Peer

::: subchapter "C'mon, Kinri. Let's go." She meant to the Dadafodd; she'd said that's where we'd find the drake. "C'mon. My leg is getting done with me standing on it." "Sit down, then." "I'm not going to sit down, I⁠ ⁠---⁠ we need to get to Dadafodd so I can get my shit bandaged up." "If you sit down, maybe your leg will feel a bit better when you start walking aga⁠ ⁠---" "We should start walking now! What the flames are we waiting for?" "Um." My brilles clouded. "Just..." Staune piped up for me. Head out poking out of my pocket, she echoed my sister, repeating, "Rhyfel is flying this way." "I⁠ ⁠---⁠ yeah. Uane said that." Mawla ripped a claw through the gravel, gouging. "Fuck no," said the sifter. "We're leaving. Now." "Whyyy?" Staune asked with some high scratch of a voice. "Not you too." Mawla scowled as Staune was bobbing her bird head up and down. "What screaming reason could a bird have for wanting to see the high guard?" Mawla still had a that artificial high accent to her voice, but on that last phrase it dropped, turned to something frayed and ripped, sounding something like the nadir who spent their lives smoking yakah roots. "Feya. Slicktongue gone out to meet Guiltygrin, yes, but Guiltygrin doesn't know Slicktongue keeps secrets from me. Him I can ask." Mawla smacked her face with a wing, and held it there, alula digging into her scales. She let out a growl and spun away from me, looking out over the south side. Winding through a gully to get here, the cobbled road that came up to the southern gate had an east side look to it. You could drive a cart over it, but you didn't really want to be in it when you did. That gully⁠ ⁠---⁠ it wasn't wide enough to be a ravine, too narrow a ditch⁠ ⁠---⁠ had walls. Black bamboo holding up the sagging dirt banks, filled up with dustone like grout. It flared massively at the end, and created this big landing area in front of the gate. Mawla leant against the gully wall farthest from the gate, and I sat in the center. Ffrom and the other guard were still here, unconscious on the ground by the gate. They hadn't stirred for quite a while. What had Uane drugged them with? "I don't want to stay here." "Why not?" "Doesn't matter. I won't be here when Rhyfel lights down. If you ain't coming with me⁠ ⁠---⁠ I'll have to leave by myself." "Aren't we friends, Mawla? Just tell me." "No." Mawla shifted her stance, put a wing down to act like a crutch. I dashed over there, stood beside her. "Please. Why can't you tell me?" "Cuz you⁠ ⁠---⁠ you won't want to sow time with me again. You⁠ ⁠---⁠ shouldn't." "And if I decide not to because you won't tell me?" I nudged her. And then again, until she looked at me. "There are too many people keeping secrets, Mawla. Not enough being open with me. I don't want to have to suspect you too." She grit her teeth, and bit down on the things she could say. Glanced to the side, and saw Staune busying pecking at Ffrom. Looked up at the stars. Met my eyes gain. Said, "Fine." I waited. Breaths came in and out. Time passed. "Fine you'll tell me, or..." Her brilles were clouded. She looked down at the ground before they cleared. "Yeah." She took a breath, her breast buffing up like with confidence, and she said, "Kinri, I'm⁠ ⁠---" She met my eyes, head high, and her neck was tense like it was a hard thing to do. "I'm a criminal. A wanted criminal." I was looking into her eye. My brows furrowed, a little, but I didn't flinch. I hoped that helped. "What kind?" "What kind⁠ ⁠---⁠ I, I don't know. I just, I saw it on the posts today. The wanted lists. I don't know how I slipped up⁠ ⁠---⁠ but I must have. They didn't list a crime. Just my name. Just said I was need for questioning. An inquiry. With a dozen dozen aris reward, like a for murderer." "Mawla⁠ ⁠---" "No, I get it if you don't want to see me again. It's⁠ ⁠---⁠ it makes sense. I'm not the type you want to associate with." "Mawla, no. I⁠ ⁠---" "You don't have to say it." She was pulling away, doing that weird limp with wings as crutches. "I get it. I know. You don't have to say it." "Mawla. No. You don't get it. You aren't a criminal. You aren't wanted. I know why you're on the list, I'm why you're on the list." She'd looked around⁠ ⁠---⁠ just with her head, snaking it⁠ ⁠---⁠ but I looked down, didn't meet eye. "It's my fault." I could see the wing cover her face in my peripheral, though. "Is this like before? You making up reasons to spit on yourself?" "No no no. It's like, I went to see the faer last night, remember? I⁠ ⁠---⁠ she was just too perceptive! I didn't want to tell her. I didn't tell her. She just, figured it out. Read it off me." "Tell her what? What you talking about? Be slow." "The lake. You were in the lake, trespassing. The humans and everything. She thinks you might have had something to do with it⁠ ⁠---⁠ I told her you didn't, but she still wants to question you." Mawla paused. Like frantic, bubbling glass that just hissed the air. Like realizing you searched for rings to find the thing sitting obvious on the table. She grinned. Spinning around with new energy, the yellowbrown wiver lunged over to bop me on the nose, and drape a wing over me. "Well then," she said. "Never the heck mind. This is fine. I'm fine. Don't worry about none of this." I could only say, "Huh?" "You know anything about how the sleepy faer operates? How she sends out Inquiries?" "...No?" She tossed her head. "Mlaen likes to send Inquirers up in your business at the buttcrack of dawn, Inquirers who're just scratching for an excuse to drag you to Wydrllos a⁠ ⁠---⁠ Point being, this was a trick of chance, and I probably only skirted the Inquirers by dumb stupid luck. Spent the night at Lilian's, got a day off work. Dumb stupid luck." "...That's a good thing? I'm⁠ ⁠---⁠ confused." "It's a good thing cuz there's nothing to worry about now. They've got nothing on me. I know my rights, and know how to work around a confession. Trust me to help myself, got it? Trespassing in the fires with a bunch of invading monsters⁠ ⁠---⁠ it's not even the tightest space I've flown in." I clouded and cleared my brilles, my face all scrunched up. "You're, uh, it's like you're in a whole different key⁠ ⁠---⁠ and I'm glad⁠ ⁠---⁠ but I don't see how things have changed much?" She waved a wing and only said, "Assumptions," like it was the whole answer. "A dozen dozen aris is like, high high high crime. The kind of crime where only half of you goes to jail cuz the other half sticks around in gossiping mouths. You wake up and see that under your name and you fly to the obvious conclusion." "You didn't think it was weird that you had a high bounty when you hadn't done anything?" "Welll." She looked away. "Flick. Put it this way: a crowd and a half of people have reason and half to want me somewhere dark in Wydrllos. I see my name on a bounty board like that, I don't get surprised, I get thinking." I still frowned at her. "Kinri-ann, I got this. Trust me. I've flown through worse than this." "Really?" "Yep." She grinned. "Don't ask about the scramble with the leggy clams." I blew my tongue, and tried not to laugh. That was⁠ ⁠---⁠ that. "Okay." I looked around. The guards were still out⁠ ⁠---⁠ I guessed they'd be for a while⁠ ⁠---⁠ and the bird was strutting around for some reason. The stars still shone. "So, you'll wait with me?" I asked her. Mawla scowled. "I still don't want to meet Rhyfel." "A high shame I gotta disappoint, then." Mawla had her back to the road into town, she couldn't see him. I could. At his savage grin, I frowned. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "I didn't hear all of it, don't you worry. Whatever secret crime you to are up to'll get dealt with just as soon as I've got less on my plate." I glanced over to the hooded wiver, frowning into Rhyfel the younger's face. I expected her to run, but she was staring him down, fangs out like she would spit on him. Then she took a step back. I jerked my head and saw why⁠ ⁠---⁠ the high guard hadn't come alone. From that same mouth of the gulley measured forth a lightscaled drake in a poisonous-smelling⁠ ⁠---⁠ schizon-smelling⁠ ⁠---⁠ apron, and glasswoven robes that called to mind the faer's. He flicked an agile tongue, and black eyes met mine with all the peering suspicion of an executioner. "Kinri." He inclined his head. He didn't look at Mawla. When he glanced at the scarlet drake, and saw he was still engaged in a staredown with the yellowbrown wiver, he looked back to me and asked: "Where is Hinte?" Like that, Rhyfel lost; the drake snapped his gaze back and popped his tongue. "Ease into it, Ushra, ease into it." But he shook his head, and continued, "Or you know what, you be quiet and I'll handle this." Black eyes⁠ ⁠---⁠ the same black as Ushra's⁠ ⁠---⁠ watched silently as the high guard smiled and spoke gentle. He said, "So. You two knew I was heading this way, didn't you? And argued yourselves into waiting. Can't say I'm not curious what's goin on." A single hisslaugh. "If that don't infringe on whatever secret youse keepin." "Um." I thought about it⁠ ⁠---⁠ Uane would never trust me again if I told her out again, immediately. If I still wanted to be a Specter (did I want to be a Specter?), not answering that question would be my first step back in that direction. But. Uane could have killed these guards⁠ ⁠---⁠ she wanted to kill these guards. I couldn't let that happen. Not again. She was a danger and the administration surely had to know about it? Rhyfel the younger wasn't like Ffrom. He was high up. I could trust him. But Mawla said Uane still cared about. Could I really⁠ ⁠--- "Kinri's got a wicked sister. She got up in our business being murderous and mysterious. Knocked out those guards over there." Rhyfel looked at me like it was my fault. Flatly, he asked, "Are they dead." "No." "Good. What does your sister want now?" My brilles clouded again, and