Page 55

Nero was leaning casually against a counter, arms crossed. He stiffened a fraction, as if waiting to see whether she would run, attack, or shout for help.

“By the Goddess,”Zara huffed, hesitantly lowering her weapons.“Don’t sneak up on me like that.”

He seemed to relax a little. “I can’t help it,” he said. “Night elves have quiet footsteps.”

“I ought to put a bell on you. What are you doing here?”

He looked around at the array of jars and bottles. “I guess I’m robbing you,” he said unapologetically. “Are you going to try to stop me?”

She was bemused by the challenge. “Do you think I could not?”

There was a pause. He did not look amused. Zara guessed he was remembering how it had ended the last time they’d fought.

She looked around at the ingredients that had been moved, and the ones that had been taken. Several bottles of wound sealer and poison antidote, and some of the components used in fever reducer.

“Is someone sick?”

He looked uncomfortable, and didn’t answer for a few moments. “Yes,” he admitted.

She sheathed her daggers. “You do not have to rob us. I will give you whatever you need. We do not have any fever reducer, but I can make you some right now. It is a simple mixture.”

He frowned as she began to move about the room to gather ingredients. “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why would you just give it to me? To the Varai?”

“It is not right for the sick to go untreated, no matter where they are from.”

“I can’t pay for it.”

“That is all right,” she assured him. “You know, in Kuda Varai, we share resources. Everyone gets what they need and no one goes without.”

He smirked. “That’s not how it is in Ardani. You have a lot to learn.”

“Maybe I do not want to learn. Maybe my way is better.”

“It’s not your way. It’s the Varai way.”

The statement was tiring, but she was too used to it to really be annoyed. “It is my way, also. I lived in Kuda Varai all my life. It belongs to me as much as it belongs to anyone else.”

He followed her around the room as she gathered items. She was very aware of his body behind her as he watched curiously over her shoulder, and she felt her face begin to heat slightly. She kept her eyes pointed down at the table.

“Everyone gets what they need?” he asked. “Even slaves?”

She glanced up at him. His face was hard to read, but something in his expression reassured her that he wasn’t judging her. “There were many bad things about being a member of the lowest class in Vondh Rav,” she said carefully. “But none of them were a result of being too poor to afford medicine.”

He didn’t ask more about it, for which she was grateful. She had never felt so much shame about her life in Kuda Varai until she’d arrived in Ardani. People here didn’t understand. Talking to people who had only known freedom their whole lives somehow made her feel foolish and pathetic for having lived the life she had.

“The ra’Hezirati man is the one who works here,” Nero said. Zara was surprised he knew. Apparently he had watched the village from afar.

“Yes. The innkeeper’s husband. He has been teaching me.”

“Would he approve of you giving us aid?”

“Probably not.” It was wrong to keep secrets from Tahir and Basira. But they wouldn’t miss a few small things, and it could be a great help to Nero and whoever else was under his care. She was sure Tahir would have done the same thing if he’d known the full context of the situation.

Her hands slowed as she thought of something concerning. “Would you have hurt him if he had come tonight instead of me?”