The Vessel of Ra

Chapter 6: The Errand Boy

Ra, sitting on her shoulder, spread his wings. Lucy touched him and they floated to the ledge just outside the window.

"Maybe she doesn't need us," said Carlo.

"Maybe you need her," said Paolo. "Up you go."

Lucy watched the Borgias clamber up the edifice the old-fashioned way, finding toeholds and handholds in alcoves and on ledges. She glanced inside the broken windows, but could not see much in the gloom.

When he reached her side, Carlo studied the window. He wrapped his hand in his cloak and snapped away glass. "Would you care to glide inside?"

Lucy floated to the floor, her boots kissing the ground. Dust swirled up. Carlo landed beside her in a crouch, his hands brushing swaths in the pervasive dirt. Paolo located a rope to the right of the window and shimmied down. He'd been in this way before.

Lucy coughed as the dust settled. A grand wood counter had been cut in half by a falling column, which rested at a slant across the counter's marble top, cracks webbing out from it, patterned like a lace collar. Warped shelves rolled across the walls. The floor tiles were fragmented, missing in some spots. Below them, metal and glass had broken from the shattered dome above, which was open to let all the elements in. Leaves filled the room's corners.

"I can stay here," announced Lucy. "This will do quite nicely."

"I don't think so." Carlo shook his head. "Where will you sleep? How will you eat?"

"I'll manage. The important point is anyone Octavia sends won't find me here. They're looking for a woman, not a little girl." She twirled in her dress, the skirt rising. "I can leave the city in a day or two."

"Best stay inside as much as you can. Your bird, he'll reveal your presence."

Lucy flipped one tile back into place with her foot. "We can compromise, can't we, Ra?"

Ra fluttered into the dark shadows, plucking something from a leaf pile. Ra was always hungry for something.

"Won't Ra tell your family where to find you?" asked Carlo. "What can he gain keeping you away?"

"The Trial will happen in three weeks, with or without the proper ceremony. Ra knows Octavia will have to kill me when he wins. I know Ra doesn't want us to be killed. Otherwise, what would be the purpose of winning?"

"I don't see how this makes your situation any better."

"Wait! I told you to trust me!" Paolo darted around a dividing wall into what could have been a storeroom or a workroom.

"You aren't going to try killing yourself again?" Carlo reached for her shoulder, then pulled his hand back.

Lucy started. "No." She watched his hand drop to his side. "Killing myself is impossible, and I'm grateful. Jumping in the canal might have not been my wisest decision."

"You were desperate."

"I was foolish. I don't want to die. It seemed one way or the other who I was would die. Your grandfather seems to have something else in mind."

Paolo came back around the dividing wall. "You must come here," he said. "I think you will be impressed."

Lucy rounded the corner. Carlo followed into a back room full of shelves stretching floor to ceiling, up to a second floor. Another dome decorated the room, the glass broken in missing patchworks. Birds roosted inside and out.

"My library," announced Paolo.

"I don't see any books," said Carlo.

"You wouldn't," said Paolo. "Not yet. When you learn some magic"—he spread his hands expansively—"you will be able to see, and all this will be yours!"