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She felt like her legs had become as heavy and unmovable as the stone beneath her boots; she would never be able to lift her feet again. She stared at him, wondering what he might be hiding behind his amiable face. “Why?”
“Because I always like to keep track of people.”
“Did he ask about me? Or Aussen?”
“Asked if I knew where you had landed, and I said yes. He didn’t ask where you were—and I wouldn’t have told him anyway. I told you I wouldn’t.”
Indeed, he had agreed to keep that secret weeks ago as the whole group of stranded travelers finally entered the city via the alternate bridge. She hadn’t told Cody why he needed to conceal Aussen’s whereabouts, and he hadn’t inquired. But hehadpromised.
Still, people broke promises all the time. She kept her troubled gaze on his face. “Maybeyou’rethe one I shouldn’t trust,” she said.
His own gaze was steady in return, his face unusually sober. “What have I done to make you say that?”
“Whydo you like to keep track of everyone?”
He spread his fingers wide and touched them to either side of his head. “It’s how I think,” he said. “It’s like my mind is one big map, and I have to know where to put people and things. Every time I go to a new building, every time I meet a new person, I fill in the map some more. I might have only met a man once when I delivered a message to him ten years ago, but if you say his name, the map comes up in my head and I remember where I saw him. And I can take you right there. That’s just how I see the world.”
“Maybe,” she said doubtfully. “But Pietro?”
“You don’t trust him,” Cody said. “Isn’t that a good enough reason to know where he is? So we can find him if we need to?”
“That’s not why you went looking for him,” she challenged.
He grinned. “No. I like him. He’s interesting. But I’m not going to tell him anything about you.”
“Then why—” She shook her head. “I don’t understand you.”
He spread his hands in a helpless gesture. “If you don’t want me to come to the temple with you, I won’t. I think I should make sure you get safely back to the Alayne house, but after that—you don’t have to see me again if you don’t want to. Just tell me to go away.”
She had been about to say just that.You may as well leave right now, and don’t bother getting in touch with me again.But the minute he made the offer, she changed her mind. “No, I want you with me,” she said. “It’s just that you don’t make sense to me.”
His grin was back. “Then I guess you need to spend more time with me until you figure me out.”
She snorted, but she almost smiled. Her feet had transmogrified back into flesh, so she was able to resume striding along the street. “The shopkeeper said we should take the next turning—here. And look, I can see a building that must be the temple. There’s a little statue out front, anyway.”
A few moments later, they were inside. They had entered a small, round space, dimly lit by a few pillar candles placed on low tables. Jayla looked around swiftly, taking in impressions. The walls were covered with a series of fabric wall hangings featuring a handful of people in deliberate tableaux. Each scene included a depiction of the same woman—small and graceful, with emerald eyes and ginger hair. In one image she carried a spear; in another, a basket of bread; in another, an armful of long-stemmed purple flowers. The borders of each hanging were worked with repeating motifs of fish, stylized ocean waves, and twelve-pointed stars.
There was a plain fountain in the middle of the room, nothing more than a stone basin and a simple spray of water. Three curved wooden benches were placed around the fountain, forming a circle with three wide gaps. Two women sat together on one, quietly talking. They ignored the newcomers completely.
A third woman stood at the fountain, her eyes closed, her hands stirring the water as she soundlessly moved her lips. She wore an unadorned black dress, sleeveless in the heat; its collar and hem were embroidered with gold and green fish. Jayla’s bet was that this was the woman the clerk had referred to as the guardian. She guessed it was rude to interrupt the cleric at her prayers, so she took a seat on a bench right in the woman’s line of sight. Cody settled beside her.
Fifteen minutes after they arrived, the other two visitors had left and the guardian was still at her ritual. Jayla was silently debating the merits of knocking over a candle or dropping something loud and metallic on the floor, but Cody—usually so restless—seemed perfectly content to just sit there, so she tried to hold onto her patience.
After another five minutes, the guardian pulled her hands from the fountain, flicked off the water, and opened her eyes. She was looking straight at Jayla, and her expression was unsurprised, so she had clearly heard them enter. She surveyed them for a moment, then she smiled and asked a question in a language as soft and sibilant as ocean spray.
“I’m sorry,” Jayla said. “Do you speak Cordish?”
“Yes, but not very well,” the guardian answered. “You look like someone who has come here with a question.” She misplaced the accents on a number of words, but her voice was low and lovely.
“I have. If you can spare me a few moments.”
The woman nodded serenely and seated herself next to Jayla. “What is it you need to know?”
“My name is Jayla. On my travels here, I took charge of a young islander girl whose companion had died on the way. I believe her mother is supposed to meet her at this temple, but I don’t know when and I don’t know how to get in touch with her. I am hoping to leave a message that will find her when she arrives.”
“What are they called?”
“The girl is Aussen and the mother is Tezzel.”
