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CLOSED: COME BACK TOMORROW!
Like hell was I waiting until tomorrow. I had no qualms about using my Walking power to nip inside and steal a few things—maybe I’d leave a Sorronian coin or two—but I could always circle back after I made sure this girl was fed.
An increasingly difficult feat. She zipped around corners and darted down endless roads bordered by more conjoined buildings with pointed roofs, quick as a bird. Finally, I caught up to her at the entrance to a wider, slightly brighter street.
Here, a few men swaggered from door to door and some women loitered on street corners. Still, it wasn’t quite as bustling as I would have expected for an inner city night, as if all the shadows cast by steepled roofs had gobbled half the population whole. A single Sorronian soldier, clad in a three-horned helmet and silver armor, stood watch at the far end.
Where were all of Pliyith’s guards? If the human territories were as dangerous as everyone claimed, shouldn’t there be more on watch?
Frowning, I strode forward until I realized the girl hadn’t followed.
I looked back. “You coming?”
She kept to the shadows, eyes on the Sorronian soldier, and shook her head with a shiver. “I can wait here.”
My frown only deepened at the goosebumps that had risen on her arms and ankles. I couldn’t afford to feel such concern over a random human child when there were probably half a million like her and another few thousand on the island of Eshol who would end up parentless at my hand if I couldn’t focus on the tasks before me. But she was obviously cold, and those taverns were obviously warm, and why should a child not get the same privilege as a bunch of stinking, swaying men?
“Okay,” I said slowly. Rayna had always been the kinder, more considerate one out of the two of us. I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, trying to imagine what she would say right now. “If you feel more comfortable staying here, I’ll grab something for you to eat and bring it back out. But if you want to warm up, I promise I won’t let anyone… yell at you.” Or hurt you, I didn’t add out loud.
The child considered my words for a moment, lips pursing. Then she nodded and scampered out to my side.
Hiding my smile, I strode out toward the nearest tavern. As soon as we emerged from the shadows and into the light spilling from the windows, the Sorronian soldier marched toward us, spear clutched firmly in his gloved hand.
“Hey! Mind the curfew for younglings!” His accent thickened each word, and he actually got close enough to clamp his arm around her elbow. “I’ll take it home.”
It. The word blared through me. Without thinking, I shoved a palm against the soldier’s chest with enough force to send him staggering backward—but not quite enough force to punch a hole into his heart, which was what I wanted to do.
“Otla fyka,” the soldier cursed and raised his spear.
Only for me to rip off my hood and snarl my own Sorronian words in his direction. “Nenete atro caliaya avi.” Don’t you dare take a step closer.
The soldier’s eyes widened as he raked them over my face, recognition flitting over his features. Although this was my first time in the human territories, every Sorronian had spent the last two decades seeing my face on banners around the royal palace, and the last two months whispering my name now that I’d accepted my oath to Mydusia—a fact I tried really hard to forget most days.
“My apologies, General. I didn’t realize…” The soldier glanced at the child again. “We usually do not let younglings in this area.”
Under any other circumstance, I could understand that. Taverns were no place for a child. But the way he’d said he’d bring “it” home when the girl was obviously homeless told me everything I needed to know, even without using my Mind Manipulating power to read his mind: it wasn’t actually about protecting the younglings, or else there wouldn’t be any starving on the streets.
“We’re just going to get a bite to eat, and then we’ll be out of your hair.”
The soldier nodded and took a clanking step back. I led the girl past him, into the tavern, where all conversation dipped for a split second as soon as the door closed behind us. Gazes flicked to my ears before the voices resumed in hushed tones.
“Evening,” the bartender said carefully from behind the counter.
I nodded, slid into an empty stool, and patted the one beside me. The girl hopped on and began kicking her feet, wide gaze swishing all around. Gas lamps illuminated the room from a ceiling plastered with tin tiles. Rickety wooden tables and chairs spread behind us, but only about half of them were occupied by a meager group of men or women quietly clinking their glasses.
“What’ll it be?” the bartender asked, wiping fruitlessly at the counter before us; a simple cloth would never get the stains ingrained in this wood.
“What do you have to eat?”
The bartender glanced over his shoulder at a pair of swinging doors. “Not much left, but our special today was liver and onions. Might have a bit more.”
I held in my grimace. The girl, I noticed from the corner of my eye, had straightened in her stool. “We’ll take whatever you have left.”
“And to drink?”
I nearly froze. Here I was, an imposing faerie in a foreign realm, obviously rich with power, and I hadn’t taken a sip of ale since the moment Mattheus had burst with his shapeless power all those years ago. The same thing had happened to Rayna upon her arrival at the Esholian Institute, and I just… couldn’t bear the thought of tasting that shit again. Yet the bartender’s eyes were already guarded, brimming with suspicion, and I could sense the eyes of at least a dozen others on my back.
“Whatever you have on tap,” I answered.
