A commotion made them spin away from the market. Down the road, a cart was rattling toward them so quickly Silver was sure the wheels would pop off at any moment.
“Run, you beast!” the driver roared, snapping a whip over the herd animal’s head.
A yelling mob chased after the cart, kicking up more dust and pebbles.
“Stop him!” someone called. Others raised their own shouts. Even the Abruqs in the little palace pools tipped their noses up and raised alarms. The guards rushed to assess the situation.
Silver caught a flash of glittering purple and silver in the back of the cart, combined with a desperate whimper that she was sure only she heard. A water dragon!
Theft runs rampant before big races. Nebekker’s words rang in Silver’s ears.
She imagined it was Hiyyan in the runaway cart and did the only thing she possibly could. She stepped into the middle of the road, directly in the cart’s path.
“Stop your cart,” Silver shouted, flinging up her hands.
“Whoa, girl! Move your hide,” the cart driver screamed, yanking on the reins.
Time seemed to slow as the cart hurtled toward Silver. People in the crowd screamed when they realized there was a girl standing in the middle of the road. A guard in white leaped over the palace railing.
Silver knew there was no way the driver could turn the herd animal fast enough to get around her, even if he wanted to. But the driver didn’t try; he lowered his head, snarled at Silver, and kept his course.
Still, she stood her ground.
Until the guard slammed into her side, throwing her out of harm’s way. Silver’s breath rushed out of her as she landed hard on her back. The shouts died down as the crowd ran past, and, slowly, the dust did, too.
“Silver!” Brajon fell to his knees beside her. “Are you okay, cousin?”
“She’s not,” the guard said. It was the same guard who she’d talked to a short time ago. “She’s out of her mind! What in the desert were you thinking, girl?”
“Thief,” Silver said, weakly sputtering with dirt in her mouth. “I couldn’t let him steal a water dragon.”
“Your life is worth less to that thief than the dragon,” the guard scolded.
Silver sat up and looked around. The cart had overturned, and the mob was descending on the driver.
“They stopped him!” she cried. “How?”
“This cousin of yours threw his bag at the herd animal,” the guard said. “Spooked it enough to send them all crashing.”
Silver threw her arms around Brajon and pulled back to give him an admiring look. “Good thinking.”
“Unlike yours,” he retorted. “You could have been killed!”
“I imagined what it would be like to”—Silver glanced at the guard and lowered her voice to a whisper—“lose mine, and knew I had to.”
The guard looked curiously from Silver to Brajon and back, but then a man from the crowd, dressed all in dark blue, pulled on his shoulder.
“Arrest that man!” His eyes blazed as he pointed to the cart driver. “He attempted to steal my master’s water dragon!”
“Try to stay out of trouble,” the guard said to Silver as he went to address the theft.
“Silver,” Brajon said, perfectly mimicking Rami Batal’s voice. “Is it possible for you to stay out of trouble?”
Silver giggled at her cousin.
“Come on,” Brajon said. “We don’t need any more attention on us.”
Silver wanted to stay and see what kind of water dragon would be released from the cart, but Brajon pulled her arm insistently and she let her cousin lead her away. Still, she looked back over her shoulder every few steps.
The sun was melting into the horizon, and the palace was going through a transition, day to night. Lights came on in the upper-floor windows. Lanterns throughout the garden were lit, though Silver never saw a person doing the lighting. The gold trim shimmered and sparkled, challenging the beauty of the stars. The striped tails of the Abruqs glistened where moonlight doused them.
Then an upper window was flung open, and there she was.
Queen Imea.
TWENTY-FOUR
Silver stopped and stared at the monarch. The queen didn’t look down but, instead, looked out over all of Calidia, like the vast desert beyond the city was drawing her gaze. Then, just as quickly as she appeared, she spun away from the window, her hair flinging over her shoulder.
Even from a distance, Silver could tell the queen was agitated. There was something about the sharpness of her movements. Another woman, draped with colorful fringed scarves, appeared, closing the windows, then she disappeared as well. The light went out in the room.
“Come on. Stop dawdling!” Brajon dragged Silver around a corner, and she lost sight of the palace. “I know I saw an inn back this way. Somewhere … Where was it?”
The streets that had been so easy to follow during the day were a maze after dark. They turned down one road, realized their mistake, and went back. Confusion dashed excitement away and tiredness took its place. They struggled to keep walking.
Silver’s fingers fluttered over Nebekker’s cool pendant. She worried about Hiyyan. She worried they were never going to find Arkilah. She worried that they had only one day to rescue Kirja. She couldn’t fail. Nebekker was depending on her.
At the thought of the old woman, a circle of warmth touched her chest. Silver pressed her hand hard over the pendant. Did that mean Kirja was near? Silver turned in a slow circle, but other than the little pools, there was no sign of anywhere an Aquinder could hide. The pendant went cold again.
Silver’s shoulders slumped. If they didn’t find an inn soon, they’d have to settle for sleeping in a doorway.
As she scanned the roads, she spotted a group of people, two men and a boy who looked about her age, dressed head to toe in fitted dark-blue clothes. She recognized one of the men from the crowd chasing the cart, the one who’d told the guard his master’s dragon had been stolen. The three entered a building.
“There! I see an inn!” she said. She and Brajon dashed across the road and followed the trio in.
When they entered, the room was full of people seated around tables, drinking from crystal goblets and talking over one another. The boy in dark blue turned around and gazed at Silver. She tried to defiantly hold his gaze, but when that became uncomfortable, she focused on a girl about her age, who was cleaning on the other side of the room. The girl looked them over carefully, then went back to her work.
Brajon stepped forward. “We’d like a room, please.”
The innkeeper pressed a palm to his nose. “We have nothing for filthy dock children like you. Get out!”
“But we can pay,” Silver said, reaching into her pack for the money.
The man dragged the cousins into the street. As the door was slamming shut, Silver heard the innkeeper’s voice go as sweet as rose syrup as he helped the group of three.
Silver frowned. “But we asked for a room first.”
“Yes, but they don’t look like they, well, crawled out of a cave,” Brajon said. “A doorway it is.”
“Hey!” A fierce whisper came their way from an upper window of the inn. The cleaning girl stuck her head out and waved down at them. She looked over her shoulder, then back at them. She pointed to the end of the road. “Meet me there.”
Silver started walking, but Brajon stayed behind.
“I don’t think we should trust her,” he said.
“We don’t have a choice,” Silver said.
“What if she tells the innkeeper we’re standing there so he can come out and give us a proper beating?” Brajon folded his arms across his chest. “I’ve never met such mean people as Calidians. I can’t wait to go home. Let’s find a place to safely wait out the night. We can find Arkilah at first light, grab Kirja, and get out of here.”