Judd and Lu go look at a stall of weapons, while Digby hangs back with me. Slade gets a bit inundated with the public, but they keep a respectful distance while the guards watch over everything.
My eyes spring from one spot to another as I take in everything that’s being sold. Shawls and blankets, boots and buckles, jewelry and cloaks. So many of the shops cater to the fishermen as well, with fancy carved oars, perfected fishing nets, and poles that are as tall as the buildings. It’s a conglomerate of merchandise, too many things to track, too many voices to hear at once.
But I do hear one. One that seems to cut through the crowd, like a vocal arrow that’s nocked and aimed right for me, hitting its target with deadly accuracy.
“Do you see who that is? The gold one? You’ve heard of her! She’s the gilded pet—King Midas’s favored saddle. The one who stole his gold-touch and killed him because she was jealous.”
My gaze sweeps left, where I see the group of men huddled together against the wall of a stall selling battered fish tails. Brown eyes collide with mine, a middle-aged face peering at me beneath the floppy brown brim of his hat.
“Gilded Lady!”
I tear my eyes away from the men, finding a woman waving at me, gesturing to her cart where she’s selling bracelets. “I have perfect bracelets for you, Gilded Lady!”
With a smile, I wander over to her stall, but the men’s voices seem to follow me.
“Thought her being gold was just rumors,” a different man says, while I hear the telltale puff of a pipe.
“Nah, my cousin went to Highbell once. Said he saw her through a window at one of the public executions. That’s her, alright.”
“Whaddya think she’s doin’ here?”
The smiling stall owner pulls out bracelet after bracelet for me, but I don’t see any of them, too preoccupied with what the men are saying.
“Midas died, didn’t he?” the man counters. “Looks to me she’s got herself a new king already. Latched on from one to the other mighty fast.”
“Fucking women,” the other one says with a sardonic huff. “Always diggin’ their claws into the next best thing, ain’t that right? Hopping from one man to another. That’s all they do.”
“Yeah, I heard she slit his throat and then stole his magic. His gold-touch went rampant after that, gilded all of Ranhold, killed a hundred people inside, but she escaped.”
“That’s why I don’t trust saddles,” another one says, his raspy voice sounding one syllable away from a coughing fit. “If they’re paid to fuck, they won’t give a fuck.”
Several hocking laughs sound out.
I nearly jump when Slade’s hand comes to the small of my back. “Did you want something?”
Blinking, I focus on the bracelets set out in front of me, suddenly feeling guilty that the lady has probably been showing me things and talking to me, and I haven’t paid attention at all. “No,” I say, shaking my head. “They’re beautiful, but I don’t need any jewelry.”
“No one truly needs jewelry, my lady,” the woman says. “But it’s nice to have something pretty.” She holds out a simple band that has a black jewel in the center of it.
My fingers trail over the soft silver metal. “It is very pretty.”
“We’ll take it,” Slade says, passing the woman money. Her whole face brightens up.
“See that?” I hear the man say. “Got her claws into our king, didn’t she?”
“She must fuck like a goddess and squirt out gold cum.”
More jeering laughter. The raspy man finally ending it with a whooping cough.
My fingers fist at my sides, and gold starts to lather against my palms.
Behind me, Digby goes ramrod straight a split second before he lurches forward. I whirl around and catch his arm just in time, feeling the gold in my palm glob up and soak into his sleeve. “Don’t,” I tell him with a shake of my head.
“My lady—” he grits out.
“It’s fine.”
His face goes red, but at least the rest of his bruises have faded away. “It’s not.”
“What’s wrong?” Slade asks, coming up beside me with the wrapped up bracelet, his gaze bouncing between Digby and me.
I drop my hand, tuck it into my pocket. Though Slade’s eyes don’t miss the faint handprint on Digby’s shirt.
“Nothing’s wrong,” I say with a smile, though I think it’s shaky, because his gaze turns more intent, and he looks around us, as if searching for whatever might have upset me.
But one look over my shoulder, and I see that the men have scattered like rats from a sewer. The gold in my palm hardens like an angry stare.
“Actually,” I say, turning back around. “I think I’d like to head back to the castle now.”
“Really?” Slade asks.
I nod, and he watches me for another moment before he goes to speak to the others. I look back at Digby, noting his expression is pulled tight, brows shut in together with a crease. Brown eyes casting off disappointment like a drawn out shadow.
“Should’ve let me say something to them.”
His grumbled words almost unearth some of the soiled weight that’s been dumped on my chest.
“You can say something until you’re blue in the face, and it won’t do any good. People rarely change their opinions when they’re argued with. They only tend to listen to the voices of those they already agree with.”
“It isn’t right. What they’re saying about you.”
I look around, catching the eyes of more people, their willful stares making me itch like the searching scratch of wayward fingers.
“Or maybe it’s exactly right,” I say beneath my breath.
Digby’s eyes sharpen on me, but Slade comes back up before he can say anything else. “I think I’d like to sit in the carriage on the way back, if that’s alright,” I say.
Slade stops short, gaze diving into my own like he wants to swim past the surface and find what lurks beneath my deepest depths. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I say again, trying to perch that false smile on my face.
He looks over his shoulder at the others as they mount their horses. “You all go on ahead. We’ll catch up.”
Surprise flits through me, but I say nothing. Digby gives me a look before he follows Judd and Lu to the horses, while Slade leads me toward the carriage. I see the guards untether Honey, as well as Slade’s horse, attaching their reins to their own mounts.
All while more stares follow me, more voices chipping in.
“That’s the gilded pet. She killed Midas, you know. Caught him with another lover and stabbed him in a fit of jealousy.”
“You think that’s paint on her skin, or you think it’s really gold?”
“What do you reckon a lock of her hair is worth? Must be nice to walk around with wealth growing out of your scalp.”
“She’s nothin’ special. Take away the gold and what do you got? A jilted saddle who forgot her place.”
“What’s she doing here? Wasn’t one king enough for her? She’s gotta go and try and trap the eyes of ours too?”
“Hopefully, he’ll see through her gilded charms and rot her where she stands.”
“D’you think a golden girl can rot?”
I shut my eyes against the words, hoping that it’ll shut my ears as well. But still, they batter against me, like hail on a window, threatening to crack.
The driver of the carriage opens the door for us, and I settle inside first, sitting down on the plush green velvet seat. It’s bigger than the carriage I had to ride in while I was nothing more than a would-be captive in Fourth’s army, and it’s more elaborate too. Similar wood carvings are etched into the walls, geometric shapes drawing the eye to concentric diamonds and circles that overlap throughout the ceiling and walls.
When Slade gets inside after me, the door snaps shut behind him, and most of the light and even some of the noise is sealed out. The whole carriage jostles as the driver gets into his seat, and I hear the sharp click of his call as the horses begin to pull us forward.