Chapter 2

The impact knocked her breath clean out of her lungs.One second there was a clear space ahead, the slippery stone road and the alley just past the closed bakery, and then next was a shoulder, hard and sudden, hitting her right in the chest making her lose balance. Her feet that were usually sure on wet stone, betrayed her completely. She fell down hard and then the curses came sharp and loud. 

His was sharp with a mix of annoyance and offendedness. Hers stayed swallowed in her throat, too shocked to even come out. Pain spread along her hip where she hit the stone road. For one second, all she could feel was the cold crawling in through her skirts, it caused her ear to ring, and her own heart slammed like it wanted to fall out.

Suddenly, she felt it,the pouch was loose from her sleeve in the fall, slipping free before she could catch it. It hit the stone with a sound too rich and too bright, for either copper or silver. Gold coins spilled across the road, scattering in every direction, catching a little light from the clouds and shining bright enough to make people look up. Her stomach dropped before her mind even could comprehend. It wasn't common gold that she knew. 

She'd laid her hands on market gold before, rare as it was, but this wasn't that. Each coin was too clean, too heavy, too perfectly formed, like no merchant had ever touched them. And every coin bore a small crest she had never seen before, it had a crown over crossed swords.

A cold feeling crawled up her spine before she even understood why.The boy she'd collided with, maybe around her age, dressed simply enough that she hadn't thought twice about him, went completely still. His eyes weren't on her face anymore. They were on the coins. So was everyone else's, within a few seconds.

"That's a royal seal," a woman shouted behind her, and the crowd went quiet. They stared in awe, the kind of silence that came from seeing something ordinary people never got to see. The word royal moved through the crowd, whispered from one mouth to the next, and with every whisper Jade felt her chest tighten a little more.

Her fingers were already shaking as she hurriedly reached for the coins, panic made her clumsy in a way she hated. Her mind raced, she thought of reaching the alley, then the next street, then anywhere but here, although some part of her already knew it was too late. Heads kept turning to her spot. A stall owner climbed onto his crate for a better look, stretching his neck like he'd never seen a girl kneeling in the mud before. Somewhere behind her, a woman was already screaming for the city guard, loud enough to cut through the rain and stop whatever excuse Jade might have tried to make. 

The truth landed on her all at once, heavy and sick. She hadn't stolen from a rich man. She'd stolen from the crown. "Thief!" The shout came close, too close, and Jade didn't wait to see who'd made it. She was on her feet before she'd even finished deciding to move. The coins stayed behind on the wet stone, there was no picking them up now, not with half the market staring, immediately she ran.

She disappeared into the alley without looking back. Boots were already pounding behind her, more joining by the second, rising and agitated shouts also came from them. Some carried pitchforks, some sticks, and the noise of it all pressed against her ears like a crowd smelling blood. She cut left, then right, taking each turn from memory of her last chase, the fear in her chest was the only thing sharper than the burn in her legs. Years of knowing these streets kept her half a step ahead. A crate scraped her elbow but she barely felt it, her whole body had narrowed down to one thought. 'Run and don't stop. Don't think about what happens if they catch you.'

Her lungs burned hard. Rain hit her eyes and blurred her view including the gaps between buildings into shapes she had to guess at. She had outrun guards before; lazy ones, the kind who gave up after two streets because of a stolen loaf of bread that wasn't worth the bother. But something in her gut told her these wouldn't stop. Not with royal gold on the ground behind her. Not with half the street already having seen the crest.

She ducked through a gap between two crumbling walls, one she'd used more times than she could count, narrow enough that a man in armor would have to turn sideways to follow. She'd gone almost three steps past it when a hard hand closed around her arm like a cuff. Her whole body went stiff with fear before she even understood what was going on.

Jade twisted, kicked, her foot connecting with one of the men hard enough that it made him grunt. But more hands grabbed her, more voices filled the alley, and the place that had always meant safety had somehow become a trap. They dragged her backward, her boots scraping uselessly against wet stone, her arms twisted behind her back hard enough to tear a cry out of her throat.

"Got her," someone said, right against her ear, breathless and pleased with himself. "This is royal business. Take her to the palace."

'Palace'

The word hit her harder than the fall she had earlier. Her whole body went cold. Whatever this was, about the coins, the crest, all of it had no business showing up in the Low Market. This was bigger than a normal theft. Bigger than losing a hand, worse than anything she'd braced herself for when she lifted that pouch.

For one terrifying second, she couldn't breathe at all. Then, slowly, she made herself stop fighting, not because she'd given up, but because some old stubborn instinct told her that fighting now would only make things worse. Better to save her strength, to watch and wait, and to learn exactly what she was up against before she spent it.

She lifted her chin, rain running down her face, and let the fear settle into something quieter not totally gone, but just controlled. This might be the end of the road for her. Or maybe not. She let out one heavy breath and let them drag her toward whatever was waiting.