A sheepish smile tugged at his lips as heat climbed his neck. “I’m an idiot.” He rested his hand on hers and held her gaze. “Yes. I will help you.”
She beamed at him.
“I had an idea and jumped straight into it without answering. My apologies.”
Her free hand dismissed his apology with an elegant wave. “All is forgiven. What was your idea?”
He pointed to Jabal at the map’s edge. “I think we can assume ‘J’ stands for Jabal. None of the other towns or villages within a reasonable distance start with ‘J,’ and you heard her mention Jabal specifically.”
“I agree.”
His fingers walked the distance between Qarya and Jabal, then from Jabal to Marj. “When about did they leave Qarya?”
Rahma sat back on her heels and peered at the scattered clouds as she made the calculations. “We were there, what? Four days ago?”
A second later, As’ad counted the same. “Yes.”
“Then Hadia and the others were there fifteen days ago. About.”
“That’s probably close enough,” he assured her. “It’s about three days to Jabal from Qarya using the main route.”
Rahma narrowed her eyes at him, but he pretended not to see. “If they went straight there, that would give Hadia time to drop off her first load and leave to get more. I’m guessing she’s here looking for someone used to cattle. Would you agree?” He turned innocent eyes on her. She pursed her lips but nodded. “I thought I could figure out the timeline better, but too much information is missing and I don’t see how we can know for sure that Suha is still in Jabal. But we have to act like she is.”
“Yes.” Rahma slapped the ground with her hand.
Some more finger-walking gave As’ad another estimate. “I believe we can make it to Jabal in four days. That gives us just under three—better say two days, to be safe.”
That decided, the black-haired beauty pushed to her feet. “Let’s go, then!”
“Yes, ma’am!”
As’ad hurried to repack the maps and catch up with her.
The next days blurred together. Rahma wanted to move as fast as possible, and As’ad felt a similar urgency. Not quite as sprawling as the capital or some of the larger coastal cities, Jabal was still a full city. Finding a single girl presented a thorny problem.
It was highly unlikely that simply asking around would direct them to her. Hadia had been getting away with this scheme for a few years at least. She couldn’t have done so without getting caught if she wasn’t wily. From what As’ad remembered of Pozik’s criminal enterprises, the dwarf likely had one or more storehouses in the city. Depending on how he moved the “stock,” they could make some educated guesses about the location.
On the third night after deciding to push for Jabal as fast as they could, Rahma and As’ad discussed the most likely places to begin their search. Rahma wanted to ask at a magistrate’s office, but As’ad pointed out that Suha and the others were unlikely to be meandering the streets. Nor were they required to present themselves. Hadia would have snuck them in or hidden their identities.
“What do you remember about the large group traveling with those two dwarves?” Rahma asked as she tried to get Alzali to jump over a twig. As’ad watched the rat lunge for the treat the girl held just out of reach. The gray rat hadn’t quite grasped that she was being asked to jump.
“I don’t actually remember that group,” he admitted.
“Darn. I was hoping to pick your brain so I could compare your memory with mine. Because I think I’m misremembering to make the facts fit the story.”
“What do you mean?”
Khudha chose that moment to nip one of her sisters. As’ad pulled her out of the pile that had been happily bathing each other and placed her on his shoulder.
“Well, it seems to me that all of the people in that group were younger than we are, for one.” She nudged the treat closer so Alzali could snag it. “They didn’t look thrilled to be there, but I just assumed it was because they were walking through lunch.”
Fat Carl found a rock by the fire upon which to sing the song of his people. His squeals and chitters were as emphatic as they were aimless. After a few seconds of impassioned speech, he turned his tail to the fire and jumped down, waddling off in search of who knew what.
Rahma looked to As’ad for clarification. All he could do was shrug and shake his head. That oddball continued to defy all his expectations.
“Anyway, now I’m questioning whether or not my memory is accurate. Just because Pozik is a dwarf doesn’t mean every other dwarf on the continent works for him.”
“That’s true,” As’ad said slowly. “But there’s also no reason to rule it out. It doesn’t change our plans, so we’ll keep it in mind.”
