“Do I know you?” he asked, in a hopeless tone.
Alora felt a sudden surge of discomfort, same as she did while in the presence of the Urchin’s victim. “No. But I’ve seen you before.”
“Oh,” said the man and sighed. “I do not remember ‘before’.”
“None of it?” She shifted her weight to her opposite foot, the pain ebbing and flowing like waves.
Suddenly his eyes were no longer empty but filled to the brim with unshed tears. “None of it. I don’t even know my name. I keep wandering, wondering, waiting for someone to recognize me, but so far no one has. Aside from you. I’m starting to believe I was never meant to be here.”
Alora’s heart clenched. “Perhaps you’re not from Enver.”
“How would I ever know?”
She’d no answer, other than loading him up in her cart and taking him from one town to the next herself. Though that would require a good deal of time she didn’t have, what with the deadline encroaching. Not to mention the impossibility of her ever returning to Eirian, the town that disowned her.
“What do you know of Opulence Mansion?” Alora glanced around as she said it, pitching her voice low.
“Nearly nothing,” he replied, not near so quiet as herself. “Only that it’s a place of great enchantment, and open to members rich enough or desperate enough to scrounge the coin. Or that is what I’ve heard.”
She didn’t know what to do. Clearly, the dart had contained something which stole his memories, and at a much larger scale than whatever the Urchins utilized. But no doctor could help him, and she’d heard several times now the constable was useless in this. It made her incredibly furious when she thought it through.
“I saw you once when you knew yourself. Your memories were stolen from you.” She reached out with the coin she had and imagined a bit more into her palm. “Hire a driver to take you to the nearby towns. I never met you properly, but you hadn’t looked like you traveled far; no horse or carriage brought you to the mansion’s gates. Maybe you’ll find someone who remembers. Worst case you find some honest work. I’m told Enver can be a difficult place to make your way.”
The man stared into his palm in confused wonder. When he said nothing at all, she thought maybe she’d overstepped. “Or you could stay. I know a baker looking for help.”
When he finally looked up, Alora was warmed. The man looked to be overfull of gratitude—a sight which made what happened next all the more shocking. His eyes rounded alongside his mouth, and he began backing slowly away. “Run,” he said. “Run!”
Alora heard several coins plink upon the stones as she whipped around best she could, her ankle sending a searing pain up her calf. She was met with darkness.
And not the sort that happens in the night.
“You,” she seethed, and lunged inside it.
***
She couldn’t see. Whether she blinked or not, the darkness was the same. And then she could, her ankle giving way beneath her, and her hands reaching out to grip the wall, everything lit by the pale light of the moon. She stood there, braced and heaving, angry and hurting. Had she imagined it?
No. That man saw it too.
A shadow played over the stones. A regular one, caused by clouds and moonlight, and yet her fingers drifted toward it anyway.
“Reaching for me?”
Alora cried out at the voice in her ear, at first in alarm and then in pain, as she spun once more on her injured foot. Her back met the wall in a jarring thud. One moment she saw a bottomless dark, and the next, a man. The Urchin towered above her.
His hand found her arm, steadying. A twisted sort of comfort. She wanted to toss him off but couldn’t afford the imbalance, which only angered her further.
“Donottouchme.”
The Urchin released her at once, but he didn’t step away. “You’re angry with me. That’s well enough. I’m angry with you too.”
“Pardon me?” she said, shocked over this more than anything come before.
“No, I will not. What is the one thing I asked of you, Miss Pennigrim?”
“Nothing. You’ve never onceaskedme anything at all!”
The Urchin hissed a breath. “Do not speak of what you’ve witnessed. That is what I needed from you, and now I overhear far worse than I could have imagined. You’ve also been present at a trespassing?”
