Page 53 of Embrace the Serpent

Voices came from the main road, and I inched along the backside of the inn and peeked around the corner.

The villagers mobbed the Imperial Guards, shouting questions:“Did the Emperor finally hear our petitions? Are you fellows here to fix the bridge? What about the stepwell?”

The leader of the guards barked back, “As we have said, we are here for a girl.”

I sucked in a breath. There went the faint hope that the shopkeeper had misheard.

A stooped old woman raised her walking stick. “Well, if that’s all you’re wanting, you can have me.”

The villagers cackled, and my stomach lurched. They didn’t know how dangerous the Imperial Guards could be.

The next building was a few paces away, but thankfully a clothesline was strung across the alley, and the sheets hid me as I ran. I made my way from building to building, crouching low and watching for the guards, and sprinting across whenever no one was looking.

All my attention was on the main street, so the hand that came from behind and covered my mouth made me scream. The sound was muffled.

“Shh,” a deep voice said. “It’s me.”

He let me go, and I spun to face the Serpent King. A deep hood shielded his features, but a lock of silver hair hung free.

The blood—the blood was gone, but I could smell it still—

“Are you hurt?” he asked.

“No,” I said faintly.

“Thank the stars—I feared the worst when I found you gone, and then again when I finally read the messenger’s scroll. I wish your Master Galen had waited just a little longer before revealing the truth.”

“Galen revealed the truth?” I repeated.

“Why do you think the guards took you?”

“They didn’t take me,” I said. “I walked here. They just showed up.”

He reared back like I’d slapped him. “You left of your own free will.Why?”

I hushed him and dragged him with me to the shelter of the next building. The last one before the stepwell.

He removed my hand. He took a step back, his body taut, hands fisted at his sides. “My people went through the forest, looking for you. They were captured by the reinforcements, taken to Copperton. I had to choose. I came for you, like a fool.”

They were taken? Even... “Rane?”

“What do you care? You ran away.”

“It—it was the blood. I saw you—it was—”

“The blood?Do you think I enjoyed that?” A dark laugh. “Yes, of course, how I justlovebathing in blood.” He shook his head. “I’m done. You people are all the same. You look at us and see monsters.”

Hurt flickered in his eyes before a shutter came down over his expression. He was a storybook creature, divine, powerful. It shouldn’t be possible that anything I could do would hurt him.

“I can’t do this,” he murmured to himself, then raised his voice. “Fine. Consider the deal revoked. You’re free.”

My hand rose, reaching for him, but he slipped away, melting like a ghost into the shadows. He skirted the stepwell and made for the mountain pass.

There was an oily pit in my stomach. I rubbed my arms, willing it away.

A distant shout from the main street snapped me out of it, andI dove for the stepwell, down the stairs and into the shelter of the shadows cast by the low angle of the morning sun.

The old shopkeeper scampered down the steps a moment later, gripping the silver disc, my bag slung over his shoulder, Grimney jogging beside him.