Without skin, I couldn’t feel anything beyond the warmth, but I still relished the connection. Something inside me settled and calmed as she held my hand. She tripped over a rock on the path, and I instinctively tightened my grip, then loosened it again, afraid I might hurt her.
Thankfully, she didn’t take her hand away.
“I can’t see where I’m going. It’s too dark,” she said with an apologetic laugh. “Not that my vision is much better in the daylight either.”
Having impaired eyesight wasn’t safe, especially in Ashgate. But I didn’t know how to fix it.
“What did youreyeglasseslook like?” I asked.
“Oh, that’s a rather primitive design, really. Two lenses and a frame. The lenses go in front of your eyes, so you look through them, and they sharpen your vision. And the frame is just to keep the lenses in place and to support them on your ears.” She paused, turning to me. “Have you really never seen a pair of glasses?”
“No.”
“Hm, must be nice for the entire kingdom to have a perfect vision.”
“Nice,” I echoed, my voice hollow. “I have it even better than the rest of the kingdom. With my right eye, I can even see through smoke and fire if I have to.”
She squeezed my hand gently, and I made an effort to shove my bitterness aside.
“How do the lenses make you see better if you don’t have any magic?” I asked, staying on topic.
“It’s not magic, just science.”
“Science?”
“Yes. Physics, to be precise. It’s the science of the way that objects, matter, and energy behave. I’m nearsighted, meaning I can’t see the objects located in the distance well. A concave lens would improve my vision, even bringing it back to nearly perfect. The trick is to get the curvature of the lens just right to fit my specific vision impairment.” She gazed at me uncertainly. “Do you understand?” Then waved her hand. “Not that it matters, anyway.”
“I understand,” I said.
I knew what glass lens was and what “concave” meant, though I didn’t get any formal education while growing up on the streets of Kalmena.
There were plenty of scholars in Alveari who studied the many ways in which objects, matter, and energy behaved, as well as discovered new ways to alter those behaviors. Only we calledthat “magic” or “sorcery” and people who dealt with it “mages” or “hags.”
“I wonder if a hag could figure something out for you,” I thought out loud. “Hags are very skilled in all possible kinds of healing magic. Some can even regrow a missing eye or replace it with an eye of another being, fae or animal.”
“Wow, really?” she exclaimed in wonder. “Though I’m not sure how I’d feel about getting someone else’s eyes. But maybe having animal eyes could be fun, like a cat’s eyes maybe? That can see in the dark?”
She tripped over a rock, then cursed under her breath, and steadied herself, leaning on my hand.
I tried to imagine Elaine with different eyes and shook my head.
“I’d miss your eyes,” I said. “They have all colors at once, and so many emotions, I fear no other eyes would ever be able to convey them all.”
She sighed. “Well, there is no need to talk about it anyway. It’s not like there are any skilled hags in Ashgate.”
Skilled hags usually lived in royal palaces or in the mansions of nobility, using their magic to the benefit of the most prominent families of Alveari. But it couldn’t hurt to ask around Ashgate if there were any hags or mages who might prefer the freedom of the lawless city to the life of servitude in a palace.
Elaine didn’t let go of my hand even after we reached the edge of the path. Of course I didn’t take it away from her either, leading her across the desert to the opulent tents of our new client.
The moment we entered the main tent, Elaine’s shoulders tensed, and she slowly stepped back toward the exit.
The thick rugs decorating the tent, the soft candlelight illuminating it, the smell of food filling the air, and even the slow music played by a trio of musicians weren’t unexpected. Theword about Joy Vessels’ pleasure had traveled far and wide. Our clients knew that in order to get their money’s worth, they had to make Elaine’s night as enjoyable as possible.
What took Elaine aback tonight, I realized, were the six men reclining in the silk cushions around the table in the middle of the tent.
Six, not one.
I moved my chair forward.
