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He obeyed, turning to face her, his hands held out to show they were empty. In the fading light, she could clearly make out the bewilderment on his face. “What’s wrong?” he said quietly. “Why are you angry at me?”
She held the knife so close to his body he would have to realize she could gouge out his heart with a few quick strokes. “I want you to tell me,” she said in a low, angry voice, “why a lonely old man like you would be giving presents to a little girl who’s all by herself in the world. The only reasons I can think of make me want to run you right through and kick your body into the canyon.”
His face instantly showed comprehension and dismay—but not, she thought, guilt or shame. “I swear on my life I mean no harm to Aussen. I am trying to protect her.”
She pressed the tip of her knife against his chest just until she could feel the hard resistance of bone beneath his clothing. “That’s not an explanation.”
He nodded. “No. But what I tell you, you’re going to have to take on faith.”
“I don’t take anything on faith.”
He surprised her by suddenly bringing both his hands on either side of hers—not trying to knock the dagger away, but almost as if begging her tolistento him as he made a plea. “Jayla. You saw what she did last night. She scooped up a handful of dirt and she turned it into a diamond of light. You saw that.”
She jerked her hand away from his, and when he dropped his arms, she aimed the dagger back at his ribcage, but this time she didn’t touch him. “I did. So?”
“So that’s an ability very few individuals in Corcannon possess. And there are people in the city who would pay any amount of money to get their hands on someone with that talent. They would kidnap. They would kill. Jayla, if these people knew that Aussen existed, they would stop at nothing to get her in their power. Nothing. Do you understand me? Do you believe me?”
She didn’t understand him, but she believed him. His passion was entirely convincing. “Who are these people? And why would they want Aussen? What would they do with her?”
“I can’t tell you. I can’t explain. I’m just telling you it would be dire. You have to keep Aussen away from them at all costs.”
“Me? But I’m not her keeper.”
Pietro stepped closer and took her hands again, heedless of her knife. “You have to assume that role,” he said urgently. “Those Maratan women—they can’t protect her. You can.”
She wrenched away. “I don’t even have a place formyselfin the city. I can’t be responsible for a child.”
“Then she’ll die,” he said flatly.
“Why don’tyouwatch out for her if it’s so important?” she demanded, conveniently overlooking the fact that her entire impulse had been to keep Aussenawayfrom Pietro.
He was shaking his head. “Not me. I am the last man she should be entrusted to. You need to lose yourself in the city, and take Aussen with you, and don’t give me a clue where you might be found. If you see me on the streets, you should hide from me. If I come across you somewhere and try to say hello, you should run away. And you should never. Never.Never.Tell me where Aussen could be found.”
She was beyond baffled. “I don’t understand! First you say you want to keep her safe, and now you say you can’t be trusted?”
His voice was low, almost hopeless. “I know these people, Jayla, these people who would harm her. They have been—in the past I believed in them with all my heart. I don’t like to think it’s true, but could they convince me that it would be right for them to take her? I don’t trust myself. I trustyou.”
“You don’t even know me. You can’t trust anyone on a few days’ acquaintance.”
His laugh was hollow. “And sometimes you can’t trust them after a lifetime of intimacy. So I will just say I trust you more than I trust myself. Right now, you’re the only person I can think of who can keep Aussen safe.”
She ground her free hand into her forehead as if the pressure could help her think. She couldn’t possibly take Aussen with her as she tried to build a new life in Corcannon. Her hope was to hire on with the city soldiers or a merchant’s private guard. What would she do with a child?
She couldn’t possibly abandon the girl to mysterious and nefarious forces. If what Pietro said was true. If he wasn’t a complete lunatic.
“What did you give her?” she asked. “I saw you, this afternoon. You handed her a pendant or something. Why?”
He nodded. “Yes. A charm made of a particular type of stone. She’s safe as long as she wears it, because it will interfere with her ability to call her power. But she can’t take it off, do you understand? Its inhibitory properties will protect her.”
Jayla rubbed her forehead and squeezed her eyes shut. Pietro was straying farther and farther into the realm of madness. Or farther and farther into the province of evil. For all she knew, this magical medallion was, in fact, a tracking device that would actually tell Pietro and any of his maniacal friends exactly where Aussen was at all times. Not an amulet at all—a beacon.
“Where did you get this special stone?” she asked faintly, opening her eyes again so she could level an accusing stare in his direction. She could barely see his face in the gathering dark, but she hoped he could see the scowl on hers. “And why did you have it to begin with?”
“I have been wearing it for the past ten years as a sort of penance,” he said. “I don’t possess this particular ability, so it does nothing for me except remind me how dismally I failed when I could have done so much better.”
She dropped her hand and sighed. “You have to stop talking in riddles like that,” she said. “Just tell me the things I have to know. Does Aussen understand that she’s supposed to wear the pendant at all times? I thought she couldn’t speak Cordish.”
“I have a few words of Zessin. I think she understood. At any rate, she let me put it on her, and she nodded when I told her she couldn’t take it off. When I told her it would keep her safe.” His voice roughened with urgency again. “But it can’t truly keep her safe. Nothing can, except maybe you.”
