I o e back here and steal this bed.

  My apartment’s bed had hardly been the worst pce I’d slept, indeed an improvement over the gutter, the street, or even coffin beds, all of which I’d endured over my years in the Quarter. But this bed was to my apartment’s bed what the apartment’s bed had been to the coffin bed. It even had feathers itress!

  My body felt like giving into the temptation to rest a few minutes more, but I’d slept long enough. I didn’t want to overstay my wele, and I didn’t want to be te for my appoioday. If I missed this opportunity, who knew when I could find it again?

  By the time I and dressed in my only ge of clothing, there was a swift kno the door.

  It took a sed to remove the chair I’d wedged in there, then to undo the lod tch. Edwards was oher side, with a ptter and a teapot.

  “Tea?” the bartender offered.

  I gave it a suspicious look. “Not free, I’m assuming.”

  “You’d be right in that regard. And double the usual price as well.”

  This better be the end of that. If I showed up here in a week aried charging double…well I supposed I wouldn’t be showing up as Katheryn Fara. It wouldn’t matter.

  The advance payment from Lord Montague grew smaller and smaller as I ted a pair out of the swiftly slimming purse. I passed them to Edwards, ah sat down at a small table.

  “I’m assuming you don’t always visit guests every m?” I asked, while sipping from the cup.

  “No. And normally I wouldn’t bother with this either. But because you’re a good er, and you paid upfront and didn’t sneak out the window ht, I’m going to give you some advice.”

  I took a sip of the tea, sidering the bartender. I didn’t imagine he personally woke up every guest, so this was something he felt was important. “I’m waiting, Mr. Edwards.”

  “You should sneak out the window. Or the back door, but probably the windht now.”

  Ah, joy, that kind of advice. “I am going to presume there are people downstairs waiting for me? I hope they haven’t been forceful.”

  “No, none of them have bee, but there’s a good ten members of the watch down there g they’ve been posted here till the marches stop. Might actually be true, but Voltar’s partner Dawes is also down there, breakfast.”

  I frowned. Edwards was right. The Watch might be here for the marches, assuming they expected more to take pce. Dawes’ presence…

  “Mr. Edwards, how could you know that Mr. Voltar and Mr. Dawes might be after me?”

  The Bartender gave me an abashed grin. “Tolman talks. He let slip yesterday evening that you’ve been caught up in some mystery of theirs?”

  “That I have,” I replied. Godsdmanit Tolman, what the hells were you thinking?

  Oh, whie is Tolman? Is it Quelvan? Marchtes? Juliana? Kassera? Dalxian? Sounds like the trust pced in them was mistaken.

  I ighe imp for the most part, although it hadn’t slept when those st three names had passed. It must be a trick, pretending it still thought they were alive. Nothing about the suppression should have touched the creature’s memories.

  “Mr. Edwards, I realize I’ve not been the most pleasant patron as of te.”

  “Yes,” he agreed. “Although the s helped ease that some.”

  “Could I get a favor?”

  “If it’s within reason, you have a favor. Just not askio fight the Watch. Or stalling them. I do not want the Watch deg I’m a person of i.”

  “It shouldn’t result in too much attention. I may require some help to leave if it isn’t too much to ask?”

  “Depends on the help. And it’ll cost you.”

  “Of course it will. I could hardly expeything else. I suppose the first thing is, do you have a spare ge of clothes in my size?”

  ***

  When this entire mess was over, I was going to head to a clothing store and spend two hours inside.

  The spare clothes had ended up being a mixture of yellow and red remnants of two different outfits, which a hooded ostly covered. Otherwise, I might have risked just having the Watch take me in. My st remaining outfit was on its way out, and hopefully, I could pick it back up ter.

  One barmaid who’d been red-skinned and about my current size had been willing to face a bit of danger iurn for . She’d wear my old clothes and walk around the block, returning in a couple of minutes—all the time I needed.

  Not all of them would leave to follow the barmaid, of course. Just enough to make slipping out easier. The barmaid went out the front, and after half a minute I went out the back window, ready to drop into the alleyway.

  She’d cim I approached, then paid her to ge clothes after delivering breakfast, leaving Edwards out of it. Oh, some suspi would fall on him, but not enough that he hadn’t agreed to do this little stunt to draw attention away from my exit.

  There were people watg the alleyways, of course. And also people watg the rooftops. I couldn’t avoid being spotted leaving. What I could do was to avoid being caught, and maybe even tailed. I wasn’t doing anything illegal, but I could not afford deys and I also could not afford to be caught. Not today of all days.

  When I’d scheduled this, I hadn’t expected it to have this much importance. Circumstances were f my hand now.

  Goodbyes would have to be said today and o be said before I went through with leaving.

  Hanging down from the ledge first, I dropped, hoofs hitting the ground. Within seds I was out of the alley, running.

  ***

  The Silver Street of Liberation had seeer days.

  The cobblestone highway that was the route the then-Shining Princess and her forces had taken during the st battle for Avernon must have been quite the sight ba the day. I’d read ats of the ereet’s surface gleaming silver, created from the melted, transmuted bodies of Her Profane Majesty’s royal guard division.

  However, flesh transmuted to melted silver made for a terrible road, so they’d had it removed aled for an alchemical substahat looked like silver. No one had repced that coating in a while, so in worn spots, you could see the cobbles underh.

  I kept to the outskirts, away from the carriages. Traffitrol on the highway was better than most, which meant only a tiny ce of being ruhey weren’t even the most dangerous things on the roadway.

  The ground shook as it passed, each step making the earth jolt for yards around it. A lo of people in red and silver robes of the artificer guilds stood around it, both to keep people away from it and probably guide it.

  Steam hissed from eight pipes mounted on its back, and from its joints as well, spewing into the sky. Eight thick metal legs were in stant motion, only four on the ground at any oime. The body resembled a drider, a rge humanoid torso in the ter of a spider-like body of metal. Probably what had inspired the design to begin with.

  It moved slowly, which was a surprise. I’d seen a simir device do a race against a horse and keep pace the erack. Well, it did well until the track curved. Theomaton plowed through a wall instead.

  I eyed the circle of artificers agaihey testing keeping it at a walking pad under dires?

  A pipe emitted a burst of steam apanied by a squeal. Everyone else in the viity and I decided the artificers could use more space. Hundreds of feet of space, in fact.

  The automation was out of my sight before I heard wood being smashed and yelling. Hopefully, all it had done was smash a coach without hurting anyone inside.

  A clock chimed in the distance, possibly the Astrologist’s Tower. It chimed twice befoing silent.

  Two iernoon? Four hours had passed, too much time, but I’d wao lose as many tails as I could. If any still followed me, they were too good for me to spot. That was fine. Katheryn Fara had legitimate business here. It was only going where I would o lose them.

  Mind you, it wasn’t hard to track me. I erhaps the only Infernal in the mass of people for fifty feet in any dire.

  A hooded cloak only did so much. I was getting ghat turned into stares as I walked along the side of the road. People kept their distance, hands in their pockets to protect wallets and purses. As long as they kept to that, there wouldn’t be any problems.

  Holy, I was a little gd to see that respo was the usual for this area, which meant those marchers hadn’t shifted the city’s overall mood. At least not yet, given enough time I had no doubts times outside the Quarter would bee worse. I hadn’t stuck around the Quarter to see if they were marg again.

  I took a left onto Lahe narrower street a little more cramped. I took some amusement with how far some went to stay away from me on the more crowded street.

  Not for long. My destination towered ahead, five stories tall and looking like a bination of a churd a hospital. These days, it could cim to be the tter.

  St. Lanian’s started as a hospital run and ter dedicated to a priestess who cared for the poor and downtrodden. Over time, it had grer, especially as various nobles wao be seen as helping the poor. More donatio more sway with the hospital, until eventually, St. Lanian’s tele became much more exclusive.

  Oh, there were hospitals dedicated in the saint’s name who did her inal work, and there’d been some hoop when a padin eling the Saint’s divine spirit had castigated the hospital as having abahe ideals she valued. It had taken some of the shine off the hospital, if not the name.

  The frorances were bustling as always, mostly with visitors and staff, although the occasional carriage came up with patients. I went to the side entranstead. Trying to prove to people I actually was on the approved visitor list took time. So I’d just bribed the usual guard for the side entra this time of day.

  By the time I got there though, it was closed, which n. I’d taken too long to get here, which meant not only dealing with hospital staff I didn’t usually i with, it meant something far worse. Some of my mother’s retives might be visiting. Joy.

  I usually scheduled around their usual visiting hours, only meeting once every few months to hahe finances. As far as they knew, I rofessional associate of their sister’s o be suffitly damned child, entrusted by her with moo help pay for half of the fees to keep their sister treated here.

  It erfectly awkward arra for all involved. They khat the only reason Mother was being treated in such a prestigious establishment was the money of the family member they’d exiled, and I had to deal with the family members who’d signed Mother ao the Infernal Quarter. Pleasant iions every time, just with an undercurrent threatening t the entire versation to the depths to drown at the slightest misstep.

  It also meant I would be dealing with the froraer all.

  ***

  Nearly an hour had passed before I’d vihe gate guards I had legitimate business ihe hospital and was not some manner of delivery person, servant, or other member of the lower css who shouldn’t dare track mud into the great St. Lanian’s.

  The fact I had utterly mud-free hooves didn’t matter. I’d resisted the urge to lift the most obnoxious of the guard’s purse with my tail. It had been right out in the open! But I kneould be the first on the list of suspects.

  I’d thought at least past the guards, it would get easier. It had not.

  “Are you sure you aren’t the test coffin delivery person?” the nurse asked me again, peering over thin wire-rimmed spectacles down at me. “Mr. Ferguson has the most peculiar sense of humor, and this matches a joke he pulled st year.”

  Oh, yes, the grand joke of an Infernal being on the list of approved patient visitors.

  I’d arrived so te aire shift ge had taken pce. Which meant nurses who didn’t know me, and worse, had not been bribed by me.

  “I am quite sure I’m not here to deliver coffins. I am here to see Bao Xang, as the representative of her daughter, Lily Xang, to make sure her care is being maintained. If you doubt me, you check with Dr. Martins.”

  Not that he liked me very much, but I’d trust his professionalism to not pretend I was a deliverer of coffins.

  One nurse made a gesture in the er of my eye, one easily reizable. There were only so many signs oreets showing when you thought someone had taken all leave of their senses. I turned my head towards the movement, enjoying the sight of the nurse pretending to do something else.

  “I assure you, I’m not here because of a joke. There should be a K. Fara listed as an approved guest?” I asked.

  The least went to check the patient listings instead of yelling for security to throw me out. “There is a K. Fara listed, but do you have any way we identify you as her?”

  Ah, the joys of being on the reverse side of the very thing I’d demanded frory Montague. I was quite sure she would not be demanding this of most people who walked in here, but maybe that was just paranoia speaking.

  “Dr. Martins firm who I am, if you could just fetch him for a sed?”

  “Dr. Martins is busy with a patient,” the nurse informed me. “If you insist, you take a seat till he’s finished with his current patient. If not, I will have someone escort you out of the building.”

  Well, I had no doubts about how friendly that escort would be. I resigned myself to waiting even lohere were other things I o do, like trag down my three boxes, but trying to force this issue would be the wrong move. Even if their divine sponsor had long ago withdrawn support from this pce, they would have holy water to use on me.

  “Miss Fara?” a too-familiar voice asked.

  I froze, then spun around, drawing on my Sculpts. The mask would o be perfect today.

  “Mister Xang!” I greeted him, turning as I pulled on tendons to force a smile. Gingerly, it should be made to look more natural no matter the urge to snap it into pce.

  Even if I was deserting this identity, there would be no hints to him who I actually was. To call the results of that discovery inve if it happened would be an uatement.

  Liu Xang was tall, perhaps six and a half feet tall, with a schor’s build, and was dressed in a not-so-fancy suit. He wore a scarf despite the warm weather, to hide noose scars I wasn’t supposed to know he had. He returned my smile, warm eyes peering over a set of spectacles. They wouldn’t be so warm if he knew who I really was.

  He also was my uncle.