It was usual for her to wake at dawn, and despite the disruption of the night before, this particular morning was no different. The first thing she noticed was her bag lying empty on the floor alongside a narrow, rickety wardrobe. Her hairbrush, other personal items, and a small packet of soap were placed on the nightstand next to a large, porcelain bowl.

  The jug of water had also been refilled and steam was rising from the vessel’s lip. Evidently, someone had crept into her room and unpacked her belongings while she slept. One of the women downstairs, perhaps. She certainly couldn’t imagine Torrell setting her toothbrush so perfectly alongside the soap.

  Quickly, she leapt out of bed and immediately had to reach for the bedpost. The previous night’s purge had left her dizzy and lightheaded, forcing her to attend to her morning rituals with slow deliberation. Once dressed, she ventured downstairs and found the women at the prep tables as if they’d never left. One was still tending the bark, the other was making breakfast.

  “Thank you,” she said, “for unpacking my bag.”

  The taller of the two shrugged. “We couldn’t have our new apprentice catching her death in wet clothes now, could we?” She put down her knife and held out her hand. “I’m Elspeth, this is Marla.”

  She shook hands with both women. “Kaddie.” Her eyes wandered toward the sizzling pan on the hearth.

  “If you’re hungry, eat now. Before the men rise and scoff the lot.”

  Kaddie grinned and sat at the table. Having had no dinner she was starving, and after a plate of sausages, tomatoes and fried bread, “How long before Poisoner Robles awakens?”

  “You have a little while. Not much more, though.” Marla was slicing meat into thin strips before dropping them into the pan.

  “I’d like to go for a walk.”

  “Slip out the back,” Elspeth said. “There should be no malcontents out there this early, but don’t be late back.”

  She collected her coat from the hook. It was perfectly dry and smelled of bark and pan-fried sausages.

  The building’s rear door led straight from the kitchen, down a steep flight of steps, and into a narrow alley lined with outhouses. High walls rose on either side. She saw steam escaping from a window opposite and heard someone laughing inside the dwelling next door.

  The gray cat was crouched on the top step and offered her a disinterested yawn as she approached. Reaching forth, she saw no signs of hostility and gave the animal a gentle scratch behind the ear. It wore a rope collar that bore an engraved metal tag. A closer inspection revealed the words Poisoner on one side, and Bodworth on the other.

  Kaddie grinned. “Must be a thousand cats with that name.”

  Not only was her grandmother’s cat named Bodworth, it was also the name of the Crone’s companion. No one threw rocks at a cat named Bodworth, it was bad luck.

  Runoff from the night before still trickled along the gutter as she headed toward the end of the block, and she had to step over a sleeping man huddled in rags at the alley’s corner. Beyond it, the street was empty, which came as a surprise. Back home, the house and its orchards would already have been a buzz of activity.

  She walked until she reached the T-junction of Glint Sreet and Toch Avenue, arriving at the front door of the poisoner’s dispensary. For a moment she stood and stared, hardly believing she was actually here.

  The scraping of metal on stone startled her into turning around. A short distance away, a man was using a large hook to pull back heavy metal plating, revealing a latticed metal grate set into the avenue’s center. When he had moved on to the next plate, she approached and peered beyond the tall lip of the exposed grate. Lights shone from below. She saw hints of movement, heard voices and the rattling of cart wheels. It was the subterranean second city, fully awake and going about its business.

  Smiling at the discovery, she wandered further along the avenue toward the square. Everything looked different now the rains had gone and the sun was on the verge of rising. She peered half-heartedly into store windows until she reached the square, its center dominated by a tall statue of a man on horseback.

  To her right, another wide avenue offered her a view of the palace’s tall towers, while directly ahead, high in the sky, huge birds circled as if they were waiting for the coast to clear before descending on waiting carrion. She glanced over her shoulder to get her bearings. Were they circling over the site of the fire she had seen last night?

  Not wanting to be late, she retraced her steps, and the closer she ventured toward her new home the more her enthusiasm faded. Her thoughts darkened and began to wheel like the birds she had just seen, around her new employer and his vindictive lesson. Grandmother hadn’t warned her about that. But in the end it would go on her mental retribution list and there bide its time.

  ##

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Remind me.” Robles was fussing and re-tying his cravat. “How old are you?”

  “I’ll be nineteen at the end of the quadrant.” Kaddie kept her hands clasped firmly in front of her and watched him fumble. She could see where he was at fault in tying the correct knot, but there was gratification to be had in watching him struggle.

  He winced. “Well, perhaps your youth will lend itself to faster learning.”

  Torrell arrived before she could deliver a suitable retort and she breathed a sigh of relief. She’d be the shame of the Valley if she was sent home.

  “A message, from Captain Young.”

  “Open it. Read it.” Robles waved a hand. “And you—help me with my jacket.”

  The jacket was heavy and beautifully-tailored. Kaddie wished she had one just like it as she lifted it toward Robles’ shoulders. And when the jacket was on, they both stared at Torrell who was struggling with the letter.

  “Sorry, the hand writing, it says she requests your presence at a house on Bryler Street.”

  “Bryler Street? It’s at the other end of town.” Robles tugged sharply on his lapels. “Anything else?”

  “As soon as you are able, this morning, and that’s it.”

  “Like we have nothing better to do. Very well, then. Torrell, bring the knapsack. Both of you, let’s go.”

  Kaddie ran downstairs and hurriedly donned her coat. In all honesty she had expected to be chopping and boiling bark along with Elspeth. “Will there be a carriage?” she asked Torrell, who was in the midst of pulling on his tattered coat.

  “No. We’ll walk. We always walk.” He seemed disappointed at the idea, which made her wonder exactly how far it was to Bryler Street.

  Outside, the day had brightened considerably. The city had finally awoken and there were people out on the streets. Kaddie walked alongside Torrell as they set off along the avenue, while their employer briskly marched two paces ahead. Robles looked dapper, sophisticated, and walked with a strut. He carried a cane that bore a silver horse’s head, and the tip of it swung ahead of him at every other step.

  A quick glance to her right revealed that Torrell’s overly-large coat was missing a button and the sleeves almost reached his fingertips. Her coat wasn’t an example of tailored excellence, either. It was built for warmth, and loose enough to accommodate multiple layers if the weather deemed it so. It was a practical garment but right now she couldn’t help feeling shabby.

  Robles’ stride carried them quickly beyond the territory she’d explored earlier, before diagonally crossing the square, and along a much narrower, well-populated street at its other side. Baskets of goods lay outside a promenade of stores, their contents full to the brim. Twice, she had to dip and dodge in order to keep pace and avoid colliding with other pedestrians.

  Meanwhile, directly above her head, the giant birds still wheeled. “Are we heading for the fire?”

  Robles stopped walking. Kaddie and Torrell nearly bowled into him in their haste to keep up. “What fire?”

  “I saw it last night. I was watching from the window.”

  “You never said anything about a fire. Torrell?”

  The young man shrugged.

  Robles approached and tapped his cane sharply on the ground. “You see, or hear, of anything like that, you tell me, understand? Anything at all.”

  Kaddie looked him straight in the eye and nodded, all the while fighting her temper. “Of course.”

  He answered her with an exasperated growl and resumed his pace. In the meantime, Torrell tugged at her sleeve and gave her a questioning look. Her reply was to point above their heads, where the birds were still flying in circles.

  They crossed a busy junction, took a short cut through an alley that smelled so strongly of hethermint that Kaddie wanted to stop and identify the source. She began to see people acknowledging Robles, who replied with similar inclinations of the head, or in the instance of two well-dressed women, he briefly raised his hat and offered them a warm smile. They seemed quite taken with him. By all accounts he was well known in this section of the city.

  Kaddie picked up the bitter scent of burning half a street away, and when they turned a corner she saw a number of men standing before the site of the fire, accompanied by a woman on horseback dressed in uniform. Abruptly, Poisoner Robles acquired an extra spring in his step.

  As they drew closer, another man emerged from the ruin, brushing dark specs of soot from his shoulders. He nodded to the woman on horseback who turned and rode off, but not before giving Robles a backward glance, to which he replied with a tip of his hat.

  Distracted, Kaddie didn’t realize the other man had approached until he was blocking their path and pointing at Kaddie in particular.

  “This isn’t the place for them.” He was narrow-shouldered and his hair bore streaks of gray. His eyes were cold as marble and he wore a look of distaste, which made her wonder what he’d witnessed inside the building.

  Curious, she leaned forward but couldn’t see anything beyond the charred, blackened fa?ade. The fire appeared to have consumed everything except the building’s framework, some of which had suffered partial collapse. Blackened lengths of wood protruded into the street like a soot-covered ribcage. The devastation tainted the air and crept into her throat.

  Robles told his companions to stay put while he accompanied the other man.

  “Do you smell that?” Torrell said. “Someone died in there.”

  Kaddie stared at him.

  “Better get used to it,” he added. “You’ll smell a lot of dead things here before you’re done.”

  “I’ve smelled, and seen, dead things before.”

  Robles disappeared inside the ruin. Curiosity now had its hooks in her and she wanted to take a closer look, but in the end decided against getting into trouble on her first full day. “Who was the lady on horseback?”

  “Captain Young? She commands the City Guard. She and Robles, I think there’s something going on.”

  “What do you mean, going on?”

  He shrugged and stuffed his hands in his pockets. A short distance away, the other men were unraveling a canvas stretcher. Their chatter was subdued.

  Robles’ head appeared around the doorway. He beckoned. “Quickly,” he said. “And watch your step.”

  Kaddie shared Torrell’s trepidation as they approached the building. The scent he’d warned her about hovered below the charred lintel like an unwelcoming curtain. However, determined not to be last, she used Torrell’s reluctance to step in front of him and enter the ruin. Her eyes took a few seconds to adjust. Everything was covered in soot, making it hard to pick out the interior. To her right was a doorway. Beyond it, Robles was crouched alongside a misshapen heap on a debris-filled floor.

  “Crone’s teeth,” Torrell muttered, directly behind her.

  Kaddie made out the edge of a woven rug. It had suffered greatly in the fire, and yet the fibers had held stubbornly together. Her eyes followed the weave until they arrived at a human foot wearing a scuffed rope sandal. “Oh, look at that.” She stared, transfixed.

  “Put your fear behind you,” Robles barked. “Time to get to work. Torrell, the bag. Kaddie, I need your assistance.”

  Her companion pushed by, pulling the knapsack from his shoulders. She used his momentum to follow, and did her best to put some distance between her thoughts and her fingers as she crouched alongside Robles, holding onto the foot as he cut and cut and cut.