Page 18 of Reap & Sow

Eda clung to the grate. Tears rolled down her face. My fault, my fault, my fault.

There were five Blades in all, a sixth above her on the stairs; she peered up through the gaps in the stairwell at his red cloak and heavy leather boots. Suddenly, they moved aside.

Another pair of feet appeared—more slender, their step lighter. Eda watched in trepidation as those fine feet slowly traversed the stairwell. Her brothers were hauled upright. She saw their expressions change before she caught a glimpse of the newcomer herself.

A lithe, angular figure stepped into the firelight. His red hair positively glowed against the shadows. Eda’s heart dropped.

“Well,” Bishop Florian Fane said, “what have we here?”

Six

The Blades lit the remaining sconces. The cellar swelled with light. Eda shrank back, scared that someone might see her, but the margins of the room were dark, and the stairwell made for good cover. She should have left already.

Her feet wouldn’t move.

Eda had to know what they were going to do with them. She had to see.

Florian Fane approached her brothers with clasped hands. She’d thought him handsome when she first saw him. Now his presence only turned her stomach. Why? Why are you here? He was a bishop—far too grand a cleric to personally oversee arrests like these.

“Allow me a proper introduction. My name is Florian Fane, recently instated as bishop here in Crowgate. I’ve already had the dubious pleasure of meeting Mr. Lawrence Shaw. But you, Shaw the Elder, I do not know. Benjamin, is it?”

Lawrie’s light brown curls hung over his eyes, but Ben met Fane’s gaze without a flinch. The mirror was a sinister, damning presence at their backs. “Forgive my language, Father, but kindly cut the shit. Are you arresting us or not?”

One of the Blades holding him raised a fist; Fane waved him off. “No need for that, thank you. Though it may be more mercy than you deserve, Mr. Shaw, considering the appalling mess you made upstairs.” He gestured at Ben’s bloody shirt. “That was you, I take it?”

Ben said nothing. Fane turned to the Blade upon the stairs. “Jessen. Have you checked all the rooms?”

“Aye, Father. No one else is home.”

“Hm.” Fane asked her brothers, “Where is Miss Eda Shaw currently?”

Eda’s blood pounded in her skull.

“She’s not here.”

“Then where is she?”

This earned him no response at all. Fane sighed. “Very well. Mr. Jessen, if you would.”

Jessen called down in a deep timbre, “Lawrence and Benjamin Shaw. You have been found in possession of a demonic artifact and are hereby arrested, under suspicion of both murder and soul brokerage. You will be taken from this place forthwith to await trial.”

Trial, Eda thought numbly. There are no trials. Accused murderers might slip the noose with good enough legal representation, but if anyone charged with soul brokerage had escaped the gallows, she hadn’t heard of them. Those stories only ever ended one way.

The Blades dragged her brothers unceremoniously from the room. It took all of Eda’s willpower not to call out to them, to burst free of the chute and run to their aid. She wanted to claw at the Blades that held them. Drag them off, scream her fury. But common sense rooted her in place. If she revealed herself now, she’d be captured just the same.

She could do nothing but watch.

“I’d advise leaving the room until more Blades arrive, Father. That mirror is dangerous.”

“Worry not for my safety, Mr. Jessen. While your Order are certainly experts in matters of subduing the demonic, we Faithful are not without our own protections. I would still like some time alone to bless the Gateway.”

“Commander Tenelle would insist—”

“Jessen.” Fane’s smile turned hard. “Tenelle is not here. A few moments, if you please. Come only if I call for you.”

A shuffling of feet. “Aye, sir.” The cellar door swung shut behind him.

Eda frowned. The Blades were not simply a militant branch of the Faithhood; they alone had the weaponry and training sufficient to deal with demons. A bishop had no place being left alone with a Gateway, even for a simple blessing. Yet they hadn’t stopped him.