Page 29 of Stitches
“I should get back,” Levi said, “maybe catch up to Pentelyn and Amuro to accompany them out of the wood. It’s later than I told Braxton. Will you…?” He gestured after the couple, looking hopefully to Ashmedai that he might join them too.
“I wish I could, but there is much I need to attend to here. Tomorrow?”
Levi nodded, wiping at a stray tear that streaked down past one of his lines of stitches. There weren’t many on his face, though the most notable stretched outward from the edges of his mouth.
Ashmedai would have gladly wiped that tear away himself. He would have liked to keep hanging on to Levi’s hand, which he still held. Since he had to let it go, he lifted it to his lips and kissed the back of Levi’sfingers.
Indigo was becoming Ashmedai’s favorite color.
Ashmedai did have much to attend to, but not only helping the hunters and ensuring that the open part of the perimeter was replenished with fresh crystals. There were too many mysteries blossoming, and while he might need to wait for a council meeting to discover more about Pentelyn and Amuro’s, another was that Braxton was clearly not being honest with him about Levi, and he couldn’t decipher that mystery on his own.
As soon as everyone had returned to the city, Ashmedai headed for Luccite. Pentelyn and Amuro were just leaving, and although Ashmedai was curious and wanted to wish them well, he stayed hidden in the shadows. Once they were gone, he slipped into Luccite’s shop, as undetectable as a gust of wind.
Luccite was both healer and alchemist, though with a different focus than Braxton, so her shop had any number of tools, potions, components, and tomes. And, since she could see so well in the dark with her slitted cat eyes, there was little need for brighter crystals as lights, keeping the atmosphere calming.
Ashmedai wished he felt calmer now.
The panther-like woman noticed him only after a floorboard creaked, her ears twitching just before she turned to look at him. She was especially short, one of the shortest in the kingdom, but though she had to look up a great distance to meet his eyes, that in no way diminished her presence.
“Ash. To what do I owe the honor so late? Concernedabout Pentelyn?”
“Very, but that’s not why I’m here. I need your assistance concerning Levi.”
“The construct? Why not ask Brax? He made him.”
Ashmedai strode closer to her, keeping his expression severe and his voice low, despite them being alone. “There is something Brax isn’t telling me, and I don’t know what or why.”
Luccite’s eyes danced with curiosity. “Then bring Levi to me.”
Chapter 4
Ashmedai
Ashmedaicouldn’trememberthelast time the council hall had been so dissonant. What happened during the hunt had spread like brushfire among the people, and while the truth was simply an accident that thankfully hadn’t turned into tragedy, the story being stoked was a twisted amalgamation of rumors.
The warding crystal had failed Pentelyn.
The barrier was closer than before.
Gazellians were overrunning the wood.
The demon had been spotted, devouring jackalopes and rollhounds alike.
What had begun as a normal, civil discussion had escalated, and nothing Ashmedai or his advisors shouted now seemed capable of calming the crowd.
A piercing scream cut through the noise like no lone voice had managed, causing many citizens to grab their ears and wince. Silence spread quicker than the din had begun, and the screaming ebbed.
Daedlys floated in the center of the rows of people, his banshee cry ending with a satisfied clearing of his throat. “Thank you. You all knowI hate doing that, so please don’t make me do it again. Ash.” He nodded, sinking down from where he had floated above the crowd to return to Klarent beside him.
“Thank you,” Ashmedai acknowledged. “Now please, I know many of you are frightened, but we must discuss this rationally, or nothing will be accomplished. Let me assure you all that Pentelyn’s crystal did not fail her, it fell from her belt, the barrier is no smaller than it was a thousand years ago, and the herd of gazellians we encountered was unexpected but of normal size.”
“And what of the demon?” Shevah asked before Ashmedai could continue, to which faint murmurs began to rise again that only diminished when Daedlys floated higher in warning.
“The hunters are all in attendance,” Yentriss spoke up. “I saw no demon. Would anyone else care to say differently?”
Nervous people glanced at one another, but none of the hunters said a word.
Until Amuro ventured, “One thing you said isn’t completely correct. The barrier might not be smaller, but the space we live in is, for we have spread and are still spreading. We are poised to spread farther much sooner than you know.”
