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“Anywhere is better than this Godsforsaken city. The first town we come to, I will find work. We can save up enough coins to buy a horse. Then travel the roads south to the sea.” He squinted at the horizon.
Hessa followed his gaze, curious and thinking perhaps he knew the way to go better than she could guess. His fingers caught hold of hers to squeeze and offer comfort. She realized why. Ahead at the city gates were several guards, and these men did not look like they had been drinking the night away like the ones form the cells.
Gu
She fought the urge to turn and go back to her room. Freedom had never been this close. She knew the men ahead would not let them pass. Dread filled her. There was no escape, no way out. Life would go back to what it had always been-endless days of cleaning, working, lewd comments from drunk men that didn’t see her as anything of value. She looked back the way they had come, at the children’s building and the arena beyond. Then she remembered what that brothel woman had whispered in her mind. “They will not break me,” Hessa whispered, repeating that woman’s words. She curled her fingers into fists.
Gu
The light drizzle became heavier. Droplets of rain pattered down all around her on the hard-packed dirt road. She kept setting one leather clad foot before the other until she was but a few steps from the line of dangerous men that waited to stop her.
“Where are you going, woman?” one asked with a sneer.
The man next to the first fingered the handle of his blade with meaning.
“My master has sent me to hire someone.” It was a vague answer, and she doubted it would gain her passage.
The one with the dagger laughed under his breath. “Which someone?”
She looked past them, past the sprawling fields of jindi and the date palms that swayed in the gathering wind. She knew few people outside of Omi House, but there was one name that she had heard of-the most feared assassin in all of Bisura. “Lord Brenin Drake.”
The man who had sneered at first grew pale. “What business does your master need of Lord Drake?”
“You know what business I speak of.” She placed her hands on her hips and scowled at them. “Now, let me pass and be on my way.”
The dagger bearer took a step toward her. Two others reached for the hilts of their swords. Her nerves were begi
“You may pass,” one said. “Our worry is not over a woman.”
“That’s the one,” a guard said, his nonchalant nod pointing out Gu
She turned back, staring at Gu
The guards picked up their pace.
Gu
Hessa turned her back on him and did as he had told her to do. She ran from the place of her birth, the sordid, whore-ridden city of Bisura, and she sprinted through the fields toward a black tower jutting up from the ground far in the distance.
Chapter Six
She was too frightened to look back. Hessa raced through the jindi fields, flat leaves slapping at her legs and tugging at her skirt. All the while she ran, she heard Gu
“Hold there,” a woman’s voice said. Garbed in a shroud and hidden by the fabric but for her dark eyes through its netting, a yeinei servant came forward. “What business do you have here?” She sounded angry, and her hand strayed to a dagger at her belt.
“Please, help us,” Hessa begged. “My…man and I are journeying to the forestlands. But they want him for the pits.”
The yeinei bypassed Hessa and set her hand across her forehead to peer at the scene unfolding near the city gates. “My master is no longer of the trade.”
“What?”
The yeinei took a few more steps in the direction of the city, her attention set on the ensuing battle. “My master is no longer an assassin. He is not for hire, if that’s the kind of help you need.”
“We just want to leave the city.” Her voice sounded meek, insignificant. “We want our freedom.” Hessa stared in the direction of Bisura, but she had come too far to see anything of what had become of Gu
“You desire freedom,” the yeinei said under her breath. “It is a noble cause, but to bring down the wrath of the guilds on my master’s house is not something I want to face up to. He would not forgive me for that. Your pit fighter must stay where they have charged him.”
“Freedom is not a popular right in Bisura.” This time a man spoke. He came up behind Hessa, his footsteps soundless, his face half scarred, much like hers. The yeinei gave him a short bow.
“What is your name, dark one?” he asked.
“Hessa.” She glanced at the belt of blades about his waist, and was well aware of the richness of his clothes. This man had the look of danger in his eyes and a serious expression on his battle worn face. He stared hard at her, awaiting the rest of her name.
When she did not answer, he stepped forward and touched the ruined side of her face. “We look of the same ilk,” he said, for his cheek seemed to match hers with its scars. He pushed down the neckline of her dress to expose the brand that had been burned into her skin as a child. “Hessa Omi,” he said and nodded in understanding. “How did you manage to come this far from the holdings of your masters?”
She wrung her hands together, frowning. “My lover…and I…”
One of his eyebrows arched in question. A muscle in his cheek tensed. “Yes?”
“We…escaped.” She knew he would be well within his rights to tie her up and drag her back to the city. Omi House would likely reward him for doing so.
“Mm.” The man bypassed Hessa and the yeinei. He paced a moment, his thumb and forefinger pinching at his chin. After a time, he whistled through his teeth, a shrill noise that echoed in the charmed wind. A horse nickered somewhere in the distance before it galloped toward the estate. When the black animal reached him, he climbed atop its bare back and nodded at Hessa. “Come with me. We will settle this matter.”
She took a step back, afraid. He would take her back to Omi House now. Gu
“Come,” he said again, and held out his hand.
She shot a worried look at the servant, but the yeinei only spoke to her master. “My Lord, see how the winds have changed. I can smell the magic of the seas in the very air. The islander from the pits must be fighting again.”