Ashfall: City of Shade (UNDER EDITING)

Chapter 17 | Oddity

ADLER

The child stirs in her sleep. Is she a child? It doesn't matter anymore. Cephine is right. This little girl has some amount of power over me.

Ribbons of silk frame Greta's face as she wakes. Giggling through the bubble of a hiccup, she sits up taking another sip out of my goblet. Too much wine.

Over the hum of our room's private bath, the voices of those moving about in the tavern below can still be heard.

"W-what are you doing?"

"Relaxing. Many taverns have such a spring. Think of it as a mini bathing pool."

"It is tiny," she whispers with a sleepy smile.

My little pearl's tunic is tangled around her feet making her stumble from the bed. In a hurry, she untangles it. When she stands back upright, she openly looks over my chest with a growing blush.

Timid, she averts her eyes beneath the shade of her silky hair as she slips off the bed.

"She is delirious," my cynical son remarks across from me.

Small hands grip my shoulders. Brommy's attention remains on my star map.

"I'm not so certain. She must know you are here as well," I announce while lifting her squealing mass into the spring beside me.

"Her clothes are going to be soaked."

Interesting how the wine makes her more intent on getting close to me. Then again, the water is no longer warm.

My little pearl wrinkles her nose while latching onto my arm. "It smells!" she remarks.

Brommy laughs at her drunken, confused expression.

"It's the sulfur," he informs her.

Her pet leaves her neck and swims out into the center of the spring water. I try to focus on its tiny body rather than her soft legs that are circling around me now beneath the water.

"You're turning purple, Adler."

"No," I counter in a tight voice while watching my little pearl. "I'm just not used to being touched like this."

***

GRETA

Why am I wet?

And cold...very cold.

When I come to, I find my legs cramped and straddling the torso of a man. My heart hurts. It pulses rapidly when I lock eyes with Adler.

"You have woken."

"What am I doing in here?" I panic.

My brain feels clouded. I don't know why my world slips into blurs, but it is hard to discern his shape from the smudged blur of dim shapes around me.

Why is it so dark?

A deep voice whispers near my neck, "You came in last night. Don't you remember?"

Brommy?

"N-no!" I argue while flailing my arms around in the water to escape his nearness. "I'm getting out now."

However, my knees bang into something hard as a rock. Is it a rock?

Heat fans across my neck making every nerve come to life. Strong, icy fingers latch onto my waist. I tremble feeling his hand pass over the newly healing cut on my chest.

"I'm so sorry, my sweet. Let me make it up to you," Adler murmurs against my neck.

I cover his hands with my own.