12
REQUITED LOVE
Pasha followed a few paces behind the bent form of Smudge, who hobbled down the narrow street under thin marble arches, which cast a tangle of shadows under the evening sun. Smudge was spry despite his age, and Pasha struggled to keep up.
His stomach was in knots, and he insisted with boundless stamina that he could help find Anna, but Smudge ignored him. The attraction Pasha felt tugging him toward Smudge made things even more complicated. His mind kept tracing back to Chulla and how she and her uncle had the same eyes.
Smudge led him a few blocks from The Chisel before turning down another street, into a group of nine men and women wearing the blue double-line-in-circle of Tolisho piling out of a bar, the sign to the right of the door depicting a lone, stone mug spil
