Needle Rain (32 page)

She looked straight back at him, at the curve of his lip, the shine in his eyes. His eyes went amber in sunlight and he had a scar on his throat that he claimed was the wound that had made him mute. He lied to her sometimes. It was his way, but never on the big things. She could feel the word, no, on her tongue, hear its echo in her mind. It was the truth, wasn’t it?

She raised her hand. It wavered for a second. “
Perhaps
.”

He turned away and her breath caught.

Perhaps. Sometimes saying the right thing was wrong, and now her heart unraveled, peeled away, sliver by sliver. She shuddered and looked away from him.

The spiral of the lizard’s circle grew smaller and smaller. When it appeared ready to land back on the Finder, he held up his gloved fist.

Abruptly it veered, diving. With wings cupped and feet outstretched, it landed with a thump on Ellinca’s head. Her eyes widened. She felt it shift its weight while untangling first one claw then the other from her hair. It made its way down her head and plopped onto her shoulder.

The people around her muttered and drew away. Only Pascolli turned with such slow deliberation she would swear she saw him weighing his thoughts. He came to her.

With small finger movements, he signed. “
Be calm
.” For an instant she was happy – he’d come back to her.

“
How?”
she signed back and swallowed slowly, her throat instantly dry. From the corner of her eye she examined the lizard. She jerked her shoulder. The wretched creature refused to take flight. A pretty metallic tinkling and the smell of sweaty horses told her some soldiers moved in closer.

She wasn’t a mage, couldn’t use wild magience, not really. Fear tightened on her heart. This man would understand. Surely.

Frope looked back at her with narrowed eyes, and that smile of his – totally without joy.

“Sir.” Her voice squeaked. “I’m-I’m not an illegal mage.” She wasn’t. The other day had been a freak happening, strange, but not her fault.

Pascolli moved closer. Behind the swaying black fringe, beneath the looming eyebrows, his eyes smoldered. Oh scum, he was getting cross.

The blood inherited from his wild Andonny ancestors had given Pascolli a passion for life. His anger was hard to kindle but fiercely hot. Reluctantly, she stepped away from him. It wouldn’t do for both of them to be in trouble.

“
Please, stay back!
” she signed, but he reached out and squeezed her hand.

“I want the members of this theater troupe and these two to remain here! The rest of you may go.” Hilas Frope waved his hand vaguely. “And do whatever it is you do. Lieutenant! See that they’re orderly.”

“Yes sir!”

Though Frope said nothing more, several of his horse soldiers edged their mounts in until they formed a smaller circle separating the cast from the audience.

Ellinca did not dare to speak out loud to anyone but Pascolli signed to her. “
I won’t let him do anything.
”

Her heartbeat accelerated. Kurt, Beth’s partner in the troupe, glared so hotly at the Finder’s feet, she wouldn’t have been surprised to see them smoke.

Hilas Frope reached up and unhooked a wicker chair from the stage’s ceiling. Stage props were stored up there, hidden behind the curtain. He settled into the chair.

Someone from the audience yelled they wanted to stay and watch while another splayed his fingers like a fan before his eyes and spat – warding off evil.

“We ought to know what’s happenin’ in our own town,” a woman mumbled to her neighbor. “Gods, how about that crater across from Hull. Nuthin left is there?”

“Yeah,” her neighbor agreed. “Mages! Curse the lot of them!”

The soldiers rounded up the townspeople and traders efficiently and sent them down the road leading back into the town of Strickly. There wasn’t far to go. No one would see the shows if they set up too far afield.

Ellinca stared down the road. She tried to stand still and not suck on her lip. It wouldn’t do to look nervous.

Frope’s lieutenant, a man with a nose like a parrot’s beak, pushed through to salute Frope. “All done, sir!”

“Thank you.”

The lieutenant stood to one side, facing them. He folded his arms. A smug sneer put his lips askew.

Ellinca shivered. The lizard, after sitting huddled in a lump on her shoulder through the upheaval, stirred. A faint, regular clicking reached her ears. She looked out the corner of her eye. Its scaly hide had minute lines, like seams in material. The eyes were lustrous, reminding her of glass baubles, but it moved. It thought.

She put a finger up to touch the creature’s hide.

The little lizard sank its bright needle teeth into her finger tip. She clenched her own teeth, hissing in pain through them and jiggling her finger to make it let go. The lizard opened his mouth and licked away a droplet of blood.

It had a tongue. Even as she feared that it savored her blood and filtered it for signs of wild magience, she marveled at its possession of a working tongue. What a marvelous trinketton.

Finder Frope took off his spectacles.

She gasped. The thick metal bridge of the spectacles had hidden a crater in his forehead. Though the circumference crawled with blue fire, the middle of the coin-sized crater was red. Not flesh, Ellinca realized with amazed horror, not blood. She knew that color well. She glanced behind him. It was the stage’s backdrop. The hole went straight through his head and out again.

No one said a word.

“Ahh. Have I shocked you?” He gestured broadly at them all. “When I was barely nine years old I saw a mage caught by the Imperator’s guards. One of the guards was killed by him, while I, sadly, was hit here...” Gently, he touched the hole. “Now, if an arrow lodges here. It kills. For a time I wished I had been...killed, that is. Instead...instead I have a hole drilled between the two halves of my brain! And I always, always have a headache!”

He chuckled then whipped his head around and focused on Ellinca. “You can see why I don’t like mages. Can’t you, dear?”

A faint buzzing came from the blue fire crawling around the crater.

Though she was sure he didn’t really need an answer, Ellinca nodded. Her lip trembled.

Frope’s leg swung like a pendulum where he’d propped it on the arm of the chair. He slumped in the seat, lapsing into silence.

The lizard licked its lips. Normal blood-scryers changed color. The lantern light was all yellowish and wavering. She couldn’t tell at all if the lizard had changed.

Pascolli made a harsh, guttural sound.

“Are you speaking or dying, young man? Whatever, it is verging on disrespect.”

“Pascolli can’t talk, sir,” she blurted. “There’s something wrong with his throat. He hasn’t spoken for many years.” She watched nervously as Pascolli signed his words. “He says that I am innocent. I’m not a mage.”

“Hmm.” Frope clicked his tongue. With a whir of its wings the lizard launched and flew to his hand. He promptly tucked it into the canister.

“If you’re not a mage, why did Aristopheles single you out?”

“I don’t know. He made a mistake.” She frowned, knowing she sounded unconvincing. No mention of the man Pascolli had punched earlier. He didn’t know. Or was he merely torturing her, knowing there was an accuser?

To her surprise, Kurt interjected, “Maybe it’s because every cursed creature for miles around finds her! Now will you please stop wasting my time and ruining our reputation as good citizens of the empire. I will appeal this to a legislator if I have to!”

Oh, no.

The lieutenant tensed and placed a hand on his sword.

Finder Frope merely half-closed his eyes and turned his glasses in his hands. Dark smudges underlined his eyes.

When had he last slept?

“Animals find you... That is not much of an excuse. Aristopheles is not really an animal. Still, he is supposed to attack...viciously. Not land on your shoulder and go to sleep.” He yawned, put on his spectacles and stood. “I do believe that you don’t think you are a mage.”

Ellinca frowned. Did that mean what she thought it did? Or did he simply like confusing people? Hilas Frope was himself a puzzle.

A soldier handed the Finder his horse’s reins. “I have a bludvoik to catch, but I am curious about why animals have taken a liking to you. Seems odd to me. Lieutenant!” Frope swung into the saddle.

“Sir?”

“That fellow with the tuskdog you caught wandering about. He said he wanted her to have a look at it? Take her to the animal and observe what happens. That scum-sucking court photographer can go with you. Give him something to do instead of buzzing about the encampment like a globfly.”

He glanced at Ellinca again. She tried to act unconcerned and stop trembling but it only made him pay her more attention. “Let her take a friend, that Pascolli boy. We are not in the habit of scaring girls to death. And, Lieutenant, show me you deserve that promotion.”

I’m not going to thank you
. In fact she felt like kicking Frope’s shins. He had already scared her half to death.

The lieutenant hesitated. “Sir? Uh...” A cold smile spread across his lips, as if a pleasant thought had occurred to him. He completed a very snappy salute. “Yes, sir! Take her to the animal and observe!”

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Cari Silverwood is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling writer of kinky darkness or sometimes of dark kinkiness, (and sometimes fantasy, such as this book) depending on her moods and the amount of time she’s spent staring into the night. She’s yet to write a book on knitting or cooking but macabre death scenes are a specialty.

If you’d like to learn more go to
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Also by Cari Silverwood

If you’re primarily a reader of fantasy and not erotic fiction, bear in mind the only stories below that are not kinky (BDSM) and erotic are the magience-based books. In particular, the Dark Hearts and Pierced Hearts books are written to be very dark and very disturbing.

Written in the Magience world

Magience (under the pen name Cari Silver)

Needle Rain

Preyfinders Series

(Erotic scifi)

Precious Sacrifice (Originally published in the anthology, Kept)

Intimidator

Defiler

Preyfinders – The Trilogy

Preyfinders Universe

Cyberella

The Badass Brats Series

The Dom with a Safeword

The Dom on the Naughty List

The Dom with the Perfect Brats

The Dom with the Clever Tongue

Squirm Files Series

Squirm – virgin captive of the billionaire biker tentacle monster

Strum – virgin captive of the billionaire demon rock star monster

The Well-hung Gun – virgin captive of the billionaire were-squid gunslinger monster

Cataclysm Blues Series

Cataclysm Blues

(A free erotic scifi novella)

The Steamwork Chronicles Series

Iron Dominance

Lust Plague

Steel Dominance

Dark Hearts Series

(Dark erotic fiction)

Wicked Ways

Wicked Weapon

Wicked Hunt

Pierced Hearts Series

(Dark erotic fiction)

Take me, Break me

Klaus – a novella

Bind and Keep me

Make me Yours Evermore

Seize me From Darkness

Yield

Pierced Hearts Volume 1 – contains books #1, #2 and #3

Pierced Hearts Volume 2 – contains books #2 and #3

Pierced Hearts Volume 3 – contains books #4 and #5

Others

31 Flavors of Kink

Three Days of Dominance

Rough Surrender

(Released by Momentum, an eBook branch of Pan Macmillan)

Blood Glyphs