a good idea.” And who knew what he’d say next? Lords forbid, but he’d probably try to tweak Talen with some comment about him taking care of Legs’s business earlier.
Legs walked to her, hand in front feeling the way. She took his hand and led him to the cellar door.
When the door was up, Legs turned to her. “I don’t care,” he said under his breath. And she knew he meant he didn’t care even if Mother were Sleth.
“Neither do I,” she agreed, but that was a lie. She did care.
Legs descended the stairs into the darkness with the potatoes. She found leaving the cellar door open put her on edge. Not everyone had such a cellar built into the floor. Many were outside the kitchen. She could see how having it in the kitchen would be handy, and it was not in the way, but she was not used to working so close to such a hole, so she shut the door.
She turned back to the window and knew she couldn’t stand there doing nothing while Talen watched her. “You can hardly make a lunch over there,” she said. “I will make us something to go with that fish. Can you tell me if your sister keeps any savory?”
Talen hesitated. She expected him to say something about poisoning the food, but he didn’t. He pointed at a cupboard. “It’s in there.”
“Thank you,” said Sugar and began washing and cutting vegetables.
When she finished with the vegetables, she found what she needed to make flat cakes. She had her hands in the flour when she glanced out the back window and saw half a dozen Mokaddians wearing leather cuirasses and helms crouching at the top of the riverbank.
Her heart jumped.
A handful of them broke off and approached the house, crouching low as they walked.
These were not Fir-Noy. At least they did not wear the Fir-Noy colors. She couldn’t tell from this distance, but it appeared their wrist tattoos were those of the Shoka. But it didn’t matter—Shoka or Fir-Noy, they were still Mokaddians, still sneaking up on the house.
She drew back from the window so they wouldn’t see her.
From her angle of view she saw the first man run up to the house and take his position at the corner.
She couldn’t catch her breath. The moment she’d been dreading had come and found her making flat cakes. All her mother and father had suffered to give them a chance to escape would now go to waste.
But that couldn’t happen. She wouldn’t let it happen. She didn’t have time to open the door to the cellar, descend, and close it up again.
She looked out the front window and saw nothing but Nettle working the field in the distance.
She whirled round and faced Talen. “Hunters,” she whispered.
Talen had been leaning against the wall in his chair, balancing it on two of its legs. He came away from the wall and brought all four legs to the ground.
She motioned with her head towards the river. He needed to put that bow down. If he had truly been guarding against something in the woods, then he would have been outside. Both of them would be. They needed to appear to be friends. No, they needed to appear to be more than friends. It would have been better if Ke had been sitting there, but Talen would have to do. She only prayed he wasn’t a fool.
She could not speak, not if she didn’t want to alert the man outside, so she hastened across the floor toward Talen. He must have seen the alarm in her face because he stood and looked with worry to the windows.
One, two, four steps, and she crossed the line he’d drawn. He began to raise the bow, but either his fear had paralyzed him or he wasn’t a fool after all because he allowed her to come right up to him, grab the wrist of the hand that held the bow, and whisper into his ear.
“They’re outside,” she said.
“Fir-Noy?”
“I’m going to sit on your lap,” she said. “Like a lover.” Then she pushed him back into his chair.
Talen’s eyes were round with alarm. He clenched the bow.
She pushed the bow away and settled on him. “Put the bow down,” she whispered. “Put your arm around me.”
He was frozen.
“I am your girl from Koramtown,” she whispered. “I’m visiting.”
Something rustled along the outside of the house. He turned his head toward the sound. He reached back and leaned the bow against the