But getting involved was risky even when one wasn’t a wanted criminal. Doing so now was a fool’s errand.
And it didn’t matter to her in the least. Her confusion, loss, and worry all found a focus in those guards.
She couldn’t fight them. Her limited martial training in the academy wouldn’t count for anything here. But in her experience, most guards weren’t too bright.
“Um… excuse me?” She made her voice meek and she hunched a bit, the better to allow them to loom over her.
The officer with the crossbow grunted with one final kick and turned to look at her. “What do you want?”
Alena had her head down, her eyes pointed at their boots. She desperately wanted to look up, to see if there was any hint of recognition in their eyes. But she didn’t dare.
“I’m sorry, sirs, but the baker on the corner, he said he wanted to see you right away. Something about a thief.”
Her statement was met with silence, and she imagined the two soldiers looking at each other.
When the officer spoke, she heard the doubt in his voice. No doubt, similar tricks had been played on them in the past. “Go, check it out. I’ll stay here with the boy and the girl.”
The other guards left and Alena cursed. She had hoped all of them would leave. It would only take the soldiers a few moments to go to the baker and find out she’d been lying. Then they would both be on the receiving end of those boots.
She’d put herself in a corner.
Alena glanced at the boy. His face was bruised and starting to swell, but he recovered quickly. His eyes were already darting around, wary. He looked to be a few years younger than her.
Then she noticed that his features were different. It was his ears, just slightly larger and shaped differently than she considered normal.
The boy was Etari.
But he wasn’t wearing the red clothing that identified him as part of a merchant clan.
Those were questions that could wait. In just a few moments, the other guards would be coming back.
The boy looked ready to run, and Alena’s anger was enough to turn her foolish decision into a mad one. In one quick motion she stepped forward and kicked, her foot sliding between the guard’s legs and striking the soft target she had aimed for.
A gasp of air escaped from the officer’s lungs as he fell, and Alena darted past him, helping the boy to his feet. “Can you run?”
The boy did something with his hands. Alena didn’t know what it meant.
Alena turned around just in time to see the other guards come running back into the alley. She swore out loud.
She launched herself up, making herself light and reaching the roof with a single jump.
A moment later she saw a pair of hands reach over the roof, and the boy soon followed. He had his own lightness, even if it wasn’t quite as developed as hers.
Below, the soldiers yelled at them to stop. Alena risked a glance to see the officer rolling over, bringing his crossbow to bear.
The two of them ran, Alena certain they wouldn’t have enough time to get out of the way.
She felt the bolt the moment it left the crossbow. She shoved against the boy and they separated, the bolt slicing through the air between them. The boy gave her a sharp glance, but they kept running and were out of line of sight in a moment.
Alena led them across the rooftops. The guards who hadn’t been injured tried to chase for a while, but the two younger people were much faster and agile. It wasn’t long before they had escaped.
They ducked down into another alley and curled up in a corner. Alena rummaged through her pack until she found some food. She pulled it out and shared with the Etari, who nodded his appreciation.
“Thank you for saving me,” he said in perfect imperial.
“You’re welcome.”
A while later, after the food was finished, the younger boy stood up. Alena noticed his eyes, constantly roving back and forth. She knew very little about the Etari except for the basics everyone learned in class, but she was impressed by his awareness. He gave her a short bow. “Thank you again, but I must be off.”
Under other circumstances, Alena would have found him to be a delightful mystery. Now that she had a chance to study him, his Etari features were more pronounced. A quick glance probably wouldn’t reveal his race to most people, but the signs were there. He wasn’t wearing red, though, so why was he here?
But she didn’t have time to dig into the mystery. She had her own health and wellbeing to worry about. “Take care.”
He gave her a long, questioning look, then was off, leaving her with the problem of escaping the city now that every guard would be looking for her.
31
Brandt had never deluded himself into thinking that he knew everything. Throughout his years of service, he’d come to realize that the world was a far more mysterious place than he believed. And yet, he still thought he had some basic grasp of how the world worked.
Until he began the real training at the monastery.
Day after day, he felt as though he was learning how to walk all over again. Truths he had once considered as obvious as the sun and moons were cast into doubt. It all began with his testing, holding that cursed stone in his hand.
If he hadn’t heard the songs with his own ears, he wouldn’t have believed. He would have scoffed. But he had moved the stone with his will, a feat he long believed impossible.
And it hadn’t been much harder than using his fire affinity.
It turned out the training he’d participated in before the tests was but a taste of the training the monks actually engaged in. Once he passed the tests, the flavor of
