Page 39 of The Storm
“I don’t want to hurt you, but I’m afraid my friend thinks the man with you is dangerous.”
The woman in the blue head scarf shook her head violently.No!
The little girl pried the woman’s hand away from her mouth. “Mama?”
The woman kept shaking her head. She curled into herself, trying to move farther away from Max.
“He doesn’t have knives, Mama.”
The woman shook her head again.
“I promise you”—Max looked at the woman—“I promise you I mean you no harm. I know there are Grigori like you. I know you’re trying to live quietly. I saw your room. I saw your daughter’s paintings.”
The woman stared at him but didn’t speak.
“You live up here to get away from the voices, don’t you? So she won’t have them in her head.” He nodded at the little girl. “You’re a good mother.”
Mother, mother, mother. This was akareshtawith a magical child. Akareshtain the company of a Grigori with a child pointed to one obvious conclusion. “You’re a family, aren’t you? The man, he’s your mate.”
The woman frowned but still didn’t speak.
“We like it here,” the little girl said. “I don’t hear anyone up here except Mama and Baba. And sometimes there are a few people in the summer. But they don’t bother me too much. They usually have happy thoughts because they’re on holiday.”
“Is it better in the library?”
“There’s magic there,” she whispered. “Do you feel it too? It feels so nice.”
Max smiled. “I do.”
“I like playing in the library.” She looked at her mother with guilty eyes. “I’m not supposed to, but I do.”
Just like Renata, the little girl had ventured into the forbidden. “I often did things I wasn’t allowed to when I was your age.”
“Did your mother get angry with you?”
My mother is dead,he thought.Killed by brothers of the man who fathered you.
It was all too twisted and heartbreaking to share. The child was an innocent. Looking at the woman, Max knew that she—unlike her daughter—knew the truth. Their races were at war, and if Max didn’t find Renata quickly, there might be another casualty that night.
“I’ll find them,” he told the woman. “Which way did he go?”
The woman pointed to the right.
Max said, “Stay here. Stay hidden. I’ll come back for you.”
Following the passageway as it sloped down, Max felt the air grow colder and drier. He was leaving the warmth of the hot springs and entering the heart of the mountain. Limestone glittered around him and stalactites glittered from the ceiling above. He paused where the passage branched and listened.
There. Finally.
There was muffled scuffling in the distance and labored breathing. Max ran in the direction of the fight, almost running over Renata as she charged the man holding a silver dagger, crouched across from her in fighting position. Blood marked his cheek and one eye was turning black. Renata’s shirt was torn and she was leaning heavily on her left knee.
“Stop!”
“He’s Grigori.”
“He’s a father,” Max said, trying to move between Renata and the man she was fighting. “The child we saw? She’s his.”
The Grigori swept a leg out and tried to trip Max.
