“Zephra, girl, check her bags for me, will ya? See what you can find.” The man gestures to my bags, and his little creature hops off his shoulder to skitter toward them.
With her little paws, Zephra opens my rucksack, then buries her head inside. When Zephra whips out one of the half-eaten loaves of bread I got from Ellanoch, she joyously chitters.
“No—no, Zephra. You already ate!” the man scolds with exasperation. “You devoured a whole roasted turkey and didn’t bother saving a bit of it for me. Let’s not be greedy. Come on, I need you to remember your job. Coins, jewelry, yeah? Are there any in there?”
Zephra chitters again, buries her head inside, then comes back out with the strings of a pouch in her mouth.
“That’s it! Good girl!” the man praises as she hurries to him, dropping the pouch into his palm. She crawls to his shoulder again and stares at me briefly before swiping the backs of her paws over her snout.
“Don’t move. Got it?” the man advises.
I bob my head. Like I’ll dare move. I can’t even see clearly enough to know where to run.
He removes his hand from my mouth to open the pouch and dump the coins into his palm.
“Ah, look at that, Zephra. We’ll be eating good for at least a week with this.”
I reach for my spectacles, and the man points his blade at me.
“You can take it all,” I tell him, throwing my hands up. “I don’t care. Just take it.”
His brows pucker. “Interesting. I expected more of a fight from you.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not a fighter.”
“That’s strange coming from a person camping out near Ruvain.” He dumps the coins back into the pouch. “You know what you’re doing is dangerous, don’t you? I mean, I literally walked right up the stairs and saw you sleeping like a sweet little princess. Almost didn’t want to startle you because you looked so precious but, well…the coin calls.” He shakes the pouch, giving the coins a lightclink clinkwith a mischievous smile. “Someone like you, out here all alone, is not smart, I gotta tell ya. If I were anyone else, I’d have done—”
The man’s words come to an abrupt stop as the door of the room flies open and Thane appears. With his sword in hand, Thane rushes the man, who scrambles to get up, and slams him into the wall, pressing the edge of the blade to his throat. Zephra flies off and blows a small gust of fire at Thane, who deflects it with an invisible shield before wrapping her in a gold bubble.
“Hold on!” the stranger yells, tossing his hands in the air.
Thane’s eyes widen, and the blade at the man’s neck slacks as he studies his features. “Are you seri—Algar?”
Algar?
The man cocks his head, confused, until Thane steps back and pulls his mask down. When Algar sees his whole face, his eyes light up.
“By the Crystal, I don’t believe it! Thane Valkor? Is that really you?”
“Yes, it’s me,” Thane retorts, sheathing his sword. “What the shadows are you doing in here? I almost killed you.”
Okay. What is happening?I hold my breath as I watch this strange reunion unfold.
“Where were you?” My voice comes out shrill, nearly hysterical.
“I was finding water for the horse. I was only gone for a few minutes.” Thane points a finger at Algar. “Were you spying on me?”
“Well, yes. I couldn’t tell who you were with the mask and all. And look at you! There was no way I was about to take a man your size down on my own. I wanted to see if you’d left anything behind, and it turns out you did. A wholewoman.”
“Give thewholewomanher coins back.” Thane huffs.
“Oh, right.” Algar shoots me an apologetic grin as he tosses the pouch my way. I scramble to catch it. “My apologies if I scared you, princess. If I’d known such a pretty lady was withthistwit, I wouldn’t have tried to rob you.”
“It’s fine?” I look from him to Thane, positively baffled by what’s happening.
Algar marvels at the sight of Thane.
“I can’t believe it’s you, my friend!” Algar releases a hearty laugh. “Holy Orvena. You’ve gotten taller, yeah?”
