Fifth Quarter Read Free Page B

should have, started back too late, and ended up trapped together for a full day in a hidey-hole barely big enough for one of them. Unable to move, barely able to breathe, it was the only time Vree had ever had more than enough of her brother and had found herself, after hours of his chin digging painfully into her shoulder, wishing that she worked alone. And why am I dwelling on old failures now ?
     
    She spat on her palm to chase away bad luck.
     
    Staring down at the skinny, dark on dark silhouette of a teenage boy, his spear held tightly across his body, trembling angles announcing that he'd rather be anywhere and doing anything else, she finally nodded.
     
     
     
    The interior of the tower was vastly more complicated than it appeared from the top of the wall. Over the years, countless divisions had created a jumble of small rooms and crooked corridors that followed no logical course. Cloaked in darkness, the assassins avoided two patrols and then were very nearly discovered by a grumbling servant stomping around complaining about all the noise.
     
    "… up at dawn and 'spects me ta sleep wi' all this racket…"
     
    Bannon mimed slitting her throat. Vree rolled her eyes and motioned for him to get moving. The old woman hadn't seen them; there was no need to kill her.
     
    Their information—and they knew better than to ask how Commander Neegan had gotten it—put the governor's quarters on the top floor of the tower. Hugging the inner wall of a wide curved hall, they found a flight of stairs, climbed seven steps, and emerged onto a carpet so plush they could have marched the entire Sixth Army across it without making a sound. The room contained only a trunk beneath a high arched window and across from it, a pile of cushions broken into squares of shadow by the night. Opposite the door they came in was another, the beaded curtain hung across it so thick that it appeared from a distance to be a solid barrier.
     
    "Sandalwood," Bannon murmured, his breath brushing the word against her ear.
     
    It took her a moment to understand what he meant and then another to separate the scent of the beads from the scent of him.
     
    There were no sounds coming from the other side of the curtain; no sounds, no light, no patrol. As Vree used the back of her wrist to lift the strands nearest the door frame away from the polished stone, Bannon slid through the narrow opening. Vree counted three heartbeats, moved to follow, then froze. From the other side of the curtain came the flicker of an open lamp and the sound of marching feet.
     
    A patrol. They'd have to go back. She turned and suddenly realized it wasn't one patrol she heard but two. They couldn't go back. The leading edge of approaching lamplight already threw three grotesquely elongated shadows against the stone just outside the room. The short flight of curved stairs had hidden the second patrol until it was almost too late.
     
    Heart pounding, Vree dove for the tiny angle between the bottom cushions and the wall. Face pressed against the tile floor at the edge of the carpet, she squirmed into the only shelter the room had to offer. The patrol was on the threshold when she realized Bannon wasn't going to join her.
     
    Too late to join him.
     
    He's hidden on the other side . There was no question about it, but she didn't like discovering that they'd separated. Not alone. Just apart . Barely breathing, she listened to the footsteps grow louder, then suddenly stop as the carpet caught the sound and held it.
     
    Then she heard the rattle of sandal wood beads closely followed by a muffled curse.
     
    "Blow it, Eline, I could've killed you."
     
    "Had to hit me first," a second voice growled. "Whacha so jumpy about anyway?"
     
    "Place looks different in the dark." This new voice was young, not quite settled into adult depths, and Vree found herself thinking of the boy with the spear.
     
    Eline snorted. "Gotta lamp, doncha? Hardly dark."
     
    "Where have you just come