The Phoenix Thief

TWENTY FIVE

KILTER, CATRIO, AND VITTELA hurried up the stairs of the tower and onto the tiles just as a group of Watchmen came clattering down the street, scenthounds barking before them. At once Kilter flung himself flat on the rooftop, and he waved at Vittela and Catrío to do the same.

Catrío, however, stood staring out at the city spread before her, mouth open.

"So big," she whispered.

"Catrío!" Kilter grabbed her coat and jerked so that she fell beside him on the tiles, and he gripped her close, covering her mouth with his bandaged hand when she cried out.

He was too late, though. Shouting broke out below.

"Up there, did you see? They're on the rooftop!"

"Get up there, head them off! Has a Messenger been sent to the Chancellor about them?"

"On his way now!"

Kilter turned Catrío's head to face him, his hand still over her mouth. Her breath through her nose was as rapid as a cornered stray's.

"I know." Kilter whispered. "It is big. So don't look at it. Don't look back, don't look at the Watchmen. Follow me, look at me, put your feet where I put mine when we run. Yes?"

He could feel Catrío shaking in his arms, but she nodded. Releasing her mouth, he glanced over the peak of the rooftop at the street below, then at Vittela where she lay on the other side of Catrío.

"They will try and go inside the tower. But we can make them follow us."

"Draw their fire? Good. Blaze the way for us, Ryosha, and Catrío and I will follow." Vittela nodded, but Catrío didn't say anything, face almost as white as the snow scattered on the rooftop.

"Catrío?" Kilter shook her. "Catrío, I know it's not like in your books. But if I can make it through the forest, you can make it through Istravol. You know how to do so many things I don't know. Time to stop just knowing and start doing."

Catrío gripped Kilter's arm and stood up with him. At once, the shouting in the street grew louder. Before Catrío could freeze again, Kilter took off along the rooftop, dragging her after him as Vittela followed. The Watchmen charged down the street in pursuit, their voices hardly discernable from the clamoring of their dogs.

The horrible crack and burst of gunfire reverberated against all the stone around Kilter, Catrío, and Vittela, but after several bullets glanced off the metal tiles with sharp pings, it stopped just as suddenly as it had broken out.

"Hold your fire!" One voice rose above the rest of those down in the street like the crying of the biggest panine had dominated the baying of his pack. "I want him alive, do you hear? I want the pilot alive!"

Kilter would have known the voice anywhere. He'd heard it whisper of unfinished business to him in his sleep many nights since he and Dmal were beaten in the cages beneath Warehouse One, but it was Vittela who cried out.

"Fástnik!"

"The one... who... ordered the massacre?" Catrío said as she jumped after Kilter from the end of the rooftop by Dmal's tower onto the roof of the building beside it.

"Yes, and probably itching for another." Vittela pulled one of her knives from her belt as she climbed after Kilter and Catrío. "Always disliked your father, he did, Catrío, for being a favorite of Alishek's. In an isolated place like this there's only so much room for success, and ten people available for each position."

"He's the second-in-command now," Kilter said, pausing a moment behind a cluster of chimneys to peek out at the pack of grey-clad men below in the street.