For the rest of the trip, Kaye avoided the wasteful herd huntings. Providing for the party was an exhaustive job, but one which proved she could keep up with others. She spent her days hunting and deskinning, seeing enough exposed animal muscle that it ceased being bothersome. The best of the hides were stretched with hooks to be cleaned and turned into leather; antlers were shed and stored and would be sold to people who could turn them into tools or would be hanged for decoration. When the suppliers pulled into camp halfway through the trip, they delivered fresh goods and left with carts filled with the hunters’ loot.

  Now they were approaching Geshin once more, after three months away from the city. Some hunters broke from the caravan to find their homes, while others followed towards the guild to help deliver the cargo and collect their payment.

  Kaye’s mind was elsewhere.

  “Uncle,” she called soon after they passed through the city’s gate. “I’m going ahead to the inn. Is that fine?”

  Hogog studied her for a few instants, looking more curious than worried. His beard had once again grown into a bushy bck thing.

  “They might not want to give me your part of the payment. You might have to come back.”

  “That’s fine,” Kaye said, shrugging.

  “I’ll try to convince them,” Hogog said.

  Nodding to one another, they took different paths, Hogog following the caravan as they turned east while Kaye continued forward through the main avenues of Geshin.

  Kaye traversed the city with calm, barely batting an eye to the looks sent her way, too busy looking herself.

  Her eyes caught at every spot of white hair in the crowds, but all of them turned out to be old people going about their work. The hair was often not the correct hue, but it was hard to tell from a distance. None were tall enough either.

  He could be somewhere else in the city, or maybe in Eruin.

  The words were unconvincing. Aien had likely left the city several weeks ago, with or without the Armsmasters.

  Kaye also stared into alleyways, looking for the beggar.

  She found neither on her way back to the inn. Ascending to the second floor, she knocked on Uruoro’s door, but he wasn’t in. Kaye entered the shared room with Gima, but she wasn’t there either.

  Then she left for the city once again, having stored most of her belongings in the room’s single chest. She kept her dagger, drawing kit and the pouch with the few leftover coins she still had, safely tucked deep into a pocket instead of hanging from her belt.

  Leaving the inn, she turned into the alley the beggar had approached her. The pce was empty save for two orange cats lounging on top of a box. I’ll draw you two ter, if you’re still here, Kaye thought as she passed by them.

  Into the next street over, looking for another alleyway, the darkest she could find that wasn’t a dead end, then through that.

  It didn’t take long for the smell of saltwater to reach her. The twin cities were built following the innd Rift, so the port could be reached from every corner of the city in roughly the same time.

  She turned south. It made more sense than north for the kind of pce she was looking for, since north was where the twin cities came close to joining and where the richer quarters were sure to be.

  Following the darkest and stinkiest alleys she could see led Kaye to quarters of clustered buildings, more wood than stone, and old wood at that. Half-naked women leaning over windows to stare at the passersby marked the brothels; children worked carrying weight or running this way and that, perhaps to deliver messages; dirty burly men too eager to show their weapons were undoubtedly guards to whatever establishment could afford them. The taverns were considerably full even at this hour, she could only imagine how packed they would be when night came.

  Here, it was harder to ignore the stares, but that was what she wanted. Kaye made sure to leave her hair visible and to pace just fast enough to look as if she was going somewhere, but not so fast that it would arm anyone. There had to be someone who ruled over those quarters and she didn’t intend on getting in trouble with them.

  Not that suicidal, she thought.

  Kaye noticed that someone was walking parallel to her. Following her walk while staying in front of the buildings, though there was no sidewalk to speak of.

  Not a beggar or a nasty-looking man as Kaye expected, but a girl. She froze for a moment when their eyes met.

  Kaye showed a calming smile, dodging out of the way of passersby. The girl had also been smiling, but retracted her lips in a worried line as Kaye approached.

  “I’m not looking for trouble,” Kaye expined herself before the girl decided to run away or became scared, “Are you from here?”

  The girl nodded. Fair skinned with big brown eyes, she looked to be twelve, with well-combed golden hair tied in an eborate braid that didn’t match her dingy clothes.

  “I’m sorry for staring, miss. It’s just that you don’t look… You don’t seem—”

  “Normal?” Kaye suggested, tilting her head to indicate her green hair.

  The girl, who still hadn’t given Kaye her name, bowed politely. “I thought to take a good look at you, because your hair is pretty. Then I saw that dagger of your—the dagger you carry.”

  That confused Kaye. Her dagger wasn’t anything special.

  “Sorry for bothering you, miss. The madam must be coming back,” she said that already turning the other way.

  “Wait,” Kaye called out. The girl stopped. “If you’re from here, I might need your help. I can pay,” she said, then hurriedly added, “I’m looking for a guide. Will your madam have an issue if I’m paying you?”

  Fidgeting with her fingers, the girl scratched at her own cuticles for a few unsure moments.

  “That depends. There are pces here we shouldn’t go.”

  “Then we won’t go there. I’m looking for someone.” The girl approached as Kaye spoke. “My name is Kaye, can I have yours?”

  “Nilian, at least that is the name the madam tells me to use. It’s the name of a princess.”

  Kaye knew what kind of work a girl like Nilian would be doing here. Maybe not yet, just maybe, but she would start soon, and Kaye was starting to regret her decision of coming this way.

  “Nilian, I am looking for a beggar. Is there any pce around here where they gather?”

  “There is. A couple pces. The owners don’t like the beggars staying around here, because they drive customers away.”

  “Can you take me there?”

  Nodding, Nilian took a step forward. Kaye followed her.

  The girl walked very slowly; hands always pressed together one over the other.

  “Should you be telling me that isn’t your name? Won’t your madam have an issue with that?”

  Nilian turned to Kaye — she was small enough to have to look up —, raising one hand to her mouth.

  “I’m not compining, but you should be careful with how much you share. You can trust me, but you can’t trust everyone that approaches you.”

  “I… I understand, thank you.”

  “You mentioned my dagger earlier. Is it because I’m a woman carrying one?”

  Nilian gnced around them as if searching for someone, then leaned closer to whisper.

  “Every girl carries a dagger here, but we keep it hidden.”

  Nodding with a faint smile on her face, Kaye considered how she must look to Nilian. Kaye was walking around with confidence, though maybe just a little more than she actually had.

  The girl would probably think differently if she knew her.

  “Miss Kaye, can I ask what it is that you do?”

  “I’m a hunter. Have you ever heard of the Nagra?”

  “A hunter?! Really?” Nilian asked, a little too loud. “No, I can’t say I ever heard of the Nagra,” she concluded, trying to sound proper again. Probably something her madam demanded.

  “Yes, my family taught me how to hunt. Among the Nagra, everyone is taught from an early age, but not all continue as hunters when they become adults. I’m traveling with my uncle and some friends. I’m not sure how long I will stay in Geshin, but I’m working with the Hunter’s Guild for now.”

  Talking about her achievements to someone who Kaye was sure could only dream of them send a pang of guilty stabbing at her heart. For a brief moment, the idea of helping the girl leave cut through her mind like an arrow, but that would be irresponsible. Where would she go, and how would she survive? And would Kaye stop at that?

  “With a bow and arrow?” Nilian asked, starting to raise her hands as if she was going to make a gesture but giving up halfway through.

  Kaye agreed with her head, pretending to hold the bow with one hand and the arrow with another. She imitated the bow’s thud and the arrow’s whistle as she took the imaginary shot.

  “Like that, though I can barely pull a longbow. You don’t really need one, if you’re willing to get closer. It makes things harder, but not impossible.”

  Nilian’s eyes were gleaming. Kaye didn’t like talking about it, but the girl sure seemed to enjoy it.

  “Ah, we have to cross here,” Nilian said. “The beggar you’re looking for, how does he look?”

  “It’s more about what he said than what he looked. I think he will come to me if he sees my hair, and I might recognize him if I see him up close. He’s a scrawny man with gray hair, a very thin face and not much beard, shoulders very slumped, maybe hunchback.”

  “What did he say?” Nilian asked as they crossed to the other side of the street and continued into narrower streets.

  “He’s from another city, though I don’t know which. So we have to look for someone who says they’re not from here, and someone who is willing to go to the main streets of the city. He might do it often, because he saw me there twice and came up to me in front of an inn.”

  Nilian met Kaye’s eyes with a look of concern.

  “I know. It’s not much.”

  “Did he… say something he shouldn’t have? Or take anything from you?”

  Should he have said what he did? Kaye asked herself, though not in the way Nilian must be thinking.

  “I’m not looking to harm him in any way, if that’s what worries you. He warned me to be careful of someone and I just need to ask some questions.”

  Nilian sighed.

  “Do you know someone like that?” Kaye asked.

  “I’ve said a word or two to a beggar but not much. They leave us alone. If they try to approach the madams chase them away shouting. The guards hurt them. I can’t promise you he’s here, miss. There are a lot of people like him in Geshin.”

  “I won’t force you to stay with me all day looking for him. It’ll be a great help if you can show me where to find them. I’ll do the talking myself.”

  Nilian did as Kaye asked. Not a hard pce to find, but it saved Kaye some time. A few blocks away from the brothels revealed an abandoned section of the quarter where buildings had been left to rot, some colpsed or perhaps broken down so the wood could be used for something else. Every pce still standing had holes of varying sizes on the ceiling. Simply staring at the run-down buildings sent a shiver down Kaye’s spine, though not of fear, but of imagining how they would get by in the worst of winter.

  A score of men huddled in a dark corner, a few roaming by on their way somewhere.

  Nilian waited behind as Kaye did the talking, but found no luck there. Most were only willing to talk after she dropped them a bronze coin, of which she didn’t have many. Others simply wanted to sleep, probably tired from begging already.

  There were two main spots where beggars slept, but the man she was looking for wasn’t in either. One cimed to be him, but Kaye wouldn’t have forgotten such a gnarly scar.

  “I’m sorry that I couldn’t be of more help. This must be important to you, if you’re willing to risk yourself here.”

  Kaye shook her head at Nilian. “That is fine. I’m not sure what I was expecting.”

  Saying that, she reached into the coin pouch in her pocket, emptied the containers into her hand and held it out to Nilian. A couple bronze coins and a silver one. Everything she had left.

  “I can’t take that much.”

  Kaye frowned, reaching out further with her hand. “Take it, it’s yours. You need it more than I do.”

  “No, I can’t, if the madam finds out she’ll think I stole it. The… the bronze coins will be enough, if that isn’t too much to ask for, miss.”

  Dumbfounded, Kaye gave her the bronze coins and pocketed the single silver.

  “Come,” Kaye said to get herself out of the awkward moment, “I’ll walk you back.”

  Nilian stayed quiet on the way back, not asking any more questions.

  They stopped in front of the brothel, a wooden building among the most well-kept ones Kaye had seen in those quarters. Empty mps hanged from the front, where candles would surely be lit during the night, reflecting a reddish glow through the red cloth wrapped around them.

  “Thank you, miss Kaye.”

  Curtsying, Nilian turned and entered before Kaye could say anything. She watched the girl walking through the building until she was stopped by a woman who looked to be in her fifties, dressed in white and bck. Her hair was both bck and red, not in any natural way but with intercating strands.

  Her eyes met with Kaye’s for a moment. Nilian walked up a set of stairs and disappeared inside. The woman approached.

  “My, aren’t you an interesting one. Anyone catch your fancy?” she asked, gesturing to the girls in what seemed to be a reception room while holding out a hand in a gesture for Kaye to walk inside.

  “No, not today. Sorry for giving you false hopes.”

  Kaye was expecting the madam to immediately turn away or compin that she was standing in front of other customers. Instead, the woman asked, “Then can I ask if you are willing to sell me your hair, dear?”

  Somehow, Kaye had never considered that possibility. Not in this world.

  “As you can see, it has become quite the fashion,” the madam said, tilting her head to send her bck and red hair waving.

  “I am not asking to take all of it. It would be a waste to have you looking like a boy.”

  Kaye stepped through the door.

  “I have no idea how much it’s worth, but I’ll sell it to you if you give the payment to Nilian instead.”

  “To Nilian you say? Oh, I see. This is not something I would normally do, but saying that your hair is one of a kind would be an understatement.”

  “Is she working?”

  “Not yet, but she is not for sale.”

  “Then, however much it is worth, when the time comes, I want you to give the payment to her. Is that acceptable?” Kaye doubted that suggesting the coin could be used for Nilian to escape this life was a smart idea. It might not even be enough for that, but secretly she was hoping so. Take it and flee, and be smart about where you go and who you trust.

  “Very much,” the madam answered.

  “And you can take all of it. I don’t mind looking like a boy for a couple months. It’ll grow up again.”

  The madam herself cut Kaye’s hair as she sat in front of a shining bronze mirror, with the girls asking questions about her life and discussing how the hair should be used. The madam, to Kaye’s surprise, ughed along with them and joked about making a single wig that they would all share to pretend to be the same person.

  Kaye remembered what Nilian had said about the madam. She had no reason to believe this woman couldn’t get angry, but she didn’t know her either, or any of the girls, or even Nilian. She could be treating Kaye differently simply because she was not from the slums, or perhaps this was how she was. Understanding and trying to give the girls she took care of something to forget what they would be doing when night came.

  When Kaye left the brothel, the wind seemed chillier, wrapping around her head and behind her ears.

  She took two steps away before seeing the beggar standing in front of her. He looked like any other old man who had been subjected to extreme poverty, but she knew it was him.

  “I was looking for you,” Kaye said, feeling strange now that she had actually found him.

  The man tapped one of his ears. “I heard people gossiping about a girl with green hair and I thought I was going insane. I’m gd you’re well, kind girl.”

  Gd? “Why do you say that?” she asked.

  “Is…” he looked around, eyes darting from passerby to passerby, “Is he here?”

  Kaye shook her head. “He’s left. But what do you mean gd?”

  Still nervous, the man took a step closer, then stopped himself, seemingly unsure if he should approach.

  Kaye knew what he was going to say before the man whispered the words.

  “I thought he had kidnapped you too. That’s what I had tried to warn you about.” He gestured for Kaye to follow, taking a couple steps into a narrow alley before continuing, “It was him, wasn’t it? It was in Lowhan that I saw him. I woke up hearing a fight, but they would have killed me if I had tried to run so I stood very still and somehow they missed me, at least I think they did. I was hiding in a pile where the dogs and guards would miss me and I think they did too. They tried to force two kids to stay quiet, about this tall they were,” he indicated the height with a hand, about as tall as Nilian. “I’m sorry, I just started talking, I’ve spent too long—”

  “No, please. Don’t stop. I want to hear it.”

  “They… oh it was ugly, kind girl. They tried to get the kids to come with them but they wouldn’t, so some of the men beat them, punched those two—a boy and a girl, I remember that too—punched them as if they weren’t kids.”

  “Did he do that? Aien?”

  “That’s his name?... No, but he showed his sword when them kids tried to escape and they stopped. The kids would have come my way if he didn’t stand in their way and that’s why I remember him so well, because he was so close and I could see his face. Have you… did you kill him?”

  Kaye remembered the arrow scraping the tree.

  He had no choice.

  He was forced into it.

  He had to survive.

  He helped us.

  “No, I didn’t kill him, but he’s not in the city anymore. He left.”

  That seemed to take a weight off of the beggar’s shoulders. He sighed deeply.

  “What happened after that?” Kaye asked.

  “They took the children away in a cart. Gagged and hid them and went out into the street. The worst part was that this Aien was a sve himself. I’ve seen those marks,” the man drew the lines on his forehead, “That’s how they do it in the sve markets. There’s more of them the deeper you go into Odanas, more to the north, I know because I’ve met many men like me and some of them have the same scars. The lines mean price, and a strike through means they were sold.”

  He saved me and Hogog that day.

  In her mind, Kaye remembered the night she had made Aien admit to who he was. A drowned kid who didn’t want to share his hurts, whose parents were killed by an aberration simply for being in the way.

  Perhaps he was expecting her to be special. To somehow give answer to everything. He had admitted to believing there had to be a reason for everything. For why they were here. Now she understood why.

  She found she had no idea what to say. In the numbness of her mind, the only thing Kaye could think of doing was giving the man in front of her the remaining silver coin. She left him in the alley after that, unsure if he ever said anything else.

  It would have been so much simpler if she had ignored the beggar’s words. If she had never asked Aien. If she had simply let him go to his Armsmasters who he admired so much and allowed this worry to fade until the day she forgot it ever happened.

  She felt the ghost of a bow in her hand, the arrow in another. The tension shook her arms. Her aim wavered. She couldn’t keep holding it any longer.

  You’re going to remember this, the words echoed.