Read Fifth Quarter for Free Online Page B

Aralt went north . Didn't you get anything else?"
     
    "I don't know."
     
    Very slowly, she set her right foot back down on the road beside her left. "You don't know?"
     
    "Come on, Vree, there were a lot of memories and stuff thrown at me…"
     
    This emotion, she recognized. In the past, jobs had always been weighted toward her planning and his instincts. He always wanted the overview and hated dealing with the details.
     
    "… and I haven't exactly had a chance to sort them out."
     
    "Do it now." Vree lowered herself into a slice of shade.
     
    "But Aralt…"
     
    "Could be anywhere. I'm not moving until you've sorted things out."
     
    "But…"
     
    "No."
     
    "Look, he's in my body!"
     
    "And this is mine , and it's not moving until you give it a direction." He believed weariness where he would have argued with anger. She listened to the high-pitched whine of a buzzbug protesting the heat, scratched the top of one foot with the heel of the other, and waited.
     
    "Did we pass something that looks like this?"
     
    An image of a jagged ridge, half the face sheared off and huddled at the base, was shoved in front of her mind's eye. Vree jerked her head back and slammed it against the rock behind her.
     
    "Ow!"
     
    "You felt that?" She raised a hand and gingerly touched the lump coming up on her skull.
     
    "Of course I did. Well?"
     
    The ridge. Vree frowned, remembering, "it was off on the left side of the road about an hour ago, just past the last milestone."
     
    "There's a valley behind it, with a spring. Aralt has a villa there. That's where he's gone."
     
    "But he isn't…"
     
    "He instructed the servants to follow the orders of anyone showing up with his signet."
     
    Vree nodded and stood. "Smart."
     
    "Not smart enough. He didn't plan on me surviving."
     
     
     
    "Nice place." Vree wiped sticky fingers on her thighs. The oranges had been bitter, but she'd been too hungry to care. At the head of the valley stood a sprawling, single-story house, its thick mud walls bleached a pale cream color by the constant sun. There were stables, and gardens, and the less attractive buildings that housed Aralt's servants. One slope of the valley held olive groves while the other grew oranges.
     
    "How do you think we should go in?" Bannon asked.
     
    If she didn't turn, she could believe he was crouched beside her. "We'll follow the line of trees to those currant bushes, behind them to that building, up onto the roof, a short jump up onto the house, and down into the central courtyard." There had to be a central courtyard—there were almost no windows in the outside walls.
     
    "They'll be able to see us from the kitchens."
     
    Vree squinted down at the open-sided building. "It's noon," she said. "And hotter than a garrison whore. Everyone's asleep."
     
    "Everyone except us."
     
    "Mad dogs and officers…" In spite of everything, she grinned at the quote and felt Bannon's grin as he responded.
     
    "What does that make us?"
     
    The grin faded. "Desperate."
     
    They listened to the heartbeat they shared for a moment. Finally, when it became obvious that Bannon wasn't going to break the silence, Vree started toward the villa.
     
     
     
    "Vree, there's a dog."
     
    "I see it." Half rolled on its back, one paw in the air, the huge animal snoozed in the shade of the stables.
     
    "Are we upwind?"
     
    "I don't think there is a wind." The air hung down from the searing heights of a yellow-blue sky like the beaded curtain in the governor's stronghold—not quite solid but a physical barrier nevertheless. Vree could almost feel the heated beads brush against her skin.
     
    One foot on top of the low stone wall; both hands flat against the tiles; bare toes dug in for purchase; and she was on the first roof. The dog twitched but had no intention of abandoning its dream.
     
    It would take a running leap to reach the roof of the main house, and during that one exposed moment disaster would be a single person glancing