London Pale Read online

  ***

  Aiden walked away from the Gryphon Claw smiling, despite how his face was still black and blue, as he hauled a sack of coins over one shoulder, and had D'Natis perched on his other. London walked alongside him with her own sack, stepping lightly as the sidewalks radiated the intense summer humidity. She smiled at him.

  "What are you doing with your money?" London asked, looking as though they had each won the lottery.

  "Probably convert it to Ambler cash and pay rent," Aiden said.

  "Oh..." London said, bemused. "You live in Ambler housing?"

  Aiden stopped and let his sack fall to the sidewalk. "You don't know?" he said, his ears turning pink. "I've been an outcast ever since... ever since-"

  "It happened...?" London chimed in, a sincere tone in her voice.

  “Yeah," Aiden said, defensively. He threw his sack back over his shoulder and continued walking.

  "Well, wait," London called out as she sped up to match Aiden's pace. "What about Master Vodin?"

  Aiden stopped, glaring. "Don't ever say that name again," he snarled through grit teeth. "If you want to know why I'm stuck hiring myself out as a soldier-for-hire, then why don't you ask him?" When London didn't answer, Aiden scoffed. "See you later."

  London stopped, her enthusiasm for their victory had been replaced with a sudden disappointment. Aiden continued walking, not seeming to notice that D'Natis had hopped off his shoulder to the pavement below. London stared after him, and had almost missed D'Natis advancing toward her across the old sidewalk.

  "You'll have to forgive him. He doesn't always mean to be this way. It's an awfully long story, I'm afraid," D'Natis' voice arose from below, forcing London to crane her neck.

  The woman knelt down so she could talk to the raven face to face. "Even when Menlir called on me for the job, I wasn't sure Aiden was really a sympathizer..." London said, looking back and forth from D'Natis to Aiden's ever-distancing figure. "Maybe I was more curious than anything... I felt sorry for him at school. Guess I let my mission get in the way of my instincts."

  "We all do that from time to time," said D'Natis with an almost human tone. "Even I."

  London sighed, looking back to Aiden.

  "It's one thing for you or Menlir to treat someone that way, but Aiden is the victim of a higher power's mission," D'Natis added, seeing that London was about to stand. "Yours was a coincidence, a mistake. Theirs was a neglect. I don't think he realizes how much I know, but every night he has a recurring dream about a new beginning, and I don't think it will stop haunting him until he's figured it out. He won't stop pushing against the system until something changes."

  London nodded, still trying to process the bird's words. She stood, watching the raven flutter and hop away until it had caught back up with Aiden.