“Mas aven,” she whispered. And then she looked up. “Forgive me for asking, but I trust no one will come looking for these?” There was surprisingly little judgment in the question. Lila smiled.
“If you know of Alucard Emery, then you know he sails a royal ship. These were confiscated from a vessel on our waters. They were mine, and now they are yours.”
Calla’s short fingers trailed over the trinkets. And then she closed the lid, and tucked the box away. “They are too much,” she said. “You will have a credit.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” said Lila. “Because I’ve come to ask a favor.”
“It’s not a favor if you’ve purchased and paid. What can I do?”
Lila reached into her coat and pulled out the black mask Calla had given her months before, the one that had solidified her nickname of Sarows. It was worn by salt air and months of use; cracks traced across the black leather, the horns had lost some of their upward thrust, and the cords that fastened it were in danger of breaking.
“What on earth have you been doing with this?” chided Calla, her lips pursing with something like motherly disapproval.
“Will you mend it?”
Calla shook her head. “Better to start fresh,” she said, setting the mask aside.
“No,” insisted Lila, reaching for it. “I’m fond of this one. Surely you can reinforce it.”
“For what?” asked Calla archly. “Battle?”
Lila chewed her lip, and the merchant seemed to read the answer. “Tac, Lila, there is eccentricity, and there is madness. You cannot mean to compete in the Essen Tasch.”
“What?” teased Lila. “Is it unladylike?”
Calla sighed. “Lila, when we first met, I gave you your pick of all my wares, and you chose a devil’s mask and a man’s coat. This has nothing to do with what is proper, it’s only that it’s dangerous. Anesh, so are you.” She said it as though it were a compliment, albeit a grudging one. “But you are not on the roster.”
“Don’t worry about that,” said Lila with a smirk.
Calla started to protest, and then stopped herself and shook her head. “No, I do not want to know.” She stared down at the devil’s mask. “I should not help you with this.”
“You don’t have to,” said Lila. “I could find someone else.”
“You could,” said Calla, “but they wouldn’t be as good.”
“Nowhere near as good,” insisted Lila.
Calla sighed. “Stas reskon,” she murmured. It was a phrase Lila had heard before. Chasing danger.
Lila smiled, thinking of Barron. “A friend once told me that if there was trouble to be found, I’d find it.”
“We would be friends, then, your friend and I.”
“I think you would,” said Lila, her smile faltering. “But he is gone.”
Calla set the mask aside. “Come back in two days. I will see what I can do.”
“Rensa tav, Calla.”
“Do not thank me yet, strange girl.”
Lila turned to go, but hesitated when she reached the curtain. “I have only just returned,” she said carefully, “so I’ve not had time to ask after the princes.” She glanced back. “How are they?”
“Surely you can go and see for yourself.”
“I can’t,” said Lila. “That is, I shouldn’t. Kell and I, what we had … it was a temporary arrangement.”
The woman gave her a look that said she didn’t believe that, not as far as she could throw it. Lila assumed that was the end of things, so she turned again, but Calla said, “He came to me, after you were gone. Master Kell.”
Lila’s eyes widened. “What for?”
“To pay the debt for your clothes.”
Her mood darkened. “I can pay my own debts,” she snapped, “and Kell knows it.”
Calla smiled. “That is what I told him. And he went away. But a week later, he came back, and made the same offer. He comes every week.”
“Bastard,” mumbled Lila, but the merchant shook her head.
“Don’t you see?” said Calla. “He wasn’t coming to pay your debt. He was coming to see if you’d returned to pay it yourself.” Lila felt her face go hot. “I do not know why you two are circling each other like stars. It is not my cosmic dance. But I do know that you come asking after one another, when only a few strides and a handful of stairs divide you.”
“It’s complicated,” said Lila.
“As esta narash,” she murmured to herself, and Lila now knew enough to know what she said. All things are.
VII
Kell strolled the Night Market for the first time in weeks.
He’d taken to avoiding such public appearances, his moments of defiance too rare compared to those of self-consciousness. Let them think what they want was a thought that visited him with far less frequency and force than They see you as a monster.
But he was in need of air and Rhy, for once in his life, was too busy to entertain him. Which was fine. In the growing madness of the approaching games, Kell simply wanted to move, to wander, and so he found himself strolling through the market under the heavy cover of the crowds. The influx of strangers in the city afforded him shelter. There were so many foreigners here for the locals to look at, they were far less likely to notice him. Especially as Kell had taken Rhy’s advice and traded his stark black high coat for a dusty blue one more in fashion, and pulled a winter hood up over his reddish hair.