that billowed out in a show of tailored excellence, altered her course by three steps in order to avoid the downed woman. Her hem barely brushed the still figure lying in the street. The rich woman neither slowed nor looked down.
Leilius felt a push, only then realizing he’d stopped and was staring at the limp woman lying in the road. The breath was trapped in his chest as unexplainable emotion tugged at him. That could’ve been his nana. It could’ve been her who hadn’t gotten out of the way in time, and had been shoved aside.
“Move!” a gruff man said in the traders’ language.
Without thinking, Leilius turned toward the man and dug two hard punches into his ribs. He brought his elbow across the man’s face, smashing into his jaw and knocking him to the ground.
With defiant eyes, he stared down another man pushing into him, begging him to make a move. When the man didn’t, Leilius shoved Ruisa out of the way and glared at Maggie, daring her to say something, and stopping the flow of people in the street. He bent to the old woman before placing two fingers on her neck. A feeble pulse pushed back.
“C’mon,” he said in Shanti’s hacked-up language. His accent wasn’t great—he hadn’t been learning long—and she probably wouldn’t understand him, but he didn’t care. It felt right. “Me help.”
Her rags moved and twisted as he lifted. Soft whimpers left her lips. She was as light as a bag of bones.
“Are you okay?” Leilius asked in the traders’ language.
The woman, head naturally shaking in the way of the old, looked up at him in wonder. Tears rolled and fell down her wrinkled cheeks. “You must go. You’ll get in trouble.”
“Are you hurt?”
A shaking hand touched her hip, making her wince. “I don’t think it’s broken…”
Leilius dug into his pants. He pressed a gold coin to her palm before curling her fingers around it. “Get yourself healed, get some food, and then get out of the city. The Wanderer is coming.”
A flash of hope shone in her eyes. Her fist tightened before another tear slipped down her cheek. “Go,” she said softly. “Go. You are not safe here.”
Leilius patted her hand before grabbing the nearest person. A ruddy-faced woman with thin lips pressed together stared up at him with awe and fear mixed together.
“Help her home,” Leilius said in a rough voice he barely recognized as his own. “See to her.”
“Yes, sir.” The woman called a teenage boy with a flare of defiance in his eyes to her. His brow lowered and his jaw clenched. He gave Leilius that open look Leilius had seen a million times before from the Honor Guard each time S’am taught them something new.
That was when Leilius felt all the eyes on him. A busy street in a large city had stopped to watch Leilius see to an old woman. This was the opposite of all he’d been trained to do.
“Let’s go. Quick.” Leilius tried to slink into the crowd. Instead, it parted for him, allowing him to pass through easily. More eyes were on him now. Curious eyes.
“Hurry!” Leilius yelled behind him, half running now.
“This way.” Xavier swatted him, pushing him right.
“Xavier!” Ruisa called.
“Leilius, wait!”
Leilius tried to stop and turn around, but bodies were all around him. He’d created a huge bog of congestion with his bleeding heart. Hands pushed at his body.
“Ow!” Leilius swam through sweaty chests and bony elbows. He reached the side and flattened himself against a rough wall. The crowd moved slowly and people either tried to peer over their neighbor to see what the hold-up was, or stared ahead lifelessly and stooped, half-dead and complacent.
A curly head followed by Xavier’s face bobbed above the people for a moment. Then again. He was jumping to try and find Leilius.
Taking note of his location and the speed of the crowd, Leilius threaded into the bodies once again, squeezing through cracks and shoving through barriers. “Xavier!” he yelled.
“Here!”
A boot came down on his foot. Leilius threw an elbow as punishment. He slipped by a man in silk with a big gut and couldn’t resist. Stumbling, he bumped into the man. Leather slid across his fingers as Leilius reached into his pocket. A grunt later, he’d unhooked the purse then staggered into someone else. A lean bag of coin jingled in his palm before he could tuck it away close to his body.
“Here!”
Leilius ducked around a woman in a wool dress and shot out a hand. His