Out of the Way

Wyrm’s Crossing was loud enough to swallow a warning.

Wheels hammered the bridge planks. Hawkers called beneath patched awnings, and the wind carried fish, tar, and frying grease through the press of bodies. Rishi turned sideways to let a porter’s basket pass, then drew the others into the narrow space beside a shuttered doorway.

They had reached the market lane before the appointed time. Elisa kept the folded letter beneath her cloak, one hand pressed over it.

Rishi looked along the lane. Here they could approach the stranger without bringing him among the Hall’s beds. There were other people to see what happened, and room to leave with the traffic if they had to. He had liked that last part better before seeing how little room the traffic left anyone.

“I’ll go ahead. Stay with Kargun until I signal.”

Elisa nodded. When she had shown Kargun the letter, he had only asked when they were leaving.

Now he stood beside her, keeping his hands free and watching the people passing close to Elisa.

Maeril braced her staff beside the door and closed her good eye. Her hawk circled above the awnings. Rishi waited while the bird banked once, then settled on a beam farther along the market.

She opened her eye. “Beyond the red awning. Dark cloak, beside the empty crates. His face fits.”

“Anyone watching him?” Rishi asked.

“No one I can pick out. I’ll keep looking.”

Rishi pulled his hood forward and stepped into the flow. Behind him, Maeril remained with Elisa and Kargun, her staff planted between her feet.

The man waited with the stacked crates at his back and a gap between the stalls to his left. He could see both approaches along the lane. A broad strap held a large leather saddlebag against his hip. His cloak was neither fine nor ragged; his hood left only his mouth and chin plainly visible. His eyes moved beneath it, following hands and the spaces opening between bodies.

Rishi walked close enough to see beneath the hood. Bronze-brown skin, ember-auburn hair, yellow eyes. The description Elisa had given him was right. So was the lean build. A shift of the cloak showed blackened leather, dulled brass fastenings, and a row of narrow tools held flat against his ribs.

As Rishi drew level, the man stepped aside for a porter. The small turn kept Rishi in view and brought the saddlebag out of easy reach. His gaze touched the red cords at Rishi’s wrists, then rose to his face. One corner of his mouth lifted.

Rishi kept walking.

No one left a stall to follow him. No hand went to a weapon. He stopped a few paces beyond the crates and looked back toward the shuttered doorway. Kargun was watching him over the passing heads.

Rishi lifted two fingers. Elisa came forward between Kargun and Maeril.

The man saw her before she reached the red awning. His gaze stopped moving. He pushed back his hood and stepped away from the crates, leaving the sheltered position behind him.

“Elisa.”

The word barely reached Rishi through the market noise. The man lifted a hand toward her, then stopped in the lane with it still open. Faint lines crossed his face like heat sleeping beneath ash. He had stopped watching Rishi.

Elisa halted two paces from him. Her hand came out from beneath her cloak and stayed there, half raised.

“Wait.”

He went still. Kargun stopped at her shoulder; Maeril moved to the other side. Rishi stepped closer, keeping both the man’s hands in view.

Elisa looked from his eyes to his mouth, then back again.

“They told me you were dead.”

“I know.”

His hand moved toward her again. She drew back, and he let it fall.

“No.” Her voice sharpened. “I need to know who I’m looking at.”

The man opened his mouth, then closed it. Elisa’s hand was still raised between them. He looked down at it before touching the strap across his chest.

“There’s someone else you should see.”

Kargun shifted his weight. Rishi held out a hand, low between them. “Slowly.”

The man nodded and brought the saddlebag around where Rishi could see it. He unfastened the buckle without looking down, his eyes still on Elisa. Then he lifted the flap and reached inside with both hands.

He drew out a skull of pearlescent metal.

Fine gold scrollwork followed the seams of its rounded casing. Gold petals gleamed at the centers of its milky eyes. For a moment it rested between his palms. Then it rose free of them and turned toward Elisa. Through a rose-tinted window at its temple, Rishi glimpsed the pinned cylinder and silver comb of a music box.

“Chime?” Elisa asked.

The mimir drifted closer. “Oh, there you are. I have missed your voice.”

The words carried a soft, clear resonance. Rishi could hear each one through the noise, as he might have heard a few notes played beside him. Elisa’s hand rose to the curve of the skull. Chime tipped gently against her palm.

She laughed once, a small broken sound, and looked past them at the man with the open bag.

“Both of you.”

He nodded. His hands were still held out beneath the place where Chime had been.

Elisa caught Firemind by the front of his cloak and pulled him into her arms. He stumbled half a step, then held her. The bag swung against his leg. His face disappeared into her hair, and Rishi saw his fingers close hard in the cloth at her back.

A basket knocked against Rishi’s elbow. He moved aside to let its owner through. The woman said something he lost beneath a hawker’s call and squeezed past Kargun with a sharp look.

“I’m sorry,” Firemind said.

She shook her head against him. When he tried to speak again, she held him tighter. Rishi lowered his hand. Whatever needed saying could wait until she could draw breath for an answer.

Chime hovered near Elisa’s shoulder. Kargun looked from the floating mimir to Elisa’s face. His shoulders eased, though he stayed at her side.

Maeril’s grip had loosened on her staff, and her good eye followed Chime as they turned toward her. Rishi knew the look. If she had been holding a book, she would already have opened it.

She leaned forward a little. “Did he make you?”

“No. He is family. Chime knows when he needs a song, even when he asks for silence.”

Maeril’s smile spread.

“Oh, I have so many questions.”

“May I ask some too?”

She opened her mouth to answer. Someone behind Kargun demanded room. He turned sideways, but a handcart had stopped close behind him, its wheel caught against the edge of a stall. Two porters were trying to get past it. One looked up at Chime, then at Firemind’s uncovered face.

Rishi’s attention snapped back to the lane.

People were looking from both directions now. A man pointed toward them. Firemind lifted his head from Elisa’s shoulder and followed the gesture; his hand closed around the saddlebag’s open flap. Elisa wiped her cheek and glanced behind Kargun. Maeril drew her staff closer.

Rishi had been watching for someone who knew Firemind. Now he tried to count how many faces had turned.

The man pointing at them raised his voice.

“Get out of the way!”

Rishi stared at him.

The man stood between the handles of the handcart. Sacks bulged above its sides; sweat ran down his temple.

“All of you. Hug somewhere else.”

A woman behind him called that she had already asked twice. One of the porters shoved through the gap beside Rishi, his load brushing Rishi’s hood back.

“Sorry.” Rishi moved aside.

Kargun caught the cart’s side before its wheel could strike Elisa’s ankle, eased it away from the stall, then pointed toward a gap beyond the red awning.

“This way. Keep walking.”

Elisa loosened her arms. They turned toward the gap, but Firemind’s heel caught hers; they stopped and apologized at the same time.

“Today,” the cartman said.

Elisa let out a wet, startled laugh. She caught Firemind’s hand and followed Kargun through the gap.

Chime rose above the cart. Maeril started after them with her face still turned upward. Rishi touched her elbow before she walked into one of the sacks.

“Later.”

“I had barely begun.”

“I know.”

She looked at the cart, then at the line of people behind it, and stepped neatly aside.

Kargun led them beyond the cramped stalls. The cart rattled past with a final complaint, and people filled the space they had left. Rishi let his breath out. Beside him, Maeril raised her wrist; the hawk dropped from its beam to settle there.

Elisa let go of Firemind’s hand. He buckled the saddlebag, then glanced back toward the market. Tears had left tracks on his face.

“Come to the Hall,” Elisa said.

Firemind nodded. Chime descended beside her shoulder, and she lifted a hand to touch them once more.

Rishi turned toward the city with Maeril beside him. Elisa followed with Firemind, Chime drifting between them. Kargun fell in behind.