“I have things to do, Olem. First” — Tamas collapsed his looking glass — ”I’m going in to find Gavril and get him out. I have an old friend in the city who might help me. Then I’ll kill Nikslaus. Then, and only then, we’ll go to battle.”
Nila sat beside Jakob’s bed and listened to the soft sound of his snores. The boy’s chest rose and fell slowly, his face peaceful. It reminded her of the cherubs she’d once seen painted on the ceiling of a church. Outside the open window she could hear the sound of a carriage clattering by on the cobbles.
They’d moved from Bo’s apartment in the factory district to a small house in one of the few fashionable areas of High Talien, in Adopest’s northwest side. From what Bo had said, he had several such “safe houses” scattered around the city. She had wondered at one point where he had gotten the money for all this before remembering that he was a member of the Adran royal cabal.
It was easy to forget, sometimes. Cabal Privileged were known for their cruelty and power. Not for their quiet humor, flirting smiles, and silent generosity.
But he was leaving tomorrow. Heading south, he’d said, to rescue Taniel Two-Shot.
Nila would find herself alone once again, sole guardian to the little boy sleeping before her. What was she going to do with him? Go to Fatrasta? To Novi? Live out the quiet life of a single laundress and tell everyone that Jakob was her little brother?
Would Jakob be able to live with that as he grew older? After all, he’d been a duke’s son. Not more than a couple of months ago there had been the very real possibility of him becoming king. She would have been his caretaker and surrogate mother, maybe even a noblewoman by decree of the new king. She would have had wealthy suitors and servants and actual power.
How life would have been different.
But it wasn’t.
Now she had to figure out where they would go when Bo left the city. It occurred to her that the silver she’d buried in a graveyard outside the city might not even still be there. Someone might have found it and taken it, and then where would she be? She didn’t want to think about it.
She heard the front door of the house open and shut, and her heart beat faster until she reminded herself that they were under Bo’s protection — at least for another day — and that Lord Vetas could no longer harm them.
Bo stepped into the room, treading quietly. He knew that Jakob went to bed by eight in the evening. He gestured for her to join him in the kitchen.
“Can the boy watch himself for a few hours?” Bo asked after she’d closed the door to Jakob’s room. The words were rushed, and his eyes were alight. He was excited about something.
He wanted to take her somewhere. Where could it be? She felt her cheeks grow a little warm. “Well, he’s sleeping. He might get scared if he wakes up and no one’s in the house with him.”
“Can he read?”
“A little.”
“Good. Write him a note. I need your help. We’ll be back in just a few hours.”
“I could wake him and take him with us.”
“You won’t want him with us,” Bo said.
Nila felt her cheeks flush.
“Not for that,” Bo said, giving her a lopsided smile.
Nila’s cheeks felt on fire. Was that disappointment in the pit of her stomach?
She suddenly wondered how young Bo really was. He seemed so confident, and his status as an Adran Cabal member made her think of him as quite a bit older, but there were times he looked barely twenty.
“Come on,” Bo said.
She wrote a note for Jakob and left it on the kitchen table beside a glass of water, then joined Bo in the carriage. He pounded on the roof, and they were off.
“Do you know what you’re going to do when I leave?” Bo asked as the carriage jostled along through the streets.
Nila looked down. She had hoped that, perhaps, he would stay a little longer. “I haven’t decided yet.”
“I can’t imagine you have much money,” Bo said.
“A little. I have some silver buried outside of the city that I took the night Tamas’s soldiers came to the Eldaminse house. I hope it’s still there.”
“And if it’s not?”
Nila swallowed. “I don’t know.”
They rode along for several moments in silence, and then, “I’ll leave a couple hundred for you when I go,” Bo said.
A couple hundred could buy her and Jakob passage to Novi, or pay for a week in an inn.
“Thank you,” Nila said, not sure what else to say. “That will go a long way toward helping us start a new life.”
“A long way? It should go the whole way.”
Nila frowned at Bo.
“A couple hundred thousand krana?”
“Hundred thousand…” Nila sputtered. She and Jakob could live the rest of their lives comfortably off a couple hundred thousand krana. “What, why would you…?”
Bo waved a hand as if it were nothing. Nila turned to stare out the window, partially so that Bo could not see the tears forming in her eyes.
“The house, too,” Bo said. “The one we’re in now. If you decide to stay in Adro, the house is yours. I’ve already put the title in your name.”
