Page 111 of Voidwalker
“Mayor Boden.” The girl shrank, brown cheeks nearly disappearing in the fur ruff of her coat. “Why’s there a monster here? Daddy says monsters aren’t allowed in Nyskya.”
What was she doing here? This late, the building should have been empty of workers, much less a child. Antal hadn’t moved, his tail swaying an uncertain arc, as if he had no idea what to do with this tiny, defenseless creature staring at him in such terror. Fair. Fi wasn’t great with kids, either.
So why wasn’t hegone? Vanished like a bad nightmare. His eyes snapped higher, staring down the hall at—
“Anisa.” Boden crouched in front of the girl, his tone forced levity. “It’s late. What are you doing here?”
“Daddy forgot some papers. He brought me with him.”
“You came with Savo? Where—”
“Anisa!”
The shout came from the hall. A man followed, wire-built and dark-skinned, spectacles askew against a knitted hat. Savo. The power foreman. Fresh snow dusted his jacket, sprinkling the floor as he grabbed his daughter and pulled her safe behind him.
Savo didn’t look at the daeyari like an apparition. His gaze hardened on Antal like a wolf caught prowling a henhouse.
“Boden?” Savo demanded. His eyes never left the daeyari.
Boden raised placating hands. “Everything’s fine, Savo.”
“What is that creature doing here, Boden?”
“He’s here at my invitation. Fixing our energy conduits.”
“Fixingthem?” Savo pulled Anisa against his leg. “At what cost?”
Antal flinched at the repeated line. At how this man shielded his daughter, fingers clutched in the puff of her coat while she peeked around him with doe-like eyes. “Unfair. To both of us,” Antal had told Fi some time ago. Savo had every right to distrust this man-eating creature, but Antal had never takenchildrenas sacrifices.
“Nyskya is safe,” Boden said. “I would never risk our people, you know that.”
“At no cost,” Fi added.
Savo gave her a more guarded look than he offered Boden, lines dug deep into his snow-leathered skin. He wore that conflict often for her—gratitude for the energy chips she brought to Nyskya, hesitance over how she acquired them.
“Didn’t know you were back in town, Fi. And there’salwaysa cost.”
Fi shot Antal a scowl of, “say something, or I’ll file your antlers off while you sleep.”
“It’s as they say.” Antal stepped closer, then thought better of it when Savo stiffened. “Your hospitality has been payment enough. I’ll repair your machinery here, and whatever conduits are faulty in the village.”
Savo’s brow creased deeper. As if hearing this creature speak eliminated some fleeting hope of it being a hallucination. How could Antal expect anything else? Daeyari kindness never came without a price.
Fi had always believed that. Until she met him.
She’d always believed immortals had no care for the flitting emotions of prey. But now, a scowl tugged Antal’s lips, his tail low at his ankles. He was upset. Guilty, that his own people saw him this way?
Be it empathy. Be it the hustler in her blood always searching for weakness. Fi saw their plan gaining speed. Savo’s intrusion was unexpected, but she could work with this.
“You’d bring a daeyari to Nyskya?” Savo said, hushed now. “Sneak around in the night? That’s not like you, Boden. Not like you at all.”
Boden hesitated. “I didn’t want—”
“We had to make sure the daeyari was good to his word,” Fi interjected, before Boden could spin some diplomatic diversion. They couldn’t wait, couldn’t drown in what-ifs. “What comes next, the whole village should have a say in. Which is why both of us are calling the advisory council together, to discuss what Antal can offer.”
Fi’s look dared Boden to challenge her. She wasn’t going anywhere.Not this time.
His displeasure passed as a twitch of the mouth. But he couldn’t argue with the corner they’d been backed into. Mayor Boden stood tall to address Savo. “It’s late, my friend, and for that I apologize. But Fi’s right. This shouldn’t wait. Notify the rest of the council. We’ll meet in Kashvi’s tavern in an hour.”
