Read Online Blood and Memory by Fiona McIntosh - Free Book Online Page B

that,” Rene said. “Go on, tell him.” She grimaced at the woman beside her.
    This time her friend sighed. “She came back much later that night. Must have been the early hours of the morning when all the fuss had died down. Everyone was asleep or gone back to their homes. I just happened to be still around and I saw her.”
    “What did she say?” Fynch said, listening intently now.
    “Nothing, really. She looked terrified and who wouldn’t be with what she’d just been through. I asked her what had happened.” The woman shrugged. “She told me briefly about the man’s death, said she was leaving.”
    “Why did she come back that night, I wonder?” Rene queried.
    “She said she’d left something behind in the room, but she didn’t want to see all those soldiers again, so she’d waited until the place was quiet.”
    “What was it?” Fynch hoped for a clue.
    Irritatingly she shrugged again. “How would I know? She just stepped inside one of the chambers and was out again almost straightaway.”
    “Did she tell you where she was going?” Fynch held his breath.
    “I didn’t know she was going anywhere to even ask. She was acting really strangely, I recall…I mean there was something else, apart from being scared. It was as though she was drunk, but I smelled no liquor on her.”
    “What do you mean?” Rene asked. Fynch was glad she did.
    “Well, I can’t really say. You know, staggering a little, unsure of her words, couldn’t hold my gaze. I figured she was just upset, but she seemed really uncomfortable around me.”
    Fynch tried to phrase his question differently. “Did Hildyth say anything that might help me find her?” His accent slipped in his determination to learn as much as he could, but neither of the women seemed to notice.
    “No. Perhaps she decided to go home, not that I know where that is. She said a name…a girl’s name. I didn’t catch it. Miriam or something. I don’t know anything else.”
    “Does that help you, Fynch?” Rene asked, her face filled with hope.
    He hated doing it but he shook his head, adopting a glum expression. “No, but I’ll just keep looking,” he said, his heart lurching inside at the mention of Myrren. “Thanks rightly for the cheese and bread,” he said to Rene, “and to you, miss.” He nodded at the other woman.
    She shrugged again and left, Fynch already forgotten.
    “Can I pack you a little food?”
    “No, Rene. I’ll be fine.”
    “Good luck, then.”
    Fynch surprised himself by giving her a hug. After all his sadness, it was uplifting to have such a positive lead. “I’ll come back and see you someday.”
    She smiled, knowing he would do no such thing.
    Fynch found Knave and they quickly moved away from the Forbidden Fruit. Fynch’s mind was racing. “Fll explain everything in a moment,” he said to the dog, mainly to calm himself. “Let’s just get away toward the woodland.”
    They loped toward the edge of the town. Later, drinking water from the same stream where Wyl had drunk, Fynch gathered his thoughts. He found it helpful to speak them aloud to his silent friend, arrange them neatly before them both so he could store his deductions tidily away.
    “Wyl is alive. I’m convinced of it. The vision told me so and I have to believe it’s happened again and that he now walks as his executioner, Hildyth. If I’m right, then it was Wyl who lied about the man breaking in and stabbing Romen.” Fynch adjusted his seating to lean against the big dog. Knave licked him. “I suppose he discovered himself as this woman”—he shook his head unable to imagine how distressed Wyl must feel—“and disappeared from the scene as fast as he could. We have to find her.”
    He let his mind flow freely. When he needed to think things through, he had taught himself to let go, to stop teasing at one strand of thought and let his mind loose to roam among his wealth of gathered information. Invariably he found that clues began to show