Page 109 of Guiding Reason

Col’s screen hummed with another incoming call. He answered, and they discussed what to do next.

At least Anandas has a plan for this because I really don’t,Col thought, although after having tea and the opportunity to think, he knew he’d have to go to Thistletown. The people there, his birth mother close to Aurea, they all needed to be warned of those insurrectionists and what they were willing and able to do.

Once they ended the call, Rose and Avan exchanged a few words. “We’re making dinner now. Avan says you cannot help because of your concussion, and if you do, he will hurt me. You do not help, understand, ma?”

Col smiled up at the Hound, who stood there with his arms crossed, so much like a physician from any clinic in any city. “Understood.”

Avan nodded, and Rose and he retreated to the kitchen area. There was another door there, set into the floor, and Col watched with amazement as Rose brought out food from down below.

He was about to ask if he could have a look when he heard something outside. Not Hyran’s speeding. The horn cat hissed, loud like a beast three times its size.

Col stood and turned toward the entrance. “Hyran?”

Avan came over from the kitchen. His pointed Hound ears twitched. “Stay,” he said to Col and walked past him toward the entrance. The curtain that covered it seemed very flimsy all of a sudden.

Avan stopped in his tracks when he pushed the fabric aside, and Col could tell just from how he tensed and straightened that something was wrong. He spoke in the Houndish tongue. Someone out there responded in kind.What are Hounds doing here? Looking for a healer, just like we were? Did the insurrectionists attack Hounds as well?

Back in the kitchen area, Rose climbed the stairs and reemerged from the hatch in the floor. He looked from Col to Avan, listened. Avan stepped outside, let the curtain drop behind him.

“What?” Col kept his voice low. He could tell something wasn’t right, just had no idea what.

Rose shook his head and put a finger to his lips. The basket he’d brought up with him he placed on the floor, careful to move silently. He held up two fingers for Col, pointed outside.

Two people? Two Hounds.

Col put his hand on his gun, focused on his breathing.This will be fine. It’s probably nothing. A misunderstanding maybe.

Before either he or Rose could move, Col heard the sound of Hyran arriving outside, that grinding of his Guardian’s shoes as he ran, the way the air punched forward when he stopped.

“What the—” Hyran’s voice. Col’s hand tightened on his gun.

“Who’s that?”

Taros. That’s Taros.

Col didn’t need to know what was going on. There were two members of his family out there, and that sufficed. He pulled his gun and ran.

“Fucking shitstorm,” Rose said.

Col could tell Rose was at his back when they slapped the curtain aside, ran.

“Hyran!”

Hyran and Taros were farthest from Col and Rose. It was three Hounds, not two, that were talking to Avan, and they stood between the two groups.

Taros had slid off Hyran’s back, was standing shoulder to shoulder with the kinetomancer.

The three strange Hounds had ears studded with metal rings that—at a minimum—marked them out as fighters.

When Col and Rose ran, Avan turned and shouted something. From that point onward, everything went far too fast and Col could do nothing, was too slow to be of use. Drops of blood pattered on his face when he got there, moments too late.

37

HYRAN

Li stood outside the Old House, her hand on Sinex’s shoulder. “We’re gathering a few things before we leave.”

She sounded obstinate. She didn’t look it.