AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I remembered meeting Sai for the first time after my mother had died, but not before she drank us into poverty and taught me at a very young age what hunger meant. What not being able to navigate the streets and fend for myself meant. She’d been dead for nearly a year that bright spring morning as I’d slunk through a bustling marketplace. I was barely eighteen, but had spent a decade snatching what I needed, and that day was no different.
Except I was going bigger.
I was tired of constantly scraping by.
I wanted enough money to survive for a few weeks, rent a room, order food service that came on a little tray while I laid in an actual bed. Maybe I’d sleep until noon. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do that. When the streets made your bed, you learned quickly the schedule of the watchmen and how they changed shifts at sunrise. A second group arrived, full of fresh energy, and eager to make arrests.
Money counters clinked coins together in the center of the lane. Hundreds of people passed by as donkeys and horses clomped along the stone path. I eased my way around them all. Two dozen guards surrounded the tables, each one bearing a handful of nasty weapons.
My fingers itched with the anticipation, and fear rumbled through me. I only needed one bag and I could take a week off, sleep decently, have a warm bath drawn for me. Tucking around the front where someone had stacked baskets of fruit together and a man loaded them into a cart, I watched the crowd until I was sure no one saw me and gave them a kick. The man scrambled after them shrieking.
The entire crowd stumbled as apples rolled across the lane.
A horse reared up.
Sorry,I silently whispered to the man who’d just lost his entire day’s gain.Saints forgive me.But a girl had to eat. Amid the chaos, I tucked between two of the distracted guards, snagged a money bag, shoved it into my pocket, and tumbled out past the melee while chaos erupted.
As soon as I made it out of eyesight, I ran hard, turned corners, clattered up the stairs of a building, and dashed around a woman carrying bags, before making it to a landing. I pressed flat against the wall for several minutes, waiting to see if someone had followed. Once my heart slowed and no one had appeared I tucked my hand into my pocket.
My empty pocket.
“Looking for this?”
I dashed my face up to see Sai, cloaked in black, his dark eyes twinkling, my pilfered money bag resting on his palm. Elisa stood behind him, gentleness in her expression. I stumbled back a step. The landing was open at the other side, only a low wall preventing my escape. I peered over it and cursed silently, no ladder. Before I let my guard down, I should have checked that. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Sai tossed the bag to me, and I grasped it before it flew through the opening. He still hadn’t moved, and he clearly wasn’t a watchman or guard. “Who are you?”
Sai shrugged. “I’m not human.” He strolled closer—though not too near—and leaned against a wall. “That was a clean grab back there.”
“It’s my word against yours, fae. They’ll believe me over you.”
He smirked. “I’m not here to turn you in.”
“No?”
“I want to see if you’d like an opportunity to make more money than you can presently imagine.”
My palms had grown sweaty against the coarse cloth of the coin bag. This was a mistake. I could probably outmaneuver this man if I thought it through for a minute. I’d throw the bag in his face and dash over the railing. The building had a textured siding. If I gripped hard enough, I’d tear up my hands but could probably avoid breaking anything as I landed.
Elisa stepped forward and smiled one of her tender smiles. “What’s your name?”
I swallowed. “Neia.”
“Neia,” she repeated, and her voice over my name sounded like the patter of a cool rain after a lifetime of drought. Saints, she was beautiful.
I turned back to Sai. “What kind of job?”
He grinned and exchanged a look with Elisa.
A few years of working with them and the rest of the group Sai slowly gathered, and I’d honed my skills to a level I’d never imagined. I’d also fallen in love with Elisa. Sai didn’t disapprove of our relationship though it complicated the group. More time passed. I aged some. Elisa did not.
One afternoon I sat in an open window in the Prasanna palace, watching rain plop into the fountains. Sai landed with a thump on the other side of the frame. “Neia.”
“Sai.”
“The Maharani wants us to shift our focus to finding the missing heart stones.”
“How many are missing?”
