Mixed Blood

Chapter One

The looks sent my way were annoying, to say the least. Had I really changed so much that the people who had not even looked my way just months before now stared at me with a wistfulness but turning their gazes to the ground when I caught their looking? Had my appearance really changed as much as their reactions, did I really look so noble born?

This village was the closest to Pelt, and tonight we would be staying here. The lone tavern and inn was pitiful compared to many of those of the city, but at least there was one.

With the brewing storm easily visible on the horizon, my Pinkerton entourage did not want to risk getting caught. It did not matter to them my thoughts on the matter, because I was the criminal. Even if I had grown up in these mountains, that I knew them and their weather patterns better than the back on my hand.

And silently I knew that we would have plenty of time to spare, if we left the village now. But I did not speak up for two reasons. Because I did not want to anger the Pinkertons and have them shout at me, calling me things like 'criminal' and 'murderer' in front of this crowd, last time that happened the people had thrown fruit - both rotten and not - and whatever else I did not have, I did have pride. But rotten fruit smelt really bad. But mostly because I was not prepared to return to Pelt, to see Berdon's face crumple in grief, or even worse, in disappointment and anger.

At time like this, I was glad that my fellow Pinkertons were city bred.

But Inquisitor Damian Rook was not nearly as easy. He turned around to check on me, and saw something in my appearance that obviously showed my thoughts. "We will keep going," he snarled to the traveling company before staring into my eyes. "We have time enough before the storm, don't we boy?"

Rook was a dangerous fellow, and I did not yet know what he was not capable of, I had no choice but to answer the truth. So I did, staring back into his eyes, hoping I appeared proud, unafraid and challenging. Like a snobby noble who thought his adviser was not worth the time as I gave a short and fast nod of my head.

Rook smiled that crooked grin of his, the one that always left a forbidding feeling in the back of my mine and a burn in the pit of my stomach, and gave a shout of order that had us all out of the little settlement that I never did get the name of.

So much for delaying the inevitable.