Elbows jabbed me, jostling me further out into the crowd. A man slammed into my shoulder and spun me around. The second wagon guard, Copli, was on the driver’s bench protecting the food but looking like he wanted to chase after Ellis and Danello. Quenji had his arms around Aylin, keeping her tight against the wagon and blocking her from the panicked mob. The children ran into the crowd, between legs and stomping feet, caught in the chaos.
I struggled through the bodies and grabbed a boy by the hand, yanking him back before a panicked woman ran him down. He clung to me, trembling. I looked for another. Saw one of the thieves instead.
He pulled out a knife, then dodged back and thrust it at the guards. Several people screamed, but only one body stumbled, then fell to the ground.
“Stop right there,” a tall Baseeri said, waving something at the thieves. I almost missed the glint of blue metal.
Pynvium. He had a pynvium rod. A good one, too, the metal pure enough to shine a rich blue.
The aristocrat pointed the rod into the crowd full of scared people – and children.
“Wait, no!” I yelled.
Whoomp.
Pain flashed from the rod, the familiar prickle of blown sand stinging my skin. People all around me screamed and collapsed – guards, thieves, children. Even the horse shrieked and bolted, sending bags of food flying off the wagon and Copli toppling off the bench. Those at the edge of the flash stumbled and fell, tripping over those on the ground. The boy I’d grabbed dropped and lay by my feet.
I stood in a circle cleared by the pain, exposed and alone.
“Did she just—?”
“Quirker!”
“The Shifter’s here!”
Cries raced through the crowd, then fingers pointed and hands waved, all in my direction. Saints! I should have fallen, faked being affected, but it all happened so fast. I dropped to one knee and took the hand of the unconscious boy at my feet. My hand tingled as I drew in the pain overloading his senses. He woke and looked around, whimpering.
“Go find your mother,” I said, scanning the rest of the people on the ground. Danello, where’s Danello? There! Lying near Ellis and one of thieves. People gasped when I ran towards him, backing away like I was going to hurt them.
“Get her, stop her!” the Baseeri with the pynvium weapon called.
I knelt and wrapped a hand around Danello’s wrist, the other around Ellis’s. Drew in their pain and held it in the empty space between my heart and guts. It simmered there like I’d eaten something that had disagreed with me.
Danello jerked awake, hands out. Ellis woke right after. I let go of them and looked for the guard who’d been stabbed. He’d have real pain – pain I could use if one of these aristocrats tried to—
Someone slammed into me, knocking me to the ground.
“I got her!” a man yelled, practically in my ear.
“Get off her,” Danello said. The weight vanished, and he dragged me back to my feet.
Unconscious people were still on the ground and probably would be for a while. The others surrounded us, fear and anger on their faces. Except for a woman with the boy I’d helped. They looked at me with gratitude.
Be nice if you told your friends to leave me alone.
“Everyone settle down,” Ellis said, sword out. Copli was on his feet again, a gash across his forehead. Danello stayed near me, but still close enough to the others to back them up.
“But that’s the Shifter,” a woman said.
Ellis shrugged. “So?”
“She tried to kill the Duke!”
“No, she didn’t. He almost killed her and she defended herself. So unless you want to see what happens when she feels threatened, I suggest you all calm down.”
Not exactly what I would have said to accomplish that, but they did take another step back. I moved towards the injured guard. He’d been hurt badly, and too much blood pooled beneath him. Dark blood, which meant a pierced organ.
One of the aristocrats jerked and pointed. “What’s she doing?”
“Helping him, you idiot,” Aylin said, “What do you think she’s doing?”
“If I don’t stop that bleeding, he’s going to die.” I reached the fallen guard. No one else tried to stop me, but quite a few fidgeted as if ready to jump on me if I tried anything they didn’t like.
He’d been stabbed low on the side, over his liver. I placed one hand on his wound, the other on his forehead, felt my way in. Winced. Lots of damage, like the knife had sliced sideways and not just stabbed. I focused on closing the tears, sealing the holes. I drew, and pain flowed from him to me, sharp aches that spread through my middle. He groaned and opened his eyes.
“You’re going to be OK,” I said softly. So would I once we got back to the farmhouse and found a Healer who could take the pain from me.
He stood, swaying a bit, and I steadied him. Murmurs slid through the crowd, though they shouldn’t have. Wasn’t like aristocrats had never seen someone healed before. They were the only ones who could afford it these days.
“What did she do to him?”
“Saved his life.”
“She’s a criminal,” the same man said.
Ellis smiled. “No more than you.”
“But she’s—”
“Oh for Saints’ sake,” the woman with the boy said. “She’s a child. Do you really believe everything the Duke says?”
“I believe what I just saw.”
“So do I. She saved a life while you hurt my son and other people’s sons and daughters. Over what? Petty theft?” She shook her head and pulled her son closer. “You’re more criminal than she is.”
A few muttered in what sounded like agreement.
Ellis reached behind her with one hand and pulled strips of rope out of a back pouch. She tossed them to Aylin. “You and Quenji, bind the thieves’ hands before Nya wakes them up. We’ll take them back and let Jeatar deal with them.”
“They robbed us,” a woman said hesitantly. “It should be up to us what to do with them.”
Ellis shook her head. “This isn’t Baseer and it isn’t your property. You want to stay and keep getting fed, you follow our rules and do what we say.”
No one else said anything else, but many watched us with narrowed eyes.
“Wake them up.”
I did, drawing more pain into the throbbing around my middle. The thieves woke, gaped at us, but didn’t try to escape. Quenji hauled them to their feet, and we slowly made our way out of the camp. Ellis and Danello brought up the rear, looking more worried about the Baseeri than the thieves.
The aristocrats followed us to their “gate” but came no further. The man who’d used the weapon glared at us as we walked away.
Ellis shot me a look that said it was my fault, even if she clearly felt bad about it.
I wasn’t worried about a few trinkets getting stolen or that one camp was preying on