“She went with Reynald and Gort. After they sell the cart, they’ll go to the Dog Market. We need arrows and bolts, and a few bows . . .”
“They went to the market without me?”
“Clover has your list. Don’t worry, she’ll buy everything on it.”
That wasn’t the point. I wanted to go. “Did they take Kaiden with them?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t they come to get me?”
“You were resting.”
I could follow them, but Reynald would have a cow if I went out without an escort.
They’d left me behind. Ouch.
This proved exactly what I had feared. Gort and the Magnars only listened to me because Reynald was willing to follow my lead for the time being. Clover was grateful to me for saving her and Kaiden, and she clearly believed me when I said I knew the future, but I was failing in some basic Rellasian life skills, and she had decided that she knew better than me. I was in real danger of being treated like one of those bumbling genius mage characters, who knew the mysteries of the universe but had trouble putting on socks and couldn’t be trusted to do anything.
So far I’d told them some secrets about their past, but the past had already happened. I had to prove that I could predict things. I had to deliver results and when I did, it had to hit like a ton of bricks, so when I told them I could see the future, they would believe me completely and without reservations.
Shana sniffed the fish on the table. “What are you going to do with it?”
“Um, throw it away?”
Shana gave me a hard look.
“It’s a mystery fish. I don’t know where it came from.”
“It came from Virka River.” Shana jabbed her wooden stirring spoon at the wall, in the direction of the river.
“How do you know that?” Although it was probably a safe bet since that river was literally just outside the house.
Shana set the spoon down, grabbed a narrow knife from the knife block, and pried the gills of the fish open. “Look, see how pink they are? The gills darken when the fish is out of the water for a while, and with this kind of fish they go purple very fast. This pike was swimming less than an hour ago.”
“If you say so.”
“It’s a perfectly good fish. I’m taking it,” Shana announced.
“What for?” I asked.
“Soup!”
She took the fish and tossed it into the sink.
Okay then. I picked up the fish paper, threw it into the trash bucket, grabbed a rag from the sink, and started wiping down the table.
Shana stared at me.
“Yes?”
“What are you doing?”
“I scrubbed this table way too hard to let the fish slime stink it up.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
“No need.”
