The Dream Thief, Kari Kilgore [reading well TXT] 📗

do that. I truly don't. But you would surely not be surprised to know I still would. I'd be tossed out as a prostitute. Not pleasant but not catastrophic. You might not fare as well once it gets out that I had access to patients here."

Karl smiled himself, pleased when her eyes narrowed at the sight of it. He'd resigned himself to that possibility before agreeing to bring Loretta out here. The idea didn't upset him quite as much. Now that he'd seen it in action, he did want to learn more about the Dragon and what it could do. Particularly what he could do with one of his own.

"You're right. I'd be out on my ass," he said. "I'm sure the magistrates in Waldron's Gate would be interested in your little business, especially since everything you peddle is counterfeit. Knowing your lifestyle requires guards would get their attention if that didn't."

She smiled broadly, not looking the least bit displeased.

"We're as evenly matched as I'd hoped, then. What arrangements shall we make to adjust to this new equality?"

"You pay for my passage, obviously," Karl said. "And my lost salary for whatever time I take off work."

Loretta nodded. "Of course. I don't have that much coin with me, but I have more than enough available to me. I'm sure that's not all."

"Whenever we get to the Northlands," Karl said, "I want this person to build a compass, headgear, and a Dragon tuned to me. You'll teach me how to use it."

Loretta ate a few more spoonsful of her soup before she answered.

"The compass and headgear should be possible," she said. "I can't make promises for another person, but she loves a challenge. My Dragon took weeks to make, Karl. I have no desire to be up there for so long. Do you?"

Karl rubbed his stubbly chin, looking at the ceiling.

"I don't," he said. "Can't she come back with us? Make repairs a lot easier in the future?"

She drew back, eyebrows raised.

"That's not the best idea. She wouldn't agree, anyway. She's like many with such abilities, no matter what the field. Living closely with other people would not suit her well, nor the ones she lives near. She's had trouble with that in the past."

"You live up against the edge of the Fog, Loretta, nowhere near the middle of town. Surely a suitable house could be found or built for her out there."

Loretta leaned forward. "Can you provide her a place to stay until then? Or a place safe from Rhysto until he's dealt with? If you think my having the Dragon is a threat to people's sanity, you have no idea what horrors he would unleash with such power."

Karl walked into his bedroom and stared out at the indifferently maintained lawn behind the building. He didn't want her to see his face. He wasn't sure if his eagerness or his dread would be worse for Loretta to know about.

Having access to the same equipment Loretta used to her own advantage would be a horrible temptation. He definitely wanted the effect the Dragon seemed to have with his patients, with Mr. Otis's sudden calm vivid in his memory.

That power was likely to have side effects, though, and side benefits he hadn't yet imagined. But that power was a temptation Karl was willing to take great risks to have in his possession.

"I'll help you find a place to stay if she agrees to come back with us," he said. "In return, you convince her to make a Dragon for me."

He turned around. Loretta watched him, her head high and confident. She stood and held out her hand.

"If everything else still stands," she said, "we're in agreement."

Chapter 22

Karl held on to the looped leather handle, swaying with the movement of the trolley. He could see Loretta at the other end of the car, but she never met his gaze. He wasn't quite sure where George had gotten the badge she wore, exactly like his own. She'd walked through the employee exit right in front of him after the guard signed her out without batting an eye.

If he lived though the next week, Karl intended to pour George a lot more of Loretta's Northlands whiskey and get him to explain a great many things.

Taking more than a week was simply not an option, at least one Karl was willing to explore. His boss had been fairly understanding, but he had a strong feeling he'd have to produce a corpse to get any more time off. The story of his ailing sister only had to hold up a little bit longer.

Karl got off with a good-sized crowd a few stops before Loretta would. She didn't want Rhysto having any reason to suspect she'd been out at the Columns. Karl would go to any lengths to keep Rhysto from following any hints back to his family. He watched the trolley leave, surprised to see Loretta smile at him just before she was out of sight.

By the time Karl made the walk, Loretta's house still seemed deserted. He didn't like walking down this street in late afternoon, when anyone could see him, but it couldn't be helped. He doubted anyone in this part of town would recognize him anyway. Just another fringe benefit of living out of sight for more than ten years.

A familiar ghostly voice greeted him on the porch of Loretta's house.

"Mr. Gilmore. If you'd be so kind as to knock, Ms. Schofield is expecting you."

"Thank you, Bess."

Loretta opened before his second knock. She pulled him inside and closed the door behind him before she spoke. Karl was nervous enough without her agitation making it worse.

"Did anyone follow you?" she said.

"Not that I'm aware of," he said. "I'm not exactly used to worrying about that."

"We need to get out of here as soon as we can. Rhysto only left a few hours ago, and I don't know when he'll be back." She walked a few steps then came back. "I must retrieve a few