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‘Thank you’ The weight of the cloak pulled at her neckthe pain in her head throb

‘I had a daughter, once A noble took her Debts, you see Maybe she’s alive, h lasses, that one Back in Letheras We couldn’t stay there, you see, not after that Chance t’see her, or a body turning up, like they do Anyway, she was tall like you, that’s all Here, have some ale’

She accepted the tankard, drank down three quick mouthfuls

‘There, better now’

‘I have to go So do you, to your wife’

‘Well enough, lass Can you walk?’

‘Where’s my pack?’

‘He took it with him, said you could collect it In the shed behind his house He was specific ’bout that The shed Don’t go in the house, he said Very specific-’

She swung to the ladder ‘Helpdown to her behind as she cliasp below her as she moved beyond his reach She clambered onto the pier

‘Thank you, sir,’ she said

The city was quiet, barring a pair of dogs scrapping somewhere behind a warehouse Seren stumbled on occasion as she hurried down the streets But, true to the dockhand’s word, the ale dulled the pain behind her eyes Made her thoughts all too clear

She reached Buruk the Pale’s home, an old but well-maintained house halfway down a row on the street just in frohts showed behind the shuttered s

Seren cliainst the door

Four kicks and the locks broke By this tihbours had awakened There were shouts, calls for the guard So

She followed the collapsing door into the cloakroom beyond No servants, no sound fro the stairs to the next level Another hallway, step by step closing in on the door to Buruk’s bedroo beneath a crossbeam, face bloated in the shadows A toppled chair off to one side, up against the narrow bed

A screae, tore loose from Seren’s throat

Below, boots on the stairs