03 - The Eternal Rose by Gail Dayton Read Free Book Online Page B

most like. The government house, where the en-Kameral met, was at the heart of the city, like the Reinine's palace in Arikon. But the Seat, as the building was called, was not also a residence. The homes of the Hundred Lines were arrayed around the Seat of Government, with the various governmental offices and the embassies interspersed among them. To reach their destination, the Reinine's caravan would have to traverse half of Mestada. Leyja didn't know how far that was.
    The streets were narrow, forcing the caravan to stretch out, riding no more than two abreast along much of the way. Occasionally, a low stone bridge would take them across one of the canals that interlaced the city, exposing them for a moment to the open. Leyja didn't like it, nor did any of the other bodyguards. She could tell by the way they sat their mounts, the way their hands rested near their weapons. At least they were relatively safe from attack from above. Most of the streets were shaded by awnings stretching from one side to the other.
    Even where the streets widened into a sudden square with a well or trickling fountain for the locals to obtain water, poles held up the awnings to provide shade from the sun—and hide them from anyone lurking on the flat roofs or the upper floors of the buildings. Most of the buildings in this sector of the city rose no more than two stories, and many were only one. Though, ahead in the city center, Leyja could see a few tall, sharp towers punctuating the skyline.
    As they passed through a market square that seemed to be devoted primarily to flowers and fruits, someone bumped against her horse. Leyja would have thought nothing of it—the square was crowded with shoppers—but afterward, her balance had changed, just a bit. The necklace was gone from her pocket.
    Instantly, she went beyond alert to that bodyguard state of awareness, cataloguing every person in the square by level of threat. Was this the beginning of an attack on her family, or merely theft? People stared at their passing, but with curiosity, not malice. Mostly, they went about their business.
    There. The youth walking away toward the fountain, adjusting his clothing as he went. Slightly better than rags, they were not the sort of clothes one fussed over.
    “Stop!” Leyja cried, using one of the words she remembered from Obed's language lessons. “Thief!” she shouted in Adaran. She pointed at the boy—man—his age didn't matter—and set her horse after him.
    “Stop him.” She ordered a pair of foot soldiers out of ranks to circle round and intercept him as she took the more direct route straight through the crowd.
    The thief looked back over his shoulder at her, showing wide, startlingly blue eyes above the cloth that wrapped his face and hair. Then he ran.
    He was fast and slippery, sliding through the crowds like an eel through water. He left the soldiers—unaccustomed to the heat—behind easily. Leyja, mounted, was harder to shake. He climbed to rooftops. She followed from below. He ducked into buildings and she found her way round to the exit. He wove through a warren of narrow streets and narrower alleys, doubling back until she was utterly lost, and still she followed.
    Until finally her horse clattered into a tiny square with a well in the center and no sign whatsoever of the thief. He wasn't on any of the rooftops, hadn't gone down any of the streets. He had simply vanished.
    Shehadn'theardasplash,butsherodeover tothewellanywayand peered into its depths. Nothing. She screamed out her frustration to the sky.
    “That necklace was my daughter's,” she shouted then, hoping he might still be close enough to hear. “Do you steal from children?” Probably he did and was glad to. It was easier.
    The thief would speak only Daryathi and she'd shouted in Adaran. It would do no good, but still she added an appeal. “Let me redeem it. Come to the Adaran embassy and I will pay you what it's worth. You won't get half that from anyone