Naomi had cut a few purses in her time, too. Desperation and hunger made poor company for morals and guilt. As a woman walked by with her beaded coin purse so conveniently located, to say Naomi wasn’t tempted would be a lie. The woman was distracted by her two children asking for sweets from a nearby vendor. It would’ve been an easy affair for Naomi to cut the strap and slip away. But, that woman could be desperate and hungry, too. She may’ve been saving for months to treat her children to sweets from that booth. Not all in Ka’veshi were cutthroat corrupted crooks.
Naomi watched the woman buy the two children one stick of hardened syrup candy to share. The looks in the kids’ eyes told Naomi they were used to sharing, and that the candy was a rare treat. With a soft sigh on the hint of a smile, Naomi moved on. There were still good people in Ka’veshi, even if the upturned dust from the constantly shifting paradunes made it hard to see.
Rough hands latched onto her collar and yanked her into the narrow passage between buildings. “Well, what have we here?”
Naomi shrank away from the foul smelling breath and cursed herself for being distracted by the woman and those kids. Dwelling on the past and lamenting at what could have been always led to trouble. “Let go,” she demanded with a swift kick towards the man’s groin.
The man easily dodged and let out a harsh laugh. “Let go? But I just caught you!”
“I’m on a critical delivery run to the Purple Hand,” she bluffed, even though the dog paw mark on her cheek had long ago been smeared into a black smudge by the first group of Hunters that night. “They won’t tolerate my lateness, nor anyone who interferes.”
“That so?” The man sneered and didn’t let go of her collar. The man’s other meaty hand grasped her chin and yanked her cheek into the slits of light snaking their way into the alley from the celebration just out of reach. “I see half a dog’s foot poorly drawn in charcoal.”
“I haven’t been inked yet.” Naomi tried the same lie that hardly ever worked but usually gave enough pause for her to find a way out. “I’m just a pup, and I’ll be skinned alive if this message doesn’t get through.”
His brow skewed as he considered her lie. Most guilds had a cheek inked the moment a conscript reached the legalized age of thirteen, but with the troubles brewing, it wouldn’t be unbelievable for guilds to be falling behind with their tattoos. The sickle on the man’s cheek said he was no Hunter, but the Harvesters were probably scouting on their own and rewarding members for new conscripts. Naomi thought to use the man’s desperation against him.
“Please, sir.” She tried a softer approach. “We dogs ain’t allowed to take sides, but everyone knows it’s them Spears that are the problem, keeping everyone under the sultanate’s foot. I don’t know what my message says, as I can’t read, but the woman who gave it to me from the Roses swore me to deliver it by high moon.”
“The Roses?” The man’s fist slackened its hold on her collar. “You think they mean to join against the Spears?”
“I honestly can’t say, sir, but everyone knows the Roses have had their fair share of trouble from the Spears.”
“True.” The man’s sweaty brow wrinkled. “But, why give such an important message to a pup, if you even is a pup.”
“Spears are watching the regular messengers.” She knew that to be true. “They thought no one would pay a kid any mind, delivering merchant orders and the like that new pups normally carry.”
His fist slowly began to uncurl. “Maybe...,” he said in consideration. “Maybe, if you show me the message...”
Naomi feigned wide-eyed fear, even though some of her fear was real. “You know I can’t, sir. On my life, it’s forbidden!”
The man reached for the messenger bag. A set of fire-sand poppers crackled loudly, making the man jump. Naomi kicked off his thigh and tugged free from his relaxed grip, stumbling into a run as soon as her bare feet hit the dirt.
“I must not be late!” she called over her shoulder, hoping her further act would deter him from following.
She didn’t dare look back. After skipping the first cross alley and threading her way through an open warehouse of woven baskets, she emerged onto a moonlit street of houses. Three blocks from the edge of the festivities, the housing block stood in hushed silence as Naomi crept across an untended courtyard with a fountain that probably hadn’t spouted water since the last sultanate dynasty. The carved stone fish topping the fountain had its mouth open, hopelessly waiting for rain to fall from a dark sky with nothing to offer but stars. Its dead stone eyes watched Naomi as she stepped from shadow to shadow in search of a safe side street headed back towards the crowd.
Light from an open window flickered as the wind tugged at threadbare drapes. Voices beyond were engaged in an argument that sounded domestic in nature, not shouted in anger but more a soft dispute between lovers. Naomi headed for the gap between houses but paused under the windowsill as unexpected words floated cautiously into the night.
“We must go, Hettie,” a man implored.
“You speak like a crazy person, Navid,” Hettie dismissed, her voice filled with uncertain worry. “I cannot just pick up my life and leave the city!”
Leave? Naomi froze in the weeds beneath the window. No one left Ka’veshi, except those authorized by the Merchants guild, and such a thing was temporary. To not return to your guild would mean trouble for your family. And to simply leave without a permit was, well... crazy.
Perhaps he was
