Page 35 of House of Dusk
“No.”
She hadn’t thought so. “So what, then?” She nodded to the carving, to his blade slicing away shards of wood, revealing some sort of four-legged beast. “A wood carver?”
He leaned back, his eyes half-lidded, still watching her. “I gather stories.”
She snorted. “A bard who carries a sword instead of a lyre?”
“Not a bard. I collect stories. I don’t share them. Most of the time.”
What did that mean? She was tired of his tricksy answers. Maybe it would be best to speak plainly.Did you murder Iola? Do you know what happened to Castor?
And then it happened. So fast she had barely time to gasp. Nilos, shoving himself forward, one arm lashing out toward her. A flash of his dagger, reflecting her flames.
Even in the prime of her training, Sephre doubted she could have moved so quickly. Like a crack of lightning across the sky. One moment, lounging back against the straw. The next moment there beside her, so close she could feel the heat of his arm, as he drew it from the shadows. A dead serpent hung limp from the tip of his blade.
The sight of it made her belly flip. Not just dead.Rotted. Slippery white bones showing through between tattered scales. A waft of fetid air nearly made her gag. Timeus pressed a gray sleeve to his nose, coughing.
“Here, sister,” said Nilos. “Something more for you tobless.”
The flames between her fingers had gone hot and hungry, burning away her initial shock. She held them out. Nilos shook the uncanny thing gingerly into her burning hands, where it flared once, then fell to ash.
Timeus gave a choked gasp. “Look!”
For a heartbeat, a ribbon of something darker seemed to hang in the air, where the serpent had been. Two slitted glints of purple flared. Then it was gone, and the flames in Sephre’s palms subsided.
“What was that?” croaked Timeus. “That wasn’t a normal snake!”
Nilos had returned to lounging against his hay bale, looking completely unruffled, as if deadly demon snakes invaded his picnics every day. “You should know. If all that was true, about the ashdancers fighting evil demons from the underworld.”
“Is that what it was?” Timeus looked even more alarmed. “A skotos?”
“How did you know it was there?” Sephre demanded, glowering at Nilos.
He shrugged, tucking the carving and dagger away. “I’ve had a lot of practice.”
“A lot of practice fighting demons that no one has seen in centuries?”
“Would you rather I’d let it attack?”
She’d rather he jump into the abyss. It was obvious he knew more than he was telling her. But he had—possibly—saved her life. “No,” she said, sourly. “Thank you.”
“You owe me nothing.” The words felt heavy, resonant. Nilos settled himself deeper into the hay, tugging his cloak tighter. He leaned his head back, eyes already closed. “Good night, Sister Sephre. Brother Timeus.”
Good night? That was it? He was just going to go to sleep?
“What if there are more skotoi?” asked Timeus, and for once she was glad of his questions.
“There aren’t,” said Nilos, eyes still closed.
Timeus goggled at him. “How do you know?”
The only answer was a faint snore. Sephre gritted her teeth. It would serve the man right if she grabbed his sword and took him prisoner. Except that she doubted she was capable. He had movedso fast. If he’d wished her ill, he could’ve simply let the skotos bite her. She could guess, now, what had happened to Castor, Iola, all the others. But why? Had they simply had the bad luck to stumble on one of these serpent-skotoi? Or had the creatures hunted them?
And she herself had nearly been one of them. Another marker on Halimede’s map. But instead Nilos had saved her.
She sat in silence, yellow flames flickering and snapping in her hand. It was the same sort of frustration she’d felt when she used to play pebbles with Zander. No matter how she tried to capture his pieces, he always managed to slip out of her grasp. But Zander had been her friend, her trusted companion, a fellow soldier who had been at her side through the very worst of times. Nilos was none of those things.
She did not trust him.
