Page 21 of Reap & Sow

Eda ran, heedless this time of the wet ground, desperate to put more distance between herself and the Blades. Just a bit farther. Just a bit—

Something yanked her sideways. She yelped in shock. Eda hadn’t even seen the narrow side tunnel, but now she was hauled in, strange hands over her mouth and waist. She screamed against the rough palm, kicked, thrashed.

“Be quiet,” a male voice hissed, “or you’ll bring them this way.”

Eda stopped. Stiff as a board, she allowed the stranger to pull her deeper into the shadows until they turned another corner. Another passage. There they stayed, pressed to the stone as though carved from it. Heavy footsteps rushed past. The tunnels echoed with the scrape of chainmail. Eda waited for the Blades to turn into this same tunnel, to find her there trapped like a sacrificial lamb, but they ran on in a steady rush.

She counted in heartbeats until the footsteps became mere echoes in the dark. Then she was spun around.

Her captor had dark eyes and a heavyset brow, with broad shoulders and a scowl discernible even through the shadows. But none of this interested her. Eda saw only his handsome wool tunic and fur collar. Vagrants and criminals were known to hide down here in the undercity, and this man surely wasn’t of the former.

She ripped her mouth free. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“A question better suited for yourself, miss. You come bringing Blades into these parts like a fox fleein’ hounds. On what business?”

She glanced down the tunnel. Somewhere farther along, a dim light glowed. “I don’t need to know your business, and you definitely don’t need to know mine. I’m only passing through. I mean to get back to the surface at once.”

“You know how to get to the surface without runnin’ into any more of ’em?” He tipped his head. “They don’t seem too friendly.”

Eda set her jaw. She wished desperately for her penknife, but she’d dropped it back in the shop. “Are you offering to escort me? What do you want?”

“For you to tell me why you’re down here with the Order on your tail.”

“No.”

“Well, now, these tunnels belong to Severin Lich,” he said slowly, “and anyone bringin’ trouble better have damn good reason.”

Eda blanched. Dread squeezed her lungs.

Severin Lich. Saints, perhaps she truly was cursed. She’d slipped out of the Blades’ grasp only to run straight into that of a prolific crime lord—one who’d been watching them for weeks. Was this some sort of divine punishment?

She paused. Considered the burly man before her.

Her brothers were prisoners of the Blades, and Mr. Night seemed content to let the pieces fall where they may. That should not have hurt so keenly, but it was a knife to the gut nonetheless. Autumn harvest was less than three weeks away. Ben and Lawrie would die, either by Florian Fane’s hand or Mr. Night’s. Eda along with them.

I have to fix this. Their father brought this upon them, but Eda was not blameless. She had been the one to kill their mother, had set it all in motion. Now, thanks to her insipid selfishness, her brothers faced death too. Her fault. Everything, always her fault.

If she could only free Ben and Lawrie. Get Mr. Night his last ten years. Then the Shaws could leave it all behind, including Blackbridge and whatever ill fate awaited it. Perhaps they’d be penniless criminals on the run, but at least they’d be alive.

Such a task was impossible alone. Eda had nothing and no one capable of aiding her. There’s only one sort of power that can help me now.

And if there was anyone in this stinking city who could offer it, it was a soul broker.

Dread and disgust curdled in her gut. For a moment Eda was paralyzed by indecision, so visceral was her self-loathing. She thought of her father. Of all the dealies brought like cattle before the mirror. To actually do this, to become just like them…

Then she thought of her brothers.

Eda squared her shoulders. “Can you take me to him? Severin Lich?”

“Why would I do that?”

“I’ve information I think he’ll find interesting.”

The man scanned her with a shrewd expression. “No shit. And what’re you expectin’ in return for this interesting information?”

Eda closed her mind to the warning of her racing heart. “I need to make a Pact.”

Seven