Shadowdance 01 - A Dance of Cloaks

Delysia. Something wasn’t right at all. He sprinted faster, his dagger drawn.
    “Why are we going this way?” Delysia asked once they hurried into the alley.
    “I think I heard someone following us,” Madelyn said, glancing back toward the street. “We have to be careful. Come closer.”
    Delysia realized the woman had taken out her dagger. Why had she taken out her dagger? And if she was afraid of someone following, why was she keeping her back to the road?
    “I want to go back,” she said, stepping farther into the alley. “I don’t want to go anymore.”
    “I can’t have anyone warned,” Madelyn said. The compassion drained from her eyes. “Ashhur’s priests have always been in the thief guilds’ pockets, no matter how hard Calan insists otherwise. Your father was always a fool, Delysia. Kindness made him blind, and you’re no different.”
    Delysia turned to run but the alley dead-ended at a thick wooden wall connecting the two stores. She spun back around and put her back to the wall. Madelyn stood in the center of the alley, dagger still in hand. There was no way past her; no way out.
    “I won’t tell anyone,” she said, tears growing in her eyes.
    “No,” Madelyn said. “You won’t.”
    Something knocked the dagger from her hand. Madelyn’s mouth opened, and then a dirty boot struck the side of her face. Delysia let out a small cry as Madelyn went down, her hands outstretched to slow her fall. She rolled when she hit the ground, but Haern was already there, scooping up the dagger and kicking her in the stomach.
    “How dare you try to hurt her,” Haern whispered, his whole body trembling with rage. He held a dagger in each hand, and he looked more than ready to use them. Madelyn sat on her knees and glared.
    “Don’t,” Delysia shouted. “Please, let her go.”
    Haern glanced at her, and Madelyn took the chance to run. Haern looked back, clearly debating.
    “Please stay,” Delysia insisted, and that was enough to keep him with her.
    “What are you doing out here?” he asked, sliding both daggers into his belt.
    “I was … I was doing something dumb. I’m sorry. I should get back.”
    “Wait,” Haern said, reaching out and grabbing her wrist. Delysia tensed, but his touch was soft. He held her there, neither moving, only their eyes alive as they stared at one another.
    “Please stay,” he said.
    “We’ll be caught,” Delysia said.
    She heard the boy laugh.
    “No, we won’t,” he said, sliding his grip down from her wrist to her hand. Then they were running, her heart hammering, and suddenly she was shimmying up the side of a house and onto the roof.
    “We’ll be safe here,” Haern said once they were all the way up. They sat cross-legged before each other, the city stretched all around them, enclosed within the great wall. He gestured to his right, where the street was hidden from view.
    “No one can see us passing by,” he said.
    Delysia nodded. She rubbed her arms with her hands, feeling both cold and afraid. The past few days had been a whirlwind of pain and confusion, and all she wanted was to curl up somewhere warm and sleep. Yet Haern kept looking at her with his blue eyes, so intense in their desperation. He wanted something of her, but what, she didn’t know.
    “Why did you come for me?” she asked, hoping to pry it out of him quickly so she could go back to the temple.
    “Because I … it’s about your father.”
    Delysia winced.
    “What about him, Haern?”
    Haern sighed and looked away. His mask helped hide his emotions, but it didn’t erase them completely. He was reluctant and embarrassed. Delysia felt her fear hardening in her stomach. Whatever Haern had to say, she sensed she would not like hearing it.
    “I helped kill your father,” Haern said suddenly.
    Delysia didn’t move. Her thoughts returned to that day, but she remembered no boy. She only remembered tears, the surprised cries of the crowd, and then running far away so she could cry alone. Still, Haern’s ache was too real to be a lie.
    “Why?” she asked. “Why did you help?”
    “Because my father asked it of me,” Haern said. “That’s not all, Delysia. I had a mission, one I failed.
You
were my target. I was to kill you.”
    Delysia suddenly felt paralyzed with fear. She thought back to her talk with him in the pantry. What if she had been a fool to let him out? He’d been stopped on his way to finish the job, and now here she was, helpless atop a roof with no way