Arc 4: Chapter 31: Trust
Catrin and I walked together out of the inn, moving into the darkening streets. We went a ways in silence. The dhampir adjusted her dress, doing up some of the laces and covering her shoulder, while I brooded in my private thoughts.
“You got your gear back,” Catrin said, a forced cheer in her voice. “You look dashing.”
“Do I?” I asked, my eyes fixed on the row ahead.
“Well…” Catrin sucked in a breath through her sharp teeth. “You look like…”
“Death’s own executioner.” I remembered her words the day I’d received the armor from Oradyn Irn Bale.
“Well.” Catrin skipped ahead of me, turning and hiding her hands behind her back as a wicked smile formed on her face. So much like a flirtatious village lass. “Speaking as a dead girl, should I be worried?”
I stopped. So did she. When my face remained blank, her grin faded.
I tilted my head back toward the inn. “The Keeper was always able to make the inn manifest in the city. That talk about not being able to enter with the inquisition, then later, about being here to spy on the lords for him… none of that was true.”
I didn’t make it a question.
Catrin chewed on her lip a moment, not meeting my eyes. She hadn’t met my eyes once since I’d found her at that bedroom door.
“It wasn’t all lies,” she hedged. “I just… stretched things.”