“Will you be all right?” Tali asked. “When did you eat last? I might be able to sneak some food from lunch.”
“I’ll be fine.”
My stomach rumbled and she sucked in her bottom lip, once again the worried little sister. She nodded quickly, then threw her arms around my neck. “You be careful.”
“You too. Don’t go anywhere alone, OK?” I hugged her back. She smelled like lake violets and white ginger.
“Promise.”
“Go forth and heal the sick, young one.” It earned me a giggle.
“Go forth and mutilate fish.” She smiled, but still looked worried. Maybe she was thinking about the missing apprentices, or maybe it was the knuckleburn she’d taken from me.
We left her room. Tali went towards the hospital wing, while I hurried right towards the exit on the other side on the main entrance hall. It was the closest exit to the docks, and the north gate League guards always let me pass. I was pretty sure the skinny one was sweet on me, but I’d sooner kiss a croc than a Baseeri.
I crossed into the front antechamber and wove my way through the dozen or so people waiting for heals. Bits of green, white and silver flashed as apprentices late for class took the shortcut up the back staircase.
“That’s her!”
I jerked around before my wits could stop me. Two wards were pointing at me, as wide-eyed and amazed as they’d been last night. Saints and sinners! I couldn’t find good luck in an empty pail.
“She’s the one who shifted pain,” the ward said loud enough to turn heads. More than a few folks stopped and stared. “She drew it right out of one man and pushed in into another. We saw it, didn’t we, Sinnote?”
My empty stomach tightened. Standing between the wards was a League Elder in full gold cords. Eight braided cords coiled on his shoulders like vipers, the ends dangling down to the edge of his vest-robe. Thick arms strained his crisp sleeves and his beaded black hair was pulled back and tied rope-thick at the nape of his neck. A husky man, Mama would have said.
He hooked a finger towards me and pointed at a tile in front of him. “Come here.”
Running would make me look suspicious. Disobeying would make me equally suspicious. I’d never make it past the guards anyway, no matter how much that fellow at the gates liked me.
“Now, girl.”
Nothing good ever followed just two words.
I stepped forward, wondering what time they served lunch in Dorsta Prison.
The Elder stared down at me, looking as solid as the thick columns that supported the entrance-hall balcony behind him. He folded his arms across his broad chest and tapped a single finger against a bicep. Men in robes shouldn’t look that intimidating. That’s what armour was for. “Your name?” he asked.
“Merlaina Oskov.” Tali would give me Mama’s stern face again for lying, but having an Elder know your name was trouble in a box. They paid heed to none but the Luminary, and he paid heed to none but the Duke, just like all of Geveg’s military-appointed leaders. Wasn’t safe to get noticed by any of them.
“Do you know these wards?”
“No, sir.”
The chatty one’s brown eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open. “But—”
“I work the sundown to sunup shift at the taproom,” I said quickly. “Don’t see how boys would cross my path at those hours.”
Sinnote pinch-twisted his friend’s arm. “I don’t think that’s her.”
“It is her. She’s even wearing the same dirty clothes.”
“You’re wrong.”
League Elders weren’t fools, much as I needed this one to be.
“What time did you see her?” he asked.
“Three,” the boy said.
“Five,” Sinnote said at the same time. He grimaced and his freckles wiggled.
The Elder’s mouth twitched at the corners, then he reached for my arm. “Come with me.”
I jerked away. If someone was kidnapping apprentices again, getting trapped in a League treatment room was the last thing I needed. “Pardon, but I can’t. I have to get home.”
“Your family will understand. Now come!” The Elder grabbed my forearm mongoose-quick. His eyes popped wide, then narrowed. “You are a Taker.”
“Let me go!” My shout echoed in the domed antechamber. Beaded heads turned and everyone stopped and stared. Green vests shimmered against grey slate and stone as more lingered. A man passing behind the Elder stopped and watched me with an uncertain frown on his face.
“Stop struggling, girl. I’m not going to hurt you.”
But he was. My skin burned where his fingers dug into my arm. Saints, he was strong.
The wards gaped. The crowd stared. No one moved to help. Why would they? I was just some river rat and nobody questioned an Elder, though I’d bet a week’s lunches that if my hair was Baseeri black, someone would have stepped forward.
“I said, let go.” I kicked him in the knee, smearing grime on his white uniform. And he did, sucking in air with a wet hiss.
I ran for the north gate entrance, crossing the rest of the entrance hall and ducking into the side foyer. Apprentices and wards parted as I barrelled into them. Gasps and jingles drowned out the Elder’s raspy orders, but I could guess what they were. Guards, get that girl. Lock her up, poke her, prod her, find out if she’s the abomination they claim.
I shoved my way past a knot of first cords by the exit and slammed open the door. Sunshine felt like freedom, but I wasn’t off League property yet. The north gate glinted ahead. Copper clanged against stone as I burst through.
Heart racing, I slipped into the crowd coming in for healing. They filled the circular limestone courtyard outside, more than I usually saw this early in the morning, but it didn’t look like many were getting inside. Children in velvet played tag between grandmothers in patched cotton. A farmer in muddy overalls hugged a bleeding hand to his chest. Dozens of fishermen, soldiers, merchants and servants mixed together like a beggar’s stew. I elbowed my way through and learned two new swears from one of the soldiers posted at the main bridge.
At the edge of League Circle, bridges and canals fanned out like wheel spokes to the rest of Geveg. Pairs of soldiers stood on every corner, some mast-straight at attention, others leaning against lamp posts. A few pole boats bobbed at the end of the floating docks as Baseeri aristocrats stepped out, their military aides and bodyguards close at their heels. On the left, the lake sparkled as far as you could see, already dotted with fishing boats.
I slowed, trying to avoid being noticed by the closest pair of soldiers. Thankfully, they were bored types and neither looked over. I jumped over a low stone wall and dropped under the nearest bridge, stomping down a pad of water hyacinths as I landed. Cool water splashed up my legs. I hid knee-deep in lake and flowers and tried not to think about crocodiles.
Considering I’d just kicked a League Elder, that wasn’t hard. A croc’ll snap you and spin you down underwater, but a furious Elder might throw Tali out of the League. He might make her repay the healing we’d stolen. He might—
Why weren’t the League guards chasing me?
I