Page 33 of Scourged

"Thank you, sir. We much appreciate the information." Delaynie dipped her head to the scowling man, a pleasant smile on her pink-hued lips.

The man grunted, shrugging his coat farther around his shoulders, before storming off down the quiet market district street.

It took everything in Ciana not to roll her eyes at the man's disappearing form. "Well, he was …”

"An ass? I agree."

Ciana whipped her head to Delaynie, a look of mock outrage on her face. "Lady Albellane! How unbecoming. We are representatives of the palace court!"

Delaynie grinned. "And what wereyouabout to say?"

Ciana shifted in her saddle. "That he was … quite a disagreeable gentleman."

Delaynie snorted. Ciana sighed. "Fine. He was a prick. A foul-tempered, useless prick."

It was how most of the people they'd spoken to that day were. They’d tried to stop as many city residents they could on every street they’d turned down, searching for something,anythingthat might be helpful to them.

And each time, they were met with distrusting looks. Suspicious glares at the twin crescent moon sigil on their horses’ saddle blankets. Short, single word responses when they felt sufficiently trapped by Delaynie's sweet yet terrifyingly insistent questioning.

All the while, as Ciana, Delaynie, Kiira, and Rylla ventured farther from the palace, the knot in Ciana's stomach grew. Her glances back over her shoulder grew more frequent, alternated with gazes toward the Bay of Nria.

At the battle she knew raged there.

"It's just as we told you this morning.” Kiira sidled her gelding up beside Ciana's gray mare, Keely. "If it is rumors about the palace and the queen that we seek, then taking horses bearing palace tack will surely drive all gossip away. No one wants to speak ill about a monarch to members of her own court."

Ciana sighed again, glancing up and down the empty street. It had been busy when they'd arrived, but the second they started asking their questions, the doors had slammed shut, the windows boarded, and the alleys deserted. "I know you're right. I just …” She twisted her hands around the leather reins. "I just didn't realize they would be this negative."

"They feel abandoned by their queen and her court," Rylla said from where she lingered behind them. "Many lost family and friends when the pirates stormed the docks. They won't forget easily."

"We are doing the best that we can," Delaynie snapped, ice blue eyes flashing. "You are new here, so perhaps you don't know the full truth of what has occurred in this city. We are all sacrificing things to keep this city afloat and its occupants safe and fed?—"

"My sister meant no offense, Delaynie," Kiira murmured. "All we mean is that this approach of questioning people in the streets … it won't get you the information you seek."

A small bead of anxiety formed in the pit of Ciana's stomach. She wasn't nervous about the two Kreah sisters—even though they were shifters, something she'd thought impossible only a day ago. She somehow trusted them. Mariah had, too, at her presentment ball. And if Mariah trusted them, then Ciana could find it in herself to do the same.

That morning, after Sebastian, Matheo, Trefor, and Quentin left for the latest skirmish on the Bay of Nria, Ciana and Delaynie had roused themselves quickly and met the Kreah sisters in the stables. They’d planned it all last night: tired of waiting in the palace for news to come to them, they would go and seek information of their own.

Rylla had led the charge. Ciana turned in her saddle and faced her, hazel eyes—now human, and not feline—sharp and alert, the dark gray of her clothing melding seamlessly with the rich, cool umber of her skin and the silver jewelry braided into her hair.

"Does it hurt?"

Rylla snapped that sharp stare to Ciana. "Does what hurt?"

Ciana tightened her hands around her reins. "Shifting. When you shift, does it hurt?"

Rylla smiled. "No, Ciana. It does not hurt. Maybe it did, at first. But now it feels as natural as breathing."

"Perhaps even more natural sometimes." Kirra grinned, sharing a look at her sister. The dark-eyed twin had revealed her second form to them all last night, as well: a great tawny cat with rings black as midnight dotting her fur. A leopard, Rylla had explained, while Rylla's own pitch-black feline was what they called a panther.

Of course, that had prompted Quentin to ask about the famed desert sphinx's of Kreah. To which Kiira had blanched and instructed Quentin to never go seeking a sphinx, lest he go in search of a most terrible fate.

Which had only made Quentin grin wickedly. Ciana had almost been able to see the plans of adventure forming in his mind.

"You know what needs to be done if you wish to find out any useful information." Kiira's accented voice tugged Ciana back to the empty city streets.

Ciana swallowed. "You promise you won't eat anyone?"

"As long as they don't strike first."