Sin
When Elias reached the city, the night was old and the sky was turning purple.
He ate his jerky and penned his horse at an inn after some irritating silent negotiation. They would not let him stay; they didn’t want his sores on their sheets.
Elias didn’t care because he did not have the time. He walked to the university and onto the campus. The architecture was grand and he would have liked to look at it, but he could feel his anger pounding like a headache.
He headed straight for the faculty dormitories, forcing the door, then stopped in the hall.
His anger had carried him here, but there was no way of knowing which room the stranger lived in. Elias didn’t read, so the names on the doors did not help him.
He closed his eyes and allowed a wave of despair to wash over him.
He swallowed hard.
“Hello?” he tried, but his voice cracked in too many places.
“Hello?” A whisper worked. The word hissed so quietly and even the air pained him, but it worked.
Elias gritted his teeth and sat down at the end of the hallway. He waited until the sun had flooded the hall in pink and gold and the sounds of washing up and walking surrounded him.
The second a door cracked open, Elias was on his feet and pushing inside.
He covered the man’s mouth with a firm hand and pushed the door closed behind him.
“I am looking for a boy,” Elias whispered.
The man’s eyes rolled in terror as he screamed against Elias’s palm. He was short and stout, balding, fat. His soft hands scrabbled against Elias, nails catching in the cloth wrapped around him.
Elias gripped harder and shook the man with a snap.
“He has blond hair and blue eyes. Matches my height. He took from me and I must find him.”
The man pushed at Elias hard. Elias walked him backward until he was able to pin him to a wall, then leaned close until the man could not move. His thrashing was pulling at Elias’s stitches, and he suppressed a flinch in agony.
“Is he a professor or student here?” he whispered. “I need his name to contact the authorities.”
That seemed to have an impact. The man faltered and put his hands down. But Elias wasn’t stupid enough to let him go.
“He wears very fine clothes and talks like he owns everyone and everything around him,” Elias continued. “He is clever and . . . cruel. He looks to be sixteen or perhaps seventeen.” Elias continued, “Name him and I will leave with haste.”
The man’s eyebrows knotted, then he tapped the back of Elias’s hand.
“Are you seeking Victor Frankenstein? He no longer attends here.” He shook his head and pointed at the door. “Please, go. Leave the rest of the faculty alone.”
Elias looked at him hard. “If I described to you some others, would you be able to give me names?”
“You said you would go if I named one man!” the professor said urgently. “Get out or I will shout!”
Elias bowed his head. “Thank you for this gift.”