Chapter Two

G etaways were my specialty.

I wasn’t necessarily fast or agile, and I was too prone to fainting to run for long. But I knew the city like the back of my hand—only this time, I was being slowed down from dragging along an unfamiliar hand.

My new companion had no issue keeping up with me, but he was too tall to slip through most of my favorite hiding spots.

We weaseled through a couple of tents, slipped behind a wagon stacked with rice that was spilling out the sides, and finally paused behind the carpet weaver’s stand to catch our breath.

A massive purple rug hung between us and the main street of the bazaar, blocking us from the public’s view and casting the tight space in a purple-tinged glow.

The man’s hood couldn’t hide him when we were this close, but the tinted light made it hard to fully appreciate his dashing good looks.

Not that I didn’t still take a moment to appreciate them. . .

“Are you okay?” I asked with panting breaths. “All limbs still attached?”

“Why, y-yes,” he said, sounding even more winded than me. He lifted the bracelet in between our faces, nearly tapping the gold against my nose. “I’m guessing this isn’t yours, is it?”

“It is now.” I swiped the bracelet from his hand, sliding it onto my wrist with the other one instead of fussing with trying to find my pocket.

He blinked at me, and I merely shrugged with a mischievous curl of my lips.

“Thanks for grabbing it for me. It’s in good hands now.

I promise you I’ll get way more use out of it than a princess who has a hundred others just like it. ”

“You really stole it?” he asked, his brows furrowing. “And...and I just helped you...”

“You helped me, I saved you.” I shrugged. “We’re even now. The guards chase down too many thieves on a daily basis to care about a nameless, faceless one like you. If you sneak out behind the bread stand, you should be able to get out of the bazaar unnoticed.”

The man gave me a look that was somewhere between impressed and terrified. Both felt like a compliment, honestly. “Do you do this often?”

“Am I alive?” I asked. “Fed? Clothed? Not dying of thirst?”

“Um, yes.”

“Then it would be safe to assume that I do this often,” I said bluntly, creeping up on my toes to peer over the purple woven rug. “I don’t see any guards nearby, so if you don’t want to get caught then now would be the time to—”

“ There she is! There she is! ”

The man jumped, bumping into the rug and knocking a corner off of the hook it was hanging from. “They found us!” he shouted. If knocking loose our cover wasn’t enough, his scream was plenty loud enough to make everyone in the market wonder when rugs learned to talk.

“No, they didn’t!” I smacked a hand over his mouth and dragged him behind another stall. The shoppers definitely heard him, but maybe the guards were too far away to care. “It’s just Kipu!” I pointed up at the mouthy parrot circling overheard.

“Ki–what?” he mumbled into my palm. I released his mouth so he could look up at the bird. “It talks?”

“There she is!”

“Remarkable,” he said in awe. “Was that really the bird?”

“Nope!” I looked over at the pair of guards who had spotted us. Once again, I snatched him by the wrist, running back into the crowd to save this man’s life for the second time today .

I weaved through the crowds, ducked under stall counters, slipped through some alleys and shoved my new friend through others.

Every skill I’d ever acquired came into play as I navigated the city like I’d built it myself.

It took nearly an hour of slipping through every shadow the sun could craft before we found ourselves climbing onto the roof of the Oil Lamp Inn and catching our breath in the blazing sun.

“Here we are,” I said with heavy breaths, relieved to find that my body was cooperating today. “As long as you don’t scream again, we should be just fine.”

“S-sorry about that.” He pulled his hood from his head to wipe a layer of sweat from his brow. His tousled hair looked just as good in the back as it did in the front. “I didn’t realize the guards were so vicious.”

I played with the tail of my sweat-slickened, ebony braid, twisting my fingers around the strands as I focused on my breathing.

“You’re lucky you didn’t see what happens when you get caught,” I said with a shudder.

“Oh, have you ever been caught before?” he asked.

“Am I alive?” I tilted my head, a teasing smile playing on my lips. “Fed? Clothed? Not dying of thirst?”

“Uh, yes? ”

“Then it would be safe to assume that I have never been caught,” I said proudly, plopping down to take a seat on the edge of the roof. I kicked my feet into the open air, watching as the wind whipped some of the dust off my sandals. It felt so good to get off my feet after all the running.

“That’s rather impressive,” he said, sitting down to join me. “How do you avoid the guards when there are so many of them?”

I met his eyes, the golden sun causing them to sparkle with a look that I couldn’t determine whether it was trustworthy or tricky. He had been genuine enough to return a solid gold bangle he found on the ground. Most men in the city would have run off with it the second it was in their grasp.

“You learn their patterns when you run from them as long as I have,” I said as I continued twirling my fingers around the tail of my braid. “Or you find a friend you can trust.”

Or a dirty guard.

I thought back to Jean. I would have been dead years ago if he hadn’t taken pity on me when we first crossed paths. A smile brushed my lips as I reached for the bangles on my wrist, imagining all the meals I could buy with just those two small trinkets. I’d need to thank him later for all his help.

“I see. I’ll have to remember that the next time I’m making a grand escape.” The man laughed then leaned forward, allowing the dry air to whip the hair out of his eyes. “What do you plan to do with your prize now that you have it?” He motioned toward the bracelets. “Sell it? Keep it?”

“Gold isn’t really my color.” I looked down at my reflection in the polished bracelet, my vivid blue eyes contrasting my caramel skin and dark hair.

“I beg to differ,” he said with a soft note in his deep voice. “I think it looks beautiful on you.”

I snapped my gaze away from the bracelets, and my cheeks flushed enough that I started to worry if I was too close the roof’s edge. My heart raced slightly, and I worried my body was finally catching up with all my sprinting.

“B-beautiful?” I squeaked. “N-no...I’m not. I’m just, uh. Well, I’m not saying I’m ugly, either—”

“ Ugly! Kya! ” Kipu flew up the side of the building, his squawking filling the air and causing my entire body to feel flushed. “ Ugly! ”

The man started laughing, the sound warm and humiliating at the same time. “Blunt little creature, isn’t it?” He watched as Kipu landed on my shoulder, his thick claws pricking at my skin through my thin clothes.

I glared at Kipu, shifting my shoulder enough to make his grip more comfortable. “Blunt, loud, mildly obnoxious.”

“ Kya ugly ,” Kipu fired back.

“Hey!” I brushed him off my shoulder, and he fluttered to the edge of the roof with a clicking noise that always sounded like a chuckle. “Guess who I won’t be buying seeds for with bracelet money.”

“ Seed?” Kipu flapped his wings. “ Love Kya! Love Kya! ”

The man chuckled, and once again I felt myself drawn to the sound. Everything about him was so enchanting. His eyes, his smile, the little crinkle in his nose that was kind of shaped like a fig. I wasn’t the type to keep around friends who talked back. Well, at least not human friends.

“Now that Kipu has blurted out my name enough times for you to spell it with your eyes closed, would it be a proper time for me to ask yours?” I asked, leaning back on my palms where hot pieces of gravel dug into my skin.

“My name?” He ran a hand through his sweaty hair, the humidity trying desperately to terminate his attractiveness but ultimately failing. He tapped his chin for a thoughtful moment. “Adir. You can call me Adir. ”

An unusual name, but one that felt more familiar than it did foreign. I shifted back from the edge of the roof, brushing the bits of rock and gravel off my palms before holding out a hand for him to shake.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Adir.” I smiled. He took my hand, the touch warm and energizing. I prayed my palm wasn’t as sweaty as it felt. “Perhaps we can escape the guards again sometime. Though there’s no telling whether or not another foreign princess will ride through the streets.”

“At this rate, I’m almost certain there will be more.” Adir let our hands linger for a moment longer than I expected. A soft but strangely sad smile curled up his lips when he finally let me go. “It’s not as if the princesses they’ve been inviting have had much to offer the prince.”

“Oh?” I crossed my legs, shifting closer to him with a fascinated hum in my tone. “Have you met any of the princesses? Or been to the palace?”

He didn’t answer. His lips parted, but his tongue remaining tied before he bit back down like he’d said too much. He tugged the edge of his clean white cuffs, the precious silk drawing my eye as I noticed the embossed brass buttons on the ends.

Wait a moment...

“Adir! Do you work at the palace?” I clasped a hand to my mouth, the gold bangles jingling on my wrist. No one working in the city would ever own something so pristine.

“Palace? Palace?” Kipu started up again. “ Palace! ”

“Shh!” Adir hushed Kipu, pulling the hood back over his head as he scurried away from the edge of the roof.

“Yes, yes, I’m from the palace.” He looked around warily, double-checking the ladder we’d climbed to ensure no one was suddenly coming up.

“I’m not exactly supposed to be away from it right now… ”

A runaway servant?