“That so? Seems rather counterproductive to your cause, don’t it?”
“Kroans have a different cause.”
“And you?” She placed her hands on her hips. “What’s your cause.”
“We’ll explain when we get you to the ship.”
“Right,” she mumbled, packing a few more loose items onto the wagon. “IfI get there. I’m still not fully convinced that you’re not about to sacrifice me.”
She tossed one final metal tool into the pile and then sighed, slapping her hands together.
“That’s all. The rest of this junk can stay.”
“How are we going to get that all to the docks without anyone seeing?” Meridan asked.
“We won’t,” Addison said. “Trust me, even if you didn’t see them, those bitches are watching. They’ll see us. But Nox is out back and he’s been dying to stretch his beefy legs.”
I followed her to the back of her cluttered smithery to find another door. She shoved through it into a backyard where more metal scrap and piles of soggy wood scattered the rain-dampened ground. Standing in a small barn with his giant head hovering over the wooden railing of his stall was a massive black horse with shortened mane. Addison strode toward him and unhooked a rope halter from the wall nearby. After carefully lifting it over his long muzzle and tying it at the sides, she opened the stall gate and led the giant animal out.
“This,” Addison said, patting the horse’s thick neck. “Is Nox. He’s strong and he’ll get us to the docks faster than our own feet will. You get that barrel of supplies I’ve been packing and bring it out here. I’ll hook this boy up to the wagon.”
I turned to retrieve the supplies she’d prepared when I saw Meridan pulling the door ajar.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
She stepped back, allowing someone else to step into the building. A woman, thin and draped in an oversized shirt that only covered the tops of her spindly thighs. Long, knotted black hair hung over her sharp shoulders and covered part of her face. Large, black eyes scanned the room before settling on me.
“Hello,” she said.
“Meridan, close the door,” I said chidingly.
She slowly pushed it closed again and stepped away from the siren. She was close to my age and by the looks of her, she hadn’t fed on anything bigger than morsels for some time. And the new and old scars on her legs said it wasn’t for lack of trying.
“Who are you?” I asked, resting my hand on Vidar’s sword.
“Lyla,” she answered, canting her head to one side.
“What do you want?”
“I saw you and your Naros friend flee the square.” She turned to Meridan again, her eyes roaming over her once. “I’ve never seen a Naros before. Not a living one, anyway. Your corpses do sometimes drift into the fissures now and then, but by that time, you’re all sunken and misshapen.”
I explored her with my eyes and didn’t see any weapons. Her feet were dirty like she’d been running around on land for some time. Her cheeks were sunken and her lips a bit dry.
“When did you eat last?” I asked.
She shrugged her shoulder. “I don’t keep track.” But she seemed to notice that I was looking at her wounds and instead of shying away, the corner of her mouth curled upward. “Do they scare you? My scars?”
“Hardly. What do you want?” I asked again.
“I wanted to see if the rumors were true.”
“What rumors?”
“Rumors that Reyna’s last remaining daughter was alive. Not only alive, but…” she took a deep breath, her eyes darkening at the scent of me. “Being friendly with humans.”
Meridan slowly inched my way, staring at Lyla as if she was a viper coiled in the grass.
“Are you afraid?” Lyla said to Meridan. “I’ve heard you Naros are reclusive. Do I overwhelm you?”
