Ipolished off the second bread ring and wiped my hands together to rid them of crumbs. “Thank you for the breakfast.”
“Troupe tradition,” Vallia said. “We always eat simnick on show days. It’s good luck.”
“Simnick?” Skye eyed the bread that remained in her hand. “Is that what you call this?”
The blue-haired woman gave me a slow wink. “Kashara is famous for it. Each street vendor has their own special blend of seeds and spices, but I have an ‘in’ with the best baker in town.”
“Or is it the other way around, Lettie?” Oneof the other women elbowed her in the ribs, and they both cackled at the joke I did not understand.
“It’s delicious,” Skye said, giving me a gentle nudge.
I caught on to what she meant with her pointed look. “Yes, delicious. Much better than the food in the prison.”
More laughter from the two women and the rest of the group joined in, although I did not know why prison food would be so funny.
“Don’t worry, hot stuff,” Lettie said. “We’ll make sure you don’t go back there.”
Hot stuff? When she winked at me again, I looked away and cleared my throat. “If we’re going to escape, we’ll need to know as much as we can about your city.”
Athena leaned across Skye to look at me. “What do you want to know?”
What did I want to know? No, what was it imperative that I know? I had vague recollections of studying schematics and star charts, but I had no memory of how I should go about mapping a city.
“What’s the general layout and where are we?” Skye asked before I could formulate my question.
“Of Kashara?” Athena tilted her head. “It’s pretty spread out, and we’re in the west sector.”
“Where is the prison?” I asked.
“In the middle.” Athena made a face. “The government buildings are the hub of the wheel, and the spokes extend from there.”
Hal stood and pulled a roll of red tape from his jacket pocket. “It’s like this.” He unrolled the tape and pressed it to the floor. Everyone scurried out of his way as he created a giant circle in black tape and then added eight spokes. Then he stood in the middle. “This is the town square and the hub of the Imperial government.”
Vallia hurried to one wing of the stage and returned with an armful of different colors of tape. She tossed them to other members of the troupe and then marked a red X on the tape wheel. “And this is us.”
Athena took the green tape and marked off the four directions outside the wheel using single letters. “North, South, East, and West, and each one has a wedge of the wheel called a sector.”
Skye walked around the tape map and then stepped on the red X. “So, we ran pretty far when we escaped.”
“And straight into the west sector, which was lucky for you,” Vallia said. “The West is where all the artists live. It’s where the one remaining theatre performs—that’s us—and the area the Imperial guards usually avoid.”
Lettie patted her blue hair. “Too many oddballs and troublemakers.”
The boy who’d told me I ate a lot walked around the circle to stand near the S. “But this is where you’ll want to go.”
I noted he stood outside the city to the South. “What’s there?”
“The shipyard,” he said, his eyes glinting with excitement. “It’s mostly imperial ships that come and go these days, but it used to be all kinds.”
“He’s right.” Athena walked to where the boy stood. “If you need to leave the planet, this is the only way.”
I exchanged a look with Skye, who was nibbling her lower lip. “What else can you tell me about the shipyard? Is it well-guarded? Is it hard to reach?”
Hal held up his hands. “Hold on a second. You can’t be seriously suggesting they go to the shipyard?”
Athena jutted out one hip and narrowed her gaze at him. “How else will they escape?”
“But,” he spluttered, “the place is crawling with Imperial soldiers and pilots. They’ll get caught and end up right back at that prison.”
