“It was a family heirloom,” I go on as I leave the stand. “It had a pearl, which I’m sure you know is worth alotof coin, plus it contained magic. My mother gave it to me as a way for me to look out for my sister. It was all I had left from her, so this journey to Elphar is serious. I’m notfucking around, as you stated earlier.”
I glance over my shoulder, but Thane isn’t looking my way. Is he even listening?
I huff, biting into my pear and speeding up my pace. I don’t stop until I reach The Flour Tower. I’m glad to see the owner and my boss, Ellanoch, working behind the counter.
“Zaira!” Ellanoch sings as she slides tea cakes into one of the displays next to the loaves of freshly baked bread. “You’re not scheduled to work today, are you?” Thane strides in after me, and Ellanoch’s gaze catches on my companion. I watch as her already pale face turns even whiter. “Orvena’s stars,” she whispers.
“Don’t worry about him,” I grumble, approaching the counter.
“Zaira, whoisthat?” she whispers. “Are you in some sort of trouble?”
I understand her alarm. Men like Thane, strolling around with scars on their faces, death glares, and several swords aren’t exactly an everyday sight in Meriva. We avoid men like him.
“No—well, yes,” I answer. “But it’s not exactlymewho’s in trouble, and having him around is not what you think.”
She rushes around the counter, giving Thane a once-over before stopping in front of me. Taking hold of my shoulders, she says, “Tell me what’s going on.”
“It’s my sister…and a long story. I’ll tell you when I come back…which will be in a few weeks, if I’m lucky.”
“A few weeks?Why? Where are you going?”
“I have to take a journey to get something important for Analla. I just wanted to let you know so you don’t worry about me, and so you can make arrangements to cover my shifts.”
“Oh.” Ellanoch still looks uneasy. “But I don’t understand. Why do you needhim?”
I take note of her worried gray-green eyes, wanting so badly to tell her everything. But I can’t. I can’t risk word accidentally getting out and reaching Seferin.I also don’t want to cause concern… After all, I have plans to return, and nothing is going to stop me.
I remove one of her hands from my shoulders to enclose it in mine. “I’ll tell you everything when I’m back. I promise.”
“All right.” I can tell she isn’t satisfied with that answer, but she lets it go. “Well, at least take a loaf or two with you if you’ll be gone for that long.”
I smile as she returns to the counter to wrap two loaves of bread in an ivory cloth. I accept them and thank her as we hug.
My impatient companion clears his throat and cocks his head at the door.
Ellanoch frowns at him. “Come back in one piece, you hear me?” Her smile is warm as she rubs my upper arm.
“I will.” My eyes sting, but I bat the emerging tears away.
As we leave the bakery, I walk even faster to reach the refugee center. It’s going to be even harder leaving all the children I help teach, but I don’t want them or the director worrying about my absence.
Saying farewell for now to them all makes me cry.
I was in my ninth year when I came to the refugee center and didn’t leave until three years ago, when Analla was able to move us into our own place during her nineteenth year and my seventeenth. We were still in school, but we took up jobs on the side to afford our home in the Commons. I loved the center so much that I returned to volunteer.
When I finally exit the building, still swiping my eyes, I search for Thane, but he isn’t in front anymore. My heart plummets as dread seizes me.
“No.” I walk to the middle of the street as carriages and wagons rush by. Merchants yell, and people sit on the edge of the canal ahead, fishing or chatting away, but there is no sign of that wicked-looking man anywhere.
Then a whistle splits the air.
I turn around and my jaw drops when I spot Thane sitting on the edge of the roof of the refugee center three stories up. The roof is built at a sharp pitch, an almost vertical angle, and many of the clay shingles are loose and have fallen off. He causes shingles to slide downward as he stands up, and they shatter on the ground in loud clatters. How the shadows did he get up there?
To my shock, Thane jumps off the roof, and I gasp when he lands right in front of me with hardly a sound. He’s wearing his cowl and buffers again, his weapons strapped to him like he’s prepared for combat. For a second, I have to ask myself if this is the man Ireallywant to take a journey with. I mean, who jumps off of dangerously high roofs when they’re bored?
“Took you long enough,” he says, biting into a pear.
I glare at the fruit.
