The Dragon Republic. R.F. Kuang

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СКАЧАТЬ options. She was strategically backed into a corner, and she couldn’t think her way out.

      But she knew someone who could.

      “There’s something else I want,” she said. “Kitay’s address.”

      “Kitay?” Moag narrowed her eyes. Rin could watch the thoughts spinning in her head, trying to determine if it was a liability, if it was worth the charity.

      “We’re friends,” Rin said as smoothly as she could. “We were classmates. I care about him. That’s all it is.”

      “And you’re only asking about him now?”

      “We’re not going to flee the city, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

      “Oh, you’d never manage that.” Moag gave her a pitying look. “But he asked me not to tell you where to find him.”

      Rin supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised. It still stung.

      “Doesn’t matter,” she said. “I still want the address.”

      “I gave him my word I’d keep it a secret.”

      “Your word means nothing, you old hag.” Rin couldn’t suppress her impatience. “Right now you’re just dithering for the fun of it.”

      Moag laughed. “Fair enough. He’s in the old foreign district. A safe house at the very end of the walkway. You’ll see Red Junk Fleet symbols on the doorposts. I’ve posted a guard there, but I’ll tell them to stand down if they see you. Shall I let him know you’re coming?”

      “Please don’t,” Rin said. “I’ll surprise him.”

      The old foreign district was still and silent, a rare oasis of calm in the never-ending cacophony that comprised Ankhiluun. Half these houses were abandoned—no one had lived here since the Hesperians left, and the remaining buildings were used only to store inventory. The bright lights that littered the rest of Ankhiluun were absent. This place lay uncomfortably far from the open central square, where Moag’s guards had easy access.

      Rin didn’t like that.

      But Kitay had to be safe. Tactically, it would be a terrible idea to let him get hurt. He was a remarkable reserve of knowledge. He read everything and forgot nothing. He was best kept alive as an asset, and Moag had surely realized it since she’d put him under house arrest.

      The lone house at the end of the road floated a little ways off from the rest of the bobbing street, tethered only by two long chains and a hazardous floating walkway made of badly spaced planks.

      Rin stepped gingerly over the planks, then rapped on the wooden door. No response.

      She tried the handle. It didn’t even have a lock—she couldn’t see a keyhole. They’d made it impossible for Kitay to keep visitors out.

      She pushed the door open.

      The first thing she noticed was the mess—a sprawl of yellowing books, maps, and ledgers that littered every visible surface. She blinked around in the dim lamplight until she finally saw Kitay sitting in the corner with a thick tome over his lap, nearly buried under stacks of leather-bound books.

      “I’ve already eaten,” he said without looking up. “Come back in the morning.”

      She cleared her throat. “Kitay.”

      He looked up. His eyes widened.

      “Hello,” she said.

      Slowly he set his books to the side.

      “Can I come in?” she asked.

      Kitay stared at her for a long moment before waving her inside. “Fine.”

      She shut the door behind her. He made no move to get up, so she picked her way through the papers toward him, taking care not to step on any pages. Kitay had always hated when anyone disturbed his carefully arranged messes. During exam season at Sinegard, he’d thrown temper tantrums whenever someone moved his inkwells.

      The room was so cramped that the only empty space was a patch of floor against the wall right beside him. Taking care not to touch him, she slid down, crossed her legs, and placed her hands on her knees.

      For a moment they simply stared at each other.

      Rin wanted desperately to reach out and touch his face. He looked weak, and far too thin. He had healed some since Golyn Niis, but even now his collarbone protruded to a frightening degree, and his wrists looked so fragile she might snap them with one hand. He had grown his hair out in a long, curly mess that he’d bunched up at the back of his head, which pulled at the edges of his face and made his cheekbones stick out more than they already did.

      He didn’t remotely resemble the boy she’d met at Sinegard.

      The difference was in his eyes. They used to be so bright, lit up with a feverish curiosity about everything. Now they were just dull and blank.

      “Can I stay?” she asked.

      “I let you in, didn’t I?”

      “You told Moag to keep your address from me.”

      “Oh.” He blinked. “Yes. I did do that.”

      He wouldn’t meet her eyes. She knew him well enough to know that this meant he was furious with her, but after all these months, she still didn’t know precisely why.

      No—she did, she just wouldn’t admit that she was wrong about it. The one time they’d fought about it, really fought about it, he’d slammed the door shut on her and hadn’t spoken to her until they reached dry land.

      She hadn’t let herself think about it since. It went into the chasm, just like every other memory that made her start craving her pipe.

      “How are you doing?” she asked.

      “I’m under house arrest. How do you think I’m doing?”

      She looked around at the papers splayed out across the table. They littered the floor, pinned down with inkwells.

      Her eyes landed on the ledger he’d been scribbling in. “She’s kept you busy, at least?”

      “‘Busy’ is a word for it.” He slammed the ledger shut. “I’m working for one of the Empire’s most wanted criminals, and she’s got me doing her taxes.”

      “Ankhiluun doesn’t pay taxes.”

      “Not taxes to the Empire. To Moag.” Kitay twirled the ink brush in his fingers. “Moag’s running a massive crime ring with a taxation scheme that’s just as complicated as any city bureaucracy’s. But the record-keeping system they’ve been using so far, it’s …” He waved his hands in the air. “Whoever designed this didn’t understand how numbers work.”

      What a brilliant move on Moag’s part, Rin thought. Kitay had the mental dexterity of twenty scholars combined. He could add impossibly large sums without blinking, and he had a mind for СКАЧАТЬ