Free Brimstone and Lily (Legacy Stone Adventures) by Terry Kroenung Page A

said Jasper.
    “But,” Ernie scowled, jabbing a paw at me “you’re still a pain in me arse.”
    My shoulders fell. “I still think there’s been a howlin’ mess made by somebody. But as long as the Merchantry thinks I’m their girl, we still need to get outta here.”
    “That’s sho’ ‘nuff true,” sad Romulus. “Time’s a-wastin’.”
    This time Romulus led us. Seemed like he could see in the dark almost as well as me. We took a meandering course, avoiding major streets and lit buildings. I followed second, Ernie back in my haversack, and Eddie brought up the rear. Every now and then our guide would get down on all fours to sniff the ground.
    “Why does he do that?” I wanted to know.
    “Habit, mostly.”
    “Habit? Waddya mean?”
    “I mean that me old mate Romulus used to be a dog, before the Merchantry… disciplined him.”
    “You’re pullin’ my leg.”
    “’Fraid not, missy. That’s how they punish people who cross ‘em, by shape-shiftin’ ‘em into a lower form of life.”
    “And somebody thought a colored man’s lower than a dog?”
    “You’re bein’ naïve, Verity, dear. Just about everybody in these parts thinks that.”
    I shuddered, and not just because we were skirting St. Bart’s. For some reason what had been done to Romulus struck me as more awful than Venoma’s stench. Had Ma known? Might she be one of the Marshals of the Equity? Was that how Romulus, of all…people…had been hired on at Ford’s? Have I just been a stupid blind kid all this time?
    “You’re not stupid,” said Jasper. I’d forgotten that he stayed my head. “Just human.”
    “Like you, once?”
    “Sorta, yeah.”
    “You said you’d tell me about it.”
    “And I will. But not now. You got bigger things to think about.”
    “Oh, right. Savin’ the world.”
    “Savin’ yourself first. They’ve caught us.”
    I ran smack into Romulus, who crouched down, unmoving. Eddie bumped into me. This is like some bad minstrel show. The world’s dependin’ on us? Focusing my sharpened senses, I felt for anything out of the ordinary. Nothing I saw, heard, or smelled caused any alarm. Is Jasper wrong?Who’s caught us?
    Then the Stone began to freeze. Turned so cold I thought it’d burn a hole through me.
    Still I saw nothing. We were across the street from the southeast corner of St. Bart’s. The oak trees glared down at us like angry gods who were miffed that we dared trespass on their sacred ground without due homage. Night made them even creepier than they’d seemed that afternoon. No light came from the school’s windows. They were like the eyes of dead Argus, once all-seeing but now blind.
    “Let’s go,” I whispered, starting to step around Romulus. “There’s nothin’---”
    His log of an arm shot out and blocked me. “Sshh. Look.”
    Maybe twenty yards ahead of us stood two soldiers, a sergeant and a corporal.. They were the Provost Marshal’s men—military policemen tasked with patrolling the streets of the capital. Confederate spies and saboteurs crossed the river all the time to cause trouble. Or they just walked right out of their houses to do the same. A lot of Washington’s residents sympathized with the South’s cause, though they had to stay silent about it. That made policing quite a dangerous job.
    This didn’t look like a case of military necessity, though. A frail little boy of maybe seven or eight cried to the pair that he’d gotten lost and wanted his mama. They were kneeling down trying to calm him. Telling him that it would be alright, they asked if he remembered his street address. He had his hands in his coat pocket and just shrugged, while continuing to cry, head down.
    “Do you have any older brothers or sisters we could take you to?” the taller of the two soldiers asked, trying to get some helpful information out of the boy.
    The little tyke nodded. “A sister.”
    “Do you know where she is?” asked the other soldier, shifting his slung