returned to our horses. Opening my saddlebag, I pulled out an old handkerchief and waited. When he finally walked over the hill an eternity later, I gave him the cloth to clean off his bloody hands without question.
We searched for what felt like hours, going through every room in Malakai's now-abandoned house meticulously. Nikolai remained focused as we hunted, his eyes narrowed and mind working.
“Whatever he took wouldn’t be hidden in the open,” he mused aloud, scanning over the room.
I jumped at the sound of his voice, twisting to face him. “You’re the expert treasure hunter, right? Where haven’t we looked?”
He pursed his lips as his hands came to rest on his hips. With determined eyes, he searched the bedroom one last time, lingering on the simple sheets of the mattress and the lines of the dresser.
It was a relatively empty house. Modest. There were no knick-knacks decorating the shelves. Only a few clothes lingered in the drawers. Even the curtains were a drab brown color.
There weren’t many places to hide something valuable.
“Maybe we should just make our way to Rhanport,” I suggested, taking a few tentative steps towards him. “We need those blades more than these books.”
Nikolai’s head jerked, a wild intensity falling over him. “Back up.”
His command was sharp and unyielding, coming only a moment before he advanced towards me.
“Listen, I don’t mean to upset you, but—”
His hand reached out with impossible speed, grasping the dagger strapped to my hip and releasing it from its sheath.
My heart lurched, and I spun swiftly out of arm’s reach, already moving to his left and preparing to kick that soft area of his knee that would leave the joint dislocated.
Nikolai wasn’t even paying attention, though.
He was on his knees, pulling aside the simple rug and shoving my blade into the wooden floorboards.
I stopped my attack. “What are you—”
“It squeaked when you stepped over it,” he explained without looking up at me. “You want to know where I’d look for treasure? Usually, a loose floorboard is a good place.”
I sank to my knees next to him, trying to keep my face free of expression. Not that it mattered, Nikolai was too focused on his task to notice that he’d impressed me.
The board came loose with a creaking groan, and he shot me a triumphant grin that I couldn’t help but mirror as we spotted the bundle hidden in the tiny space underneath.
