Page 54 of House of Dusk
The man looked more outraged than alarmed. “You think you’re too good for us?” he spat. “You think you’re tough because you have a little knife? You’re nothing, girl. Someone ought to—”
She kicked, sweeping his legs out from under him. By the time he hit the street—with a quite satisfying thump—she was already hustling the princess away.
“I told you this would be fun,” said Sinoe.
“This is not my idea of fun.”
“Isn’t it?” Sinoe cast her a sidelong glance. Yeneris was suddenly highly aware of her own hand, resting lightly on Sinoe’s shoulder. How close she was standing. For safety, of course. To make sure that if the men followed, her body would block the princess.
But they weren’t following. Yeneris and Sinoe has passed into a bustling night market, a patchwork of brightly colored stalls lit by pierced-copper lamps, the air smelling of smoke and burnt sugar and fried onions. Yeneris dropped her arm to her side.
“Whatdoyou do for fun, then?” Sinoe traipsed along one of the aisles, pausing to ogle a display of glass beads, then an array of cosmetic pots.
The question rattled in Yeneris’s mind. She had fun. Of course she did. Just not recently. Training had been fun, sometimes. Sparring with Mikat, when she managed to actually land a hit and cracked a smile from the older woman. When she was little she’d loved the sea, loved the swell of water lifting her. But the last time she’d gone swimming she’d hated it. Hated the way it made her feel so small, so powerless. The hungry abyss cold below.
“That wasn’t supposed to be a stumper.”
She blinked, and found Sinoe watching her curiously, a tiny dent between her brows.
“I like doing my job,” Yeneris said, finally. That was a good answer. “I like being useful. I don’t have time for fun.”
Sinoe arched a brow. “That sounded like a challenge.”
“It wasn’t,” said Yeneris, hastily. “Where are we going? You said your vision was of someone who could help us learn what Lacheron is up to. Are they here?”
Sinoe did not answer, having been distracted by a nearby vendor whose stall was heaped with scrolls and bound codexes.
On the surface, at least, the market didn’t seem particularly dangerous. No doubt a good chunk of the goods had been smuggled into the city. The import taxes were notoriously high since the war. But they were mostly small luxuries. She hadn’t smelled a single whiff of medena. There were few visible weapons. The only raised voices were friendly shouts and boasts.
Still, there was something about the place that set Yeneris’s skin humming. What was it? She let her gaze wander, trying to find the source of her unease.
There. So small she’d almost missed it. A symbol carved into a corner of the bead seller’s stall. A stylized bee. She scanned the other nearby stalls. More bees. Now that she’d seen one, they were everywhere, even painted onto some of the walls.
Yeneris had memorized a detailed map of the city as part of her training. Had spent hours reciting different possible escape routes from the palace. The locations of three different safe houses. Places she could go for supplies, for healing, for weapons. Places where rules could be bent and laws could be broken without fear of notice. This was one of them.
She turned on Sinoe, who was sorting through a basket of scrolls. “Look!” she squealed, unfurling one. “It’s the Epic of Swords and Fire! One of the copies from the library of Melicarum. Ooh, and there’s even illustrations. This is my favorite part, when the heroine is poisoned and—”
“Where did that bangle come from?”
Sinoe arched her brows innocently, as if there weren’t an enormous golden bracelet decorating one of her shapely wrists. “You’re not the only one who can hide things in interesting places.”
“Princess,” Yeneris began, pitching her voice low, glancing to see if anyone had noticed the thief-bait. “This market belongs to the Queen of Swarms.”
“Of course it does,” said Sinoe. “That’s why we’re here.” She turned and signaled to the merchant.
Yeneris swallowed a curse. It was her own fault. She should have demanded more details. This was what came of trusting Sinoe to be in any way sensible. “She’s the one you had a vision about? You want to meet with of one of the most notorious thief lords in the city?”
The princess completed her purchase, not bothering to hide her silver coins any more than the gold bangle. Yeneris saw the merchant’s eyes linger on the trinket.
“Don’t frown, Yen,” Sinoe said. “This is important.”
“Fine. Then tell me where I need to go. I’ll take you back to the palace and get the information myself. You can’t be here, Sinoe.”
Maybe it was the fact that she’d used her name. Or maybe Sinoe finally heard the edges in her voice. She regarded Yeneris steadily. “I have to do something, Yen. You’ve seen what it’s like. Fates, you know. You’re—did you lose people? Because of my...in the war?”
It took Yeneris several heartbeats to find her tongue. “Yes.”Everyone. Everything.That was how it had felt at the time.
“Then you understand. You’re the only one who does.”
