Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 153795 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 769(@200wpm)___ 615(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 153795 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 769(@200wpm)___ 615(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
“All right.” I can tell she isn’t satisfied with that answer, but she lets it go. “Well, at least take a loaf or two with you if you’ll be gone for that long.”
I smile as she returns to the counter to wrap two loaves of bread in an ivory cloth. I accept them and thank her as we hug.
My impatient companion clears his throat and cocks his head at the door.
Ellanoch frowns at him. “Come back in one piece, you hear me?” Her smile is warm as she rubs my upper arm.
“I will.” My eyes sting, but I bat the emerging tears away.
As we leave the bakery, I walk even faster to reach the refugee center. It’s going to be even harder leaving all the children I help teach, but I don’t want them or the director worrying about my absence.
Saying farewell for now to them all makes me cry.
I was in my ninth year when I came to the refugee center and didn’t leave until three years ago, when Analla was able to move us into our own place during her nineteenth year and my seventeenth. We were still in school, but we took up jobs on the side to afford our home in the Commons. I loved the center so much that I returned to volunteer.
When I finally exit the building, still swiping my eyes, I search for Thane, but he isn’t in front anymore. My heart plummets as dread seizes me.
“No.” I walk to the middle of the street as carriages and wagons rush by. Merchants yell, and people sit on the edge of the canal ahead, fishing or chatting away, but there is no sign of that wicked-looking man anywhere.
Then a whistle splits the air.
I turn around and my jaw drops when I spot Thane sitting on the edge of the roof of the refugee center three stories up. The roof is built at a sharp pitch, an almost vertical angle, and many of the clay shingles are loose and have fallen off. He causes shingles to slide downward as he stands up, and they shatter on the ground in loud clatters. How the shadows did he get up there?
To my shock, Thane jumps off the roof, and I gasp when he lands right in front of me with hardly a sound. He’s wearing his cowl and buffers again, his weapons strapped to him like he’s prepared for combat. For a second, I have to ask myself if this is the man I really want to take a journey with. I mean, who jumps off of dangerously high roofs when they’re bored?
“Took you long enough,” he says, biting into a pear.
I glare at the fruit.
Wait a minute…
“Hey…” I frown, taking my rucksack off and digging through it, searching for the extra pear I bought. When I can’t find it, I ask, exasperated, “Are you serious? I just gave you a bunch of coins! Can’t you buy your own damn pear?”
He finishes off the fruit, licking the juice from his fingers. Then he tosses the pear core into the air. It halts, hovering in front of my face. In seconds, it’s no longer just a core.
It’s been restored to a whole pear and looks exactly like the one I just bought.
How is he this good with his magic? With his skills, he could’ve joined The Divine or at least become a city guard.
I disregard those thoughts and snatch the pear out of the air. “I don’t want your sloppy seconds.”
And, for a second, I swear he almost smiles.
…
We trek silently through the streets of Meriva until we reach the end of the Commons and enter the Scraps.
“What are we doing in the Scraps? Shouldn’t we be heading toward the bridge that takes us through the southern half of Ruvain? I looked up the route on a map, and it showed that we have to cross through Ruvain to get to Gadonia, which will lead us to Elphar.”
The sheer thought of passing through Ruvain is terrifying. No good comes from that kingdom.
“Have to make a stop before we go that way,” Thane says.
The deeper we walk into the Scraps and the closer we get to the trees lining the border, the more the atmosphere shifts from busy and uplifted to drab and weary. The canal disappears, leaving only streets riddled with weeds between ruined cobblestones. It smells like pee or fish…or both.
I’m certain the thick black smoke billowing from some of the chimneys is the cause of the phlegmy coughs echoing through the run-down buildings and alleys.
For the first time, I stick close to Thane, who’s pulled his mask up. I force a smile at the hollow-cheeked Scrappers sitting on the side of the road. Some have dark streaks on their hands and faces from working the coal and wood factories. But all appear tired, even the children.