Free Aeralis by Kate Avery Ellison Page B

hanging over the streets as if about to collapse onto them. Ropes crisscrossed the sky above us, strung with drying laundry or lanterns or fluttering banners advertising shops. The air smelled of sewage and wet flowers and horsehair. Rain began to fall, and the people in the street scurried for the overhanging buildings as we pressed on.
    Raven led me into an alley, and we dismounted. A figure in a black coat stepped from a shadow and took our mounts’ reins. A woman. She lifted a sputtering lantern high to dispel the gloom brought on by the rain and darkness of the alley as she peered at us suspiciously.
    “Do you have business here?”
    “We’re meeting an uncle,” Raven said, and the woman’s eyebrows quirked in recognition. It must be a code.
    “And how was the weather on the Aeralian plain?” she asked.
    Raven licked her lip and smiled her enigmatic smirk. “We saw no lightning.”
    The woman nodded, satisfied. “And the sign?”
    Raven flashed a Thorns brooch at her, and the woman gestured toward a door in the wall.
    “You’ll find food in there, as well as clothing,” the woman said.
    We went inside.
    Gaslights glowed along the far wall, and a chandelier strung with cobwebs hung low over a table laid out with bread, cheese, and a pitcher of drink. A pile of clothing sat on a chair beside the table.
    “What was that all about?” I asked.
    “It’s a code. Thorns operatives in the city are always meeting an uncle, and if we’ve seen no lightning, that means we were not followed. Then we’re free to show the brooch.”
    Raven grabbed a piece of cheese with her fingers and stuffed it in her mouth while I surveyed the room more closely. Bookshelves surrounded a pair of shuttered windows. One of the titles caught my eye. The Winter Parables .
    Shivers spidered over my skin.
    I reached for the pile of clothes. Some were made of silks, velvets. I dug through them until I’d found something plain and sensible. Raven nodded toward a curtain, her mouth full of food.
    “I think we are supposed to dress in there.”
    I went first, peeling off my woolen cloak and dress and putting on the black cotton trousers and shirt that had been provided. The shirt tied in the back, corset-like, cinching my waist in, and the tightness on my stomach felt strange. I put on the coat next, a long gray piece studded with brass buttons. A high collar scratched against my neck and caught my braid. I tugged at the cuffs and brushed away lint, acquainting myself with the new and strange material.
    I put my discarded clothing in the sack of things I’d brought. After a moment’s hesitation, I reached into the sack and found my mother’s letter. I’d brought it with me. I tucked the folded paper into my belt and stepped out from behind the curtain.
    Raven sized me up, and her mouth pinched with concentration. “You look Aeralian enough, but wear your hair up.”
    I reached back and twisted my braid into a knot.
    She nodded, satisfied.
    I ate a little bread and cheese while she took her turn behind the curtain. When she emerged, she wore a long gray coat over a wine-colored pair of loose trousers and a ruffled blouse. Gray silk gloves covered her hands, and she’d pulled up her hair in a thick, glossy bun at the nape of her neck. She looked utterly different.
    “Well?” she asked, twirling.
    I didn’t say anything.
    Raven grinned at me. She sauntered back to the table, plucked a piece of fruit from the platter, and then reached for the pile of clothing again with the other hand. “Perhaps I should have chosen this shirt,” she mused, holding up a silken blouse to the light.
    I ignored her, already thinking ahead to what I must do next. I had no idea how I was going to find Borde. I remembered Gabe’s promise. Could he possibly help me? I didn’t dare try to find Adam. He’d be furious that I was here.
    Raven strolled back behind the curtain with the silk shirt in her hand. “I’m going to slip this on and see if I like it