“Remember to tell Dyter you won’t be in for the next two or three weeks!” she yelled after me.
Smiling, I bounced down the street toward Arlette’s house to deliver the soap she’d ordered. I was disappointed to find Arnik already gone to the vineyard for the day when I dropped off the basket, but his absence couldn’t put much of a dampener on my day for two reasons. First, I was a Drae survivor. And second, we weren’t leaving Zone Seven until morning, which meant I’d be seeing a rebel leader tonight. He probably had a scar on his cheek—and muscles.
I lifted a hand to my eyes as I scanned the sky for the Drae. Nowhere to be seen.
Facing toward the king’s castle in the distance, I darted through the hodgepodge peasant housing of the Penny Wheel on my way to the House of Tal. I went through the Inbetween, and soon the grand stone houses of the Money Coil were ahead of me. I slowed when I reached the Tals’ house—the largest of them all. I left the second basket at their door after pounding on the heavy entrance for a full minute.
The barren garden from last night stretched before me, the grand fountain at its center.
This time, with no winged foe above me, I stopped at the fountain that had been dry my entire life. Pausing here was habitual because a tiny welded flower was inlaid in the side of the concrete fountain—the sole bit of beauty in the otherwise functional and practical space. I don’t know how it caught my eye as a toddler, but Mum said I’d pester her from dawn up to dusk about visiting the flower. After checking soldiers weren’t around, she would lift me up to trace the petals of the flower and its curving stalk. For years she’d lifted me, until one day I could stand on my tiptoes and touch it myself. Now, whenever I passed this place, I continued the tradition, stroking the welded flower with fondness.
Leaving the Money Coil and my welded flower, I wiped perspiration from my hairline and began retracing my steps to reach the shelter of The Crane’s Nest on the other side of the Inbetween. Mistress Moons, the sun’s rays burned with muggy heat this morning.
At this time of day, the laneways were about the busiest they ever got, and I smiled and nodded at nearly everyone. I’d known them my whole life—seemed rude not to say howdy. Hyrriet from House Hy glared at me, and I pretended not to see her pristine ankle-length skirt and perfectly ironed aketon which she’d drawn in at the middle with a wide leather belt. Hers had been the last potato bush I’d killed. I swear I’d done everything right, but two days later, Mum told me they’d found it shriveled up.
I dodged through the crowd and knocked at the back door of Dyter’s, tapping my foot as I waited.
“You’re being followed, girl.”
I yelped and spun to see a man shift in the shadows two paces from where I stood. He stayed crouched behind the cover of the stacked crates outside Dyter’s back door. The stranger poked his head up, and I caught a glance of the speaker from underneath a wide-brimmed garden hat pulled low over his eyes. The young man I’d seen last night; I’d recognize his twenty-somethingness anywhere.
He hunched back over, disappearing behind the potato crates, and said, “Two men are following you. They’ve been on your tail since you left the Wheel.” When I did nothing more than stare at him, he snapped, “Turn around and act like you’re waiting for the door.”
Numbly, I turned to face the door again. I didn’t dare glance over my shoulder to the mouth of the alley to check if this man told the truth. He didn’t seem the kind to make stuff up.
“This place has become interesting to the wrong people,” he said. “You’re not the only one with a tail today. Lord Irrik followed you and several others last night and ordered soldiers to follow you all and report back.”
His concerns reinforced the uneasiness I felt in my gut at Lord Irrik’s presence. The Drae was here to catch rebels, and so were the king’s guard.
“How do you know all this?”
He spoke over me. “Tell Dyter the meeting needs to be moved to another location at a later date. He’ll know who needs to be there and how to make it happen. Warn him.”
Two men were following me, and the fear pulsing through me became my entire world. The seriousness of what that meant hit me with a force that made my knees weak. If I wasn’t on the king’s personal radar, I was on the radar of his personal Drae. Which could be worse. Unable to remain quiet any longer, I asked, “Are they watching me?”
“They’re hanging back around the corner.”
“What do I do?” I didn’t know this man, but he was the only adult around, and I needed help.
He paused for a moment. “I wouldn’t worry too much. They’ve set tails on suspected rebel members in the other Harvest Zones, and nothing came of it. Don’t do anything suspicious until the soldiers leave the area. Blend in as if your life depends on it because it probably does. Could you leave for a while, maybe go to a different zone?”
For the first time, I wondered if Mum’s sudden gardening trip wasn’t all that sudden. “They won’t hurt my mother, will they?” I asked, trying not to move my lips. To the men watching me, it probably looked as if I was staring at the door. “I need to warn her.”
The man shifted back down the alley. “Stick to your usual routine. Unless,” he paused, “your mother has something to hide?”
I snorted, gaining back a bit of my lost confidence. The certainty of my mother set the world all right. “My mother? Not a chance.”
I pounded on the back door again, but no one answered, and I figured The Crane’s Nest was busy enough that no one was in the kitchen. After all, that was where I was supposed to be. Too scared to go back the way I’d come, I went all the way to the other end of the alley and circled around to the front of The Crane’s Nest to go through the public entrance. I was officially spooked.
Relief washed over me as I stepped into the familiar setting, but the feeling lasted less than a second. The tavern was empty with the exception of Dyter and two men I recognized as members of the rebellion that weren’t from around here. One of the men mumbled something to Dyter before the two rebels disappeared into the kitchen.
Dyter rounded the bar with a terrifying frown. “You can’t be here today, my girl.”
“A man in the alley told me you should move the meeting,” I blurted. “I’ve got two men following me and Mum made potato pancakes and we’re leaving, but the man said to tell you.”
He dragged me to a tall stool by the bar and sat me down. “Calm yourself, Ryn.” Then he yelled toward the kitchen, “Don’t go out the back. She’s being followed.” He took a deep breath and faced me. “Now, what is this? What man in the alley?”
“The blond man that was here last night. The one in his twenties.”
A spark entered Dyter’s gaze, and he said, “I see.”
I stared at him. “That’s it?”
He circled around the back of the bar, absently rubbing the stump on his left wrist. “You have two tails?”