Page 57 of Sonnets and Serpents
He looked away, shrugging, the gesture as forced as hers had been a moment earlier.
Eliza picked her way through the options, finally choosing a bright magenta shirt embroidered down the front with swirls of sunshine yellow. After another moment of indecision, she added a green shirt hemmed in pink.
Spouting praises of her taste, the merchant pulled the magenta shirt over Eliza’s head and showed her how to fold it at the waist and fasten it with the sash to make it the right length. Then she fetched matching scarves.
“Turn around,” Eliza ordered Silas.
He raised an eyebrow. “You’re changing here? In the middle of the market?”
“I’m just going to wiggle out of my shirt with this over the top. I’ll be modest.”
“Then why do I need to turn around?”
She glared at him until he rolled his eyes and turned, placing himself between her and the other marketgoers. If anyone tried to approach the booth, he gave them a flat stare with the clear message to move on.
“I’m ready,” said Eliza.
Silas turned to find her grinning at him, looking much more Pravish than before. The merchant had helped her wrap a yellow scarf loosely over her hair, the cloth hanging like a hood, theloose end dangling in front of her left shoulder. Her former silk shirt, soiled and battered, lay rumpled on the merchant’s rug.
“Not bad,” he said.
Eliza scoffed. “I believe the term you’re looking for istatli al.” She leaned in, pressing her hand to the edge of her mouth for a loud whisper. “That’s the way to saybeautifulfor people.”
Raising an eyebrow, Silas said, “Sen tatli al gozumek.”You look beautiful.
She lowered her hand slowly, pink rising in her cheeks. Clearly, she hadn’t expected him to say it, but he’d taken it as a challenge.
“Apta,” he added with a smirk and was rewarded by her scowl. Then, drawing in a deep breath, he said, “I have one idea regarding the kuveti.”
The kuveti were notoriously organized, keeping records of every arrest. Eliza had said she wanted to know why the Stone Caster was arrested, and Silas felt fairly confident they could at least get that information. And, if they were lucky, they could find out if Henry and the magic stealer had actually been arrested. Getting anyoneoutof prison was a demand he couldn’t meet, but this was a place to start, and before they planned anything, they needed to know if they were even on the right path.
With Eliza as disguised as he could hope for, he led them through the streets to the kuveti prison house near the Nephew King’s palace, an area of Izili he had previously avoided.
The prison looked as oppressive as the purpose implied. There were no splashes of color common to Izili architecture, only dull stone, bricked in hard lines. An iron portcullis blocked the entryway, and on either side, the structure rose in spikes, like the overturned fangs of a dead serpent.
“This is a terrible idea,” Silas muttered.
“It’s not as if you’re spending all your money on unknownmagic,” Eliza said with a self-deprecating smile. “The worst they can do is turn us away.”
That was not evencloseto the worst. But sometimes information was only gained by risk.
She slipped her hand into his, jolting awareness up his arm, and in answer to his sharp look, she said, “I can’t just cower in your shadow. That would draw attention. No one cowers in this country.”
She wasn’t wrong. Still, she was wildly distracting. Silas tried to ignore the sensation of her soft fingers threaded through his as he led the way to the front guardhouse, tensing under the eyes of a half dozen veiled men at the gate.
A barrel-chested man came to greet them, his hooked nose holding his black veil a full inch away from the rest of his face. He had the eyes of a predatory wildcat.
Silas wished he had a veil of his own, wished he had a reason to reveal his snake form so he could experience bows of reverence rather than hard stares of evaluation.
“You arrested a female Stone Caster in the market,” he said, making his voice as commanding as possible. “I want to know what for and when she’ll be out. She owes me for this false Cast!”
He brandished his wrist, and the guard’s eyes flickered to the gold bracelet.
Silas was prepared for pushback or bartering. What he wasn’t prepared for was—
“No such arrest,” said the guard shortly.
Silas blinked, then frowned. Finally, he said, “The arrest was witnessed.”
