Chapter Four
The rain soaked Kriss to the skin before he had gone twenty steps. The inviting sounds came from around the next corner. Shivering, miserable, he stepped from the alley. A passing groundcar splashed him waist-high. A man’s mocking laughter trailed from it.
I should have spent more time with the lieutenant, he thought, his teeth chattering. All night, maybe. At least the touchlyre’s case was waterproof . . . though he doubted water would harm the instrument anyway.
He spotted the inn a short distance away, on the other side of the road. Laughter and warm yellow light spilled out into the rainy night as someone entered. Kriss broke into a splashing run, and a moment later pushed open the front door.
Thirty or forty people, all Farrsians, filled the cozy stone-walled common r
