Avador Book 2, Night Shadows by Shirley Martin Page B

Fianna away from the meadow and east toward the city, swept along with the other fairgoers also leaving the fairgrounds. They eased their way through the mob, the crowds pushing and shoving around them.
    "Where are we going?" she asked in dreamy speculation. She wrapped her arm around his waist, unable to think of anything but having him all to herself. At the same time, she felt as if she were floating in the air, looking down at herself. A light breeze caressed her face and cooled her body, lifting wisps of hair away from her forehead.
    "We're going to my apartment, where I'll have you all to myself." Stilo squeezed her waist, his fingers thick and blunt against her body, his musk scent stronger than ever, combined with an aroma she couldn't identify, a smell pungent and overpowering. 
    She leaned into his embrace, feeling lighter than a moonbeam, her brain fuzzy and unfocused.
    "Almost there, Angharad," Stilo murmured in her ear. Eventually the crowds thinned, the mobs heading for their homes, until the cobblestone streets became near empty, with only a few stragglers here and there, and the ubiquitous vagrants tottering along. Past the shops and businesses, they approached an area on the outskirts of the city, a street she knew as Granno's Way, where mansions and splendid apartment buildings graced the long avenue.
    She turned her head to look up at him. "You know, Angharad is not my real name. You may call me Fianna Murtaugh, and that is my real name. I took a different name since I ran away from home," she said, then told him the story of her departure from Ros Creda and the circumstances that forced her to leave her home and all that she loved.
    "So you see," she said minutes later as they passed a statue of Aventina, the river goddess, "no one from Ros Creda must know I'm here in the capital."
    "Ah." An expression of contemplation captured his face, prompting her to wonder what was going through his mind. But the question drifted away, obscured by the dizziness that imprisoned her.
    Near a grassy park thick with magnificent oaks and bushes, they reached his apartment building, an elegant stone edifice several stories high. Night-blooming jasmine scented the air, and nightingales sang from the trees. Only a few yards distant stood wooden benches set in a garden, where the apartment dwellers gathered to enjoy the evening breeze.
    After mounting the front steps, he released his hold on her waist and opened the door to the building, where they stepped into an entranceway lit by numerous oil lamps. A marble hallway stretched the length of the structure, with apartments leading off from either side.
    At the entrance stood a small enclosed room, capable of holding ten or twelve people. Its doors stood wide open. Stilo eased her toward the tiny room, and her steps slowed, a sensation of the unknown creeping over her.
    "Don't be frightened," he said, his voice low and gentle. "Haven't you seen a moving cage before?"
    "I've heard others speak of them, but I didn't know they looked like this." Giddy and muzzy-headed, she entered the strange contraption without a qualm, willing and longing to do anything he asked.
    "Well, come on, then."
    The small space boasted gold-colored walls with an oil lamp overhead and murals on the wall of gods and goddesses.
    With one hand, Stilo shut the doors, then made hand motions and muttered a few strange words. Magic vibrated through the air, her skin tingling.
    The cage was moving! She looked from side to side, up and down, while the contraption conveyed them upwards, past the outside walls. Lost in hazy confusion, she felt as if she were floating, floating, floating, up to the sky, never to come down to earth.
    Stilo slid his arm around her waist. "See, isn't this a clever apparatus? We will soon arrive at my floor."
    As he uttered those words, she felt the cage stop. Taking her by the hand, Stilo led her onto the hallway, this one with branches leading to the right and left. They took the