He took my hand while we walked. “Yes, I’m curious about that too. Did your bird know it was there? Or did he sense it after you ran into the house?”
“I have no idea.” For most of my life, Rat had stalked me like a hovering mother hen, but for the last few weeks, he’d given me more and more space, like he trusted me not to get myself killed twice a day. I nudged Bylur with my elbow. “I think he finally warmed up to you.”
Bylur shook his head. “He still flies at my face any time I come close to kissing you.”
I laughed. “Yes, but he doesn’t stay as close to me as he used to. If he didn’t trust you, I’m sure he’d still be hovering.”
We approached the outskirts of town, and Bylur shifted us to walk toward a soldier patrolling. I expected to feel my lungs freeze, but… they did not. Somehow, after all that had happened since I’d been here last, this lone elf soldier did not inspire the dread he once would have. Bylur’s shadows had protected me from swords and fire—what could this one soldier do?
As I had the thought, Bylur unleashed a pool of shadows, and we stalked up to the soldier with the darkness writhing around us.
The soldier pointed a sword at us—a sword that I knew we could disarm with shadows. “Who are you and why are you here?”
Bylur answered like a king. “We are Bylur and Auria, Lord and Lady of the fae House Umbran. Take us to your magistrate.”
“I’m sure he’d like to see you, my lord,” the soldier stammered, “but it is in the middle of the night. Would you like to return in the morning?”
“No.” Bylur left no room for argument. “We will see him now.”
The soldier spun silently around and gestured for us to follow him. We marched to the center of the town, along familiar streets that I had survived on for years.This had been the home where I grew up, but I had no desire to ever live here again.
I squeezed Bylur’s hand. No, I truly had nothing left behind here, besides fears of elves catching up to me and demanding payment or incarceration. Every positive feeling I had associated withhomewas either from my earliest childhood or the last few months in Kalshana.
We approached a large brick home in a neighborhood I’d always avoided. I knew the town’s prison and office buildings were here. I did not realize the magistrate had a small mansion as well. We marched up to the door and the soldier rapped with a metal knocker.
Moments later, another guard opened the door. They exchanged a brief conversation, and the new soldier looked at me with a terrifying recognition. Then he disappeared. Our escort faced us. “I suspect he’ll come down, but we’ll wait out here.”
Bylur squeezed my hand and sent the warmest, most loving emotions at me through our bond. He might have made a council, but he looked and spoke like a king, with his attending shadows and stoic expression. And the feelings that he sent through the bond to me chased away the fear and trepidation that had once threatened me.
A few minutes later, the door opened again. The same soldier wrinkled his nose at me and faced Bylur. “Lord Maltidor will see you in his study.”
Bylur’s stone-faced expression did not change. “He will see both of us.”
The soldier opened his mouth, but then closed it and nodded, gesturing for us to follow him.
The study had wooden walls painted a dark blue and a bare, hardwood floor. One empty wooden seat waited for us across a desk from an elf who looked middle-aged, which meant he could be anywhere from five hundred to five thousand years old.
Bylur motioned for me to sit in the empty seat, and then he squeezed my shoulder.
I faced the magistrate. “My name is Auria, and I’m here to pay for small thefts I committed during the last fourteen years.”
The magistrate’s face hardened. “You stole for fourteen years?”
I lifted my chin. “No. There were times when I worked as a maid or did other errands too. But there were quite a few things I stole over the course of the last fourteen years, mostly small foods.”
The magistrate pulled out a ledger and started turning pages. He ignored us for several minutes while he muttered to himself and scanned the rows of notes.
Finally, he looked up and said, “I believe your fine would be seven hundred gold pieces. Are you prepared to pay that much?”
Bylur’s warm emotions filled my heart, and I smiled. “Yes.”
The magistrate tapped his ledger. “Thieves typically perform a penance as well, something to make up for the chaos they created in the community.”
Bylur stepped closer. “I propose an additional fine that could be used to benefit the community instead.”
The magistrate narrowed his eyes. “I suppose we could double the fine, if that’s what you would prefer.”
Bylur bent down, pulled the case out of the shadows, and set it on the magistrate’s desk with a clunk. He opened it to reveal thousands of gold coins and piles of diamonds. “I believe this should cover that.”
