“North and then west,” he called.
“You three, follow me!” the girl said as she sprinted down the alley, leaving the man with the sword behind. Kol obeyed without hesitation.
The bird swooped low and slammed into a pair of women who were chasing Jyn, rusted knives in their hands.
“I like this bird,” Jyn said, and though her skin still shimmered with her dragon’s silvery sheen, her eyes were human again. “It has good taste.”
“I think the girl is controlling the bird. She has it trained to obey her movements or something,” Kol said as he raced with his friends toward the mouth of the alley where the girl was . . . skies above, she was yanking off her dress.
“Then the girl has good taste, and, hello there,” Trugg said with appreciation as the poufy green dress was dumped unceremoniously on the dusty cobblestones, leaving the girl in a pair of fitted dark brown pants, a white jerkin that left her pale arms bare, and a pair of boots.
A thick jug went sailing past Kol’s head and slammed into the ground, and the crowd behind them screamed for money, for food, as Kol snarled, “She just saved our lives. Stop looking at her like she’s next in the try-Trugg-on-for-size club.”
“I’m one size fits all,” Trugg said as they reached the mouth of the alley and tumbled into the street where the girl was already moving north.
“You’re a fool,” Jyn snapped.
The mob of villagers poured out of the alley in the Eldrians’ wake and came for them.
“We have to get out. Now.” The girl sprinted up the street and skidded around the corner of a squat little brick building. The boy appeared on the rooftops to their left and kept pace with them, leaping from building to building like a mountain lion.
“We’ll have to use the north gate,” he said. “It’ll be locked.”
“Meet us there,” the girl said. Her bird arrowed into the sky and flew in the opposite direction.
“Hey! We might need that bird,” Jyn called out.
“She needs to find Gabril and make sure he’s safe,” the girl said as she practically flew over the cobblestones. “There’s nothing more she can do for us.”
Kol sped up—the girl was fast—and came abreast of her as she whipped into another alley. “How far to the gate? And why is it locked?”
“Just past this alley. And it’s locked because when the gate watchers warned the village about your arrival, several of them ran to bar the gates shut from the outside. Makes it easier to rob you if you refuse to barter when you have nowhere to run,” she said as she reached the end of the alley and launched herself into the street.
“If the gate is locked, how—”
“She led us into a trap.” Jyn grabbed Kol’s shoulder as they rounded the alley’s corner and found themselves facing a brief cobblestoned walkway leading to a closed gate. The wooden beam used to bar the gate from the inside was still propped against the wall, which meant the girl was right—the villagers had locked the gate from the outside to trap the Eldrians.
“Watch your backs and wait for me.” Flexing her gloved hands, the girl took a deep breath and ran for the wall.
Kol’s jaw dropped as the girl seemed to run straight up the wall, kicking upward and out, lightly touching the wooden planks, and then flying upward again.
“Skies above, now that is a worthy human.” Trugg clapped his meaty hands once and glanced over his shoulder. “Trouble coming. Better hope that girl can open a gate as fast as she can climb a wall.”
“My sister can do anything.” The girl’s brother leaped from the roof of a building to Kol’s right, rolled forward as he hit the ground, and came up to his feet like jumping off a building was as easy as walking down the street.
The gate swung open, and the girl met Kol’s eyes. “Hurry up.”
He didn’t need to be told twice. The Eldrians raced through the open gate, followed by the girl’s brother, and then she shut and locked it behind them. In moments, she’d led them deep into the trees where the shouting from the village couldn’t make a dent against the forest’s hush.
As soon as she stopped moving and turned to face them, Kol dropped to one knee and touched his brow in the Eldrian gesture of fealty.
“Why are you bowing to me?” The girl took a step back and gave her brother a look Kol couldn’t decipher. “You don’t bow unless you’re before royalty.” A thread of worry wrapped around her words.
Kol slowly raised his head. “I’m not—this has nothing to do with royalty. You saved our lives. We owe you an incredible debt.”
The girl glanced at her brother again, who spread his arms in a grand gesture and said, “We humbly accept your fealty on behalf of the— Hey!”
The girl punched his shoulder and glared at him.
He frowned and rubbed at the bruise. “I was just—”
“About to say something you shouldn’t.” She gave him a look that must have meant something to the boy, because he dropped his eyes and kicked the ground with the toe of one boot. The girl met Kol’s gaze. “You don’t owe us anything. You should leave. Now.”