Page 22 of The Darkening (The Darkening)

The grandmother sets down her yarn and fixes her eyes on me. “You look like your momma, girl.”

“Ah.” The man grins, stroking his stubble. “But there’s Alcanar in the way she stands.”

I’d expected him to point out my eyes. I’ve never noticed I stand like Pa. “You know my parents?”

All but the gorgeous woman laugh. “Where d’you think you are?”

From all appearances, a bizarre knitting circle. “I didn’t get a good look. Being kidnapped and all.”

“Sorry about that,” the green-eyed woman says. “You were going about calling all sorts of attention to yourself.”

I cross my arms. “I need information.”

A boy my age flits past, depositing a plate of stuffed flatbread and five dented cups on the table. My stomach growls.

“Sit. What’s your name, child?”

A stool appears, and I perch on its edge. The plate of flatbread slides toward me, steaming hot and smelling of spices.

“What’re yours?” I ask.

“I remember,” the grandmotherly one says, with a twinkle in her eye. “Vesper, right?”

The grizzled man with the ikontooth snaps his fingers. “That’s it.”

The green-eyed woman smiles. “Well, then, Vesper, eat up.”

I ignore the food and my stomach. “I still need that information.”

“Then ask.”

All my questions tumble from my lips at once. “Do you know what happened? How did they know about my father? Where did they take him? Why did they burn Amma’s?”

A gruff laugh. “We don’t dabble inwhyshere.”

The one with the shaved head answers, a little blurrily. “The p-prince started looking for your father a year ago.”

Just a year ago? The rebellion was more than a decade ago. “Why now?”

“Ah.” Green Eyes raises a finger. “That’s the question, isn’t it?”

“We know th-they took Vale to the th-third.”

That’s where I have to go, then.

“Oh,” Ikontooth says. “But the prince knows all the secret passageways under the city. Alcanar could be anywhere.”

“Secret passageways?” I ask.

“I heard the prince used to sleep down there, in the ruins of the old city.”

“Everyone’s heard th-that.”

“I heard it was his grandpappy who locked him down there, when he was just a wee boy.”

Green Eyes butts in. “I don’t think she cares about the prince’s woes, do ya, girl?”

I shake my head. I couldn’t care less about his so-called hardships. But everything comes back to Prince Dalca. “What happened at Amma’s?”