“I will.”
Things were still a little swirly, but I tried my best to walk straight and not worry her further. At the farmers’ market, a heavyset woman with a basket full of bread caught my eye. Not an aristocrat, but her pink shirt matched her patterned skirt and looked neither worn nor patched, so she probably worked for one. Kitchens most likely. She was looking at mangoes, picking up one at a time and sniffing them. My stomach poked at me again, pain caused more from guilt over what I was planning than from hunger, but no one would hire a girl who kept fainting.
I swayed as I walked by and lightly shoved the woman into the mango bin. Mangoes wiggled and several rolled off the top of the yellow-orange stack. She cried out and grabbed the table edge, dropping her basket and the fruit on to the rough street stones.
“I’m so sorry!” I knelt and picked up her basket before it could roll over and dump the bread. Good stuff too, warm and wrapped in cinnamon-scented cloth. “Here you go. I hope it didn’t get dirty.”
She snatched the basket out of my hands. “Stupid ’Veg!” she swore. “Watch where you’re going.”
“I’m so sorry. You’re right, I should watch where I’m going. There’s no excuse for such clumsiness.” I tucked two mangoes into my pocket and handed her three others. “I think these are the last of them.”
She glanced at my non-black hair and scoffed. “Useless, all of you.”
“Fine day to you.” I dipped a bow.
She harrumphed and turned back to her shopping.
I waited a heartbeat, then two. No cries of alarm, no angry farmer racing after me to demand payment. I slid into the crowd, letting it take me downstream of the market district and into the tradesmen’s corner.
Knees quivering, I settled down in the grass under the big palm tree in front of Trivent’s Leathers, leaning against the trunk with my legs out straight. Madame Trivent didn’t care for folks resting under her tree, which is why it was usually vacant. Not much open space in Geveg was unoccupied any more.
I bit through the mango’s skin, sucked the juice up, ignoring the pinch in my stomach as I tried to gobble it up quicker than I could eat it. The first went down fast and I started on the second, slower this time.
I’d missed all the morning work, but there’d be more after lunch. The fishing boats returned mid-afternoon, so if I went now, I could get work unloading today’s catch. The Sunset Runner was on a good streak this week. They’d kept me almost two hours longer than any other loader on the docks the other day. Said I’d done a good job too.
I stopped mid-chew. The fancy man was back, watching me from behind a fence. Me, not Aylin. No good reason why any man would be watching me, unless he was from the League.
The League! That’s where I’d seen him, passing behind the Elder and the wards.
The mango soured in my mouth. A League man overhears that I can shift and starts following me? What if he was a Tracker? I hadn’t heard talk of any since their kidnapping spree during the war. Rumours said they tracked for us and the Duke, so the Healers they grabbed never knew which side they might wind up healing. Folks whispered about Trackers like they whispered about marsh spirits and the haunted barge wreck. Except Trackers were real.
Keep chewing. Don’t let on you’ve seen him. Too close to the marshes to risk another dip in a canal. Would he try to grab me in the open or—
“Shoo, girl!” Two more little words that always meant trouble for me. Madame Trivent thumped me on the head with her broom. The straw bristles stabbed behind my ears and yanked some hair out.
My mango dropped to the ground. I snatched it back and scrambled to my feet, ducking her wide swings. “I’m going, I’m going.”
“Filthy ’Veg. Don’t you be bothering my customers.” She swept me down the walk like dust and shoved me into the street. “Don’t come back!”
Folks put extra steps between me and them as they passed. The soldiers didn’t like fuss, and trouble had a nasty way of sticking to other people like flung mud. Mama used to say the rock in the river never knows the misery of the rock in the sun, but I’d change places with that river rock. Under the water, the river rock had protection against a fancy League Tracker.
Who was now gone.
I turned a slow circle, but caught no glimpse of yellow and green silk behind bush, tree or corner. Hunger’ll play with your mind, but I didn’t think I’d imagined him.
I needed to be a river rock.
Slouching, I slipped into a wave of refugees who hadn’t seen me booted off and didn’t shy away. Home sounded like a good idea. If I stayed low, stayed quiet, maybe the fancy man would leave me alone.
Even a rock knew that was a foolish dream. Trackers didn’t let you go. They dragged you off in the middle of the night and no one ever saw you again. Made you heal the soldiers. Keep the rebellion alive. Fight the Duke. Chase him out of Geveg. Keep the pynvium in Geveg.
Hadn’t worked.
But I was useless to the League, and Geveg had no more soldiers to heal and fight. The League didn’t even know who I was. I rarely spoke to anyone there except Tali and she wouldn’t reveal me. How could—
I sucked in a breath. The north-gate guards. They knew me. They’d seen me run out earlier, scared as a scalded cat.
I ran the last block to Millie’s boarding house. It sat on the edge of Pond End Canal not far from where the chicken ranchers tossed their rubbish. The view wasn’t bad and the smell kept it cheap. I thumped up the creaky stairs to my room on the third floor.
My door was pegged shut.
Tears bubbled up a drop faster than the sobs. I was only a day late on my rent. Millie had never pegged me out for being a day late before.
“You have your board money?” Millie stood on the landing at the end of the hall, her skinny brown arms folded tight across her chest. The woman had ears to make a bat jealous.
“I will by this evening, I swear.”
She tossed her hands up and scoffed, then started back down the stairs. “I’ve got your gear. Come and get it before I sell it.”
“Millie, please, give me a few hours. I’ll pay soon as the boats come in.”
“I have three families wanting the room.”
“Please, I’m good for it, you know I am. I’ll pay double tomorrow.”
“Got folks willing to pay that now.” She shoved my clothes basket into my hands, then wiped her palms on her apron. White flour clouds puffed outward. “Go and stay with your sister in her fancy dorm room.”
Millie knew the League did bed checks. She rubbed my nose in it cos the League had turned her son away. Not enough talent, they said. Couldn’t heal a grazed knee. He’d even been turned away by the pain merchants, and Takers didn’t need much talent to work there. Some of the new swears I’d learned came to mind, but I stilled my tongue. Millie had the cheapest rooms. Throw me out today, take me in tomorrow, and she’d never think twice about either. She was also the only boarding house in Geveg that believed me when I said I was seventeen and old enough to rent.
I shuffled back to the street, my fingers gripping the basket filled with everything I owned. Two shirts, a skirt and three unmatched socks. I lifted my chin. Tears dripped off on to my hands. I had half a day to find work. Maybe I could untangle nets through the night. Barnikoff might let me sleep in his shed if I tidied it up. And there was always—
Breath died in my throat.
Saints save me, the fancy man was back.