A faint, metallic shudder vibrated through the floorboards before Mina’s lips could touch the warm pill.
Beneath the porch eaves outside, a tiny brass thimble attached to a horsehair line clinked twice against an empty clay jug. The sound was softer than a falling pinecone, but in the quiet room it was unmistakable.
Kaelen paused, his fingers resting half an inch from Mina’s chin.
Sera’s head snapped toward the ceiling. Her dark eyes narrowed into slits as she looked toward the rain-slicked roof tiles above the front courtyard.
“Rooftop,” Sera whispered, her voice barely a breath. “North eaves. Two men.”
Sera has the ears of a mountain hawk and the patience of an anvil, Kaelen thought, gently tucking the crimson pill back against the rim of the vial. Someone is crawling around in the downpour when they could be asleep under dry blankets.
Sera did not wait for an order.
She leaned her heavy storm-pike against the wall, reached into the leather pouch at her hip, and withdrew two hollow terracotta flash-lime spheres from the Pre-Paid Shield cache. Slipping out through the side pantry door without making a single hinge groan, she hooked her fingers onto the wooden gutter and vaulted lightly onto the low porch roof.
