I hesitate. What I really want to say is ‘lonely’. Instead, I settle for, “free.”
She nods. “So what do you normally do in the evening?”
I stretch my arms and fold them behind my head. “Whatever I want. The city is my garden. At this time of night, though, the view from my window is pretty amazing.”
“Is it?”
“It looks right out over the river and toward the palace,” I boast. “Best view in the city.”
She’s quiet for a while, and I watch her out of the corner of my eye. She’s probably regretting even talking to a street rat like me.
I’m about to ask her about her home when she sighs. “It is getting late.”
“It is. Do you have to go home?”
“I am not ready to go home yet.”
I’ve been slouching back on the bench, but now I sit up, heart pounding in my chest. It’s stupid, and she’ll say no, but I’m not ready for her to go home either. What I want—what I really want—is to spend more time staring into those big brown eyes and seeing how many times I can make her laugh. “Do you… do you want to come back to my place, then? It’s nothing much,” I say quickly. I almost regret asking, only she won’t say yes.
But her face lights up. “Can I? I would love that.”
I swallow, but my mouth is still dry. Stolen gold forgotten in my pocket, I stand and hold out my hand to her, and she actually puts hers in mine. “It’s not far from here. Come on.”
This might be the best trick I ever ran. Let’s just hope I can pull it off.
Kaelun
I’m halfway up the wall of the temple when I realize I’ve miscalculated. My room—such as it is—is a forgotten cavity high at the top of the temple spire. I’ve grown so used to making the climb every day I didn’t stop to think about how a girl like Yalina is going to follow me.
She stares up at me with wide eyes. “You live up there?”
I start descending, feeling a little sheepish. “Yeah. The rent is great. Listen, if you’re scared of heights—”
“I want to go up! Show me how you did that.”
I laugh. Pointing where the occasional brick pokes out from the surface, I say, “You put your feet and hands on these and feel your way up.”
She looks a little taken aback but reaches for the nearest one.
I stop her. “It’s easier with no shoes on.”
“Oh!” Slipping her feet from her shoes, she tries again, looking around at me with a smile when she steps up onto the first one. “I see!”
She’s a fast learner. Soon she’s scaling the wall, and I climb up under her, watching to make sure she chooses the best hand and footholds.
“To your left!” I call, when she reaches the loose brick near the ledge.
She deftly moves left and grabs hold of the brick on one side of the loose one.
“That’s it. Now pull yourself over.”
She reaches over the ledge, and there’s a moment where my heart leaps into my mouth as her feet stretch up and leave the last foothold. Then she’s over, looking back at me with a huge grin on her face. “I did it!”
I grin back. “Yeah, you did.”
A moment later, I’m over the ledge too, standing and brushing the dirt from my tunic and all of a sudden wishing I hadsomewhere nice to take her or somewhere comfortable for her to sit down. I spread out my hands. “Well, this is it. It’s not much, but it’s home.”
She looks around, and I’m grateful I only have a few possessions or I would have left the place in more of a mess. I wasn’t expecting company. My bed is a roll of blankets and padding I’ve collected over the years. It’s a haphazard mess of colors and patchwork pieces of fabric. Garish colors and patterns clash, rolled out directly on the floor. An old broken lamp is propped up in a holder next to the bed on an overturned wooden crate. There is a basin of water I have to fill by hand, carrying a bucket on my back as I scale the wall. At least the stained-glass window is nice.
