Alena heard the female guard chortle. “He had it coming.”
Their voices faded as they turned the corner, continuing their search.
Alena wiped the sweat from her palms. Kye was coming here? With fresh horses, she wondered how long the journey would take. Safely, she couldn’t assume that she had more than a day or so left.
She came down from the roof, landing as softly as her lightness would allow. Her heart pounded in her chest, distracting her.
There had to be a way out of town. The more she considered the problem, the more she understood she would probably need to take a risk she wasn’t comfortable with. The town was locked down too tight for anything else.
Distracted by her own thoughts, she didn’t notice the guards on the street. But they noticed her.
She heard their shouts.
Eyes wide, Alena took to the roofs. Up high, she could put distance between her and her pursuers. Then she would drop back down to the streets to find a place to hide.
Behind her, a bell began sounding. She cursed, but heard the shouts of surprise below her.
In the middle of the day, the rooftops weren’t providing her enough advantages. The guards chasing her could see her every move. Glancing around, she could see other guards on the roof converging on her. She dropped down to the street, landing lightly on someone’s shoulder and changing direction.
Two more corners, and for a moment she was out of sight of the guards.
She didn’t even notice when a pair of thin hands reached out for her.
They locked on her wrist and pulled her down.
Alena stopped, more confused than scared. A younger boy had been crouching in a corner. He was out of breath and sweat beaded down his forehead. He handed her a red cloak.
She stared at it, not understanding.
The boy thrust it at her again.
Then she understood. It was a cloak of the Etari merchant clan.
She would never find a better disguise in town. She pulled it on and let herself be pulled into the street by the boy.
It was the first piece of luck she’d had in days. An Etari merchant in the street wouldn’t attract a second glance. Hiding in the alley, she might as well have painted a target on her back.
Her rescue didn’t come a moment too soon, either. Guards rushed around the corner, searching every alley for her. The boy gestured that she should pull the hood of the cloak over her head.
Normally, Alena avoided doing so. A raised hood on a nice day aroused suspicion. But the Etari often wore the hoods, now that she thought of it. She pulled it up, grateful for the relative anonymity it provided.
She was led through a combination of enthusiastic gestures and pulling. She felt uncomfortable at the idea of trusting this stranger, but without any other options, she wasn’t sure what else to do. Once she made the decision to follow, her world narrowed until all that mattered was the boy.
The last part of the chase was far different than the first. For all the boy’s enthusiasm, they walked at a normal pace, following a winding path that led down to the docks. The boy led her to a large building two blocks away from the river. He gestured at the door.
Though she had trusted him thus far, taking the final step made her hesitate.
Her lack of options made her ultimate decision easy. She followed, her eyes needing a moment to adjust to the darkness of the room that she entered.
As she could make out more details, she saw that she was in a functioning warehouse. Several people who appeared to be wage earners hauled crates and barrels back and forth, supervised by red-cloaked figures. The boy indicated she should keep the hood up, then led her toward a smaller, separate room near the rear of the warehouse.
The boy knocked on the door and gestured for Alena to enter. She did, the boy closing the door behind her.
She found herself in a small but tidy office, looking into the eyes of an Etari woman of about forty years. Alena tried to remember her lessons in Etari etiquette but failed.
The woman flashed a hand sign at her which Alena couldn’t interpret. Not sure what to do, she bowed deeply. “Thank you for helping me.”
The woman’s answering smile warmed Alena’s heart. How long had it been since someone had shown her kindness? Too many days to count. Of that she was sure.
Alena thought of her parents, the pain of their separation sharp in her chest.
“Please, sit. Perhaps we should be thanking you, for rescuing Azaleth.”
The woman’s imperial speech was nearly flawless, with just a small trace of an accent.
“You’re welcome.”
If Alena had been dealing with one of her own people, she would have expected an exchange of courtesies, but the Etari were different. The woman got straight to the point. “Azaleth tells us that you are being pursued by your own kind. The signs say for treason. Why?”
Alena almost answered, then stopped. There were consequences to her actions here. “I’ve learned a secret about the empire, and the individual whose secret it is wants to silence me.”
“Governor Kye.”
Alena wished she could have hidden her surprise at the woman’s knowledge.
The Etari made another hand gesture. “The guards talk. Too much. It couldn’t be a coincidence the governor is making all haste toward us.”
Alena looked back at the door. She had learned enough to know when she was well over her head. “I should leave. Just being here puts you in danger.”
Another hand sign, different than the first two. “That is our choice, not yours, to make. Do you wish to trade this secret for passage out of town?”
Alena’s racing mind froze. Passage out of town?
The offer was so tempting she almost accepted it right there. But she didn’t know enough. “Where to?”
“Wherever you wish
