“Good.” I grunted, having levered the suitcase over the final step. Nanny stood there, blocking my path. “Goodnight, Nanny.”
She looked at me, looked at the stairs behind me, looked at me again....
“You better not be thinking about pushing me.”
“I wouldn’t trouble myself.” She spun around, sending wax from the candle splattering across my boots, and did a stately walk back to her room.
~
The next morning, I woke to the sound of crows screeching, but it wasn’t Nanny and Kali arguing this time. The scarcity of human sounds was unnerving. Once dressed, I crept downstairs, expecting to see a horrifying scene of murder: the girl and the old woman locked together, hands around each other’s throats, dead.
Nanny was on the settee, darning socks and humming to herself. Maybe there would be only one body.
My gaze searched the room, but there was no sign of Kali. “What’s going on?”
“Mending. What’s it look like?” Nanny’s tongue hadn’t lost its sharp edge.
“Where’s Kali?”
“Working her behind off.” The old woman sounded pleased.
“You didn’t sell her back to the slavers, did you?” Nanny was a Solhan woman through and through, and I expected her to be cunning.
“Oh, I wish I’d thought of that. No, she’s straightening up Viktor’s shop. And before you tear into me about ordering her around, she volunteered. That one may be trainable.”
I grabbed two apples from the kitchen and went down the back stairs to the alley. I understood now why Erick liked this route: the steps were covered and kept free of ice; the alley was clean and narrow, with several exits, and it would be easy to spot anyone lurking. I used my key, one of several on a small ring I kept tied to my pants, and went into the shop.
Kali sang as she worked, but she croaked discordantly when she saw me.
“Sorry,” I said. “Didn’t mean to startle you. Want something to eat?”
“I have to work.”
Kali had straightened papers. All the books were returned in neat piles, and the broken furniture was stacked in the corner. The only real work left to be done was to right the overturned shelves Kali had been unable to move alone.
“No, you don’t. I should be the one cleaning this place up. You’ve done so much. A break is the least you deserve.”
She put her broom aside and took the apple I held out. She gave it a perfunctory nibble.
“No appetite?” I asked.
“No.”
“You feel all right?”
She nodded.
After praying for quiet around here, I didn’t know why I was so disturbed when I got it. Once again, I wished I was better at comforting people. With a loud cracking sound, I took a big bite of my apple before setting in on a clean looking bookshelf.
“Let me help,” I said with my mouth full.
I spent the next four hours moving furniture around and sorting through Viktor’s papers. Part of me was keeping an eye out for anything that might have prompted this ransacking. All I found were orders and accounts that made me cross-eyed whenever I tried to make sense of the numbers. I could do math, but debits and credits and net totals and Crown tax rates all made me weary with boredom.
“Maybe this is important?” Kali handed me a stack of documents.
She couldn’t read, so it was up to me to make sense of everything she came across. I could see why these had caught her attention. There were pictographic symbols next to every line. It represented printers, the trademark found on the spines of their books next to their names. The price Viktor paid to purchase each of the titles in his inventory was also listed.
“This is useful,” I said. “Now we know what to charge for the books. I don’t know how to keep this place running, but I can figure out how to sell what’s already here.”
“Can... can you show me?”
“Show you what?”
“How do the symbols tell you things?”
Teaching her to read would take a while, and there was no point if she was leaving. What need would she have for elvish in Lallaloka? Her home was deep in human territory. Still, she looked so enraptured by the sheet of paper in my hands I wanted to encourage her.
“Those pictures are the bookmakers.” I grabbed a history from the shelf and showed her the mark on the spine.
She spotted the corresponding symbol on the list before I did. “There!”
“Right. Now, if you follow the line horizontally, the name is spelled out and says, ‘Ferdinand Brothers’. Here is the book title, ‘Raiders of the Northern Wastes’, and the price Viktor paid, ‘five silvers’.”
“So, you will ask people to give you five silvers for it?”
“Not if we want to make a profit. Karolyne is always prattling on about profit margins. We should charge eight or ten silvers so that we make more than we paid.”
“I see. Randall paid my last owner one hundred silvers, so he made a profit of...three hundred and ninety-nine silvers.”
“You can count?”
“I watched people counting my whole life—teeth, toes, coins and slaves. But no one ever talked about trapping words on paper.”
“How sad. Words are far more interesting than numbers. Wait a minute. Randall made that much profit?” I hated being fleeced, but it wasn’t my fault. Everyone was bidding too much. All I did was keep up. “No wonder Ilsa was so surprised.”
“I didn’t like your sister.”
“No one does. Actually, that’s not true. She has plenty of admirers but few of them know the real her.”
Kali looked at the paper in my hands again. “Will you teach me to make sense of those? Please?”
“I’m not the best teacher, because I wasn’t the best student, but you won’t need elvish when you get home. You should learn your own language.”
Her face went blank before huge tears formed in the corners of her eyes and cascaded down her face. She was crying more than I had ever seen anyone cry, but without making a sound.
“Kali? What’s wrong?”
“Don’t make me go home.”
“Why?”
“I will work so hard and be so good. Let me stay with you. Please,” she begged.
“You are aware Nanny is still here and not showing any signs of keeling over soon? You really want to stay?”
“I can be good. I’m working like she said, no arguing.”
“I don’t want you to work: I want you to be free.”
“I won’t be if you send me back. My mother died and they dragged me away from her and gave me to the man who burned me with the mark.” She rubbed the place on her arm where the slave mark had been. “I screamed and screamed until I could do nothing but what they told me.”
“You were sold into slavery?” I was aghast. “In Highcrowne, only hereditary slaves can be traded, thus the official papers showing bloodlines...which I forgot to get from Randall.”
“I don’t care what my papers say. I know what happened.”
“I believe you, but I want to see them. They’ve got to be forgeries. Maybe that’s what Viktor found out!” I stood, ready to go back to the slavers, but Kali grabbed my hand.
“Please don’t send me away. It is much better here, even if I must work. I don’t remember much, but the place I came from was horrible. I never want to see it again.”
What was I doing? It was hard to counter my insensitive nature, but I sat back down and put my arms around Kali. “Don’t worry, you don’t have to go. You can stay and learn to read elvish if you want.”
“Thank you. Thank you, my lady.”
“I’m not your lady. I’m your friend.” I let the hug go on until Kali’s tears ebbed and she pulled away. I was proud of myself—my usual reaction to tears was to run.
Finally, Kali asked, “Do I have to be kind to Nanny?”
“Not if you don’t want to.”
She smiled broadly. “Be right back.” She tore out the backdoor. I hear
d her feet pound up the staircase, and the screaming started. “Guess what, you old witch!”
She left the backdoor open, so I went over to close it. I spotted Erick in the alley, looking dashing in a gray cloak and high, black boots. “In here,” I waved.
He ducked inside and stood close to me as I shut the door. Comforting waves of warmth poured off him.
Erick’s smile lit up his whisper-blue Solhan eyes. “I discovered something startling.”
11│ ANTICIPATION
~
“WHAT?” I COULDN’T STAND THE suspense after a dramatic sentence like that. I also couldn’t bear leaving gifts unwrapped for long, waiting for the punch line of a joke, or the agonizing expectation before a first kiss.
“I went to the Slave Quarter,” Erick said, “hooded so no one would recognize me, and eavesdropped on conversations, hoping to learn more about the slave merchants.”
“What did you hear?”
“It’s what I saw that surprised me. Several weeks ago, your brother and I daringly freed a slave named Olaf. He was ancient, with little time left to enjoy the freedom we would give him, but he seemed important to the slavers. He worked all day in their covered wagon, doing accounts, dealing with official documents.... We thought taking him would be a blow.”
“So, you stole him,” I said to hurry him along. Nothing Erick had told me so far was all that startling, other than a slave with some brains left intact after being marked.
“Yes, we took him from the wagon while he and his masters slept. Olaf was less docile than the others, so it was an effort to keep him from calling out. We got him to Viktor’s, where I removed the mark, and once he had regained his senses, he was very grateful for the rescue.
“He had been a scholar, captured by pirates on his way to the Abbey at Carlton, and sold into slavery. He had an abundance of tales to relate, all trapped inside his skull for too many years. I left him in Viktor’s care.
“The Quarter was in an uproar after that: angry merchants bawling out the Guard, ordering them to do something about these ‘thieves’.” Erick chuckled.
“Viktor and I had to take a brief respite from our activities, wait until things had quieted down before resuming.” His smile faded.
“What’s wrong?”
“Viktor and I never went on another adventure. He was dead after that.”
Erick’s sadness cooled my impatience.
I touched his shoulder. He put his hand on mine.
After a while, he said, “I assumed Olaf was sent out of the city, like the others. Yet, today, I saw him again in the merchant’s wagon. The slave mark was on him. They have recaptured him. You know what this means?”
“They have an awful lot of non-hereditary slaves, and they have the audacity to mark a free man in the shadow of the Three Crowns. They are so gonna get it.”
Erick nodded. “Yes, but more than that, one of them has the ability to place a slave mark. It is soul magic. Slavers will hire a necromancer or mage for such work, but I know of none in this city willing to do it. One of the slavers has hidden power.”
“The one who took my brother’s soul.” My eyes narrowed. I wanted to run to the Slave Quarter and tear apart whoever was responsible. Only, the person I wanted to hurt had magic, and I didn’t. I had to be careful.
“Will you help me find out who?”
“Anything you ask, darling Eva. But there is no simple test for magic. A skilled practitioner can hide anywhere.”
“Well, there are only ten slave merchants operating in the city. Which ones had Olaf?”
“The Solhan Circle.”
I frowned. “Of course.”
Solhans were masters of dark magic, and that just happened to be the company Randall worked for. If he was the one.... Let’s just say I’d prefer for him not to be locked away in Northcliff Prison. A deadly ‘accident’ would be better.
“I have news of my own. I found out Kali, like this Olaf, was sold into slavery. Yet, Randall boldly auctioned her off.”
While slavery was tolerated in Highcrowne, more than tolerated by the elves, depended upon, there were rules. Calka, the Avian Queen, and Rutgard, the Dwarf King—his representatives actually, but the Rutgard situation was another story—had decreed no new slave lines could be created within the bounds of the nation. Only the descendants of slaves could be sold and employed here. That had not been popular with the Elf King, Fharen, but he’d been outvoted. I loved that, because Fharen was the biggest jerk of them all, not that I’d ever met him. His policies told me all I needed to know about him.
“You think her slave papers were forged?” Erick said.
“They had to be, and I wonder if your Olaf might know something about it.”
“He has been marked again, thus he is their devoted servant, and he will tell me nothing, even if I were able to get a private moment with him.”
“I’ll speak to him myself. I’m going back there to get Kali’s documents.”
He frowned. “That would be unwise. They are watching Olaf now. They may decide you pose a threat.”
“You’re worried about me?”
“I could not call myself a gentleman if I were not.”
“So, it’s nothing personal, just a policy of yours, keeping girls out of trouble? I can handle myself, don’t worry.”
“It is personal, Eva.” He moved closer and touched the side of my face. My heart sped up, thinking he might put his mouth on mine, and I hated the anticipation. I stepped a little closer, but he didn’t lean down. All he said was, “Viktor would want you safe.”
“He’s gone, so he doesn’t get a say. I’ll do what I want.” I grabbed the back of Erick’s neck and kissed him.
He made a surprised sound but didn’t push me away. After I released him, he stared, stunned and at a loss for words for once. I smiled, feeling the power.
“I have to go to work, but I’ll find you after I’ve had a chance to talk to Olaf.” I sashayed out the door.
Kali was coming down the back stairs. “I have to take off. Can you close up?” I asked her.
“Yes.”
“Thanks. There’s a stunned wizard standing in the bookshop. Feel free to kick him out before you lock the door.” I couldn’t stop smiling, despite the strange look Kali gave me.
I felt light on my feet, making my way to Karolyne’s in record time. I was early, so I took a seat next to the well in the center of the courtyard. I leaned back, appreciating a patch of blue sky in the omnipresent blanket of gray clouds.
A bakery, cheese-maker’s shop, and tallow seller’s all shared the courtyard with the tavern-turned-café. I savored the scents of bread mingled with beeswax and chimney smoke. Sometimes, I loved this city.
I’d wandered the streets of the neighborhood as a child, but I’d never explored further. The Markets and a small section of the Outskirts were all I’d known. I changed all that when I came home from school over a year ago.
One good thing about Ahsaed, he was an excellent tour guide. He was the visitor to this city, but he loved it and called it the only civilized place in the world. He showed me everything, and I had been attracted to his knowledge and confidence. I was naïve. Amazing how a few months older made you wiser. Guess it depended on what you learned in those months.
I had kissed Erick, and I had no idea if he was married or soon to be hung by the Crowns for freeing slaves, but it had been wonderful.
Was I making the same mistakes? Erick was even older than Ahsaed, so who knew what secrets he kept? I wasn’t sure if I was going to kiss him again. If I decided to, I could give him a thorough interrogation. Right now, it didn’t matter. The city was vibrant and new again, and I felt the same way.
As the meagre light dimmed and twilight approached, I heaved a resigned sigh. Time to get back to work. I was starving and wondered if Karolyne would give me an employee discount if I bought some dinner to eat during my break. Probably not.
The evening shift meant I didn’t have to worry about food
and kaffe and all that nonsense. Everyone started drinking mead for a little sustenance, and then ordered a glass of something harder to get them through another chilly night. There was another tavern a block away, but Karolyne’s was closer to my part of the neighborhood, the pompous part. All those pious tradesmen and priests would prefer to say they dined at the cafe than caroused at the pub.
After working the bar for three hours, I nabbed a vacant table and took a break for supper. I was near the bottom of the bowl, enjoying some Southern dish Karolyne forced me to try, made with cheese, tomatoes and hot spice, when Conrad came in.
I’d been pouring food into my mouth in a most unladylike manner, so I set the bowl down and wiped my face on a napkin. Some sort of legume was stuck between my front teeth, so I didn’t open my mouth when I smiled at him. His white teeth gleamed like his armor, and he waved before coming to join me at my table.
“I’m glad to find you here,” he said.
“Oh?” I couldn’t show teeth, so it was easier to say that than anything else.
“I wanted to update you on my investigations.”
“Oh?” I played with the food in my teeth with the tip of my tongue. Still stuck.
He seemed unconcerned with my monosyllabic replies. “Yes. I’ve only now returned from the river. I think all the fog has seeped into my bones.”
He waved to his cousin. “Karo, can I have a mug of kaffe?”
Karolyne glowered at me, but I was still on my break and sitting with my back to the wall, hemmed in by Conrad’s sword hilt. I folded my arms and raised my chin defiantly.
“Sure,” she finally said. She grumbled something indecipherable on her way to the bar.
I coughed delicately, put a napkin to my lips to hide my mouth as I spoke and said, “Gypsum’s brother-in-law was killed on the docks.”
“The riverfront isn’t inherently dangerous. But I like you being worried about me.”
Not what I’d meant. I didn’t worry about Conrad getting ambushed, not with that gleaming breastplate and giant sword he wore everywhere. I wasn’t going to correct him, so I simply said, “You do?”
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