Page 56 (1/2)
Eood," said Sharon, and then he looked at Emma "Now you try"
"If we must do this," she said, "I’ll pretend to be h for Sharon He opened the door and swept us out into the dying day
The air outside was a toxic-looking yellowish soup, such that I couldn’t tell the position of the sun in the sky except to say itaway We walked a few paces behind Sharon, struggling to keep up whenever he saw someone he knew on the street and sped up to avoid conversation People seemed to know him; he had a reputation, and I think he was concerned that weto ruin it
WeStreet, with its -box flowers and brightly painted houses, then turned onto Periwinkle Street, where the pave flats Men with hats pulled low over their eyes were congregating around the end of a seedy cul-de-sac They appeared to be guarding the door to a house with its s blacked out Sharon told us to stay put, and aited while he went to talk with theasoline In the distance loud, laughing voices swelled and fell away, swelled and fell away It was the sound of ame--only it couldn’t have been; that was strictly a modern sound, and there were no televisions here
A man inopen, the voices grew louder and then faded when it sla a bucket We turned, watching as he walked toward so I hadn’t noticed: a pair of bear cubs chained to a sawed-off lae of the street They were terribly sad looking, with only a few feet of slack on their chains, and they sat on thelike dread, their furry ears flattened back The man dumped some putrid table scraps before them and left without a word The whole scene ri behind us "Blood sport is big business here, and fighting a grihters have to train so the cubs"
"That’s awful," I said
"The bears have the day off, though, thanks to your beastie" Sharon pointed at the little house "He’s in there, out through the back But before we go in, I should warn you: this is an ambrosia den, and there’ll be peculiars in there who are lit out of their minds Don’t talk to them, and whatever you do, don’t look them in the eye I know people who’ve been blinded that way"
"What do you mean, blinded?" I said
"Just what it sounds like Now follow me and don’t ask any more questions Slaves don’t question their rit her teeth We fell in behind Sharon as he crossed to the men clustered around the door of the house
Sharon talked with thea slavelike distance and averting my eyes One of the a coin from his cloak and paid it Another asked about us
"I haven’t given theot ’ereen, I don’t dare let theht?" theus "Don’t have na with Emma The man looked us up and down I wanted to squirm out ofcloser