A Run-In with the Watchmen

By the time I returned to the Morhaust Estate, the blood on my eyebrow had dried and my hands were shaking. My throat felt scraped raw.

I slipped in through the cellar door. The electric lights on the grounds shone through the slats and lit up the dusty bottles and rubbish that filled the cellar.

I dragged myself to the kitchen and closed the door behind me, waiting until I heard the tumblers in the lock fall before I turned around.

Stefan was standing by the sink, elbows-deep in soap suds, looking out the window at the rain-drowned garden. When he saw my swollen cheekbone and the trickle of blood from my hairline, his eyes widened. "Morgana? What happened?"

"I had a run-in with a couple of night watchmen." I rooted through the cupboards for the first aid kit. Stefan kept it as well-stocked as he could, just for situations like this. "They were looking for the Bone Keeper."

Stefan turned off the tap and strode over to me. He took my face in his hands; his palms were warm from the dishwater. "Oh, sweetheart. Better patch yourself up. I'll put on some milk."

I grabbed some disinfectant and sterile bandaging from the kit and stumbled into the bathroom. My heartbeat pounded in my temples; lights bloomed at the edges of my vision. I had to sit down. I felt like I had on the deck of the cargo ship, like the surface below me never stopped shifting.

Taking off my boots was a struggle. When I bent over, pain knifed through my ribs. I peeled off my pants and tossed them in the tub, turning on the hot water. The bathroom filled with steam. While I scrubbed my face and knees with water from the sink, I considered what it meant that the watchmen were searching for the Bone Keeper in Landen Town. Last I'd heard, a few bellringers had claimed her was in North Village. Before that, he was in Knightsbridge. That didn't meant anything, of course. The Bone Keeper had eyes and ears and mouths everywhere; one of his lackeys could easily have spread the word that he was in Landen Town, to throw off the watchmen.

But if it were true... a shiver gripped my spine.

I was wasting time in Landen Town, hiding int he staff's quarters under Morhaust, scrapping with watchmen. I needed to find Magdeleine, the Bone Keeper's minx, before the Bone Keeper found me.

Art by Anonymous

Text by Lucie MacAulay