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It seemed Aislinn had been right. They expected us to be awkward.
“They want to be alone,” the guy with the mustache said. “Away from all the gazes...”
“Yes,” I replied. Aislinn remained silent. When I tried to glance at her from the corner of my eye, I saw that she looked utterly embarrassed. I could not be sure if it was pretense or if she genuinely felt embarrassed. But it did not matter. The men bought it.
“Get her some flowers, boy,” Alamte shouted from behind me as the gate opened. “Girls like flowers.”
“What an idiot,” Aislinn said when we had enough distance between us and the guards. The gates closed behind us.
“We want them to be idiots,” I replied.
“I know,” Aislinn said. “But it’s still annoying.”
“What now?” I asked.
“We will do as we said,” Aislinn replied. “We have a few hours before we need to be at the place. Until then, we will have dinner, stroll around, and make sure no one is following us.”
“If someone is following us,” I said. “Will they just give up because we are wandering around too much?”
“No,” Aislinn replied. “But there is no reason why anyone should follow us. If the queen suspected anything of you or me, she would not let us roam free. I just don’t want to head out straight to the resistance. The location is a secret.”
“You said we would be going to a store,” I said. “How is that a secret location?”
“If we were to go to a dark cave outside of the city, there would be no explanation for that venture,” Aislinn replied as we kept walking. “If they see us going into a store, they’ll think we are there to do some shopping. The location is temporary, but we still don’t want anyone to know about it. Thus we chose ordinary spots, mostly.”
“I take that means some of the spots are not so ordinary,” I said.
Aislinn smiled. “Certainly not...”
“All right,” I said. “Lead the way.”
The days were getting warmer quickly, but the ground was still wet with mud in most streets. Aislinn did not seem to mind getting her shoes dirty though, she chose our path based solely on where she wanted to go and always took the quickest route. I followed without raising any objections, I was quite excited about my first introduction to the resistance and appreciated her confidence in me.
“You know your way around the city, don’t you?” I asked her as she took us to a busy part of the city, using alleys and roads that I had never used before. The street was lined with stores that sold almost everything.
“I do,” Aislinn said. “I lived here all my life.”
“I did too,” I replied. “But my mother didn’t let me go far from home.”
“My mom loved it when I was out of the house,” Aislinn said. “She didn’t like it when I was near my grandparents. She thought they would teach me to hate.”
“Did they try?” I asked.
Aislinn’s expression stiffened as she nodded.
“Where is your mother now?” I asked.
“She died,” Aislinn replied.
I knew I should have at least tried to say something to console her about her mother’s death, but I could not. Aislinn offered me a sad smile and gestured for me to keep walking.
For a while, neither of us said anything. We checked the stores and strolled around the main street for a while before Aislinn suggested we enter an inn. I agreed, mainly because my stomach was already rumbling from hunger.
The inn was full of fae. At once, I knew most of the patrons were members of the nobility. They were all dressed properly, and the inn did not feel cramped or dirty at all. The chairs and tables were lined neatly, separate from each other to give everyone privacy. The smell of delicious food and even the minstrel’s tunes supported that first impression.
“Why did you choose this place?” I asked Aislinn as she led us through chairs and tables to reach a table at the back of the room. “There are a lot of nobles around.”
She didn’t respond until we were seated. Then, she leaned over the table, catching my eyes.
