myriad cries of merchants like a fisher's net. Yet each call reverberated clean and clear above the constant murmur of the crowd. Iuna could hear the bark of some jeweler from the other side of the center just as easily as she could the beckoning of the fruit peddler two feet away from where she now stood.
A hand on Iuna's shoulder made her jump.
'Now let's not go running off by ourselves,' Prisus said, turning Iuna around to face him. Ythnel stood behind him. 'Why don't you and Ythnel go find yourselves new dresses to wear for Midwinter? I'll meet you both back here in, say, a candle. Then we can grab some lunch.' He smiled, patted Iuna on the head, and disappeared into the crowd.
Iuna started after him but was grabbed by her wrist. She turned around to glare at Ythnel.
'Don't touch me,' she said, jerking free. She tried to sound angry, but a hint of fear crept in as she remembered what Ythnel did to her yesterday. Iuna hated being afraid of the woman, hated the control it gave Ythnel. She would find a way to get back at Ythnel, to get her fired. She would think of something her father couldn't ignore.
'Your father isn't here to protect you, Iuna. You will obey me.' There was no malice in Ythnel's voice, just a sternness that spoke of consequences for failure. 'Besides, he gave me the coin. If you want that dress, you'll have to stick with me.' Ythnel smiled, her tone much more friendly.
Iuna's mouth twisted into a grimace, but Ythnel was right. It was no use forcing the issue without her father here to witness the result. She would just have to bide her time.
'All right.' Iuna sighed. 'But try to keep up.' She marched into the marketplace without glancing back to see if Ythnel followed.
It was approaching highsun, and the center was at the peak of its activity. Iuna shouldered her way through the continuous flow of traffic, not even bothering to excuse herself as she careened into thighs and hips. The sweet fragrance of perfume filled Iuna's nostrils and mingled with the pungent aroma of some foreign spice carried through the center on a breeze off the Bay of Chessenta. She wrinkled her nose and pressed on.
At a convergence of lanes, Iuna veered right, diving into a new stream of shoppers. She could feel Ythnel's presence behind her and absently wondered what it would take to lose the woman. Suddenly, her father's words echoed in her head, not as a warning, but as the inspiration for a plan. She grinned wickedly and came to a halt.
'Is everything all right? Why did you stop?' Ythnel asked from behind her.
'Oh, everything is fine. We're here.' Iuna pointed to a large, green-and-white striped canvas tent across the way.
The tent was easily twice the width of its neighbors and was so deep, it also occupied the row behind it. Iuna's father had told her it was run by a seamstress who owned a shop in town. Clothing was made and sold in the shop; the Trade Center tent served as an outlet for older pieces that needed to be moved to make room for the newer fashions. It was commonly patronized by well-tdo merchants who could not afford the latest styles worn by the nobility.
An armed guard stood by the open tent flap, but Iuna paid him no heed as she entered. Dresses, shirts, and pants hung from hooks on the walls. Stuffed mannequins stood at various spots on the floor, modeling outfits. Iuna drifted from item to item, lifting hems and sleeves with feigned disinterest as Ythnel trailed behind. It wasn't long before an attendant soon joined them.
'Do you see something you like?' the young woman asked. She was just a few summers older than Iuna, perhaps the seamstress's apprentice.
'No, not really,' Iuna sighed. 'What about you, Ythnel?'
'Oh, I don't know. I never really had a need for this sort of thing back at the manor.' As if to emphasize her lack of fashion sense, Ythnel plucked at the skirt of the dark linen dress she wore.
It was like a shark sensing blood in the water. The attendant swept Ythnel up and rushed her over to several gowns hanging on a section of the wall on the other side of the tent.
'Oh, I know just the thing. You're going to love this. Now tell me, what's the occasion?' she chattered excitedly.
Iuna backed toward the entrance of the tent. She halted as she drew parallel to the guard and looked up, suddenly afraid he might notice her guilty face. He just glanced at her briefly and grunted. To her, it was like the blast of a horn that signaled the start of an arena race. She bolted into the crowd.
Iuna couldn't contain her laughter as she charged ahead. Her father would have to send Ythnel away now. How could he not, if the woman was so irresponsible as to lose track of his daughter because she was too busy trying on something frilly. Iuna couldn't wait to see their faces when she finally showed up at the carriage, crying because Ythnel had abandoned her.
As Iuna rounded a corner, she decided to take a quick look behind to make sure Ythnel had not caught up. She was nowhere to be seen. Iuna turned back, a triumphant smirk growing on her face, and slammed into something hard. The force of the collision knocked her backward, and she fell to the ground, stunned.
As her vision came into focus, Iuna noticed that a wide circle had been cleared around her in the marketplace traffic. She turned her head slowly back toward the direction she had been running and saw a man leaning over her. He wore a suit of hardened leather under a fur-trimmed cloak. A white letter K with a burning branch above it was painted on his breast. His dark hair hung in waves that reached to his neck. A golden circlet held it off his forehead. And though he smiled down at her, his brown eyes were full of cruelty.
'Do you know who I am?' he asked. Iuna nodded frantically. Anyone who hadn't actually met Naeros Karanok had heard enough stories that they would recognize him. 'Then you have me at a disadvantage. I don't like being at a disadvantage, so why don't you tell me who you are? Or did your parents forget to name you as well as teach you manners?'
Iuna opened her mouth to speak but managed only a croak.
'I'm afraid the girl has been knocked senseless,' Naeros joked with his men, who Iuna now noticed were responsible for clearing the space around her and their lord.
'N-n-no, I'm all right,' Iuna stammered. 'M-m-my n-name is Iuna.'
'Well, Iuna, don't you know it's very rude to run into people? What do you think we should do to rude young girls?' Suddenly, Naeros's smile was as cruel as his eyes.
Ythnel's head was spinning. The attendant talked incessantly, throwing dress after dress at her without missing a beat.
'Enough!' Ythnel dropped the pile of garments that had accumulated on her outstretched arms to the ground. The attendant's face paled at the outburst. 'I think you've spent enough time on me,' Ythnel continued, taking a deep breath to calm herself. 'Why don't you show some outfits to Iuna?' She turned, scanning the tent for Iuna. The girl was gone.
'She must have stepped outside,' the attendant meekly offered.
'Painbringer's touch,' Ythnel cursed. She stormed out of the tent, pausing in the street to search the crowd in both directions for Iuna. Remembering the guard, she spun around to confront him.
'The little girl I came in with, did you see which way she went?' He peered down his nose at her, his arms folded across his puffed-out chest, and grunted. Ythnel's face became a mask of fury. Quicker than thought, she jabbed him in the gut with her right hand, just below the rib cage. The guard's eyes popped in surprise, and he doubled over.
'Which way?' Ythnel asked again through gritted teeth. Gasping for breath, the guard pointed down the lane past her. Ythnel raced off without another word.
Even with her height, it was hard to see through the sea of bobbing heads and shoulders, and the morass of moving bodies prevented Ythnel from maintaining the speed with which she had left the seamstress. Finally, she reached an intersection. She stood at the corner for a moment, desperately searching for a glimpse of Iuna's small figure weaving in and out of the crowd. There was none. Ythnel silently cursed the child. Iuna could be anywhere by now. This was going to cost Ythnel her job. Why was the girl acting like this? Couldn't she see that Ythnel was just trying to help her?
A shift in the movement of the crowd to Ythnel's right caught her attention, and she swung her head to investigate. Something was parting the traffic a few yards down the lane, creating a bottleneck as the throng tried to continue on its way.
Ythnel was sure Iuna was somehow involved.
