Read Online The Smoke-Scented Girl by Melissa McShane - Free Book Online Page A

care of a perky stable girl, paid far too much for a
room with two beds and the essential bath, and collapsed onto their
respective beds. “Is she here?” Piercy asked.
    “She’s here. Somewhere. We should start
looking,” Evon replied, but he put his arm over his eyes and let
the tension drain out of his shoulders. He needed to get up if he
didn’t want to fall asleep. He wanted to fall asleep. He groaned
and rolled over, then stood, his whole body aching more than if he
hadn’t taken that moment to rest.
    “Piercy,” he said, prodding his friend on the
shin with his boot. “Piercy. We can’t sleep now.”
    “I believe you are entirely mistaken in that
statement. I feel that I am quite capable of sleeping.” He had his
arm flung over his eyes much as Evon had done moments before.
    “Piercy, we need to track this woman down.
Let’s at least find out where she is. Then we can rest and decide
what to do next.”
    “ You do it. I await your findings with
great anticipation.”
    “Do you want me to face this woman alone? She
might kill me. Then you’d feel horrible and never be able to sleep
comfortably again.”
    Piercy removed his arm and stared at the
ceiling. “Why is it that you take such pleasure in having guilt as
a major weapon in your rhetorical arsenal?”
    “Because it’s worked on you for nearly
fifteen years. Come on. Get up. Her scent is very strong—I don’t
anticipate this taking very long.”
    Inveros was beautiful in the bright winter
sun, everything sharp-edged and crisp like the smell of snow that
still hung in the air and blended with the tangy salt of the sea.
They left the horses behind at the inn and set out on foot.
Everyone they passed had a smile or a greeting for them; even the
sweepers at the street crossings had bright, eager faces. Brick and
glass storefronts displayed wares from all parts of the world, and
Evon had to remind Piercy why they were there when his friend kept
falling behind to examine an exquisite pair of shoes or the perfect
top hat. The scent led them through that major shopping district
toward the heart of the city, where red and brown brick and
greenish-white limestone gave way to quarried granite and
wrought-iron gates and fences. There were fewer pedestrians now,
and they had to walk more carefully to avoid the gray slush cast up
by the passing carriages.
    They turned a corner and found themselves
facing a long, low gray brick wall, beyond which leafless trees and
bare brambly shrubs spread out past the limits of their vision. The
entrance to the park was some hundred steps to their left, and
despite the season men and women still passed its gates. Evon
sniffed again. “The route’s directly through there,” he said.
    “Then let us by all means be tourists, albeit
tourists who were woefully misled as to the season Inveros shows
itself best to distinction,” Piercy said.
    But they hadn’t taken more than ten of those
hundred steps before someone behind them said, “Evon Lorantis, by
the Gods! And his shadow. I certainly didn’t expect to see you
here. And don’t you both look so...well, your sartorial decisions
have always been unique, Evon, but you might at least make an
effort not to look as though you’d been tramping the long and muddy
roads for a week.”
    Evon stiffened. He hadn’t expected to hear
that voice here. Or wanted to hear it, ever again. “Odelia,” he
said as he turned around, trying for a cheery greeting. “How
unexpected to see you here, too.” He didn’t dare look at Piercy,
whose expression, whatever it was, would make him lose his
composure in the face of this woman.
    Odelia Cattertis stood in her familiar pose,
legs slightly akimbo, fists on hips, her lips quirked to one side
and one eyebrow raised. It was a pose that said she was ready to
fight anyone who cared to come at her, though Evon knew her
preferred weapons were words rather than fists. She wore her stiff
black bonnet dangling down her back, hanging by its tied