He stared at me for so long I felt the blood draining from my face. “They went missing last night. As did you, for a time.”
“You don’t really think I could take down two trained soldiers, do you? I’m just a courtesan. Maybe they were drunk, like the soldiers outside my room.” I crossed my arms. “To be frank, your army isn’t very well disciplined, from what I can see.”
His gaze penetrated me, and my stomach sank.
I could feel that I was still alive because of his dream. That was all. And what if he had a new dream?
Flanked by two soldiers and Sourial, I crossed out of the gatehouse. Outside, the streets were crowded with people bustling around, buying caged birds and pastries and great swaths of cloth from the market stalls. The East End rang with the shouts of cheese sellers and cider makers, and it felt bloody good to be out here again. I’d only been in the castle a day, but it felt like weeks.
The only unnerving thing was that everyone was giving the soldiers death stares, and I was with them. Sourial seemed unbothered by this quiet hostility.
He flashed me a smile. “Well I am flattered that you chose me to accompany you to buy lingerie.”
“I didn’t choose you, and it’s just regular underwear. Not lingerie.”
“We will make sure you get something that fits your figure perfectly.” His lip curled as we passed a fishmonger. “Though I’m not sure we'd find anything to my tastes in this sort of place.”
“It’s not really for you, Sourial.”
The farther we went down Underskirt Lane, the more I felt the hostility crackling the air, and the death glares turned into open insults. I shifted away from the soldiers and Sourial, hoping to go unnoticed. The last thing I needed was someone screaming out my real name.
It was, after all, only yesterday that one of these angels had been hacking off someone's head in public.
“Monsters!” A woman yelled from behind a stall of pies.
I kept my eyes on the cobblestones, a few feet away. If we stayed here too long, we’d become mired in another mob attack.
Sourial was walking ahead now, drawing his sword. Frankly, he looked like he wanted a fight.
A man spat right in front of Sourial, and the angel shoved him out of the way with a single hand. The man fell onto his arse, and the crowd started closing in around Sourial.
This was perhaps the best moment to slip away from him. Already, I could see the petticoats hanging from Finn's market stall, and I could use this chaos.
Fighting my way through the crowd, I broke into a run, weaving through the rush of bodies to get to Finn. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw his shining blond hair at the market stall.
Within moments, I was at his table, catching my breath. I shoved a petticoat out of the way to get a good view of his face. “Finn.”
Shocked, he stared at me. “Lila!" he shouted.
I put my finger to my lips. Not my name anymore. I stole a quick look over my shoulder. It seemed that the mob was descending on the Clovians. I probably had a few minutes, at least, before Sourial just flat out murdered everyone. "I don't have long. I need some underwear. It's the whole pretext for why I came here."
His cheeks went bright red as he picked up a stack of silky camisoles, bras and knickers—pale pink, blue, some with lace. And his eyes particularly bulged when he found a pair of small, red underwear and a matching lace bra.
You'd think that after selling these things for years, he would no longer be embarrassed about it. But he looked mortified all the same. I saw his throat bob as he swallowed hard.
“Calm down, Finn.” I pulled a coin out of my pocket and dropped it on his table. “I need to get a message through to the Free Men. You associate with them, right?”
Screams rang out behind me, but I tuned them out, trying to focus.
“Yeah. Hang on. Are you okay in there? Have they done anything terrible to you?”
I shook my head. “No. In fact, I have been sleeping in the most comfortable beds. And the food—” I stopped myself. I was getting off track, and Finn’s expression was darkening.