clutched the corner and looked behind him. His breath rasped like a rusty gate
swung back and forth by gusts of wind.
Somebody was after him. Should she wait here? He hadn’t seen her, and perhaps
whoever was chasing him would be so intent he or they wouldn’t detect her
either.
The youth turned h’is face, and she gasped. His face was so swollen that she
almost didn’t recognize him. But he was Benna nus-Katarz, who had come here from
Ilsig two years ago. No one knew why he’d immigrated, and no one, in keeping
with the unwritten code of Sanctuary, had asked him why.
Even in the moonlight and across the street, she could see the swellings and
dark spots, looking like bruises, on his face. And on his hands. The fingers
were rotting bananas.
He turned back to peer around the corner. His breathing became less heavy. Now
she could hear the faint slap of feet down the street. His chasers would be here
soon.
Benna gave a soft ululation of despair. He staggered down the street towards a
mound of garbage and stopped before it. A rat scuttled out but stopped a few
feet from him and chittered at him. Bold beasts, the rats of Sanctuary.
Now Masha could hear the loudness of approaching runners and words that sounded
like sheets being ripped apart.
Benna moaned. He reached under his tunic with clumsy fingers and drew something
out. Masha couldn’t see what it was, though she strained. She inched with her
back to the wall towards a doorway. Its darkness would make her even more
undetectible.
Benna looked at the thing in his hand. He said something which sounded to Masha