جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 50

Ailis“I had not decided, Your Highness.”General Aodren looked down the street.Then the other way.I became painfully aware that I had just informed a prince, a general, and the king’s brother that I had walked this far across the capital with no destination.Commander Torren was also there.So were two armed guards.Excellent.“You came a long way without deciding,” General Aodren said.There was amusement in his voice.Not enough to be unkind.Enough that I knew he had noticed.“I finished work early.”“That explains why you had time.”“Yes.”His eyes remained on me.It did not explain why I was here.Right.“I did not want to spend the afternoon in my room.”There.A complete answer.Almost.General Aodren waited.I had already learned that he was very good at this.“I was waiting for tomorrow,” I admitted.“What happens tomorrow?”Of course he asked.My heart was behaving as though this conversation had been arranged specifically to embarrass me.It had not.That was actually wor

AodrenThe palace carriage arrived before we finished with the last account.Deren waited beside it with a leather folder beneath one arm.That was never promising.I signed the quartermaster’s correction, handed it back to the clerk, and looked at Torren.“Anything else?”“Nothing that requires you.”“Excellent.”Deren opened the carriage door.“You have papers.”“I do, Your Highness.”“For me.”“Yes.”Less excellent.Torren followed me inside.The two guards mounted behind us. The door shut, the carriage rolled forward, and Deren opened the folder before we had cleared the stores.I looked through the window once.Wrong direction for Maela’s.I knew that without thinking about it.Useful.Not presently useful.Ailis would probably already be somewhere nearer the familiar streets by now. She had tomorrow free and intended to spend some part of it hunting Veyrathi romances from a secondhand seller whose location she had not mentioned.That last omission had not mattered while we were s

AilisThe collar remained upstairs.This was deliberate.I had considered carrying it to the cloth market so I could compare thread against the linen. Then I remembered streets contained dirt, carts, other people, and several opportunities for me to drop someone else’s fine collar into something unforgivable.So it stayed wrapped on my table.My shoulder bag contained my coins, my needle case, and the directions Tovan had provided with suspicious confidence for a man who had never been to the shop himself.Cloth market. Bird fountain. Narrow passage. Bird sign.Simple.The cloth market was easy. I had been there before.Finding a finer needle was also easy, though less pleasant financially. The first merchant showed me one for three coins.Good.Too much.The second had one for two. I tested the point against a scrap of fine linen she kept beside the needles.It passed through without opening the weave.Good.I counted out two coins.Sixty-one.Two needles now belonged to me.I put the

AilisThe passage was narrower than it had looked from the square.This became important almost immediately because General Aodren was beside me.Beside me.Not passing on an averren while I watched from the roadside. Not across a street with Commander Torren and two guards. Not standing in the middle of Maela’s dining room after coming all the way there to ask me three questions about embroidery.Beside me.His first steps carried him ahead. Then his stride shortened.I noticed because I was already looking at his boots.This was not where I had intended to look.I had intended to look forward.At the bookshop.Books were ahead.Very important.Instead I watched one long step become a slightly shorter one, then another.He had adjusted for me.There were practical reasons for this. General Aodren was extremely tall. I was not. If he continued walking normally, I would either fall behind or have to hurry beside him like someone late to her own execution.Still.He had noticed.My heart

AodrenThe bookseller recognized me only after Ailis looked at me for help.I preferred the order.For several breaths I had simply been another customer standing behind a human woman who was visibly trying to separate useful Aedrathi from the rest of his sentence. She caught Veyrathi. I saw that much in her face. Perhaps books as well. Then comprehension ended.Her eyes came to me.Not embarrassed. Not helpless.Expectant.“He says the Veyrathi books are along the rear wall.”“Oh. Thank you.”She went immediately.The bookseller was still straightening behind his counter.I followed Ailis.Tovan’s bad directions had, eventually, accomplished their purpose.The name returned with more force than the information deserved.Tovan.A man close enough to Ailis that when she wanted a bookseller, she asked him where to find one. Close enough that she trusted the answer and crossed half a market district following it.He had also sent her around a fountain twice.That improved him slightly.I